Just when you think you aren't quite getting a deep theological concept... just when you're discouraged about grasping a thick doctrine from God's Word... just when you get to a tough passage that doesn't quite make sense... a servant of God, Bishop J.C. Ryle comes along and gives us these words of encouragement from his booklet 'How Readest Thou?':
There is an extraordinary depth, fullness, and richness in the contents of the Bible. It throws more light on a vast number of most important subjects than all the other books in the world put together. It boldly handles matters which are utterly beyond the reach of man, when left to himself. It treats of things which are mysterious and invisible – the soul, the world to come, and eternity – depths which man has no line to fathom. All who have tried to write of these things, without Bible light, have done little but show their own ignorance. The grope like the blind; they speculate; they guess; they generally make the darkness more visible, and land us in a region of uncertainty and doubt. How little did the wisest of the heathen know! How dim were the views of Socrates, Plato, Cicero and Seneca! A well-taught Sunday-school child, in the present day, knows more spiritual truth than all these sages put together.
John Charles Ryle went to heaven in 1900, but not before writing much excellent material to exhort, teach and encourage the Christian church, like this quote above. He was greatly used of God. His successor described him as 'a man of granite with a heart of a child'. Spurgeon said he was an 'evanglical champion'. I look forward to getting to know J.C. Ryle more in the near future.
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