Latest / Reformed Thinking / Bible-Reading | J. C. Ryle

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Bible-Reading | J. C. Ryle · Reformed Thinking

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You know, usually when we talk about a medical diagnosis, there
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is this expectation of precision.
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Right, like engineering. Yeah, engineering.
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You break your arm, the X-ray shows that jagged white line and
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the doctor just points and says there it is totally binary.
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Broken or not broken, it's clean.
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We like things to be visible, to be categorized.
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But then you step into the world of the human soul and suddenly
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that X-ray machine is broken. We are looking at a diagnostic
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landscape that is, well, honestly, it's murky.
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It is the absolute definition of diagnostic Muddy Waters for
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sure. Welcome to Reformed Thinking, We
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are taking a deep dive today into a massive subject looking
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at a classic text by JC Ryle. A phenomenal writer.
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Oh. Absolutely.
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Specifically, we're looking at a huge chapter on Bible reading
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from his larger work called Practical Religion.
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Yeah, that's a heavyweight book. It really is.
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Our mission in this deep dive is to investigate Ryles massive
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argument for why interacting with scripture is the single
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most critical activity for the human soul, and how to actually
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do it effectively. To set the stage here, we need
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to understand the tone of the source material.
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JC Rile was a 19th century English Bishop, right?
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And he's not writing a casual self help manual here.
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He isn't giving like 5 quick tips for a better morning
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routine. No life hacks.
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Zero life hacks. This is a serious pastoral plea
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aimed directly at nominal Christians.
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He approaches this text as an urgent matter of spiritual life
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and death. You can feel it in the writing,
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Yeah, the urgency is just palpable in every sentence.
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Yeah, because he lived during the height of the British
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Empire, a time of massive industrial growth.
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But he saw this spiritual hollowness right in the middle
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of it all. So Ryle breaks the 4th wall
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right away. He challenges his reader
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directly. He really goes for the throat.
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He does. He essentially asks you, the
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listener, to look at your own habits and answer a very
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uncomfortable. Question.
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Oh, this part is convicting, right?
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He asks if you treat the Bible as a common household object,
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like a paperweight or a decoration, or if you treat it
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as the very words of God. It requires total honesty.
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Yeah, and that brings us to Ryles opening observation, which
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sets up the entire discussion. He points out a glaring paradox
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in human behavior. He says that humanity possesses
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this unhappy skill in abusing God's gifts.
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An unhappy skill? What a phrase.
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I know, right? Time, intellect, and money are
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routinely wasted. People use these gifts for
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entirely selfish ends instead of using them to glorify their
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maker. And he says the written word
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suffers the exact same fate. Let's unpack this paradox of
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possession versus practice. Yeah, let's do it.
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Ryle looks at Great Britain in his time and he sees an
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unprecedented volume of Bibles being printed and distributed.
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They were everywhere. Everywhere Bible buying, Bible
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selling, Bibles in every shop, Bibles of every size and price,
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he says. There are Bibles in almost every
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house in the land. But then he brings the hammer
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down. He sure does.
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Having a Bible is one thing, reading it is quite another.
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The contrast he draws is striping the printing press and
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society is like the British and Foreign Bible Society had made
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the text cheaper and more accessible than any point in
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human history. But that didn't fix the problem.
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No, Ryle notes that this accessibility actually bred a
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strange kind of contempt, or at least apathy.
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It's like having a fully stocked pantry that's starving to death
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because you refuse to cook. Right.
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That's a great way to put it, right?
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Picture it. You have shelves bowing under
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the weight of canned goods, sacks of flour, fresh
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vegetables, clean water. Everything you need to sustain
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your physical life is right there within arm's reach.
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Yet you sit on the kitchen floor wasting away, complaining about
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being hungry but absolutely refusing to open a single can or
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boil a single pot of water. It sounds insane when you phrase
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it like. That it does.
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Why would anyone do that? Why do human beings naturally
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avoid the very thing designed to sustain them well?
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That is the crucial question. If we view this through the lens
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of human nature's inherent resistance to divine things, it
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starts to make sense. Right, the doctrine of total
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depravity. Spot on.
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Total Depravity asserts that human beings are not naturally
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inclined to seek out God's truth.
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Our default setting is avoidance.
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We run the other way. We prefer our own ideas.
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We prefer the dark. So when Ryle points out the
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abundance of Bibles, he isn't celebrating the printing
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industry. No, he's building a case.
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Yeah, he is pointing out that this abundance makes the neglect
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of the text a heavier indictment.
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The access removes all excuses the.
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Plague is abroad, as he puts it, and we refuse to take the
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medicine sitting on the night stand.
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It's. Tragic.
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So if people are ignoring this book so universally, what do
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they think they're actually ignoring?
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That leads to his first major claim about the text.
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We have to establish what this book actually is before we can
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understand why we must read it. OK, So what is his definition?
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Ryle states that the Bible is utterly unlike all other
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writings. The writers, he says, spake as
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they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
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It is a unique inspiration by God.
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But I can hear a modern skeptic responding to that right away.
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Oh for sure would say wait a minute.
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Isaiah does not write like Jeremiah.
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Paul writes with dense, logical arguments, while John writes
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with simple, repetitive, almost mystical vocabulary.
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They've completely different styles, different vocabularies,
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and different personalities. So how can you claim it all
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comes from one divine author? Ryle anticipates that specific
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criticism. He provides 3 brilliant
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analogies to explain how you can have a single divine author
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while maintaining the distinct human personalities of the
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writers. It's a concept theologians call
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organic inspiration. Yeah, where God uses the human
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author's mind background and vocabulary rather than just
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dictating words to a mindless robot.
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I want to walk through these analogies because they are
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incredibly helpful. First he uses the C.
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The waters of the sea have many different shades.
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In one place the water looks blue.
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In another place it looks green. Depending on the depth.
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Well, precisely because of the depth or the shallowness of the
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water, or the nature of the bottom.
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But the water in every case is the same salt sea.
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So the human author is the depth.
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Yeah, the human author provides the depth and the bottom, which
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changes the color, but the water itself is entirely divine.
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That is so good. Then he moves to musical
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instruments. Right, the breath analogy.
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A person's breath can produce different sounds depending on
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the instrument. The flute, the pipe, the
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trumpet, they all have very distinct peculiar notes.
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You would never confuse the airy sound of a flute with the
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blaring sound of a trumpet. Yet the breath calling forth the
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notes is one in the same. Paul might be the trumpet and
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John might be the flute, but the breath is God's.
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And finally, he looks at the planets.
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If you look at the night sky, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter display
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distinct colors. Mars is red, Jupiter is bright
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white or yellowish. Yeah, they look different based
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on their atmosphere composition, but they all reflect the exact
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same light from the sun. The source of the light is
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singular. Think about how this view of
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divine inspiration drastically changes the way you as a reader
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approach the text. It changes everything.
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If you really believe this, if you believe the breath and the
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trumpet is from God, the light reflecting off the planet, it is
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from the sun. How does that shift your posture
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when you sit down to read? It moves the text from being a
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collection of ancient opinions to the unalterable mind of the
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king of. Kings, it's not just a book club
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pick. No.
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If you are reading the self-taught compositions of
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imperfect mortals, you can sit in judgement over them.
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You can offer an academic critique.
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You can say I agree with this part, but I think the author was
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wrong here. But if God taught the writers
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what to say, if God guided their pens, then you are listening to
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the eternal God. That requires total submission
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rather than academic critique. The burden of proof shifts.
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It does. Ryle says.
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The burden of proof lies on the skeptic to explain the standing
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miracle of the book's existence. So if we accept this premise
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that the text is divinely breathed, the stakes become
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unimaginably high. Life and death stakes.
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This isn't just about gaining historical trivia.
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Ryle contrasts worldly knowledge with biblical truth to make a
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massive point about salvation. He really does.
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We live in an era of rapidly increasing information.
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Schools are multiplying. Books are coming out constantly.
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And Ryle acknowledges this. He even rejoices in it, noting
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that an ignorant population is a peril to a nation.
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But he draws a sharp line between earthly education and
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the salvation of the soul. He paints a picture of a
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hypothetical walking encyclopedia.
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Oh, I love this illustration. It's so vivid.
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This is a person who has mastered chemistry, mathematics,
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astronomy and languages. Think of a brilliant Victorian
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gentleman scientist. Someone who knows the secrets of
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fire, air, earth and water. He can speak of the stars and
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the beasts of the earth. But Ryle says if this
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brilliantly educated person dies ignorant of biblical truths,
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they die a miserable person. Contrast that walking
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encyclopedia with a person who is entirely ignorant of secular
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facts. Like someone who can't even
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read. Yeah, Ryle describes someone who
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cannot read or write. They know nothing of geography.
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They cannot tell you if Paris or New York is closer to England.
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Totally unaware of history. Right.
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They don't know figures like Queen Elizabeth or Julius
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Caesar. They do not know if the sun goes
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around the earth or the earth goes around sun.
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The causal connection here is staggering.
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Ryle argues that if The Walking Encyclopedia dies without
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biblical truth, their knowledge dies with them.
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It's buried in the grave. Chemistry never silenced a
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guilty conscience. Mathematics never healed a
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broken heart. Their vast earthly knowledge
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offers 0 peace in the prospect of meeting a holy God.
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But if the uneducated person believes biblical truth, they
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are saved. They.
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Rest in Abraham's bosom while the scientific peer is lost.
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We should break down why math and chemistry fail in that
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specific moment. Yeah, let's look at the
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underlying logic. Earthly sciences are of the
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Earth. They cannot raise a person above
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the Earth's level. They deal entirely with the
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physical realm. But guilt, conscience and moral
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failure, those are spiritual. You cannot calculate your way
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out of a moral debt to a holy Creator.
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Right, you can't use an equation to fix sin.
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The uneducated person, by grasping the singular truth of
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the Gospel, possesses the only knowledge that crosses the
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boundary of death. It really makes you question the
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modern world's absolute obsession with STEM education
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and what we call useful knowledge, often at the complete
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expense of spiritual literacy. We're seeing the results of that
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now. Are we building a Society of
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brilliant minds totally unequipped for eternity?
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We have people who can write complex code, engineer rockets
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and cure physical ailments, but they have no idea how to answer
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the guilt in their own conscience.
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It is a massive misallocation of priority, according to Rile.
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You can get to heaven without money, learning, health or
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friends, but without the knowledge found in the Bible,
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you will never get there. So what is actually in this book
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that makes it so vital? Well, Ryle argues that no other
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book contains such material. He gets very specific about the
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unmatched substance of the text. He lists specific unsearchable
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treasures, first and foremost the precise plan of salvation.
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Let us explain what that means practically.
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The text details the coming of the God man to save sinners, the
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atonement made by suffering in our stead, the complete payment
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for sins, the justification of the Sinner who believes.
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We would know nothing of this specific mechanism of grace
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without the text, but we need to define those terms for a
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listener who might not be familiar with them.
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What do atonement and justification actually mean in
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this context? Atonement is essentially the
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payment of a debt. If you commit a crime, a penalty
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is owed to satisfy justice. Right, there has to be a
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payment. The Bible teaches that human
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rebellion against God incurs an infinite debt.
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The atonement is Christ stepping in and taking that penalty,
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paying the debt in full on the cross.
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And justification. Justification is the legal side
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of that transaction. It is a courtroom term.
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It means that God the Judge looks at the Sinner, sees the
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debt paid by Christ, and legally declares the Sinner not guilty
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and perfectly righteous. Rile's point is that you cannot
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learn this from staring at a sunset or studying a leaf under
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a microscope. No, general revelation doesn't
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give you the legal specifics. This specific legal and
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spiritual transaction is only revealed in the pages of
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Scripture. The text also provides the
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character of Christ. Four separate witnesses in the
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gospel accounts draw his picture.
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His miracles, His ministry, His kindness, His patience.
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The most prejudice reader, Ryle notes, can hardly fail to
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understand the character of Jesus Christ when reading
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Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Then you have the unvarnished
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examples of people the Bible gives us flawed but faithful
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people like Job and David. It records their mistakes, their
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conflicts, their infirmities alongside their.
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Faith. It is brutally honest.
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It shows David committing adultery and murder.
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It shows Job and absolute despair questioning God.
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And it gives terrifying warnings of bad people who clung to sin,
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like Pharaoh, Ahab, and Judah. It shows the consequences of
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hardening the heart against light and knowledge.
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Why is that honesty so necessary?
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Why does Ryle point to the flaws of the heroes as proof of the
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book substance? Because if this were a human
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invention, a piece of propaganda designed to build up a religious
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system, the authors would have sanitized their heroes.
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They would have made David a flawless marble statue.
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Yeah, but the fact that the text exposes the ugly, miserable
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failures of its greatest leaders proves it is dealing with raw,
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unedited truth. It is the ultimate discerner of
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the thoughts and intents of the heart.
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Ryle mentions that it gives unmatched insight into human
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motivation. He quotes an old divine saying,
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Give me a candle and a Bible and shut me up in a dark dungeon,
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and I will tell you all that the whole world is doing.
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Because human nature does not change, and the Bible is the
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clearest mirror of human nature ever created, it reveals the
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secret springs of our actions. I want to bring up Ryles
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quotation of John Newton here. Newton was the man who wrote the
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hymn Amazing Grace and he compared regular books to copper
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and silver. But he said the Bible alone is
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like a book made entirely of banknotes, real currency.
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That is a fascinating way to frame it.
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Copper and silver have value just like history and science
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have value. But banknotes represent massive
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concentrated wealth. The tragedy is that most people
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are treating a vault of currency like a stack of junk mail.
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They toss it on the counter. They let it gather dust.
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They glance at the cover and throw it in the recycling bin.
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If you knew the pages were printed on $100 bills, you would
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guard it with your life. You would study every page.
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And that vault of currency has actually bought tangible change
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in the world. Ryle moves from the substance of
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the text to the historical evidence of its impact on
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mankind. He asked us to look at the
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historical data. Right 18th centuries prior to
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his writing, a few Jewish men from a remote corner of the
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earth are sent forth. The world is full of
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superstition, cruelty and idolatry.
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And these men are told to persuade the world to forsake
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established religions. And they had no carnal weapons.
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They did not have swords or an army to frighten people.
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They had no wealth to bribe belief.
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They had no license for sensuality to allure people.
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They were armed only with the Holy Ghost and the Scriptures.
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Armed only with that, they overthrew Roman idolatry.
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They empty heathen temples. They altered the standard of
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purity and put an end to bloody customs.
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Like the gladiatorial fights. The entire face of society was
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changed. Totally upended.
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I have to push back a little here on Ryals historical
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argument. Sure, play devil's advocate.
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Couldn't a secular historian argue that Roman law and Greek
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philosophy built the foundations of Western society, not just the
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Bible? How does Ryle prove that the
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Bible is the causal factor for these specific societal shifts?
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It is a fair question. Ryle is not denying the
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influence of Roman law on civic structures, but he points to the
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specific moral tenor of society. The morality, right?
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Greek philosophy and Roman law produced a society where
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exposing unwanted infants to the elements to die was perfectly
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legal and common. It produced a society where
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watching men slaughter each other in an arena was top tier
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entertainment. Those systems did not have the
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moral categories to build hospitals for the poor or to
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declare that a slave possessed inherent dignity.
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The shift in those specific moral categories.
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The ending of the arena, the founding of orphanages.
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Treats is directly back to the spread of the Christian
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scriptures and the worldview they contain.
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Ryle then shifts his focus to the Protestant Reformation.
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He highlights that it was not just the preaching of Martin
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Luther or Thomas Cranmer that changed Europe.
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He was not the political quarrels of King Henry the
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Eighth wanting a divorce. No, the grand lever that
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overthrew the existing system of the medieval church was the
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translation and public reading of the Bible.
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Men like John Wycliffe in England and Luther in Germany
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took the text out of Latin, which only the elite priests
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could read, and put it into the common languages of the people.
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Which was revolutionary. How exactly did reading the text
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change their minds though? What was the mechanism there?
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Think about the system of indulgences.
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The medieval church taught that you could buy a piece of paper
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and indulgence to shorten your time or your dead relatives time
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in purgatory. It was a massive economic
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engine. Huge.
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But when ordinary people started reading the book of Romans, and
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they read that justification is a free gift of God's grace
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obtained through faith alone, the entire economic structure of
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indulgences collapsed. The text shattered the dogma.
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The abominations of the existing systems became distinctly
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visible. Human traditions were cleared
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away. It was a mental and moral
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revolution affected entirely by the common people gaining access
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to God's Word. The societal extrapolation of
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this is fascinating. Think about the social
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institutions Rile credits directly to the Bible.
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Like what? Laws keeping society in order.
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Marital ethics. The concept of the Sabbath day,
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which is a merciful provision for the working person to rest.
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Hospitals, orphanages, care for the sick, the aged, the blind.
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He points out that you can search the histories of Athens
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or Rome in vain for records of institutions designed solely for
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the aid of the vulnerable. Those charitable systems were
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born from the influence of the tax.
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It highlights the sheer irony of modern critics who sneer at the
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Bible. They mock the text, yet they
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benefit daily from the very charitable and legal systems it
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built. The infidel Workman, lying sick
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in a modern hospital, owes his comfort to the book he despises.
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It is a massive historical blind spot, so we see the historical
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and societal impact, but Ryle knows that history alone does
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not change a person. He moves to what the Bible does
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for the individual reader, right?
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It converts the soul. It makes drunkard, sober
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thieves, honest, violent people meek, and it builds up the
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believer through the Holy Spirit.
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How does a book cure an addiction though?
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How does reading words on a page make a violent person meek?
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We need to unpack the mechanism here.
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Ryle is operating on the theological premise that the
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Holy Spirit actively works through the reading of the text.
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It is not just psychological conditioning.
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So it's not just a self help mantra.
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You repeat. Well, no, not at all.
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The Reformed view is that the Word is the tool the Spirit uses
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to regenerate the heart. It exposes the hidden sin,
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breaks down the pride, and then offers the specific remedy of
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Christ's forgiveness. The person reads, the spirit
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convicts, and the will is actually changed.
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The drunkard sees the eternal danger of his sin and the beauty
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of Christ and his desires are fundamentally altered.
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But Ryle knows people have objections to reading it.
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He anticipates the excuses people use to avoid the text.
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He's heard them all. I hear these all the time too.
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Let's look at the first major objection.
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People will say this book is full of ancient genealogies,
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obscure cultural references, and confusing prophecies.
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The Book of Revelation is a maze.
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It is just too hard for a normal person to understand.
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All the clarity objection. Yeah.
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How does Ryle handle that? Ryle responds with one of the
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most striking analogies in the entire text.
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He brings up the image of a lazy Steamboat captain.
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OK, set the scene for us. Imagine a captain navigating the
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English Channel at night. The Channel is notoriously
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treacherous. The captain refuses to steer his
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ship because he claims he does not know every tiny Creek, every
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small village, every hidden sandbank along the British
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coast. By focusing on the obscure
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hidden creeks, he is deliberately ignoring the
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massive, blazing lighthouses. Yes, lighthouses like Eddie
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Stone, the Lizard, Beachy Head, these things are shining
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brightly to guide him safely past the rocks.
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The past to heaven, the core truths of salvation, the
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commands to love your neighbor and repent of your fins are
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written plainly, like those lighthouses.
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They stand out boldly to claim that the obscure, hard to
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comprehend parts prevent you from reading the plain life
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saving parts is a lazy excuse. It is cowardice.
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You do not need to understand every detail of Ezekiel's wheels
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to understand, for God so loved the world.
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The plain things are the essential things.
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The second major objection Ryle tackles is the objection of
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hypocrisy. People will point out I know
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people who read the Bible, they go to church, they study it
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constantly and they are not any better.
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They are bitter, they are greedy, they are hypocrites.
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So what is the point of reading it if it does not work?
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For this, Ryle counters with the necessity of the right method.
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He uses the steam engine analogy.
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Let's hear it. The best steam engine ever built
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is totally useless if you do not know how to run it.
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If you do not light the fire and build the pressure, it is just a
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heavy piece of iron. Or think of a sundial.
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A sundial is a perfect instrument for telling time, but
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it is entirely useless if you place it in the shade.
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Reading the text without humility, without earnest prayer
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for the Holy Spirit to illuminate your mind, is like
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putting the sundial in the shade.
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You can run your eyes over the print all day long, but if your
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heart is closed and proud, you get no benefit.
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The fault is not in the book, The fault is in the reader.
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But if the book is read correctly, it becomes the
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ultimate compass. Ryle argues that the Bible must
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be the final judge for all questions of doctrine and
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practice. The world is full of confusing
22:28
doctrines. Even within the umbrella of
22:30
Christianity, you have competing factions.
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Ryle lists them for his day. He mentions Roman Catholics,
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Neologians and Tractarians. Each group is claiming to have
22:40
the sole truth, each saying come with us.
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Safety is only found in our party.
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What is a person supposed to do with all that noise?
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We should define who Reil is talking about here actually.
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Good idea. Neologens were the theological
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liberals of his day. Heavily influenced by German
22:55
higher criticism, they wanted to strip the Bible of its miracles
22:59
and supernatural elements, reducing it to mere moral
23:02
philosophy. And the Trechtarians.
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They were part of the Oxford Movement within the Church of
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England, and they wanted to pull the Church back toward Roman
23:10
Catholic rituals, focusing heavily on the authority of the
23:13
priests and the sacraments rather than the text itself.
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So Ryle is looking at these massive opposing forces.
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The only solution, Ryle insists, is to weigh every sermon, every
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Bishop, every book on the scales of Scripture.
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You do not accept a teaching simply because an ordained
23:31
minister says it. You do not accept it because it
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sounds modern and rational like the Neologians, or because it
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feels ancient and mystical like the Tractarians.
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You have to take it to the text. Does it square with the Bible?
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This applies heavily to daily life as well.
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The practical application is massive.
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Ryle brings up business ethics. Oh, this is so relevant.
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You are in trade and you see shady things going on.
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Not distinctly prohibited by law maybe, but clearly not fair to
23:57
the consumer. But everyone in the trade does
24:00
it. It is how you make a profit.
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What do you do? Or worldly amusements, races,
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operas, card parties, You see numbers of respectable people
24:08
taking part in them. Are they all wrong?
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How do you decide how how to educate your children when the
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culture tells you to let them run wild and experience
24:16
everything without boundaries? The answer is the same.
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The text is the compass. You steer your course by its
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principles. And here is an analogy based
24:25
directly on Riles argument. You should not set your watch by
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the clock of your neighbor, but by the sundial of the word.
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That is a phenomenal visual. Your neighbor's clock might be
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fast, it might be slow, the battery might be dying.
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They might have said it wrong to begin with.
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The sundial relies on the constant, unchanging light of
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the sun. The standard is objective, not
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relative to the people living next door.
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Ryle argues that relying on this objective standard is a
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universal characteristic of true faith.
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He states that all true servants of God live on and love this
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book. There is a core theological
24:58
concept driving this argument. It is the concept of
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regeneration, the new birth. Explain that for us.
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When the Holy Spirit gives a person new life, they become a
25:07
new creature. Their internal desires are
25:09
fundamentally altered. That new nature requires
25:12
spiritual food, just as a newborn infant requires milk.
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A baby does not need to be taught to crave milk.
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It is an instinct of life. In the same way, the regenerated
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soul instinctively Braves the words of God.
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If you are born again, you are hungry for the word.
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Despising the word or having no appetite for it is a clear
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indicator that a person is not converted.
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It does not matter how often they attend church services or
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how zealous they are about religious ceremonies.
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If the Bible is not precious to their soul, the new life is not
25:44
there. It is the pulse to try the
25:47
barometer to check the state of the heart.
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Ryle provides a long list of historical examples to prove
25:52
this point. He looks at Job, who esteemed
25:54
the words of God more than his necessary food.
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David, who wrote the 119th Psalm detailing his absolute love for
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the law of God. Paul, who is mighty in the
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Scriptures, Jesus Christ himself, who constantly quoted
26:06
it, expounded it and used it as a weapon against the devil
26:09
during his temptation in the wilderness.
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The list goes on through church history.
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Augustine in the early church, Wycliffe in the Middle Ages.
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The Puritans like Richard Baxter and John Owen in the 17th
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century. Differing as they did in some
26:21
matters of church government, they all delighted in the Word.
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The cross cultural evidence is just a striking Ryle highlights
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missionary examples from his own century.
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He mentions Robert Moffett, a famous Scottish missionary to
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South Africa. Yeah, tell that story.
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Moffett gave an account of a fierce African chief named
26:39
Afrikaner. Afrikaner was a warlord, the
26:42
terror of his region. But when he was brought under
26:45
the gospel and converted, his nature entirely changed.
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Moffett recorded that Afrikaner would sit under the shadow of a
26:52
great rock nearly the entire day, eagerly reading his Bible.
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Ryle also mentions an older enslaved man who was told he was
26:59
too old to learn to read. He refused to stop trading.
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He said he would never give it up until he died because it was
27:05
worth all the labor just to be able to read it.
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John 3.16 for himself. True believers of all
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denominations agree on this one text.
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Ryle uses the universal love for John Bunyan's Pilgrims Progress
27:16
as proof. People from every Protestant
27:19
denomination love that book. And why?
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Because Bunyan was preeminently a man of one book.
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He had read hardly anything but the Bible while he was locked in
27:27
Bedford jail. His writing was absolutely
27:29
saturated with the language and concepts of Scripture.
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This brings us to a very solemn reality.
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Ryle points out that death is an inescapable river we all must
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cross. It is the winding up of all
27:42
earthly plans. And he unpacks in brutal detail
27:46
why worldly comforts fail in those final hours.
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The Victorian era had a very different relationship with
27:51
death than we do. People died at home.
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It was visible. Ryle had stood beside many
27:56
deathbeds as a pastor, and he knew the psychological reality
28:00
of dying. He points out that gold cannot
28:02
buy peace for a guilty conscience.
28:04
You can afford the best medical attendance, you can have a team
28:06
of doctors, but money cannot soothe A troubled heart facing
28:10
eternity. Relatives cannot screen the soul
28:13
from a holy God. They can hold your hand, they
28:15
can weep, but they cannot cross the river with you.
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Worldly pleasures become entirely distasteful in that
28:20
moment. The dances, the regattas, the
28:22
races, the parties. They jar upon the ear of the
28:25
conscience. They cannot stop the gap in the
28:27
heart when the last enemy is coming in like a flood.
28:30
Even brilliant secular writers, folks like Macaulay or Dickens
28:34
or the daily newspapers, offer zero solace.
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Their vocation is gone in the hour of death.
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You do not want someone reading you a witty novel when you're
28:43
breathing is failing. The only fountain of comfort is
28:46
the Bible chapters, texts, promises.
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Ryle states positively that no dying person will get real
28:53
comfort except from the contents of the Word of God.
28:55
All comfort from any other source is a house built upon
28:58
sand. It will collapse when the storm
29:00
hits. He contrasts the infidels with
29:02
the faithful. He mentions men like Voltaire
29:05
and Thomas Paine, famous Enlightenment critics of
29:08
Christianity. Historical accounts suggest they
29:10
died in absolute misery, rage, fear and despair.
29:14
Their philosophy provided no floor to stand on when the end
29:16
came. He contrasts them with the
29:18
mother of a minister named Richard Cecil.
29:21
When asked if she was afraid to die, she said no.
29:23
She faced death fearlessly because she rested on the
29:26
promise of Isaiah 43.2. When thou passes through the
29:29
waters, I will be with thee. The text provided a concrete
29:33
reality to hold onto. Ryle issues a stark warning to
29:36
his readers. Heading to a deathbed without
29:39
the Bible is absolute madness. It is a terrifying thought to
29:43
enter that dark valley with no light, having ignored the only
29:47
source of light your entire life.
29:48
To prevent that tragedy, Ryle concludes his work with
29:51
practical advice directed at different types of readers.
29:55
He acts as a diagnostician here, addressing 3 distinct groups.
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Let's look at the first group. 1st the neglectful.
30:02
These are the people who never read.
30:04
He gives them a stern warning. He says the plague cross is on
30:08
their door. In his time, a cross on the door
30:10
meant the plague was inside the house and everyone was going to
30:13
die. He says they are in grave
30:15
spiritual danger because they're neglected.
30:17
Bible proves they do not love God.
30:19
Second, he addresses the discouraged.
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These are people who read much but feel no benefit.
30:25
They think they're reading is useless because they do not feel
30:27
an emotional high every time they close the book.
30:29
For them, Ryle provides the beautiful analogy of silent
30:33
growth. Think of the moon pulling the
30:35
tides, the dew falling in the night, the grass growing.
30:38
The greatest forces in nature are often silent and hard to
30:41
detect. At the moment you do not hear
30:43
the grass grow. The effect of the word is quiet
30:47
but massive. It is gradually producing
30:50
impressions on the heart, making sin more hateful and holiness
30:53
more lovely, hedging the person back from unseen sins.
30:57
You might not feel different today, but over a decade the
31:00
text has reshaped your entire character.
31:03
Third, he addresses those who read little, They believe, but
31:07
they are busy. They are involved in committees,
31:09
public work and business, and they let their private reading
31:12
slip to a few minutes a day. Ryle warns them that they will
31:15
lack ballast in a ship, ballast provides stability in a storm.
31:19
Without it, the ship capsizes. He said they'll be tossed to and
31:23
fro like a cork on the waves by false teachers.
31:25
They will come into the harbor of affliction weak, worn, and
31:28
thin. To correct all of this, Ryle
31:31
lays out six specific rules for reading actionable methods for
31:34
those ready to begin. Let's break them down.
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Rule 1 is simple. Begin today wishing, resolving,
31:40
and intending accomplish nothing.
31:41
Hell is paved with good intentions.
31:43
You must actually sit down and read.
31:45
Rule 2 Read to understand. Do not just turn pages to hit a
31:49
quota. That is turning reading into a
31:52
mere religious form, like buying indulgences, right?
31:56
Ryle shares the incredible anecdote of a hot and tot in
31:58
Africa who literally ate a Dutch hymn book, hoping to get
32:02
spiritual comfort for his heart. A Bible not understood is a
32:05
Bible that does no good. You must dig for the meaning
32:09
like digging for gold. Rule 3 Read with childlike faith
32:13
in the spirit of obedience. Resolve to believe implicitly
32:17
whatever you find there, even if it runs counter to your
32:20
prejudices. Do not be a judge of the word.
32:22
Let the word judge you if it contradicts your political views
32:25
or your lifestyle. You change, not the text.
32:28
Rule 4 Read daily and orderly gather fresh mana every morning.
32:32
The Israelites in the wilderness could not store up mana for a
32:35
week. It would rot.
32:36
Yesterday's bread will not feed you today, and read it orderly.
32:39
Avoid the habit of perpetual dipping and picking, just
32:42
opening the book at random. Read straight through the book
32:44
so you get broad, well proportioned views of truth.
32:47
Rule 5. Interpret fairly.
32:49
Take the literal obvious meaning.
32:51
The theologian Richard Hooker said that when a literal
32:54
construction will stand, the furthest from the literal is
32:58
commonly the worst. Do not look for secret mystical
33:01
codes. Read it like a normal book with
33:03
grammar and historical context. And finally, Rule 6 read with
33:09
Christ continually in view. The grand primary object of all
33:13
Scripture is to testify of Jesus.
33:15
The Old Testament ceremonies are shadows of Christ.
33:18
The histories show the world's desperate need for him.
33:21
The. Prophecies are full of his
33:22
sufferings and glory. See Him everywhere in the text.
33:25
It is an overwhelming case for the daily serious submissive
33:28
reading of Scripture. It really is.
33:30
Ryle covers the divine origin of the text, its absolute
33:33
necessities for salvation over earthly sciences, its unmatched
33:37
substance. Plus its historical impact on
33:39
the Roman Empire and the Reformation, its personal
33:42
efficacy to convert the soul, and its role as the unerring
33:45
standard for every confusing doctrine impractical question in
33:48
life. We have seen that loving the
33:50
text is the universal mark of a believer across all cultures and
33:53
eras, and that it is the single solitary comfort when you reach
33:57
your deathbed. A.
33:57
Huge reality check. As we close this deep dive, I
34:00
want to leave you with a fresh thought to ponder.
34:02
It's here. Ryle wrote this during the
34:04
massive boom of the industrial printing press.
34:07
He thought the sheer abundance of printed paper was a
34:10
distraction that made people numb to the text.
34:13
It makes you wonder. It does.
34:15
If he was worried about a shelf full of cheap Bibles, what would
34:19
he say today? What would you say about having
34:21
the Bible as just one of three million apps competing for push
34:25
notifications on our glowing screens?
34:28
Oh, that's heavy. If a cheap physical book bred
34:30
apathy, what does a digital icon sitting next to your social
34:34
media feed do to your reverence for the voice of God?
34:38
That is a staggering thought to consider.
34:40
Thank you for joining us on Reformed Thinking.