J.C. Ryle (1816-1900), the Anglican Bishop of Liverpool, was one of the soundest preachers and writers of his time. There were so many good things he had to say. He battled against the creeping liberalism of his denomination. He is remembered with fondness by the majority of Reformed Christians of our day. One of my favorite excerpts of his follows. You can still obtain most of his writings today.
“One plague of our age is the widespread dislike to what men are pleased to call dogmatic theology. In the place of it, the idol of the day is a kind of jellyfish Christianity – a Christianity without bone, or muscle, or sinew, – without any distinct teaching about the atonement or the work of the Spirit, or justification, or the way of peace with God – a vague, foggy, misty Christianity, of which the only watchwords seem to be, ‘You must be…liberal and kind. You must condemn no man’s doctrinal views. You must consider everybody is right and nobody is wrong’. And this creedless kind of religion, we are told, is to give us peace of conscience! And not to be satisfied with it in a sorrowful, dying world, is a proof that you are very narrow-minded! Satisfied, indeed! Such a religion might possibly do for unfallen angels! But to tell sinful, dying men and women, with the blood of our father Adam in our veins, to be satisfied with it, is an insult to common sense and a mockery of our distress. We need something far better than this. We need the blood of Christ."
The Upper Room; chapter six, “One Blood”, page 99; Banner of Truth, London, 1977 reprint
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