Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Volume 2, Mark Ryle, J. C. cover image
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  • Cover Type:
  • 352 Pages
  • Publisher: Banner of Truth
  • Publication Date: July 2012
  • ISBN: SRYLEJCEXPOSITORYTHOUGHTSON9781848711297

Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Volume 2, Mark

Ryle, J. C.

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$20.00 MSRP

First published in 1857, Mark was the second book to appear in J. C. Ryle’s series of Expository Thoughts on the Gospels. The earliest of the Gospel narratives to be written, Mark, says Ryle, ‘is singularly full of precious facts about the Lord Jesus, narrated in a simple, terse, pithy, and condensed style’. Those last four adjectives could well be used to describe Ryle’s own comments on the Gospel!

In one of the occasional explanatory notes, he quotes the following remarks of Rudolf Stier:

"St Mark has the special gift of terse brevity, and of graphic painting in wonderful combination. While on every occasion he compresses the discourses, works, and history into the simplest possible kernel, he on the other hand, unfolds the scenes more clearly than St Matthew does, who excels in the discourses. Not only do single incidents become in his hands complete pictures, but even when he is very brief, he often gives, with one pencil stroke, something new and peculiarly his own."

These Expository Thoughts on Mark do full justice to such an inspired text, and are full of encouragement, wisdom and straightforward practical application. May they continue to fulfil Ryle’s desire to lead the reader ‘to Christ and faith in him, to repentance and holiness, to the Bible and to prayer’.

About the Author

John Charles Ryle was born of well-to-do parents at Macclesfield on 10 May 1816. Ryle started his ministry as curate at the Chapel of Ease in Exbury, Hampshire, moving on to become rector of St Thomas’s, Winchester in 1843 and then rector of Helmingham, Suffolk the following year. While at Helmingham he married and was widowed twice. He began publishing popular tracts, and Matthew, Mark and Luke of his series of Expository Thoughts on the Gospels were published in successive years (1856-1858). His final parish was Stradbroke, also in Suffolk, where he moved in 1861, and it was as vicar of All Saints that he became known nationally for his straightforward preaching and firm defence of evangelical principles. He wrote several well-known and still-in-print books, often addressing issues of contemporary relevance for the Church from a biblical standpoint. He completed his Expository Thoughts on the Gospels while at Stradbroke, with his work on the Gospel of John (1869). His third marriage, to Henrietta Amelia Clowes in 1861, lasted until her death in 1889.

After a period as honorary canon of Norwich (1872), in 1880 Ryle became the first bishop of Liverpool, at the recommendation of Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli. His episcopate was marked by his efforts to build churches and mission halls to reach the rapidly expanding urban areas of the city. He retired in 1900 at age 83 and died later the same year in Lowestoft. His successor in Liverpool described him as ‘the man of granite with the heart of a child.’

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First published in 1857, Mark was the second book to appear in J. C. Ryle’s series of Expository Thoughts on the Gospels. The earliest of the Gospel narratives to be written, Mark, says Ryle, ‘is singularly full of precious facts about the Lord Jesus, narrated in a simple, terse, pithy, and condensed style’. Those last four adjectives could well be used to describe Ryle’s own comments on the Gospel!

In one of the occasional explanatory notes, he quotes the following remarks of Rudolf Stier:

"St Mark has the special gift of terse brevity, and of graphic painting in wonderful combination. While on every occasion he compresses the discourses, works, and history into the simplest possible kernel, he on the other hand, unfolds the scenes more clearly than St Matthew does, who excels in the discourses. Not only do single incidents become in his hands complete pictures, but even when he is very brief, he often gives, with one pencil stroke, something new and peculiarly his own."

These Expository Thoughts on Mark do full justice to such an inspired text, and are full of encouragement, wisdom and straightforward practical application. May they continue to fulfil Ryle’s desire to lead the reader ‘to Christ and faith in him, to repentance and holiness, to the Bible and to prayer’.

About the Author

John Charles Ryle was born of well-to-do parents at Macclesfield on 10 May 1816. Ryle started his ministry as curate at the Chapel of Ease in Exbury, Hampshire, moving on to become rector of St Thomas’s, Winchester in 1843 and then rector of Helmingham, Suffolk the following year. While at Helmingham he married and was widowed twice. He began publishing popular tracts, and Matthew, Mark and Luke of his series of Expository Thoughts on the Gospels were published in successive years (1856-1858). His final parish was Stradbroke, also in Suffolk, where he moved in 1861, and it was as vicar of All Saints that he became known nationally for his straightforward preaching and firm defence of evangelical principles. He wrote several well-known and still-in-print books, often addressing issues of contemporary relevance for the Church from a biblical standpoint. He completed his Expository Thoughts on the Gospels while at Stradbroke, with his work on the Gospel of John (1869). His third marriage, to Henrietta Amelia Clowes in 1861, lasted until her death in 1889.

After a period as honorary canon of Norwich (1872), in 1880 Ryle became the first bishop of Liverpool, at the recommendation of Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli. His episcopate was marked by his efforts to build churches and mission halls to reach the rapidly expanding urban areas of the city. He retired in 1900 at age 83 and died later the same year in Lowestoft. His successor in Liverpool described him as ‘the man of granite with the heart of a child.’

  • Cover Type:
  • 352 Pages
  • Publisher: Banner of Truth
  • Publication Date: July 2012
  • ISBN: SRYLEJCEXPOSITORYTHOUGHTSON9781848711297