A Tender Lion: The Life, Ministry, and Message of J. C. Ryle

“Bennett Wade Rogers has put us in his debt with this splendid up-to-date intellectual biography of the great Victorian evangelical, J.C. Ryle. He paints a compelling and sympathetic portrait of Ryle in his historical context, so that his eccentricities and his intentions become clearer at every stage of his ministry. He helps us understand Ryle's hugely significant contributions to the church (his preaching, his publishing, his episcopal leadership), with some particularly insightful analysis of the lesser-known aspects of his work such as his hymnbooks and his profound involvement with the Church Association in campaigning for the reform of the Church of England, which helped strengthen and preserve Anglican Evangelicalism into the next century. This is an inspiring and edifying book about someone who was extraordinarily useful to his Master.”

“J. C. Ryle is to Anglican evangelicals as C. H. Spurgeon is to Baptist evangelicals. The lives of great servants of God deserve our careful study to understand the trajectory from which we have come, to remove the cultural blinders of living in the present, and to find exemplars of gospel ministry, that we may imitate their faith. Bennett Rogers has done us all a great favor by writing this book on J. C. Ryle with detailed scholarship and eminently readable prose.”

“When I was in my twenties, I discovered that J. C. Ryle’s Daily Readings so revolutionized my quiet times that when I visited Ryle’s tomb in Liverpool Cathedral, I found myself in tears. So it was a delight to read the backstory of this godly bishop whose timeless commentaries on the four Gospels had been such an inspiration. In A Tender Lion by Bennett Wade Rogers, I found lessons on page after page from the bishop who gave us Holiness.”

“From the standpoint of the history of evangelicalism, the ministry of J. C. Ryle is of utmost significance. In a day when the tide was beginning to turn against the convictions and worldview of evangelicals, Ryle stood firm as a rock for the heart and basics of the gospel. His life, along with those of a number of other nineteenth-century saints (like the Bonars and Spurgeon), is of great encouragement to us in our day when times in the West are even more desperate. Warmly recommended.”

“I am so thankful for Bennett W. Rogers’s A Tender Lion: The Life, Ministry, and Message of J. C. Ryle. When I was a teenager, Ryle’s Holiness came into my hands. I have been a Ryle fan ever since. In my work as a pastor, Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels were a companion to me as well as a constant source of devotion and application as I preached through Matthew, Luke, and John. This book introduces the reader to the man behind a writing ministry that lives on over a century later. I commend it warmly.”