1816 – 1900

J. C. Ryle

Worth knowing

An evangelical clergyman in the Church of England and the first bishop of Liverpool, from 1880.
He was ordained after his family's bank failed in 1841 and left them in debt.
His Holiness (1877) argues that a Christian life must show real change, and that holiness is a lifelong fight, not a single moment of surrender.

In Scholar’s Dream, J. C. Ryle has one book

HolinessJ. C. Ryle, Holiness: Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots (1877)SpiritualityEthics

J. C. Ryle’s quotes in the game

Every quotation from J. C. Ryle that a player meets in Scholar’s Dream, attached to the move that says it. Or see them as a plain list →

In Scholar’s Dream, books argue with each other, and each thing a book can do in a debate is called a move. Every quote below is spoken by one of those moves. Open “How it works in the game” under a quote to see the move, which books learn it, and which arguments it answers best.

“Sanctification, again, is a thing that will always be seen. Like the Great Head of the Church, from whom it springs, it ‘cannot be hid.’”
J. C. Ryle, Holiness: Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots (1877), public domain.public domain

How it works in the game: the move It Cannot Be Hid

SpiritualityArgument · power 84 · 100% accurate

In the gameRyle against a private, invisible holiness. A changed life shows. If nothing in a person’s conduct, temper or company has moved, the claim to have been sanctified is answering to nothing.

Learned byHoliness (Lv 1)

Strong against

×2.5Salvation from Sinan argument · why?

Ryle: holiness always shows, and it always grows. A thing that is still growing has not arrived!

×2.5Seasonable Thoughtsan argument · why?

Neither heat nor cold settles it. Watch what the person is like a year later — that is the test both sides claimed and only one of them applied!

Words J. C. Ryle’s books borrow from others

Moves these books can learn whose quotation comes from somebody else. The citation on each one names who actually said it.

“In peace I will both lay myself down and sleep, for you, Yahweh alone, make me live in safety.”
Psalm 4:8 (WEB).

How it works in the game: the move Rest

SpiritualityRest · 100% accurate

In the gameBreak off and rest. Stamina is restored in full and any trouble is slept off, but the book is then ASLEEP for a turn (two turns, one time in five) while the other side does as it likes.

Learned byHoliness (Lv 40)

“To make everything yield to custom would be to do the greatest injustice. … In short, depraved custom is just a kind of general pestilence in which men perish not the less that they fall in a crowd.”
Calvin, Prefatory Address to Francis I (1536), prefixed to the Institutes of the Christian Religion (trans. Beveridge, 1845), public domain. (trimmed quote)public domain

How it works in the game: the move Depraved Custom

EthicsArgument · power 88 · 100% accurate

In the gameAnswers "everyone has always done it this way" by asking what everyone doing it proves. Numbers do not make a thing right; they only settle how many are carried off by it.

Learned byHoliness (Lv 50)

Strong against

×4The Most Ancient Customan argument · why?

Numbers do not make a thing right. They only settle how many are carried off by it.

×0.5The Consent of the Fathersan argument · why?

That answers the custom, not the men. He is talking about the men.

Who else was alive

J. C. Ryle against everyone else in the game.

A.D. 450A.D. 700A.D. 950A.D. 1200A.D. 1450A.D. 1700A.D. 1950

Boethius Boniface John of Damascus Daniel of Winchester Timothy I Alcuin of York Pope Leo III Eulogius of Córdoba Paul Alvaro of Córdoba Rimbert Humbert of Silva Candida Michael Cerularius Peter III of Antioch Anselm of Canterbury Ari Thorgilsson Ebo and Herbord Thomas Aquinas John Wyclif Lorenzo Valla Girolamo Savonarola Pope Paul III Martin Luther Miles Coverdale William Tyndale Emperor Charles V John Calvin Teresa of Ávila John Jewel The Council of Trent The English exiles at Geneva Hugo Grotius René Descartes John Owen Blaise Pascal John Bunyan Louis XIV of France Pierre Bayle Joseph Butler Jonathan Edwards Thomas Reid George Campbell William Paley John Henry Newman J. C. Ryle Friedrich Nietzsche James Orr B. B. Warfield Herman Bavinck W. R. Sorley James Denney J. Gresham Machen

Solid bar = firm dates · faded = approximate51 authors sit outside this window