The Upper Room
Overview
The Upper Room is a collection of sermons, addresses, lectures, and tracts that Ryle composed over forty-five years of ministry. “All of them, I venture humbly to think, will be found to contain some useful truths for the times, and words in season,” he writes in the Preface. Over one hundred years later, these selected papers are just as relevant and inspirational as the years they were written.
Top Highlights
“Here it was that professing Christians, when left alone by their Master, first began to pray together, to worship, and to exhort one another. This room was the cradle of the infant Church of Christ, and the beginning of all our services. From this room the waters of the everlasting gospel first began to flow, which have now spread so widely throughout the world, however adulterated and corrupted they may have been in some ages and in some parts of the earth.” (Page 12)
“Beware of colons and semicolons. Stick to commas and full stops, and take care to write as if you were asthmatical or short of breath.” (Page 45)
“Love should be the silver thread that runs through all your conduct. Kindness, gentleness, long-suffering, forbearance, patience, sympathy, a willingness to enter into childish troubles, a readiness to take part in childish joys,—these are the cords by which a child may be led most easily,—these are the clues you must follow if you would find the way to his heart.” (Page 285)
“It ought to be the mark of well-trained children, that they do whatsoever their parents command them. Where, indeed, is the honour which the fifth commandment enjoins, if fathers and mothers are not obeyed cheerfully, willingly, and at once?” (Page 300)
“Try to use in all your sermons, as far as you can, simple words” (Page 43)
- Title: The Upper Room
- Author: J. C. Ryle
- Publisher: William Hunt and Company
- Publication Date: 1888
- Pages: 446
J. C. Ryle (1816–1900) was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, where he was a Craven scholar. He was ordained in 1841 and became a leader of the evangelical party in the Church of England. In 1880, Ryle became the first bishop of Liverpool and also served as the dean of Salisbury. Ryle remained the bishop of Liverpool for 20 years.
Ryle was noted for his doctrinal essays and polemical writings. His bestselling titles include Expository Thoughts on Mark and Holiness: Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties and Roots which can both be found in the J. C. Ryle Collection (18 vols.). He also contributed three volumes in the Crossway Classic Commentary Collection (13 vols.).