Eric Russell
302 pages
Superb story of a spiritual leader with a gentle heart! John Charles Ryle was born into a comfortable English family background - his father was a politician and businessman. Ryle was intelligent, a great sportsman (captain of cricket at Eton and Oxford) and was set for a career in his father's business, and then politics - a typical, well to do, 19th century family. Ryle's reputation as a pastor and leader grew until he was appointed the first Bishop of Liverpool, a post he held for 20 years. He was an author who is still in print today (he put aside royalties to pay his father's debts) and a man once described by his successor as 'that man of granite with the heart of a child.' He changed the face of at least part of the Church of England.