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The 19th hundred years was an years that observed great progress in many regions of exploration and learning. However, matching to J. C. Ryle, it was an years of great ignorance too. "With all the current blend made about education", he wryly discovered, "the ignorance of our very own country's record is something lamentable and appalling and depressing." What especially distressed Ryle was the scant knowledge of the English Reformation evident amongst his contemporaries. On this place a grave threat: one of the reason why so many congregations drift off their evangelical foundations is their pure ignorance of Religious record, and their insufficient knowledge of the major doctrinal controversies and why they matter. Therefore he taught that one of the best ways to stop Christians wavering "with every changing wind flow of doctrine" (Eph. 4:14) is to instill in them a profound love for Reformation and Puritan teaching, and a willingness to suffer for those gospel truths. The Bible often calls us to keep in mind the past, Ryle explained, but the devil will try to make us neglect. If the chapel is usually to be strengthened, then Christians must be persuaded to read the saints of the past and learn the lessons of chapel history. Ryle's abiding expect Light from Old Times is that our souls will be stirred to prayer and action by the fantastic testimonies of Reformers and Puritans found within its pages, and then that people will dig deeper into the writings of these spiritual giants.
