Description Christian Leaders of the Eighteenth Century Christian Leaders of the Eighteenth Century Although many authors have written about the evangelical revival of the 18th century, J. C. Ryle’s Christian Leaders of the 18th Century remains the best popular introduction to this great spiritual era. With simplicity and vigour, he traces the lives of the eleven Christian leaders who ‘shook England from one end to another’, giving strong reasons for his belief ‘that excepting Luther and his Continental contemporaries, and our own martyred Reformers, the world has seen no such men since the days of the apostles.’ But Ryle does not write to prompt admiration, and his conclusions and applications of his subject are among the most forceful that ever came from his pen. “I must plainly state that, in my judgment, we have neither the men nor the doctrines of days gone by among us… Once…” let the evangelical ministry return to the ways of the 18th century, and I firmly believe we should have as much success as before. We are where we are, because we have come short of our fathers.’ At the beginning of last century, Canon A. M. W. Christopher of St. Aldate’s, Oxford, declared that he had turned to Ryle’s book during every summer vacation for thirty years. IIt is time for readers to revisit Christian Leaders of the 18th Century. – J. C. Ryle
