Daily Readings from All Four Gospels: For Morning and Evening

by J.C. Ryle

J. C. Ryle (1816-1900) was the first Anglican Bishop of Liverpool. He is famous for his writings on the Gospels and is the author of numerous books and booklets. This book is a fresh presentation of Ryles classic Daily Readings which sold out of its last printing within twelve months.

Genres: Devotional

736 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1998

About the author

(John Charles Ryle) Ryle started his ministry as curate at the Chapel of Ease in Exbury, Hampshire, moving on to become rector of St Thomas's, Winchester in 1843 and then rector of Helmingham, Suffolk the following year. While at Helmingham he married and was widowed twice. He began publishing popular tracts, and Matthew, Mark and Luke of his series of Expository Thoughts on the Gospels were published in successive years (1856-1858). His final parish was Stradbroke, also in Suffolk, where he moved in 1861, and it was as vicar of All Saints that he became known nationally for his straightforward preaching and firm defence of evangelical principles. He wrote several well-known and still-in-print books, often addressing issues of contemporary relevance for the Church from a biblical standpoint. He completed his Expository Thoughts on the Gospels while at Stradbroke, with his work on the Gospel of John (1869). His third marriage, to Henrietta Amelia Clowes in 1861, lasted until her death in 1889.

Reviews

[Joel Murray · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the morning readings this year (covering Matthew, Mark, and Luke) and found the commentary super helpful. Always something to meditate on and often something I’d never thought of or heard before.

Will pick it up to read the evening readings (covering John) another year!

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hands down the best devotional book I have ever owned!

Cannot recommend any devotional book that has been better, including Spurgeon's Morning & Evening.

[Shantelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

My husband and I went through this devotional by J.C. Ryle together for the year of 2022. There are morning and evening readings from the Gospels paired with some pretty hearty commentary from Ryle. Usually it would linger in one passage for several days, drawing out different things each day. There is also suggested further readings from Scripture passages outside the Gospels.
Some days the commentary was a little harder for me to digest. Other days it was very comforting and beautiful. Most of the time it was taking a bit of a deeper dive - commentating on Scripture, not just giving you a light, inspirational word for the day.
Overall, this was a great devotional. We missed a few days here and there, but it was very helpful in getting us started on a daily devotion time as a couple.

[Jonathan Sussex · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great way to work through the Gospels with insightful comments from J C Ryle

[Jerrill Wyler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent devotional to read through for an entire year.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why I Read This Book: It was recommended and offered by Truth for Life in December 2019. Also, since I struggle to be consistent with Bible reading, I hoped it would reinforce the habit of reading longer passages.

Format/Source: Hardcover, Truth for Life resource.

Synopsis: Daily Readings From All Four Gospels... has 2 devotions per day. The morning devotions are taken from the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke). The evening devotions are from the gospel of John. Parallel passages are listed, as well as passages for further reading.

What I Thought: Due to my schedule, I was not able to read this twice a day as intended. It was a lot of reading to do all at once - about 30-45 minutes. The Bible passages were not included in the book; I think it would be quite unwieldy if they were. Reading from my own Bible was nice, although it was difficult to arrange things so I could easily reference both my Bible and the devotional at the same time.

Mostly I enjoyed Ryle's thoughts. There were things here and there that I disagreed with or just didn't like the way they were phrased. Occasionally the comments seemed to go in a random or obscure direction from the text. According to the introduction this devotional was compiled by Robert Sheehan from Ryle's commentaries. Around November, the comments seemed to change from something like a sermon excerpt to more of a straight up verse by verse exegesis. I didn't really mind, it was just an odd change in tone, but understandable given the nature of the compilation.

The morning readings from the synoptic gospels are supposed to be in chronological order, although it didn't quite seem that way to me. The evening readings go straight through the gospel of John. When I fell behind a couple of times, I read multiple days at a time to catch up. Skipping the missed days would probably have been confusing. I can't recall if it was from being behind or not, but I ended up reading about Jesus' birth around Resurrection Sunday and His crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension around Christmas. It was an interesting, refreshing change from the usual passages one tends to read around those dates.

The Bottom Line: Given the difficulty I had following the order of the morning (synoptic gospel) readings, I think I would only use this again to go through the gospel of John (evening readings) in a year. I highly recommend reading the introduction to understand the way the devotions are formatted.

[Elizabeth Braden · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing devotional. I loved the way that it went through the life of Christ through the 4 Gospels. I read this last year and I still remember things from this book. The Lord brings them back to my mind even after months of having read this book.