J. C. Ryle Sermons to Children

I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me. 

– Proverbs 8:17


Children, I am going to talk to you about Jesus Christ and your souls. I want to make you happy, but I know that people are never really happy unless their souls are happy – and I am sure that people’s souls cannot be truly happy unless they love Jesus Christ. That is the reason I am going to write to you now. I want to tell you something about Jesus Christ and your souls.


Dear children, I hope you will all pay close attention. I pray that the Spirit of God will come into your hearts and make you able to do so. Try to listen to me. Try to understand what I say. Try to remember and carry away something in your minds. I hope to do you all a great deal of good.

– J. C. Ryle


In this compilation of seven sermons to children, J. C. Ryle tells captivating stories from the Bible with easy-to-understand application for children.


About the Author

John Charles Ryle (1816-1900) graduated from Eton and Oxford and then pursued a career in politics, but due to lack of funds, he entered the clergy of the Church of England. He was a contemporary of Spurgeon, Moody, Mueller, and Taylor and read the great theologians like Wesley, Bunyan, Knox, Calvin, and Luther. These all influenced Ryle’s understanding and theology. Ryle began his writing career with a tract following the Great Yarmouth suspension bridge tragedy, where more than a hundred people drowned. He gained a reputation for straightforward preaching and evangelism. He travelled, preached, and wrote more than 300 pamphlets, tracts, and books, including Expository Thoughts on the Gospels, Principles for Churchmen, and Christian Leaders of the Eighteenth Century. Ryle used the royalties from his writing to pay his father’s debts, but he also felt indebted to that ruin for changing the direction of his life. He was recommended by Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli to be Bishop of Liverpool where he ended his career in 1900.