The Duties of Parents

Training your children well and not causing them to stumble in any way ought to be one of the highest priorities of Christian parents. 


In The Duties of Parents, J. C. Ryle presents seventeen simple and yet profound responsibilities of Christian parents. Nothing new is contained in this little volume, yet what is presented has the potential to change future generations both now and for eternity. Learn how to shepherd your children; learn how to utilize the most significant key of all – love; and learn first and foremost how to present and represent Christ to your children. As you read this book, expect to find yourself both challenged and excited to begin a wonderful, appropriate, and growing relationship with the most wonderful gift God can give us in our lifetime – our dear 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.