Welcome back to another episode of five minutes in church history.

Last week, we were looking at one of the five English martyrs

in a book entitled Five English Reformers, written by J.C. Ryle.

I thought on this week, let's take a look at the author of that book, J. C. Ryle.

Well, he was an Anglican Bishop serving as the Bishop of Liverpool, but he wasn't always a Bishop of course.

He was born John Charles Ryle on May 10, 1816.

His father was a member of Parliament and his father's family also owned a bank.

And so these were very wealthy, old family of England.

Consequently,

J.C. Ryle, as a young man was sent off to England's finest schools.

He was sent first to Eaton, and there he excelled in rowing and cricket, eaten of course, as seen from the windows of Windsor

Castle and the rugby and football fields of eaten.

From there he went to Oxford and he was an undergraduate student at Oxford from 1834 to 1838 and

by his account the most significant thing that happened while he was at Oxford was his conversion.

He was converted in 1837, and he was converted by hearing Ephesians chapter 2, verse 8.

In fact, he wrote a testimony to his children, a narrative of his testimony of coming to Christ

for his family.

And in it, he says says nothing I can remember to this day

appeared to me so clear and distinct as my own sinfulness

Christ's preciousness the value of the Bible, the absolute necessity of coming

out of the world, the need of being born again, and the enormous folly of the whole doctrine of baptismal regeneration.

All these things seem to flash upon me like a sunbeam in the winter of 1837 and have stuck in my mind from that time down to

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