'The Gospel of St. John, rightly interpreted, is the best and simplest answer to those who profess to admire a vague and indistinct Christianity.' There were many such admirers in J. C. Ryle's day, as there are in ours, and that conviction is what set him to work on the fourth Gospel.

This is the first of the three volumes that complete his Expository Thoughts on the Gospels, offering plain comment on the text alongside the longer notes on disputed points that make the series genuinely useful to a preacher. Ryle aimed to help ordinary readers understand the Gospels, which is why the work has outlasted most of the scholarship of his century.