When the aged J. C. Ryle announced that he would resign the bishopric of Liverpool, his friends pressed him to publish a selection of sermons as a memorial to sixty years of ministry - from country parson to diocesan bishop.

The resulting collection, chosen by T. J. Madden, one of Ryle's colleagues in the diocese, shows the beating heart of his biblical preaching: plain, searching, affectionate, and aimed always at the conscience. A good place to meet Ryle for a reader who has only heard of Holiness.