Christmas Thoughts

Christmas, and New Year, are excellent moments to pause and reflect--as scattered families regather for the national holiday, and as the calendar turns over again, with another year gone forever. J. C. Ryle urges us--in the midst of our feasting and festivities and family reunions--to make time to consider our spiritual state and our relationship with God. How is it with our souls? What do we make of Jesus Christ? What will be our future, when all our Christmases are past? This little book contains five of Ryle's most popular Christmas tracts, the spiritual wisdom of which is timeless. Ryle challenges us--while we enjoy the wonderful delights of mince pies and mistletoe and mulled wine and music and merriment--to make the most of every Christmas, to consider seriously the person of Jesus Christ and questions of eternal significance. In Words from the Cross Ian Hamilton places Jesus' seven expiring words of grace and hope in their wider biblical context and explores their theological, pastoral, and evangelistic significance. The short chapters encourage us to reflect and meditate on the love of God which is 'the fountainhead of the gospel' (John Owen) and bring us to devote all we are to the Saviour who gave his all for us.