Guess the date?

 

To what generation was this written?

"There is an amazing ignorance of Scripture among many, and a consequent want of established, solid religion. In no other way can I account for the ease with which people are, like children, “tossed to and fro, and carried about by every wind of doctrine” (Eph. 4:14). There is an Athenian love of novelty abroad, and a morbid distaste for anything old and regular and in the beaten path of our forefathers. Thousands will crowd to hear a new voice and a new doctrine without considering for a moment whether what they hear is true. There is an incessant craving after any teaching which is sensational and exciting and rousing to the feelings. There is an unhealthy appetite for a sort of spasmodic and hysterical Christianity. The religious life of many is little better than spiritual dram–drinking, and the “meek and quiet spirit” which St. Peter commends is clean forgotten (1 Pet. 3:4). Crowds and crying and hot rooms and high–flown singing and an incessant rousing of the emotions are the only things which many care for. Inability to distinguish differences in doctrine is spreading far and wide, and so long as the preacher is “clever” and “earnest,” hundreds seem to think it must be all right, and call you dreadfully “narrow and uncharitable” if you hint that he is unsound! [1]

This book on Holiness was written in 1877.  It could have been written in 2022.

John Charles Ryle (10 May 1816 – 10 June 1900) was an English evangelical Anglican bishop. "Bishop Ryle, as he is still affectionately known even by many who would not share his love of the Church of England, was essentially a lover and teacher of biblical truth. His uncompromising stand for evangelical doctrine and scriptural holiness often made him unpopular with those who favored new ideas and superficial practices." - Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones.

"And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 2:1–5, ESV)"

“For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” (2 Timothy 4:3–4, ESV)  

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1. Ryle, J. C. (1999). Holiness: it’s nature, hinderances, difficulties and roots (electronic ed. based on the Evangelical Press reprinting, with new forward, 1995.). Christian Classics Foundation.