262 OUR HYMNS :
JOHN KYLAND, D.D.
17531825.
FEW names are more honoured in the Baptist denomination than that oi Ryland, the name of a family that produced in several generations men of the highest eminence. Not the least of these was the subject of this sketch, " J. R., Jun.," as he used to sub- scrihe himself in the magazines. His father was the Rev. John Collett Ryland, pastor of the Baptist Church at Warwick, at the time of John s birth, January 29th, 1753. The elder Ryland was a fine scholar, and very early trained his son in the knowledge of Greek and Hebrew ; and from his pious mother he received, as Doddridge had done, scriptural instruction from the Dutch tiles that adorned their fireplace. As a child, his feelings were very tender, and when about fourteen years of age he experienced a great spiritual change, and, in company with some pious youths in his father s school, made a profession of religion. At this early age, when but fourteen, he was baptised and received into the church over which his father presided.
Subsequently, for several years he increased his own knowledge, while assisting in his father s school at Northampton, whither he had removed in 1759. And after a time, with the approval of the Cliurch at Northampton, he assisted his father in the ministry,
- i;ul i.i 1781 was ordained and appointed his co-pastor. In 1786,
oa Lls father s removal to London, he succeeded him as sole pastor. Making Northampton a centre, he preached in many parts around, and by the pen as well as the living voice contended earnestly for the faith. In co-operation with Carey, Fuller, Sut- cliffe, and others, he originated the Baptist Missionary Society, at Kettering, on the 2nd of October, 1792. His name is first on the committee of five, and his signature attests the first humble list of subscriptions, amounting in all to 13 2s. 6d.
In 1794 he left Northampton to undertake the presidency of the Baptist College, Bristol, and the pastorate at Broadinead
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