When Ryland was born, his fa­ther was a Bap­tist min­is­ter in War­wick. In 1759, the fam­i­ly moved to North­amp­ton. J. Ry­land, junior, as he signed his name for ma­ny years, was in 1781 or­dained co-pas­tor with his fa­ther at North­amp­ton. In 1794, he ac­cept­ed the pre­si­den­cy of the Bap­tist Coll­ege and the pas­tor­ate of the church in Broad­mead, Bris­tol; he held these po­si­tions un­til his death.

Ryland was a man of con­sid­er­a­ble lit­er­a­ry cul­ture, and re­ceived a Doc­tor of Di­vin­i­ty de­gree from Brown Un­i­ver­si­ty, Rhode Is­land. He was one of the found­ers of the Bap­tist Mis­sion­a­ry So­ci­e­ty, and for the three years fol­low­ing the death of Rev. A. Full­er in 1815, Ry­land was act­ing sec­re­ta­ry.

Ryland’s prose works in­clude:

• Serious Es­says, 1771
• Memoirs of Rev. R. Hall, Arns­by, 2nd edi­tion, 1852
• A Can­did State­ment of the Re­asons Which In­duce Bap­tists to Dif­fer from Their Christ­ian Breth­ren
• Pastoral Me­mor­i­als, pub­lished post­hu­mous­ly
• Hymns and Vers­es on Sac­red Sub­jects, pub­lished post­hu­mous­ly in 1862

• Burrage, pp. 102-6
• Julian, pp. 32, 112, 316, 673, 694, 930, 983

1. For Zi­on’s Sake I’ll Not Re­strain
2. Had Not the Lord, My Soul May Say
3. Holy, Ho­ly, Ho­ly Lord, Self-Ex­ist­ent De­i­ty
4. In All My Lord’s Ap­point­ed Ways
5. Look Down, My Soul, on Hell’s Do­main
6. Lord, Teach a Lit­tle Child to Pray
7. Now Let the Slum­ber­ing Church Awake
8. O Lord, I Will De­light in Thee
9. Out of the Depths of Doubt and Fear
10. Rejoice, the Sav­ior Reigns
11. Sovereign Rul­er of the Skies
12. Thou Son of God, and Son of Man
13. When Ab­ra­ham’s Serv­ant to Pro­cure
14. When the Sav­ior Dwelt Be­low