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Letter 131
Mistress,
Grace, Mercy, and peace be to you. I am glad that you follow closely after Christ in this dark and cloudy time. It is a good thing to sell the things of this world in order to buy Him,** for when all these days are over we will find that it was a good investment to have a part in Christ. I confidently believe that His enemies will be His footstool,** ** and what are now growing flowers will be dead, withered grass.** The honour and the glory will fall off many things that for a time appear beautiful.
Leave Worldly Comforts Behind
It would be foolish to think that Christ and the Gospel would come and sit down at our fireside.** No, we must leave our comfortable warm houses and seek after Christ and His Gospel. It is not the sunny side of Christ** that we must expect, and we must not forsake him if we lack it. Let us set our faces against whatever we find in life, until He and we are though the briers and prickly bushes and on dry ground. Our soft nature would prefer to be carried through the troubles of this life in Christ's arms.** But it is His wisdom, who knows what we're made of, that His bairns** go with wet and cold feet to heaven. Oh, how sweet a thing it would be for us, if we would learn how to make our burdens light, by preparing our hearts for the burden, which requires us to make our Lord's will the law of our hearts.
Christ's Light Will Shine
I find Christ and His cross** not unpleasant or troublesome guests, as men would call them. No, I think patience makes the water Christ gives us good wine, and His dross silver and gold. We have a good reason for continuing to wait: before long our Master will be back for us and shine His light into the whole world, making visible the blacks and whites.** Happy are those who will be found ready. Our hour-glass doesn't have long enough to run for us to become weary. In fact, time itself will dissolve our cares and sorrow. Our heaven is in the bud and growing up until the harvest.** Why shouldn't we persevere, seeing that our whole life time is a few grains of sand? Therefore I commend Christ to you, as your last-living and longest-living Husband, the staff of your old age.** Let Him now have the rest of your days. Don't worry about the storm when you're sailing in Christ's ship: no passenger will ever fall overboard. Even the most sea-sick passenger is sure to come to land safely.
His Great Love - Our Little Faith
I myself am in as sweet communion with Christ as a poor sinner can be. I am only pained that He has much beauty and loveliness, and I little love. He has great power and mercy, and I little faith. He has much light, and I poor eyesight. O that I would see Him in the sweetness of His love, and in His marriage-clothes,** and were over head and ears in love with that princely one, Christ Jesus my Lord! Alas, my broken dish, my leaky bottle, can hold so little of Christ Jesus!
Christ on the Auction Block
I have joy in this, that I would gladly die before I put Christ's property at the disposal of men who choose to follow their own wills.** Alas, this land has put Christ up for bid in a public auction. Blessed are they who would hold the crown on His head and buy Christ's honour with their own losses.
Family Advice - Farewell
I rejoice to hear that your son John is coming to visit Christ and taste of His love. I hope that he will not become careless** or regret his choice. I have always (as I often told you in person) a great love to Mr. John Brown because I thought I saw more of Christ in him than in his brothers. I wish I could write to him, to encourage him to stand by my sweet Master. Please have him read this letter, and tell him of the joy I will have if he will stand for my Lord Jesus.
Grace be with you, yours, in his sweet Jesus,
Samuel Rutherford
Aberdeen, Scotland March 13, 1637
DEAR BROTHER--Grace, mercy and peace be to you. --Your case is unknown to me, whether ye be yet our Lord's prisoner at Wigtown or not. However it be, I know that our Lord Jesus hath been inquiring for you; and that He hath honoured you to bear His chains which is the golden end of His cross; and so hath waled out a chosen and honourable cross for you. I wish you much joy and comfort of it; for I have nothing to say of Christ's cross but much good. I hope that my ill word shall never meet either Christ or His sweet and easy cross. I know that He seeketh of us an outcast with this house of clay, this mother prison, this earth, that we love full well. And verily, when Christ snuffeth my candle and causeth my light to shine upward, it is one of my greatest wonders, that dirt and clay hath so much court with a soul not made of clay; and that our soul goeth out of kind so far as to make an idol of this earth, such a deformed harlot, as that it should wrong Christ of our love. How fast, how fast doth our ship sail! and how fair a wind hath time, to blow us off these coasts and this land of dying and perishing things! Alas! our ship saileth one way, and fleeth many miles in one hour, to hasten us upon eternity, and our l ove and hearts are sailing close backover and swimming towards ease, lawless pleasure, vain honour, perishing riches; and to build a fool's nest I know not where, and to lay our eggs within the sea-mark, and fasten our bits of broken anchors upon the worst ground in the world, this fleeting and perishing life! And in the meanwhile, time and tide carry us upon another life, and there is daily less and less oil in our lamps, and less and less sand in our watch-glass. Oh what a wise course were it for us to look away from the false beauty of our borrowed prison, and to mind, and eye, and lust for our country! Lord, Lord, take us home!
And for myself: I think, if a poor, weak, dying sheep seek for an old dyke, and the lee-side of an hill, in a storm, I have cause to long for a covert from this storm, in heaven. I know none will take my room over my head there. But, certainly sleepy bodies would be at rest and a well-made bed, and an old breathless horse at the rinks end. I see nothing in this life but sin, and the sour fruits of sin; and, oh, what a burden is sin! And what a slavery and miserable bondage is it, to be at the nod, and yeas and nays, of such a lord-master as a body of sin! Truly, when I think of it, it is a wonder that Christ maketh not fire and ashes of such a dry branch as I am. I would often lie down under Christ's feet, and bid Him trample upon me, when I consider my guiltiness. But seeing He hath sworn that sin shall not loose His unchangable covenant, I keep house-room amongst the rest of the ill-learned bairns, and must cumber the legs and arms, and destroy this body of sin, and make a hole or breach in this cage of earth, that the bird may fly out, and the imprisond soul be at liberty. In the meantime, the least intimation of Christ's l ove is sweet, and the hope of marriage with the Bridegroom holdeth me in some joyful on-waiting, that when Christ's summer-birds shall sing upon the branches of the Tree of Life, I shall be tuned by God Himself to help them to sing the home-coming of our Well-beloved and His bride to their house together. When I think of this, I think winters and summers, and years and days, and time, do me a pleasure that they shorten this untwisted and weak thread of my life, and that they put sin and miseries by-hand, and that thy sall carry me to my Bridegroom in a clap.
Dear Brother, pray for me, that it would please the lord of the vineyard to give me room to preach His righteousness again to the great congregation.
Grace, grace, be with you. Remember me to your wife,
Yours, in his sweet Lord Jesus.
S.R.
Aberdeen 1637
Greetings - Disdain Temporary Glory
Mistress,
Grace, Mercy, and peace be to you. I am glad that you follow closely after Christ in this dark and cloudy time. It is a good thing to sell the things of this world in order to buy Him,** for when all these days are over we will find that it was a good investment to have a part in Christ. I confidently believe that His enemies will be His footstool,** ** and what are now growing flowers will be dead, withered grass.** The honour and the glory will fall off many things that for a time appear beautiful.
Leave Worldly Comforts Behind
It would be foolish to think that Christ and the Gospel would come and sit down at our fireside.** No, we must leave our comfortable warm houses and seek after Christ and His Gospel. It is not the sunny side of Christ** that we must expect, and we must not forsake him if we lack it. Let us set our faces against whatever we find in life, until He and we are though the briers and prickly bushes and on dry ground. Our soft nature would prefer to be carried through the troubles of this life in Christ's arms.** But it is His wisdom, who knows what we're made of, that His bairns** go with wet and cold feet to heaven. Oh, how sweet a thing it would be for us, if we would learn how to make our burdens light, by preparing our hearts for the burden, which requires us to make our Lord's will the law of our hearts.
Christ's Light Will Shine
I find Christ and His cross** not unpleasant or troublesome guests, as men would call them. No, I think patience makes the water Christ gives us good wine, and His dross silver and gold. We have a good reason for continuing to wait: before long our Master will be back for us and shine His light into the whole world, making visible the blacks and whites.** Happy are those who will be found ready. Our hour-glass doesn't have long enough to run for us to become weary. In fact, time itself will dissolve our cares and sorrow. Our heaven is in the bud and growing up until the harvest.** Why shouldn't we persevere, seeing that our whole life time is a few grains of sand? Therefore I commend Christ to you, as your last-living and longest-living Husband, the staff of your old age.** Let Him now have the rest of your days. Don't worry about the storm when you're sailing in Christ's ship: no passenger will ever fall overboard. Even the most sea-sick passenger is sure to come to land safely.
His Great Love - Our Little Faith
I myself am in as sweet communion with Christ as a poor sinner can be. I am only pained that He has much beauty and loveliness, and I little love. He has great power and mercy, and I little faith. He has much light, and I poor eyesight. O that I would see Him in the sweetness of His love, and in His marriage-clothes,** and were over head and ears in love with that princely one, Christ Jesus my Lord! Alas, my broken dish, my leaky bottle, can hold so little of Christ Jesus!
Christ on the Auction Block
I have joy in this, that I would gladly die before I put Christ's property at the disposal of men who choose to follow their own wills.** Alas, this land has put Christ up for bid in a public auction. Blessed are they who would hold the crown on His head and buy Christ's honour with their own losses.
Family Advice - Farewell
I rejoice to hear that your son John is coming to visit Christ and taste of His love. I hope that he will not become careless** or regret his choice. I have always (as I often told you in person) a great love to Mr. John Brown because I thought I saw more of Christ in him than in his brothers. I wish I could write to him, to encourage him to stand by my sweet Master. Please have him read this letter, and tell him of the joy I will have if he will stand for my Lord Jesus.
Grace be with you, yours, in his sweet Jesus,
Samuel Rutherford
Aberdeen, Scotland March 13, 1637
If ever you would pleasure me, entreat the Lord for me, now when I am so comfortless, and so full of heaviness, that I am not able to stand under the burden any longer. The Almighty hath doubled his stripes upon me, for my wife is so sore tormented night and day, that I have wondered why the Lord tarrieth so long. My life is bitter unto me, and I fear the Lord be my contrair party. It is (as I know now by experience) hard to keep sight of God in a storm, especially when He hides Himself, for the trial of His children. If He would be pleased to remove His hand, I have a purpose, to seek Him more than I have done. Happy are they that can win away with their soul. I am afraid of His judgements. I bless my God that there is a death, and a heaven. I would weary to begin again to be Christian, so bitter is it to drink of the cup that Christ drank of, if I knew not that there is no poison in it. God give us not of it till we vomit it up again, for we have sick souls when God's phsyic works not. Pray that God would not lead my wife into temptation. Woe is my heart, that I have done so little against the kingdom of Satan in my calling; for he would fain attempt to make me blaspheme God to His face. I believe, I believe, in the strength of Him who hath put me in His work, he shall fail in that which he seeks; I have comfort in this, that my Captain, Christ, hath said, I must fight and overcome the world, and with a weak, spoiled, weaponless devil, "the prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me. I(John xvi 33)
I have sadness to ballast me and weight me a little. It is but His boundless wisdom which have taken the tutoring of His witless child. And He knoweth that to be drunken with comforts is not safest for our stomaches. However it be, the din and noise and glooms of Christ's cross are weightier than itself. protest to you, (my witness is in Heaven) that I could wish many pound weights added to my cross to know that by my sufferings Christ were set forward in His Kingly office in this land. O, what is my skin to His glory! or my losses or my sad heart, to the apple of the eye of our Lord and His beloved spouse, His precious truth, His royal privileges, the glory of manifested justice in giving His foes a dash, the testimony of His faithful servants who do glorify Him, when He rideth upon poor weak worms, and triumpeth in them! I desire you to pray that I may come out of this furnace with honesty, and that I may leave Christ's truth no worse than I found it; and that this most honourable cause may neither be stained nor weakened.
I have been thinking since my departure from you, of the pride and malice of your adversaries; and ye may not (since ye have had the Book of Psalms so often) take hardly with this; for David's enemies snuffed at him, and through the pride of their heart said, "The Lord will not require it" (Ps x 13). I beseech you therefore, in the bowels of Jesus, set before your eyes the patience of your forerunner Jesus, who when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not, but comitted Himself to Him who judgeth righteously (! Pet. ii 23). And since your Lord and Redeemer with patience received many a black stroke on His glorious back, and many a buffet of the unbelieving world, and says of Himself, "I g ave My back to the smiters, and My cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; I hid not my face from shame and spitting." (Isa iv 6); follow Him, and think it not hard that you receive a blow with your Lord. Take part with Jesus of His sufferings, and glory in the marks of Christ. If this storm were over, you must prepare yourself for a new wound; for five thousand years ago, our Lord proclaimed deadly war betwixt the Seed of the Woman the seed of the Serpent. And marvel not that one town cannot keep the children of God and the children of the devil, for one belly could not keep Jacob and Esau (Gen xxv. 22); one house could not keep peacably together Isaac, the son of the promise, and Ishmael, the son of the handmaid (Gen. xxi. 10). Be you upon Christ's side of it, and care not what flesh can do. Hold yourself fast by your Saviour, howbeit you be buffeted, and those that follow Him. Yet a little while and the wicked shall not be. "We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed" (2 Cor. iv, 8,9). If you can possess your soul in patience, their day is coming. Worthy and dear sister, know to carry yourself in trouble; and when you are hated and reproached, the Lord shows it to you-"All this is come upon us, yet have we not forgotten Thee, neither have we dealt falsely in Thy Covenant" (Ps. xliv 17). "Unless Thy law had been my delight, I had perished in mine affliction" (Ps cxix. 92). Keep God's covenant in your trials. Hold you by His blessed Word, and sin not. Flee, anger, wrath, grudging, envying, fretting. Forgive an hundred pence to your fellow-servant, because your Lord hath forgiven you ten thousand talents. For I assure you by the Lord, your adversaries shall get no advantage against you, except you sin and offend your Lord in your sufferings. But the way to overcome is by patience, forgiving and praying for your enemies, in doing whereof you heap coals upon their heads, and the Lord shall open a door to you in your troubles. Wait upon Him as the night watch waiteth on the morning. He will not tarry. Go up to your watch tower and come not down; but by prayer and faith and hope and wait on. When the sea is full it will ebb again; and so soon as the wicked are come to the top of their pride and are waxed high and mighty, then is their change approaching. They that believe make not haste.
Remember Zion, forget her not, for her enemies are many; for the nations are gathered together against her. "But they know not the thoughts of the Lord, neither understand they, His Counsel: for He shall gather them as sheaves into the floor. Arise and thresh O daughter of Zion" (Michah iv. 12. 13) Behold, God hath gathered His enemies together, as sheaves to the threshing. Let us stay and rest upon these promises."
I trust I need no tmuch entreat your Ladyship to look to Him who hath stricken you at this time; but my duty, in the memory of that comfort I found in your Ladyship's kindness when I was no less heavy (in a case not unlike that), speaketh to me to say something now. And I wish I could ease your Ladyship, at least with words. I am persusaded your physician will not slay you, but purge you, seeing He calleth Himself the Chirugeon, who maketh the wound and bindeth it up again; for to lance a wound is not to kill, but to cure the patient (Deut. xxxii. 39). I believe faith will teach you to kiss a striking Lord; and so acknowledge the sovereignty of God, (in the death of a child) to be above the power of us mortal men, who may pluck up a flower in the bud and not be blamed for it. If our dear Lord plucks up one of His roses and pull down sour and green fruit before before harvest, who can challenge him? For He sendeth us to His World, as men to a market, wherein some stay many hours and eat and drink, and buy and sell, and pass through the fair, till they be weary; and such are those who live long and get a heavy fill of this life. And others again come slipping into the morning market, and neither do sit nor stand, nor buy nor sell, but look about them a little, and pass presently home again; and these are infants and young ones who end their short market in the morning, and get but a short view of the fair. Our Lord who hath numbered man's months, and set him bounds that he cannot pass (job xiv 5.) hath written the length of our market, and it is easier to complain of decrees than to change it.
I verily believe when I write this, that your Lord hath taught your Ladyship to lay your hand on your mouth. But I shall be far from desiring your Ladyship, or any others, to case by a cross, like an old useless bill that is only for the fire; but rather would wish each cross were looked in the face seven time and were read over and over again. It is the messenger of the Lord, and speaks something; and the man of understanding will hear the rod, and Him that hath appointed it. Try what is the taste of the Lord's cup, and drink with God's blessing, that ye may grow thereby. I trust in God whatever speech it utter to your soul, this is one word in it,_"Behold, blessed is the man whom God correcteth" (Job v. 17); and that it saith to you, "Ye are from home while here; ye are not of this world, as your Redeemer Christ was not of this world." There is something keeping for you, which is worthy the having. All that is here is condemned to die, to pass away like a snowball before a summer sun; and since death took first possession of something of yours, it hath been and daily is creeping nearer and nearer to yourself., howbeit with no noise of the feet. Your husbandman and Lord hath lopped off some branches already; the tree itself is to be transplanted to the high garden. In a good time be it. Our Lord ripen your ladyship. All these crosses, and when I remember them, they are heavy and many–Peace, peace be the end of them!) are to make you white and ripe for the Lord's harvest hook. I have seen the Lord weaning you from the breasts of this world. It was never His mind it should be your patrimony; and God be thanked for that. Ye look liker one of the heirs. Let the movables go; why not? They are not yours. Fasten your grips upon your heritage; and our Lord Jesus make the charters sure and give your Ladyship to grow as a palm tree on God's mountain.
Mistress,–Grace, mercy and peace be to you.–I hope ye know what conditions passed betwixt Christ and you, at your first meeting. Ye remember that He said, your summer days would have clouds, and your rose a prickly thorn beside it. Christ is unmixed in heaven, all sweetness and honey. Here we have Him with His thorny and rough cross; yet I know no tree that beareth sweeter fruit than Christ's cross, except I would raise a lying report of it. It is your part to take Christ's cross, as He is to be had in this life. Sufferings are like a wood planted round about His house, over door and window. If we could hold fast our grips of Him, the field were won. Yet a little while, and Christ shall triumph. Give Christ His own short time to spin out these two long threads of heaven and hell to all mankind, for certainly the thread will not break; and when He hath accomplished His work in Mount Zion, and hath refined His silver, He will bring new vessels out of the furnace, and plenish His house, and take up His house again.
I counsel you to free yourself of clogging temptations, by overcoming some and contemning others, and watching over all. Abide true and loyal to Christ, for few now are fast to Him. They give Christ blank paper for a bond of service and attendance, now when Christ hath most ado. To waste a little blood with Christ, and to put our part of this drossy world in pawn over in His hand, as willing to quit it for Him, is the safest cabinet to keep the world in. But those who would take the world and all their flitting on their back, and run away from Christ, shall fall by the way, and leave their burden behind them, and be taken captive themselves. Well were my soul to have put all I have, life and soul over to Christ's hands. Let Him be forthcoming for all.
If any do ask how I do? I answer none but can be but well that are in christ: and if I were not so, my sufferings had melted me away in ashes and smoke. I thank my Lord that He hath something in me that His fire cannot consume.
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