PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
Letters of Samuel Rutherford (Third Edition)
Rutherford, Samuel, 1600?-1661 · 345,819 words · 915 reading sections
Part 1
Transcriber's note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). Small capital text has been replaced with all capitals. Text enclosed by equal signs is in bold face (=bold=). The carat character (^) indicates that the following letter is superscripted (example: yo^r). Variations in spelling, punctuatio…
120 wordsSECTION 2SAMUEL RUTHERFORD
[Illustration: RUTHERFORD'S WALK.] [Illustration: title page]…
6 wordsSECTION 3SAMUEL RUTHERFORD
_With a Sketch of his Life_…
6 wordsSECTION 4AND
_Biographical Notices of His Correspondents_…
5 wordsSECTION 5PREFACE.
Most justly does the old Preface to the earlier Editions begin by telling the Reader that "These Letters have no need of any man's epistle commendatory, the great Master having given them one, written by His own hand on the hearts of all who favour the things of God." Every one who knows these "Letters" at all, is awar…
317 wordsSECTION 6PAGE
Sketch of _Samuel Rutherford_, 1 1. To _Marion M'Naught_.--Children to be Dedicated to God, 33 2. To _a Christian Gentlewoman, on the death of a Daughter._--Christ's Sympathy with, and Property in us--Reasons for Resignation, 34 3. To _Lady Kenmu…
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37. To _Lady Kenmure_.--On the Death of Lord Kenmure--Design of, and duties under, Affliction, 100 38. To _Marion M'Naught_.--Christ's Care of His Church, and His Judgments on her Enemies, 102 39. To _Lady Kenmure_.--Preparation for Death and Eternity, 103 40. To _L…
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76. To _Robert Gordon of Knockbreck_.--Benefit of Affliction, 161 77. To _Lady Boyd_.--Aberdeen--Experience of himself Sad-- Taking Pains to win Grace, 163 78. To _Lord Boyd_.--Encouragement to Exertion for Christ's Cause, 164 79. To _Mar…
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114. To _William Rigg of Athernie_.--Sustaining Power of Christ's Love--Satan's Opposition--Yearnings for Christ Himself--Fears for the Church, 230 115. To _Mr. Alexander Henderson_.--Sadness because of Christ's Headship not set forth--His Cause attended with Crosses--The Believer seen of all, 232…
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157. To _the Laird of Carleton_.--Increasing Sense of Christ's Love--Resignation--Deadness to Earth-- Temptations--Infirmities, 288 158. To _Lady Busbie_.--Christ all Worthy--Best at our Lowest--Sinfulness of the Land--Prayers, 290 159. To _John Fleming, Bailie of Leith_.--Dir…
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195. To _Lady Largirie_.--Christ the Exclusive Object of Love--Preparation for Death, 383 196. To _Earlston, the Younger_.--Sufferings--Hope of Final Deliverance--The Believer in Safe Keeping--The Recompense Marred by Temptations, 384 197. To _Mr. William Dalgleish, Minist…
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229. To _Mr. Hugh M'Kail, Minister of Irvine_.--The Law--This World under Christ's Control for the Believer, 454 230. To _Lady Kenmure_.--Believer Safe though Tried--Delight in Christ's Truth, 455 231. To _Lord Lindsay of Byres_.--The Church's Desolations--The End of the World, a…
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267. To _William Glendinning, Bailie of Kirkcudbright_.--The Past and the Future--Present Happiness, 517 268. To _the Earl of Cassillus_.--Anxiety for the Prosperity of Zion--Encouragement for the Nobles to Support it--The Vanity of this World, and the Folly and Misery of forsaking Christ--The One Way to…
615 wordsSECTION 14Part 14
299. To _Lady Boyd, on the Loss of several Friends_.--Trust even though slain--Second Causes not to be regarded--God's thoughts of Peace therein--All in Mercy, 603 300. To _Agnes Macmath, on the Death of a Child_.--Reason for Resignation, …
578 wordsSECTION 15Part 15
336. To _Lady Ralston, Ursula Mure_.--Duty of Preferring to Live rather than Die--Want of Union in the judgments of the Godly, 665 337. To _a Minister of Glasgow_.--Encouraging Words to a Suffering Brother--Why men shrink from Christ's Testimony, …
495 wordsSECTION 16APPENDIX.
Editions of Rutherford's Letters, 736 Sample of the old Orthography, 740 Last Words; Poem by Mrs. Cousin, 741…
18 wordsSECTION 17SAMUEL RUTHERFORD.
"Wherever the palm-tree is, there is water," says the Eastern proverb; and so, wherever the godly flourish, there, we are sure, must the Word of God be found. In the history of the Reformation we read of Brother Martin, a poor monk at Basle, whose hope of salvation rested solely on the Lord Jesus, long before Luther so…
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Jedburgh is a town three or four miles distant from Nisbet, and thither Samuel went for his education; either walking to it, and returning home at evening,--as a school-boy would scarcely grudge to do,--or residing in the town for a season. The school at that time met in a part of the ancient Abbey, called, from this c…
862 wordsSECTION 19Part 19
The parish of Anwoth had no large village near the church. The people were scattered over a hilly district, and were quite a rural flock. But their shepherd knew that the Chief Shepherd counted them worth caring for; he was not one who thought that his learning and talents would be ill spent if laid out in seeking to s…
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[16] The oak pulpit out of which he preached was preserved till a few years ago. The old church (60 feet by 18) is in the shape of a barn, and could hold only 250 sitters. It is now entirely a ruin. The years 1631 and 1633 were carved on some of the seats--perhaps the seats of the Gordons, or other heritors. We may add…
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"_Wednesday, August 23, 1826._--Started at five o'clock; ordered the gig forward on the public road to meet us after a scramble of about two miles among the hills, in the line of 'Rutherford's Memorials.' Went first to his church; the identical fabric he preached in, and which is still preached in.[26] The floor is a c…
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[30] Hos. xiv. 7. [31] In the parish church of Chiseldon, North Wilts, there are to be seen Eleven Commandments inscribed on a slab (which is affixed to the chancel arch); the additional one consisting of our Saviour's precept--"A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another" (John xiii. 34). The church i…
530 wordsSECTION 23Part 23
Meanwhile he persevered in study as well as in labours, and with no common success. He had a metaphysical turn, as well as great readiness in using the accumulated learning of other days. It might be instructive to inquire why it is that wherever godliness is healthy and progressive, we almost invariably find learning …
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On leaving Anwoth he directed his steps by Irvine, spending a night there with his beloved friend David Dickson. What a night that must have been! To hear these two in solemn converse! The one could not perhaps handle the harp so well as the other; for David Dickson could express his soul's weary longings and its conso…
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But we err if we suppose that it was only while there that he experienced that almost ecstatic enjoyment of his Lord. He carried it away with him; for is not this the same strain as pervades his Letters, when, preaching in 1644, before the House of Commons in London, he exclaims, "O for eternity's leisure, to look on H…
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In the year 1640, he married his second wife, Jean M'Math, "a woman," says one, "of such worth, that I never knew any among men exceed him, nor any among women exceed her. He who heard either of them pray or speak, might have learnt to bemoan his own ignorance. Oh how many times I have been convinced, by observing them…
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Returning home to St. Andrews, he resumed his labours both in the college and in the pulpit with all his former zeal. In 1644, it appears from the old minutes of Lanark Presbytery, a vacancy having occurred, Rutherford was unanimously called to Lanark. He was inclined to go, but the Presbytery of St. Andrews refused to…
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It is mentioned in "Lamont's Diary," 27th Sept. 1653, that at the Provincial Synod of Fyfe, which met at St. Andrews, Mr. Samuel Rutherford presented a paper to the Moderator, relating to the sins of the ministry, which was not accepted. Upon the refusal of it, some words passed between Rutherford and Mr. Robert Blair,…
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We have no account of the nature of his last sickness, except that it was a lingering disease. He had a daughter who died a few weeks before himself. All that is told us of his deathbed is characteristic of the man. At one time he spoke much of "the white stone" and "the new name." When he was on the threshold of glory…
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[55] See (ch. vi.) of "Memoir of Halyburton," who, on his deathbed, quoted Rutherford's words, "Glory, glory dwelleth in Immanuel's land." [Illustration: RUINS OF ST. ANDREWS CATHEDRAL.] If ever there was any portrait of him, it is not now known. The portraits sometimes given of him are all imaginary. We are most fam…
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There are a few distasteful expressions in these epistolary effusions, the sparks of a fancy that sought to appropriate everything to spiritual purposes; but as to extravagance in the thoughts conveyed, there is none. An old Memoir of Richard Cameron, the martyr, mentions at the close that it had become a fashion among…
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Nor is it otherwise in regard to corruption in public, and in the Church. We do not mean merely the open corruption of error, but also the secret "grey hairs" of decay. Hear him cry, "There is universal deadness on all that fear God. O where are the sometime quickening breathings and influences from heaven that have re…
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Fellowship with the living God is a distinguishing feature in the holiness given by the Holy Ghost; we get "access by one Spirit to the Father through Him."[65] Rutherford could sometimes say, "I have been so near Him that I have said, 'I take instruments that this is the Lord.'"[66] And he could from experience declar…
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7. _All who love that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God our Saviour._--The more we love the Person of Christ, the more ought we to love His appearing; and the more we cherish both feelings, the holier shall we become. Rutherford abounds in aspirations for that day; he is one who "looks for and ha…
415 wordsSECTION 35LIST OF HIS WORKS.
1. _Exercitationes Apologeticæ pro Divina Gratia._ Amstelodami, 12mo, 1636. Franekeræ, 1651. 2. _A Peaceable and Temperate Plea for Paul's Presbytery in Scotland._ London, 4to, 1642. 3. _A Sermon before the House of Commons, on_ Daniel vi. 26. London, 4to, 1644. 4. _A Sermon before the House of Lords, on_ Luke vii. …
380 wordsSECTION 36POSTHUMOUS.
17. _Joshua Redivivus; or, Mr. Rutherford's Letters._ First Edition, 12mo, 1664. No printer's name and no place mentioned. 18. _Examen Arminianismi._ Ultrajecti (Utrecht), 12mo, 1668. 19. _A Testimony left by Mr. S. Rutherford to the Work of Reformation in Great Britain and Ireland before his death._ Date uncertain. …
377 wordsSECTION 37LETTERS.
I.--_For_ MARION M'NAUGHT, _on the return home of her daughter_. [In the early editions the date stands "1624," by a mistake for "1627;" for Rutherford was not settled in Anwoth in 1624. For a full notice of _Marion M'Naught_, see what is prefixed to Letter VI.]…
47 wordsSECTION 38(_CHILDREN TO BE DEDICATED TO GOD._)
WELL-BELOVED AND DEAR SISTER,--My love in Christ remembered. I have sent to you your daughter Grizel with Robert Gordon, who came to fetch her. I am in good hopes that the seed of God is in her, as in one born of God; and God's seed will come to God's harvest. I have her promise she shall be Christ's. For I have told h…
168 wordsSECTION 39S. R.
ANWOTH, _June 6, 1627_. II.--_To a Christian Gentlewoman on the death of her daughter._…
16 wordsSECTION 40(_CHRIST'S SYMPATHY WITH, AND PROPERTY IN US--REASONS FOR RESIGNATION._)
MISTRESS,--My love in Christ remembered to you. I was indeed sorrowful at my departure from you, especially since ye were in such heaviness after your daughter's death. Yet I do persuade myself, ye know that the weightiest end of the cross of Christ that is laid upon you lieth upon your strong Saviour; for Isaiah saith…
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ANWOTH, _April 23, 1628_.…
4 wordsSECTION 42S. R.
[85] So in his "sermon before the House of Lords," 1645: "Faith thinketh no evil of Christ." Also Letters XX. and XCII.: "Love believeth no evil." [Illustration: KENMURE HOUSE.] III.--_To the_ VISCOUNTESS OF KENMURE, _on occasion of illness and spiritual depression_. [LADY JANE CAMPBELL, Viscountess of Kenmure, was …
582 wordsSECTION 43(_ACQUIESCENCE IN GOD'S PURPOSE--FAITH IN EXERCISE--ENCOURAGEMENT IN VIEW OF SICKNESS AND DEATH--PUBLIC AFFAIRS._)
MADAM,--All dutiful obedience in the Lord remembered. I have heard of your Ladyship's infirmity and sickness with grief; yet I trust ye have learned to say, "It is the Lord, let Him do whatsoever seemeth good in His eyes." It is now many years since the apostate angels made a question, whether their will or the will of…
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Ye have now, Madam, a sickness before you; and also after that a death. Gather then now food for the journey. God give you eyes to see through sickness and death, and to see something beyond death. I doubt not but that, if hell were betwixt you and Christ, as a river which ye behoved to cross ere you could come at Him,…
673 wordsSECTION 45S. R.
ANWOTH, _July 27, 1628_. [87] "In reference to her,"--alluding to the known design of Charles I. to enforce conformity to Episcopacy. [88] The Marquis of Argyle. IV.--_To the Elect and Noble Lady, my_ LADY KENMURE, _on occasion of the death of her infant daughter_.…
46 wordsSECTION 46(_TRIBULATION THE PORTION OF GOD'S PEOPLE, AND INTENDED TO WEAN THEM FROM THE WORLD._)
MADAM,--Saluting your Ladyship with grace and mercy from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ,--I was sorry, at my departure, leaving your Ladyship in grief, and would still be grieved at it, if I were not assured that ye have One with you in the furnace, whose visage is like unto the Son of God. I am glad th…
926 wordsSECTION 47S. R.
ANWOTH, _Jan. 15, 1629_. [89] In the earlier editions it is given "fly" throughout; not "flee." V.--_To my_ LADY KENMURE, _upon her removal with her husband from the parish of Anwoth_.…
32 wordsSECTION 48(_CHANGES AND LOSS OF FRIENDS--THIS WORLD NO ABIDING PLACE._)
MADAM,--Saluting you in Jesus Christ,--to my grief I must bid you (it may be, for ever) farewell, in paper, having small assurance ever to see your face again till the last general assembly, where the whole church universal shall meet; yet promising, by His grace, to present your Ladyship and your burdens to Him who is…
694 wordsSECTION 49S. R.
ANWOTH, _Sept. 14, 1629_. [Illustration: KIRKCUDBRIGHT.] VI.--_For_ MARION M'NAUGHT, _on occasion of the illness of his wife_. [MARION M'NAUGHT was daughter to the Laird of Kilquhanatie, in Kirkpatrick Durham (see Letter XXV.), the representative of an ancient family, now extinct, and connected also with the house o…
420 wordsSECTION 50(_INWARD CONFLICT ARISING FROM OUTWARD TRIAL._)
LOVING AND DEAR SISTER,--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 burthen 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 L…
403 wordsSECTION 51S. R.
ANWOTH, _Nov. 17, 1629_. [92] Mr. J. Maxwell here mentioned was at this time a minister in Edinburgh, and afterwards became Bishop of Ross,--a man of talent, but devoid of principle, whose aim was to secure the favour of the notorious Laud, by forwarding his designs for forcing Episcopacy upon the Scottish people. The…
75 wordsSECTION 52(_THE EARNEST OF THE SPIRIT--COMMUNION WITH CHRIST--FAITH IN THE PROMISES._)
MADAM,--I have longed exceedingly to hear of your life and health, and growth in the grace of God. I lacked the opportunity of a bearer, in respect I did not understand of the hasty departure of the last, by whom I might have saluted your Ladyship, and therefore I could not write before this time. I entreat you, Madam,…
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I have neither tongue nor pen to express to you the happiness of such as are in Christ. When ye have sold all that ye have, and bought the field wherein this pearl is, ye will think it no bad market; for if ye be in Him, all His is yours, and ye are in Him; therefore, "because He liveth, ye shall live also" (John xiv. …
781 wordsSECTION 54S. R.
ANWOTH, _Feb. 1, 1630_. VIII.--_For_ MARION M'NAUGHT, _on occasion of his wife's illness_.…
14 wordsSECTION 55(_WRESTLINGS WITH GOD._)
MISTRESS,--My love in Jesus Christ remembered. I am in good health; honour to my Lord; but my wife's disease increaseth daily, to her great torment and pain night and day. She has not been in God's house since our communion, neither out of her bed. I have hired a man to Edinburgh to Doctor Jeally and to John Hamilton.[…
311 wordsSECTION 56ANWOTH.
[95] Probably a relative of his wife, whose name was Eupham Hamilton. He was an apothecary in Edinburgh, and is mentioned among the godly in Livingstone's "Characteristics." [96] The Rev. Mr. Robert Glendinning, then minister of Kirkcudbright. IX.--_For_ MARION M'NAUGHT, _recommending a friend to her love_.…
47 wordsSECTION 57(_PRAYERS ASKED_.)
MISTRESS,--My love in Christ remembered. At the desire of this bearer, whom I love, I thought to request you if ye can help his wife with your advice, for she is in a most dangerous and deadly-like condition. For I have thought she was changed in her carriage and life, this sometime bypast, and had hope that God would …
267 wordsSECTION 58ANWOTH.
X.--_For_ MARION M'NAUGHT.…
4 wordsSECTION 59(_SUBMISSION, PERSEVERANCE AND ZEAL RECOMMENDED._)
WELL-BELOVED AND DEAR SISTER IN CHRIST,--I could not get an answer written to your letter till now, in respect of my wife's disease; and she is yet mightily pained. I hope that all shall end in God's mercy. I know that an afflicted life looks very like the way that leads to the kingdom; for the Apostle hath drawn the l…
509 wordsSECTION 60ANWOTH.
XI.--_To my_ LADY KENMURE. (_GOD'S INEXPLICABLE DEALINGS WITH HIS PEOPLE WELL ORDERED--WANT OF ORDINANCES--CONFORMITY TO CHRIST--TROUBLES OF THE CHURCH--DEATH OF MR. RUTHERFORD'S WIFE._) MADAM,--Grace, mercy, and peace be multiplied upon you. I received your Ladyship's letter, in the which I perceive your case in thi…
921 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.