The Banner of Truth Trust, paperback, 206 pages, £2.50. Obtainable from The Free Presbyterian Bookroom, 133 Woodlands Road, Glasgow G3 6LE.
SAMUEL RUTHERFORD became minister of “fair Anworth by the Solway” in 1627 and there he showed his people, as an English merchant put it, “the loveliness of Christ”. In August 1636 he was exiled to Aberdeen because he would not bow to the demands of the bishops. It is from there that most of his surviving correspondence was written. In this book we have a well-chosen selection of these Christ-exalting letters, though some of them were written in later years – one just before his death in 1661.
Painful though it was to think of being separated from preaching the gospel to his people in Anworth, he could write, with exile in view, “Sweet, sweet is the Lord’s cross. . . . My Bridegroom’s love-blanks fatten my weary soul. I soon go to my King’s palace in Aberdeen.” After reaching there he exclaimed in a letter to Robert Blair, another persecuted minister, “Courage, courage! Joy, joy for evermore! O joy unspeakable and glorious! O for help to set my crowned King on high! O for love to Him who is altogether lovely – that love which many waters cannot quench, neither can the floods drown!”
From Aberdeen he warned John Gordon of Cardoness, “I beseech you, sir, by the salvation of your precious soul and the mercies of God, to make a good and sure work of your salvation and try upon what ground-stone you have builded. . . O for the Lord’s sake look narrowly to the work.”
To a young convert he wrote, “I rejoice to hear Christ hath run away with your young love, and that you are, so early in the morning, matched with such a Lord; for a young man is often a dressed lodging for the devil to dwell in. Be humble and thankful for grace, and judge it not so much by weight, as by its truth. Christ will not cast water on your smoking coal; He never yet put out a dim candle that was lighted at the Sun of Righteousness.”
It was out of a strong love for Christ, his “crowned King”, that he wrote. And from that love flowed the concern for individual souls and for the Cause of Christ in Scotland which is so often expressed in these letters. In the same spirit he rejoiced with those of the Lord’s children who rejoiced, and wept with those who wept. Today’s readers, in their varying conditions of soul and their differing circumstances, should also derive real benefit from reading these thoroughly spiritual letters.
Footnotes explain references to people and events and give the meaning of obscure words. At the end of the book there are brief notes on those to whom the letters are addressed and a list of the main events in Rutherford’s life.
And if the appetite of readers is whetted by this selection we hope that they will go on to the volume which contains all 365 of Rutherford’s letters which have survived the ravages of time. As this larger volume is again out of print, we hope that the publishers will make it available once more. Meanwhile we are glad to see this paperback in print again, at such a reasonable price.
K. D. M.