It is strange what comfort can be gained from reading other people’s letters. Certainly this is true of many books of the Bible, and it is also true of much correspondence from one Christian to another.
The Letters of Samuel Rutherford are justly celebrated as a rich devotional feast. Much of their value comes from the suffering circumstances which Rutherford endured, and in which many of the letters were penned.
Rutherford was a Scottish Presbyterian minister who lived through the tumultuous period of the abolition of the British Monarchy, the protectorate of Oliver Cromwell, the Westminster Assembly, and finally the restoration of the monarchy. He was banished to Aberdeen and forbidden to preach in 1636, and restored in 1638. He spent two years in prison. When Charles II was restored, Rutherford was charged with treason, but died before his trial.
A typical collection of his letters includes a variety of persons addressed: parishioners, fellow ministers, nobles, countesses and a few unknowns. His letters sing of the sufficiency of Christ, and of the need to seek Him and adore him. Themes of assurance, suffering, pastoral concern, prayer, experiential knowledge of Christ, holiness and deep repentance are found throughout.
A few choice quotes:
“Let all our employment be to know God: the more one knows Him, the more one desires to know Him. And as knowledge is commonly the measure of love, the deeper and more extensive our knowledge shall be, the greater will be our love: and if our love of God were great, we should love Him equally in pains and pleasures.”
“Oh, what I owe to the file, to the hammer, to the furnace of my Lord Jesus! Why should I start at the plough of my Lord, that maketh deep furrows on my soul? I know He is no idle husbandman; He purposeth a crop.”
“In the meantime, I am pained with His love, because I want real possession. When Christ cometh, He stayeth not long. But certainly the blowing of His breath upon a poor soul is heaven upon earth; and when the wind turneth into the north, and He goeth away, I die, till the wind change into the west, and he visit his prisoner. But He holdeth me not often at His door. I am richly repaid for suffering for Him.”
“The thorn is one of the most cursed, and angry, and crabbed weeds that the earth yieldeth, and yet out of it springeth the rose, one of the sweetest-smelled flowers, and most delightful to the eye, that the earth hath. Your Lord shall make joy and gladness out of your afflictions; for all His roses have a fragrant smell. Wait for the time when His own holy hand shall hold them to your nose; and if ye would have present comfort under the cross, be much in prayer, for at that time your faith kisseth Christ and He kisseth the soul.”
“Your heart is not the compass that Christ saileth by. He will give you what He hath bought for you, and not what you think you should have.”
***
What makes these letters more than the average Puritan fare is the ardent tone with which Rutherford speaks of Christ. He longs for Christ when he seems absent, and seems to sing of Christ’s sweetness in others. The letters are instructive, pastoral, and sometimes even painfully corrective. Yet they seldom fail to be acts of adoration for Christ. For this reason, Rutherford’s Letters have come to be considered gems of devotion.