"God doth not need
Either man's work, or His own gifts; His state
Is kingly; thousands at His bidding speed,
And post o'er land and ocean without rest:
_They also serve who only stand and wait_."
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, the Moderator,
anent the public business. At the close of that meeting, two English
officers entered; upon which they were asked, "If they had come to sit
and voice with them?" They said, "No; only to see that they ruled
nothing in prejudice to the Commonwealth." The days were evil, and
Rutherford was longing now for such quiet service. He sometimes refers
to this desire; he wishes for a harbour in his latter days; only (adds
he), "failing is serving"--and he did delight in serving his Lord to
the last.[51] His friend M'Ward, in an advertisement prefixed to the
earlier editions of the Letters, bitterly laments the loss of a
Commentary on Isaiah, on which "this true Zechariah, who had
understanding in the visions of God,"[52] employed his leisure time
during the closing years of his life.[53] "His heart travailed more,"
says he, "in birth of this piece than ever I knew him of any; neither
was there ever anything he put his hand to that would have so
powerfully persuaded this panter after the enjoyment of his Master's
company, to have had his heaven and the immediate fruition of God
suspended for a season, as the eager desire he had to finish this work
before he finished his course." But all these papers were carried off,
and never recovered. So true is it, that of the seed we sow, we "know
not whether shall prosper, either this or that" (Eccles. xi. 6).
[51] In 1655, we find in "Diary of Brodie of Brodie," p. 141:--"Quhil
Mr. Rutherford, Mr. Blair, Mr. Wood, and many others, are labouring in
places, and as we hear come small speed; Oh, is it not a marvel that
_we_ should be discouraged!"
[52] 2 Chron. xxvi. 5.
[53] He planned a Commentary on Hosea in 1657, but the design was not
executed. Reference is made to this in Letter cx.
When Charles II. was fully restored, and had begun to adopt arbitrary
measures, Rutherford's work, "Lex Rex," was taken notice of by the
Government; for, reasonable as are its principles in defence of the
liberty of subjects, its spirit of freedom was intolerable to rulers,
who were, step by step, advancing to acts of cruelty and death.
Indeed, it was so hateful to them, that they burnt it, in 1661, first
at Edinburgh, by the hands of the hangman; and then, some days after,
by the hands of the infamous Sharpe, under the windows of its author's
College in St. Andrews. He was next deposed from all his offices; and,
last of all, was summoned to answer at next Parliament a charge of
high treason. But the citation came too late. He was already on his
deathbed, and on hearing of it, calmly remarked, that he had got
another summons before a superior Judge and judicatory, and sent the
message, "I behove to answer my first summons; and, ere your day
arrive, I will be where few kings and great folks come."
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, ready to receive the
immortal crown, he said, "Now my tabernacle is weak, and I would think
it a more glorious way of going home to lay down my life for the
cause, at the Cross of Edinburgh or St. Andrews; but I submit to my
Master's will." Some days before his death, after a fainting fit, he
said, "Now I feel, I believe, I enjoy, I rejoice." And turning to Mr.
Blair, "I feed on manna: I have angels' food. My eyes shall see my
Redeemer. I know that He shall stand on earth at the latter day, and I
shall be caught up in the clouds to meet Him in the air."[54] When
asked, "What think ye now of Christ?" he replied, "I shall live and
adore Him. Glory, glory to my Creator and Redeemer for ever. Glory
shineth in Immanuel's land." The same afternoon he said, "I shall
sleep in Christ; and when I awake, I shall be satisfied with His
likeness. O for arms to embrace Him!" Then he cried aloud, "O for a
well-tuned harp!" This last expression he used more than once, as if
already stretching out his hand to get his golden harp, and join the
redeemed in their new song. He also said on another occasion, "I hear
Him saying to me, 'Come up hither.'" His little daughter Agnes (the
only survivor of six children), eleven years of age, stood by his
bedside; he looked on her, and said, "I have left her upon the Lord."
Well might the man say so, who could so fully testify of his portion
in the Lord, as a goodly heritage. To four of his brethren, who came
to see him, he said, "My Lord and Master is chief of ten thousands of
thousands. None is comparable to Him, in heaven or in earth. Dear
brethren, do all for _Him_. Pray _for Christ_. Preach _for Christ_. Do
all for _Christ_; beware of men-pleasing. The Chief Shepherd will
shortly appear." He often called Christ "His Kingly King." While he
spoke even rapturously, "I shall shine! I shall see Him as He is! I
shall see Him reign, and all His fair company with Him, and I shall
have my large share"--he at the same time would protest, "I renounce
all that ever He made me will or do as defiled or imperfect as coming
from myself. I betake myself to Christ for sanctification as well as
justification." Repeating 1 Cor. i. 30, he said, "I close with it! Let
Him be so. He is my all and all." "If He should slay me ten thousand
times I will trust." He spoke as if he knew the hour of his departure;
not perhaps as Paul (2 Tim. iv. 6) or Peter (2 Peter i. 14), yet still
in a manner that seems to indicate that the Lord draws very near His
servants in that hour, and gives glimpses of what He is doing. On the
last day of his life, in the afternoon, he said, "This night will
close the door, and fasten my anchor within the veil, and I shall go
away in a sleep by five o'clock in the morning." And so it was. He
entered Immanuel's land at that very hour, and is now (as himself
would have said) "sleeping in the bosom of the Almighty," till the
Lord come.
[54] "Lamont's Diary," p. 133.
We may add his latest words. "There is nothing now between me and the
Resurrection but 'This day thou shalt be with Me in paradise.'" He
interrupted one speaking in praise of his painfulness in the ministry,
"I disclaim all. The port I would be in at is redemption and
forgiveness of sin through His blood." Two of his biographers record
that his last words were, "Glory, glory dwelleth in Immanuel's land!"
as if he had caught a glimpse of its mountain-tops.
It was at St. Andrews he died, on 30th March 1661, and there he was
buried. "Lamont's Diary," p. 133, says: "He was interred on the 30th
of March, in the ordinary burial place." Had he lived a few weeks his
might have been the cruel death endured by his friend James Guthrie,
whom he had encouraged, by his letters, in stedfastness to the end.
The sentence which the Parliament passed, when told that he was dying,
did him no dishonour. When they had voted that he should not die in
the College, Lord Burleigh rose and said, "Ye cannot vote him out of
heaven."
His death was lamented throughout the land; and to this day few names
are so well known and honoured. So great was the reverence which some
of the godly had for this man of God, that they requested to be buried
where his body was laid. This was Thomas Halyburton's dying
request.[55] An old man in the parish of Crailing (in which Nisbet,
his birthplace, is situated) remembers the veneration entertained for
him by the great-grandfather of the present Marquis of Lothian. This
good Marquis used to lift his hat, as often as he passed the spot
where stood the cottage in which Samuel Rutherford was born. He was
twice married. His widow survived him fourteen years.
[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
familiar with the likeness of his soul. There is one expressive line
in the epitaph on his tombstone, in the churchyard at the boundary
wall opposite the door of St Regulus' Tower--
"What tongue, what pen, or skill of men,
Can famous Rutherford commend!
His learning justly raised his fame,
True godliness adorn'd his name.
He did converse with things above,
_Acquainted with Immanuel's love_."
A monument to his memory was erected in 1842, by subscription, on the
Boreland Hill, in the parish of Anwoth. It is sixty feet in height,
and thus, seen all around, it seems to remind the inhabitants of that
region how God once visited His people there.
* * * * *
His letters have long been famous among the godly. The present edition
of them has several things to recommend it. 1. The Letters are
chronologically arranged. 2. They have biographical notices prefixed
to a large number of them. Most of these are from the pen of the Rev.
James Anderson. The present editor has added, here and there,
topographical notes that seemed to have some interest, most of them
gleaned on the spot. The explanatory notes in the edition by the Rev.
C. Thomson, 1836, have often been consulted with much advantage. 3.
There are contents prefixed to each Letter, describing generally what
are the main subjects of each. 4. _There are some new letters inserted
in this collection; and there is a facsimile of an unpublished letter
directed to the Provost of Edinburgh_, at the time when there was an
attempt made to call Rutherford to that city. The letter, which is
preserved in the Records of the Edinburgh Town Council, entreats them
to drop the matter. It is written in a very small hand, as was usual
with him, and the seal on it has the armorial bearing of the
Rutherford family.
[Illustration: RUTHERFORD'S MONUMENT ON BORELAND HILL.]
If it be asked how it came about that these letters should have been
at first printed in an order entirely unchronological, the explanation
is simple: The first edition appeared in 1664, and in it there were
only two hundred and eighty-four of his letters gathered and
published; but many being edified thereby, an edition soon appeared
with sixty-eight more letters appended. All these seem to have been
printed very much in the order in which they came to hand, and the
additional sixty-eight, more especially, disturbed all arrangement.
The collector was Mr. M'Ward,[56] who, as a student, being much
beloved by Rutherford, went to the Westminster Assembly with him as
his amanuensis or secretary. He was afterwards successor to Andrew
Gray in Glasgow, and finally minister in Rotterdam. He gave them to
the public with an enthusiastic recommendation, under the title,
"Joshua Redivivus;[57] published for the use of all the people of God,
but more particularly for those who are now, or afterwards may be, put
to suffering for Christ and His cause; by a well-wisher to the work
and people of God. John xvi. 2; 2 Thessal. i. 6." The edition was in
duodecimo, and was printed at Rotterdam. Not only were the Letters
first published in Holland, but also, in 1674, there appeared a Dutch
translation of them at Flushing.
[56] In "Lamont's Diary," April 1650, we read of "Mr. Robert Makeward,
sometime servant (_i.e._ secretary) to Mr. Samuel Rutherford, minister
of St. Andrews."
[57] Why "_Joshua_"? Did he think of the faithful witnessing in Joshua
xxiv.? Or is the reference to Joshua as one of the spies? _See_ Letter
cxviii.
It will be noticed, in reading the Letters as they stand
chronologically, that at times the pen of the ready writer ran on with
amazing rapidity. He has written many in one day when his heart was
overflowing. It was easy to write when the Lord was pouring on him the
unction that teacheth all things. He would have written still more,
but he had heard that people looked up to him and overpraised his
Letters. During his confinement at Aberdeen, he wrote about two
hundred and twenty of these letters.
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 "profane preachers and
expectants" to say of these Letters, "They are fit only for old
wives." Dr. Love, on the other hand, protests, "The haughty contempt
of that book which is in the heart of many will be ground for
condemnation when the Lord cometh to make inquisition after such
things" (Letter xiv.). The extravagance in sentiment alleged against
them by some is just that of Paul, when he spoke of knowing "the
height and depth, length and breadth," of the love of Christ; or that
of Solomon, when the Holy Ghost inspired him to write "The Song of
Songs." Rather would we say of these Letters, what Livingstone in a
letter says of John Welsh's dying words, "O for a sweet fill of this
fanatic humour!" In modern days, Richard Cecil has said of Rutherford,
"He is one of my classics; he is a real original;" and, in older
times, Richard Baxter, some of whose theological leanings might have
prejudiced him, if anything could, said of his Letters, "Hold off the
Bible, such a book the world never saw." They were long ago translated
into Dutch, and of late years they have been translated into German.
Both in these, and in his other writings, we see sufficient proof that
had he cultivated literature as a pursuit, he might have stood high in
the admiration of men.[58]
[58] Even in his controversial works, sparks of the same poetic fire
fly out when opportunity occurs. In his Treatise "De Divina
Providentiâ," the following paragraph occurs, extolling the glory of
Godhead wisdom. "Comparentur cum illa increata sapientia Dei Patris
umbratiles scintillulæ creatæ gloriolæ quotquot nominis celebritate
inclaruerunt. Delirat _Plato_. Mentitur _Aristoteles_. _Cicero_
balbutit, hæsitat, nescit Latine loqui. _Demosthenes_ mutus et
elinguis obstupescit; virtutis viam ignorat _Seneca_; nihil canit
_Homerus_; male canit _Virgilius!_ Accedant ad Christum qui virtutis
gloria fulgent! _Aristides_ virtutem mentitur. _Fabius_ cespitat, a
via justitiæ deviat. _Socrates_ ne hoc quidem scit, se nihil scire.
_Cato_ levis et futilis est; _Solon_ est mundi et voluptatum servus et
mancipium, non legislator. _Pythagoras_ nec sophos, nec philosophus
est. _Bias_ nec mundi nec inanis gloriæ contemptor. _Alexander Macedo_
ignavus est," &c. Another work bears this title: "Exercitationes
Apologeticæ pro Divinâ Gratiâ, studio et industria Samuelis
Rhætorfortis, Anwetensis, in Gallovidiâ, Scotiæ provinciâ Pastoris."
The preface, or dedication, to _Gordon of Kenmure_, is very
characteristic, ending thus: "Non enim ignoras in hac valle miseriarum
minime sistendum, neque tentorium figendum; ad æternitatem ipsam (quod
vere magnum nomen est & ineffabile) te vocari; crescere iter,
decrescere diem, omnia alia aliena, tempus tantum nostrum esse, si
modo nostrum est." In this preface he calls himself "_Pastor
Anwetensis_," the old spelling of Anwoth being _Anweth_.
His correspondents were chiefly persons residing either in Galloway,
where Anwoth was, or in Ayrshire; for these two counties at that time
were rich in godly men of some standing.
His pen suggests often, by a few strokes, very much that is profound
and impressive. There is something not easily forgotten in the words
used to express the Church's indestructibleness when he says, "The
bush has been burning these five thousand years, and _no man yet saw
the ashes of that fire_" (Letter cccxvii.). How much truth is conveyed
in that saying, "Losses for Christ are but goods given out in bank in
Christ's hand." There is an ingenious use of Scripture that often
delights the reader; as when he speaks of "The corn on the house-tops
that never got the husbandman's prayer," or of "Him that counteth the
basons and knives of His house (Ezra i. 9, 10), and bringeth them back
safe to His second temple" (Letter cccxxxiii.).
It is a curious fact that only in Letter cccxxv., does he speak of the
Holy Spirit, though elsewhere (see "Life of Grace") very full are his
statements of the Spirit's work. The truth is, a man full of the Holy
Ghost is full of Christ and testifies to Him.