[JOHN GORDON of Cardoness, in the parish of Anwoth, was descended
from Gordon of Lochinvar; but little is known concerning him. His
name appears the first of 188 signatures attached to an
unsuccessful petition of the elders and parishioners of Anwoth,
presented to the Commission of the General Assembly 1638, for
Rutherford being continued minister of that parish, when counter
applications were made by the city of Edinburgh and the
University of St. Andrews for the transference of his services.
From Rutherford's letters to him, we learn that he was at this
time far advanced in life. He was naturally a man of strong
passions, by which it would appear he had, in the previous part
of his life, been led astray.
The old castle of _Cardoness_ stands on a tongue of land, at the
mouth of the river Fleet, about a mile from Gatehouse. It is
built on a rocky height, overhanging the public road, and looking
toward the bay. You see an old square-built tower, or fortalice,
raising its grey head from among the tall trees that now surround
it. Tradition tells of an old proprietor, that he was in league
with Græme, the Border outlaw; and how, in consequence of his
daring and God-defying deeds, the chief and his whole family
perished in the _Black Loch_, a small loch in the parish of
Anwoth, at Woodend, 26 ft. deep. Though not a descendant, John
Gordon seems to have been a man of like strong passions with that
old chieftain, till subdued by grace.]
(_WIN CHRIST AT ALL HAZARDS--CHRIST'S BEAUTY--A WORD TO CHILDREN._)
MUCH HONOURED SIR,--Grace, mercy, and peace be to you.--I have longed
to hear from you, and to know the estate of your soul, and the estate
of that people with you.
I beseech you, Sir, by the salvation of your precious soul, and the
mercies of God, to make good and sure work of your salvation, and try
upon what ground-stone ye have builded. Worthy and dear Sir, if ye be
upon sinking sand, a storm of death, and a blast, will lose Christ and
you, and wash you close off the rock. Oh, for the Lord's sake, look
narrowly to the work!
Read over your life, with the light of God's day-light and sun; for
salvation is not casten down at every man's door. It is good to look
to your compass, and all ye have need of, ere you take shipping; for
no wind can blow you back again. Remember, when the race is ended, and
the play either won or lost, and ye are in the utmost circle and
border of time, and shall put your foot within the march of eternity,
and all your good things of this short night-dream shall seem to you
like the ashes of a bleeze of thorns or straw, and your poor soul
shall be crying, "Lodging, lodging, for God's sake!" then shall your
soul be more glad at one of your Lord's lovely and homely smiles, than
if ye had the charters of three worlds for all eternity. Let pleasures
and gain, will and desires of this world, be put over into God's
hands, as arrested and fenced goods that ye cannot intromit with. Now,
when ye are drinking the grounds of your cup, and ye are upon the
utmost end of the last link of time, and old age, like death's long
shadow, is casting a covering upon your days, it is no time to court
this vain life, and to set love and heart upon it. It is near
after-supper; seek rest and ease for your soul in God through Christ.
Believe me, that I find it to be hard wrestling to play fair with
Christ, and to keep good quarters with Him, and to love Him in
integrity and life, and to keep a constant course of sound and solid
daily communion with Christ. Temptations are daily breaking the thread
of that course, and it is not easy to cast a knot again; and many
knots make evil work. Oh, how fair have many ships been plying before
the wind, that, in an hour's space, have been lying in the sea-bottom!
How many professors cast a golden lustre, as if they were pure gold,
and yet are, under that skin and cover, but base and reprobate metal!
And how many keep breath in their race many miles, and yet come short
of the prize and the garland! Dear sir, my soul would mourn in secret
for you, if I knew your case with God to be but false work. Love to
have you anchored upon Christ maketh me fear your tottering and slips.
False under-water, not seen in the ground of an enlightened
conscience, is dangerous; so is often falling, and sinning against
light. Know this, that those who never had sick nights or days in
conscience for sin, cannot have but such a peace with God as will
undercoat and break the flesh again, and end in a sad war at death.
Oh, how fearfully are thousands beguiled with false hide, grown over
old sins, as if the soul were cured and healed!
Dear Sir, I always saw nature mighty, lofty, heady, and strong in you;
and that it was more for you to be mortified and dead to the world,
than for another common man. Ye will take a low ebb, and a deep cut,
and a long lance, to go to the bottom of your wounds in saving
humiliation, to make you a won prey for Christ. Be humbled; walk
softly. Down, down, for God's sake, my dear and worthy brother, with
your topsail. Stoop, stoop! it is a low entry to go in at heaven's
gate. There is infinite justice in the party ye have to do with; it is
His nature not to acquit the guilty and the sinner. The law of God
will not want one farthing of the sinner. God forgetteth not both the
cautioner and the sinner; and every man must pay, either in his own
person (oh, Lord save you from that payment!), or in his cautioner,
Christ. It is violence to corrupt nature for a man to be holy, to lie
down under Christ's feet, to quit will, pleasure, worldly love,
earthly hope, and an itching of heart after this farded and
over-gilded world, and to be content that Christ trample upon all.
Come in, come in to Christ, and see what ye want, and find it in Him.
He is the short cut (as we used to say), and the nearest way to an
outgate of all your burdens. I dare avouch that ye shall be dearly
welcome to Him; my soul would be glad to take part of the joy ye
should have in Him. I dare say that angels' pens, angels' tongues,
nay, as many worlds of angels as there are drops of water in all the
seas, and fountains, and rivers of the earth, cannot paint Him out to
you. I think His sweetness, since I was a prisoner, hath swelled upon
me to the greatness of two heavens. Oh for a soul as wide as the
utmost circle of the highest heaven that containeth all, to contain
His love! And yet I could hold little of it. O world's wonder! Oh, if
my soul might but lie within the smell of His love, suppose I could
get no more but the smell of it! Oh, but it is long to that day when I
shall have a free world of Christ's love! Oh, what a sight to be up in
heaven, in that fair orchard of the new paradise; and to see, and
smell, and touch, and kiss that fair field-flower, that ever-green
Tree of life! His bare shadow were enough for me; a sight of Him would
be the earnest of heaven to me. Fy, fy upon us! that we have love
lying rusting beside us, or, which is worse, wasting upon some
loathsome objects, and that Christ should lie His lone. Wo, wo is me!
that sin hath made so many madmen, seeking the fool's paradise, fire
under ice, and some good and desirable things, without and apart from
Christ. Christ, Christ, nothing but Christ, can cool our love's
burning languor. O thirsty love! wilt thou set Christ, the well of
life, to thy head, and drink thy fill? Drink, and spare not; drink
love, and be drunken with Christ! Nay, alas! the distance betwixt us
and Christ is a death. Oh, if we were clasped in other's arms! We
should never twin again, except heaven twinned and sundered us; and
that cannot be.
I desire your children to seek this Lord. Desire them from me, to be
requested, for Christ's sake, to be blessed and happy, and to come and
take Christ, and all things with Him. Let them beware of glassy and
slippery youth, of foolish young notions, of worldly lusts, of
deceivable gain, of wicked company, of cursing, lying, blaspheming,
and foolish talking. Let them be filled with the Spirit; acquaint
themselves with daily praying; and with the storehouse of wisdom and
comfort, the good word of God. Help the souls of the poor people. O
that my Lord would bring me again among them, that I might tell unco
and great tales of Christ to them! Receive not a stranger to preach
any other doctrine to them.
Pray for me, His prisoner of hope. I pray for you without ceasing. I
write my blessing, earnest prayers, the love of God, and the sweet
presence of Christ to you, and yours, and them. Grace, grace, grace be
with you.
Your lawful and loving pastor,