ABERDEEN, _March 9, 1637_.
CXV.--_To_ MR. ALEXANDER HENDERSON.
[ALEXANDER HENDERSON, the well-known hero of the Second
Reformation, was born in the year 1583, and received his
education at the University of St. Andrews. After having taught
for several years a class of philosophy and rhetoric in that
University, he obtained a presentation to the parish of Leuchars,
in 1612. Being at that time unimpressed with spiritual truth, he
was a defender of the principles and measures of the prelatic
party in the Church. His settlement was on these accounts so
unpopular, that on the day of his ordination the church-doors
were secured by the people, and the members of Presbytery,
together with the presentee, were obliged to break in by the
window. But his soul was soon after visited by the Holy Spirit,
and underwent an entire change. He became leader in effecting
that revolution in the ecclesiastical affairs of Scotland which
commenced about the year 1637. He was Moderator of the famous
Assembly which met at Glasgow in 1638, and by that Assembly was
translated to Edinburgh. In the civil war, Henderson was
appointed by the Covenanters to act as one of their commissioners
in treating with his Majesty Charles I. In 1642 he was delegated
by the Commission of the General Assembly to sit as one of their
commissioners in the Westminster Assembly of Divines, which kept
him in London for several years. He died on the 12th of August
1646, in the 63rd year of his age, shortly after his return from
England. Baillie, in his speech to the General Assembly in the
following year, pronounced him, "the fairest ornament after Mr.
John Knox, of incomparable memory, that ever the Church of
Scotland did enjoy."]
(_SADNESS BECAUSE CHRIST'S HEADSHIP NOT SET FORTH--HIS CAUSE ATTENDED
WITH CROSSES--THE BELIEVER SEEN OF ALL._)
MY REVEREND AND DEAR BROTHER,--I received your letters. They are as
apples of gold to me; for with my sweet feasts (and they are above the
deserving of such a sinner, high and out of measure), I have sadness
to ballast me, and weight me a little. It is but His boundless wisdom
which hath taken the tutoring of His witless child; and He knoweth
that to be drunken with comforts is not safest for our stomachs.
However it be, the din and noise and glooms of Christ's cross are
weightier than itself. I protest to you (my witness is in heaven),
that I could wish many pound weights added to my cross, to know that
by my sufferings Christ were set forward in His kingly office in this
land. Oh, what is my skin to His glory; or my losses, or my sad heart,
to the apple of the eye of our Lord and His beloved Spouse, His
precious truth, His royal privileges, the glory of manifested justice
in giving of His foes a dash, the testimony of His faithful servants
who do glorify Him, when He rideth upon poor, weak worms, and
triumpheth in them! I desire you to pray, that I may come out of this
furnace with honesty, and that I may leave Christ's truth no worse
than I found it; and that this most honourable cause may neither be
stained nor weakened.
As for your cause, my reverend and dearest brother, ye are the talk of
the north and south; and looked to, so as if ye were all crystal
glass. Your motes and dust would soon be proclaimed and trumpets blown
at your slips. But I know that ye have laid help upon One that is
mighty. Intrust not your comforts to men's airy and frothy applause,
neither lay your down-castings on the tongues of salt mockers and
reproachers of godliness. "As deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and
yet well known" (2 Cor. vi. 8, 9). God hath called you to Christ's
side, and the wind is now in Christ's face in this land; and seeing ye
are with Him, ye cannot expect the lee-side, or the sunny side of the
brae. But I know that ye have resolved to take Christ upon any terms
whatsoever. I hope that ye do not rue, though your cause be hated, and
prejudices are taken up against it. The shields of the world think our
Master cumbersome wares, and that He maketh too great din, and that
His cords and yokes make blains, and deep scores in their neck.
Therefore they kick. They say, "This man shall not reign over us."
Let us pray one for another. He who hath made you a chosen arrow in
His quiver, hide you in the hollow of His hand!