ABERDEEN, _June 17, 1637_.
CLXXXVII.--_To the_ LADY GAITGIRTH.
[LADY GAITGIRTH, or ISABEL BLAIR, daughter to John Blair of that ilk,
by Grizel his wife, daughter to Robert, Lord Semple, was the wife of
James Chalmers of Gaitgirth. To him she had five sons and five
daughters. Mr. Fergushill of Ochiltree resided in the vicinity; see
Letter CXII. Her husband, to whom Rutherford expresses his obligations
in the close of this letter, was a man of worth. He was made
Sheriff-Principal of Ayrshire in 1632; and in 1633, he and Sir William
Cunningham of Cunninghamhead represented Ayrshire in Parliament.
Embracing the cause of the Covenant, he, in 1641, with Cassilis and
Caprington, were sent as commissioners from the Scottish Parliament to
Newcastle; and in 1649 he had a troop in Colonel Robert Montgomery's
Horse (Robertson's "Ayrshire Families"). His great-grandfather, James
Chalmers of Gaitgirth, who lived at the time of the Reformation, was a
very zealous reformer, and is described by Knox, Calderwood, and
Spottiswood, as one of the boldest and most daring men of any who took
part in that important revolution.
The name is often written Gathgirth and Gadgirth. It is in the parish
of Coylton, about four miles from Monkton. The modern mansion occupies
the fine site of the old, on a wooded knoll that overhangs the river
Ayr, at one point commanding a view of ARRAN and Goatfell. It is a
small estate.]
(_CHRIST UNCHANGEABLE, THOUGH NOT ALWAYS ENJOYED--HIS LOVE NEVER YET
FULLY POURED OUT--HIMSELF HIS PEOPLE'S CAUTIONER._)
MISTRESS,--Grace, mercy, and peace be to you. I long to know how
matters stand betwixt Christ and your soul. I know that ye find Him
still the longer the better; time cannot change Him in His love. Ye
may yourself ebb and flow, rise and fall, wax and wane; but your Lord
is this day as He was yesterday. And it is your comfort that your
salvation is not rolled upon wheels of your own making, neither have
ye to do with a Christ of your own shaping. God hath singled out a
Mediator (Ps. lxxxix. 19), strong and mighty: if ye and your burdens
were as heavy as ten hills or hells, He is able to bear you, and save
you to the uttermost. Your often seeking to Him cannot make you a
burden to Him. I know that Christ compassionateth you, and maketh a
moan for you, in all your dumps, and under your downcastings; but it
is good for you that He hideth Himself sometimes. It is not niceness,
dryness, nor coldness of love, that causeth Christ to withdraw, and
slip in under a curtain and a vail, that ye cannot see Him; but He
knoweth that ye could not bear with upsails, a fair gale, a full moon,
and a high spring-tide of His felt love, and always a fair summer-day
and a summer-sun of a felt and possessed and embracing Lord Jesus. His
kisses and His visits to His dearest ones are thin-sown. He could not
let out His rivers of love upon His own, but these rivers would be in
hazard of loosening a young plant at the root;[303] and He knoweth
this of you. Ye should, therefore, frist Christ's kindness, as to its
sensible and full manifestations, till ye and He be above sun and
moon. That is the country where ye will be enlarged for that love
which ye dow not now contain.
[303] The river Ayr flows close to Gaitgirth; so that, in time of
flood, Lady Gaitgirth would often see an exemplification of what is
alluded to,--the water loosening the tree's roots.
Cast the burden of your sweet babes upon Christ, and lighten your
heart, by laying your all upon Him: He will be their God. I hope to
see you up the mountain yet, and glad in the salvation of God. Frame
yourself for Christ, and gloom not upon His cross. I find Him so
sweet, that my love, suppose I would charge it to remove from Christ,
would not obey me: His love hath stronger fingers than to let go its
grips of us bairns, who cannot go but by such a hold as Christ. It is
good that we want legs of our own, since we may borrow from Christ;
and it is our happiness that Christ is under an act of cautionary for
heaven, and that Christ is booked in heaven as the principal debtor
for such poor bodies as we are.
I request you to give the laird, your husband, thanks for his care of
me, in that he hath appeared in public for a prisoner of Christ. I
pray and write mercy, and peace, and blessings to him and his.
Grace, grace be with you for ever.
Yours, in his sweet Lord Jesus,