[AGNES MACMATH was the daughter of Mr. Macmath, a merchant in
Edinburgh, and the sister of Rutherford's second wife.]
(_REASON FOR RESIGNATION._)
DEAR SISTER,--If our Lord hath taken away your child, your lease of
him is expired; and seeing that Christ would want him no longer, it is
your part to hold your peace, and worship and adore the sovereignty
and liberty that the Potter hath over the clay, and pieces of
clay-nothings, that He gave life unto. And what is man to call and
summon the Almighty to His lower court down here? "for He giveth
account of none of His doings." And if ye will take the loan of a
child, and give him back again to our Lord laughing (as His borrowed
goods should return to Him), believe that he is not gone away, but
sent before; and that the change of the country should make you think,
that he is not lost to you who is found to Christ, and that he is now
before you; and that the dead in Christ shall be raised again. A
going-down star is not annihilated, but shall appear again. If he hath
casten his bloom and flower, the bloom is fallen in heaven, into
Christ's lap. And as he was lent a while to time, so is he given now
to eternity, which will take yourself. The difference of your shipping
and his to heaven and Christ's shore, the land of life, is only in
some few years, which weareth every day shorter; and some short and
soon-reckoned summers will give you a meeting with him. But what! With
him? Nay, but with a better company; with the Chief and Leader of the
heavenly troops, that are riding on white horses, that are triumphing
in glory.
If death were a sleep that had no wakening, we might sorrow: but our
Husband shall quickly be at the bedsides of all that lie sleeping in
the grave, and shall raise their mortal bodies. Christ was death's
Cautioner, who gave His word to come and loose all the clay-pawns, and
set them at His own right hand; and our Cautioner, Christ, hath an act
of law-surety upon death, to render back his captives. And that Lord
Jesus, who knoweth the turnings and windings that are in that black
trance of death, hath numbered all the steps of the stair up to
heaven. He knoweth how long the turnpike is, or how many pair of
stairs high it is; for He ascended that way Himself: "I was dead and
am alive" (Rev. i. 18). And now He liveth at the right hand of God,
and His garments have not so much as a smell of death.
Your afflictions smell of the children's case; the bairns of the house
are so nurtured (Heb. xii. 6, 7, 8). And suffering is no new life, it
is but the rent of the sons; bastards have not so much of the rent.
Take kindly and heartsomely with His cross, who never yet slew a child
with the cross. He breweth your cup: therefore, drink it patiently and
with the better will. Stay and wait on, till Christ loose the knot
that fasteneth His cross on your back; for He is coming to deliver.
And I pray you, sister, learn to be worthy of His pains who
correcteth. And let Him wring, and be ye washen; for He hath a
Father's heart, and a Father's hand, who is training you up, and
making you meet for the high hall. This school of suffering is a
preparation for the King's higher house; and let all your visitations
speak all the letters of your Lord's summons. They cry--1. "O vain
world!" 2. "O bitter sin!" 3. "O short and uncertain time!" 4. "O fair
eternity that is above sickness and death!" 5. "O kingly and princely
Bridegroom, hasten glory's marriage, shorten time's short-spun and
soon-broken thread, and conquer sin!" 6. "O happy and blessed death,
that golden bridge laid over by Christ my Lord, between time's
clay-banks and heaven's shore!" And the Spirit and the Bride say,
"Come!" and answer ye with them, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus! come
quickly!"
Grace be with you.
Your Brother, in his sweet Lord Jesus,