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Index of the Chief Places and Individuals referred to in the Letters, 711

Index of Special Subjects, 715

Glossary, 718

Editions of Rutherford's Letters, 736

Sample of the old Orthography, 740

Last Words; Poem by Mrs. Cousin, 741

SKETCH

SAMUEL RUTHERFORD.

There is a fact not unlike the above in the history of the district where Samuel Rutherford laboured so lovingly. The people of that shire tell that there was found, some generations ago, in the wall of the old castle of Earlston, in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, a copy of "Wickliffe's Bible." It was deposited in that receptacle in order to be hid from the view of enemies; but from time to time it was the lamp of light to a few souls, who, perhaps in the silence of night, found opportunity to draw it out of its ark, and peruse its pages. It seems that the Lollards of Kyle had brought it to Earlston. We know that there were friends and members of the family of Earlston who embraced the Gospel even in those days. In the sixteenth century, some of the ancestors of Viscount Kenmure are found holding the doctrines of Wickliffe, which had been handed down to them. May we not believe that the Gordons of Earlston, in after days, were not a little indebted to the faith and prayers of these ancient witnesses who hid the sacred treasure in the castle wall? As in the case of the monk of Basle, their faith and patience were acknowledged in after days by the blessing sent down on that quarter, when the Lord, in remembrance of His hidden ones, both raised up the Gordons of Earlston, with many others of a like spirit, and also sent thither His servant Samuel Rutherford, to sound forth the Word of Life, and make the lamp of truth blaze, like a torch, over all that region.

Samuel Rutherford was born about the year 1600. His father is understood to have been a respectable farmer. He had two brothers, James and George. But the place of his birth was not near the scene of his after labours. It is almost certain that Nisbet, a village of Roxburghshire close to the Teviot, in the parish of Crailing, was his birthplace; the name Rutherford frequently occurs in the churchyard. Not long ago, there were some old people in that parish who remembered the gable-end of the house in which it was said that he was born, and which, from respect to his memory, was permitted to stand as long as it could keep together. And there was there a village well where, when very young, Samuel nearly lost his life. He had been amusing himself with some companions, when he fell in, and was left there till they ran and procured assistance; but on returning to the spot they found him seated on a knoll, cold and dripping, yet uninjured. He told them that "A bonnie white man came and drew him out of the well!" Whether or not he really fancied that an angel had delivered him, we cannot tell; but it is plain that, at all events, his boyish thoughts were already wandering in the region of the sky.

This village well is about three feet deep. It is now closed up and worked by a pump.

He owed little to his native place. There was not so much of Christ known in that parish then as there is now; for in after days he writes, "My soul's desire is, that the place to which I owe my first birth--in which, I fear, Christ was scarcely named, as touching any reality of the power of godliness--may blossom as the rose" . We have no account of his revisiting these scenes of his early life, though he thus wrote to his friend, Mr. Scott, minister of the adjoining parish of Oxnam. Like Donald Cargill, born in Perthshire yet never known to preach there even once, Rutherford had his labours in other parts of the land, distant from his native place. In this arrangement we see the Master's sovereignty. The sphere is evidently one of God's choosing for the man, instead of being the result of the man's gratifying his natural predilections. It accords, too, with the example of the Master, who never returned to Bethlehem, where He was born, to do any of His works.

Jedburgh is a town three or four miles distant from Nisbet, and thither Samuel went for his education; either walking to it, and returning home at evening,--as a school-boy would scarcely grudge to do,--or residing in the town for a season. The school at that time met in a part of the ancient Abbey, called, from this circumstance, the Latiners' Alley. In the year 1617 we find him farther from home,--removed to Edinburgh, which, forty years before, had become the seat of a College, though not as yet a University. There he obtained, in 1621, the degree of Master of Arts. A single specimen of his Latin verse remains in the lines he prefixed to an edition of Row's "Hebrew Grammar," published at Glasgow, 1644--

Verba Sionaeae gentis, submersa tenebris Cimmeriis, mendax Kimchius ore crepat. Quae vos Rabbini sinuosa aenigmata vultis, Nunc facilem linguam dicite quaeso sacram. Falleris, Hippocrates; male parcae stamina vitae Curta vocas, artem vociferare ??????; Sit cita mors, rapido sit et hora fugacior Euro, Bellerophontaeis vita volato rotis: Rouaei Hebracis sit mors male grata Camoenis. Haec relege, ast artem dixeris esse brevem.

Soon after, he was appointed Regent, or Professor, of Humanity, though there were three other competitors; for his talents had attracted the notice of many. But, on occasion of a rumour that charged him with some irregularity--whether with or without foundation, it is now difficult to ascertain--he demitted his office in 1625, and led a private life, attending prelections on theology, and devoting himself to that study.

That there could not have been anything very serious in the rumour, may be inferred from the fact that no church court took any notice of the matter, though these were days when the reins of discipline were not held with a slack hand. But it is not unlikely that this may have been the time of which he says in a letter, "I knew a man who wondered to see any in this life laugh or sport." It may have been then that he was led by the Spirit to know the things that are freely given us of God. We have no proof that he was converted at an earlier period, but rather the opposite. He writes, "Like a fool as I was, I suffered my sun to be high in the heaven, and near afternoon, before ever I took the gate by the end." And again, "I had stood sure, if in my youth I had borrowed Christ for my bottom." The clouds returned after the rain; family trials, and other similar dealings of Providence, combined to form his character as a man of God and as a pastor.

Letter ccxxiv.

Letter clxxvii.

Letter ccxli.

In 1627 he was settled at Anwoth, a parish situated in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, on the river Fleet, near the Solway. The church stood in a wide hollow, or valley, at the foot of the Boreland Hill. Embosomed in wood, with neither the smoke nor the noise of a village near, it must always have been a romantic spot--the very ideal of a country church, set down to cherish rural godliness. Though at this period Episcopacy had been obtruded upon Scotland, and many faithful ministers were suffering on account of their resistance to its ceremonies and services, yet he appears to have been allowed to enter on his charge without any compliance being demanded, and "without giving any engagement to the bishop." He began his ministry with the text, John ix. 39. The same Lord that would not let Paul and Timothy preach in Asia, nor in Bithynia, and yet sent to the one region the beloved John, and to the other the scarcely less beloved Peter, in this instance prevented John Livingstone going to Anwoth, which the patron had designed, and sent Rutherford instead. This was the more remarkable, because Livingstone was sent to Ancrum, the parish that borders on Nisbet, while he who was by birth related to that place was despatched to another spot. This is the Lord's doing. Ministers must not choose according to the flesh.

See notice of the topography at Letter cxcviii. It is a mile and a half from the modern Gatehouse of Fleet, a clean, English-looking village.

Acts xvi. 6, 7.

Rev. i. 11.

During the first years of his labours here, the sore illness of his wife was a bitter grief to him. Her distress was very severe. He writes of it: "She is sore tormented night and day.--My life is bitter unto me.--She sleeps none, and cries as a woman travailing in birth; my life was never so wearisome." She continued in this state for no less than a year and a month, ere she died. Besides all this, his two children had been taken from him. Such was the discipline by which he was trained for the duties of a pastor, and by which a shepherd's heart of true sympathy was imparted to him.

Letter xviii.

Letter cclxxxvi.

"Wodrow's Church Hist." i. 205.

"M'Crie's Sketches."

Letter clxxxv.

Letter xiv.

Another church was filled, but not altogether by parishioners. Many came from great distances; among others, several that were converted, seventeen years before, under John Welsh, at Ayr. These all helped him by their prayers, as did also a goodly number of godly people in the parish itself, who were the fruit of the ministry of his predecessor. Yet over the unsaved he yearned most tenderly. At one time we hear him say, "I would lay my dearest joys in the gap between you and eternal destruction." At another, "My witness is in heaven, your heaven, would be two heavens to me, and your salvation two salvations." He could appeal to his people, "My day-thoughts and my night-thoughts are of you;" and he could appeal to God, "O my Lord, judge if my ministry be not dear to me; but not so dear by many degrees as Christ my Lord."

The oak pulpit out of which he preached was preserved till a few years ago. The old church is in the shape of a barn, and could hold only 250 sitters. It is now entirely a ruin. The years 1631 and 1633 were carved on some of the seats--perhaps the seats of the Gordons, or other heritors. We may add, while speaking of this old edifice, where "the swallows building their nest," seemed to the exiled pastor "blessed birds," that the rusty key of that kirk-door is now deposited in the New College, Edinburgh, sent to the museum there as a precious relic several years ago by a friend, through Dr. Welsh. The church is now roofless, its walls overgrown with ivy, in which the sparrows build their nests at will. The tomb of Lady Cardoness, an antique pile at the side of the wall, was removed in 1878, though the slabs are preserved.

Letter ccxvii.

Letter ccxvii.

All classes of people of Anwoth were objects of his care. He maintained a friendly intercourse with people of high rank, and very many of his Letters are addressed to such persons. He seems to have been remarkably blessed to the gentry in the neighbourhood--more far than to the common people. There was at that time some friend of Christ to be found in almost every gentleman's seat many miles around Anwoth.

Letter clxiii.

Letter xiv.

Letter cxxxii.

Letter clxxx.

Letter clxxxvi.

Letter cclxxvii.

Josh. xxiv. 27.

It has not been preached in since the year 1827.

A mistake for 1631.

It was a walk among trees, close to the manse.

Letter xlix.

Hos. xiv. 7.

In the parish church of Chiseldon, North Wilts, there are to be seen Eleven Commandments inscribed on a slab ; the additional one consisting of our Saviour's precept--"A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another" . The church is quite an ancient one, dating back to 1641.

Scarcely less interesting is the record of another unlooked-for meeting. Rutherford had one day left home to go to the neighbouring town of Kirkcudbright, the next day being a day of humiliation in that place. Having no doubt spent some time with his like-minded brother, he turned his steps to the house of another friend, Provost Fullerton, whose wife was Marion M'Naught. While sitting with them in friendly converse a knock at the door was heard, and then a step on the threshold. It was worthy Mr. Blair, who, on his way from London to Portpatrick, had sought out some of his godly friends, that with them he might be refreshed ere he returned to Ireland. He told them, when seated, that "he had a desire to visit both Mr. Rutherford at Anwoth, and Marion M'Naught at Kircudbright; but not knowing how to accomplish both, had prayed for direction at the parting of the road, and laid the bridle on the horse's neck. The horse took the way to Kirkcudbright, and there he found both the friends he so longed to see." It was a joyful and refreshing meeting on all sides. Wodrow tells another incident that, in part, bears some resemblance to this. Rutherford had been reasoning at Stirling with the Marquis of Argyle, and had set out homeward. But his horse was very troublesome, and he was feeling in his mind that he should have been more urgent and plain! He returned, and dealt freely this time. And now his horse went on pleasantly all the way.

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