On the Death of Her Husband – To Lady Kenmure – Rutherford Thursdays No. 10

Letter # 10: “the God of all consolations”

My very noble and worthy Lady,

So oft as I call to mind the comforts that I myself, a poor friendless stranger, received from your Ladyship here in a strange part of the country, when my Lord took from me the delight of mine eyes (Ezek. 24.1), as the Word speaketh (which wound is not yet fully healed and cured), I trust your Lord shall remember that, and give you comfort now at such a time as this, wherein your dearest Lord has made you a widow, albeit I must out of some experience say, the mourning for the husband of your youth be, by God’s own mouth, the heaviest worldly sorrow (Joel 1.8). And though this be the weightiest burden that ever lay upon your back; yet ye know (when the fields are emptied and your husband now asleep in the Lord), if ye shall wait upon Him who hideth His face for a while, that it lieth upon God’s honor and truth to fill the field, and to be a Husband to the widow.

Let your faith and patience be seen, that it may be known your only beloved first and last has been Christ. And, therefore, now ware your whole love upon Him; He alone is a suitable object for your love and all the affections of your soul. God has dried up one channel of your love by the removal of your husband. Let now that speat run upon Christ.

And I dare say that God’s hammering of you from your youth is only to make you a fair carved stone in the high upper temple of the New Jerusalem. Your Lord never thought this world’s vain painted glory a gift worthy of you; and therefore would not bestow it on you, because He is to propane you with a better portion. Let the movable go; the inheritance is yours. Ye are a child of the house, and joy is laid up for you, it is long in coming, but not the worse for that.

I am now expecting to see, and that with joy and comfort, that which I hoped of you since I knew you fully; even that ye have laid such strength upon the Holy One of Israel, that ye defy troubles, and that your soul is a castle that may be besieged, but cannot be taken. And withal consider how in all these trials (and truly they have been many) your Lord has been loosing you at the root from perishing things, and hunting after you to grip your soul. Madam, for the Son of God’s sake, let Him not miss His grip, but stay and abide in the love of God, as Jude saith (Jude 21).

Now. Madam, I hope your Ladyship will take these lines in good part; and wherein I have fallen short and failed to your Ladyship, in not evidencing what I was obliged to your more-than-undeserved love and respect, I request for a full pardon for it. Again, my dear and noble lady, let me beseech you to lift up your head, for the day of your redemption draweth near. And remember, that star that shined in Galloway is now shining in another world.

Now I pray that God may answer, in His own style, to your soul, and that He may be to you the God of all consolations.

ANWOTH, Sept. 14, 1634

Who is Lady Kenmure?

About “Rutherford Thursdays”

• See my introduction.
• Selection from His Letters is a public domain text hosted by CCEL. I have arranged and formatted Rutherford’s text and Hugh Martin’s editorial comments, added headings, paragraph separations, etc., for presentation on this blog.
• For a brief biographical sketch of Rutherford’s life, see Hugh Martin’s forward to Selections. And see Martin’s glossary for help with outdated vocabulary.
• Rutherford Resources:
  • Samuel Rutherford by Andrew Thompson. This book, now freely available via Google Books, presents two parts: First, a biography of Rutherford’s life; Second, a selection of Rutherford’s letters entitled “Honey from the Honeycomb.”
  • Fire and Ice index to S. R.

Rutherford Thursdays #3: To Marion McNaught, when his wife was ill

Letter #3

Loving and Dear Sister,

If ever you would pleasure me, entreat the Lord for me, now when I am so comfortless, and so full of heaviness, that I am not able to stand under the burthen any longer. The Almighty hath doubled His stripes upon me, for my wife is so sore tormented night and day, that I have wondered why the Lord tarrieth so long. My life is bitter unto me, and I fear the Lord be my contrair party.

It is (as I now know by experience) hard to keep sight of God in a storm, especially when He hides Himself, for the trial of His children. If He would be pleased to remove His hand, I have a purpose to seek Him more than I have done. Happy are they that can win away with their soul. I am afraid of His judgments.

I bless my God that there is a death, and a heaven. I would weary to begin again to be a Christian, so bitter is it to drink of the cup that Christ drank of, if I knew not that there is no poison in it. Pray that God would not lead my wife into temptation. Woe is my heart, that I have done so little against the kingdom of Satan in my calling; for he would fain attempt to make me blaspheme God in His face. I believe, I believe, in the strength of Him who hath put me in His work, he shall fail in that which he seeks. I have comfort in this, that my Captain, Christ, hath said, I must fight and overcome the world, and with a weak, spoiled, weaponless devil, ‘the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me’.

Desire Mr Robert to remember me, if he love me. Grace, grace be with you, and all yours.

Remember Zion. Hold fast that which you have, that no man take the crown from you. The Lord Jesus be with your spirit.

ANWOTH, Nov. 17, 1629

Who Was Marion McNaught?

Marion McNaught, a niece of Viscount Kenmure, married William Fullerton, Provost of Kirkcudbright. She was a close and lifelong friend of Rutherford. The manner in which he discusses with her the most profound questions of Christian doctrine and personal religion, as well as the tangled affairs of Church and State, are sufficient evidence of her outstanding gifts and graces. Forty-five letters to her have survived. Letters VI and XXXIX below are also to her.

About “Rutherford Thursdays”

• See my introduction.
• Selection from His Letters is a public domain text hosted by CCEL. I have arranged and formatted Rutherford’s text and Hugh Martin’s editorial comments, added headings, paragraph separations, etc., for presentation on this blog.
• For a brief biographical sketch of Rutherford’s life, see Hugh Martin’s forward to Selections. And see Martin’s glossary for help with outdated vocabulary.
• Rutherford Resources:
  • Samuel Rutherford by Andrew Thompson. This book, now freely available via Google Books, presents two parts: First, a biography of Rutherford’s life; Second, a selection of Rutherford’s letters entitled “Honey from the Honeycomb.”
  • Fire and Ice index to S. R.

Rutherford Thursdays #2: To Lady Kenmure, on the occasion of the death of her infant daughter

Letter #2

MADAM, – Saluting your Ladyship with grace and mercy from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

I was sorry, at my departure, leaving your Ladyship in grief, and would be still grieved at it if I were not assured that ye have one with you in the furnace whose visage is like unto the Son of God. I am glad that ye have been acquainted from your youth with the wrestlings of God, knowing that if ye were not dear to God, and if your health did not require so much of Him, He would not spend so much physic upon you. All the brethren and sisters of Christ must be conform to His image and copy in suffering (Rom. 8.29). And some do more vividly resemble the copy than others. Think, Madam, that it is a part of your glory to be enrolled among those whom one of the elders pointed out to John, ‘These are they which came out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.’

Ye have lost a child: nay she is not lost to you who is found to Christ. She is not sent away, but only sent before, like unto a star, which going out of our sight doth not die and vanish, but shineth in another hemisphere. We see her not, yet she doth shine in another country. If her glass was but a short hour, what she wanteth of time that she hath gotten of eternity; and ye have to rejoice that ye have now some plenishing up in heaven. Build your nest upon no tree here; for ye see God hath sold the forest to death; and every tree whereupon we would rest is ready to be cut down, to the end we may fly and mount up, and build upon the Rock, and dwell in the holes of the Rock.

What ye love besides Jesus, your husband, is an adulterous lover. Now it is God’s special blessing to Judah, that He will not let her find her paths in following her strange lovers. ‘Therefore, behold I will hedge up thy way with thorns and make a wall that she shall not find her paths. And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them’ (Hos. 2.6-7). O thrice happy Judas, when God buildeth a double stone wall betwixt her and the fire of hell! The world, and the things of the world, Madam, is the lover ye naturally affect beside your own husband Christ. The hedge of thorns and the wall which God buildeth in your way, to hinder you from this lover, is the thorny hedge of daily grief, loss of children, weakness of body, iniquity of the time, uncertainty of estate, lack of worldly comfort, fear of God’s anger for old unrepented-of sins. What lose ye, if God twist and plait the hedge daily thicker?

God be blessed, the Lord will not let you find your paths. Return to your first husband. Do not weary, neither think that death walketh towards you with a slow pace. Ye must be riper ere ye be shaken. Your days are no longer than Job’s, that were ‘swifter than a post, and passed away as the ships of desire, and as the eagle that hasteth for the prey’ (9. 25, 26, margin). There is less sand in your glass now than there was yesternight. This span-length of ever-posting time will soon be ended. But the greater is the mercy of God, the more years ye get to advise, upon what terms, and upon what conditions, ye cast your soul in the huge gulf of never-ending eternity. The Lord hath told you what ye should be doing till He come; ‘wait and hasten (saith Peter,) for the coming of the Lord’; all is night that is here, in respect of ignorance and daily ensuing troubles, one always making way to another, as the ninth wave of the sea to the tenth; therefore sigh and long for the dawning of that morning, and the breaking of that day of the coming of the Son of man, when the shadows shall flee away.

Persuade yourself the King is coming; read His letter sent before Him, ‘Behold, I come quickly.’ Wait with the wearied night-watch for the breaking of the eastern sky, and think that you have not a morrow.

I am loath to weary you; show yourself a Christian, by suffering without murmuring; – in patience possess your soul: they lose nothing who gain Christ. I commend you to the mercy and grace of our Lord Jesus.

ANWOTH, Jan, 15, 1629

Who was Lady Kenmure?

Lady Jane Campbell, Viscountess of Kenmure, was the third daughter of Archibald Campbell, seventh Earl of Argyle, and sister to the Marquis of Argyle who was beheaded in 1661. She was remarkable for ability and Christian devotion, and for her generous help to those who suffered for conscience’ sake. She had many troubles of her own, which are reflected in these letters. She lost two daughters in infancy and her husband died in 1634. Her son, who succeeded to the title, also died before attaining his majority, in 1649. The last of Rutherford’s letters to her is dated in 1661, just after the execution of her brother. She herself lived to a great age, though suffering all her life from bad health. Forty-seven letters to her from Rutherford have been preserved, and sixteen of them are quoted in this selection. See below, numbers II, IV, V, VII, IX, X, XI, XII, XIII,XIV, XIX, XX, XLVIII, LX, LXX.

About “Rutherford Thursdays”

• See my introduction.
• Selection from His Letters is a public domain text hosted by CCEL. I have arranged and formatted Rutherford’s text and Hugh Martin’s editorial comments, added headings, paragraph separations, etc., for presentation on this blog.
• For a brief biographical sketch of Rutherford’s life, see Hugh Martin’s forward to Selections. And see Martin’s glossary for help with outdated vocabulary.
• Rutherford Resources:
  • Samuel Rutherford by Andrew Thompson. This book, now freely available via Google Books, presents two parts: First, a biography of Rutherford’s life; Second, a selection of Rutherford’s letters entitled “Honey from the Honeycomb.”
  • Fire and Ice index to S. R.

Covenantal and Exegetical Foundations of the “First Resurrection” in Revelation 20

Overview: What hope does a Christian have in death?

My paper seeks to answer this question from two angles: exegesis and covenant theology. First, exegetically, I attempt to build upon the work of Meredith Kline’s two articles on Revelation 20:1-6 (“The First Resurrection” and “The First Resurrection: A Reaffirmation“) by asking a question Kline did not ask himself, but hinted toward in another of his writings: Is Jesus’ paradoxical explanation in John 11:25-26 of death being the believer’s resurrection an exegetical parallel to the “first”/”second” eschatological pattern Kline argues for in his two articles on Revelation 20?

Second, theologically, I attempt to explore the implicit covenantal underpinnings of “the first resurrection” in Revelation 20:4-6. In other words, I’m asking how covenant theology–especially the believer’s union with Christ–facilitates understanding what happens to a believer when he or she dies.

Revelation 20 (and the rest of John’s Apocalypse) is not easy to interpret. Accordingly, I attempted to tread lightly. Nonetheless, the truths revealed therein offer the believer amazing promises, and he who hears what the Spirit is saying to the churches in Revelation 20 will no doubt be found in the same worshiping position as the artist Gallerie dell’Accademia depicted John in the painting shown here:

…St. John the Evangelist looks up from his writing to admire the Eternal in glory with the Lamb of God, surrounded by the symbols of the four Evangelists with wings covered with eyes, being worshipped [sic] by twenty-four venerable old men… (from the painting’s description at the Web Gallery of Art)

Read and Respond

The first three pages is my own exegetical outline and translation of Revelation 20:1-6, after which the paper follows.

• Download as a .PDF (187 KB). This is the recommended format.
• Read the paper online (via Google docs); requires these Greek fonts.

I welcome any critiques, comments, suggestions, etc.

Related Resources

(Artwork: Vision of St. John the Evangelist by Gallerie dell’Accademia (1360-90), Venice; © Web Gallery of Art.)

Sermon Number 1: The Soul’s Satisfaction in the Spirit’s New Life

I can now speak from personal experience that among the milestones in a young man’s journey on the arduous road from pew to pulpit, his first sermon surely stands out as an oasis in the desert. Finally, it seems, after trekking through hot hours of Hebrew, hermeneutics, homiletics, systematics, biblical studies, and all the rest, a cool and refreshing glass of lemonade is put into your hands in the form of a 30 minute chance to herald the Gospel of God to the people of God. There’s nothing quite like it.

Listen to “The Soul’s Satisfaction in the Spirit’s New Life”

download MP3s

Listen in (if you dare! :-) to my first sermon through which I attempted to unfold Jesus’ precious words in John 7:37-38: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’” (ESV).

The scripture readings are:

1. Exodus 17:1-7 and
2. John 7:37-39.

A Preliminary Self Reflection

The ideas I tried to communicate could perhaps be better distributed in two messages rather than in one. The two main ideas I tried to communicate were (1) the exploding climax of Jesus words in their context and (2) the deep implications of Holy Spirit’s work in believers’ lives as the Spirit of Christ who gives flowing, abundant life in Christ.

In studying for the sermon, on the one hand I felt as though I had a fairly straightforward text with obvious and direct applications from Jesus’ own words. Though, on the other hand as I began to dig I found that (as is true of Scripture time and again) this text is interwoven with so many rich, correlating biblical truths, prophecies, and redemptive-historical events that I felt overwhelmed and ill equipped to attempt to exposit the text for fear of not giving a worthy showing of its richness.

Feedback

Please feel free to send your own reflections on Jesus’ words here in John 7, tips for improvement, critiques of the sermon, etc.