Editor’s Introduction
Samuel Rutherford is today chiefly known for his letters1Samuel Rutherford, The Letters of Samuel Rutherford (London: Oliphants Ltd, 1891) (ed. Andrew Bonar). written to friends and those in his congregation. The letters were so treasured that hundreds were preserved and eventually collected into a compendium, long famous among the godly. Rutherford is also known as one of eight commissioners from the Church of Scotland, sent in 1643, to the Westminster Assembly of divines. In 1644, he penned Lex Rex,2Samuel Rutherford, Lex Rex (London: John Field, 1644). a comprehensive defense of the Scottish Presbyterian ideal in politics. Rutherford saw himself chiefly as a gospel preacher, so that in 1639, he accepted the position of Professor of Divinity at St. Mary’s College in St. Andrews, only on condition that he would be given frequent opportunity to preach. When he was banned from the pulpit, he wrote, “Nothing grieveth me but that I eat my feasts my lone, and that I cannot edify His saints. . . . My silence eats me up, but He has told me He thanketh me no less than if I were preaching daily.”3Samuel Rutherford, Letters, 150.
Rutherford’s passion was to display the riches of the glory, mercy, and loveliness of Christ. This is plain from the following excerpt from a sermon preached during communion season, in which Rutherford marvels at the love of the suffering saviour.
– James Wanliss, Ph.D.
Selected from: Samuel Rutherford, “Christ’s Love and Loveliness,” Fourteen Communion Sermons (Glasgow: Charles Glass & Co, 1877), 279-290.
Christ’s Love and Loveliness
Christ cried with a loud voice in death, “Father, into Thy hands I commend My Spirit!” Then our Lord died; because it was His will. Death could not bind Him, but love to His wife bound Him. Love is stronger than death; nay, love was as strong as Christ. The law was weak now, for Christ satisfied it; and now it has no power over you. Ye are in Christ; and He is a better Master than the law. Change not with any Master again. Follow Him all the way to heaven. Christ’s new love got an exchange in His blessed manhood. How do ye since ye married Christ last? Tell your mind of Christ. Let faith speak, let love speak of slain Christ Jesus; of His kissing you. Ye are now at Christ’s pierced side; get heaven and mercy when Christ has the cross on His back.
Was not Christ’s marriage dowry good enough. O! what is shewed and covered up in Christ’s love. Come, and press His love, and get heaven and glory out of it. Live on His love, and you are wholly fed. Lie on His love, and that is a sweet bed. Ride on His love, and it shall carry you through hell and death, and every evil way. That which Christ has dear bought, He will not want. Ye are sold over to a Lord that will not want you, but will have you. Make no merchandise with any other. He rues not: why should ye rue?
Mount Calvary, since God laid the first stone of it, did never bear such a weight as when the Lord of Glory was hanging upon a tree there—O! it was made a fair tree when such an Apple grew on it! It was a green orchard! It was our summer, but death’s winter! Darkness was in all Judea when our Lord suffered. And why? Because the Candle that lighted the sun and the moon was blown out. The Godhead was eclipsed; and the world’s eye was put out. He took away the sun with Him, as it were, to another world, when He that was the world’s sun was put out. When He went out of the earth, the sun would not stay behind Him. Sun, what ails thee? “I have not will to shine when my Lord be going to another world.” As if the sun had said to Jesus, “Lord, if thou be going to another world, take me with You.” The dead come out of the grave to welcome Christ’s death. Life itself was coming to the grave, and therefore the graves opened, the dead lived; the bairns sprang and started in their mother’s belly. Why? Because the Lord of Life was coming to the grave. The dead wondered, to see Life coming down among them. He went before-hand, to wipeout completely death and corruption for you.
Jesus cried with a loud voice, with such a shout as never before went to heaven. The Son, crying to the Father, shouting with tears and strong cries, “Father, Father, God’s mercy!” O what a cry would all believers have made in hell, if Christ had not cried. Ye had been always crying. But O what a conflict was there! God weeping, God sobbing under the water! Never was there such a conflict in heaven, and earth, either before, or shall be after. Angels might have quaked, if they be capable of such passion. They might have said, “Alas! What ails our dear Lord and Master to cry so hideously?” Christ harassed and torn on a piece of tree! He who takes up the isles of the sea as a little thing; yea, He who can take up heaven and earth with a touch of His little finger! He who can weigh the mountains in a balance! O what an onset was it to Christ’s back and thighs! No wonder; there was more than a tree upon His back. The curse of the law of God was above the tree; than ten thousand mountains of iron. Ah! A wonder His back brake not in two, and all His bones were not crushed with it!
Footnotes
- 1Samuel Rutherford, The Letters of Samuel Rutherford (London: Oliphants Ltd, 1891) (ed. Andrew Bonar). ↩︎
- 2
- 3Samuel Rutherford, Letters, 150. ↩︎
