Tuesday, February 12, 2019

Rutherford Revised - (4)

4. To the elect and noble lady, my Lady Kenmore, on the death of her baby daughter. Anwoth 15 Jan 1629


Madam, - Greeting your ladyship with grace and mercy from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, - I was sorry to leave your ladyship grieving, and would still be sorry , if I were not sure that you have one with you in the fire whose face is like that of a Son of God. I am glad that since your youth you have been used to wrestling with God, so you are hardly able to swallow, being thrown from fire to fire, knowing you are precious to God and your health requires Him to do this.. All brothers and sisters of Christ must be like his image and copy his suffering (Rom 8:29). Some are more like the copy than other. Think, Madam, it is part of your glory to be enrolled among those whom one of the elders pointed out to John,'These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.' Behold your Forerunner going out of the world in a sea of blood, and it is not wrong to die as he did. Fulfil with joy '''what is lacking in Christ's afflictions' (Col 1:24). You have lost a child: nose is not lost to you who is found in Christ. She is not sent away, only sent before, like a star which going out of our sight does not die and vanish, but shines in another hemisphere. You do not see her, yet she shines in another country.If she lived here only a short time, she has now got eternity; and you have to rejoice that you have fulfilment in heaven. Do not build your nest in a tree here; for you see God has sold the forest to death; and every tree where you would rest is ready to be cut down, so that we may fly and mount up, and build upon the Rock,and live in the holes in the Rock. What you love apart form Jesus, your husband, is an adulterous lover. Now it is God's special blessing to Judah, that he will not let her find her way following strange lovers. 'Therefore jI will hedge up her4 way with thornsand kI will build a wall against her,so that she cannot find her pathsShe shall pursue her lovers but not overtake themand she shall seek thembut shall not find them.' His 2:6-7. O three times happy Judah,when God builds a double stone wall between her and the fires of hell. The world, and the things of the world, madam, is the lover you naturally like besides your own husband, Christ.The hedge of thorns and the wall God builds in your way, to keep you from this lover, is the thorny hedge of daily grief, loss of children, bodily weakness, evil of the times, uncertain future, lack of comfort in the world, fear of God's anger for old sins not repented of. What do you lose if God daily twists and plaits the hedge thicker daily? God be blessed, the Lord will not let you find your paths. Return to your first husband. Do not tire., nor think that death walks slowly towards you. You must be riper before being shook from the tree. You days are no longer than Job's which were,' swifter than fa runnerthey flee away; they see no good.They go by like skiffs of reedlike an eagle swooping on the prey.'(Job 9: 25-26) You have less time now than you had yesterday. Your span of time will soon be ended. God's greater mercy  is to give you more years to consider the huge gulf of time in never ending eternity.The Lord has told you what you should be doing until he come.  Peter says,'waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God,' There is night here with ignorance and daily troubles like waves of the sea, so 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 will fly away. Persuade yourself the King is coming;; read his bletter sent ahead of hm, 'I am coming soon.' (Rev 3:11). Wait with the weary night watchman for the breaking in the eastern sky, and think you may have no tomorrow. Be like the wise father, who being invited tomorrow to dine with his friend, answered, "for many days i have had no tomorrow at all'.I am reluctant to tire you, Show yourself a Christian by not grumbling, for which sin 14,700 were killed. (Num 16:49). Be patient. Gain Christ and you lose nothing. Remembering my brother's and my wife humble service to your Ladyship, I commend you to the mercy and grace of our Lord Jesus, assuring you that your day is coming, and God's mercy stays with you. The Lord Jesus be with your spirit. 
Yours in the Lord Jesus with all dutiful obedience,  S.R.

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