Rutherford revised (73)

73. To (Alexander Gordon) Earlston, Elder   From Aberdeen  30 Dec 1636

Much honoured sir, - Grace, mercy and peace be to you. I long to see you in a letter and be refreshed by you. I can only ask you and charge you to help from me praise Him who feeds a poor prisoner with the fatness of His house. O how weighty is his love! There is much to tell of Christ's kindness! The Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, has paid me a hundred fold,  well told and one to the hundred. I complained about Him but He owes me nothing now. Sir, I charge you to help me to praise His goodness and to tell others of my Bridegroom's kindness whose love is better than wine. I took up an action against Christ, and brought a case against his love, and libelled Christ my Lord with unkindness, and I said. 'This is my death. He has forgotten me.' But my meek Lord kept quiet, looked at me,  and would not fight for the last word in the quarrel. Now he has argued He is friends with me. Now I see He must be God, and I am a sinful man. He might have given me my just desserts and not involved himself. But now He has taken away the mask; I have been comforted; He could not any longer conceal His love for prisoner and a stranger. God grant that I may never make a case against Christ again, but may keep right with Him. I lack here no kindness, no love-tokens; O how wise is His love! For despite this hot summer spell, I am kept low with the grief of my silence. For His word is in me like a fire in my belly; and I see the Lord's vineyard laid waste, and the heathen entered into the sanctuary, and I am pained,  and my soul cast down because the Lord's people have gone into captivity and because of the fury of the Lord and that wind (which neither fans nor purges) which is coming upon' Scotland. Also,  am kept awake by the late wrong done to my brother; but I trust you will counsel and comfort him. Yet in this mist I see and believe that the Lord will heal this limping church 'I will set your stones in antimonyand lay your foundations with sapphires. I will make your pinnacles of agate, your gates of carbuncles, and all your wall of precious stones.' (Is 54:11,12) 'And for brass He will bring gold.' He has created the blacksmith who forged the sword; no weapon of the war will prosper against us. Let us be glad and rejoice in the Lord for His salvation is the near. Remember me to your wife and your son John. I beg you to write to me. Grace, grace be with you.
   Yours in His only, only Lord Jesus,  S.R.