Rutherford Revised (191)

191. To Casincarrie                      From Aberdeen 1637

(Probably to the son of John Mure of Casincarrie, a mansion in the parish of Kirkmabreck, opposite Wigtown.)

Much honoured sir,- Grace, mercy and peace be to you. I have waited too long to write to you. I am confident that you have learned to prize Christ, and his love and favour more than ordinary professors who barely see Christ with half an eye, because their sight is occupied with seeing and liking the beauty of this over decorated world that makes great promises to all its lovers, but in the crush of a test, when needed can give nothing except a good looking trick. I know you are not ignorant of the fact that men do not come to this world, as some come to a market, to see and to be seen; and some come only to see May games, and only to look and go home again. You come here to engage with God, and to meet with Him in Christ for salvation to your soul, and to seek reconciliation with an angry, wrathful God, in a covenant of peace made to you in Christ; and this is more than an ordinary game, or the bargain that the greatest numbers in the world give their hearts for. And therefore, worthy sir, I beg you by the salvation f your soul, and by the mercy of God, and your appearance before Christ, do this in real seriousness, and do not let salvation be your hobby or only your talk on a holy day, or an insignificant work. For men think this can be done in three days on a feather bed, when death and they hold hands together, and that by a word or two they shall make things right with their soul., Alas, this is to sit loose and unsure in the matters of our salvation. No, the seeking of this world, and the glory of it, is only to be attended to at a free moment and slight work we may let slip to make salvation sure. Oh, when will men learn to be so wise about heaven as to divorce from and free their soul from all idol lovers, and make Christ the only, only One, and prepare and make ready their lamps while they have time and an opportunity. How soon will this family scatter, and the inn where the poor soul lodges fall to the ground! How soon will some few years pass away. And then when the day is ended and this life's lease expired, what have men of world's glory except dreams and thoughts? Oh how blessed a thing it is to work for Christ and to make Him sure! Know and test in them that you hold Him and the rights and deeds of heaven, and on what terms you have Christ and the gospel, and what Christ is worth in your estimation, and how lightly you think of other things, and how deeply Christ. I am sure that if you see Him in his beauty and glory, you will see Him to be all things, and that incomparable gold jewel that you should seek, though you should sell, mortgage, and give up your part in your few years of this life's joys. O happy you for evermore, who can rightly compare this life with that long lasting life to come, and can balance the weighty glory of the one with the light, golden vanity of he other! The day of the Lord is near, and everyone will come out in their blacks and whites, as they are; there will on that day be no lying colours, when Christ will be called Christ, and no longer wrongly named. Now men borrow Christ and His white colour, and the brightness and colouring of Christianity,; but how many counterfeit masks will be burned in the day of God, in the fire that will burn the earth and the works that are on it? And though Christ has the hardest part of it now, yet in the presence of my Lord, whom I serve in the spirit, I would not barter nor exchange Christ's prison, imprionment and chains with the great rents and smiling and happy like heavens of the men of this world! I am far from changing my mind because of my losses and imprisonment for Christ. I wish that all my enemies were like me, except for imprisonment. Worthy, worthy , worthy for evermore is Christ, for whom we would suffer pains like hell's pains; far more the short hell that saints have in this life. Sir, I want your soul to better know the sweetness of Christ. Grace, grace be with you.
   Yours in his only Lord and Master,  S.R.