Rutherford Revised (194)

194. To Mr Hugh Henderson, Minister of Dalry, Ayrshire    From Aberdeen 1637

(See letter 138)

Reverend and dear brother, - Who knows, perhaps the wind will turn to the west again, on Christ and his abandoned bride in this land; and Christ may get his summer in time again? For He has had bad weather for this long time, and could not find law or justice for Himself or His truth these many years. I am sure the wheels of this out of control and broken church run on no other wheels, nor is there anything else to roll them and brake them and drive them other than the wisdom and good pleasure of our Lord. It would be a just and glorious response from never sleeping Providence to bring our brothers' arrows, which they have shot at us, back on their own heads. Suppose they have two strings to their bow, and can use one as the other fails them, yet there are more than three strings on our Lord's bow; and besides, He cannot miss the bull's eye at which he shoots. I know that He shuffles in His hand the great body of heaven and earth; and that church and commonwealth are in His hand, like a pack of cards, and that the deals the game for the mourners of Zion, and to those who say, 'Lie down so we may go over you,' at His own sovereign pleasure: and I am sure that Zion's enemies in this game will not again take up their own tent poles. Oh how sweet a thing it is to trust in Him! When Christ has finished His sleep (if I may speak so of Him who is the Watchman of Israel, who neither slumbers nor ever sleeps), and His own are tested, He will rise as a strong man after drinking wine, and bare His holy arm, and put on vengeance as a coat, and deal vengeance, thick and double among the haters of Zion. It may be that we shall see Him sow up and down curses and vengeances as thick as drops of rain or hail on His enemies; for our Lord owes them a black day and he is used to paying His debts. Neither hHis friends and followers, nor His foes and enemies shall be able to say, 'That He is not faithful and exact in keeping His word.'
   I know of no obstacle in God's way except Scotland's guiltiness; and he can overcome that impediment, and remove that obstacle too and then say to guilty Scotland as He said, 'Not for your sakes' (Exe 36:22,23), etc. There is always a blessed result from waiting; and keeping to the patience God requires, for it keeps the saints still dry in the water, cold in the fire, and breathing and warm blooded in the grave. What are prisons with iron walls and gates of brass to Christ? Not as good as dykes of soil, fortifications of straw, or old falling walls. If he gives the word, then chains will fall from the arms and legs of His prisoners. God be thanked that our Lord Jesus has the learning of a king and court and nobles and that he can dry the gutters and swamps in Zion, and lay causeways to the temple with the bodies of bastard lord bishops and idol shepherds. The farmer never prayed for the corn on the housetops, and so it is left there unreaped and does not fill the hands of mowers. Christ and truth and innocency work even under the earth; and truly there is hope for the righteous. We do not see the end in heaven concerning all the affairs of God's house.We do not need to pay God to take vengeance on His enemies, for justice works unpaid. Oh that the seed of hope would grow again, and come to maturity! And that we would beg Christ and double our knocks at His gate, and shout and cry over the wall so he would come out and make our Jerusalem the praise of the whole earth and give us salvation for walls and defences! If Christ buds and grows green and flowers and bears seed again in Scotland, and His Father send Hm two summers in one year, and bless His crop, what reason we have to rejoice in the free salvation of our Lord, and to set up our flags in the name of our God! Oh that he would speed the confusion of the infected prostitute, the mother and mistress of abominations in the earth, and take manufactured images out of the way, and come in with the Jews in armies, and agree with His old thrown out and abandoned wife, and take them again to His bed of love. Grace be with you.
   Yours in our Master and Lord,  S.R.