Don't let the title fool you. These letters are rich in spiritual instruction and many generations of God's people have found them helpful. C.H. Spurgeon, the great 19th century preacher, wrote, "When we are dead and gone let the world know that Spurgeon held Rutherford's Letters to be the nearest thing to inspiration which can be found in all the writings of mere men."
Rutherford loved Christ more deeply than anyone I have ever known. Outside of the Bible, I have found no parallel to his soaring devotion to Jesus. This is my main reason for wading through these letters. I need to know Christ as he knew Him; I need him to teach me how to love Christ with the same wholehearted passion.
Frankly, it is not easy reading. Rutherford used the long, convoluted sentences that were common in 16th century writing. He also wrote in a Scottish dialect that employed words totally unfamiliar to the modern reader. (Thankfully, the Banner edition includes a glossary of Scottish terms.) But the labor is well worth the effort. Rutherford speaks to the heart and, although writing about the Scottish Kirk, his comments on the state of Christianity in his country could have been written today about our own church.
The passage below combines both of these elements: a confession of personal unworthiness, and an analysis of the heartless Christianity that prevails among professing believers both then and now. To make it more understandable, I have changed the wording in a number of places, but I have kept as much of Rutherford's wording as possible, so you will be able to catch the flavor of his writing.
"[F]or myself, I am broken-hearted that I cannot find myself inclined to forsake myself and enter completely into Christ. How sad that there should be one bit of me outside of Him. How sad that we carve out so much liberty and latitude for ourselves – for our own ease, benefit and pleasures – and leave so little room [in our lives] for Christ, who is worthy of all of our love. Oh, what sorrows and sacrifices it costs Christ before He gets us; and when all is done, we are not worth having! It is amazing that He should seek people like us. But love overlooks ugliness and uselessness; for if it had not been the case, Christ would never have made so fair and blessed a bargain with us as we have in the covenant of grace. I find that in all our sufferings Christ is only marking boundaries [lit. redding marches], so that every one of us may say, “This is mine, and this is Yours.” Our crosses are intended to teach us how truly weak a foundation [human] nature is to stand upon in trials. And the goal intended by our Lord in all our sufferings, is to cause us to recognize our need of grace and encourage us to request it. I should succumb and come short of heaven, if I had no more than my own strength to support me; and if Christ should say to me, “Either do or die,” it would be easy to determine what should become of me. The choice would be easy, for I would have no choice but to die if Christ should pass [me] by with a hardened heart; and who then would help us in our great difficulties? I know we may say that Christ is kindest in His love, when we are at our weakest. For if Christ had not been shielding us in our sad days, the water would have gone over our soul. His mercy has set a time and appointed a place, how far and no farther the sea of affliction shall flow, and where its waves shall be stopped. He prescribes how much pain and sorrow, both in weight and amount, we must have. Consequently, you have good cause to recall your love from all [other] lovers, and give it to Christ. He who is afflicted in all your afflictions does not look on you in your sad hours with an insensible heart or dry eyes.
All the Lord’s saints my see that it is worthless to bestow love upon this perishing world. Death and judgment will make men lament that their miscarrying hearts ever led them to spread out and lavish their love upon [such] false appearances and night-dreams. How sad that Christ should lose out because of His own goodness in making peace a companion of the Gospel! How sad that we have yet to measure the value of Christ in His ordinances. What a tragedy that we are likely to lose the well, before we have tasted the sweetness of the water! It may be that with watery eyes, and a wet face, and wearied feet, we shall seek Christ and shall not find Him. Oh, that this land would be humbled while there is still time, and by prayers, cries and humiliation would bring Christ back in the church door again – now when His back is turned towards us, and He has gone to the threshold and, as it were, He has one foot out of the door! I am sure that His departure is what we deserve; we have bought it with our iniquities. For even the Lord’s own children have fallen asleep and, alas! professing Christians are concerned only about appearances and the latest fads, and make no serious effort to come to their senses again. Everyone has his own set standard for faith and holiness, and is content with only the bare minimum of godliness, as if that was enough to bring him to heaven. We forget that as our gifts and spiritual understanding grow, God should also receive an increasing return on the investment of His talents. We cannot pay God with the old use of gifts and patterns of behavior which we gave Him seven years ago; for this would be to mock the Lord by setting the “price” of our repayment at the level we choose. Oh, what difficulty there is in our Christian journey, and how often we come short of the thousands of things that are Christ’s due! And we never consider how far in debt we are to our dear Lord."
- taken from Letter 158, pp. 291-92
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