The Light and Love of Christ
"Not loving this Christ is the height of spiritual insanity, it's madness. It's a person who is blinded to the most beautiful of beings. A person who is cold in front of a blazing fire, deaf to the most charming of voices. No believer can study Christ, humbly, depending on God, and not increase in love for Him. Stay close to the King. Be often with the King. Cling to Him. Study His perfections."
― John Snyder, Behold Your God: The Weight Of Majesty
Samuel Rutherford (1600—1661) was a Puritan pastor, author, and theologian. Rutherford pastored at Anwoth in Scotland, where it was said of him that “he was always praying, always preaching, always visiting the sick, always catechizing, always writing and studying.”
Some of his last words were, “I shall live and adore Christ; glory to my Redeemer forever. Glory, glory dwelleth in Emmanuel’s land.” To his fellow ministers he said, “Dear brethren, do all for Christ. Pray for Christ. Preach for Christ. Beware of men-pleasing.” With his death, Scotland lost one of its greatest theologians, powerful preachers, devotional writers, and political thinkers.
"O that He would strike out windows, and fair and great lights, in this old house, this fallen down soul, and then set the soul near hand Christ, that the rays and beams of light, and the soul-delighting glancings of the fair, fair God-head, might shine in at the windows and fill the house! A fairer and more near and direct sight of Christ would make room for His love; for we are but pinched and straightened in His love."
― Samuel Rutherford, The Letters of Samuel Rutherford
Rutherford continues in his letter to Lady Boyd:
Alas, it were easy to measure and weigh all the love that we have for Christ by inches and ounces! Alas, that we should love by measure and weight, and not rather have floods and feasts of Christ's love! O, that Christ would break down the old narrow vessels of these narrow and ebb souls, and make fair, deep, wide, and broad souls, to hold a sea and a full tide, flowing over all its banks, of Christ's love!
O that the Almighty would give me my request! that I might see Christ come to His temple again; and if the land were humbled, the judgements threatened are with this reservation - I know if we shall turn and repent. O, what a heaven should we want on earth, to see Scotland's moon like the light of the sun, and Scotland's sunlight seven-fold, like the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of His people, and healeth the stroke of their wounds!