Why Should God’s Child have a Sad Heart?
“In Samuel Rutherford, we find a rare combination of the precise mind of a theologian but also the passionate heart of a poet. When you read his descriptions of Christ, when you read his descriptions of the love of Christ for His Church and His Church for Him, his imagery reminds me of the Song of Solomon.”
― Dr. John Snyder, PURITAN: All of Life to the Glory of God
Samuel Rutherford was a seventeenth century Puritan pastor, theologian, author, and thinker.
Samuel Rutherford wrote hundreds of personal letters throughout his lifetime in which he speaks tenderly, warmly, and devotionally of Christ and of the Christian life.
In The Letters of Samuel Rutherford, Rutherford writes to a dear friend of Christ’s ultimate keeping of the church of God as a whole and every individual Christian.
the Son of God's wheat will not be blown away.
I persuade myself, the Son of God's wheat will not be blown away. Let us be putting on God's armour, and be strong in the Lord. If the devil and Zion's enemies strike a hole in that armour, let our Lord see to that;—let us put it on, and stand. We have Jesus on our side; and they are not worthy such a Captain, who would not take a blow at His back. We are in sight of His colours; His banner over us is love; look up to that white banner, and stand, I persuade you, in the Lord of victory.
I wonder many times that ever a child of God should have a sad heart, considering what their Lord is preparing for them.
My brother writeth to me of your heaviness, and of temptations that press you sore. I am content it be so: you bear about with you the mark of the Lord Jesus. So it was with the Lord's apostle, when he was to come with the Gospel to Macedonia (2 Cor. 7:5): his flesh had no rest; he was troubled on every side, and knew not what side to turn him unto; without were fightings, and within were fears. In the great work of our redemption, your lovely, beautiful, and glorious Friend and Well-beloved Jesus, was brought to tears and strong cries; so as His face was wet with tears and blood, arising from a holy fear and the weight of the curse. Take a drink of the Son of God's cup, and love it the better that He drank of it before you. There is no poison in it. I wonder many times that ever a child of God should have a sad heart, considering what their Lord is preparing for them.
That broken ship will come to land, because Jesus is the pilot. Faint not; you shall see the salvation of God.
…I request you in the Lord, pray for a submissive will, and pray as your Lord Jesus bids you, "Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven." And let it be that your faith be brangled with temptations, believe ye that there is a tree in our Lord's garden that is not often shaken with wind from all the four airts? Surely there is none. Rebuke your soul, as the Lord's prophet doth: "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? why art thou disquieted within me?" (Psalm 42:11). That was the word of a man who was at the very overgoing of the brae and mountain; but God held a grip of him. Swim through your temptations and troubles to be at that lovely, amiable person, Jesus, to whom your soul is dear. In your temptations run to the promises: they be our Lord's branches hanging over the water, that our Lord's silly, half-drowned children may take a grip of them; if you let that grip go, you will fall to the ground. Are you troubled with the case of God's kirk? Our Lord will evermore have her betwixt the sinking and the swimming. He will have her going through a thousand deaths, and through hell, as a cripple woman, halting, and wanting the power of her one side (Micah 4:6, 7), that God may be her staff. That broken ship will come to land, because Jesus is the pilot. Faint not; you shall see the salvation of God.