Required reading
The Letters of Samuel Rutherford (Available from Amazon or free here) - Read Letters 1 to 4.
My summary
Today we begin Rutherford's letters.
We read letters to a 'Christian gentlewoman', M'Naught and Kenmure.
The subjects of the letters include:
(i) comfort in the loss of a daughter;
(ii) submission to God;
(iii) perseverance in suffering;
(iv) death of Rutherford's wife;
(v) the punishment of the wicked.
What grabbed me
I was particularly moved by the letter to the grieving mother: 'If she was eighteen, nineteen, or twenty years old, I know not ; but sure I am, seeing her term was come, and your lease run out, ye can no more justly quarrel your great Superior for taking His own at His just term day, than a poor farmer can complain that his master taketh a portion of his own land to himself when his lease is expired. Good mistress, if ye would not be content that Christ would hold from you the heavenly inheritance which is made yours by His death, shall not that same Christ think hardly of you if ye refuse to give Him your daughter willingly, who is a part of His inheritance and conquest ? I pray the Lord to give you all your own, and to grace you with patience to give God His also. He is an ill debtor who payeth that which he hath borrowed with a grudge. Indeed, that long loan of such a good daughter, an heir of grace, a member of Christ (as I believe), deserveth more thanks at your Creditor's hands, than that ye should gloom and murmur when He craveth but His own. I believe you would judge them to be but thankless neighbours who would pay you a sum of money after this manner. '
We must remember that every child we have is only on loan from the heavenly Father.
Next week's reading
Read Letters 5 to 7.
Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
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