Letters of Samuel Rutherford: (Third Edition)Rutherford, Samuel
Religion
Letters of Samuel Rutherford: (Third Edition)
Rutherford, Samuel
Rutherford, Samuel, 1600?-1661 -- Correspondence
When Christ hideth Himself, wait on, and make din till He return; it
is not time then to be carelessly patient. I love to be grieved when
He hideth His smiles. Yet believe His love in a patient onwaiting and
believing in the dark. Ye must learn to swim and hold up your head
above the water, even when the sense of His presence is not with you
to hold up your chin. I trust in God that He will bring your ship safe
to land. I counsel you to study sanctification, and to be dead to this
world. Urge kindness on Knockbrex. Labour to benefit by his company;
the man is acquainted with Christ.
I beg the help of your prayers, for I forget not you. Counsel your
husband to fulfil my joy, and to seek the Lord's face. Show him, from
me, that my joy and desire is to hear that he is in the Lord. God
casteth him often in my mind, I cannot forget him. I hope Christ and
he have something to do together. Bless John from me. I write
blessings to him, and to your husband, and to the rest of your
children. Let it not be said, "I am not in your house," through
neglect of the Sabbath exercise.
Your lawful and loving pastor in his only, only Lord,
S. R.
ABERDEEN, _Feb. 20, 1637_.
CI.--_To_ JONET MACCULLOCH.
[No doubt this lady was one of the _Maccullochs_ of _Ardwell_, a
residence near Anwoth, next to Cardoness. The Letter, CLXXXIV.,
to Mr. Thomas Macculloch of _Nether Ardwell_, relates apparently
to another of the same house. The house is very pleasantly
situated near the mouth of the Fleet. The old mansion-house of
Ardwell, or Ardwall, bore the name of "Nether Ardwell;" it
occupied a spot about a hundred yards distant from the present
mansion, lying towards the shore, a little below where the bay
receives the waters of the Fleet. "Higher Ardwell" was towards
the north: a farm near Bushy Bield (Rutherford's old manse, which
was originally a mansion house) still bears that name. The family
of the Maccullochs, who were intimate with Rutherford, still
retain the property. They are an ancient family; for William
Macculloch got a feu charter of the lands of Nether Ardwell from
his cousin, or uncle, Macculloch of Cardoness and Myreton, in
1587. It is the wife of this William Macculloch, in all
probability, of whom the following lines speak, on the tomb at
the south side of the raised pile in the old churchyard:--
Dumb, senseless statue of a painted stone,
What means this boast? Thy captive is but clay.
Thou gainest nothing but some lifeless bones;
Her choicest part, her soul, triumphs for aye.
Then, gazing friends, do not her death deplore;
You lose, while she doth gain for evermore.
"Margrat Maklellan, goodwife of Ardwell, departed this life 1620.
Ætatis suæ 31."
We may add, the grand-daughter of this lady, to whom the lines on
the monument refer, was mother of the martyr, John Bell of
Whyteside.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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