February 15, 2013
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"new foldings of love in Him... the many pound-weights of His love" ~ Rutherford
The following is an excerpt from one of the many letters the Scottish minister Samuel Rutherford wrote while he was banished from his flock at Anwoth and confined in Aberdeen for a period of almost two years "for non-Conformity to the acts of Episcopacy... and his work against the Arminians" (Sketch of Samuel Rutherford by Andrew A. Bonar in "Letters of Samuel Rutherford," p. 12) ~ hence Rutherford's reference to himself as an "His exiled prisoner."Even during this time, Rutherford spoke often of trysting with Christ. For example, in LETTER LXIX., he wrote: "I cannot but write to my friends, that Christ hath trysted me in Aberdeen..." Rutherford was full proof of Jesus' promise found in John 7:
37 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. 38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. 39 (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive...
Have you known such a thirst, and have you come to Christ and drunk – or are you continuing to drink elsewhere and, as a result, remaining dry, thirsty, unfilled and unsatisfied?
Are there rivers of living water bubbling up and overflowing out of your heart? Have you ever drunk of Jesus? Has anyone ever accused you of being drunk with wine –– Spirit-filled and Spirit-intoxicated like the believers in Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit descended?
Like Peter and John, Samuel Rutherford could not help but speak what he had seen and heard (Acts 4:20). His tongue was indeed the pen of a ready writer (Psalm 45) because he had drunk of Christ, and drunk deeply, and he continued to drink of Christ through the Holy Spirit. Rutherford had come to know Christ by experience as altogether lovely and the fairest of 10,000. His heart was filled to overflowing with the breadth and length and depth and height of the love of Christ (Ephesians 3:14-21), and having been filled, he returned again and again to the Most Holy Place, and with boldness and confidence he sought grace upon grace, so he might be filled again and again and again. Rutherford knew what it was to sup with Christ –– to experience and enjoy more and more of the everlasting, never-ending fount of the love of God in Christ for him!
On this Valentine's Day, many of you who profess to be Christians may be sitting in the quiet at home all alone tonight, and feeling empty and unfilled and disappointed and unloved. –– I urge you to read Rutherford's words and prayerfully examine your own relationship to Christ in light of the Scripture.Are you aware that there are, as Rutherford put it –– "curtains to be drawn by in Christ, that we never saw, and new foldings of love in Him" to all who seek Him?
Have you ever prayed God might grant you an entrance into and experience of the breadth and length and depth and height of the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge?Have you ever experienced the love of God shed abroad into your heart and known Christ's divine love (in contrast to all earthly loves) never to disappoint (Romans 5:1-5)?
Along with Rutherford, I pray those of you who belong to Christ might seek "a nearer communion with Christ, and a growing communion," for that is your privilege and your inheritance as a child of God. Labor to know Him, and having known Him, never cease such happy labor to know Him! He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him! O! what an enchanted pleasure it is to be "sweetly pressed" by "the many pound-weights of His love"!
Luke 11:13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”John 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things... John 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. 14 He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. 15 All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you...
LETTER CIV.––To the Right Honourable and Christian Lady, my LADY VISCOUNTESS OF KENMURE (1637)
I urge upon you, Madam, a nearer communion with Christ, and a growing communion. There are curtains to be drawn by in Christ, that we never saw, and new foldings of love in Him.
I despair that ever I shall win to the far end of that love, there are so many plies in it. Therefore, dig deep; and sweat, and labour, and take pains for Him; and set by as much time in the day for Him as you can. He will be won with labour.I, His exiled prisoner, sought Him, and He hath rued upon me, and hath made a moan for me, as He doth for His own,¹ and I know not what to do with Christ. His love surroundeth and surchargeth me. I am burdened with it; but oh, how sweet and lovely is that burden! I dow not keep it with in me. I am so in love with His love, that if His love were not in heaven, I should be unwilling to go thither. Oh, what weighing, and what telling is in Christ's love! I fear nothing now so much as the losing² of Christ's cross, and of the love-showers that accompany it. I wonder what He meaneth, to put such a slave at the board-head, at His own elbow. O that I should lay my black mouth to such a fair, fair, fair face as Christ's! But I dare not refuse to be loved. The cause is not in me, why He hath looked upon me, and loved me for He got neither bud nor hire of me. It cost me nothing, it is good-cheap love. Oh, the many pound-weights of His love under which I am sweetly pressed!
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¹ Jer. xxxi.20. [ Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the LORD.] / Hos. xi.8. [How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, Israel? how shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim? mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together.]
²The fear to be deprived of it. Early editions give "laughing," which seems a misprint.
Reference: "Letters of Samuel Rutherford, With a Sketch of his Life and Biographical Notices of His Correspondents by the Rev. Andrew A. Bonar" (The Banner of Truth Trust: Edinburgh, 1984 & 2006; first published 1664, reprinted from the 1891 edition), 215-216.
Related:
♥ Valentine's Day Posts ♥ (Series Links)
postcards from England: are we excited over a dead fish and a car wreck?
Three Years Later: Dancing & Skipping with Mrs. Durham | Letter 147 on fighting for joy
"I cannot consider myself to have been a believer (in the full sense of the word)"
Herein is love ... Vast as the ocean ~ And let him that is athirst come!
Linger, linger, linger – so you might know God's love
Embittered, pricked in heart? Go into the sanctuary of God (Psalm 73)
the lover's inquiry | letter 114 on fighting for joy
The Christian should not just believe the truth, and know it..." | the Father's assurance
five years ago ~ for your joy (AND an inheritance | Richard Sibbes & the Sealing of the Spirit)
Advent # 9 WHY HAS JESUS COME? Adoption: the highest privilege the gospel offers ~ J.I. Packer
the children of God will never say of Him: "Got stood up big time!"Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Holy Bible.
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