I. to Lady Kenmure, at a Time of Illness and Spiritual Depression

Lady Jane Campbell, Viscountess of Kenmure, was the third daughter of

Archibald Campbell, seventh Earl of Argyle, and sister to the Marquis

of Argyle who was beheaded in 1661. She was remarkable for ability and

Christian devotion, and for her generous help to those who suffered for

conscience' sake. She had many troubles of her own, which are reflected

in these letters. She lost two daughters in infancy and her husband

died in 1634. Her son, who succeeded to the title, also died before

attaining his majority, in 1649. The last of Rutherford's letters to

her is dated in 1661, just after the execution of her brother. She

herself lived to a great age, though suffering all her life from bad

health. Forty-seven letters to her from Rutherford have been preserved,

and sixteen of them are quoted in this selection. See below, numbers

II, IV, V, VII, IX, X, XI, XII, XIII, XIV, XIX, XX, XLVIII, LX, LXX.

MADAM, -- All dutiful obedience in the Lord remembered. I have heard of

your Ladyship's infirmity and sickness with grief; yet I trust ye have

learned to say, 'It is the Lord, let Him do whatsoever seemeth good in

His eyes.' For there be many Christians most like unto young sailors,

who think the shore and the whole land doth move, when the ship and

they themselves are moved; just so, not a few do imagine that God

moveth and saileth and changeth places, because their giddy souls are

under sail, and subject to alteration, to ebbing and flowing. But 'the

foundation of the Lord abideth sure'.

God knoweth that ye are His own.

Wrestle, fight, go forward, watch, fear, believe, pray; and then ye

have the infallible symptoms of one of the elect of Christ within you.

Ye have now, Madam, a sickness before you; and also after that a

death. Gather then now food for the journey. God give you eyes to see

through sickness and death, and to see something beyond death. Now, I

believe ye have only these two shallow brooks, sickness and death, to

pass through; and ye have also a promise that Christ shall do more than

meet you, even that He shall come Himself, and go with you foot for

foot, yea and bear you in His arms. O then!

O then! for the joy that is

set before you; for the love of the Man (who is also 'God over all,

blessed forever') that is standing on the shore to welcome you, run

your race with patience. The Lord go with you. Your Lord will not have

you, nor any of His servants, to exchange for the worse. Death in

itself includeth both the death of the soul and the death of the body;

but to God's children the bounds and the limits of death are abridged

and drawn into a more narrow compass.

So that when ye die, a piece of

death shall only seize upon you, or the least part of you shall die,

and that is the dissolution of the body; for in Christ ye are delivered

from the second death; and, therefore, as one born of God, commit not

sin (although ye cannot live and not sin), and that serpent shall but

eat your earthly part. As for your soul, it is above the law of death.

But it is fearful and dangerous to be a debtor and servant to sin; for

the count of sin ye will not be able to make good before God, except

Christ both count and pay for you.

I trust also, Madam, that ye will be careful to present to the Lord

the present estate of this decaying kirk.

For what shall be concluded

in Parliament anent her, the Lord knoweth.

Stir up your husband, your brother, and all with whom you are in

favour and credit, to stand upon the Lord's side against Baal. I have

good hope your husband loveth the peace and prosperity of Zion: the

peace of God be upon him. Thus, not willing to weary your Ladyship

farther, I commend you, now and always, to the grace and mercy of that

God who is able to keep you, that you fall not. The Lord Jesus be with

your spirit.

ANWOTH, July 27, 1628