ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR OF THIS EDITION. EMINENT as the name of SAMUEL RUTHERFORD has been, and dear as his memory must ever be to those who know how to value an unshrinking profession in the hour of trial and difficulty, no excuse can be necessary for this attempt to make his letters more generally known, than the experience of the Editor of this selection proved them to be, even in that country, whose church history is illustrated by the account of this good man's unswerving testimony to the "faith once delivered to the saints," at a period when many were called upon to seal such testimony with their blood. But, to those who are acquainted with, and partial to his letters in their original form, some apology may be requisite for the alterations of phraseology, and omission of many passages in those which have been selected and are now offered to the public, as exhibiting most strongly, and enforcing most persuasively, the doctrines and principles which have distinguished the pure church of Christ, and animated her members in every age; but whose solidity and lustre are most conspicuously manifest in the hour of persecution and trial. We are aware how strong those feelings are, which consecrate the very peculiarities of a favourite teacher, and that the language, however quaint or antiquated, in which spiritual truths were first presented to the mind, or which spoke consolation to the wounded spirit, becomes so endeared to us, that any alteration of it seems to rob the maxim of wisdom, or the word of comfort, of some portion of its strength or sweetness: yet we think that even those (the number of whom is now comparatively small) who have been nurtured by the writings of this highly spiritual man, will not deny, that their obsolete phraseology, the frequent reiteration of the same ideas, and such turns both of thought and expression, as in the present day appear extravagant, (and which, as his Biographer observes, have been "jested on by the profane wits of the age,")-are calculated to deter general readers from their perusal, and actually have rendered this "mine of spiritual wealth," as it has been aptly designated by the venerable Richard Cecil, a hidden treasure to many who would highly prize the gold, could they obtain it separated from the dross which incumbers it. The object, therefore, assiduously kept in view by the Editor of the present selection, has been to free these valuable Letters from the objections above enumerated, without depriving them of any of their characteristic vigour and vivacity; and a comparison with the originals will show, that nothing essential he individuality of the style has been sacrificed to a fastidious delicacy, and nothing tending to edification omitted. The necessity of conversion-the danger of delusion-the importance of "making thorough work" of that great business of our lives -the alone sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice for our justification our acceptance with Him, and reception of " His fulness," through faith in that sufficient sacrifice entire dependance upon Christ as the Alpha and Omega, the Author and Finisher of our faith, in whom, spiritually as well as naturally, we "live, and move, and have our being;”—these are the points dwelt upon in the Letters, and set forth with all the power resulting from the deep experience of a strong and ardent mind. Christ for us, with us, in us, is the theme, however the expressions may be varied according to the circumstances of the writer, or of those whom he addressed. But the Letters will speak for themselves; and they will speak to each of us with a force proportionate to the anxiety we feel to make our calling and election sure, knowing that "the time is short," and that "now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation." Edinburgh, January, 1825. |