Regarding Trials

I was reminded recently of Samuel Rutherford's letters, and I took out my copy today. Below is a selection of a letter he wrote to Lady Kenmure in 1630. I greatly enjoy the writing style of saints from years ago who are now asleep; I hope you can discover his meaning despite a less familiar method of composition. But more than I enjoy the style do I benefit from the very thoughts and truths found therein, ponderings with which my soul agrees and says "Amen". On to the letter.

"Madam, when ye are come to the other side of the water, and have set down your foot on the shore of glorious eternity, and look back again to the waters and to your wearisome journey, and shall see, in that clear glass of endless glory, nearer to the bottom of God's wisdom, ye shall then be forced to say, 'If God had done otherwise with me than He hath done, I had never come to the enjoying of this crown of glory.' It is your part now to believe, and suffer, and hope, and wait on; for I protest, in the presence of that all-discerning eye, who knoweth what I write and what I think, that I would not want the sweet experience of the consolations of God for all the bitterness of affliction. Nay, whether God come to His children with a rod or a crown, if He come Himself with it, it is well. Welcome, welcome, Jesus, what way soever Thou come, if we can get a sight of Thee! And sure I am, it is better to be sick, providing Christ come to the bedside and draw by the curtains, and say, 'Courage, I am thy salvation', than to enjoy health, being lusty and strong, and never to be visited of God."

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