Samuel Rutherford

Read: Song of Songs 5:1-16

 

From time to time a nation produces someone who is truly great. Scotland was never so blessed as it was in the mid-17^th Century when Samuel Rutherford was in his prime. He was one of the greatest pastor-theologians Scotland has ever known, but whatever he had chosen to do, he would have excelled at it. Rutherford was such a bright star in the sky of Scottish Christianity, that after his death, many families in Scotland named their children after him. And yet, his was a martyr’s death at the hands of a changeable and deceitful King.

 

Samuel Rutherford is the third in our biographies of godly Scottish Christians. Tonight, as is our practice, I want to briefly run through his life story, and then I want to draw three lessons from his life of prayer that we may emulate and copy. Before I do, let me recommend to you a couple of books: first, his biography, written by Andrew Thomson; secondly, the letters of Samuel Rutherford which represent the deepest Scottish devotional literature of all time; thirdly, his meditations on the Gospel story of the Syro-Phoenician woman coming to Christ called, “The Trial and Triumph of Faith”, published by the Banner of Truth.

 

[A] His Life Story

Samuel Rutherford was born into a farming family in Teviotdale, near Jedburgh, some time during 1600. He was literally a genius, and at the age of 17 went to Edinburgh University. After he had graduated, he was offered a Professorship there in Latin and the Classics. So, by the age of 23, Samuel Rutherford was Professor Samuel Rutherford. A couple of years into his employment, Rutherford married a girl, but there was some irregularity which perhaps we shall never get to the bottom of, which resulted in Rutherford resigning his position in the University. It was during this time of great uncertainty for him that he came to a living faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord. He set his sights on the ministry of the Gospel and, after theological training, he was inducted to the charge of Anwoth, in Kirkcudbright, in Galloway in 1627. He was an outstanding preacher and a devoted pastor, and his church was soon full to the brim.

 

However, trouble loomed for him, and political machinations in high places led to his being exiled in Aberdeen, which at that time was the heart of Scottish Episcopalianism. Rutherford was exiled for 18 months. Soon after he returned to Anwoth, he was called to become Professor of Systematic Theology at St. Andrews University, a call which he struggled with but finally gave into. During his time there, he was one of the Scottish commissioners to the Westminster Assembly which drafted our articles of faith – the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Shorter Catechism. Rutherford returned to Scotland in the late 1640’s and resumed his position in St. Andrews. In the early 1660’s the political situation in Scotland changed and the King once again, even though he had vowed the opposite upon his coronation, demanded spiritual authority over the Church. Rutherford was unwilling to comply and he was summoned in 1661 to attend upon the Court of Session Edinburgh on charges of treason. Desperately unwell as he was, when the messengers from Edinburgh reached him, he was languishing on his death bed and he famously said to them, “I have got a summons already from a superior judge and judicatory, and I believe to answer my first summons, and ere your day arrives, I will be where few kings and great folks come.” Samuel Rutherford died on the 29^th March 1661 and was buried in the churchyard of the chapel of St. Regulus. I have often visited his grave and found inspiration from the epitaph on his gravestone – but you’ll have to visit it for yourself.

 

[B] His Life Lessons

Rutherford was one of the most outstanding intellects of his day, but what marked him out was his outstanding life of prayer. I want to dwell upon two aspects of his prayer life, both of which it would do us well to emulate:

 

1. Discipline in Prayer – during Rutherford’s time in Anwoth, he observed a regular daily pattern of worship, study, prayer and pastoral visitation. With regard to the regularity of his prayer life I quote Andrew Thomson, “He was accustomed to rise every morning at three o’clock and the whole of the earlier hours of the day were spent by him in prayer, meditation and study … to secure for himself a more complete retirement and a greater security against interruption, there was a hallowed spot about mid-way between his manse and his church, to which it was his frequent practice to retire for prolonged thought and prayer, and which is well known to this hour as ‘Rutherford’s walk’.” The point is this, Rutherford didn’t find a time and a place for prayer – he made a time and a place for prayer; a quiet place and a regular time where he wouldn’t be disturbed. How like Jesus of whom we read in Mark 1:35, “very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.” What strikes me is the regularity, the discipline and the self-conscious striving towards prayer of Samuel Rutherford. You could hardly call him a lazy man! Are we disciplined in our prayer lives, making time and place for our prayers?

 

2. Feeling in Prayer – others have been as disciplined, or more disciplined than Samuel Rutherford, but the thing which marks out his prayer life is the depth of feeling and emotion involved. Even a cursory examination of his letters reveals a man whose passions for Christ ran hot and deep. Prayer was far from a duty for him – it was his lifeblood and the expression of his inner affections. We see this in three ways in his life and letters:

 

1. He Knows the Temporariness of Life – during his life, Rutherford buried 2 wives and at least 3 children. Here was a man familiar with sorrows. But rather than becoming embittered, one of the things these experiences taught him was that the curtain between time and eternity is exceeding thin; physical death is just a heartbeat away. This knowledge, driven home by sore experience, affected his preaching, his pastoral work and his prayer life. It’s great to live in a society where medical science prolongs our lives and has drastically reduced infant mortality. But one of the down sides of that is that we are not so familiar with death and the curtain between time and eternity being so thin. We think that we will live for ever! But the truth is that time is short and the day is fast drawing to a close. How this must therefore change the urgency with which we pray. We pray for our family and friends as though this may be their last day. We pray for the Glory of Christ to be exhibited in us while we yet have breath. For Rutherford, there are times in his letters where you wonder exactly what side of the veil he is speaking from. It’s almost like he is looking back on time from the perspective of one who is already in heaven. I wonder, if we could see things from this perspective, how our prayer lives would be different!
2. He Loves His People – Samuel Rutherford was a very diligent pastor. The parish of Anwoth was very rural and so it would often take him a long time just to visit one person. And yet, he loved his people enough to visit them. But furthermore, he loved them enough to pray for them. Thomson writes, “few things have impressed us in the repeated perusal of his letters, than the evidence which they afford of the intimate acquaintance which he sought to acquire with the spiritual condition of each household and individual in his charge, and the anxiety with which he followed up this spiritual diagnosis.”  One of the reasons Rutherford expended so much effort in getting to know his people was so that he might pray for them more intelligently and fervently. In fact, Rutherford himself, talking about what he would pray for in his regular prayer walks wrote, “Woods, trees, meadows and hills are my witnesses that I drew on a fair meeting betwixt Christ and Anwoth.” In this passion for his people in prayer, Rutherford was simply mirroring the passion of the apostle Paul and the other saints of old exemplified in a text such as 2 Corinthians 9:14 where Paul writes of the passion of one group of believers for another, “… they long and pray for you”. The question for us is this – do we really pray for one another? Not just asking “Lord bless him, and bless her”, but knowing each other well enough to pray for specific things for each other. To know each other in this way is hard work, but if you want to be an intercessor, in the same way Samuel Rutherford was, you’re just going to have to do it.
3. He is Passionate about Christ – one of the reasons I read from the Song of Solomon is that it provided the language for the way Samuel Rutherford spoke about, and spoke to Christ. Yes, to him Christ was Lord; but to him Christ was also lover. He truly loved Christ – sometimes indeed, when speaking of the way he feels about Christ, his language verges on in the indecent. It is written of him, “his sermons were usually radiant with Christ … it is a matter of tradition that much of his conversation glowed with this ever-welcome theme, that he sometimes fell asleep with the name of Jesus upon his lips, and that the subject often shed a heavenly light on his dreams.” His Christ-driven prayer life was characterised by a burning desire to know Christ and to be known by Him. He once said of Christ, “His arrow hath pierced my heart and I am to be pitied for the lack of real possession. Love would have the company of the party loved and my greatest pain is the lack of Him – not of his joys and comforts, but of a near union and communion.” Here was a man who was willing to forgo all the benefits of Christ just so that He may know Christ. He could well echo the sentiments of King David in Psalm 63:1 – “O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my body longs for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” In our prayer lives, are we only ever cold and dry and dutiful with God, or are we full of emotion filled, affection driven love for Jesus Christ? Pray that we may not give Him the cold ashes of our dregs, but the burning heart of our best!

 

Samuel Rutherford was a towering intellect – just like the Apostle Paul – but all these things he considered dross that he might be found in Christ and know Him better. His disciplined prayer life was full of love and passion. The Holy Spirit of God, He whose role it is to highlight the beauty of Christ o us, had done His work in Rutherford’s life. But that same Spirit is still engaged in the work of glorifying and beautifying Christ to us. And He is ours for the asking. So pray God that He would fill us afresh with His Holy Spirit, that we may, like Samuel Rutherford, be amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene. AMEN