Letters of Samuel Rutherford Review
A few weeks ago I finished a book I started a couple of years ago. It took me that long to get through it! I want to give it a proper review, but also to mention something that might help you if you want to read it too. It's the Letters of Samuel Rutherford, edited with a biographical sketch and introduction by Andrew Bonar.
The book
It's 709 pages, 744 with the glossary, appendix and index. Banner of Truth has put out a newer edition since I bought mine, so everything here is about my edition. This is quite possibly the highest-quality book on my shelves. It's the same as everything else Banner puts out (clothbound, Smyth-sewn, printed in the USA by Versa Press), but for whatever reason this volume is outstanding. The pages are smooth as silk, the paper is extremely high quality, it's a nice bright red with gold lettering, and the binding is loose enough that you can open it anywhere and it stays open. It just feels good in the hands.
About Rutherford
There's an entire biographical sketch in the book, so just a little here. Rutherford was born in 1660 or 1661 (they didn't keep dates like that back then) in Nisbet, Roxburghshire, Scotland, and was educated at the University of Edinburgh. He's one of the best-known members of the Westminster Assembly. In 1636 he was arrested as a nonconformist, and it was in prison that he wrote most of these letters. Spurgeon said, as I paraphrase it, that his writings were the nearest thing to inspired Scripture ever written by men. He's best known for Lex Rex, but his letters are a close second. He was a Scottish Presbyterian theologian, minister and author, married twice, and had a number of children who all died before him. He was also a dear friend of James Guthrie, who was a friend of Robert Traill's father. We've reviewed Traill's works on the channel, so there's a little connection.
How to read it
Please don't do what I did. I tried to read 15 or 20 letters at a sitting, and that doesn't work well. It's much easier to read one letter a day. There are 365 letters (whether by providence or on purpose, I'm not sure), so you can read one every morning or every night for a year. It makes so much more sense that way, and the quality of my reading wasn't nearly what I'd like it to be. I probably need to reread it one letter a day.
What Bonar added
I'm fairly sure these are Bonar's additions that earlier editions didn't have:
- Who each letter was written to, with a short note in small print on who the recipient was and how they were connected. Instead of a random letter, you know exactly who's reading it.
- The main points of each letter, summarized in a sentence, so you can find a specific letter much faster.
- Corrections and cross-references in footnotes, linking earlier and later letters, correcting dates and misspelled names.
- Chronological order. Earlier editions weren't arranged that way. Now you can follow Rutherford's train of thought and what he was facing, whether in prison or free, as he reached out to hundreds of people.
- A sketch of Rutherford's life, about 60 pages: not too short, not too long.
- Original plates, scattered through the sketch and the letters, including the estates of prominent recipients. I can sit and look at a hand-sketched plate for hours.
There's also a very helpful glossary (it's 1600s English, so you'll need it), indexes of places, people and subjects, a list of all the earlier editions, a sample of the old spelling, and Rutherford's last words with a poem by Mrs. Cousin.
Are there better books on this topic?
I have a whole shelf of letters behind me, and if you've read several books of letters you know they're all entirely different. It isn't fair to compare them, so I won't answer that one.
Would I buy it?
Yes. This is a standard Christian book that every Christian should have on their shelf, especially if you read it one letter a day.
A few things I marked
From Bonar's sketch, an account of Rutherford as a pastor: he was always found at the sickbeds of his people, and men said he was "always praying, always preaching, always visiting the sick, always catechizing, always writing and studying." That's the pastor you want. And his exhortation to his fellow ministers (p. 21): "Dear brethren, do all for Him. Pray for Christ, preach for Christ, do all for Christ; beware of men-pleasing." He often called Christ his "kingly King."
From the letters:
- "You must go to heaven's gates with your book in your hand, still learning" (p. 151). I'm not a learned man, so I'll keep reading and studying until I go to heaven.
- "Keep yourself in the love of Christ, and stand far back from the pollutions of the world" (p. 199).
- He recommends "the thoughts of death," and how you'll wish your soul to be when you lie cold, blue, ill-smelling clay (p. 249). That reminds me of Jonathan Edwards' resolution to think often of his own dying. Some would call it morbid, but I think it's very biblical.
- Satan has a friend at court in the heart of youth: pride, luxury, lust, revenge and forgetfulness of God are his agents (p. 271). I don't think the youth of the church realize how much Satan is attacking them.
- To a man in authority, he urges him to curb swearing, lying, drinking and Sabbath-breaking as far as his authority reaches in that parish (p. 278).
- And a section Bonar calls "Directions for Christian Conduct," written to John Fleming (p. 293). Among them: give some hours of the day to the Word and prayer; in the midst of worldly work, think of sin, death, judgment and eternity, with a word or two of prayer to God; beware of a wandering heart in private prayer; don't grudge it when you come from prayer without a sense of joy; spend the Lord's Day from morning to night in private or public worship; guard against idle thoughts, sudden anger and the desire for revenge; avoid known sins against conscience as most dangerous preparatives to hardness of heart; and deal with all men in faith, truth and sincerity. Wonderful biblical principles for the Christian life.
There were dozens more quotes I could have added, but you get the idea.
Soli Deo Gloria!
