Samuel Rutherford

Samuel Rutherford was born around the year 1600, in the village of Nisbet, in Roxburghshire, in the Scottish Borders, in a family of small farmers. He was educated at the grammar school in Jedburgh and then at the University of Edinburgh, which he entered in 1617. He was a clever and diligent student, with a quick mind, and he took his master's degree in 1621. He was soon appointed to a post as a regent, or teacher, in humanity, which meant Latin, in the university. He was a young man of great promise. But in 1626, he was forced to resign, in circumstances that are not fully known. It appears that he had married before he had the proper permission, and that there was a scandal. Whatever the cause, it ended his academic career, and he turned to the church.

He was ordained in 1627, and he was called to be the minister of Anwoth, a small parish in Galloway, in the southwest of Scotland, on the Solway coast. It was a remote and beautiful place, of hills and sea and moor. He took up the work with a burning heart. It is said that he rose at three in the morning to pray and to study. He visited his people, catechized them and preached to them with a tenderness that moved them. His sermons were full of the love of Christ. He was, said one of those who heard him, a man who was always taken up with Christ. He was a pastor who knew his flock by name. He also suffered. His first wife, Eupham Hamilton, fell ill soon after they came to Anwoth, and she lingered for thirteen months, in great pain, and died in 1630. Two of their children also died. He wrote that these losses drew him nearer to Christ.

He was a man who was zealous for the purity of the church, and he was increasingly out of favor with the bishops, who were bringing the Scottish church under the control of Archbishop Laud and the king. He was reported to the High Commission for his refusal to conform. In 1636, he was tried on a charge of nonconformity, and he published a book against the Arminians, which gave offense. He was deprived of his charge and was banished to the city of Aberdeen, a place where the bishops were strong, and where he was shut off from his people. He had to live in a town that was hostile to his views, and he was forbidden to preach. He felt the loss deeply. It was a time of great loneliness. He wrote that his heart was broken to leave Anwoth.

It was in Aberdeen that he wrote the letters for which he is best remembered. He wrote to his friends and to his flock in Anwoth, to the leading men and women of Scotland, and to those who were suffering for their faith. He wrote from a heart that was drawn to Christ in affliction. The letters are full of images from the Song of Solomon and from the life of the countryside. They speak of Christ as the fairest among the sons of men, and of the sweetness of His love. He wrote that Christ's cross was the sweetest burden that he ever bore. He also wrote with a pastoral concern for those who were in trouble. They were circulated in manuscript and were published after his death, in 1664, under the title Joshua Redivivus. They have been reprinted many times. Charles Spurgeon said of them that they are the nearest thing to inspiration that can be found in the writings of mere man.

In 1638, the Scottish people signed the National Covenant, and the bishops were swept away. He was released and returned to Anwoth. In 1639, he was appointed professor of divinity at St. Mary's College, in St. Andrews, and he moved there. In 1643, he was named as one of the Scottish commissioners to the Westminster Assembly, in London, which drew up the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Catechisms. He took a leading part, in the debates on church government, on the Presbyterian side. In 1644, he published Lex, Rex, or The Law and the Prince, a work of political theory, in which he argued that the king is under the law and that the people have the right to resist a tyrant. It was a landmark in the history of constitutional thought. It was a response to the claims of divine right made by the supporters of the king.

He returned to Scotland and became the principal of the New College, in St. Andrews, in 1651. He remained a stern defender of the Covenant and was involved in the controversies between the Resolutioners and the Protesters, which divided the Scottish church. He wrote more than a dozen books. He was a man of strong will and sometimes of a severe tongue. He was bitter toward his opponents. He had a second marriage, to Jean McMath, and they had a number of children, most of whom died young. He bore the sorrows with faith.

When the monarchy was restored in 1660, he was a marked man. His book Lex, Rex was condemned and was publicly burned. He was removed from his posts and was summoned to answer a charge of treason before the Parliament. He was by then a dying man. He is said to have replied to the summons that he had a summons from a superior Judge and judicatory, and that he must answer first. He died in late March 1661, in St. Andrews. His last words, according to tradition, spoke of the glory dwelling in Immanuel's land. The famous hymn, The Sands of Time Are Sinking, drew on his words. His life shows the effect of a pastor whose letters have comforted generations of the suffering.