cluster of grapes the spies cut down at
Eshcol, and there is sweetness and strength and ecstasy enough for ten
men in any one of Rutherford's inebriated Letters. 'See what the land
is, and whether it be fat or lean, and bring back of the fruits of the
land.' This was the order given by Moses to the twelve spies. And,
whether the land was fat or lean, Moses and all Israel could judge for
themselves when the spies laid down their load of grapes at Moses' feet.
'I can report nothing but good of the land,' said Joshua Redivivus, as he
sent back such clusters of its vineyards and such pots of its honey to
Hugh Mackail, to Marion M'Naught, and to Lady Kenmure. And then, when
all his letters were collected and published, never surely, since the
Epistles of Paul and the Gospel of John, had such clusters of
encouragement and such intoxicating cordials been laid to the lips of the
Church of Christ.

Our old authors tell us that after the northern tribes had tasted the
warmth and the sweetness of the wines of Italy they could take no rest
till they had conquered and taken possession of that land of sunshine
where such grapes so plentifully grew. And how many hearts have been
carried captive with the beauty and the grace of Christ, and with the
land of Immanuel, where He drinks wine with the saints in His Father's
house, by the reading of Samuel Rutherford's Letters, the day of the Lord
will alone declare.

Oh! Christ He is the Fountain,
The deep sweet Well of love!
The streams on earth I've tasted,
More deep I'll drink above.
There to an ocean fulness
His mercy doth expand,
And glory, glory dwelleth
In Immanuel's Land.

II. SAMUEL RUTHERFORD AND SOME OF HIS EXTREMES

'I am made of extremes.'--_Rutherford_.

A story is told in Wodrow of an English merchant who had occasion to
visit Scotland on business about the year 1650. On his return home his
friends asked him what news he had brought with him from the north. 'Good
news,' he said; 'for when I went to St. Andrews I heard a sweet, majestic-
looking man, and he showed me the majesty of God. After him I heard a
little fair man, and he showed me the loveliness of Christ. I then went
to Irvine, where I heard a well-favoured, proper old man with a long
beard, and that man showed me all my own heart.' The little fair man who
showed this English merchant the loveliness of Christ was Samuel
Rutherford, and the proper old m