a public man, and his intelligent fidelity to truth and
justice in that day made his name far more public than ever he wished it
to be. And in all his services and sufferings for the truth he had a
splendid wife in Marion M'Naught. 'Remember me to your husband,'
Rutherford writes; 'tell him that Christ is worthy to be suffered for not
only to blows but to blood. He will find that innocence and uprightness
will hold his feet firm and make him happy when jouking will not do it.'
And again, 'Encourage your husband and tell him that truth will yet keep
the crown of the causey in Scotland.' And when the petition is being got
up for his being permitted to return to Anwoth, Rutherford asks his
correspondent to procure that three or four hundred noblemen, gentlemen,
countrymen and citizens shall be got to subscribe it--a telling tribute,
surely, to her public spirit and her great influence.

But an independent mind and a public spirit like hers could not exist in
those days, or in any day this world has yet seen, without raising up
many and bitter enemies. And both she and her husband suffered heavily,
both in name and in estate, from the malice and the hatred that their
fearless devotion to truth and justice stirred up. So much so, that some
of the finest passages in Rutherford's early letters to her are those in
which he counsels her and her husband to patience, and meekness, and
forgiveness of injuries. 'Keep God's covenant in all your trials. Hold
you by His blessed word, and sin not; flee anger, wrath, grudging,
envying, fretting. Forgive an hundred pence to your fellow-servant, for
your Lord has forgiven you ten thousand talents.' And again: 'Be
patient; Christ went to heaven with many a wrong. His visage was more
marred than that of any of the sons of men. He was wronged and received
no reparation, but referred all to that day when all wrongs shall be
righted.' And again: 'You live not upon men's opinion. Happy are you
if, when the world trampleth upon you in your credit and good name, you
are yet the King's gold and stamped with His image. Pray for the spirit
of love, for love beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all
things, endureth all things. Forgive, therefore, your fellow-servant his
one talent. Always remember what has been forgiven you.' And on every
page of the Kirkcudbright correspondence we see that, amid all these
temptations and trials, no man had a better wife than the provost,