dead in and around
Kilmacolm, though it could not keep pace and patience with those so eager
and so anxious souls who would have Rutherford's mind on all possible
points of their complicated case. Six of their complaints we have just
seen, but their troubles are not yet all told. 'Surely,' they wrote, 'a
Master like our Lord, who gave such service when He was still a servant
Himself,--surely He will have hearty and unfeigned service from us, or
none at all. Will He not spue the lukewarm servant out of His mouth?' I
grant you, wrote Rutherford, that our Master must have honesty. The one
thing He will unmask and will not endure is hypocrisy. But if you mean
to insinuate that our hearts must always be entirely given up to His
service in all that we do, else He will cast us away, for all I am worth
in the world I would not have that true of me. I would not have that
true, else where would my hope be? An English contemporary of
Rutherford's puts it memorably: 'Our Master tries His servants not with
the balances of the sanctuary, but with the touchstone.' Take that, says
Rutherford, for my reply to your opinion that Christ must always have a
perfect service at our hands, or none at all.

8. Again, hold by the ground-work when the outworks and the
superstructure are assailed. Fall back the more nakedly upon your sure
foundation. Keep the ground of your standing and acceptance clear, and
take your stand on that ground at every time when despair assaults you.
For great faults and for small, for formality in spiritual service, for
cold-heartedness and for half-heartedness, you have always open to you
your old and sure ground, the blood and the righteousness of your
Covenant-surety. 'Seek still the blood of atonement for faults much and
little. Know the gate to the fountain, and lie about it. Make much of
assurance, for it keepeth the anchor fixed.'

9. The last paragraph of Rutherford's letter to the parishioners of
Kilmacolm is taken up with the consolation that always comes to a
Christian man's heart after every deed of true self-mortification. That
is an experience that all Christian men must often have, whether they
take note sufficiently of it or no. Let any man suffer for Christ's
sake; let any man be evil-entreated and for Christ's sake take it
patiently; let him be reviled and persecuted in public or in private for
the truth; let him deny himself some indulgence--allowed, doubtful, or
condemned--and all