Weekly Puritan III - "The Loveliness of Christ"

Included in a recent order of Puritan paperbacks from Westminster Bookstore I received a copy of Samuel Rutherford's The Loveliness of Christ. This tiny little volume is packed with gems from the pen of someone who knew Christ and His suffering. In the introduction (pg. xvii) we read: " An English merchant who heard him preach in St. Andrews says, 'I went to St. Andrews where I heard a sweet majestic-looking man [Blair], and he showed me the majesty of God. After him I heard a little fair man [Rutherford], and he showed me the loveliness of Christ.

I have carried this little volume around with me this past week, reading it while waiting for a haircut, standing in lines, etc. Fortunately, the volume has a small glossary in the back for those of us not living in the 17th Century (does anyone reading know what conclamatum est* means without looking it up?). I finished it today, but I will re-read and re-read it in the future. It truly is "a small casket stored with many jewels". (pg. ix)

One excerpt:

How soon will some few years pass away, and then when the day is ended, and this life's lease expired, what have men of the world's glory, but dreams and thoughts? O happy soul for evermore, who can rightly compare this life with that long-lasting life to come, and can balance the weighty glory of the one with the light golden vanity of the other.


(*conclamatum est - a declaration that a death has taken place; hence, beyond all hope.)