orld is so bad that
it is fit for nothing but to be abandoned to the devil and his angels
altogether, and that a genuine man of God is too good to be made a member
of Parliament or to be much seen on the platforms of public meetings.
Such was not Samuel Rutherford's judgment, as will be seen in his 36th
Letter. And such was not Robert Gordon's judgment, when he left the
woods and fields of Knockbrex and gave himself wholly up to the politics
of his entangled and distressful day. What he would have said to the
summons had the marches been already redd between Lex and Rex, and had
the affairs of the Church of Christ not been still too much mixed up with
the affairs of the State, I do not know. Only, as long as the Crown and
the Parliament had their hands so deeply in the things of the Church,
Knockbrex was not hard to persuade to go to Parliament to watch over
interests that were dearer to him than life, or family, or estate. Robert
Gordon carried the old family brow with him into all the debates and
dangers of that day; and he added to all that a singleness of heart and a
painstaking mind all his own. And it was no wonder that such a man was
much in demand at such a time. In our own far happier time what a mark
does a member of Parliament still make, or a speaker at public meetings,
who is seen to be single in his heart, and is at constant pains with
himself and with all his duties. It is at bottom our doubleness of heart
and our lack of sufficient pains with ourselves and with the things of
truth and righteousness that so divide us up into bitter factions,
hateful and hating one another. And when all our public men are like
Robert Gordon in the singleness of their aims and their motives, and when
they are at their utmost pains to get at the truth about all the subjects
they are called to deal with, party, if not parliamentary government,
with all its vices and mischiefs, will have passed away, and the absolute
Monarchy of the Kingdom of Heaven will have come.

So much, then, is told us of Robert Gordon in few words: 'A
single-hearted and painful Christian, much employed in parliaments and
public meetings.' To which may be added this extract taken out of the
Minute Book of the Covenanters' War Committee: 'The same day there was
delyverit to the said commissioners by Robert Gordoun of Knockbrax sex
silver spoones Scots worke, weightan vi. unce xii. dropes.' Had
Knockbrex also, like the Earlstons, been fined by th