as it that raised up in Scotland
such a crop of ripe and rich saints? Who are these, and whence came
they?

Rutherford was always on the outlook for opportunities to employ his
private pen for the conversion of sinners, and for the comfort, the
upbuilding, and the holiness of God's people. From his manse at Anwoth,
from his prison at Aberdeen, from his class-room at St. Andrews, and from
the Jerusalem Chamber at Westminster, his letter-bag went out full of
those messages, so warm, so tender, so powerful, to his multitudinous
correspondents. Public events, domestic joys and sorrows, personal
matters, special providences,--to turn them all to a good result
Rutherford was always on the watch.

News had come to Rutherford's ears of an almost fatal accident that
Kennedy had had through his boat being swept out to sea; and that was too
good a chance to lose of trying to touch his correspondent's heart yet
more deeply about death, and the due preparation for it. Read his letter
to John Kennedy on his deliverance from shipwreck. See with what
apostolic dignity and sweetness he salutes Kennedy. See how he lifts up
Kennedy's accident out of the hands of winds and waves, and traces it all
up to the immediate hand of God. See how he speaks of Kennedy's reprieve
from death; and how the spared man should make use of his lengthened
days. Altogether, a noble, powerful, apostolic letter; a letter that
must have had a great influence in making Bailie Kennedy the choice
Christian that he was and that he became. We have only three letters
preserved of Rutherford's to Kennedy. But we have sufficient evidence
that they were fast and dear friends. Rutherford writes to Kennedy from
Aberdeen, upbraiding him for forgetting him; and what a letter that also
is! It stands well out among the foremost of his letters for fulness of
all the great qualities of Rutherford's intellect and heart.

But it is with the shipwreck letter that we have to do to-night; and with
the expressions in it we have taken for our text: 'Die well, for the last
tide will ebb fast.' 'It is appointed to all men once to die,' says the
Apostle, in a most solemn passage. Think of that, think often of that,
think it out, think it through to the end. God has appointed our death.
He has our name down in His seven-sealed Book; and when the Lamb opens
the Book, and finds the place, He reads our name, and all that is
appointed us till death, and after death. The exact