himself as his last end and chiefest good, and out of this captivity no
human power can redeem us. . . . Make this your last and best end--to
live to Christ and to do His will. This is your last end; this is the
end of your being born again--nay, of your being redeemed by His
blood--that you may live unto Christ.' And in the same author's
_Meditations and Spiritual Experiences_, he says, 'On Sabbath morning I
saw that I had a secret eye to my own name in all that I did, and I
judged myself to be worthy of death because I was not weaned from all
created glory, from all honour and praise, and from the esteem of men. .
. . On Sabbath, again, when I came home, I saw into the deep hypocrisy
of my own heart, because in my ministry I sought to comfort and quicken
the people that the glory might reflect on me as well as on God. . . . On
the evening before the sacrament I saw it to be my duty to sequester
myself from all other things and to prepare me for the next day. And I
saw that I must pitch first on the right end. I saw that mine own ends
were to procure honour to myself and not to the Lord. There was some
poor little eye in seeking the name and glory of Christ, yet I sought not
it only, but my own glory, too. After my Wednesday sermon I saw the
pride of my heart acting thus, that when I had done public work my heart
would presently look out and inquire whether I had done it well or ill.
Hereupon I saw my vileness to be to make men's opinions my rule, and that
made me vile in mine own eyes, and that more and more daily.' 'I have
been much challenged,' writes Rutherford to Fleming, 'because I do not
refer all I do to God as my last end: that I do not eat and drink and
sleep and journey and speak and think for God.' And, the fanatic that he
is, he seems to think that that is the calling and chief end not only of
ministers like himself and Shepard, but of the bailies and
timber-merchants of Edinburgh and Leith also.

4. Lastly, in the closing sentences of this inexhaustible letter,
Rutherford says to his waiting and attentive correspondent: 'Growth in
grace, sir, should be cared for by you above all other things.' And so
it should. Literally and absolutely above all other things. Above good
health, above good name, above wealth, and station, and honour. These
things, take them all together, if need be, are to be counted loss in
order to gain growth in grace. But what is growth in grace? It is
growth in everyth