in. And when you
have found such and such an indubitable sign of grace, say so. Say
_this_, and _this_, and _this_, pointing it out, is assuredly the work of
God in my soul. When you, after all defeat, really discover your soul
growing in grace; in patience under injuries; in meekness under reproofs
and corrections; in love for, or at least in peace of heart toward, those
you at one time did not like, but disliked almost to downright hatred; in
silent and assenting acceptance, if not yet in actual and positive
enjoyment, of another man's talents and success, gain and fame; in the
decay and disappearance of party spirit, and in openness to all the good
and the merit of other men; in prayerfulness; in liberality, and so on;
when you cannot deny these things in yourself, then speak good of Christ,
and do not traduce and backbite His work because it is in your own soul.
'Some wretches murmur of want while all the time their money in the bank
and their fat harvests make them liars.' Rutherford thinks he has put
his finger upon some such saintly liars in the kirk-session of Kilmacolm.

5. 'Fear your light, my lord,' wrote Rutherford to Lord Craighall from
Aberdeen; 'stand in awe of your light.' But the poor Kilmacolm people
did not need that sharp rebuke, for they had written to Rutherford at
their own instance to consult him in their terror of conscience about
this very matter, till Rutherford had to exhaust his vocabulary of
comfort in trying to pacify his correspondents just in this sufficiently
disquieting matter of light in the mind with great darkness in the heart
and the life. Our light in this world, he tells them, is a broad and
shining field, whereas our life of obedience is at best but a short and
straggling furrow. Only in heaven shall the broad and basking fields of
light and truth be covered from end to end with the songs of the
rejoicing reapers. And Rutherford is very bold in this matter, because
he knows he has the truth about it. A perfect life, he says, up to our
ever-increasing light, is impossible to us here, if only because our
light always increases with every new progress in duty. The field of
light expands to a new length and breadth every time the plough passes
through it. And, knowing well to whom he writes on this subject,
Rutherford goes on to say that there is a sorrow for sin, and for
shortcoming in service, that is as acceptable with God in the evangelical
covenant as would be the ve