– from the Letters of Samuel Rutherford ( 1600-1661)
The godly Scottish preacher Rutherford was forbidden to preach and banished from his home church Anwoth to Aberdeen in Scotland in 1636 by his enemies. Although he did suffer from periods of depression and a feeling of uselessness during this time, above all it was what he called the dumb or silent Sabbaths that distressed him most, remembering his flock left behind at Anwoth like the sheep without a shepherd. God used this time of suffering to draw him very close to Christ and equipped him to write with deep compassion and wisdom to his people, friends and others who were seeking his counsel. Out of the 365 letters written during his lifetime, 220 were penned during his exile and imprisonment in Aberdeen what he called “my kings palace”. This excerpt was from one of these letters.
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