To the Lady Dunguie — Letter 65

Mistress.

I long to hear from you, and how you go on with Christ. I am sure that Christ and you once met; I pray you fasten your grip. There is much holding and pulling and a great sea-way to heaven, and we are often seasick, but the voyage is so necessary that we must on any terms take ship with Christ. I believe it is a good country we are going to, and there is ill lodging in this smoky house of the world in which we are yet living. Oh that we should love smoke so well, and clay, that holds our feet fast! It were our happiness to follow on after Christ and to anchor ourselves upon the rock on the upper side of the veil. Christ and Satan are now drawing to opposing sides, and they are blind who do not see Scotland divided into two camps — Christ coming out with his white banner of love, hanging it over the heads of his soldiers; and the other captain, the Dragon, coming out with a great black flag, and crying: 'The world, the world! ease, honor, a whole skin, and a soft couch' — and there they lie, leaving Christ to fend for himself. My counsel is that you come out and leave the multitude, and let Christ have your company. Let them take clay and this present world who love it; Christ is a more worthy and noble portion. Blessed are those who get him. It is good, before the storm rises, to make all ready and to be prepared to go to the camp with Christ, seeing he will not stay in the house or sit at the fireside with those who stay hidden. A hardship for Christ is little enough; oh, I find all too little for him! Woe, woe is me, that I have no gift for my Lord Jesus; my love is so feeble that it is a shame to offer it to him. Oh, if it were as broad as heaven, as deep as the sea, I would gladly bestow it upon him! I persuade you, God is wringing grapes of red wine for Scotland, and this land shall drink and reel and fall. His enemies shall drink the thick of it and the dregs of it. But Scotland's withered tree shall blossom again, and Christ shall make a second marriage with her and take home his wife out of the furnace. But whether our eyes shall see it, he knows who has created time. Grace be with you.

Aberdeen, 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Jesus, S. R.