IV. LADY KENMURE


'Build your nest, Madam, upon no tree here, for God hath sold this
whole forest to death.'--_Rutherford_.

Lady Kenmure was one of the Campbells of Argyll, a family distinguished
for the depth of their piety, their public spirit, and their love for the
Presbyterian polity; and Lady Jane was one of the most richly-gifted
members of that richly-gifted house. But, with all that, Lady Jane
Campbell had her own crosses to carry. She had the sore cross of bad
health to carry all her days. Then she had the sad misfortune to make a
very bad marriage in the morning of her days; and, partly as the result
of all that, and partly because of her peculiar mental constitution, her
whole life was drenched with a deep melancholy. But, as we are told in
John Howie and elsewhere, all these evils and misfortunes were made to
work together for good to her through the special grace of God, and
through the wise and wistful care of her lifelong friend and minister and
correspondent, Samuel Rutherford. Lady Jane Campbell had very remarkable
gifts of mind. We would have expected that from her distinguished
pedigree; and we have abundant proof of that in Rutherford's sheaf of
letters to her. His dedication of that most remarkable piece, _The Trial
and Triumph of Faith_, is sufficient of itself to show how highly
Rutherford esteemed Lady Kenmure, both as to her head and her heart. Till
our theological students have been led to study _The Trial and Triumph of
Faith: Christ Dying and Drawing Sinners to Himself_--which, to my mind,
is by far the best of Rutherford's works--_The Covenant of Grace_ and
_The Influences of Grace_, they will have no conception of the
intellectual rank of Samuel Rutherford himself, or of the intelligence