If an unpoisoned youth and an unembittered family life are some of the
sweetest things this earth can taste, then a circle of close and true and
dear friendships does not come very far behind them. Rutherford had
plenty of trouble in his family life that he used to set down to the sins
of his youth; and then the way he poisoned so many of his best
friendships by his so poisonous party spirit is a humbling history to
read. He quarrelled irreconcilably with his very best friends over
matters that were soon to be as dead as Aaron's golden calf, and which
never had much more life or decency in them. The matters were so small
and miserable over which Rutherford quarrelled with such men as David
Dickson and Robert Blair that I could not interest you in them at this
time of day even if I tried. They were as parochial, as unsubstantial,
and as much made up of prejudice and ill-will as were some of those
matters that have served under Satan to poison so often our own private
and public and religious life. Rutherford actually refused to assist
Robert Blair at the Lord's Supper, so embittered and so black was his
mind against his dearest friend. 'I would rather,' said sweet-tempered
Robert Blair, 'have had my right hand hacked off at the cross of
Edinburgh than have written such things.' 'My wife and I,' wrote dear
John Livingstone, 'have had more bitterness together over these matters
than we have ever had since we knew what bitterness was.' And no one in
that day had a deeper hand in spreading that bitterness than just the
hand that wrote Rutherford's letters. There is no fear of our calling
any man master if we once look facts fair in the face.

The precariousness of our best friendships, the brittle substance out of
which they are all composed and constructed, and the daily accidents and
injuries to which they are all exposed--all this is the daily distress of
all true and loving hearts. What a little thing will sometimes embitter
and poison what promised to be a loyal and lifelong friendship! A