Andrew Bonar is no doubt entirely right when he says that this letter,
now open before us, must have been the heart-searching letter that caused
that God-fearing woman, fresh from her knees, so great exercise. Let us
share her great exercise, and in due time we shall share her great
salvation. Not otherwise.

5. 'And remember,' he proceeds, 'what your besetting sin may cost you in
the end. I beseech you therefore and obtest you in the Lord, to make
conscience of all rash and passionate oaths, of raging and avenging
anger, of night-drinking, of bad company, of Sabbath-breaking, of hurting
any under you by word or deed, of hurting your very enemies. Except you
receive the Kingdom of God as a little child, you cannot enter it. That
is a word that should make your great spirit fall.' 'If men allow
themselves in malice and envy,' writes Thomas Shepard, a contemporary of
Rutherford's, 'or in wanton thoughts, that will condemn them, even though
their corruptions do not break out in any scandalous way. Such thoughts
are quite sufficient evidence of a rotten heart. If a man allows himself
in malice or in envy, though he thinks he does it not, yet he is a
hypocrite; if in his heart he allows it he cannot be a saint of God. If
there be one evil way, though there have been many reformations, the man
is an ungodly man. One way of sin is exception enough against any man's
salvation. A small shot will kill a man as well as a large bullet, a
small leak let alone will sink a ship, and a small, and especially a
secret and spiritual sin, will cost a man his soul.'

6. 'Remember, also, your shortening sand-glass.' On the day when John
Gordon was born a sand-glass with his name written upon it was filled,
and from that moment it began to run down before God in heaven. For how
long it was filled God who filled it alone knew. Whether it was filled
to run out in an hour, or to run till Gordon was cut down in mid-time of