When Samuel Rutherford was staying for a while at the house of James Guthrie, the maid was surprised at hearing a voice in his room. She had supposed he was alone. Moved by curiosity, she crept to his door. She then discovered that Rutherford was in prayer. He walked up and down the room, exclaiming,‘O Lord, make me to believe in you!’ Then, after a pause, he moved to and fro again, crying,
‘O Lord, make me to love you!’ And, after a second rest, he rose again, praying, ‘O Lord, make me to keep all your commandments!’
Rutherford, … had grasped the spiritual significance of the divine order.
‘O Lord, make me to believe in you!’—the commandment that…includes all the commandments!
‘O Lord, make me to love you!’—for love, as Jesus told the rich young ruler, is the fulfillment of the whole law.
‘O Lord, make me to keep all your commandments!’ The person who learns the Ten Commandments … will see a shining path that runs from Mount Sinai right up to the Cross and on through the gates of pearl into the City of God.
F W Boreham, A Handful of Stars (London: The Epworth Press, 1922), 66-67.
Dr Geoff Pound
Image: Samuel Rutherford.