Rutherford on Loving God for Himself

Samuel Rutherford (1600-1661), an eminent Scottish Puritan wrote some of the most sublime and spiritual letters in the history of the Christian church. (Online version) C. H. Spurgeon (d. 1892) wrote of him:

What a wealth of spiritual nourishment we have here! Rutherford is beyond all praise of men. Like a strong-winged eagle he soars into the highest heaven and with unblenched eye he looks into the mystery of love divine. There is, to us, something mysterious, awe-creating and superhuman about Rutherford's letters. . . . When we are dead and gone let the world know that Spurgeon held Rutherford's Letters to be the nearest thing to inspiration which can be found in all the writings of mere men (from the flyleaf of the Banner of Truth version pictured above).

Richard Baxter (d. 1691) said of his letters, "Hold off the Bible, such a book the world never saw." 

Here, then is a letter which was written to Lady Kenmure:

True Love for Christ Outshines All Other Loves

And among many marks that we are on this journey, and under sail toward heaven, this is one, when the love of God so filleth our hearts, that we forget to love, and care not much for the having, or wanting of, other things; as one extreme heat burneth out another. By this Madam, ye know, ye have betrothed your soul in marriage to Christ, when ye do make but small reckoning of all other suitors or wooers; and when ye can (having little in hand, but much in hope) live as a young heir, during the time of his non-age and minority, being content to be as hardly handled and under as precise a reckoning as servants, because his hope is upon the inheritance. . . . 

Ye shall find it your only happiness, under whatever thing disturbeth and crosseth your peace of mind, in this life, to love nothing for itself, but only God for Himself. . . . Our love to Him should begin on earth, as it shall be in heaven; for the bride taketh not, by a thousand degrees, so much delight in her wedding garment as she doth in her bridegroom; so we, in the life to come, howbeit clothed with glory as with a robe, shall not be so much affected with the glory that goeth about us, as with the bridegroom's joyful face and presence.

Seventeenth century language aside, one can hardly improve upon the heart with which Rutherford writes this, nor the degree of love to which he aims. O Lord, give us such intensity!