Aiming to be a Christian

O wretched idol, myself! When shall I see thee wholly decourted, and Christ wholly put in thy room? O, if Christ, Christ, had the full place and room of myself, that all my aims, purposes, thoughts, and desires, would coast and land upon Christ, and not upon myself! And yet, howbeit we cannot attain this denial of me and mine that we can say I am not myself, myself is not myself, mine own is no longer mine own; yet our aiming at this in all we do shall be accepted; for, alas, I think I shall die but minting and aiming to be a Christian.

Samuel Rutherford - The Loveliness of Christ

Labouring for Christ

From Samuel Rutherford's The Loveliness of Christ:

I urge upon you...a nearer communion with Christ and a growing communion. There are curtains to be drawn in by Christ that we never saw, and new foldings of love in him. I despair that ever I shall win to the far end of that love, there are so many plies in it; therefore dig deep, and sweat, and labour, and take pains for him, and set by so much time in the day for him as you can; he will be won with labour.