Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/130

Rh 112 R U T R U T she had certain rights over her husband's estate which the next kinsman had to buy up before he could enter on the property. And this he was willing to do, but he was not willing also to marry Ruth and beget on her a son who would take the name and estate of the dead and leave him out of pocket. He therefore withdraws and Boaz comes in in his place. That this is the sense of the transaction is clear ; there is, however, a little obscurity in iv 5, where one letter seems to have fallen out and we must read on nn - n K QJ^, and translate " What day thou buyest the field from Naomi thou must also buy Ruth," &c. Comp. vv. 9, 10. Amone older commentaries special mention may be made of J. B. Carpzov, Collegium rabbinico-biblirvm in Helium Ruth, Leipsic, 1703. In recent times Ruth has usually been taken up by commentators along with JUDGKS / p ^ (*** *** "'/ RUTHENIANS. See SLAVS. For Ruthenian (Little Russian) literature, see RUSSIA. RUTHENIUM. See PLATINUM. RUTHERFURD, or RUTHERFORD, SAMUEL (1600- 1661), Scottish divine, was born about 1600 at the village of Nisbet in Roxburghshire. He is supposed to have received his early education at Jedburgh, and he entered the university of Edinburgh in 1617. He graduated M.A. in 1621, and two years afterwards was elected professor of humanity. On account of some alleged indiscretion or irregularity connected with his marriage in 1625, he resigned his professorship in that year, but, after study- ing theology, he was in 1627 appointed minister of An- woth, Kirkcudbrightshire, where he displayed remarkable diligence and zeal, alike as preacher, pastor, and student, and soon took a leading place among the clergy of Galloway. In 1636 his first book, entitled Exercitationes de Gratia an elaborate treatise against Arminianism appeared at Amsterdam, and attracted some attention both in Great Britain and on the Continent. Combined with his strict and non-conforming presbyterianism, the severe Calvinism set forth in this work led to a prosecution by the new bishop of the diocese, Sydserff, in the High Commission Court, first at Wigtown and afterwards at Edinburgh, with the result that Rutherfurd was deposed from his pastoral office, and sentenced to confinement in Aberdeen during the king's pleasure. His banishment lasted from September 1636 to February 1638, and was chiefly remarkable for the epistolary activity he displayed, the greater number of his published Letters belonging to this period of his life. He was present at the signing of the Covenant in Edin- burgh in 1638, and afterwards at the meeting of the Glasgow Assembly the same year, which restored him to his parish. In 1639 he was appointed professor of divin- ity in St Mary's College, St Andrews, and shortly after- wards became colleague to Robert Blair in the church of St Andrews. He was sent up to London in 1643 as one of the eight commissioners from Scotland to the West- minster Assembly. Arriving along with Baillie in Novem- ber, and remaining at his post over three years, he did great service to the cause of his party. In 1642 he had pub- lished his Peaceable and Temperate Plea for Paul's Presby- ttrie in Scotland, and the sequel to it in 1644 on The Due Right of Presbyteries provoked Milton'a contemptuous reference to "mere A. S. and Rutherfurd" in his sonnet On the New Forcers of Conscience under the Long Parliament. In 1644 also appeared Rutherf urd's Lex Rex, a Dispute for the Just Prerogative of King and People, which gives him a recognized place among the early writers on constitutional law; it was followed by The Divine Right of Church Government (1646), and Free Disputation against Pretended Liberty of Conscience (1649). Among his other works are the Tryal and Triumph of Faith (1645), Christ Dying and Drawing Sinners to Himself (1647), and Survey of the Spiritual Antichrist (1648). In 1647 he returned to St Andrews to become principal of the New College there, and in 1648 and 1651 he declined successive invitations to theological chairs at Harderwijk and Utrecht. His last days were assailed by the persecution which followed the Restoration in 1660. His Lex Rex was ordered to be burned at the cross of Edinburgh, and also at the gate of the college. He was deprived of all his offices, and on a charge of high treason was cited to appear before the ensuing parliament. His health, however, now utterly broke down, and knowing that he had not long to live he drew up, on 26th February 1661, a Testimony, which was posthumously published. He died on the 20th of the following March. The fame of Rutherfurd now rests principally upon his remark- able 'Letters, on which Wodrow thus comments: "He seems to have outdone even himself as well as everybody else in his admir- able and every way singular letters, which, though jested upon by profane wits because of some familiar expressions, yet will be owned of all who have any relish of piety to contain such sublime flights of devotion and to be fraughted with such massy thoughts as loudly speak a soul united to Jesus Christ in the closest embraces, and must needs at once ravish and edify every serious reader." In addition to the other works already mentioned, Rutherfurd published in 1651 a treatise De Divina Providentia, against Molinism, Socinianism, and Arminianism, of which Richard Baxter, not without justice, remarked that " as the Letters were the best piece so this was the worst he had ever read. " The Letters, to the number of 215, were first published anonymously by M'Ward, an amanuensis, at Rotterdam, in 1664. They have been frequently reprinted, the best edition (365 letters) being that by Rev. A. A. Bonar, 1848, with a sketch of his life. See also a short Life by Rev. Dr Andrew Thomson, 1884. RUTHERGLEN, an ancient royal burgh of Lanark- shire, Scotland, is situated near the left bank of the Clyde, 2 miles south-east of Glasgow. It consists chiefly of one long wide irregular street, with narrow streets, wyuds, and alleys branching from it at intervals. The parish church is situated near the centre of the town, a little distance from the tower of the old church where the treaty was made in 1297 with Edward I., by which Sir John Mon- teith agreed with the English to betray the Scottish hero Wallace. The most important public building is the town- hall, a handsome structure with a large square tower. In the vicinity there are extensive collieries and ironworks, and the town possesses chemical works, a paper mill, a pottery, and a shipbuilding yard. The corporation consists of a provost, two bailies, a dean of guild, a treasurer, and fifteen councillors. The population of the royal burgh in 1871 was 9239, and in 1881 it was 11,473. Rutherglen was erected into a royal burgh by King David in 1126. At this time it included a portion of Glasgow, but in 1226 the boundaries were rectified so as to exclude the whole of that city. In early times it had a castle, which was taken by Bruce from the English in 1313. It was kept in good repair till after the battle of Langside it was burnt by order of the regent Murray. After this the town for a time gradually decayed, the trade being absorbed by Glasgow. Rutherglen is included in the Kilmarnock district of parliamentary burghs. RUTILIUS CLAUDIUS NAMATIANUS is known to us as the author of a Latin poem in elegiac metre, describ- ing a coast voyage from Rome to Gaul in 416 A.D. The literary excellence of the work and the flashes of light which it throws across a momentous but dark epoch of history combine to give it exceptional importance among the relics of late Roman literature. The poem was in two books ; the exordium of the first and the greater part of the second have been lost. What remains consists of about 700 lines. The poet's voyage took place in the late autumn of 416 (i. 135 sq.), and the verses as we have them were evi- dently written at or very near the time. The author is a native of southern Gaul, and belonged, like Sidonius, to one of the great governing families of the Gaulish pro- vinces. His father, whom he calls Lachanius, had held high offices in Italy and at the imperial court, had been governor of Etruria and Umbria (consularis Tusciae) pro- bably in 389, when a Claudius is named in the Theodosian Code (2, 4, 5) as having held the office, then imperial treasurer (comes sacrarum largitionum), imperial recorder (quaestor), and governor of the capital itself (praefectus