“Oh, if I could but creep one foot, or half a foot, nearer to Jesus, in such a dismal night as that when he is away, I should think it a happy absence!  If I knew that the Beloved were only gone away for trial, and further humiliation, and not smoked out of the house with new provocations, I would forgive desertions and hold my peace at his absence.  But Christ’s brought absence (that I brought with my sin), is like two running boils at once, one upon each side; and what side then can I lie on?”  Samuel Rutherford  (1600-1661)