Obituaries Post-1900

Obituaries

Free Church Ministers 1900 –

 
 

Here we have obituaries of ministers collected from The Monthly Record of the post-1900 Free Church – from 1900 till 1962. Most of these are of men who actually served in the Free Church post-1900 but there are also a few, retired men, who never formally remained under the jurisdiction of the Free Church but who, it was thought, still considered themselves as belonging to the Free Church rather than to the United Free Church.

Typically the death of a minister would be treated by the Editor as a news item and then in the same or later issue of the magazine, a fuller obituary would be published by someone else. In some cases, usually of the more outstanding men, multiple obituaries or tributes were provided in the magazine. Thus a professor might have an item contributed by a friend or colleague; another by the Senate of the College; and another by a former student, and so on. These have all been gathered together here. This makes for a measure of repetitiveness; on the other hand, it does provide researchers with a range of perspectives on the life of the deceased.

Unfortunately, as is typical of this period, these ministerial obituaries are long on devotion and short on facts – they may well be of more interest to family researchers than to church historians – but they are all that we have on these men at the moment. We hope to be able to publish an account of Free Church congregations and their ministers, from 1900 till 1999, sometime in the not too distant future, to which these obituaries will then be attached.

 

 

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 REV. WILLIAM WILSON AITKEN

(Died 1925)
Source: The Monthly Record, February, 1926, p.20

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Ar the close of the year 1925 the long life of the Rev. W. W. Aitken came to an end. He was born in Dundee on 26th September 1824, and had thus entered on his 102nd year. He remained wonderfully active in mind and body until the end, and his interest in public affairs alike in Church and in State showed little abatement.

To a former generation he was known as “Aitken of Carlops,” for it was in Carlops that he laboured during the whole of his active ministerial life. He was vigorously opposed to the Union of 1900, and shortly after that event he threw in his lot with the Free Church. Thereafter for a good many years he rendered useful service in supplying vacant congregations and as a member of the various Courts of the Church. He had an extensive knowledge of Church law, and acted as clerk to the Free Church Presbytery of Dalkeith for thirty years. For twenty years also he occupied the position of chairman of the School Board.

A man of vigorous understanding and of excellent business capacity, he was also an earnest and capable preacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He was held in high esteem by many friends within all the Churches.

 

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PROFESSOR WILLIAM MENZIES ALEXANDER

(Died 30th August, 1929)
Author: Professor R. Moore, B.D.
Source: The Monthly Record, November, 1929, pp.274-276

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Dr Alexander has passed away so recently that we can scarcely yet estimate the value of his service or realise the loss which the Church has sustained in his death. He was a great man, and his work has been great. His ancestry and his Church connection are notable. He was a great-grandson of that Andrew Menzies who was baptised in Barony Parish on 1st July 1712 by the Covenanting minister John MacMillan. His great-grandfather, his grandfather, his father, and William Menzies Alexander himself, in four successive generations were called to the office of the eldership in the same congregation. This Reformed Presbyterian congregation was incorporated in the Free Church in 1876.

His University career was particularly brilliant. In Glasgow University he gained the academia the degrees M.A., B.Sc., B.D., M.B., C.M., M.D., and D.Sc., and two years ago Edinburgh recognised his scholarship by conferring the degree D.D.. Before his academic training was completed he occupied a chair for a period in the Free Church College, Bombay; and when his Divinity course was finished he was ordained in Great Hamilton Street Church, Glasgow, on 15th September 1889, as a missionary to India, and appointed Professor of Chemistry, Biology, and Geology in the Bombay College. On his return, after nine years’ service, he was locum tenens for a time in the Colleges of the Church in Glasgow and Aberdeen, and in 1904 he was elected by the General Assembly of our Church as Professor of Divinity, while the Free Church case was still pending in the House of Lords. During the first year after his appointment to the College in Edinburgh his duties were arduous. Friends outside the Church gave their help, but the weight of the work fell on Dr Alexander, who conducted four classes four days per week. In this he taught most of the subjects in the Divinity curriculum, including Hebrew. He was equally at home in them all, and there was no lowering of the standard by reason of the multitude of interests that claimed his attention. At the end of the session the Training of the Ministry Committee was able to announce that all the statutory work of the College had been carried through. When, in the following year, the College was fully organised under Principal McCulloch, the subjects which fell to Dr Alexander were five in number, namely, Apologetics, Homiletics, Natural Science, Missions, and Pastoral Theology. Of these he considered that the most difficult is Apologetics – the defence of the Christian faith against modern unbelief. As the attacks are constantly changing he kept himself abreast of the latest thought of the day, reading new books as they appeared, formulating new defences, preparing new lectures. His lectures were re-written at least once in every three years. The width of his knowledge was amazing. Besides the theological and scientific subjects in which he took degrees, he was familiar with five continental languages. His own stores of learning were placed freely at the disposal of anyone who sought his help, as many did. His knowledge in the different spheres was by no means superficial, but deep and accurate and ever at his command – “encyclopædic” is the term that was often used to describe it by some of the most learned men of the day.

As a teacher he stood in the foremost rank. He had a clear conception of what the work involved – the transference of ideas from one mind to another, and the drawing out of the intelligence of the student. In either respect his skill has seldom been surpassed. It has been observed and commented on by every new generation of students that has come under his influence, and was emphasised in the address of congratulation which his colleagues and students presented to him in May last to commemorate the completion of his twenty-five years’ work in the College. His sermons are models of pulpit work, showing clear grasp of the subject, accurate exegesis and discussion, and practical application, all with deep evangelical fervour and in language of singular clearness and beauty.

During the present year he had two articles on “The Resurrection of Christ” published in The Evangelical Quarterly. When he wrote them, his physical strength was waning, but he shows no mark of decline in mental vigour. His treatment of the theme is forcible and clear, and has been a strength and comfort to many.

His great learning and his power as a lecturer and preacher did not keep him in a world remote from his fellows. He was the most friendly and genial and sympathetic of men, and it was these human traits that endeared him to his students, just as his power in presenting Divine truth gained their admiration.

His piety was simple and unaffected. Amidst the clash of opposing theories and argument, he lived a life of unwavering faith in Christ, the eternal Son, the Saviour. He gave constant evidence of experiencing “the power of an endless life.” So in spite of increasing bodily infirmities his outlook was always bright and his confidence in the prospects of the Church at home and abroad assured. Our Church owes him much, and his students and such friends as had the privilege of intimate converse with him remember him with undying gratitude.
 

Tribute at the opening of the Free Church College on 16th October, 1929
Author: Principal John Macleod
Source: The Monthly Record, November, 1929

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At the close of last session we had still with us Dr Alexander, whose loss we now mourn.

It was then agreed upon that he was to deliver the opening address of this session; for however willing his colleagues were to relieve him of any burden that might seem to be too heavy for him, he was himself willing to undertake this task. His health was then so evidently failing that it was with misgiving that we consented to his accepting a fresh responsibility. And now his course is run. During the past twenty-five years the Church and her rising ministry have had the benefit of his diligence and his labours in this College. His former students and his colleagues took the opportunity of his semi-jubilee to put on permanent record the sense they entertained of the value of the services that he had rendered. And on the present occasion I can only repeat what was then written. He was a polymath whose erudition was as rare as it was extensive. His information was encyclopædic in its range, and it was at ready call. The orderly character of his mind made it possible for him to draw at pleasure on his resources. And that orderliness of mental equipment found a fit vehicle in the lucid and succinct style in which he expressed himself. This made him an admirable expositor of the subjects that he treated in his prelections, and he delivered his lectures in such a way as allowed his students to benefit to the full from them. His kindly and genial disposition showed itself in his intercourse with colleagues and students, and for his students he made it easy to be at home with them in classroom and common room. He took a most lively interest in their welfare. In the College he was most obliging. If any of his brethren needed help they had but to call upon his services. In spite of the handicap that he suffered from – [I am told he was extremely deaf] – he was able to keep in touch with the work of College and Church both. His teaching throughout the long tenure of his Chair was thoroughly loyal to the Reformation, and the rising ministry of the Church have had a great opportunity of attaining to a sound acquaintance with Christian truth and principles of Church life as they sat at his feet. We must look to the Head of the Church, who bestows His own ascension gifts that faithful men who shall be able to teach others also may be raised up to transmit to the ministry of days to come the goodly heritage of apostolic and reformed teaching to which we have been served heirs, and of which we are trustees. The legatees of the past are the trustees for the future.

 

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 PROFESSOR COLIN A. BANNATYNE

(Died 22nd November, 1920)
Source: The Monthly Record, December, 1920, p.195

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Through the death of Professor Colin A. Bannatyne the Free Church has sustained a heavy loss. We do not here venture on any extended appreciation of his character or his services: in another part of the present issue there will be found an estimate of these from friends who are well qualified to pay a tribute to his memory. But we take the opportunity of saying – and the statement is no mere rhetorical exaggeration – that no man ever loved his Church more passionately than Professor Bannatyne loved the Free Church of Scotland. He gave himself to her with a devotion which absorbed his whole strength, and anything that affected her interests seemed to touch his own very life. Professor Bannatyne was a man of varied accomplishments. As a preacher he sometimes rose to very lofty heights. The writer remembers especially a discourse on the white-robed angels at the Saviour’s empty tomb which from beginning to end was a prose poem. All his sermons indeed were in the grand manner, and his prayers were perhaps even more striking than his discourses. The prayer which followed his closing Address from the Moderator’s Chair in 1906 stands out before the mind of at least one of his hearers as one of the most remarkable utterances, for felicity of diction, comprehensiveness of range, and intensity of spiritual fervour, which he ever heard in that line of things in his life. Professor Bannatyne was a Christian gentleman of the old school. He carried with him a fine dignity and courtesy into all the relationships of life. The fathers of the Church are one by one being called to their eternal rest, and there is need for abounding prayer to the Lord of the Harvest that He may raise up others who will fill the depleted ranks, and will devote themselves to the work of His Kingdom with the same diligence and fidelity.

 

A Notable Standard-Bearer
Author: John Macleod
Source: The Monthly Record, December, 1920, pp.201ff.

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We are called to mourn the removal of one of our venerated fathers. Professor Bannatyne entered into rest on Monday, 22nd November. As a shock of corn fully ripe he has been taken home in his season. He was born in the year 1849 and was thus in his seventy-second year. In spite of precarious health his life was preserved until he reached fully the allotted span. But however handicapped he was with feeble health, he was enabled to do work that will leave its mark behind him.

His father, Rev. Archibald Bannatyne, was a remarkable man. He was minister of Oban at the Disruption, and for years did yeoman service to the Free Church in the early part of its history in Northern Argyll. He belonged to an old family of the Bannatynes in Bute. But what was better than old connections was the environment that was about his early years. His father and uncle were the leading spirits in setting up the Chapel of Ease in Rothesay which had as its first minister, Mr John Robertson, who died minister of Kingussie. Rothesay came to be a centre of solid and vigorous Evangelical life, and the circle in which the Bannatynes moved breathed this healthy air. Archibald Bannatyne had an elder brother, Rev. Ninian Bannatyne, of like spirit with himself, and indeed the various members of the family, brothers and sisters, left the memory behind them of godly and devoted lives. Old people in the Cumnock district used to speak of the godly Ninian Bannatyne. He was the first to resign any position in connection with the Disruption. The Marquis of Bute, who was the Royal Commissioner, had appointed him his chaplain, but when it became plain that the Disruption was inevitable he resigned this appointment, and when the day of testing came he was not found wanting.

Mr Bannatyne, of Oban, was called to the Knox Free Church, Glasgow, in the early fifties, when he succeeded a remarkable preacher, who, like himself, was a Disruption minister and represented that strain of west-country Evangelicalism which was associated with the work and witness of Dr John Love. Here he in turn was succeeded by another of the same school, the late excellent Rev. James Gibson and Duncan Macnab, while Dr Mackintosh Mackay before he left Dunoon for Australia was one of his closest friends. Mr Bannatyne indeed began his public work as Dr Mackay’s assistant at Toward in the parish of Dunoon before he went to Brodick and Oban. The set in which he moved was thus one of the choicest of a godly generation, and the home over which he with his like-minded wife presided, was such as to bring the best and healthiest influence to bear on their family, and this influence was not in vain.

From his early years Professor Bannatyne showed that he had adopted the principles and imbibed the spirit of those that surrounded his youth. His father, owing to broken health, had to retire in middle age from the active work of the ministry, and went to live at Ayr. This was not far from his brother’s charge. Here the family enjoyed the pastoral teaching of Mr Grant of whose work the professor often spoke, although Mr Grant on some public matters took an attitude that he and his friends could not approve.

When after his father’s death the family went to Edinburgh they connected themselves with the congregation of Dr Begg of Newington, and while still a young man Colin Archibald Bannatyne became one of his office-bearers. Controversy had now become keen in the Free Church in regard to the Union with the United Presbyterian Synod, and Dr Begg became the recognised leader of the party that were opposed to this Union, and was prepared to adhere unambiguously to the whole witness of the Reformed Confessing Church of Scotland. With all his heart Professor Bannatyne sympathised with his minister’s outlook, and throughout his life he drew a straight furrow in upholding and defending the constitution of the Disruption Church. On the completion of his curriculum of study he became assistant to Dr Moody Stuart, and was thus brought into very close connection with what was then one of the warmest Evangelical congregations to be found anywhere. In 1876 he was settled as minister of the Free Church congregation of Culter, near Biggar, and in this charge he remained until he was called to the Chair of Church History and Principles in 1905.

Shortly after Mr Bannatyne was ordained to the ministry, Dr Samuel Miller of St Matthew’s Free Church, Glasgow, which was then the premier congregation of the Church in the West of Scotland, and which was a stronghold of old Evangelicalism, did what he could to get him to be his colleague. But conscious as he was of his weakness and of the heavy work of the city congregation, the young minister of Culter could not consent to leave his small charge in the country. There he pursued his studies and took a lively interest in public questions. His standpoint throughout was that of the reverent believer who adhered wholeheartedly to the constitution and standards of his Church. He was no time-server, and if there was any type that he despised more heartily than another it was the amorphous jellyfish whose convictions are fluid, and who is adaptable to what the convenience of the moment calls for. Shifty and self-seeking opportunism was his abhorrence.

But at an early age Mr Bannatyne was admitted to the councils and the confidences of their leaders. Dr Smeaton in particular became his intimate friend, and that gracious scholar in his latter years could say of him that there was no minister in the Church on whose judgment he relied more implicitly than Colin Bannatyne. With unremitting vigilance he watched the trend of things in the Church, and when after years of delay the policy of the innovators was brought to a head in 1900, he was prepared at all hazards to maintain the constitution which he was pledged to defend. To follow the multitude he felt would be to put a fool’s cap on the contendings of the Disruption Fathers, and if he could help it he was determined that this should not be done. He was a member of the Assembly which met in October 1900, and when the minority who adhered to the Free Church found themselves debarred from entering their own gates, he had the honour as chosen Moderator of the small band of witnesses to open the Assembly on the street under a downpour of rain. In prosecuting the case in defence of the Church’s constitution no one man did more than he, and the case will be known as that of Bannatyne v. Overtoun. He devoted all his powers which were then at their height and all his stores of information to the cause, and he was ready to halt at no sacrifice that he could make to bring the matter to a successful end. The strain of the trying years 1900-1904 told upon him, but he had the satisfaction to see the fixity and the definiteness of his Church’s constitution vindicated. The opinion of Lord Robertson, in particular, gratified him.

Anxious years of upbuilding lay before the Church, and he was called from his quiet country manse to be Professor of Church History and Principles. In this office he had the opportunity of instructing the rising ministry in those principles that were so dear to his heart. In more public work he took a definite part, and his fear that his beloved Church might be left to describe such an orbit as she had done before kept him on the watch against any tendencies that pointed in such a direction. His special interest was the Church’s Claim of Right. A hereditary interest this was. The only serious attempt, when there was some hope that it might be heard, to present this Claim was led by his venerable uncle, the minister of Cumnock. To the end this interest remained unabated.

Professor Bannatyne had a great share at once of the perfervidum ingenium Scotorum and of the common sense and caution characteristic of the race. His judgment was remarkably sound. His mind was at the same time acute and comprehensive. In disposition he was warm-hearted and unsuspicious. But if his suspicions were once aroused he must be satisfied that they were groundless before he laid them aside. Loyalty might be said to be the keynote to his character. Full of humour he had a rare fund of anecdotes illustrative of old Scottish life. His fine culture found expression in choice speech. When deeply stirred he could be movingly eloquent. In public prayer he had a marvellous gift of ready use of appropriate devotional language. Few more generous men could be found. Sterling principles ruled his life. He was a true man and one of the saints of God, and when he is taken well may we say, “My Father, my Father, the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof.”

 

His Work as Professor
Author: W. M. A. [Professor William Menzies Alexander]
Source: The Monthly Record, December, 1920, pp.201ff.

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Only a brief paragraph is at present possible regarding the College work of our departed brother. Long before his appointment to the Chair of Church History and Principles, he had made an extensive study of these subjects in their various aspects. Whilst he had a very competent knowledge of Church History in all its Periods Early, Mediæval, Reformation, and post-Reformation he devoted himself chiefly to the history of the Church in Scotland, and pre-eminently to that part of it which had reference to the rise and progress of the Free Church.

While quite able to deal with history as a science and its “auxiliary sciences” – Epigraphy, Palæography, Philology, Diplomatic, and Archæology, he did not enter largely into these subjects but set down the following as the programme of his class-work: “The aim of the lectures is to deal with documents, events, and personages specially worthy of consideration by those preparing for the ministry of the Free Church.” In this, he was following the “tradition” created by Dr Wm. Cunningham. As Professor of Church Principles, he had a knowledge and insight well worthy of the latter. His notable contribution to the vindication of the principles of Chalmers, Cunningham, and Begg can never be forgotten by our Church. He had the true historian’s reverence for the “verified fact,” and the loyalist’s veneration for the solid achievements of his Church. The first ensured the most meticulous care in the preparation of his lectures, and the second awakened a remarkable enthusiasm in their delivery. When the College Library was being set up, Prof. Bannatyne acted as Convener of Committee and received, from a pretentious source outside our Church, an offer to provide us with “a really good catalogue of theological books.” The Convener was quite equal to the occasion: his polite but pungent reply sisting all further offer of U.F. patronage. An important part of Prof. Bannatyne’s work was the criticising of the statutory “controversial exercise” of students “in English or Latin.” Here he evinced a profound knowledge of Systematic Theology, and a scrupulous care which would be content with nothing less than a written critique. Prof. Bannatyne, unknown to most people, was a man of wide culture, being deeply versed in literature and science. He adorned his office by an unfailing courtesy and ready helpfulness towards all his students. His relations to his colleagues were always of the happiest sort.

While the College mourns over its bereavement, it offers unto God great and hearty thanks for the precious gift, so long enjoyed by it, of a personality, rich in learning as in grace. “The treasure was put in the earthen vessel, that the excellency of the power might be of God and not of us.”

 

As Preacher and Ecclesiastic
Author: A. MacN. [Archibald MacNeilage]
Source: The Monthly Record, December, 1920, pp.201ff.

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Professor Bannatyne was personally known to me for about thirty years. When John Geddes became minister of Milton Church in 1885 Professor Bannatyne assisted at his first Communion in October of that year. He began his sermon on the Saturday afternoon with a quotation from Anselm, “Why was it necessary that God should become man?” Ans. “My son, hast thou not considered the infinite demerit of sin?” He preached frequently for Mr Geddes on similar occasions. Explaining his interest in him, Mr Geddes said, “My young friend’s father was my Barnabas in the day of my distress.” In the pulpit the late Professor was eloquent and logical. He had remarkably full vocabulary, but prepared his discourses with scrupulous care. His sermons were built on the Johnsoness principle. They were moulded on the lines of those preached by Dr Robert Gordon of the High Church, Edinburgh. Of him, indeed of all the Disruption worthies, Professor Bannatyne was an almost perfervid admirer. Naturally conservative in his outlook, his convictions were deeply-rooted in Scriptural principle. He was emphatically not one of those given to change. He cherished the best traditions of the evangelical school of Scottish parochial ministers, their dignity as well as their humanity, and courtly social gifts. He was a firm and convinced believer in the traditional Scottish Reformation ideas of education and ecclesiastical polity.

In his student days Professor Bannatyne was one of the resolute band who sat at the feet of Dr James Begg for their ecclesiastical politics, and at the feet of Dr Hugh Martin for their theology. He was one of the committee of students which organised course of lectures delivered by these and other worthies in the Albert Hall, Bath Street, Glasgow, before and after the failure of the Union negotiations in 1873. In the events which led up to and culminated in the crisis of 30th October 1900, Professor Bannatyne played a foremost part. Saturated with the traditions of the Disruption leaders and an unstinted admirer of Professor James Gibson, of Glasgow, the Anti-Union leader who fell in 1870, he had no falterings as to duty in the evil hour. “If truth be fallen in the street, let us fall with her,” was one of his quotations in that day which tried the mettle of all men. His speech in moving the negative to Union on behalf of the minority, who abode by the Free Church, was worthy of the occasion. Through that trying ordeal it was the writer’s duty to follow as seconder of the negative resolution. The impressions and experiences of that day and of the day which followed – when the Union was consummated in the Waverley Market, and the Free Church Assembly met in Queen Street Hall, amidst jeers and mockery – are not likely to fade from the memory of those whom Professor Bannatyne then led, as it eventually proved, through apparent defeat, to assured victory.

 

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 REV. JOHN CALDWELL, B.A., B.D., DUMBARTON

(Died 4th November, 1914)
Source: The Monthly Record, December 1914, p.212

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With both sorrow and astonishment we record the death, at the age of 45 years, of Mr John Caldwell, minister of the Free Church at Dumbarton. The sad event took place at Thornwood, Dumbarton, on Wednesday, 4th November. By his decease the Church has lost one of her ablest and most scholarly ministers, moreover one who was painstaking, zealous, and devoted in and to every work he took in hand. As a preacher he was instructive and persuasive. In preрагаtion he was diligent and careful, and in pastoral visitation he was indefatigable. Besides, he was a brother beloved by his co-presbyters, one whose counsel was wise, and whose judgment was respected.

Mr Caldwell was a native of Castlederg, County Tyrone. His career as a student was distinguished. He held in his Arts course scholarships in literature and in law. In his Divinity course he invariably held first place in Hebrew and Biblical Criticism, besides gaining the highest scholarships open to competition.

After licence by the Donegal Presbytery, he entered on study for his B.D. degree, which he gained in the unusual way of taking up all the subjects at one examination. On 29th January, 1899, he entered on his work as minister by becoming assistant to Dr Wright, First Newtonards, County Down. Afterwards he became minister of South Street congregation in the same town. In February, 1906, he came to Edinburgh, and entered the ministry of the Free Church. From Edinburgh he was transferred to Alvie (Kincraig), in the Inverness Presbytery, where he was much respected. In December, 1909, he came to Dumbarton, and gave his best to the maintaining and upbuilding of the important and thriving congregation there. His last work was making out the roll of honour in connection with the forty young men of the congregation who had joined the colours in the present war. In carrying out this work he went to every home in order that the most minute detail should be exact. Feeling unwell, he lay down as if to rest on Wednesday, 21st October. Soon serious symptoms developed, which defied the skill of the ablest physicians, and inside a fortnight he was called to truly rest from his labours.

During his ministry in the Free Church Mr Caldwell rendered admirable service. He was specially useful in connection with the work of the Training of the Ministry Committee, of which he was for a time vice-convener, and as an examiner in the Welfare of Youth schemes he was also helpful.

In this and other instances the voice of God is plain to all workers in His cause, especially in the Free Church, in that with startling suddenness the Master has called into His presence of late years those who could not, in our opinion, well be spared. But He doeth all things well.

The hearty sympathy of the Church goes out to the young widow and the boy who are left in loneliness. The young lad has, since his father’s death, indicated his intention to follow his father’s footsteps and become, if spared, a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

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 REV. ARCHIBALD DONALD CAMERON

(Died 27th February, 1946)
Source: The Monthly Record, April, 1946, p.53

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The report has reached us, as we go to press, of the death in Edinburgh on the 27th February of the Rev. A. D. Cameron, Senior Minister of Creich.

Mr Cameron has been in failing health for a considerable time, and by those in more intimate contact with his home the end was not unexpected. His passing, however, creates a blank in the ranks of the older ministers and will mean to many the severance of old ties of friendship and partnership in the work of the Gospel. He was a native of the parish of Kintail, and though reared in the remotest deer forest of his native county, his education had not been neglected and he eventually made his way to the University of Aberdeen. His mother – to whom he was devotedly attached – was a woman of parts, and her son published a book of her Gaelic poems, under the title “M’annsachd,” several of which reveal definite poetic gifts.

After completing his studies at the New College, Edinburgh, Mr Cameron was ordained at Minard, Lochſyneside, in 1895, and though he had not cast in his lot with the minority in 1900, his sympathies were entirely with the Free Church, which he joined shortly after the Union. He became successor to the Rev. Norman Campbell in the historic congregation of Creich, and retired from the active ministry scarcely two years ago. He was Moderator of the General Assembly in 1928.

A man of unusual physical stature, Mr Cameron had a commanding presence and a genial disposition. Possessing a penetrating mind and shrewd judgment, he had business acumen of a high order which he devoted freely to the highest interests, not only of his congregation, but of the entire community. In both his charges he took an active and prominent part in educational affairs and possessed himself an excellent and well-kept library. His lot in the latter years of his life had been mixed with much sorrow, having been bereaved first of his wife and then of his only daughter. His friendship was appreciated by many, and his genial presence will be missed throughout the Church.

 

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 REV. DUGALD CAMERON

(Died 24th October, 1949)
Source: The Monthly Record, November, 1949, p.461

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The death on the 24th October of the Rev. Dugald Cameron, Senior Minister of Ardersier, removes from the ranks of the Free Church ministry a brother greatly beloved. Mr Cameron held pastorates successively at Daviot, Strath (Skye) and Ardersier, and in each of these he served the Church with singular devotion and fidelity. As a preacher he proclaimed the evangel with simplicity, earnestness and winsomeness. It was as pastor, however, that he will be most fondly remembered. He was indefatigable in his visitation of his people and he brought into their homes a gracious and sincere spirit, ever ready to show Christian sympathy and bestow a word of encouragement and comfort. His graciousness of character and consistency of life were the fruit of a life of prayer and devotion to which, we are sure, very few attain. He disclosed to the writer recently that he habitually spent the hours between three and six in the morning in private prayer and intercession, and that spirit of prayer he carried about with him through all his public duties. His home-call was sudden and singularly befitting the whole tenor of his life. He took the services in Olrig congregation on the Sabbath, preaching in the evening on the text, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock,” and when he was being summoned on the Monday morning it was found that he was dead. Like Enoch of old, he walked with God and was not, for God took him. Our sympathy is extended to his widow and daughter thus suddenly bereaved, and to the congregations that enjoyed his faithful and gracious ministry.

 

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 REV. DUGALD SMITH CAMERON, BRODICK

(Died 9th February, 1942)
Author: J. M.
Source: The Monthly Record, March, 1942

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By the death, on the ninth of February, of Rev. Dugald S. Cameron, the congregation of Kilbride (Brodick), in the Island of Arran, has lost its minister. For some time before the end came, Mr Cameron was laid aside and confined to the house, and thus his removal in ripe years, as a shock of corn in its season, did not take his friends or his people by surprise. He was in the fortieth year of his work in the ministry, so that he had a standing among the older ministers of the Church.

He was a native of Sunart in North Argyll, and was brought up in the congregation of Strontian, which had the privilege for years of the faithful and fruitful ministry of Rev. John Macqueen, who afterwards became Free Church Minister of Daviot, where he died just over fifty years ago. In his home congregation, Mr Cameron’s godly uncle was an elder, and under his influence he was reared. In early life he came to know the power of the Gospel so that, when after some years spent in business in Tobermory, he set his face on the work of the ministry, he was no stranger to the message which he felt himself called to proclaim to his fellows and he was no raw novice when he undertook to preach the glad tidings of God’s gracious salvation.

During the time that he spent in Mull, he became much attached to Mr Paterson of Dervaig, whose preaching he greatly valued. The memory was still fresh in Tobermory of the work of Mr. Peter Maclean and of his successor, Mr. Christopher Munro. Evangelical influences thus continued to mould Mr Cameron’s life.

In the course of his career as a student, about the year 1894, Mr Cameron cast in his lot with the Free Presbyterian Church, and in the year 1902 he was ordained as minister of the joint charge of Halkirk and Helmsdale. From this congregation he was called and went to Tain, in which charge he remained until, in 1906, he came back to the Free Church and became minister at Lochgilphead. After some years of service there he was called to Croy, in Inverness-shire, and thereafter to Brodick, in each of which places he laboured for a number of years.

Mr Cameron as a minister was emphatically a man of the pulpit – not that he neglected the pastoral and ecclesiastical side of his work, but he concentrated his energies on his activities as a preacher of the Word. Indeed, he magnified the preacher’s office, and few ministers paid greater heed than he did to the making of their sermons. He loved good preaching, and, as a hearer, was discriminatingly appreciative of it. He lost few opportunities of hearing his brethren in the ministry. He aimed, as a Christian teacher, to excel in his proper work. He was a diligent student, a man of an enquiring mind, a good theologian, and a great reader. In his preaching he showed himself a careful analyst of the Word of God and of the believer’s heart. With a schoolman’s acuteness and precision, he would distinguish between things that differ. So his teaching, which was searching and spiritual, made a special appeal to a trained and exercised constituency, and so far may have shot over the heads of hearers of a less studious quality. But his faithful exhibition of law and sin on the one hand, and of gospel and grace on the other, was fitted to instruct his audience and to grip their conscience.

During the years spent in his last charge, he drew to his church a class of summer visitors who prized the spiritual food that he laid before them on the Gospel table. Mr Cameron had a fine gift of public prayer. Now that he is gone, he will be missed by many friends, whose sympathy goes out to his bereaved widow and family. He lies buried in the churchyard of Lamlash.

 

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 PRINCIPAL JOHN KENNEDY CAMERON

(Died 4th October, 1944)
Source: The Monthly Record, November, 1944, p.173

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The Church has sustained a heavy loss in the death of Principal J. K. Cameron, which took place suddenly in Edinburgh on Wednesday, 4th October. It is surely a mysterious Providence that removes from our College three Principals in the course of as many years – one by illness, the other two by death.

Principal Cameron’s tenure of the office was short – about fifteen months – but his services to the College as Professor of Systematic Theology extended over the period of thirty-eight years. As a teacher he was industrious and painstaking, and the several generations of students that passed through his classes retain pleasant memories of his sympathy and unfailing courtesy. As a theologian he followed closely the Princeton school, and his lectures were based largely on Hodge’s masterly and comprehensive – if unwieldy – Outline.

It is perhaps right to say that it was as an ecclesiastic that Principal Cameron has left the imprint of his skill and personality upon the Church. He took a leading part in the events which culminated in the Disruption of 1900 and the House of Lords’ Decision in 1905, and he took his full share in the work of reconstruction after the latter date. His clear mind and shrewd judgment were distinct assets to the Church in those troublous days. As Clerk of Assembly – an office he held for thirty-six years – he remained in close contact with the various departments of the Church’s work, and to an accurate knowledge of Church law and procedure he combined the personal qualities of self-restraint and good temper.

A native of the historic parish of Kiltearn, Dr Cameron’s early upbringing and the roots of his religious life were in the ecclesiastical traditions of Ross-shire. For fifty-four years he gave valued and devoted service to his Church – service, it may be added, which the Church found opportunity to recognise appropriately from time to time – and his death seems like the close of an epoch – an epoch of struggle and contention for Reformed and Disruption principles in the relations of Church and State.

 

Tribute by the Senatus of the Free Church College
Author: Peter W. Miller, Secretary to the Senatus
Source: The Monthly Record, November, 1944, pp.177ff

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The Rev. Principal J. K. Cameron, D.D., passed away with startling suddenness on the 4th of October 1944 at the age of 84. It was the opening day of the College Session, and previous to the fatal seizure he presided at two meetings connected with the College.

Principal Cameron lived a full life, much of it in conditions which were far from normal. He rendered notable service to his Church and the Cause of Christ, and showed those qualities that earned him a real, personal popularity amid the toils and controversies of public life.

A native of Ross-shire, and a graduate of Edinburgh University from which he received his doctorate Dr Cameron held the congregational charge of Brodick for 16 years, and the Chair of Systematic Theology in the Free Church College for 38 years, of which he was Principal for a little over a year.

The great stirring time of his career was the period which embraced the prelude to and the aftermath of the Union between the Free and the United Presbyterian Churches in 1900. He made his own contribution of courage, zeal, and efficiency to the struggle by which the Free Church has still a name and a place in Scotland and beyond. A capable administrator, and almost a model Clerk of Assembly, he helped in no small degree to put our reorganised Church life on a stable basis.

Principal Cameron was outstandingly a man of affairs, and the business gifts and flair for leadership, which kept him to the front in his own communion, would have secured him an honourable place in any company or circle. He had a sound grasp of Church Law, and revealed in his activities a fine blend of vision and caution. Few were better than he in penetrating to the heart of a situation, and, in Church debates, that ready and persuasive power of speech he commanded, along with his tact, firmness, and tenacity, usually secured the acceptance of his view of the matter in hand. Specially to be remembered were his unperturbed bearing and fine self-control and invariable courtesy in the discharge of the multifarious duties he undertook. And despite the many keen debates and controversies in which he was constrained to engage, he never allowed himself to give place to bitterness or rankling animosity.

Endowed with an excellent constitution, Dr Cameron had the prudence always to stop short of wasting his magnificent strength, and he was able to maintain his unhurried and well-directed efforts unimpaired to any great extent to the end of his long life. In that uncommonly active life of his he contrived to find time for writing. His Church in Arran may be thought of as tribute to the delightful island in which his one and only pastoral charge lay, and in his contribution to the volume, The Free Church of Scotland a Vindication, he gave a modest and business-like account of the extraordinary story of which he was himself no small part. To newspaper correspondence he was not averse, and in late years reviews of volumes in his own department appeared occasionally.

His geniality and helpfulness were almost proverbial. His unaffected kindness and good fellowship impressed all who came into contact with him. He was eminently approachable, and his wise counsel was readily put at the disposal of all who consulted him. Not a few young ministers were helped over daunting stiles when they felt woefully lame and baffled.

John Kennedy Cameron bore a distinct impress of his native district of Easter Ross, with its noble traditions in things ecclesiastical, religious, and doctrinal. His teaching was always sound, and he saw no reason to depart from the well-trodden paths of the great Reformed Divines, while the cast of his own personality appeared on the practical and in the emphasis he laid on the experimental aspects of theology.

He will not be easily forgotten, especially in the College. His hopeful and buoyant spirit was such that, even when he had to deplore sinister developments and tendencies, Christian optimism triumphed and cheerfulness would keep breaking through. And, musing over the story of the man and his work on earth, we, his colleagues feel perhaps as never before, its impact and stimulus, and can do no other than echo an old and sacred thought: He fought a good fight; he has finished his course; and best of all kept the faith.

 

Presbytery Tribute

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The Free Church Presbytery of Edinburgh desire to set on record their sense of the great loss sustained by the death of Principal John Kennedy Cameron, D.D., which took place with starting suddenness on Wednesday, 4th October, 1914.

Principal Cameron was a native of Rosskeen, Ross-shire, where he was born 84 years ago, and he was educated at Tain Academy, Aberdeen Grammar School, Edinburgh University, and the New College, Edinburgh. He was ordained in 1890 at Kilbride, Arran, and there he ministered for sixteen years. One fruit of his sojourn there was his useful book on The Church in Arran.

Associated from the beginning of his ministry with the Constitutionalist Party in the Free Church, he was keenly interested in the controversy over the Declaratory Act of 1892, and also in the Church Union negotiations between the Free and the United Presbyterian Church which culminated in the Union of 1900.

One of the 26 ministers who did not enter that Union, he became very conspicuous in the trying years which followed on 1900, being in “journeyings oft” as he travelled here, there, and everywhere throughout the land in his untiring endeavours to put our reorganised Church life on a stable basis.

He was one of the most prominent figures in the legal processes by which the Free Church of Scotland sought to vindicate its just claims, these processes arriving at an epoch-making issue in the memorable House of Lords’ decision of 1st August 1904. Thereafter he was most energetic in the work connected with the Churches’ Commission, after the Churches’ Commission Act was passed by Parliament. Of those stirring years he has left a permanent record in his contribution to the volume, The Free Church of Scotland 1843-1910: A Vindication.

He was Clerk to the Free Church Defence Association up to the Union of 1900; in 1900 he was appointed Clerk of Assembly, an office which he retained until he retired in 1937. In that office his accurate knowledge of Church law and his statesmanlike conduct of the business of the Assembly were invaluable assets. He did splendid work on the several Standing Committees of the Church, where his wide experience and his intimate knowledge of the congregations of the Church were valued very highly. The Church conferred on him the highest honour in her power by choosing him to be Moderator in 1910.

He was appointed in 1906 to the Chair of Systematic Theology in the Free Church College an office which he retained till his death, having thus occupied his Chair during the long period of 38 years. During that time he taught consistently and unwaveringly that Calvinistic Theology which the Free Church of Scotland accepts as the most faithful and thorough-going interpretation of Biblical truth. He was appointed Principal of the College in 1943.

Thus, in all departments of Church work he had a full and responsible share. He rendered conspicuous service to his Church, seeking, throughout a long and fruitful life, ever to abound in the work of the Lord, and his counsels will be greatly missed.

He was characterised by a kindly and gracious manner and bore no malice to those whom he was constrained, on the ground of high principle, to oppose, and, sometimes, strongly to condemn. As a friend he was loyal, considerate and sympathetic, a wise counsellor who was ever ready to help in any way possible those who sought his assistance and guidance.

To his sorrowing relatives the Presbytery extend their respectful and most sincere sympathy.

 

A Pulpit Tribute

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At the forenoon service in St Columba Free Church on Sabbath, 8th October, Rev. Professor A. M. Renwick, B.D, D.Litt., preaching from the text Hebrews 6:12 said:

I cannot bring this service to a close without referring to the passing away of the Principal of our College, the Rev. John Kennedy Cameron D.D., who was laid to rest yesterday in Morningside Cemetery,

As a boy I was thrilled to read of his magnificent defence of the Free Church in the days immediately preceding and following the Union of 1900. There was never any dubiety as to where he stood and both his supporters and his opponents knew he would never recede from the position he had taken up. As an ecclesiastic he stood very high. He knew the law and practice of the Church as few men have done, and was endowed in those days with remarkable clearness of vision in Church affairs. His part in the defence of the Free Church in the Union Assembly on 30th October 1900 was notable in the courage, ability and resourcefulness which he displayed in the face of almost overwhelming odds, and the name of Rev. J. K. Cameron of Brodick became a household word in every loyal Free Church home. He was appointed Clerk to the Assembly of the Free Church when the majority left to join the United Presbyterian Church in forming the new body – the United Free Church. Those were indeed stormy days even to the extent of attempts being made to break up Free Church meetings by rowdyism. No man knew better than Mr Cameron how to deal with such testing. Always calm and collected no one ever saw him ruffled and he had a happy knack of doing the right thing at the right time. I have seen him facing a turbulent gathering and, with a smile on his face and a few well-directed words restoring complete calm. In those days he was a veritable “master of assemblies” as far as ecclesiastical gatherings were concerned. His labours in Church Courts, Committees, and in the organisation of Free Church congregations up and down the country were Herculean during many years, and he loved to recount afterwards the stirring experiences of those years of what was called the “Church Crisis”. His labours in connection with the Executive Commission appointed by the Government to apportion the church property between the Free Church and the United Free Church were vast, and provided him with ample opportunity to show his clear-headedness and business ability.

In 1906 he was appointed by the General Assembly as Professor of Systematic Theology in the Free Church College, and continued in that post until his very sudden call to service in the Church on High last Wednesday, the day of the opening of the new session of the College.

I met him first 38 years ago as he and his good lady were retiring from a church service. I had just come to Edinburgh for the first time as a very young student. They immediately put me at my ease and made me feel I could always look to them for guidance and encouragement. Countless others can testify to similar experiences, for their hospitable home was ever open to students of all kinds. All who remember those days recall with affection the unfailing kindliness and genial attitude of Professor and Mrs Cameron.

While he carried on his work in the College with his usual assiduity, there can be no doubt that it was as Senior Clerk of the Assembly that Professor Cameron made the greatest impression on the Church. For many years his influence was immense, and it is no exaggeration to say that as an ecclesiastic he had few equals anywhere. His knowledge of Church law, his attention to detail, his unfailing tact, and his genuine humanity made him an ideal Clerk of Assembly, and on him devolved frequently the responsibility of guiding the Assembly in many a difficult situation, for while he was sauviter in modo he was fortiter in re. After the last war he began to take less and less part in the public work of the Church, and retired from the Clerkship of Assembly in 1937.

It was a great joy to many friends that the Assembly of 1943 made him Principal of the College in spite of his advanced age, for thus his notable services were recognised by the Supreme Court of the Church.

He had been known to say he would like to die in harness. On Wednesday forenoon, 4th October, he seemed unusually happy and recalled with obvious pleasure many reminiscences of the past.

He said he was in excellent health, but added, “But what can a man in his 85th year expect?” Before entering the Senatus he remarked that he had a feeling this would be his last session in the College. He seemed quite well when he left the meeting of the Senatus, but while talking with a friend in the corridor had a sudden seizure from which he did not recover.

We shall long remember him as one who passionately loved his Church and contended for her, and who through life maintained a calm and unsullied spirit, the kindliness of which was a help to many.

 

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 REV. KENNETH CAMERON, M.A.

(Died 26th June, 1947)
Source: The Monthly Record, August, 1947, p.150

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The Rev. Kenneth Cameron, M.A., senior minister of Inverness, died on 26th June at Burghead, where he had been living for some time in retirement. His death removes from the ministry of our Church one of its most outstanding and its most highly honoured figures.

Born at Inverness in 1876, Mr Cameron had a very distinguished career, as a student and as a minister. At the Raining School, Inverness, he was in successive years First Prizeman. At Edinburgh University he proved himself a keen and diligent student, being a prizeman in Celtic Literature and taking high places in English Literature, Latin and Greek. After graduating in Arts, he studied Theology for two years at the New College, Edinburgh, where he showed proficiency, specially in New Testament Greek and Old Testament Language and Literature. At the crisis of 1900 he identified himself with the Minority and forfeited a substantial bursary on which he was largely dependant. Thereafter, he continued his divinity studies at Edinburgh University, and while there was a prizeman in Ecclesiastical History. A further session, was spent in the Divinity Hall of the United Original Secession Church. He was licensed to preach in 1902, and ministered at Brora 1902-09, at Duirinish 1909-1914, at Stornoway 1914-1930, and at Inverness 1930-1945. He was a delegate to the meeting of the Pan-Presbyterian Alliance which was held at Pittsburg, U.S.A., in 1921, and a member of the special deputation which was sent out to Vancouver in 1923. He was Moderator of the General Assembly in 1924. He was from time to time Convener of several of the Standing Committees of the Church. He was keenly interested in Education, and was an active member of School Board, Education Authorities and Committees for over twenty-five years, in Sutherlandshire, Ross and Cromarty, and Inverness-shire.

Mr. Cameron was an able preacher of the Evangel, who put to good use the brilliant talents with which he had been endowed. The present writer remembers well a sermon preached by him in Dingwall in 1903, on the Fast Day of a Communion Season on the words in the 51st Psalm, “Create in me a clean heart, O God.” That sermon was full of sound and well-ordered theology, yet there was nothing dull or heavy about it, for it was characterised by an attractive freshness of presentation and it was delivered with much vigour, while the wooing note of winsome appeal could be clearly heard from time to time in it. The present writer also remembers being with Mr Cameron at the Stornoway Communion in February 1937, when time after time the warm greetings which he received from member after member of that great congregation proved beyond any doubt that fragrant memories of his ministry of sixteen years in Stornoway still lingered there, and that he held a very warm place in the affections of the Stornoway people.

In all his four congregations Mr Cameron gave faithful and fruitful service, and we have good reason to believe that men and women from all these four places will, in “that Day” praise God for messages which they heard from his lips.

To his sorrowing widow and his sorrowing son, Rev. William J. Cameron, B.D., Burghead, the sincere sympathy of the whole Church goes out.

 

Author: Rev. Kenneth A. MacRae, Μ.Α.
Source: The Monthly Record, September, 1947, pp.177-178

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1900 was a testing time and from it the students of the Free Church were not exempt. In the light of human foresight their whole future appeared to depend upon their casting in their lot with the triumphant majority. It was not surprising therefore that pitifully few survived the test.

Among them, however, was the subject of this brief sketch. After taking due time to view the questions at issue in all their aspects, Kenneth Cameron definitely associated with the protesting minority, and from that time forward never turned back, ever showing himself to be a man who was ruled by principle and not by expediency.

Mr Kenneth Cameron was born at Inverness seventy-one years ago. His early life was associated with the Free North congregation. In those days the Free North people bore a complex entirely their own, the abiding impress of the godly and forceful pastors with whom God had honoured them, and in this atmosphere Mr Cameron’s early spiritual impressions were awakened and nourished. Naturally of a reticent nature he very rarely referred to these early experiences, but that they were real and abiding became manifest in his seeking to devote his life to the ministry of the Gospel.

Mr Cameron studied in Edinburgh, and there, both in Arts and Divinity, his intellectual powers brought him to the front. In New Testament Greek he gained special distinction. On completing his course he duly received licence in 1902, and was shortly afterwards ordained and inducted to the congregation of Clyne in Sutherlandshire. There he laboured assiduously and successfully until in 1909 he received and accepted a call to the congregation of Duirinish in Skye.

Duirinish in those days was redolent with the memories of the ministry of the saintly Mr MacColl and the revival which took place under him, while at a later date the Rev. John MacRae, a worthy successor, carried on the same tradition and won almost an equal place in the esteem of the people. These were the men who preceded Cameron, and, needless to say, in such a field he was very happy. Some of the old people still surviving in that parish cherish grateful memories of their active young pastor, and as for Mr Cameron himself he ever cherished a warm spot in his heart for Skye and its religious associations.

Meantime the large and influential congregation of Stornoway had set their eyes upon the energetic young minister of Duirinish, and, recognising in him one in every way suited to their needs, they took requisite action in order to bring him to their own pulpit. The path of duty, however, not being sufficiently clear, he rejected their first advances; but a second effort proved more successful and on the 19th of August 1914 – almost coincident with the outbreak of the first Great War – Mr Cameron was inducted to the congregation of Stornoway.

By the time of his settlement in his new charge Mr Cameron had attained to the full maturity of his powers and his 16 years ministry in Stornoway was fraught with blessing. Undoubtedly this period was the richest of his career. A first-class theologian, a careful and exact student, a deeply experimental preacher and an indefatigable pastor, he speedily won for himself a unique place in the religious life of the island. He was especially a son of consolation, the fruit of his own travail, for it was during his sojourn in Stornoway that the angel of death visited his home and took from him a lovely young daughter. In his preaching he had a sweet, wooing note which made a wonderful appeal to the Lord’s people, while the clear, terse and well arranged structure of his sermons, wherein no such thing as tediousness was ever suffered to appear, made him a preacher whom the younger element heard gladly. Many of them, now no longer young, affectionately cherish his memory and still speak of how pleased they used to be, if, on passing by the manse, they chanced to catch a glimpse of Mr Cameron’s white head near the study window. Nowhere was the news of Mr Cameron’s death more keenly felt than in Stornoway.

The interests of our friend were not circumscribed. Keenly interested in education he grudged not his services to whatever he judged might be to the edification of the rising generation. If such service qualifies a man for special recognition on the part of his alma mater – and the bestowal of showers of “D.D.’s” upon ministerial educationalists would naturally lead one to judge so – then no man in Scotland was more deserving of such honour than the Rev. Kenneth Cameron; and it is certain that had he belonged to one of the larger denominations he would not have been denied his due. Mentally and physically – for many a wild night he spent on the Minch – he put his best into his work for education.

In 1921, together with the late Rev. John Macdonald of Rosskeen, he was appointed by the General Assembly to attend the Pan-Presbyterian Conference at Pittsburg as a representative of the Free Church of Scotland, and while in America he took advantage of the opportunity afforded him to visit the Free Church congregations in Canada and to hearten our people in that large and needy field. He again visited Canada along with Dr A. M. Renwick and the late Mr John Macdonald, Glasgow, in 1923. In 1924 he was called to occupy the Moderatorial Chair at the General Assembly, and discharged the arduous duties of his office with characteristic dignity and grace.

In 1930 Mr Cameron received a call from his old congregation, the Free North, and to the regret of his affectionate people in Stornoway he felt it his duty to accept. Accordingly he was inducted to his last charge on 30th December 1930. In Inverness, Mr Cameron displayed the same energy and whole-hearted devotion to his ministry which had been characteristic of him throughout, and won for himself there also the unqualified esteem of all who could appreciate warm, evangelical and judicious preaching. In his later years, however, the strain of the burden of two such heavy charges began to tell, and two years ago the state of his health was such that he felt constrained to retire from the active ministry.

Relieved of his responsibilities, in his retirement in Burghead his health began to improve, and some of his admirers in Lewis felt that they had ground to cherish the hope that they would yet see him assisting at the communion services in the island. But it was not to be. The Lord had other purposes for him. Towards the end of Spring his health materially worsened, and, after a sharp illness patiently borne, he passed into the presence of that Master whose Gospel he had so sweetly proclaimed to sinners on earth.

Mr Cameron was a deeply exercised man of God and therein lay the secret of his power as a preacher. Super-sensitive to a degree, to those who did not know him he appeared distant and unapproachable, but among tried friends no companion could be more genial. In such company he gave full scope to the natural bent of his warm affectionate nature.

Too often it is only when a man is gone that his true value comes to be realised. In this case it is very evident that Mr Cameron’s gifts, abilities and usefulness never received – even within his own church – the recognition which were their due. A great man was among us and we knew it not.

Mr Cameron died on the 26th day of June at his home in Burghead and to his son, the Rev. W. J. Cameron, B.D., of Burghead, and his widowed mother, we desire to express our heart-felt sympathy.

 

Extract of Presbytery Minute
Source: The Monthly Record, September, 1947, p.177-178

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The Presbytery desire to record in their minutes an expression of the profound sorrow with which they regard the loss sustained by the Church in the death of the Rev. Kenneth Cameron, and of the grateful and affectionate regard with which his memory will always be cherished. Mr Cameron began his ministry in Clyne, from there he was translated to Duirinish, Isle of Skye, from Duirinish to Stornoway, and from Stornoway to the Free North Church, Inverness.

Mr. Cameron possessed in happy combination a variety of powers, which placed him in the fore front among the preachers of the Church. His clear and vigorous intellect, with a cultivated taste, enabled him to clothe in most expressive language the exactest thinking. He was scrupulously careful in his preparation for the pulpit: solemn and quiet in his manner, and most emphatic in his utterance, he spoke with such authority and unction, as never failed to command the attention of his hearers. In his pastoral intercourse with his people, he secured the esteem and affection of his congregation. He was a man of God wherever he went. The Church mourns in his death and feels that one of her ablest and most gifted ministers has gone home.

The Presbytery express their deep sympathy with Mrs Cameron and her son, the Rev. William Cameron, and commend them with true and loving sympathy to the Husband of the widow and the Father of the fatherless.

 

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 REV. WILLIAM MARTIN CAMERON

(Died 1st January, 1950)
Source: The Monthly Record, February 1950, p.25

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Tidings of the death in the first day of the year of the Rev. W.M. Cameron, Resolis, with apparent suddenness as far as the general public were concerned came as a great shock to many. It had not been known that Mr. Cameron was in indifferent health, as he apparently had been able to fulfil his public duties almost to the very end. Though never conspicuous in the more public assemblies of the Church, Mr Cameron had a place in the affections of many, and in the confidence of all, that was probably unique. It was without a doubt a tribute to his Christian character, his consistency of life, and his faithful and fragrant ministry.

The son and grandson of ministers, both of them renowned in their generations, our departed brother inherited gifts which he put to full use in his ministrations and which fitted him for a larger share in public work than he was willing to claim or to accept.

Modest and almost shy in disposition, he shrank from the limelight and often witheld his counsel when it might have been of inestimable help to his brethren. But in no sense could he be deemed unfaithful to his vocation or to his exalted sense of the sacredness of the office of the ministry. When he felt that the occasion ‌required it he overcame his natural timidity and spoke boldly though always charitably, along the line of his convictions. Possessed of an acute analytical mind, and a master of clear and logical expression, he expounded the word to the edification of all and to the overflowing satisfaction of his most discerning hearers. Mr Cameron’s theology could be termed massive, but he could pursue his way with amazing lucidity through the most intricate and subtle points of doctrine. He excelled in magnifying the grace of God and offering the mercy of the Savour to the chief of sinners. In private he was the most sympathetic of friends and the most companionable of associates, seasoning his conversation with grace, yet possessing a keen sense of humour that responded instantly to the human situations that called it forth. And the present writer would like to add his tribute that to the youthful disciple he was the wisest counsellor and the most generous friend. And in all and through all he was the soul of honour, never allowing to pass from his lips a word unbecoming to a Christian. It was in entire harmony with the tenor of his life and character that he should have given his whole ministry of 34 years to the one congregation, and though he was in constant demand for assistance at Communion services he declined all invitations to seek another sphere of service. It is gratifying to know that the traditions of two generations are in prospect of being maintained in the fact that Mr. Cameron’s only son is now studying for the ministry of the Free Church. To him and his sister, to their widowed mother, to the remaining members of Mr Cameron’s family, and to the congregation of Resolis, the deep sympathy of the Church goes out in their sense of grievous loss.

 

Author: Rev. Murdoch MacRae, M.A.
Source: The Monthly Record, February, 1950, p.34-35
(Reprinted from the Stornoway Gazette)

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News of the passing of the Rev. William M. Cameron on the first day of January came as a profound shock to multitudes of Free Church people.

Born at Back 65 years ago, he was the youngest son of the Rev. Hector Cameron, whose name and ministry are still fragrant in this Island. On the maternal side, his grand-father the Rev. John Macqueen, was minister at Strontian at the Disruption. Owing to the difficulty of securing sights [sites], a floating iron church was built and towed all the way from Glasgow to Loch Sunart, where it was anchored and used for public worship. His uncle, Rev. Murdo Macqueen, was Free Church minister at Kiltearn.

Mr Cameron, in early life, emigrated to America, but soon returned with the object of studying for the ministry of the Free Church. He took his Arts course at Glasgow University, and his Theological course at the Free Church College, Edinburgh. Having completed his Theological course with distinction he was ordained and inducted to the charge of Resolis, in June 1916. This was his first and only charge. Many efforts were made to induce him to accept calls from other congregations, but he refused to leave, and for 34 years he laboured at Resolis.

William Martin Cameron was no ordinary man. His intellectual powers were massive and well disciplined. He was a man of refined taste and culture, of tender heart and deep human sympathies. His piety was deep and real, and appeared transparently in his life and conversation. Of his devotion – flowing from the well-springs of divine love in his soul – which so deeply and permanently characterised his whole life, it would be hard to speak extravagantly.

His pulpit gifts were of an exceptional order. His solemnity of manner, the purity, weight and force of his doctrine, the unction of all his services and his profound knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of God, made him a preacher of extraordinary power and influence. There was about him a fragrance and a winsomeness of heart and manner which united to him in intense affection all true lovers of the Gospel, which he so powerfully and so beautifully expounded.

He shunned publicity. There was no effort to be popular and more than any man we ever knew he reckoned himself “less than the least of all saints”. Humility – that grace so lovely in the eyes of heaven – was truly his crowning grace. It clothed him like a beautiful garment. His great natural gifts, his massive learning, his profound grasp of the doctrines of Grace and his deep and transparent piety shone forth through the veil of lovely unfeigned humility with a splendour which could not fail to impress deeply all who came into contact with him.

He was a rare man, an outstanding theological thinker and a truly great preacher of the Reformed Faith. He was a man of sound judgment, eminent in wisdom and counsel. A true friend, most amiable and pleasant in private intercourse, he was beloved by all who knew him, and his name will long be affectionately remembered throughout the Church.

He was unflinching in his adherence to the Reformed Faith, and the distinctive principles of the Reformed Church of Scotland. His deep and comprehensive knowledge of reformed doctrine would have admirably fitted him to instruct the future ministry of our Church, but no effort would prevail to make him undertake this work.

Mr Cameron was at his post to the last. As Clerk, he attended a meeting of the Presbytery of Chanonry on Thursday. After this meeting he took ill and was removed to the Northern Infirmary, Inverness, where he passed away on Sabbath.

A largely attended service was held in the Free Church of Resolis, and thence the remains were brought to Lewis to be interred with his father, brother and sisters in the Laxay Cemetery.

The remains lay overnight in the Free Church at Kinloch, where he preached his last sermon outside his own pulpit, and a largely attended service the following day clearly testified to the high esteem in which he was held. All members of the Lewis Presbytery, who were able to do so, attended, along with a large concourse of people from most parts of the Island.

Our deepest sympathy goes out to the sorrowing widow and family and sister, and also to his co-Presbyter, the minister of Knockbain, who will keenly feel this blow, which ends, for a time, a beautiful fellowship in the Lord’s service over a period of 33 years.

To have known him, to have enjoyed his fellowship, to have heard him so often bring forth from God’s treasury things new and old, to have loved him, these, we reckon, among the highest and most profitable privileges given to us here.

 

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 REV. DUNCAN CAMPBELL, ROSEHALL

(Died 1919)
Author: J. M.
Source: The Monthly Record, February, 1920, p.23

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Mr Campbell was a native of the Island of Raasay, where he was born in the year 1844. While he was still young his parents removed to Clachamish, in the parish of Snizort, Skye, which then enjoyed the much-owned ministry of Mr Roderick Macleod. At an early age Mr Campbell came under the power of the Gospel; and, strict and searching as the worthies of Snizort were wont in those days to be in regard to accepting a religious profession, he was cordially welcomed by them in his boyhood, and about the age of sixteen he began to be called upon to pray in public. As he was a sweet singer he was also often asked to lead the singing in the public services.

When already grown up to manhood he set out on a course of study with a view to entering on the work of the Gospel ministry, and in spite of all obstacles and difficulties he completed his course, and was settled in the office of the ministry in Nova Scotia. His charge there was that of Little Narrows in Cape Breton, where he had a congregation made up largely of emigrants from Lewis. Before going out to Canada he had been assistant in various places in this country, such as Stoer in Assynt during the ministry of the godly John Ross, and Knock, or Garrabost, in Lewis, where the excellent Malcolm Macritchie was nearing the end of his honoured work. In these places, as in every other place where he laboured, Mr Campbell was held in high esteem. After a short ministry in Canada he came back to this land about the year 1894, and for several years he had his home in the town of Inverness. When in 1900 the crisis came in the Free Church, he stood by those who stood for its constitution, and for years he was one of the most active, willing, and useful of the helpers that kept the people together in the many congregations that were then thrown vacant. In the year 1905 he was called to, and settled in, the congregation of Rosehall in Sutherlandshire, where, under the burden of advancing years, he laboured until towards the end of 1918, when on medical advice he went to live at Inverness. His application for leave to retire was prepared that it might be submitted to the General Assembly of 1919, but a few days before that Court met Mr Campbell had reached his everlasting rest. His many friends in his congregation and throughout the Church and the Highlands will long miss the kindly dignity of the old school, and the genial brotherliness that this worthy Christian minister exemplified. Mrs Campbell and their two daughters remain to mourn his loss. His many friends in Inverness who welcomed his return to their midst were not destined long to enjoy his fellowship. Now they cherish his memory.

 

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 REV. GEORGE CAMPBELL, KENNOWAY

(Died 1921)
Author: D. McD.
Source: The Monthly Record, November, 1921, p.187

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By the death of the Rev. George Campbell, of Kennoway, our Church has lost one of the oldest and most notable members of the Presbytery of Edinburgh.

For the long period of forty-three years he ministered successfully not only to the spiritual needs of his congregation in Kennoway, but to the religious requirements of the people in the surrounding district. While strength was given to him he was unsparing of himself in his efforts to advance the cause of the Saviour in the hearts of men. Necessity was laid upon him that he must preach the Gospel, and he founded and carried on successfully for many years a flourishing Mission Church in the adjoining village of Windygates, and established prayer meetings in various parts of his district to meet the convenience of the landward part of the population. Those untiring efforts at length undermined his strength, and some six years ago, when our Church most needed such devoted service as he was eager to give, Mr Campbell was laid aside by serious illness. From that time the Sabbath services in Kennoway have been carried on continuously by the students and probationers of the Church; but the inspiration which created and maintained the devotion of the congregation came from the sufferer who lay in the manse, patiently awaiting the final call of his Lord and Master,

In many respects Mr Campbell was an ideal pastor. Apart from his powers as a preacher, his outstanding gifts were geniality and intense power of sympathy, which made him the friend of little children and the trusted helper of all who stood in need of comfort, encouragement, and advice. The record of his life is one of untiring effort. From his youth Mr Campbell was a zealous evangelical worker; in his mature years a devoted pastor, struggling and striving for the souls of men, and in his closing period he had to do battle for the principles of the Free Church, which he had served so long and so faithfully. Much sympathy is extended to the sorrowing relatives.

 

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  REV. JONATHAN CAMPBELL, KILMALLIE

(Died May, 1962)
Author: A. M. R.
Source: The Monthly Record, July, 1962, p.141

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The passing away of Rev. Jonathan Campbell in the month of May brought sorrow to many, specially in the parishes of Coll and Kilmallie where he ministered so faithfully for many years. This feeling of sadness was not confined merely to those of his own denomination. There are many others in those areas who valued most highly his strenuous labours for the good of the people at large.

Jonathan Campbell was born at Kilmaluag, parish of Kilmuir, Skye, where his father was for many years an honoured elder in the Free Church. In his early days the meeting house there used to be crowded to the door by a gathering of earnest worshippers, in the days before depopulation had devastated that once favoured area. There is no doubt that the early impressions received by our friend then had an abiding effect upon his character.

When a young man, Mr. Campbell secured employment on the Clyde in the shipbuilding yard of Yarrow & Co. There his efficiency and attention to duty led to his appointment as a foreman carpenter. It is indicative of the high respect in which he was held that more than once when Sir Alfred Yarrow was sojourning in Lochaber he called to see this old employee of his company, at that time Free Church minister of Kilmallie. The writer of these words happened to know in past years another director of that company who spoke in the highest terms of Jonathan Campbell both as an employee and as a man. While resident in Glasgow, Mr Campbell heard the call of God to preach the Gospel and dedicated his life to the work of the ministry.

Although somewhat older than the average, Jonathan Campbell did creditably in his studies, and, having passed through the prescribed years of training, was duly licensed. In 1926 he succeeded the Rev. Peter M. Chisholm as Free Church minister of Coll. There he served faithfully for six years, and is still remembered in the island for his masterly activity and his insistence that everything should be “done decently and in order”.

It was, however, in Lochaber that Mr Campbell found his greatest field of service. Inducted to the Free Church congregation of Kilmallie in 1932 he laboured there with enthusiasm and success. The parish is one of the largest in Scotland and Mr Campbell never spared himself in ministering to that far scattered people. He was not long there when his presence could be discerned through the striking improvement to both church and manse. A forcible and lively preacher of the Gospel, Mr Campbell never allowed his hearers to settle down into ease and slumber. He was quick to see the importance of Corpach as an area with a rapidly growing population, and it is very largely through his drive and energy that the beautiful new church at Caol was built. Mr Campbell simply would not take refusals whether from the courts of the Free Church or the County Council authorities.

Outside his congregation he found a fruitful field for his incessant activities, and many years ago entered the County Council of Inverness. There he stood out all the time as the champion of the common people. His predominant interests were education and land settlement. Crofters and fishermen never had a better friend than Jonathan Campbell and his interest in them was warmly reciprocated by a grateful populace. It would be an exaggeration to say that Mr Campbell was always loved by the bureaucrats but they must have respected him for his faculty for “getting things done”. To the personal knowledge of the present writer he was highly esteemed in Lochaber not only by Protestants but by Roman Catholics, and by rich as well as poor. When the Highland Fund was originated 11 years ago, Jonathan Campbell was one of the founder members. That organisation is now becoming an even greater force in the economic life of the Highlands greatly helping those who wish to help themselves. It was, however, to the work of the Church that Mr Campbell devoted the greater part of his strength. Even after his retiral some years ago he continued to labour strenuously for the Master until the day when he was laid aside by a deadly ailment.

The sympathy of the whole Church goes out to Mrs Campbell and his daughter and son who survive him.

 

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 REV. NORMAN CAMPBELL, M.A.

(Died 14th April, 1956)
Source: The Monthly Record, May, 1956, pp.90-92

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A Biographical Sketch

To Free Church people the death of Rev. Norman Campbell on the 14th April means more than the passing of an outstanding Free Churchman: it marks the passing of an era. As the last, and in many respects the most outstanding pulpit figure, of the “1900 men,” he was as affectionately esteemed as he was widely known not only in his native Highlands but wherever Highlanders gathered both in Scotland and overseas. Born in the parish of Coigach in August 1864, he was nurtured in the religious atmosphere of Wester Ross before the glow of Evangelical fervour associated with the Disruption had quite disappeared, and he made early contact with the “men” of Ross and Sutherland when piety was marked by depth of spirituality never attained to since. He profited by the faithful ministry of Dingwall of Aultbea and Baillie of Gairloch, and he viewed the Gairloch divine with the affection of one who must have received permanent impressions under his ministry. As so often happened in those days, his introduction to the ministry was through the teaching profession, in which he served for a few years and whose interests lay close to his heart throughout the whole of his ministry. His theological course was taken in New College, Edinburgh, at a time when the Higher Criticism was making its imprint on the student mind and he spoke of Professor A. B. Davidson of the Hebrew Chair as the most insidious, though not the most outspoken propagandist for the new rationalism.

Creich Ministry
As colleague and successor to Dr Gustavus Aird in Creich, he was brought into intimate contact – albeit for a brief period – with one of the most pious and picturesque personalities of the Highlands of his day. For Dr Aird he retained the greatest affection and admiration to the last. “Campbell Creich” was then the most popular name that could be mentioned in connection with the Highland communions, and many were attracted from widely scattered areas to sit under his ministry.

One of the Twenty-six
It was during his Creich ministry that negotiations for Union between the Free Church and the United Presbyterian Church reached their consummation, and Mr Campbell never seemed to have been in any doubt as to the course of action he should take. This is all the more remarkable since Dr Aird was known to have been, in his later years, favourable to the Union. He was member of the Defence Association resuscitated in 1898 to organise and direct the activities of the minority opposed to the Union, and as member of the Union Assembly of 1900, he recorded his vote against the Union with those of Revs. C. A. Bannatyne, J. K. Cameron, William Mackinnon, John Macleod, Murdo Macqueen, John Noble, Donald Maclean, Finlay Macrae, and Murdo Mackenzie. On returning home he found the vast majority of his congregation in cordial agreement with the position he took up and willing to follow him at whatever cost. Afterwards he took a leading part in the work of reconstruction and owing to his comparative youth he was asked to shoulder burdens and undertake fatiguing journeyings in order to spare his older brethren.

Dingwall Ministry
Mr Campbell never took root in Sutherlandshire. In the historic parish of Creich when he took over from his illustrious predecessor there was left but the meagre gleanings of the rich vintage of former days, and when the call to Dingwall came to him in 1908, he returned to his native county.

Dingwall he always regarded as the ecclesiastical capital of the Highlands, and he was received by a warm-hearted congregation as in the true line of succession to Dr John Kennedy. There he laboured for the rest of his active ministry, a period that covered two wars and witnessed many changes in the life of the community. He was always welcomed to the homes of the people and in times of anxiety and sorrow he was a true son of consolation. But, undoubtedly his greatest influence was wielded through the pulpit, and in his early days a well-filled Church waited upon his ministry with an intensity of interest that betokened a high measure of spiritual life.

Work for Education
In Dingwall, Mr Campbell associated himself with the interests of education, first as member and then as chairman of the School Board, and afterwards as Convener of the Ross-shire Education Authority. He worked throughout in closest harmony with the education officials who came to rely more and more upon his counsel and wide experience. While he devoted himself to every branch of education his main interest lay in religious instruction, and there he did his most lasting work. The course of religious instruction followed to this day in the counties of Ross and Sutherland bears traces of his skill and his devotion to the spiritual welfare of the children. He was also a highly respected member on the Board of the Highlands and Islands Trust where his experience of Highland conditions was freely put at the disposal of his fellow-governors. To many of his contemporaries it seemed indeed strange that his able and self-less service to education never received the official recognition it richly deserved. As noted elsewhere in this issue of the magazine, he gave many years of devoted service to the Training of the Ministry Committee of the Church, and his warm spiritual influence was the means, under the hand of God, of directing many young lives into the ministry of the Free Church.

Character
Mr Campbell possessed great strength of character and depth of conviction and when principle was at stake he was unyielding and unrelenting. To many he may have appeared unco-operative and somewhat aloof, whereas he was the friendliest and most companionable of men. And he was the embodiment of integrity. So far was he from employing the smooth or flattering word that he was sometimes regarded as unappreciative and unresponsive. He gave praise where praise was due, but it was never given gratuitously and seldom given to the face. He had a catholic view of the Church of Jesus Christ and was never sectarian or inhospitable to fidelity and piety when he met with these outside the borders of his own Church. He welcomed evangelicals of varied denominations into his pulpit, and his missionary interests were world-wide. Some of the most moving appeals he ever made fron the pulpit were in the interests of the missionary cause.

The Evangelist
There can be no doubt that Mr Campbell’s deepest and most lasting work was as Evangelist. Handsome and impressive in person, his voice was rich and appealing. Though his sermons were expository and exegetical, he was not a heavy doctrinal preacher, and all his teaching was directed to the one goal, of exalting Jesus Christ as Saviour and pointing souls to Him. He made full use of anecdote and illustration, and he could tell a story with moving effect. His appeals to the young were the unforgettable, closing notes of many a sermon, and there must be many yet with us who felt their hearts “strangely warmed” as the preacher brought the solemn service to a close. At times his pulpit intimations closed with a final appeal to the unconverted. And the Lord set seals to his ministry in the awakening and conversion of many souls, and they are found to-day, not in Scotland only, but scattered throughout our colonies, who owe their souls, under God, to Norman Campbell.

Closing Years
It is is good to know that the closing years of his life were spent in restful comfort, surrounded by the devotion of those he loved. In his retirement he kept himself accurately informed of what was going on in the Church, and the visits paid to him by his younger brethren were a source of great comfort to him. He often, in those later days, paid warm tribute to the brotherliness and affection of the younger ministry of the Church which, he often added, excelled anything he had experienced in his early ministry. The end was awaited with unruffled calm, and even with happy anticipation. The waters were not deep when he passed over, and we are confident that the trumpets, sounded on the other side. In connection with him we think of the words that were often on his lips – and uttered with most moving effect! – “But go thou thy way till the end be; for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.”

“And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.”

 

Pulpit Tribute
Author: Rev. Duncan Leitch
Source: The Monthly Record, May, 1956, pp.90-92

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By the passing of the Rev. Norman Campbell, the Senior Minister of this congregation, the Free Church of Scotland has sustained a grievous loss. He was the last of that loyal band of ministers who maintained the witness of the Church in 1900. Since then his abounding labours and winsome ministry have won for him the esteem and affection of our people at home and overseas. The representative gathering which assembled here for his funeral service witnessed to the fact that his sterling qualities were appreciated by men of other communions belonging to many walks in life.

In the Free Church Mr Campbell’s most valuable contribution on the administrative side was in connection with the training of the ministry. His deep interest in, and warm affection for, young people, together with his accurate and extensive knowledge of educational matters, fitted him in a unique way to direct the policy of the Committee charged with the oversight of aspirants to the ministry. Most of our people, however, will remember Mr Campbell best as a communion preacher who, at the zenith of his power, attracted large congregations both in the north and south. His Action Sermons, which had as their theme the atoning sacrifice of our Blessed Redeemer, were rich in comfort for pilgrims Zionwards. On the evening of a Communion Sabbath he rose to his greatest heights as a preacher of the everlasting Gospel. Then, out of the fulness of a heart that loved the Saviour, he presented His claims to his fellow-sinners, and in his own inimitable way he besought them to be reconciled to God. As an evangelist, it would be generally conceded, he had no equal in our Church in this generation. His moving Gospel appeals, especially to the young, will live with us as long as life lasts. Thus to-day the whole Church mourns the passing of one whose wise counsels guided her in her darkest days and whose powerful preaching stirred hearts and won many souls for the Saviour.

Whilst many lament his passing, none, apart from his own near and dear ones, sorrow as we do to-day. From this pulpit for well nigh forty years he shunned not to declare all the counsel of God. Few congregations have been so greatly favoured, and we wish very humbly to give thanks to the Head of the Church for sparing to us for so many years one who in days of spiritual declension, ceased not to proclaim a full-orbed Gospel. Others who knew Mr Campbell only as a preacher may have thought him aloof and a little difficult to approach. In this congregation we knew him better than that. It would have been impossible to find a more lovable friend, the warmth of whose affection drew us more and more to him as strength declined and the evening shadows gathered round. Having in his early married life tasted the waters of sorrow when a loved child was taken from the family circle, he was able with understanding to enter into the sorrows of others. His own faith having been frequently tried and tested, he was a choice companion to pilgrims walking in the valley of spiritual darkness. Though he had scant patience with triflers in eternal things none could be more helpful to a weak brother, who sought to invest his one talent to the greatest spiritual advantage. Mr Campbell was a strong man, whom the enemies of the truth had reason to fear but we knew him, too, as a gentle man who attracted little children to him. He was the last of a generation who carried about with them the fragrance of the evangelieal atmosphere in which they had been reared.

I must pay my own tribute to my senior colleague. For nearly thirty years I enjoyed Mr Campbell’s friendship, and since my settlement here he has been to me all that a father might be to a son. Though my methods and interests did not always coinclde with his he was never censorious but always kindly and helpful. When I called on him on the Monday of our last Communion he said, “I was with you all day yesterday.” When we expressed the hope that he might be with us at our solemnities in August, his reply indicated that he felt he would then be in the banqueting hall of the King above. There we hope to meet him in the morning of the eternal day. Meantime, let us hear the exhortation which is the logical outcome of such a hope, “Therefore my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”

The widow, who for over fifty years was in every sense the ideal minister’s wife, and the family who have lost a loving father, will not be forgotten in our prayers.

 

Hail and Farewell
Author: Editorial Tribute in The Ross-shire Journal
Source: The Monthly Record, May, 1956, pp.90-92

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Tribute from many quarters has been paid to the life and work of the late Rev. Norman Campbell, M.A, Minister Emeritus of Dingwall Free Church, the pulpit of which he graced for nearly half a century. A native of Lochbroom, like so many others of the old Highland Divines, Mr Campbell graduated from the teaching profession to the ministry. As a comparatively young man, it fell to his lot to enter two charges noted of old for the prowess of their ministers, first at Creich, where he succeeded the saintly Dr Aird, and then in 1908, at Dingwall, at a time of stress and difficulty following the upheavals which attended the troubles of 1900.

The handsome building in Dingwall, opened for worship by the great Mr Spurgeon, will forever be associated with the no less famous Dr John Kennedy as long as Free Church annals exist. Norman Campbell was a worthy successor, for he himself was one of the valiant body of 26 ministers who stood fast for the old ways “to walk therein,” when the bitter waters of division and controversy all but engulfed his historic Church. By his passing full of years, the last survivor of “the few” on Saturday morning at his pleasant retreat by the sea at Rosemarkie, an epoch may be said to have ended. Mr Campbell’s authority and respect inside and outwith his own communion, was immense. During his long years in Dingwall, the “Rev. Norman,” as he was affectionately called, touched life at many points, and nowhere more so than in the spiritual and moral welfare of the young people. Education claimed his life-long interest and support, and he laboured earnestly throughout the years for its betterment. The sanctity of the Sabbath Day was also supreme in his scheme of things, and any deviation from its observance was swiftly challenged in the Press and public forum. A forceful and arresting preacher, yet tender in his comfort to all in sorrow and tribulation, the memory of the man and his labours here on earth, which added a notable page to the history of his world-known Church, will long endure.

The sympathy of many will go out to the gentle lady who for so many years stood at his right hand in all things, and whose loneliness to-day will be easier to bear with the memories of the long-past years, and the companionship of their two sons, Mr N. A. S. Campbell, O.B.E., former Manager for the North of Scotland Hydro Board in Ross, and now holding a managerial post for the Board in Inverness, and Dr Colin Campbell, who is Orthopaedic Surgeon at the Bridge of Earn.

 

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 REV. HENRY CARMICHAEL, COATBRIDGE

(Died 11th November, 1909)

Source: The Monthly Record, February, 1910, p.24

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This industrious, eager servant of the Free Church died in a nursing home in Glasgow on Monday, 8th November, and his funeral took place to Craigton Cemetery, Paisley Road, on Thursday, 11th November.

Mr Carmichael was a native of Carluke, and early in life began business on his own account as a provision merchant in Govan. He was always a student, and attended classes with the object of self-improvement. He took an active interest in municipal affairs, and entering the Burgh Council, rose to be a magistrate. Afterwards he gave up business, and studied for the ministry both in this country and in Australia. Returning to this country after the events of 1900, he connected himself with the Free Church, which was his mother church, and was received into the ministry. He supplied the pulpit of Buccleuch-Greyfriars, Edinburgh, for a time, and also preached on the west coast of Ross-shire.

Eventually he was called to minister to the Free Church people in Coatbridge, and was ordained there in the summer of 1903. The congregation worshipped for several years in the Y.M.C.A. Hall in Langloan, but eventually, after long delay, what had formerly been known as the West Free Church was allocated to the Free Church by the Executive Commission under the Churches Act (1905), and the Coatbridge congregation and their minister found a home. During Principal McCulloch’s absence in South Africa, Mr Carmichael acted as Interim Clerk of the Glasgow Presbytery, and his appointment as such was eventually made permanent. He was an indefatigable Clerk, taking his full share of Presbyterial duty, and laying the congregations of the Church within the bounds under weighty obligations. Before the formation of the Presbytery of Inveraray, he had charge of the congregations in Islay under the Glasgow Presbytery, and from first to last was in administrative labours abundant. Mr Carmichael was not without merits as a preacher, although the defects of his early training were never quite got over. He had a good idea of dividing a text, and was earnest in his exposition of the truth. He may be said to have died in harness. After reading the minutes at a meeting of the Presbytery he had an apoplectic seizure, was borne to a side room, and thence on medical advice to the nursing home, in which, after about a fortnight’s illness, he died. The funeral service in the church at Coatbridge was conducted by Principal McCulloch and the Rev. S. Lyle Orr. Rev. Donald Stewart, Renton, offered prayer at the grave, and preached the funeral sermon on Sabbath, 14th November. Mr Carmichael was 62 years of age, and leaves a widow, one son, and two daughters. May they be comforted in their sudden bereavement by Him who alone can comfort the sorrowful and bereaved.

 

Extract Minute of Presbytery of Glasgow
Source: The Monthly Record, January, 1911

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At Glasgow, and within the Session House, 87 West Campbell Street, the fourteenth day of December, 1909. The Free Church Presbytery of Glasgow having met and been constituted

Inter alia:

The Presbytery, recognising in the death of the Rev. Henry Carmichael of Coatbridge the great loss that has come to both the Presbytery and the Church as a whole, desire to leave on record that he was a clear and faithful preacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, an interested and earnest worker in the affairs of the Church, and a wise and prudent counsellor in the time of need. He did much during his short life for the cause of religion, and did it heartily, evincing that to God more than to man his service was due. Deserving no man’s blame, he sought no man’s praise, but in a spirit of meekness and perseverance, he continued to labour until he dropped beside his work.

The Presbytery hereby take opportunity to express their sympathy to his widow and children, who have parted with an affectionate husband and father, and also to the congregation of Coatbridge that has lost the instruction of a good and faithful guide in matters both spiritual and temporal.

It rests with God to give the oil of joy for mourning and the garment of of praise for the spirit of heaviness.

Extracted by
(Signed) JAMES D. McCULLOCH, Clerk of Presbytery, p.t.

Appreciative and sympathetic minutes have also been engrossed in the Records of the Kirk Session and Deacons’ Court of Coatbridge Free Church.

 

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 REV. JOHN CLARKE, LOCHFYNESIDE

(Died 23rd December, 1916)
Source: The Monthly Record, January, 1917

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On 20th December there passed away at Broxwood Park, Sandbank, Argyllshire, in his 92nd year, the Rev. John Clarke, senior minister of Lochfyneside Free Church. Mr Clarke had long outlived all his compeers, and had during his very long earthly pilgrimage witnessed many changes in Church and State. He was a native of Argyllshire, and his whole public life had been spent in that county: Lochfyneside, embracing the beautiful fishing village of Minard, and the industrial village of Furness, with its far-famed quarries, was Mr Clarke’s first and only ministerial charge. The cause there was at first a preaching station under the charge of the late Mr Lauder, of the parish of Strichen [Strachur], on the opposite side of Lochfyne. When raised to the status of a sanctioned charge, Mr Clarke, who had ministered among the people as a student and probationer, became its first minister. He laboured diligently in the Word and doctrine, and was a devoted and efficient pastor. He retired from the active work of the ministry a few years before the crisis in 1900, and Mr Archibald Cameron, now of Creich, was ordained as his colleague and successor.

Clarke, like a good many other retired ministers who were in no sense in favour of the Union, entered the United Church in 1900, but on the decision of the House of Lords in favour of the Free Church in August, 1904, he returned to the Free Church. He took a very active interest in the Dunoon Free Church, and frequently occupied the pulpit there until advancing years and intensified deficiency of hearing rendered him unable to do so. Mr Clarke was a man of considerable intellectual power. His tall, commanding appearance made him a striking figure in any company. He was an expert in ecclesiastical procedure, and in his earlier days took a prominent part in the business of the Presbytery of Inveraray and Synod of Argyll. When the said Presbytery was resuscitated a few years ago, he was again zealous, and on many occasions travelled from Dunoon to Tarbert to attend its sittings. An ardent supporter of the anti-Union minority, and of conservative Calvinistic views of theology, Mr Clarke was an instructive preacher. His high character commanded universal homage in Lochfyneside and Cowal, where he was perhaps the best-known Presbyterian minister. He was devotedly waited on in his declining years by Mrs Clarke, by whom he is survived, and to whom we tender respectful sympathy in her bereavement.

 

Author: A. D. C. [Archibald Donald Cameron, minister, Lochfyneside]
Source: The Monthly Record, January, 1917, p.7

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On the 23rd of December, while the mid-winter sun was sinking fast behind Kilmun Hill, there were laid to rest in the cemetery which nestles at its base, and which embraces the ducal dust of the Argyll family, the remains of probably the oldest minister in Scotland, and one of her most stalwart sons, both physically and ecclesiastically. The late and venerable John Clarke came to his grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in in his season. He entered into rest in his 92nd year, and now enjoys the fellowship of them who through faith and patience inherit the promise.

He was the senior minister of Lochfyneside, where he actively laboured for 30 years with much acceptance and unswerving fidelity to his ordination vows and the principles of the Reformed Church. He continued in his first charge until he retired in September, 1907.

Remote from towns he ran his godly race,
Nor e’er had changed, nor wished to change his place;
Unpractised he to fawn, or seek for power,
By doctrines fashioned to the varying hour.

John Clarke was of commanding appearance, and carried the burden of 92 years with erectness of body, and with agility of step, and with an alertness of mind, and quickness of sight which would not fail to draw the attention even of the High Command on the Somme, when displayed by an officer in the full vigour of life and martial spirit. The remark had often been made by competent judges that, had he chosen the profession of arms, he would have attained a high position.

He was up in years before he began to study for the ministry. His thoughts were turned to the Church on the death of a brother, who was the first Free Church minister of the parish of Killean, Kintyre, and who died on the threshold of his fame as one of the ablest, and most powerful, and evangelical young preachers of the Disruption period in Argyllshire. The Rev. Duncan Clarke contracted his fatal malady by preaching for a whole winter in the open air. He and his large congregation could not get a site for a church from the superior. This was latterly granted, but not until the young minister’s health was impaired beyond remedy. Changed days! Now less than a dozen individuals, whether they have any Church or not, will be provided with a building and preacher, and that at the closest possible point of proximity to the existing church. Such are the present abhorrence at divisions, and the ardent love for your neighbour! and that at an hour when principles emblazoned on shields of martyrs and Covenanters are thrown into the melting pot for the sake of union.

About the time that Mr Clarke began his studies, he received a tempting offer from a successful Colonial relative. That friend had no direct heir of his own, but if the aspirant to the ministry of the Free Church would change his mind and emigrate, he would make him his heir. John Clarke declined to be swayed by worldly considerations, and in due time finished his studies, and was settled over his devoted people at Lochfyneside, and in them from that hour to his latest breath his interest never abated. Last September, in his 92nd year, he spent almost a week among them; he visited the most of them, preached on the Sabbath, and kept the weekly prayer meeting. He bade his flock his last adieu on that occasion, and prayed earnestly that the blessings of the God of Israel would richly descend upon them. He returned home with his heart full of gratitude that once more he was privileged to visit the scenes of his early labours, and to make known the unsearchable riches of the grace of his adorable Redeemer. Had he lived a few months longer he would have seen his jubilee.

The last time he made an appearance in the General Assembly was in 1911, when the appeal from the Dornoch Presbytery for the translation of the Lochfyneside junior colleague was before the House, and so ably and persuasively did Mr Clarke plead the interests of his congregation, that the appeal was dismissed by an overwhelming majority. The Aberdeen Free Press wrote highly on that occasion of the venerable minister from the west.

The Clarke family were endowed with uncommon ability, as well as with longevity – one sister lived until she was 96. Reference has been made to Duncan, and there were two sisters who were successful teachers. They were pious and devout women, whose influence was conspicuously for good among their pupils and neighbours. John had a share of the family talent, an able and shrewd and determined man, and a born lawyer. His preaching became more mellow as he advanced in years, and especially after his retirement. He was a most accurate speaker both in English and Gaelic, and in conversation and writing was an adept in the use of phrases and expressions. His letters were models of conciseness and diction. After he retired, to the time of his death, he lived with his devoted wife – “dearer and nearer, as the rapid of life shot to the fall.” For her we have deep sympathy in her loneliness and sorrow, at Broxwood Park, a beautiful residence about three miles from the place where his mortal remains lie at rest, until the day dawn and the shadows flee away.

 

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 REV. PETER CLARKSON, DUTHIL

(Died 13th March, 1936)
Author: Principal John Macleod, D.D.
Source: The Monthly Record, April, 1936, pp.87-88

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On the 13th of March, with startling suddenness, Mr Clarkson, the much-loved Free Church minister of Duthil, passed away in his manse at Carrbridge. As late as eight o’clock in the evening he was engaged in pastoral visitation; and he had hardly retired for the night when with a few gasps he breathed his last.

Brought up in his early days under the lively Gospel ministry of Rev. Thomas Matthew of Kilwinning, he profited from his privileges and from his youth he feared the Lord. After spending a few years at a trade he felt himself called to the work of the ministry, and in 1902, at the age of thirty-one, he was ordained minister of the Original Secession congregation of Kirkcaldy. There he laboured until 1905, when he was called by the vacant Free Church congregation of Aberfeldy. In this charge he met with a remarkable measure of success, and his work in it is not forgotten. He was called to and settled in Govanhill and Whiting Bay congregations in succession, and in each place left a fragrant memory. About twelve years ago he removed to Coulter, in Lanarkshire, and remained in the charge there until about a year ago, when he accepted a call to Duthil Free Church, which was the scene of his closing labours. His death now has left not only a sad home but a sorrowing congregation, and, more than that, many that sorrow for his removal wherever throughout the bounds of the Church he was known; and he was known far and wide. Coulter had scarcely time to lament his departure from them when they were called to mourn his death. And Duthil, where as in his previous charges he had won the hearts of old and young, enjoyed his ministry for only a year.

Mr Clarkson was a man of admirable qualities. Over and above his unfeigned and transparent godliness he had the happy endowment of an affectionate, guileless spirit; and he was as true and trustworthy as he was warm-hearted. As a preacher he was sound, zealous, practical, and acceptable. In the delivery of his sermons he was vigorous and lively, and he yearned over the salvation of his hearers. As a pastor he was faithful and diligent, and commended himself to his flock as a true Gospel minister. He did one thing, and this made his life a unity. A few years ago he was Moderator of the General Assembly, and for some years of his stay at Coulter he was Clerk to the Presbytery of Edinburgh.

For years his friends were aware of the fact that he suffered from weakness of the heart, so that when they heard of his death, while it was no less a matter of sorrow to them, it was not so much of a surprise. In spite of this weakness he was active and diligent in his calling.

Mr Clarkson’s dust is laid to rest in Coulter, where a few years ago he buried one of his children. And the large company that attended his funeral from Duthil, Kilwinning, Hamilton, Glasgow, and Edinburgh, as well as from Coulter and the neighbouring parishes, bore witness to the esteem and regard in which a faithful minister of Christ was held. He had not quite completed his sixty-fifth year.

 

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 REV. EBENEZER ALEXANDER DAVIDSON

(Died 1953)
Source: The Monthly Record, October, 1953, p.193

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News reaches us, as we go to press, of the death of Rev. A. E. [E. A.] Davidson, Senior Minister of Whiting Bay. Mr Davidson’s passing at an advanced age severs a link with other days when piety in Scotland was warmer and stronger than it is to-day. He himself was a man of devout and reverent spirit, who brought a clear mind and a fervent spirit to the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Since he entered, in middle life, the ministry of the Free Church, from our sister denomination, the United Original Secession Church, he exercised a helpful ministry in two congregations and, since his retiral, a wider ministry throughout our vacant congregations which was deeply appreciated. Of wide, general culture, he was well read in theology and deeply versed in Puritan literature. He retained his mental and physical vigour into old age and was untiring in his labours for the Master he loved. His departure leaves a blank which will be specially felt by our yacant congregations who were privileged to have his ministry from time to time.

 

Author: W. J. C. [William J. Cameron, Buccleuch-Greyfriars]
Source: The Monthly Record, December, 1953, p.263

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When Ebenezer Davidson was born in a Morayshire Manse the Free Church of Scotland was no more than twenty-six years old. The months immediately following the Disruption had been characterised in the newly-constituted Free Presbytery of Forres by a high degree of practical enthusiasm. Before the end of the year 1844 the Presbytery had held its fifty-second meeting and had opened five new churches. At Dallas, however, greater difficulty was experienced in endeavouring to secure a suitable site. The congregation formed there was without a minister and the situation was somewhat discouraging. But the choice of the congregation fell on a young probationer, a native of the county, who was prepared to face all the disadvantages involved and, in August 1844, Rev. William Davidson was ordained as their first pastor although they could then boast of no buildings of their own. Thus began a ministry which lasted for more than half a century, during which the high principled and devoted pastor won the deserved esteem of an appreciative people.

In due course the problem of a site was solved and the necessary buildings were erected. To the Manse Mr Davidson brought, as his bride, the daughter of an English sea-captain in whose house he had formerly acted as tutor. They became the parents of a large family of which Ebenezer was the third member. Along with his brothers and sisters, he enjoyed the privilege of being brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and witnessing in his home an example of godly conduct. He received his early education at Forres School from which he proceeded to Edinburgh University. Having been led to dedicate his life to the Gospel Ministry, he hesitated to enter the New College at a time when liberal teaching was gaining a place in its classrooms, and with the cordial approval of his father he crossed the Irish Sea, to find as one of his fellow students in the Assembly’s College, John MacLeod, afterwards Principal John MacLeod, D.D., of the Free Church College, Edinburgh.

When Mr Davidson had completed his theological studies he cast in his lot with the Original Secession Church, in which denomination he served for nearly thirty years, ministering in turn at Olrig, Kirkcaldy and Edinburgh. On being admitted to the Free Church Ministry he accepted a call to Clachan, from which he was translated to Dumfries. His last charge was at Whiting Bay, but he continued to give services under the Supply Committee for eight years after failing health had compelled him to retire from regular pastoral work. In the pulpit he sounded no uncertain note. His sermons were carefully prepared and he habitually clothed his thought in graceful and expressive language.

For several years before his death he resided in Edinburgh and associated himself with the Congregation of Buccleuch-Greyfriars, of which he became an Office-bearer. He was a diligent and welcome visitor in the houses of the sick and aged of the congregation and regularly attended the weekly Prayer Meeting, where his approaches to the Throne of Grace betokened not only alertness of mind and largeness of heart but an earnest and trustful spirit with the glow of heaven upon it. He was a supporter of many good causes in the City, taking special interest in temperance work, the observance of the Lord’s Day and our Protestant Witness.

His mind retained its vigour to the end and it was while serving the Supply Committee at Corrie that he succumbed to a brief final illness. On the Sabbath morning following his decease, the congregation of Buccleuch and Greyfriars heard, upstanding, tribute paid to the memory of this good man by Rev. Professor David Mackenzie who occupied the pulpit on that day.

Mr Davidson’s, genial manner, unfeigned devotion and prayerful interest are missed in many Christian gatherings that he frequented and much sympathy is extended to his widow and aged sister.

 

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 REV. ALEXANDER DEWAR, F.R.G.S.

(Died 10th August, 1943)
Source: The Monthly Record, September, 1943, p.145

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It is not only the Home Church that has been sadly bereft these past few weeks; news has come that the Church has lost its oldest missionary in the Foreign Field. A cablegram of recent date has intimated the death of the Rev. Alexander Dewar, our missionary superintendent in the South African field. We do not yet know the circumstances under which the end has come, but we regard it as altogether appropriate that our veteran missionary should have died in harness and on the field to which he had devoted 50 years of his life. Mr Dewar was the first missionary accredited to the Free Church, and appointed by her to the foreign field after 1900, though he was not the first missionary that the reconstituted Free Church had given, with her full benediction, to the cause of missions. That honour belongs to someone else still in harness. But Mr Dewar has served the Free Church faithfully for 35 years, and for the greater part of that period single-handed as far as European staff was concerned. His reputation as a pioneer was high in missionary circles in Africa. In 1893 he was ordained to the Livingstonia Mission, and he pioneered most of the territory between Nyasa and Tanganyika. He had an intimate knowledge of native dialects, some of which he had reduced to writing for the first time. Lithe and agile in body, he possessed a strong constitution, and the passing of the years did not seem to leave their mark on him. The Church paid the highest tribute in her power to himself and his work in placing him in the Moderator’s Chair at the Assembly of 1929, and the last Assembly sent him a cable of congratulations on his jubilee as a missionary. He leaves a widow and family, to whom the Church’s sympathy is extended.

 

Author: Principal J. K. Cameron, D.D.
Source: The Monthly Record, September, 1943, p.145

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There was received by cablegram on 12th August news of the sudden death on 10th August current of the Rev. Alexander Dewar, F.R.G.S., Missionary Superintendent of the Free Church Mission in South Africa.

Mr Dewar was a native of Lochgilphead, and it was probably there that he was moved to give himself early to the service of Christ among the heathen. The wonderful evangelical ministry of the Rev. Mr Fraser, minister of the Free Church congregation there had created a love for sound Biblical teaching and Christian service that gave the community of that part of Argyllshire a warmth and steadfastness of Christian life that was very characteristic of them for a considerable time after Mr Fraser was removed by death – and may still be so.

Mr Dewar was ordained to the Livingstonia Mission in 1893. He was thus privileged to give the long period of 50 years to the service of Christ in this foreign field. He was warmly congratulated, in May last, by the General Assembly of his Church, on attaining the jubilee of his ministry, and now, on His Master’s call, he has left this early scene. We have good cause to believe that he rejoiced to have heard his Lord’s joyful welcome: “Well done, good and faithful servant enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” “Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given me, be with me where I am: that they may behold my glory, which Thou hast given me for Thou loved’st me before the foundation of the world.”

When he was connected with Livingstonia Mr Dewar was instrumental in committing to writing the dialect of the language of the particular district over which he was stationed and he was also the first unarmed man to cross Africa from the Zambesi to Cairo [Congo?].

Since 1908 Mr Dewar had been superintendent of the Free Church Mission in Kaffraria. For a considerable part of that time he was unaccompanied by any assistant from the home Church. Native labourers alone were available, and these he nobly led and trained. He latterly longed to have at least one man from Scotland who might relieve him of part of the heavy burden of responsibility which he was bearing. He greatly rejoiced when he heard that Mr Gregor Macleod, a young student just finishing his course of training in Theology, had signified, last year, his willingness to offer his services for the South African field. Mr MacLeod’s offer was gladly and readily accepted by the Church, and in due course he was licensed and ordained. He married and prepared to avail himself, notwithstanding the ocean dangers at the present time, of the first ship by which he could reach his station, but, to the great regret of the Church at home, and the disappointment of the Mission abroad, the ship by which the young missionaries were travelling did not reach its destination. It was lost at sea, by enemy action, and the missionaries were drowned. Mr Dewar, who had expressed the pleasure he had in contemplation of the prospect of introducing the missionaries on their arrival to the mission, is himself called to his rest, and the mission is vacant. What an undesirable reflection such a vacancy casts upon this Christian homeland! Is its loud call to fall on deaf ears? Is there no response to be given to the command of Christ to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature? Let each young man in the ministry, or in preparation for it, examine whether he can justify before God his remaining disobedient to so loud a call as this case presents: a wide field ready to harvest, and no reapers prepared to enter!

The greatness of the loss incurred by that part of Africa by the death of a man such as Mr Dewar it is not possible correctly to estimate. It embraces specially the loss of correct evangelical teaching, itself of inestimable value, and the example of a long Christian life spent in the midst of the people as a living epistle known and read of all men. Of Mr Dewar it could truly be said that for him “to live was Christ.” He was gifted with the true missionary spirit. His heart’s desire was to secure the welfare of the native races of that part of Africa.

Throughout his long missionary period he remained a loyal Free Churchman and an active servant in the Lord’s cause, while his love for the native, and his attachment to the teaching of God’s Word, never wavered. His Church, out of appreciation of his work, bestowed on him in 1927 the highest honour there is at her disposal by calling on him to preside over her General Assembly as Moderator.

He was not without his personal experience of the bitterness of life’s sorrows. He sought not the praise of men for the service he was enabled to render: his heart found satisfaction in the spiritual welfare of the African native, and joy in fellowship with his Lord.

 

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 REV. THOMAS ELLIS

(Died 20th April, 1911)
Source: The Monthly Record, June, 1911, p.112

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With unfeigned regret many throughout the Church have learned of the death of the Rev. Thomas Ellis. He died at his residence, 45 Meadowpark Street, Dennistoun, Glasgow, on 20th April last, aged 61. Mr Ellis was a devout, earnest-minded man. He was born in the North of Ireland, and after a somewhat chequered student course became a City Missionary. He laboured as such in Londonderry, Belfast, and Glasgow, and held the highest testimonials from those who had the supervision of his work. He was a man of warm and generous disposition, with an intelligent grasp of sound doctrine, and considerable pulpit gifts.

After the crisis of 1900 he began to work for the Free Church, and preached with acceptance in different pulpits. He eventually offered himself for licence as a duly qualified minister of the Gospel, and his attainments being more than respectable, he was duly accepted and licensed by the Presbytery of Glasgow. He was subsequently called to be minister at Grantown-on-Spey, and occupied that field for several years. As a stated pastor, Mr Ellis was not so successful as he had been as a missionary, and those acquainted with the somewhat different lines of work brethren have to pursue who are engaged in these departments will have little difficulty in appreciating the causes which led to the resignation by Mr Ellis of his charge.

Thereafter he laboured constantly in the service of the Church, to a large extent in Partick and elsewhere within the bounds of the Glasgow Presbytery. He also occupied the field in Raasay with acceptance for several summer seasons, and everywhere was esteemed for his hearty, open demeanour and devout ministrations.

In our opinion, Mr Ellis was at his best when dealing with a simple Gospel message. He had a clear view of the message of salvation, and delighted to deliver it. In his household Mr Ellis had affliction, and his wife predeceased him by a few years. His own sufferings were great and he passed away on the date named. A fitting tribute to his work has been engrossed in the Minutes of the General Assembly. Those who knew Mr Ellis best had the keenest appreciation of his merits.

 

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 REV. RODERICK FINLAYSON

(Died 15th July, 1905)
Source: The Monthly Record, August, 1905, p.130

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At the noise of Thy waterspouts
Deep unto deep doth call;
Thy breaking waves pass over me,
Yea, and Thy billows all.

 

These words, from the forty-second Psalm, may well interpret the feelings of very many throughout the North of Scotland when on Saturday, 15th July, it was flashed abroad that the Free Church minister of Daviot, Inverness, had, unseen by men, that morning passed into the eternal world. The tragedy enacted that night in the silence of the Highland glen finds its counterpart only in that which stunned the generation of the Disruption when the news spread throughout the land that the unwearied, tortured brain of the author of the Testimony of the Rocks was at rest. With the last few months of the life of Roderick Finlayson we do not intermeddle. It was then apparent to all who met the deceased that the strong man was bowed down, and the powerful intellect unable to perform its part. His sun has gone down at noon, and darkness surrounds his bier.

Roderick Finlayson was born in the village of Ardinarff, Parish of Lochalsh, Ross-shire, about 46 years ago. Having received the education of the school in his native parish, he was apprenticed, and in due time completed his probation as a carpenter and joiner. In 1883 he was one of the band of resolute Highlanders who tore up the permanent way of the Highland line at Strome Ferry to prevent the continuance of Sabbath labour and travel on that railway. For their action in thus seeking to protect the honour of the Lord’s day the “Strome Ferry Rioters,” as they were called were tried in Edinburgh, and sentenced to imprisonment in the Calton Jail. One minister in the capital, the venerable Dr. Begg, of Newington, was not ashamed of their chain, and visited the Highlanders whose zeal for God’s law had brought them into conflict with the laws of men. When the period of their sentence was half-expired they were liberated, and he presided over the public breakfast of the “rioters” on the morning of their liberation. The spokesman of the party in returning thanks for the kindness shown to them was the young carpenter, Roderick Finlayson, and so well did he perform his part that his words called forth encomiums from Dr. Begg. Finlayson was the youngest of the band, but his strength of character was early displayed. In due time he prosecuted his studies for the ministry to a successful issue, and in 1894 he was ordained minister of Daviot in the line of a noble succession. As a student Mr. Finlayson excelled in Logic and Metaphysics, and these lines of study had attraction for him to the end. At and before the crisis in 1900 he was one of the men whose attitude was never in doubt, and his herculean labours during the past five years undoubtedly hastened the end which came with such tragic vehemence on 15th July.

As a preacher in his native Gaelic Mr. Finlayson was held in high esteem. He was often restrained and “hampered” in his delivery when preaching in English, but his liberty was much greater when handling the truth in his mother tongue. He had a well-stored mind, and his library has often been praised as one of the best to be found in any country manse in Scotland. A student rather than a man of affairs, Mr. Finlayson appeared to best advantage in the fellowship of those who knew him most intimately. He is gone now, and in circumstances over which affection draws the veil, while the wise in heart are driven to consider well what these His doings are.

 

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  REV. WILLIAM FRASER, STRATHPEFFER

(Died 7th July, 1919)
Source: The Monthly Record, August, 1919, p.123

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Through the death of the Rev. William Fraser, Strathpeffer, the Free Church has lost one of the most highly esteemed of her ministers. Mr Fraser had been in failing health for the past year or two, and it was during a visit to Skye, to which he had gone for a change in the hope of recovering his strength, that he passed away. He was one of the twenty-five ministers who passed through the strenuous experiences of the Union of 1900, and maintained the continuity of the Free Church, and several years ago he was honoured by the Church by being called to the Moderator’s Chair. A man of native kindliness of heart, he was an earnest evangelical preacher, while the solid worth of his Christian character won for him universal regard. His removal creates a blank in the ministry in the Highlands which will not easily be filled. The sympathy of the Church goes out to his sorrowing widow and family.

 

An Appreciation
Author: John Macleod, Dornoch
Source: The Monthly Record, September, 1919, p.167

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In the passing away of the Rev. Mr Fraser, the Church has lost a man who above many “fulfilled” his ministry. He lived for his work, and died as he often wished “in harness.” There are many throughout the Church who think of him with reverence and they will long cherish his memory. His true simplicity of spirit, his deep earnestness, and his evangelical preaching often deeply moved congregations and won their confidence in a remarkable degree.

Previous to finding the work of his life he engaged in the trade of a carpenter; but he manifested at an early age a deep interest in religion. As a boy, he often told us that he had been profoundly influenced by the devout followers of the Lord in Kilmorack, Urray, Dingwall, and Ferintosh. In these parishes in his early days there were not a few of out standing Christians who daily lived in fellowship with God, and he often acknowledged in public and private the source of help they had been to him. But to Dr Kennedy specially he owed the influence and counsel which shaped his life. The deeply cherished desire of his life to become a preacher of Christ’s Gospel appeared at this stage impossible of fulfilment, and he continued at his trade for some time. The desire for the ministry, however, reasserted itself, and he decided to resume his studies. This was no easy task, but he persevered and in due time he entered College. At this stage he found Dr Kennedy a real father for whom his affection to the very last was real and strong. While he still prosecuted his studies, by his modesty of bearing, kindliness of heart, and sympathy of spirit, it was evident that he won the confidence of all good men he came in contact with. He found “the men” of that day, who did not always take too readily to young men, kind and helpful; and from the outset of his College course he obviously was one of their favourites. His notes of these men were entertaining and edifying, and he often told them with great delight.

In Sleat, where he spent so many years, his influence lives. During his ministry here he came into much contact with men like Mr Macrae, Duirinish, and Mr Galbraith, Lochalsh, and others of kindred spirit, whose loyalty to Christ and His Church was known to all and these made a lasting impression upon him. In his quiet humorous way he often entertained his friends by telling of the times they had had together on communion and other occasions. There is little doubt but in his anxiety to serve the Church, especially in the years after the Union, he over-taxed himself; indeed, he admitted when speaking of the difficulties and controversies of these years that his health had been undermined by them. Those who passed through that period will not be surprised at this. In Skye, Harris, and Uist the whole work of the ministry had to be carried on in all seasons of the year by him and another honoured brother; and in that wide area, difficult and dangerous at times to travel, they took a personal interest in everything that concerned the welfare of the people and spent themselves in the service of their Lord.

He left Sleat with great regret, and for the short time he had been settled in Plockton he laboured earnestly and gladly; but he found the work in the West telling severely on him, and he felt that he had to make a change. Consequently he welcomed the “call” from the congregation of Strathpeffer; and during his ministry there he was happy in his work, and his ministry will be treasured by the people of God as a precious gift. Sympathetic by nature he made himself a friend of all in need, and in the homes of the sick and poor he will be long remembered. His natural kindness of heart made his intercourse with the young easy and delightful, and when conversing with them he always had an apt story to tell them; but his life and ministry made a special appeal to experienced Christians who heard him in his mother tongue. He made no pretensions to oratory or learning; but if his gifts were not brilliant they were devotedly used, and they were often the means of refreshing and strengthening God’s heritage. He always regarded his calling as the highest of all; and even in dress and deportment as well as in spirit, he maintained its dignity. He was essentially a devout man whose sympathies were with all good work, and during the last five years of his life it might be truly said of him that his was a power matured in weakness. His influence over the lives of many in the Church cannot be over-estimated. He was always loyal to his convictions, and strong in action when he was assured of the rightness of the course he had chosen. He was strenuous in maintaining the vital verities of the Faith, and he glorified in the full Gospel. He was a genial and good man, full of faith and prayer, and a true minister of Jesus Christ. It can be truly said that he exercised a ministry that was gracious and righteous; and his epitaph might well be: “I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him Crucified.”

We are poorer without him. “Blessed are they that do His Commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the Gates into the City.”

 

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 REV. ANGUS CALBRAITH, M.Α.

(Died 25th April, 1912)
Author: W. F.
Source: The Monthly Record, June, 1909,

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By the death of the Rev. Angus Galbraith, of Lochalsh, ex-Moderator of the Free Church General Assembly, on Sabbath, the 25th April, at the manse, we have lost one of the most worthy and conspicuous ministers of our Church, and the loss sustained by the Church, especially in the North, is a very great one.

Mr Galbraith was born at Kilberry, Argyllshire, seventy-two years ago. He manifested more than ordinarily high talent when at school. He prepared himself for the teaching profession, and secured his “Diploma” after the usual course of study in the Free Church Normal College, Glasgow. He followed the profession for a time, but the Lord designed him for higher and more important work. He entered Glasgow University, and afterwards attended the Free Church College in the same city. He distinguished himself in his classes, especially in Hebrew, and came out the first student of his year, gaining the Clark scholarship, the highest offered by that college.

From his youth he knew the Scriptures which are able to make wise unto salvation. He spoke in the highest terms of the ministers in Argyllshire, from whose preaching he derived saving and lasting benefit. He enjoyed the great privilege of once hearing the late Dr Duff, of “Foreign Mission fame,” when home on furlough, advocating the interests of Indian missions. Never did he forget that speech; and, as he related to the writer, it made such an impression as to help him in deciding to study for the Church.
But it was chiefly when teaching in Waternish, Skye, during his “Divinity” course, and enjoying the powerful and unctuous preaching of the eminent Mr Alexander McColl, then of the parish of Duirinish, that he seemed to have got his feet on the “Rock.” He entertained unbounded admiration for that great preacher, and though very reticent regarding his own conversion, he often referred to the refreshing times which he enjoyed while in charge of one of the Ladies’ Schools, as they were called, at that place.

After he had been licensed, several important congregations moved to secure him as their minister. He, however, discouraged them, and preferred to accept a call from the congregation in that most interesting, if not unique, island of Raasay, in the Presbytery of Skye, where he was ordained in 1867. There he laboured for twenty-three years, and exercised a great influence over the whole of Skye and the West Highlands. During his ministry in Raasay he received over a score of calls from important congregations including several in Glasgow and Inverness, but these he persistently declined. He, however, accepted a call from the congregation of Ferintosh, in the parish of Urquhart, made famous by Dr MacDonald, “the Apostle of the North.” There he laboured for a few years, gathering around him a large congregation, and many who thirsted for the Water of Life in other parishes resorted resorted to hear him. But his heart was in the West, and when the congregation of Lochalsh, which had been long vacant by the death of the eminent Mr McColl, gave him a unanimous and hearty call, he accepted the same and was inducted sixteen years ago. There he laboured most assiduously, preaching three times each Sabbath and catechising regularly that wide parish, and including a weekly prayer-meeting, as well as a monthly one on the first Monday of each month.

The regularity of his attendance at meetings of Presbytery and Synod was almost unique. Since his ordination he never missed a meeting and after the removal of Rev. William Sinclair, Plockton, he was appointed Clerk of the Presbytery of Lochcarron, and so recently as ten days before his death he attended the meeting at which the pen literally dropped out of his hand.

He took a prominent part in the contendings and discussions on public questions, alike in the inferior Courts of the Church and in the General Assembly. To Confessional doctrine he always adhered, and had no toleration for Voluntaryism. He opposed the first Union negotiations in 1872, along with Dr Kennedy, of Dingwall, Mr McColl, and other prominent ministers in the North. In 1900, when the unfortunate Union took place, he will be remembered as the man who led the opposition in the May Assembly, when the historic Union debate took place. His clear views of the distinctive principles of the Free Church were unmistakable, and his arguments then in support of his amendment were able and masterly. He deplored the abandonment of fundamental truths and distinctive principles of the Church, which he held with a tenacity and defended by an ability all his own. He possessed a coolness and self-control which safeguarded him in all his public utterances, and never had to withdraw or recant a single expression in the face of a backsliding and overbearing majority. His consistency all through, his wise counsel and sound judgment commanded the confidence and respect of the people as one on whom they could rely.

In 1905 the Church called him unanimously to the Moderator’s Chair, the highest honour which it lies in the Church’s power to confer. The duties of that office he discharged with great dignity, to the satisfaction of the Church, and with credit to himself. This honour was none of his seeking, for Mr Galbraith was one of the humblest and most approachable of men. Never did he seek to lead or preside but when pressed by his friends to do so. Before the Union he was proposed by his own Presbytery and others for the Hebrew Chair in one of the colleges.

In private Mr Galbraith was the Christian, minister, and gentleman. His manse was always a place of warm fellowship and hospitality. At Communion seasons he was attractive and interesting among the brethren, and one to whom they looked for counsel and sympathy. The very children of tender years looked forward with pleasure to his coming at Communion time. “Like the Master”, he was fond of children, often amused them, and they readily took to him.

But it was as a preacher he excelled, He was a deep and accurate thinker, a great student of the Scriptures, both in Hebrew and Greek. He had found therein “the pearl of great price and for His sake he bought the whole field”. He embraced it and believed it to be God’s perfect revelation to man. His views of divine truth were profound in all his thinking but in all his discourses these profund views melted into transparent and childlike simplicity. He laboured to be Scriptural, clear and profitable to all. He did not indulge in embellishments of language as many do to hide the nakedness of their sermons; he needed not such a covering. Never did he appear before the people without thorough preparation, which resulted in discourses, edifying and unctuous. But although he detested attempts to embellish at the expense of doctrinal and evangelical preaching, he at the same time set forth with great care, and in chaste and elegant language, the doctrines of the Cross, and by his piety and scholarly attainments shed a lustre on every subject he handled.

Though doctrinal to a degree, yet he was highly evangelical. The Cross had the place of pre-eminence in his own heart, and it was the heart of all his preaching. What he was in the pulpit in the prime of life, and when animated by the zeal and fervour of his first love, we vividly remember. His appeals to the unconverted to close with Christ were made with a pathos and tenderness of feeling all his own, which we can never forget. His gracious and ripe experience enabled him to meet and relieve the varied cases of God’s heritage. The deceitfulness of the evil heart, the subtlety and assaults of the great enemy, he would trace and expose, and by appropriate application of sweet promises and other truths, the poor in spirit, tempted, and broken-hearted, he would send on their way rejoicing.

At his “induction in Lochalsh,” some one had said since the removal of Dr Kennedy, Dingwall, “he was the ‘Whitfield’ of the Highlands.” He was deservedly one of the most popular of the Northern ministers, as the crowds he drew at Communion seasons and elsewhere testified. The Lord enriched him with no ordinary mental capacity, and in like manner adapted his colossal body to the greatness of mind, and thus enabled him to enjoy a commanding, stately, and saintly appearance. Not a few remarked when he entered the pulpit that his very appearance and preliminaries were a sermon to many. We have never met any one more willing to help his brethren at Communion and other seasons. The amount of work he undertook was simply amazing. He did it all, and with no ostentation. He often referred to the Lord’s goodness to him in permitting him to preach every Sabbath without a single break since his ordination, until his health lately gave way. This is a rare record. Union, with all its attendant evils, brought on ill-health. The departure from fundamental truths for which the worthy fathers of the Disruption suffered, and which the Lord so signally blessed; the deplorable state into which it would plunge the Highlands, and the absence of real signs of spiritual life in the movement for Union with Voluntaries, he deplored. The weary, sleepless nights it cost him had a most serious effect upon his health. For a time he collapsed. By the treatment in Edinburgh of a specialist, and the great advantage of having the care, skill, and attention of his own son – also a specialist – his health improved. Afterwards he returned home, and was able to preach for a few years, but yet his life seemed in the balance.

A few weeks before the end he contracted a cold, which developed into congestion of the lungs, together with other complications, which carried him away. The signs were evident that he was to be left with us no longer. The morning before he returned from the recent meetings of Presbytery and Synod at Kyle, he engaged in prayer at family worship, and he seemed to be more among the saints in heaven than with us around him. He appeared as if bidding us all fare-well. And so it was. We shall never see him again until the day when the secrets of all hearts shall be revealed. It is that day that will declare the work done by worthy Mr Galbraith for souls and the cause of Christ. His race was run. ”He had fought the good fight, had finished his course, kept the faith.”

The funeral was attended by a large concourse of people to the Lochalsh burying-place. Many had come from the surrounding parishes, and not a few from even Gairloch and the West of Skye, to pay their last tribute of respect to one whose lips – now silent – fed and refreshed their souls. The Moderator of Assembly, with other four ministers of the Church were present, and ministers of other denominations. Deep sympathy is extended to his sorrowing widow, Dr Galbraith (son), and other relatives, to whom the loss is irreparable, and to his congregation, which has lost such an eminent minister.

 

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  REV. JOHN GEDDES

(Died 6th September, 1902)
Source: The Monthly Record, October, 1902, pp.165-166

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The death of this eminent servant of God took place on Saturday, 6th September last. The announcement must have caused profound regret in the breasts of many who valued Mr. Geddes’ unique spiritual gifts and esteemed him highly for his personal character. He was eminently distinguished as an experimental preacher, and his clear insight into the deeper mysteries of the Covenant of Redemption was singularly helpful to many. Believing that a considerable number of our readers cherished for Mr. Geddes a more than ordinary regard, we purpose setting down here what little we were able to glean concerning his personal and spiritual history from occasional conversations with himself.

John Geddes was born in Paisley about seventy-four years ago. His father was a merchant there, but removed when Mr. Geddes was comparatively young to Glasgow, where the greater portion of his life was spent. His first recollections of preaching were connected with the ministry of the Rev. John MacNaughton, a notable preacher of the Disruption era. After coming to Glasgow the family connected themselves with the congregation of St. James’, in London Street, then enjoying the ministry of the Rev. David Brown, M. A., afterwards Principal of Aberdeen Free Church College. Whether it was while waiting on this ministry or at an earlier period that Mr. Geddes first experienced the awakening power of the truth, we can not tell, but it is obvious from a reference made by Principal Brown in his Life of Dr. Duncan to Mr. Geddes that the Principal knew of Mr. Geddes’ spiritual exercises, cherishing for him a high regard and deep affection. Mr. Geddes’ spiritual experiences were deep and far-reaching in their effects on his after life. The period of darkness was long-continued, and it was not until he came under the influence and teaching of the late Rev. Mr. Bannatyne, of Oban and Knox Church, Glasgow, that a measure of settled peace entered into his soul. His own expression to the writer in this connection was, that Mr. Bannatyne was his Barnabas – a reference which conveys its own meaning to those acquainted with Scripture. There can be little doubt that the spiritual struggle was so deep and protracted in his case that, again to use his own words, “Reason seemed like to forsake her seat.”

He was studying with a view to the ministry, and during his college course was for a time on terms of close friendship with the eminent China missionary, the Rev. Carstairs Douglas. His own thought for a time was to go to China also, but, as far as we could gather, when the time for license had arrived a second period of spiritual darkness set in, and for a number of years he was not to take any decided step towards the pulpit.

When the writer first asked the late Rev. Hugh McDougall if he knew Mr. Geddes and would invite him to the Communion, he answered that he did know about him: “That is the student who would not take licence.” Eventually, however, he did go forward, and was duly licenced to preach, about the year 1864.

He was early identified by spiritually-minded persons as a man who “knew the secret of the Lord,” and, in spite of a hesitating delivery, his ministry was always keenly relished by such. His first appointment, as far as we could learn from the somewhat unwilling hints given by him of these things, was as assistant in the Erskine Church, Newcastle-on-Tyne, where, curiously enough, he succeeded the Rev. (now Professor) Marcus Dods. He was ordained in 1872 first minister of the rural charge of Kirkmichael, in the Presbytery of Lockerbie, and remained there for thirteen years.

About the year 1880 he began to come regularly to preach on the April Fast-Day in Milton Church, Glasgow, and when Rev. H. McDougall died in the end of 1884 the congregation unanimously elected Mr. Geddes their minister, hearing no other candidates, and never once thinking of another. He was inducted on 17th April, 1885, and continued to fulfil his ministry until October, 1899, when the affliction with which in His mysterious providence his Master visited him rendered him unfit for further duty. Since that time he was incapable of following the trend of affairs in the Church, and was entirely ignorant of all that has transpired in the interval. He now sees clearly, for none who knew him can at all doubt that John Geddes was pre-eminently “a man in Christ,” to whom to live was Christ, but to die was gain, and very much better by far.

Mr. Geddes was regarded by those qualified to judge, and who knew him well, as an excellent scholar, with a wide knowledge of theological literature, and, in particular, a keen insight into the Hebrew language. His literary style was singularly polished and chaste. It was modelled on that of the Queen Anne period, and had little affinity with the modern newspaper style which catches the popular ear. His sermons were carefully prepared and fully written out, and many of them could be published as they stand. With all this, Mr. Geddes was not a popular preacher. His favourite themes were not those on which the popular preacher dwells, and his restrained delivery did not increase their attractiveness. Yet to students, and especially to those who had a desire to know the mind of the Spirit in the Scriptures his preaching was welcome, and his ministry was eagerly waited on by such. As a pastor Mr. Geddes had the defects which seem to be almost inseparable from his type of mind and experience. Naturally of a retiring disposition and shrinking from fellowship with men, his peculiar spiritual experience and tendency to over-indulgence in introspection made it difficult for him to go from house to house. Nor did he – and just on the same grounds – specially succeed in winning the confidence of young people, although when the ice was broken he was a pleasant companion and a safe guide, especially in soul trouble. As a visitor to the sick he was valued by those who had relish for divine things, and he did not need a second bidding to enter their houses.

On public questions Mr. Geddes thought much and deeply. During the old Union controversy he was known to be on the side of the minority, and in respect of all other questions he took the same line. His criticisms of the unhappy Declaratory Act of 1892 were keen and forcible, and although he did not take the step of severing his connection with the Free Church at that time, there can be little doubt that his teaching had much to do with influencing many to adopt the course taken by the Free Presbyterians. The last occasion on which he conferred with his Kirk-Session on these matters was when the first communications regarding the Union were sent down to Kirk-Sessions after the General Assembly of May, 1899. He then said he was unable to follow out a train of reasoning on the matter, but he did not like what was proposed, and he underlined the passages in the new preamble, questions and formula which he did not approve. A Calvinist, a Presbyterian, a Puritan, and a Free Churchman, there can be little doubt of what his action would have been had he been able to form an opinion when the crisis arrived in October 1900.

Mr. Geddes married in 1890, and was tenderly waited on during his long illness by his devoted wife. To her we beg to extend our sympathy in her bereavement. It is right to state that on account of the peculiar circumstances of the case, the United Free Church Committee, after the Union, paid on Mr Geddes’ account the retiring allowance voted to him by the General Assembly of May, 1900. Rev. J.D. McCulloch was appointed Moderator of Milton Church Session in June, 1900, and continues to hold that office. At the request of the Kirk-Session, the Rev. D. M. McAlister, Moderator of General Assembly, preached on Sabbath, 14th September. He referred to the personal worth, character and spiritual attainments of the deceased, with whom he had held frequent ministerial communion for several years. By authority of the Free Presbytery of Glasgow he also declared Milton Church vacant.

The following are notes of what he said: Funeral sermons, so called, I never indulge in. I dared not come to take a text today that your departed minister might have construed as intended to be laudatory of him. I stand here, therefore, in a position of great difficulty. In this pulpit I am, when I remember the past, in a strait between two whether to speak my mind, or to altogether hold my peace. What am I that I should do either the one or the other? But there the restraining hand upon me from the dead in the world above, that blessed dead of whom we are all thinking at this moment. For your sakes, however, I appear here, and yet not altogether for your sakes. Were it not for the special regard I had for him who was God’s witness among you, and would have been so still had it pleased the Head of the Church to continue his health as it was five or six years ago, I should not have been here.

He was my senior by a number of years. We did not enter Glasgow University together; but I made up on him, much to my own loss, in the Greek Class of ’46 or ’47; and again to my own loss, I left him behind, and saw him no more until after he was your minister. I pushed on, and he held back. Why I should have done the one and he the other, the Lord alone knoweth who “heart’s secrets understands.” But I can testify that he was facile princeps as a Greek scholar; and, what another fellow-student, like himself no longer with us, told me years ago, that he was easily the first as a master of the pure well of English undefiled. He was a great student, both of the ancient classics and of the more modern poets, able to take his rank with the highest in the land in these subjects. In his youth he was a poet himself.

But, as I have already said, he was withdrawn from my view for long years. Of his Divinity course I know nothing, nor yet of his probationer days and early ministry. It was an open secret, however, that he had a period of retirement, and solemn communing with God, ere he appeared as one of the most unique heralds of the Lord Jesus Christ that we have had in these latter days. I have also heard that the late Reverend Archibald Bannatyne and Dr. Samuel Miller, of this city, were honoured by God as instruments in polishing him as a shaft for the Divine service. By the grace of God he was what he was, and God’s grace which was bestowed upon him was not in vain as souls here and elsewhere could testify.

His was a rare discrimination of Divine truth. Certain aspects opened up to him that were closed to most, because his was a rare spiritual experience, gained under a rare discipline in the Holy Ghost’s school. His, too, was a rare discernment and a rarer example of “the life of God in the soul of man.”

What a responsibility to have had such a ministry! Its teaching, indeed, was such that it was not given to every one to receive it, but all who had it must give account therefor at the Day of Judgment.

I have read of the “singularity” of the Christian life. His and his ministry were more than a “singularity” – like John the Baptist’s and like the Saviour’s own. There was “idiosyncracy” in the highest and holiest sense of consecrated uniqueness. “He that is able to receive it let him receive it.” And now “the mystery of God is finished” as regards His tried servant. The Divine wisdom is justified of her child and no mere man sees that clearer than he now in the light of God’s countenance, where he sees face to face and knows even as also he is known. But it was “a great mystery,” and still to us God is saying, “Behold, I show you a mystery.”

But I must stay my pen, when I recall how he once rebuked me for a reference he had heard me make to an eminent deceased minister of our Church. “Not one word about me,” I think I hear him saying, “let there be nothing in the pulpit but a magnifying of the sovereignty of grace.”

I know that there were some who almost idolized him, and who seemed as if they were forgetting the Master in the servant. I, forgive me saying it, have sometimes thought that God’s mysterious way of late was partly to rebuke that spirit. There were others who did not prize him at all, but simply regarded him as a gloomy voice crying in the wilderness. There were those, too, who said, “Hail, master,” and then turned their backs. This pierced the heart of the servant, whilst it drove him to his knees and to the re-setting of Christ upon the throne. He was tender and sensitive to a fault; but he was satisfied if “the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.”

Like Paul, he was “set for the defence of the Gospel”. To him, “upon all the glory there was a defence”. His “earnest expectation and hope were that in nothing he should be ashamed, but that with all boldness Christ might be magnified in his body, whether it were by life or by death.” His prayer, too, was, “Let all those that seek Him rejoice and be glad in Thee and let such as love Thy salvation say continually, ‘Let God be magnified.’ But I am poor and needy: make haste unto me, O God: Thou art my help and my deliverer; O Lord, make no tarrying.”

As he lived, so he died. “Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and unblameably he behaved himself among you that believe. As ye know, how he exhorted, and comforted, and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children, that ye would walk worthy of God.” “Whose faith follow, considering the end of his conversation”, even under God’s most mysterious affliction, “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever.”

In the language of one of the Psalms we were looking into, his heart was broken, but now it is whole in the immediate presence of Him who “healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds”. No more sorrow, no more pain, no more sighing for all the abominations done in the land, and even in God’s sanctuary. No more desertion of fancied friends; no more grieving over truth fallen in the street; no more death, for the former things are passed away, and in his experience it is fulfilled, “Behold, I make all things new.”

Let me close with one word of Dr. John Duncan’s concerning the Rev. Peter McBride, of Rothesay, when he was taken, “How solemn these knells! No doubt but an excess of glory overpowers.”

 

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 REV. ROBERT CORDON

(Died 9th November, 1909)

Source: The Monthly Record, December, 1909, p.205

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Born 1823; Died 9th November, 1909.

On Monday, 15th November, in the quiet churchyard of Glencairn, rich in martyr memories, the grave closed over the mortal remains of the Rev. Robert Gordon, senior minister of Buccleuch-Greyfriars Church, Edinburgh. He was a younger son of the famous Dr Robert Gordon, of the High Church, Edinburgh, in some respects the most remarkable amongst the leaders of the Disruption era. The Rev. Robert Gordon, of Buccleuch-Greyfriars, was reared in the traditions of the Evangelical party in the Church of Scotland. He was twenty years old at the Disruption, and his resolution to become a minister was then formed. In due time he was licensed, and eventually appointed colleague and successor to Dr Patrick Clason, one of the Clerks of the Disruption Assembly, in Buccleuch Church, Edinburgh. His ordination took place in 1854, so that he attained his jubilee as a minister in the year of the great decision with which the name of his congregation must ever be indissolubly associated. Mr Gordon retired from the active duties of the ministry shortly before 1900, and went, with his sisters, to reside in a cottage at Kirkland of Glencairn, Dumfriesshire, his father’s native parish. There the still evening of a quiet but fruitful life of service in the Master’s vineyard was spent, and on the ninth day of November last the gentle spirit winged its flight to the place prepared.

Mr Gordon was a man of a singularly gentle and retiring disposition. He was almost absurdly shy, and hence only those who knew him intimately, and these were comparatively few, quite understood and appreciated him. He was a master in church law, methodical to a degree in all his ways, and for many years fulfilled the duties of Clerk of the Metropolitan Presbytery in a manner which secured the esteem and high approval of all parties. He ought to have been appointed one of the Clerks of General Assembly when Sir Henry Moncrieff and Dr William Wilson both passed away, but his native modesty, coupled with his steadfast, unwavering adherence to the party of Dr Begg, put such a recognition of his merits out of view. Like his elder brother, Sheriff James Gordon, who in his ninetieth year still survives, and other members of his father’s family, Mr Gordon was a consistent adherent of the Anti-Union Evangelical Minority in the Free Church.

He never could have been a popular preacher in the usual acceptation of that term, but he was in many things a model preacher all the same. Methodical in everything, his pulpit preparation was exact and painstaking. His sermons were carefully thought and written out, and he never entered the pulpit with what had cost him nothing. He read closely, yet was well worth listening to. His well-balanced sentences were the result of exact and careful thinking, and his aim ever was to find the mind of the Spirit speaking in the word. He almost invariably spent his autumn holidays in the parish of Glencairn, and took the services in the Free Church on the four Sabbaths of the month for his own friend and his father’s friend, the Rev. Patrick Borrowman. Some of the sermons preached in that quiet, rural sanctuary have left their impression, and one hearer at least, Mr William Barber of Tererran, who listened as a lad, has paid a fine tribute to Mr Gordon’s merits in this respect in the Dumfries Standard. The sermons referred to by Mr Barber were on the titles of Emmanuel in Isaiah’s great prophecy concerning the “Child born and the Son given.” Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, each great title had a sermon to itself. This may be taken as typical of Mr Gordon’s preaching. Like John Livingstone of Ancrum, he delighted to be in the “main things.”

On Monday, 15th November, the funeral took place from the Parish Church of Glencairn to the new part of the churchyard which surrounds that ancient pile. The country people attended in number; three nephews were chief mourners; Buccleuch-Greyfriars congregation was represented by the Rev. Arthur Torrens, now sole pastor of that historic congregation, and Mr D. M. Smith, ruling elder; and the Free Church generally by Mr Archd. MacNeilage, Editor of the Record. Mr Torrens took the principal part of the service, opening with Psalm 23, followed by appropriate Scripture reading. The Rev. Mr Kidd, minister of the Moniaive U.F. Church (former U.P.), and a close personal friend of the deceased, offered prayer; the second paraphrase was sung, and the benediction was pronounced by the Assistant to the Parish Minister, who is himself at present absent on Assembly work, but at whose kindly invitation the funeral service was held in the church.

The singing was led by the Rev. Robert Philip, of the U.F. Church, Glencairn, who now occupies Patrick Borrowman’s pulpit. It was a fitting solemn service, and the simple black coffin was in keeping with the quiet, unassuming demeanour of him whose remains it contained. There was no prayer at the grave. Thus in a manner appropriate to the life of him who had passed away, the mortal remains of Robert Gordon were laid to rest. On the other side of the church is the grave of Patrick Borrowman, and near by three flat stones mark the place where three Covenanters, shot by Grierson of Lagg, find their resting-place. In the distance, north of the village of Moniaive, may be seen the monument to James Renwick, the last who suffered martyrdom “for this cause” in Scotland, but not the last who suffered.

 

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 REV. ANGUS GRANT, M.A., GLENSHIEL

(Died 7th March, 1962)

Source: The Monthly Record, April, 1962, p.77

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The Rev. Angus Grant who passed to his rest and reward on the 7th day of March 1962 was a man greatly beloved by all who knew him throughout the Church. His death came rather suddenly after he had, with characteristic courage and zeal, laboured to the very limit of his physical strength among his devoted people in Glenshiel. Although his Ministry in his last charge was short in point of time there are we know, those who will thank God for his labours in that part of His vineyard.

Mr Grant was born in Glendale in Skye in the year 1898. Those who knew him intimately in those early days could discern that he was a lad of superior mental endowments. While he could not hide his gifts he was not of the kind who would push himself to the front. In fact, his was a life of continuous self-effacement. He always put others before himself; and when the grace of God wrought a good work in his life his humility deepened more and more. His delightful sense of humour would, however, often break through every reserve.

When he became a new man in Christ Jesus that great change manifested itself in various ways. He became a lover of good men, and of God’s cause in the world. It was in listening to Rev. M. Stewart of Snizort that God brought him to realise that he was a sinner “without God, and without hope in the world”, but that in the Lord Jesus Christ there was a fulness of merit, life and grace to meet all his needs. His decision to become a Minister of the Gospel was preceded by much deliberation and prayer. He would not run without being sent. When at last God called him to proclaim the unsearchable riches of His Son he went forward in the strength of His grace and promise.

During those days we often visited his mother’s home in Glasgow. This good woman, though physically quite disabled, would often appear in the public means of Grace. When I came to know her well I could see that she had chosen the “Good Part” and that Christ dwelt in her heart by faith. Such a mother was bound to make her own influence felt in her family. It was about this time that Mr Grant preached a remarkable sermon in our congregation on the words “Whose image and superscription is this?” It was a sermon which brought his hearers face to face with the solemn question whether their lives bore the genuine marks of God’s workmanship and grace,

In the pulpit Mr Grant delivered his sermons with sincerity and in a quiet voice. These were lucid in their presentation and had their centre in “Jesus Christ and him crucified”. He addressed his theme not only to the mind and heart, but also to the consciences of his hearers. In relation to God’s people his Ministry was one of edification and deep spiritual sympathy. And now having rested from his labours, his works – as God has promised – shall follow him.

His excellent help-mate, Mrs Grant, was one who shared his grace and interest in God’s cause. To her, and to her devoted son, Maurice, as well as to all the relatives, the sympathy of the whole Church is extended.

 

A Pulpit Tribute
Given at the forenoon service in Dunoon Free Church on 11th March 1962
Author: T. K.
Source: The Monthly Record, July, 1962, p.140

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The unexpected death of the Rev. Angus Grant after a brief illness last Wednesday morning came as a profound shock to all of us, for it is only a matter of some seven months since he left this charge to become minister in Glenshiel. During the eight years of his ministry here in Dunoon and Strachur, he faithfully maintained a clear, unwavering witness to the truth as it is in Jesus, and it was noticeable that in the final years of his ministry in this congregation his preaching assumed a new power and urgency which doubtless sprang from a real broadening and deepening of his own spiritual life. And this revealed itself, as all who heard him can testify, when he engaged in prayer, for it was then especially that he was able to lift his hearers above the things of time and sense, and make the presence of God very real indeed.

Possessed of a somewhat retiring disposition, but endowed with more than average ability, he endeared himself to this congregation and to many outside of it to such an extent that everyone felt a sense of personal loss when he left us to go to Glenshiel. But perhaps the tenderest memory we shall retain of this dedicated man was the sincere practical sympathy which he unfailingly demonstrated where there was sickness, bereavement, or distress of any kind. To be of practical help to those who needed it, he never spared himself, irrespective of distance or obstacle.

His place in the ministry and counsels of the Free Church is now empty and he will be missed. God’s ways are often dark and inscrutable to us. He removes His workmen but carries on His work, doing all things well.

As we submit to God’s sovereign will, we, as a congregation, mourn the passing of a dear friend, and pay grateful tribute to his worth.

To his sorrowing widow and son we extend our tenderest sympathies in this their hour of grief, commending them to the loving care of Him Who can turn the shadow of death into the morning, and Who has declared for such a time as this. “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.” “Let not your heart be troubled neither let it be afraid.”

 

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 REV. NEIL GRANT, PROBATIONER, GLENDALE

(Died 11th May, 1908)
Author: Kenneth MacCaskill
Source: The Monthly Record, June 1908, p.113

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In the General Assembly in May, reference was made in a few sentences by Rev. Angus Galbraith, to the death of the Rev. Neil Grant, which had taken place a few days before at Kyle. We regret that no adequate biographical notice of one who served the church well has reached us. Mr. Kenneth MacCaskill writes a few notes from Borreraig, Dunvegan, which may supply in some measure what should have been furnished by others who knew the deceased better than either the editor or his correspondent.

Mr. Grant was born in Glendale, sixty-six years ago. He was brought under the power of the truth when a young man, and resolved to study for the ministry. He was in due course licenced, and for twenty-seven years was a probationer of the Free Church. After 1900 he was appointed by the Highland Committee to labour in his native parish of Duirinish, made famous, in a spiritual sense, through the ministries of the Revs. Alexander McColl, and John Macrae, “of sweet and fragrant memory.” Mr. Grant was “an Israelite indeed in whom was no guile.” He was held in deep respect by men of spiritual discernment, and will be missed in the field where it was his lot to labour.

 

Author: J. N.
Source: The Monthly Record, September, 1908, p.154

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The delay of sending a few notes bearing upon the life of this worthy probationer arose from the impression created by some friends that one who could “wield a facile pen” had undertaken to do it. It was only after learning that such is not likely to be forth-coming that the writer, who had been warmly attached to the deceased, felt constrained to pen the following inadequate tribute to his memory.

As already announced in your September issue Mr. Grant’s end came unexpectedly, after a brief illness, at Kyle of Lochaish, on the 11th of May last. He was born in Glendale, parish of Duirinish, sixty-six years ago, and had a long and interesting career as a preacher. Possessed of a powerful memory he could describe most graphically his early experiences when travelling as a probationer through the Highlands. Numerous and pertinent were the homely illustrations borrowed from, and exciting were many of the anecdotes told of his early life in the “n’Gleann san duain mi mo bheith ‘s Marach.”

Like many others he owed much to the blessed labours of the eminent Rev. Alexander McColl, and for him, and for his worthy successor, Rev. John McRae, whose labours were also singularly blessed in this once favoured spot, Mr. Grant ever cherished the warmest affection; and perhaps for none living of his brethren in the ministry did he entertain greater respect than for the Rev. Angus Galbraith of Lochalsh, and Rev. William Fraser, now of Strathpeffer (interim moderator), and Rev. John Macdonald, now of Rosskeen, who had been instrumental in securing his services for Duirinish parish after the regrettable Union of 1900. He cheerfully devoted the last seven years of his life chiefly to his native parish where he had been much esteemed and deservedly respected. He often confessed to the writer that these were the happiest years of his life.

Mr. Grant received his early education in the Free Church School, Lonemore, and after undergoing the usual course of training was licensed by the Presbytery of Skye about twenty-seven years ago. After being licensed a call was advanced to him, but he never saw his way to accept a call; he rather preferred to hold himself free to preach the Gospel wherever he thought he had been called to do so. As a preacher he never pretended to high attainments, and if he could not be called a powerful preacher, yet his originality and naturalness of style and manner seldom left him uninteresting. He may not have been the man to draw the crowd, yet those who had a taste for the sincere milk of the Word seldom left without being profited. Above all he was faithful and zealous in reproving sin and preaching the Gospel to sinners. A great reader and admirer of the works of the Puritan Divines, he was well grounded and deeply exercised in the cardinal doctrines of grace. His removal is a great loss to the cause and his well-known presence is sadly missed. Of a guileless, transparent character, and charitable to a degree, his unsuspicious innocency could be imposed upon by the froward. He possessed a good knowledge of idiomatic Gaelic. Being of a cheerful disposition he was a genial companion (as well as sincere), and his conversation was interesting and entertaining.

“Not many wise not many mighty, not many noble are called … But God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty.” There is without doubt urgent need of “Labourers,” but it should be labourers of the right stamp, who would be a tower of strength to the Church and cause. But how shall they preach except they be sent. The office is of Christ’s appointing, the qualification of His working, the call of His giving. They will not be armed or paid as labourers that run without their errand, unquatified, uncalled. “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the Harvest, etc.” A great Divine said, “Commissions given in answer to prayer are the most likely to be successful.”

 

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 REV. JAMES HENRY, B.A., BURGHEAD

(Died 14th February, 1937)
Author: Rev. David Mackenzie, M.A., Nairn
Source: The Monthly Record, March, 1937. pp.65-66

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The Sabbath of 14th February was drawing to its close when the Rev. James Henry, B.A., Senior Minister of Burghead, fell asleep. His last public appearance was at a prayer meeting in Alvie eleven days before, after which he contracted influenza with bronchial trouble.

Mr Henry was born near Coleraine, Ireland, in 1849, and received his training at Magee College, Londonderry. He graduated as a bachelor of Arts, and in due course went to America, where he attended the renowned Princeton Theological Seminary, and heard the prelections of Dr Charles Hodge and his colleagues. After returning to his native land he was ordained and inducted to his first and only charge in Ireland on 28th November 1876. That was to Cahans (or The Cahans) in County Monaghan. From the day of his ordination till he came to Scotland he spent happy and profitable years with his flock, and was held in high esteem. Parochialism of outlook that cherishes one part of the Lord’s vineyard at the neglect or forgetfulness of other parts was not his. The Redeemer’s Kingdom everywhere commanded his thought and prayer. His sympathy for others, his deep loyalty to the Word of God, and his attachment to the simplicity of worship, drew him to all who loved the Lord. Impressed by the struggle of the Free Church in the years following 1900, he felt a call to offer his services, and on 11th April 1906, he was inducted to the charge of Burghead. Here he laboured, ever taking heed to the ministry he had received to fulfil it. The leal-hearted folks of Burghead, whether of his own flock or not, spoke of him with respect, for they loved the tall and venerable servant of God, who consoled the broken-hearted, guided the erring, and “in season out of season,” warned the thoughtless to flee from the wrath to come.

In 1909 he received a well-merited honour when his brethren chose him Moderator of the General Assembly, an office whose duties he admirably fulfilled. In Presbytery meetings his counsel was valued, and the duties his brethren asked him to perform were accepted and discharged with a willing mind. The smaller congregations and vacant charges were indebted for his help; many a mile he cycled or travelled otherwise to break the Bread of Life or to attend to congregational matters. Twice he visited America and thrice he visited Australia, and during these journeyings he preached extensively. When he returned from one of his Australian visits in December 1915 his wife was taken from him by death.

He was now beginning to feel that a younger man would serve the congregation more efficiently than he could, so he applied for a colleague and successor in 1918, having in mind that he might serve elsewhere as a supply and as his strength allowed. In 1933 he received the Rev. Alexander Ross (now of Dumbarton), and betook himself to new pastures. In Duthil, Cawdor, and Alvie he wrought, and in each place strengthened the congregation. By this time he had married again.

Before he left Burghead his soul was gladdened by the revival that took place in his congregation in 1921, and those who were present at the preparatory services of the December Communion that year, can remember how he wept tears of joy as he welcomed ninety new communicants. One recalls being present assisting him on that occasion and also at the Communion in the previous October. At the October Communion the dearth of new witnesses oppressed Mr Henry. As he and the writer went to the Saturday prayer meeting a form stepped forward in the dark passageway between the manse and the vestry. It was a young man who wished to protest his love to Christ on the coming Sabbath. He was received, the only one, but he was the first-fruits of what was to come. Since then that young man has felt called to seek entrance to the Gospel ministry. After the Communion service on the Sabbath, Mr Henry and his assisting minister retired together to the drawing-room where they talked over the spiritual state of the district, read together, and prayed together till the hour of the evening service. That was a day to be remembered. At the December Communion prayers were abundantly answered, and a time of praise had come.

Mr Henry has a prepossessing appearance, and a manner that commanded respect. No one was long in his company till one knew how definite was his religious outlook and how sincere his faith. He was a man of prayer, and in the domestic circle his hours of devotions were strictly kept. He was ever a lover of peace, but when the issue demanded it, he uttered his mind fearlessly. An outstanding grace was his constant humility; he esteemed others better than himself. In doctrine he was thoroughly Calvinistic, and what never obtruded, but was most apparent to those who knew him intimately, was his sound scholarship. His experience in learning and in the affairs of men made him aware that it took a great deal of learning to make the Gospel plain, and his pulpit expositions were given in language to be understood by all, and in a manner of delivery that left the hearer with a lucid conception of what he said. He was experimental, and he made a point of stressing the duties of the Christian life. In the matter of giving to the Lord he emphasised the duty of giving a tithe, and he himself did so. Soul-winning was the constant aim of his preaching and pastoral work, and his last exercise delivered to the Presbytery on 12th January last on Matthew 18:11 and Luke 19:10 is typical of his work. He passed his diamond jubilee in the ministry, an office he counted it a privilege to discharge. Writing to the Presbytery in reply to their greetings on the occasion of his diamond jubilee, he said amongst other things: “I have much reason to thank God for the good health I have enjoyed. Seldom a Sabbath have I, through sickness or ill health, been unable to preach. But, nevertheless, I have much to lament and mourn over. I feel I have come far, far short of being the “faithful” minister I should wish to have been. Oh that I had been far more earnest and diligent.” His life has left its message to a rising generation: “Fasten your grips fast upon Christ.”

The funeral took place from Alvie Free Church Manse on 17th February, where a service was conducted by the Rev. Angus Mackay and the Rev. Kenneth Cameron. The cortege went over the moor to Burghead, where a goodly number gathered in the Church and worship was conducted under the auspices of the Presbytery by Mr Henry’s colleague and successor, the Rev. W. J. Cameron, assisted by the Rev. D. M’Kenzie, Rev. K. Cameron and the Rev. Dugald Cameron. The company then moved to the cemetery that overlooks the firth, and committed the remains to their kindred clay. Prayer was led bythe Rev. J. Macleod of Croy.

To his widow, who was so helpful to him in his work, and to his son is extended our tender sympathy.

“Christ keepeth tryst in fire and water with his own, and cometh ere our breath go out, and ere our blood grow cold.”

 

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 HECTOR KENNEDY, RAASAY

(Died 1930)
Author: J. M.
Source: The Monthly Record, December, 1930, p.304

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The ranks of the ministry who showed their attachment to the Free Church in 1900 are being thinned. Mr Kennedy was one of them. He was a native of the Parish of Sleat, in Skye, where in post-Disruption days the adherents of the Free Church had for years an uphill battle to fight. The minister of his youth was Mr John S. Macphail, to whose memory he was much attached. When the Free Church began to divide into parties, Mr Macphail, as is well known, sided with the innovating majority. But many of his old hearers in Skye, who could not follow him in his Church politics, had a high regard for him as a preacher of the Gospel.

Mr Kennedy, in early life, when he was studying for the ministry, was sadly hampered by impaired health. In particular, he suffered severely from trouble in his eyes. Unsuitable treatment of them injured his vision through life, and at an early stage it was feared that he was to lose his sight altogether. He was able, however, to hold on his way in spite of this heavy handicap, and to complete his college course. About forty-two years ago he was settled in his first charge at Gravir, in the Parish of Lochs, and in the Presbytery of Lewis. Here he ministered until early in the present century he was translated to Strontian.

Mr Kennedy was emphatically a man of peace. He was no firebrand in Church life. He was a quiet and retiring minister, who was faithful and diligent in attending to his pastoral work within his own charge. When in 1900 the break in the Church took place, he went with the majority, but this was only for a few weeks. Before the United Free Church was two months old he retraced his steps, and was cordially welcomed back to the Free Presbytery of Lewis, where Mr Cameron, of Back, was at the time holding the fort single-handed. After he served for a short while in Strontian Mr Kennedy was called to Kilmallie and Fort William, and after two years spent in Lochaber he was translated to Raasay.

Mr Kennedy took a special interest in education, and was a manager of Raasay school for over sixteen years. The pleasure which he took in this work was reciprocated by the teachers, who found that his interest in the welfare of the children was not confined within ecclesiastical boundaries. Even last summer, when his health was seriously impaired, he came, as was his wont, to distribute annual prizes and to speak words of commendation and counsel. As a further evidence of his interest in the public life of the community, it may be mentioned that he took a foremost part in setting on foot the local Nursing Association.

In all his congregations Mr Kennedy was held in the highest esteem. For he was a good, gracious evangelical minister who was wise as well as diligent on the pastoral oversight of his flock. In his preaching he was plain and clear and earnest. He showed himself to be a workman that did not need to be ashamed, as he rightly divided the word of truth. In his bearing he was modest and unassuming. In his disposition he was genial, kindly and hospitable. He had a pleasant humour, and was a most friendly man.

He lived a bachelor and his sisters did the honours of the manse. An invalid sister survives him to mourn his loss. To her the sympathy of many friends goes out in her loneliness, now that such a dutiful brother has been taken from her. His congregation mourns the loss of their pastor, and the Presbytery of Skye and the Western Highlands at large lament the departure, albeit at a good old age, of an esteemed servant of his Lord and Master.

 

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 REV. ROBERT MCLAREN KNOX

(Died 12th May, 1946)
Source: The Monthly Record, July, 1946, pp.109-110

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This saintly man passed to his eternal rest on the 12th day of May, and his death removes from the pulpit of the Free Church and her councils a man greatly beloved for the winsomeness of his character as for the fragrance of his ministry. Of delicate physique, Mr Knox was of the type whose mental energy far outstrip their physical powers. Constantly battling against ill-health, he possessed a sunny disposition and ever wore a kindly smile. While his sermons were not always of uniform quality in composition, they were always fragrant with the grace of the Gospel, and the earnestness of his appeals often seemed to exhaust his physical frame. He had a delicate and sensitive pen and could write verse of genuine poetic feeling. He was specially at home among the young, and his youthful, hopeful spirit had something infectious about it. He bore upon his sensitive heart the needs of the poor and the unprivileged, and the mission work of the Buccleuch-Greyfriars congregation gained much from his devotion and inspiration. of charity towards all men, he was well known in evangelical circles outside his own congregation and denomination, and was, in a real sense, the gift of God to the Church at large. His ministry of thirty-six years in the Free Church, to which he had come as a stranger shortly after his conversion, leaves behind a fragrance that will linger on till the generation that knew and loved him shall have passed away. Deep sympathy is extended to his widow and family, to his Kirk Session, and his devoted congregation.

 

Source: The Monthly Record, July, 1946, pp.109-110

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Very early in the morning, on the first day of the week, the 12th May 1946, there passed to his eternal rest Rev. Robert McLaren Knox, minister of Buccleuch and Greyfriars Church, Edinburgh. Although he had been in indifferent health for some time, Mr Knox had recovered sufficiently to attend the first two weeks of the evangelistic services held in Edinburgh during part of April and of May, to dispense the Communion in his own church on 28th April, and to take part in the opening service at St Columba Church on 30th April. He suffered a sharp heart attack on Monday, 6th May, and was removed to a nursing home, where, despite all the care and skill available, he died.

Mr Knox, who was 66 years of age, was a native of West Calder, and was educated at Edinburgh University and the Free Church College. He did missionary work in the East End of London, and was assistant minister of Inverness Free Church before he entered upon his first charge in Nairn Free Church in 1910. He ministered there for three years when he was called to Buccleuch and Greyfriars Church in Edinburgh. Mr Knox became widely known in the Church through his frequent contributions to the Free Church Monthly Record, and this led to his appointment in 1928 as editor of the Church’s monthly periodical for children, The Instructor, a position he held until 1932.

He was Moderator of the General Assembly of the Free Church in 1930, and while Moderator he was a member of the Presbyterian delegation which visited the Continent of Europe for the centenary of the Dutch Reformed Church at Arnheim.

Mr Knox is survived by his wife, six sons, and a daughter. Mr Knox was buried in Grange Cemetery on Wednesday, 15th May. The funeral service was held in Buccleuch and Greyfriars Church, where a large and representative congregation gathered to do honour to his memory. Professor Renwick, Moderator of Edinburgh Presbytery, presided, and was assisted in the service by Rev. W. G. Mitchell, minister of Buccleuch Parish Church, Professor Ross, Rev. John Shaw, and Mr Donald M. Smith, W.S., Session Clerk. The Committal Service at the graveside was conducted by Professor Ross. On Sabbath, 19th May, a memorial service was held in the church at the forenoon diet, conducted by Rev. G. N. M. Collins, B.D., minister of St Columba Church, and again there was a representative congregation. After the sermon, Mr Collins said: “I am well aware that, as I have been speaking to you this morning, your minds have been largely occupied as mine also has been with thoughts of your beloved minister whose removal in these recent days has left our hearts heavy and sad. For Mr Knox was a man greatly and deservedly beloved of his brethren, as he was also of you, his congregation. To you was given by far the greater part of his ministry; for as against the three years of his ministry in Nairn, he laboured among you for thirty-three years. Although never a man of very robust health, he gave himself without reserve – indeed, with enthusiasm to the work of Christ and His Church in this city; and it is true to say that no minister of the Free Church of Scotland was more highly esteemed, within his own denomination, and throughout the Christian community in which he moved, than Mr Knox was. A man of gracious and winsome disposition, he lived on a very high plane, and commanded the respect and affection of all who made his acquaintance. His preaching, as you so well know, was invariably marked by a warm devotional spirit, and bore clear evidence of careful preparation, both of heart and mind.

For several years, a far wider constituency than that represented by this congregation enjoyed the benefit of his ministry through the medium of the Free Church Monthly Record, to which magazine he contributed, month by month, those deeply spiritual and exquisitely phrased sermon summaries which appeared under the general title, “For a Quiet Hour.” Those expositions represented his very best work.

It was our privilege in Free St Columba to hear his last public utterance, and we shall long cherish the memory of it. The theme of his address on that occasion was the Resurrection – a fitting one, surely, for a farewell message; and the word of personal testimony with which he concluded was a moving appeal which, we believe, was not without immediate effect. It was the lily-work on top of his pillar. And so this Mr Valiant-for-truth passed over too, “and all the trumpets sounded for him on the other side.”

 

A Friend’s Tribute

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“The sudden death of the Rev. Robert M. Knox, minister of Buccleuch and Greyfriars Church, Edinburgh, has removed an outstanding personality from the ranks of Scottish Evangelicals,” writes Professor A. Ross, a fellow-student at the Free Church College, and later an elder in his congregation.

His sermons were always close and accurate and thoughtful expositions of the exact message of his text. They were couched in quiet, meditative language, until, as often happened, his soul seemed suddenly to catch fire as some new vision of the glory of the Gospel dawned upon him, and he spoke in words of glowing enthusiasm as he pressed home upon his hearers the claims of Christ. Those who listened to him week after week will no doubt be able to recall many such moments.

Mr Knox never enjoyed robust physical health. Always, however, he was sustained by a marvellous cheerfulness and buoyancy of spirit, and by a courage which was nourished from hidden springs. The outward man might be waxing weak, but the inward man was being renewed day by day, and that because, as was evident to anyone in close touch with him, the gaze of the inward eye was fixed steadily on the things that are unseen and eternal.

 

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 REV. SAMUEL LINDSAY, KIRKCALDY

(Died 10th October, 1933)
Author: W.R.B. [Walter Rounsfell Brown]
Source: The Monthly Record, November, 1933, pp.271-272

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I first met Mr Lindsay in 1909; the friendship then formed grew in cordiality with the years. The Education Act of 1908 had just been passed. Its main purpose was to improve the administration of Secondary Education, and to promote the health of all school children, with better provision for the backward ones. The time was opportune also for a fresh effort to promote Protestant resistance to the indifferent tendencies which at length, in 1918, capitulated so much to Roman Catholic demands. Mr Lindsay and I were Protestant candidates in the School Board elections of 1909, he in Coatbridge, where he was minister of a Baptist congregation, I near at hand in Glasgow.

Mr Lindsay fought his battle with vigour and secured the highest vote; by virtue of this he occupied the chair at the first meeting of the new Board. Characteristically prompt and unashamed of his gospel calling, he opened that meeting with prayer, to the anger of the Roman Catholic and the annoyance of some of the other members. On that note of thoroughness he continued. Later, he entered the Town Council as the friend of the poorer citizens and the protector of such as were victims of the too abundant temptations to intemperance. Withal, the champion was respected; and he came to hold, for several years, the honourable post of Senior Magistrate. But the strain of twofold public life, super-added to the demands of his pulpit and his pastorate, compelled a halt, and he sought rest by retiring from both ministry and magistracy. After a season he recovered; and then he turned to the Free Church in which his youth had been spent. At the Inverness Assembly of 1922 he was admitted as a minister of the Free Church without charge. Soon there followed a call by Kirkcaldy congregation, and on 10th August 1922 he was inducted to be their minister.

During eleven years Mr Lindsay served the congregation as teacher and pastor with concentrated purpose, paying special heed always to the young people of the flock, and to the children there and in the surrounding district. What surplus energies he could spare were given unweariedly to the oversight of the neighbouring congregation at Kinglassie together with zealous interest in the welfare of tinkers. He represented the Free Church on the Joint Board which took thought for them. Last year at the call of the Supply Committee he gave three months in visitation of vacant congregations in Caithness. Although in these later years avoiding the distractions of civic affairs, he came to be well known in the town for his unqualified advocacy of temperance and other aspects of public righteousness; and he gained a respect which was reflected in the attendance of many members of the public, including ministers in the town, who were present at the funeral.

Mr Lindsay passed away on 10th October after a brief illness, being then in his sixty-fifth year. The funeral service on 13th October was conducted by Rev. Peter Clarkson, Clerk of Presbytery; Rev. Angus Macdonald, Coatbridge; Rev. John Shaw; and Rev. A. L. Fraser, Moderator of Presbytery. Mr Clarkson occupied the pulpit on Sabbath, 15th October, when he spoke warmly of what Mr Lindsay had done for the upbuilding of the congregation, and encouraged their hearts against the trials incidental to the time which must elapse before another pastor can be settled among them.

 

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  REV. DONALD MACKINNON MACALISTER

(Died 23rd September, 1909)

Source: The Monthly Record, November, 1909, p.184

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Another standard-bearer has fallen. The late Mr Macalister was one of the most gentle and Christ-like of ministers in the Free Church. He was a son of the manse. His father, the sainted and well-beloved John Macalister, whose dust lies in the old churchyard at Shiskine, Arran, was successively minister of Glenlyon; the Gaelic Chapel, Edinburgh; Nigg, Ross-shire; and Kilbride, Arran. He was a native of Arran, and his memory is still fragrant in that island among those who love the truth. He died early, and nothing is more impressive than the lingering tenacity of a ministry so short and yet so spiritual.

His son resembled him in his gentleness and sweetness of disposition; but, unlike him, he never was a preacher in Gaelic. Throughout his long ministerial career he was closely identified with the views of truth and duty which have most commended themselves to evangelical Highlanders. He was licensed on 22nd August, 1854, when twenty-three years of age, and after acting as assistant to three notable ministers – Dr Andrew Gray, of Perth; the Rev. Robert Craig, M.A., of Rothesay; and Dr Samuel Miller, Glasgow – he was ordained minister at Kennoway, Fifeshire, in August, 1858, was translated to Old Aberdeen in 1878, and to Greyfriars, Edinburgh, in 1886. About 1894 Greyfriars and Buccleuch were conjoined as one congregation, with the Rev. Robert Gordon of Buccleuch, who still survives, and Mr Macalister as collegiate ministers. Together these honoured fathers lovingly served the congregation and the Church, until failing health and growing infirmity led them both to retire from active duty about the date of the Union in 1900. Mr Macalister was able to resume partial duty for a few years, and in 1902 he occupied the Moderator’s chair, discharging the duties with old-world dignity and culture. He willingly served the Church, especially on Communion occasions, so long as strength permitted; but for the past few years he was so enfeebled that his was the lot of those “who also serve, who only stand and wait.”

Mr Macalister belonged to a school of evangelical preachers now almost extinct in Scotland. They carefully prepared their discourses and read them, yet did so in such wise as scarcely revealed the fact that they were reading. It might be said that “they could do little without the paper;” yet they were by no means slaves to the manuscript. Their method certainly made for orderliness in thought and chasteness of composition. They had little temptation to the discursiveness which is yet the besetting sin of the preacher ex tempore and yet their appeals were never formal or stilted. Although written out they were warm and hearty, and appeared to have been composed with the eye fixed on the solemn realities of the judgement day. Mr Macalister was one of the most successful users of a manuscript to whom the writer ever listened. His method made him a favourite preacher with many who do not, as a rule, like “paper” ministers.

In his own quiet, gentle, but firm way, Mr Macalister probably did more than most ministers to save the situation for the Free Church in 1900. His congregations, both in Aberdeen and Edinburgh, were favourite haunts of Highland students, very much to the disgust of the party managers in the Free Church prior to the breach. He did much to direct opposition to the Declaratory Act of 1892, and although not a lover of the limelight, he did not hesitate when duty called to stand alone for truth. He was ever courteous, gentle, and persuasive in speech, but those who imagine that such characteristics are the mark of a facile disposition would have been taught other-wise had they known Mr Macalister. His death removes another wrestler at the throne of grace, and the Free Church and the cause of evangelical truth in Scotland is poorer to-day by his removal. To his sorrowing widow and family we respectfully tender deep sympathy in this, their sore bereavement.

 

An Appreciation
Author: William M. Alexander
Source: The Monthly Record, November, 1909, p.184

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The funeral sermon of the late Rev. D. M. Macalister was preached on Sabbath, 3rd October, by the Rev. Professor Alexander, from the words, “Willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we labour that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of Him” (2 Cor. 5: 8, 9). The sermon concluded with the following:

Such, then, was the animating principle of the life of the great Apostle, and such also was the ruling thought of our departed friend and pastor. His whole life was rooted and grounded in the glorious gospel of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Other brethren are much more qualified to speak of him. I do so with the greatest diffidence and only by request, reckoning it a great privilege to have enjoyed his friendship all too brief.

Licensed at the early age of twenty-three, and after holding three assistantships with great acceptance, he was settled as pastor over the congregation of Kennoway at the age of twenty-seven. There he laboured for twenty years, then at Aberdeen for eight years, finally in Edinburgh for over fourteen years. His, therefore, was a long and varied service as a herald of the Cross. He entered on his ministerial career with a mind richly stored with the learning of the schools, and a heart deeply exercised in grace. In the language of George Herbert, his pulpit was his joy and throne. Out of the abundant treasures of his knowledge and experience he ever brought forth things, both new and old, unto the edification of the body of Christ, and for the conversion of sinners. He preached the unsearchable riches of Christ, not only with an undoubting mind, but with the glow and ardour of a great love to the Saviour and to the souls of men; realising that he stood betwixt the living and the dead, and that necessity was laid upon him, yea, woe was unto him if he preached not the gospel. He held not back anything that was profitable, and shunned not to declare the whole counsel of God. He lived in close communion with Christ, so that his preaching was in demonstration of the Spirit and of power the Lord working with him, confirming the word, with signs following.

To him was given not only the gift of exhortation, but also the gift of prayer, and many here can testify to the simplicity, the directness, the fervour, the depth and comprehensiveness of his public supplications, as likewise a means of grace, both to those rejoicing in the fulness of God’s mercy and also to the unsaved, the distressed, the tempted, the erring, the fallen.

In the pastoral oversight of the various congregations to which he ministered, visitation occupied a prominent place. In the house of his people he was the most welcome of visitors, coming not merely as a friend of the family, but as the faithful shepherd of souls with a message from the Master. Greatly prized, greatly blessed, and ever memorable were his visits to the sick, the afflicted, the infirm, the dying, and the bereaved. Many bear witness that the fruit thereof was unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

His relations to his people and his office-bearers were always of the happiest sort. The unselfishness of his disposition, the transparency of his character, the soundness of his judgment, coupled with his constant thoughtfulness, his unfailing courtesy, his abounding charity, and his impressive piety, brought light and harmony into the direction and control of all congregational affairs.

He was ever mindful of the claims of the youth and children of the different congregations over which he was pastor. The work of the Bible Class and the Sabbath School had his warmest regard and attention. He won the confidence and affection of the young in an eminent degree, and a multitude of them rise up to-day to call him blessed. His interest in students preparing for the work of the ministry was deep and lasting. Many who now adorn their office recall most gratefully his wise counsel and unassuming helpfulness.

Of his manifold labours in the higher courts of the Church time fails me to tell. His unswerving faithfulness to his ordination vows, his unfaltering loyalty to the principles of the Free Church, are matters of history. With his native modesty and gentleness, he combined a decision and courage which shrank not from any duty or sacrifice, and raised him above the fear of man. In doctrine, worship, discipline, and government, he was conservative not in the mean sense of being addicted to the old because it was old, but in the noble sense of being devoted to the old because he had proved it to be the scriptural, the true, the eternal, the divinely now. His, also, was the solid satisfaction of seeing the cause for which he had laboured and suffered and prayed at last completely vindicated and triumphant.

It is not mine to invade the sacredness of the home of our departed friend and pastor, or to describe all that he was as the beloved son of an honoured father, the devoted husband, the affectionate father, and the faithful friend. Suffice it to say that in all these relations he adorned the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things, and made religion “a thing of beauty and of joy.” Of that home may it be truly said, “Jehovah-shammah,” for the Lord was there.

Beloved of his brethren, venerated by his people, held in highest esteem by by all who knew him, sustained in life beyond the allotted span of threescore years and ten, recipient of the highest honour of his Church, and spared to attain his ministerial jubilee, we see him at length gathered unto his fathers, “like as a shock of corn cometh in in his season.” He rests from his labours and his works do follow him.

Our profoundest sympathies we offer to his bereaved family, praying that the consolations of God may abound towards them in this their time of sorrow. While the Church on earth now mourns his loss, our great and hearty thanks would be to the Most High for the life of His faithful servant, so rich in the work of faith, the labour of love, and the patience of hope.

Farewell, then, O friend and pastor, greatly beloved! farewell until the day dawn and the shadows flee away, until by grace we meet again upon the shore of better promise, in the Father’s house of many mansions! “Blessing and honour and glory and power be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.”

 

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 REV. HECTOR MACAULAY, STRATHY

(Died 4th May, 1940)
Author: A. D. C. [Perhaps A. D. Cameron]
Source: The Monthly Record, July, 1940, p.179

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There passed away to his eternal rest at the Free Church Manse, Strathy, on 4th May, 1940, the Rev. Hector Macaulay, in the 75th year of his age. He was ordained and inducted at Strathy on the 21st of April, 1909, and laboured faithfully in that charge for 31 years. During the last two years of his life he suffered much from failing eyesight, but otherwise he possessed good health and he was a man of commanding stature and appearance.

Mr Macaulay was endowed with no ordinary mental powers and these were consecrated to the service of his Master, for certainly he was a highly spiritually-minded man. He was often called upon to review books. He took a high place in his Greek class at St Andrews University and was a Celtic scholar of exceptional ability. It was a privilege to hear his superb diction and grammatical correctness as he preached and prayed in his mother tongue.

Mrs Macaulay and her family and the Free Church congregation of Strathy may rest assured of the sincere sympathy of all who knew Hector Macaulay.

 

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 REV. RODERICK MACCOWAN

(Died 11th September, 1948)
Source: The Monthly Record, October, 1948, p.189

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News of the death on the 11th September of the Rev. Roderick MacCowan, Senior Minister of Kiltarlity, at his home outside Portree, will he received by Free Church people in the North with genuine regret.

Mr MacCowan was a familiar figure in church and educational circles in the Highlands for a generation, where his outspoken comments on public affairs gave him more than ordinary prominence. A militant anti-Romanist he was ready, in season and out of season, to expose the sophistry and tyranny of the Vatican, especially in national and international politics. A Skyeman by birth and upbringing, he was steeped in the religious lore and social traditions of his native island, and in his book The Men of Skye he has gathered and preserved the fugitive reminiscences of a worthy body of men who made a very definite contribution to the devotional life of their native island and left their mark on the religious character of its people to this day.

Mr MacCowan, who entered the Free Church from the Free Presbyterian Church, was a man of varied gifts and of great versatility, and though his pulpit gifts were not of the spectacular kind, he was a lover of the Evangel and devoted to the old paths. Warm-hearted and generous, he was the most hospitable and entertaining of hosts and his manse in Kiltarlity was a haven of rest and refreshment to many a weary pilgrim. His library was well stocked and highly selective, and his collection of Gaelic and general Highland literature was perhaps the largest and most valuable in any private library. To the outside world he was but a racy commentator on passing events in Church and State; to those who knew him well he was a deeply interesting and lovable personality; but to stranger and friend alike he was always the familiar Christian gentleman and a genuine lover of his fellow-men. Many will cherish his memory with affection and respect, and in name of our readers we extend to his relatives sincere sympathy in their loss.

 

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 REV. PRINCIPAL JAMES DUFF McCULLOCH, D.D.

(Died 11th December, 1926)

His Life and Work
Author: John Macleod, Inverness
Source: The Monthly Record, January, 1927, pp.9-11

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Others will deal with special aspects of Principal McCulloch’s public career. Let me try to give a general account of the life and work of our departed father, who was so much loved and revered among us.

James Duff McCulloch was born in the Parish of Logie Easter on the 25th day of April 1836. His parents were of the old devout stock that a century ago gave tone to the district of Easter Ross. At the age of seven, he had his first experience of the vicissitudes of life for the sake of the Free Church. As his father had made it plain beforehand that when the Disruption should take place he would identify himself with the Free Church, he was warned out of his land at the Whitsunday term, 1843. Little time was given to erect a new house, but before the term day, the house was ready, and a few nights before the term, and as soon as the Disruption took place, the future Principal, with some others of the family, slept in their new home. He might thus be said to be one of the very first to suffer for the Disruption. The new house for the family was in the Parish of Fearn, where the parents continued to reside and the family was brought up. The father, Andrew McCulloch, was one of the elders of the Free Church congregation, which then and for many years constituted almost the whole population of the Parish. When the excellent John MacDonald became the first Free Church minister of the Parish, he found his home for some time with the Principal’s maternal grand-uncle, after whom he was named, James Duff of Ballindrum. Of this grand-uncle he used to tell a story that showed the characteristic old Ross-shire attitude of judicious but not censorious criticism. They were coming home together after sermon. The preacher was a much-esteemed evangelical, and the grand-uncle asked his young relative what he thought of the sermon. He got an answer, and then, indicating his own mind in regard to it, he said, “That was a sermon that might have been preached from almost any text.” This hearer sought close adherence to his text on the part of a preacher. Few preachers of his day stuck closer to their texts in after years than he to whom this answer was given.

It was in an evangelical atmosphere that told of great days of the Gospel that had gone and of great days that were still with them that the people of Easter Ross then breathed. From early life Principal McCulloch reacted to the call and stimulus of such an environment. After his school-days in Tain, he took his university and theological courses at Edinburgh, and in the year 1866 he was licensed to preach the Gospel. During his student days he spent some time in the Island of Scarp, Harris, as a teacher, with a view to improving his Gaelic. The old Gaelic of his native district, as distinct from the dialect spoken by the fishing population, he looked upon as good Gaelic. But even in his early days it was undergoing decay and passing out of use among the land folk. So, to attain the free use of correct Gaelic he went to Western Isles. Throughout life his Gaelic was all the better for his experiences there. In keeping with the correctness of his character, his Gaelic, for which he showed such early care, was pure, idiomatic, and correct. In Harris he came to know and value the excellent divine, scholar, and saint, Dr Macintosh Mackay, who had been so eminent as a leader of the Highlands in Disruption days.

After being licensed he spent some time as a probationer, not only in Caithness where he was first settled, but in Breadalbane and in Lochaber. In Rannoch he met the godly Disruption elder, the local blacksmith, who was instrumental in building up the cause of the Free Church in Dugald Buchanan’s old district. In Lochaber he came to know and to be valued by one of the laymen prominent in Disruption days, Mr Campbell of Monzie. The congregations of Rannoch and Ballachulish, which were then vacant, both approached him with a view to his settling down as their pastor. But when he was called to be junior colleague in the congregation of Latheron he accepted the call, and in the beginning of 1867 he was ordained to the ministry in that charge. His senior colleague, who in a few years became his father-in-law, was the Disruption minister of the parish, Rev. George Davidson, who was of an eminently practical turn, and in his own strong-minded way held on his course in the midst of the many ecclesiastical currents that affected the Church life of the Far North.

His people soon discovered that in all business falling to his hand the junior minister was second to none. The severely logical and intellectual character of preaching needed a thoughtful and attentive audience to appreciate it. But before Mr McCulloch left after a ministry there of twenty-two years, he had come to have a place that was all his own, not only in his congregation but throughout a wide area. His preaching and his platform work on behalf of Church principles, and his manful stand on behalf of his oppressed land-holding parishioners won for him the warmest attachment of the community. As far as fruitfulness of work is concerned, it might almost be said that the choicest of his long ministry were the last years he spent in his first charge. It was not that his powers abated, or that there was any falling off in the quality of his public work. But with all the loyal support that he found in his Glasgow charge, and the public eminence to which he rose as the defender of his Church, the less fluid and migratory condition of an intelligent country congregation supplied an element that was more congenial to the solid character of his mind than he might look for in the more floating elements of a city community. Dr John Duncan comparing his experience of a country charge in the uplands of Forfarshire with that of a remarkably sympathetic congregation in Glasgow, judged that there was more serious thought and solidity in the awakened country mind than he met with in the city. It was in this way that the country congregation which Principal McCulloch taught to prize his type of teaching showed in his later years among them more of the stamp of his mind than could be looked for in an urban charge. When he was settled in Latheron the tradition of Separatism was still strong in the district. Before he left there was no Separatist meeting, and all the survivors of the old Separatists were among his most regular and attached hearers and friends.

In the year 1889 Mr McCulloch was admitted to the charge of Hope Street Free Church, Glasgow. He soon came to be recognised as a force to be reckoned with in the Church Courts of the South. The Constitutional party, which once was strong in the Presbytery of Glasgow, had lost its old leaders. Now, however, they found one who, in clearness of penetration, in tenacity of purpose, and in readiness of debating power did not fall behind any of the fathers that had gone. With the darkening outlook for the old evangelical witness with which the nineteenth century closed, it called for great strength of character to take a decided stand such as was needed to maintain the old position of Reformed Scotland. But in spite of timorous counsels of friends that were like the sons of Ephraim in the day of battle, Mr McCulloch of Hope Steet was a tower of strength to the Minority that in 1900 resolved to abide by the old Constitution of their Church. During the subsequent years a great deal of his time was given to help the cause of his Church throughout Scotland. His handsome, lithe, erect figure became well-known over all the Highlands and Islands. Twice he visited Africa in the interests of the Foreign Mission cause. Though over the allotted span, such was the robustness of his health that he seemed to be none the worse for the exertions that such work called for. He was blessed with a remarkably vigorous constitution, and with wisdom to make a judicious use of it. So it came about that long after his fourscore years were past he was still in harness, doing unabated work.

When in 1904 the claims of the witnessing Minority were recognised as well-grounded by the highest judicial tribunal in the British Empire, the Free Church College was reconstituted, with Mr McCulloch as Principal and his name as Principal has now for almost a generation been a household word among us. A number of years ago his old university gave recognition, belated as it was, to the eminence of one of her most honoured sons. On the occasion of his Jubilee as a minister of the Gospel his portrait, painted by a leading artist, was presented to him. It hangs in replica in the Presbytery Hall, Edinburgh, with the portraits of many of our old worthies. But for those that came to know his worth there is a portrait in their hearts that will not be forgotten. They need no monument to recall the memory of a single-hearted champion of the truth, a loyal friend, a consummate man of affairs, a wise counsellor, a humble Christian, and an ornament to the profession of the Gospel.

 

Preacher and Pastor
Author: John Macleod, O.B.E., Hope Street, Glasgow
Source: The Monthly Record, January, 1927, pp.9-11

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The following tribute was paid to Principal McCulloch on Sabbath, 12th December, by the Rev. John Macleod, his junior colleague in Hope Street Free Church. Preaching from Acts 13:36, Mr Macleod said:

I regret to inform you that our venerable friend, Principal McCulloch, who ministered to you so long in the ministry of the Gospel, peacefully passed away yesterday morning. It can be literally said of him: “After he had served his own generation, by the will of God, he fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers and saw corruption.” For a few weeks before the end he appeared to me, as I visited him, like a tired labourer calmly lying down to rest without a thought of complaint or anxiety. He was glad the hour of his departure had come, and was ready to go at his Lord’s bidding. What a beautiful ending to a fruitful and an honourable life his was! He finished his course with joy, and his works do follow him. What is our loss is his gain. It is not only this congregation and the Free Church, of which he was an honoured leader, that are poorer because he has been called hence; but the whole Church in Scotland.

His was a character of unusual strength and attractiveness, by which he adorned the doctrines of God his Saviour and you who have had the privilege of knowing him will, I am sure, thank God on every remembrance of him. As a pastor he was esteemed and revered and those who were closely acquainted with him became attached to him with a strong and an enduring loyalty. Many might not share all his views; but by his high-toned, consistent, and forceful character he commanded the respect of those who differed most from him. In his championship of the truth, as he saw it clear before him, he never minced his words and in proclaiming his views, however unpopular they might be, he feared nobody. He coveted the approval of God, and not the praise of men. In private life he was endowed with all the qualities which mark the true Christian. He made the youngest minister or student feel at once at home with him; and he talked as freely as if they were his equal in ability, position, and experience. At his own fireside one saw the real geniality and kindliness of his nature. His fund of anecdotes, in all varieties, was inexhaustible, and he told them with a freshness and effect which delighted all who were privileged to hear them.

In this pulpit he gloried in declaring the whole counsel of God. His sermons were always of a high order: clearness and beauty of diction characterised them all; but his mind moved on the lines of rigorous logic, and he lacked the flow, the fire, and the force which appeal to the multitude. He shunned flowers of rhetoric; but, wherever he preached, his full solemn, evangelical message, and acute powers of reasoning, awakened the admiration of the thoughtful. It was however, in prayer that he excelled and often it would be difficult to say whether his public devotions were more to be admired for the spirituality by which they were pervaded throughout, or for the high order of intellect and the choice language by which they were characterised. In the houses of mourning he was seen at his best; there he was a true friend and sympathiser; his very presence brought comfort to those whose faces were wet with tears, and whose hearts were laden with grief; and his words were always gracious, friendly, and helpful. You know the great bereavement and loss he himself sustained. His three sons in the full strength of their manhood were snatched from him and when his eldest son, the trusted and honoured General Treasurer of our Church, was suddenly called away, his whole system received a shock that, for a time, we feared the blow was so paralysing in its effect that he could not recover. But he received God-given comfort and strength, and revived to a wonderful degree, until the death of his lamented wife, who had been the sharer of his joys and sorrows for over fifty years. Although he never recovered his wonted buoyancy after this heavy affliction, to the last he entered with intelligent and sincere interest into all the affairs of the congregation, and the movements of his day. In spite of his years he never allowed idle habits to grow on him; and he seemed to be getting an ever-widening experience of God’s mercy and faithfulness as life advanced.

For many years he was not able to give the attention to the pastoral work of the congregation that he wished, as the general work of the Church took up a large part of his time. In the councils of the Church during the historic controversy of the Union of 1900 he did signal service. He proved himself a man possessed of a mind which could see things from afar; he never wavered in his confidence regarding the issue, and such was his insight into the merits of the controversy that he declared here and elsewhere that he was prepared to risk his all on the issue. When the highest court in the land declared the Church to be the Free Church of Scotland, he was not taken by surprise and he showed the humility, the disinterestedness, and the fairness which were characteristic of the man; and all his addresses were couched in singularly weighty words and always worthy of the cause he advocated. Than he no one combined more a penetrating and sound judgment with a strength of resolute will and courteous manner.

He had another quality in a far greater measure than any other minister known to me – unfailing punctuality in attending to all public and private duties. He literally kept in all relations of life in reference to his appointments, military time. I do not know that he was ever known to have broken an engagement. No matter how distant might be the place at which he had to officiate, just as the clock struck the appointed hour was he sure to be there. But that he had his faults is only to say that he was human. These just revealed that shade of weakness in his character which added so much to one’s impression of his general strength. He was endowed in a pre-eminent degree with the steadfastness prescribed by principle and the unimpeachable honour which made him absolutely indifferent to praise or blame. He served his Church with distinction and has left an example which has added to his spiritual wealth. His memory will live in the minds of many in this congregation and throughout the Church, and they will continue to regard it a high privilege to have enjoyed his society and to have possessed his friendship.

 

Principal of the College
Author: Professor R. Moore, B.D
Source: The Monthly Record, January, 1927, pp.9-11

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Nowhere did Principal McCulloch appear to be more in the sphere for which he was specially fitted than when he was engaged in his work as head of the college. He had the air of refinement and dignity that at once commanded respect. He had a high ideal of the qualifications necessary for the ministerial office. His mind was richly stored with sacred learning and his heart aglow with zeal for the furtherance of evangelical teaching. His natural aptitude for administrative work was strengthened by his years of experience and close observation. His insight and tact never failed.

It is a long period to look back over – the twenty-one years from the 11th of December just past to that Thursday, the 12th of October 1905, when he first presided at a meeting of the reconstituted Senatus. Those earlier days were strenuous times – nowhere more so than in the life of the college. Between that first date and the end of the same year, besides many informal conferences, thirteen stated meetings were held. The Minutes of these and subsequent meetings contain a record of exacting work of reorganisation, dealing with classes, lectures, time-tables, qualifications of students, examinations, bursaries, equipment, and all the detailed arrangements of college work that had to be brought into order. His aim was in accord with the purpose from which the Church has never deviated, even in the most difficult times, namely, that as high a standard of education for the ministry should be maintained as at any period in the history of the Free Church. He had many duties to discharge in his congregation and throughout the Church, but, however much he had on hand elsewhere, he had time for college engagements, and it was on the rarest occasion, and weighty reason, that he found it impossible to attend the Senatus or a meeting of students or other college function. He had a peculiar power of controlling without seeming to direct. Whenever he suggested that something should be done, his suggestion was so reasonable that no other course appeared possible. And so for the twenty one years and more, the work of the college has proceeded with a harmony and mutual understanding that could not be surpassed. He showed a readiness to attribute to his fellow-workers the same lofty purpose and singleness of motive that animated himself, and he relied on them to do their best. He was at home with the students. Along with the natural dignity of his manner and the nobility of his life, there was an intensely personal touch that endeared him to all, and left no place for a feeling of constraint in his company.

The mental elasticity and freshness of youth remained with him to the end, and young men, as well as their seniors, were drawn into easy intercourse with him. There were elements of sternness in his character, for he was a good man: there was straightness and sincerity and strength, but it was the kindliness of his disposition and his unstudied courtesy that made these qualities such a power for good among candidates for the ministry.

The majority of the ministers who now occupy our pulpits passed through the college during the period when Principal McCulloch was its head, and the influence he exercised over them will ever live in their character as a precious possession for our Church. We all cherish his memory with feelings of respect and admiration and gratitude. We remember his stimulating addresses, erudite and clear as they were, at opening or closing or other occasions. We remember him as a strong man of God, richly endowed with the gifts that make the scholar, the preacher, the honoured and trusted leader; one who lived a noble life, who earnestly strove to do his duty, and who succeeded more than many. His memory remains to inspire and strengthen us, for all his gifts and powers were consecrated to the service of the Saviour in Whom he put his trust.

 

An Appreciation by a former Assistant
Author: William Macleod, M.A., Greenock
Source: The Monthly Record, January, 1927, pp.9-11

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The Free Church of Scotland mourns the loss of her greatest leader, the Rev. Principal James D. McCulloch, D.D. On Saturday, 11th December 1926, this outstanding figure in the life of the Church in Scotland during the last thirty years, passed to his rest. In the South of Scotland, he was best known as minister of Hope Street Free Church, Glasgow, and as leader of the Minority in 1900. During the great crisis in the history of the Church of Scotland Free, he stood unswervingly loyal to Constitutional traditions and calmly, firmly, and successfully fought in the great controversy of twenty-five years ago what to many appeared a losing battle. At the head of a faithful band of followers he fought for those principles that were dear to his heart. It was at a time when, in the heat of controversy, men were liable to say unkind and uncharitable things, but steadfastly throughout, Dr McCulloch maintained dignity and courtesy. In the General Assembly his great weapons were the power of a mighty intellect and the dignity and fragrance of a great personality dedicated to the service and example of Jesus Christ. His coolness, clearness, and keenness of mind gained for him the respect of his opponents and the admiration of his followers. He was untiring in his labours for his Church. At one time or another he was Convener of almost every Committee in the Church. He was Moderator of the General Assembly in 1901. His extraordinary staying powers showed themselves when, in the early part of the re-organisation necessitated by the Union of 1900, he was able to preside at Committee Meetings often from morning to night without even a break for a meal.

He was Clerk of the Glasgow Presbytery for eight or nine years, and Moderator of that Court more than once. In a Church Court he was slow to speak, but when his counsel came it was weighty, and it was wise.

With his students his relations were most happy. Their problems he made his own and he was always their champion and advocate. The knotty problem engrossing the student’s mind seemed nearer solution whenever the student came into the Principal’s venerable presence. He had an extraordinary power of kindling hope, and after a talk with him, a problem came to be viewed in such a different light that it was usually solved. His students loved him.

Happy as his relations with his students were, his relations with his assistants were even more so. He never found fault. By delicately suggesting a better way, he secured the hearty co-operation of his assistants in everything connected with congregational work. He was a Chief in a thousand, and those who served under him for any length of time regard the period of assistantship in Hope Street Free Church as a most enriching experience. Always encouraging humble effort, ever ready to note an honest endeavour, the Principal enabled his assistants to surmount obstacles that seemed to them at times overwhelming. His patience, his humbleness, and his outstanding ability to grapple with the deep problems of life, leave an indelible memory with those who had the privilege to serve under him.

As a preacher he was always worth listening to. He never sent his flock empty away. He had a high estimation of his audience, giving them the credit of being thinking men and women, and of coming to the Church on a great quest. He never resorted to oratory, but clearly and connectedly he proclaimed the great doctrines of salvation with quiet and solemn eloquence. To those who have had the great privilege of hearing him from Sabbath to Sabbath, his memory will always be that of a great master in the art of rightly dividing the Word of Truth.

 

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 REV. ALEXANDER MACDONALD, Μ.Α., DUKE STREET, GLASGOW

(Died 1961)

Source: The Monthly Record, October, 1961, 198-199

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The passing of Rev. Alexander Macdonald of Duke Street Free Church, Glasgow, has caused deep sorrow far beyond the bounds of his own congregation, for Mr Macdonald’s sincere friendliness won for him the affection of a wide circle of friends. A tribute from one of his closest friends appears on another page, and all who knew him will give their ready endorsement to all that is there said. Mr Macdonald was a man of very real ability, and, withal of unfeigned humility. His ministries in Strathpeffer and Glasgow proved his aptitude for the work of the ministry in the quiet of the country and in the rush and bustle of the busy city. To both charges he gave himself to the full measure of his strength, and sometimes, as it appeared to his friends, beyond it. But even when the strain began to tell, his cheerfulness was apt to be deceptive and to convey the impression that there was nothing to be anxious about.

His passing, we believe, was very much as he would have wished; he had been able to continue in the yoke to the end.

Mr Macdonald had no great love of the pen, which was a pity, for he wielded it well when he chose to. His addresses to the General Assembly from the Moderatorial chair combined freshness, originality, vigour and literary grace, and made delightful hearing as well as pleasant and profitable reading. His removal leaves a blank that will not be easily filled. Sincerest sympathy is extended to his widow and family, and to the congregation of Duke Street in the sorrow that came so suddenly to them. May they abundantly prove the sufficiency of Divine grace in their sore bereavement.

 

An Appreciation by a Friend
Author: J. McP.
Source: The Monthly Record, October, 1961, p.203

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The home-call of the Rev. Alexander Macdonald of Duke Street Free Church, Glasgow, came with startling suddenness while he was on holiday in St Monance and in excellent health. He became unwell on the night of Saturday, 26th August, but not until late on Sabbath afternoon was there any sign of serious illness. He was then removed to Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy, and within two hours his spirit had fled. His cheerfulness as the end approached is an inspiring and pleasant memory for those who were privileged to witness it. He died, as he would have wished, on active service, and he passed over as one who knew that the trumpets were about to sound for him on the other side.

A native of Stonefield, Sleat, he was educated at Kingussie Higher Grade School. When he moved on to Edinburgh University with the intention of studying for the ministry, his headmaster wrote: “I have never recommended a boy with more hopeful confidence for any course than I do in his case. His high ideals, his honourable, manly conduct and loveable nature, mark him out as peculiarly suited for such a calling. He is a first class all-round scholar but excels in Classics and in English.” His University course was interrupted by an illness which laid him aside for two years and incapacitated him for strenuous study over a longer period. Nevertheless, he acquitted himself very creditably.

He was called to Strathpeffer Free Church in 1923 and continued for 19 years to exercise there a ministry which bore obvious fruit. He also took very active part in non-denominational Christian work. A keen group of young people who had come under the influence of the Strathpeffer Convention and his own ministry looked to him for leadership, and, under his guidance, there was formed a branch of the Christian Endeavour Movement.

Members of this band entered the ministry, went to the mission field, became lay preachers, or played their part as the leaven working in secret. Quite recently a native of Ross-shire living in Canada was so impressed by a broadcast sermon that she rang up the broadcaster. When asked to what branch of the Christian Church she belonged she replied that he would not be likely to have heard of it, as it was the Free Church of Scotland. It then transpired that the preacher had himself been converted, while in the army through his contact with a member of the Strathpeffer group.

The war dispersed the original members and through them disseminated the seed, while the work continued among the soldiers stationed in Strathpeffer. Letters from “the front” testified to the Christian witness of men whose lives had been changed through the contacts of the Strathpeffer Canteen. One of the many tributes to his memory in those days refers to him as “a friend and a father when we were babes in Christ.”

In 1942 he moved to Glasgow and the pastoral care of the large Duke Street congregation absorbed his limited physical strength, and his outside activities were necessarily curtailed. Five years ago he had a very serious illness, and retirement seemed inevitable but he felt that he had been restored to health for the sake of some work which yet remained for him to do, and he laboured as one ever conscious that “the night cometh when no man can work”. After his last sermon the minister for whom he took the service, remarked that his message was a very solemn one. He replied, “There is not much time left”. He lived to see fruit for his labours in Duke Street.

He had a brilliant intellect, deep sensitivity and great strength of feeling. He could have made his mark in any sphere had he chosen to do so, but if he ever knew the upsurge of ambition he gave it no place in his dedicated life. His estimate of “greatness” was clearly expressed in words which he himself uttered from the pulpit: “There can never be too little of you for God to use but there can easily be too much of you”. And because he coveted earnestly to be used he greatly feared the “too much”. From the beginning to the end of his ministry there was in his preaching one constantly recurring theme which might be summed up in the words: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a grain of mustard seed” or “the stupendous importance of small things”. Over 30 years ago the writer heard him preach a sermon on this theme. In the course of it he told the story of Tom Bilney who was instrumental in the conversion of the great Bishop Latimer, and how he prayed; “Lord I am only little Tom Bilney and cannot do much for Thee, but give me the soul of Hugh Latimer”. We were left with the conviction that the role of “little Tom Bilney” was the kind of role which he coveted for himself. And quite recently he gave a remarkable children’s address in which he illustrated by many vivid examples the far-reaching consequences of little things. He was always at his very best when dealing with this theme because he was speaking from the deep heart’s core.

“Not I but Christ be honoured, loved, exalted. Not I but Christ be seen and known and heard.” No one who heard him preach at all frequently could doubt that throughout his entire ministry this was indeed his deepest prayer.

And of one piece with his attitude to ambition was his attitude to controversy. A few weeks before his death he remarked in conversation, “I have never known of a controversialist who succeeded in maintaining his integrity”. He avoided controversy not because of weakness or indecision. He had strong and clear convictions but he knew the heart’s deceitfulness and he would hold fast his integrity.

He was a great preacher but his prayers were even more impressive than his sermons. They flowed molten from his heart in living words that expressed the deepest yearnings of the prayerful, whose desires he sought to release in utterance. In those prayers there was never the suggestion of a pious cliche.

As a conversationalist he was unsurpassed. He had a rich sense of humour which had no bitter springs. He never uttered a word of unkind criticism and no effort was ever required to make him understand one’s point of view. To him nothing human was alien. He had the genuine sympathy which enables spirit to meet with spirit. He was not just negatively tolerant; he understood. His generosity was without limit. As a friend he is irreplaceable.

In the congregations that knew the privilege of his ministry, throughout the Free Church, and in other denominations of the Church universal there are many who feel personally bereaved by his death. In the words of a distinguished minister of the Church of Scotland, paying tribute to his memory, “Not only his family, and the Free Church, but the whole of Christian Scotland is the poorer for his passing”.

 

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 REV. ARCHIBALD ANGUS MACDONALD, BRACADALE

(Died 4th March, 1956)
Tribute by his Presbytery
Source: The Monthly Record, 1956, p.147

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It was with feeling of profound sorrow that word was received that the Rev. Archibald Angus MacDonald, Senior Minister of Bracadale, Skye, had passed away. This took place very peacefully at his home, Heathmount, Kyle-of-Lochalsh, on Sabbath morning, the 4th of March. Mr Archibald Angus MacDonald, son of the late Mr and Mrs MacDonald, was born in the village of Knockline, North Uist, in the year 1878.

Before he went to school, he was brought under the influence of the truth, being struck one day while playing with his sisters with the awfulness of sin and the due punishment meted out at the day of judgment. This he bore for some time in silence until it was discovered by his mother, who explained to him the things that matter most, and took him to the means of grace. This was under the ministry of the late Rev. William MacKinnon, afterwards of Gairloch. Throughout his life in whatever circumstances or difficulties he was placed and right up to his death, he had the full assurance and hope of Glory.

After learning a trade in Glasgow, Mr MacDonald crossed the Atlantic and found employment in Vancouver, British Columbia. Shortly after he had settled there he started a mission for Gaelic-speaking people from the homeland, where they rejoiced in the privilege of worshipping in their mother tongue and of singing the Gaelic psalms they loved so well. Much blessing followed, and as time went on a church was built by this growing congregation under the able guidance of their faithful leader. Before leaving Canada in 1921, Mr MacDonald had been attending classes to fit him for entering the ministry and, on his return home, he went to Edinburgh to continue his studies. After five years at the Free Church College, he was ordained and inducted in December 1925 to the Parish of Strontian, Argyllshire. Thirteen years of happy and fruitful ministry followed. While there he devoted part of his time to serving as a member of Argyll County Council. In 1939 he received a call from the Free Church congregation of Bracadale, Skye. With mixed feelings he decided to leave Strontian and was inducted to Bracadale, where he laboured for nearly twelve years. In 1951 he retired on account of failing health.

Mr MacDonald is survived by his widow, who tended him faithfully during his years of increasing weakness, and by four daughters, to all of whom the deepest sympathy is extended. The funeral took place on 6th March, and after a service in the Kyle Free Church the cortege proceeded to Portree, where Mr MacDonald’s remains were laid to rest beside those of his only son Ian, who predeceased him in July 1943.

“Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.”

 

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 REV. DONALD MACDONALD, LAIRG

(Died 16th January, 1953)
Source: The Monthly Record, February, 1953, p.26

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It is with profound sorrow that we аnnounce the death at the Royal Northern Infirmary, Inverness, on the 16th January of the Rev. Donald MacDonald, Lairg, to whose illness we made reference in these columns in December and January.

Though Mr MacDonald had been taken suddenly ill, while on the Church’s service in Coll, his many friends throughout the Church had hoped that with surgical aid there might, under the good hand of God, be a prolongation of his life and ministry. But this was not God’s will for us or for him, “God having provided some better thing for him”, we doubt not. We are sure that many of the ministers of our Church will fully share the writer’s sense of the loss of a personal friend. For Mr MacDonald was, above all else kindly, friendly, and brotherly, as it is given to only a few men to be. A man of deep religious convictions, he practised self-scrutiny and self-control in a measure that testified to his sincerity and single-heartedness, qualities that characterised all his actions. The son of an eminently pious father, he himself had early passed through religious experiences that left an abiding mark on life and character. His character was afterwards to be deepened and enriched by wide travel and extensive knowledge of literature. Before his studies were completed, ill health forced him to seek refuge in a warmer climate, and he spent happy and fruitful years in Australia, which he visited for the second time in later years. During the first World War, he served in Europe, the last year of his service having been given to Poland, and it was while there that he suffered the loss of an eye. Cawdor was his only settled charge, and after a short ministry he resigned his charge, feeling that an itinerant ministry was more in line with his calling and his gifts. While his pulpit gifts were not of the spectacular kind, his messages were characterised by deep thought and study, suffused by the humility and kindliness that graced everything he said and did. His conversation was rich and edifying, taking toll of many lands and many books, and his judgments were always balanced and penetrating. Our regret is that owing to a too modest estimate of his own powers, his usefulness was circumscribed. But the friendships he gave and the impressions he left will be treasured by those who knew him. It is a joy to know that he had much of the comfort of the Lord in his last illness, and that he was, from the very first, perfectly resigned to the will of God. Our warm sympathy goes out to his brothers and sisters in their deep sense of loss.

 

Author: J.M.M. [John Mackay MacLennan, Lairg]
Source: The Monthly Record, May, 1953, p.95

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As time goes on the loss sustained by the Church, and especially by Lairg and the surrounding district, by the removal of Rev. Donald Macdonald and Mr Donald S. Campbell, is becoming more and more real.

There has not been a Communion season for the last half century at which Mr Campbell has not been a noted figure, and with the passing of years he grew in stature. So that at the time of his death he had no compeer among the “men.”

Mr Macdonald was also unique. There was scarcely a subject on which men have thought and written but he studied. All that was required to get a full and fresh review of almost any subject was to raise it, and then listen. His conversation was edifying, his advice worth-while, and his friendship precious. As a preacher he did not do himself justice. He underestimated his own ability, and owing to modesty he was rather quiet; yet there was something very profitable and instructive in what he had to say. His presence in his native congregation was highly valued and his help appreciated so that here he is missed more than anywhere. By the readers of The Record who knew him this photograph will be welcomed.

 

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 REV. DUNCAN MACDONALD, MILTON, GLASGOW, M.A.

(Died 18th February, 1941)
A Biographical Sketch, by Rev. R. M. Knox, Edinburgh
Source: The Monthly Record, March, 1941, pp.61-63

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In the removal by death of the Rev. Duncan MacDonald, M.A., of Milton Free Church, Glasgow, on 18th February, that congregation has been deprived of the ministrations of one who worthily upheld the traditions of an important city charge, and proved himself a fitting successor to the eminent ministers who occupied Milton pulpit before him. The Free Church also has lost, by his death, one of her ablest and most beloved ministers, and although he was amongst the earliest of that goodly company of students who have been brought up within our Church, and trained in our own College after the Union of 1900, he maintained to the end of life an honourable place in the very first rank of the ministry of our Church.

Mr MacDonald was a native of Glen Urquhart, and was brought up in the best evangelical traditions of the Free Church. His parents were warm supporters of our contendings and our cause, his father having been precentor in the Glen Urquhart congregation for many years, and his mother, who was a woman of uncommon intelligence and spiritual perception, was also equally enthusiastic. It was from such a home and such traditions that their son Duncan, having passed through the local school, proceeded to Aberdeen University to study for the ministry of the Free Church.

After graduating at Aberdeen in 1907, he came to our College in Edinburgh, followed, one or two years later, by other distinguished graduates, all of whom constituted the first fruits of our own trained ministry. The writer remembers well the arrival of these splendid students at a time when academic distinction was, to say the least, less common than it is to-day. But ever since those early and difficult days our College has maintained a standard of scholarship of which any Church might well be proud.

Mr MacDonald was remarkable in those days for his youthful appearance, and showed little evidence of that early maturity and paternal aspect which were so soon to characterise him. Nor was he so happy and exuberant in his religious experience then as he afterwards became. He seemed to be putting to the proof those doctrines of the faith which he had been taught so diligently in early life, and, after finding the foundation firm and trustworthy in new circumstances and in a new environment, he rapidly developed all the gracious qualities of faith, and hope, and joy, which afterwards were so prominent a feature of his character.

He was licensed in 1910, and ordained at Duthil in the same year. After a strenuous ministry of seven years in Duthil he was called to the charge of Milton, Glasgow, in 1917, and was inducted there while still serving as a Chaplain in the Great War, in which capacity, indeed, he continued for some months after the Armistice. He remained in Milton for the long period of almost twenty-four years, until his death. It was in Milton congregation that he was happily married to Flora, the daughter of Mr Archibald MacNeilage, one of his elders, and a “pillar” in the Free Church for a lifetime.

Because of his irrepressible humour, as well as his more solid qualities, Mr MacDonald was a most acceptable public speaker, whether in the General Assembly or on less august occasions. He was, moreover, an interesting and ready writer, as his excellent and frequent contributions to the magazines of the Church amply prove. But his loftiest and, as we think, most fruitful quality was the grace with which he proclaimed throughout the years the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though popular in other departments of his ministry, it was as a preacher that he truly excelled; it was in the pulpit that his heart found its dearest and deepest expression and desire.

He was deep-read in divinity, but his preaching was experimental and practical rather than theological. He studied with singular success all the varied qualities of human nature, its strength and weakness, the virtues, the vices, both from the Scriptures and at first-hand from modern life, hence his constant and apt quotations from the pages of the Immortal Dreamer, with whom he had close and life-long affinity. Surely Bunyan had no more diligent and devoted disciple in modern times than the minister of Milton.

By nature eager and impulsive, Mr MacDonald freely spent himself in the exacting and numerous activities of a city charge, combining with his ordinary duties the lectureship in Religious Instruction at Jordanhill College, and, though handicapped for years with heart-trouble, his work seemed to suffer little on that account. But the effort wore him out when but little past middle life, and thus an active and many-sided ministry was all too early brought to a close.

Mr MacDonald manifested in the originality of his character many and curious contrasts. In appearance he was somewhat elderly, yet he was actually much younger than he looked, both in years and in spirit. His public utterance was measured and leisurely, yet his conversation was unusually rapid and overflowing. His impetuous and impulsive mental processes would often have led him to wrong conclusions, yet by a method of reconsideration and elimination his active mind enabled him to light upon the truth before his more sober and philosophic brethren could perceive it. He bore all the marks of a Highland Christian gentleman, by birth and sentiment and accent, yet he lacked the distinctive badge of the Gaelic tongue. By training and conviction he was Calvinistic both in doctrine and in outlook, yet no man mingled with more ease and toleration among brethren of a different persuasion, always provided that they evinced a sincere and evangelical spirit, which was a sure passport to his heart.

His memory will be cherished by many, not only within our Church, but by others with whom he was often associated in various activities outwith our borders. His kindliness, his earnestness, his humour, all combined to mark him out as a minister of such quality as is not often seen.

It only remains to be said that he bore his share in the administrative work of the Church, and was for several periods Convener of one or other of the Church’s Committees, and in recognition of his merit he was called to the Moderatorial Chair in 1934. His opening address on that occasion takes, perhaps, the foremost place among all his public utterances.

His funeral took place on Thursday, 20th February, and his remains were laid to rest in a beautiful and peaceful burying ground four miles beyond Kilcreggan, in a wooded hillside overlooking Loch Long. Here his father-in-law and other members of the esteemed MacNeilage family are also interred.

The sympathy and prayers of the Church are sincerely extended to his sorrowing widow.

 

Mr Macdonald as teacher
Author: William Kerr, M.A.,
Director of Studies, Jordanhill Training Centre

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The Rev. Duncan MacDonald, Lecturer in Religious Instruction to our Free Church students, died on Tuesday morning. Not only his own classes, but all of us who were privileged to know him, mourn his passing and feel the poorer in his loss. To meet him was to come at once into the presence of a great gentleman, generous in his appreciation of others, humble to a degree in the estimate of his own merit, a man without thought of self, without a hint of cynicism or carping criticism, a man who loved fellowmen and was without guile.

A native of Glen Urquhart, Inverness-shire, Mr. MacDonald came to Glasgow in 1917, after some years of ministry at Carr Bridge, and a period of service as Chaplain with the Forces during the last war. He came to Milton Church, which, situated as it is at the gate of the Cowcaddens, could never have been an easy charge. To Mr MacDonald it was an opportunity. His power as a preacher, his gifts of organisation, and, above all, his love for and interest in his fellow-men raised around him a congregation of fast friends. No man could wish for a finer tribute than that paid by the great assembly of mourning men and women who attended the funeral service in the bleak weather of yesterday, and no man could deserve such a tribute better.

It is not necessary for me to do more than refer to the service Mr MacDonald rendered to the Free Church of Scotland. Acknowledgement has been made elsewhere, and will yet be made more fully of his work as Convener of the Committee on Religion and Morals, as Moderator of the Glasgow Presbytery, as Moderator of the Assembly.

To every office he must have brought, he could not help bringing an enthusiasm that brushed obstacles aside and made light of difficulties that would have daunted other men. But I should like here to dwell for a moment on what he did and what he meant for us. Young people and their welfare were, I am certain, nearest of all interests to him. They must have been, for he was young himself and not all the bodily weaknesses that afflicted him in his last years could suppress the buoyance of his spirit. This is, or was till recently, an age of many easy distractions, and even young people have been known to grow blasé. Mr MacDonald did not know what the word meant. He threw himself into his teaching here with the zest of the beginner. He brought to it a mind fully stored, a profound understanding of human nature, and a ready sympathy with students’ difficulties. A wealth of reminiscence, sketches of men and women he had known, incidents the spiritual value of which he had been quick to note, enriched and invigorated his instruction. It is for those of you who received his message to see that his flame burns on, that his faith and love inspire your teaching too.

The spirit was too strong for the body, the sword too keen for the scabbard. He must have driven himself unmercifully for years, and not all the doctors that are could have disciplined him to caution. I do not think he set any store on life, apart from the opportunity it offered. Beaten at last, and forced to surrender, his interest was still with us, his own students and all the rest of us whom he had got to know. He was certain he was coming back soon and was eager for news of College and the little daily happenings that make up life here as elsewhere. Then, quite suddenly the strained machine broke. We shall not see him again but those of us who knew him well will remember his smile of welcome, his eager talk, his interest in us, his enthusiasm for his work. We shall not forget his devotion, his generosity, the noble simplicity of his character.

I have spoken simply and shortly: simple words are best for characters so clear and open as his. All I have said might well be put in one short sentence: He was a good man.

 

Mr Macdonald as pastor
Author: An appreciation written by Dr Kenneth A. Mackay, and reproduced by kind permission from The Evening Citizen

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It’s a far cry in more than miles from Glenurquhart to the heart of Glasgow, but there is sorrow in the glen and in the streets round the Garscube Road to-day for the death of Duncan MacDonald, minister of Milton Free Church.

“Bishop of Lyon Street,” they called him, an honourable title for a pastor. A housewife there summed him up: “He was a real good man and great for visiting. And aye that cheery he did you good. And that fond o’ the bairns he’d dae onything for them.”

His cheeriness was unquenchable, and that, although there went with it an intense interest in all that affected other people, not a quality calculated to stimulate happiness.

Above all and at all times, in public preaching and private dealings, there was plain the flame of his devotion to his Lord. Second only to that devotion was his conception of the glory of the Church. He was so conscious of the Church’s intimate relationship with the sovereignty of Christ and with His coming, that any reflection on her honour and usefulness grieved him deeply.

His preaching was to an unusual degree his own, for in sermon or in written article he had an entirely personal use of unexpected phrase and exact illustration which was not less striking because it frequently had more than a spark of true humour. His preaching was on a level consistently high. He was one who was listened to week after week for years and still was fresh to his hearers. His mind in preaching was never diverted from the great themes of Christ’s sovereignty as our Redeemer and God’s grace and mercy in Christ. His prayers had the constant tone of tenderness and confidence that revealed his own warm trust and close walk with God.

There was one phrase he used at the grave side of a boy whose father was then far away on the mission field. He asked that the Lord would at that hour “throw his arm round His servant’s shoulders” to sustain him by His nearness. His own closeness to the love of God made him a strength to his people, and never more so than in these testing days.

A humble-minded man who magnified his office and not himself, well content to spend himself in service.

A brave man who could look up from an attack of cruel pain and gasp out a quotation apt to make others smile, and who for years chose to “lie down and bleed awhile and then rise up to fight again.”

 

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 REV. JAMES MACDONALD

(Died 20th December, 1946)
Source: The Monthly Record, January, 1947, p.6

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We regret to have to note in these columns, as the first item of our New Year number, the death of one of our oldest and most widely respected ministers. The Rev. James MacDonald, Killearnan, died, after only a few days’ illness, on the 20th December, and was buried on the 24th December in the soil of his native parish, Glenmoriston. Mr MacDonald had just passed his 79th year, and though never of robust physique and often subject to severe attacks of chest trouble, he was unusually vigorous in the pulpit and fulfilled an active ministry of 36 years, 9 of them in Ullapool and 27 in Killearnan.

In his early days Mr MacDonald was engaged in business, but his loyalty to, and manifold labours on behalf of the Free Church in 1900 and afterwards brought him into public notice, and his ready utterance in both Gaelic and English made him acceptable as week-end supply during the Church’s most testing period. After undergoing some special training he was ordained to the ministry in 1910 and gave faithful service to the Church in both his spheres of labour, while ever ready to answer calls upon his services from farther afield. Though a man of retiring disposition, and of a gentle and unassuming spirit, he possessed unusually warm sympathies and was a son of consolation to many homes in sorrow. From the varied experiences of 17 years the writer can testify that no minister could have a more loyal colleague or helpful neighbour. In the heyday of his vigour he was a powerful and stirring preacher, and the Lord has been pleased to set seals to his ministry in the persons of some who to-day occupy positions of responsibility in the eldership of the Church. His wife – a woman of unusual strength of character – predeceased him by several years and the bereavement left him a lonely and broken man. Many throughout the Church, as well as in both the congregations he served, will cherish his memory as a man of God, a faithful witness, and a character of singular guilelessness and simplicity.

 

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  REV. JOHN MACDONALD, ROSSKEEN

(Died 22nd April, 1947)
Source: The Monthly Record, May, 1947, p.85

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Just as we go to press, we hear of the death, on 22nd April, of the Rev. John Macdonald, Rosskeen. Mr Macdonald had reached the great age of 84, and was “the Father of the Church,” having been ordained so long ago as 1891. He was one of the valiant little band of twenty-six ministers who made their memorable stand in 1900; now that he is gone, only one of them survives, the Rev. Norman Campbell, M.A..

Mr Macdonald spent most of his ministerial life in the beautiful parish of Rosskeen, in Easter Ross, where he proved himself a true heir of the eminent Evangelical fathers whose preaching enriched the life of that parish in other days. He was a man of strong convictions, a real Mr Standfast, whom it was not easy to move from any position which he considered the right position to take. He proved, in 1900, his loyalty to truth at any cost, and he had to suffer for the uncompromising attitude to which he committed himself then. Mingled, however, with the sternness which was part of his character, was a very real kindliness and a deep, understanding sympathy to which students who have been under the supervision of the Presbytery of Dingwall and Tain can bear witness. His preaching, which was always thoughtful, and was always intensely loyal to the fundamental truths of Evangelical Christianity, was the preaching of one who sought always to speak from the heart to the heart, and when, like another, he “got his wings,” discerning hearers found in him a sappy, experimental preacher of the deep things of the Divine grace and its workings in the soul.

We hope later on to give adequate account of his life and work, written by someone who can write on such matters with authority. Meanwhile, we pray for his bereaved family that they may experience, in rich measure, the consolations of the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort.

 

Author: Rev. Norman Campbell
Source: The Monthly Record, July, 1947, pp.130-131

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When the true history of the Free Church in the Highlands will be written, an important page will be given to Rev. John Macdonald, Rosskeen, among the worthies and defenders of the faith. His death removes one of the most able and devoted servants of the Free Church.

He was born in Applecross over 85 years ago. Early in his life he was deprived of the loving care of a father, and a beloved mother performed the duties of father and mother. Educated in the local school, he from there went to Glasgow University. Having creditably passed the examinations, he entered the Divinity Hall in the same city. In intervals during his college session he taught in one of the Ladies’ Schools in the West of Ross-shire. After being licensed to preach the Gospel, he was ordained and inducted in Acharacle Free Church, Argyleshire, in 1891. Four years later he accepted a call to the Island of Raasay, where he laboured during the eventful time of the Union controversy. In 1908 he was translated to Rosskeen Free Church, where he laboured until his death in April of this year.

It is difficult to say when he passed through the spiritual crisis of his life – generally known as conversion – but it was evident that it was early in his youth. He seldom spoke of his own personal experiences. In his preaching like John the Baptist he kept himself out of view, and directed others to the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. But he often spoke of ministers he had the privilege of listening to in his college days in Glasgow, and to the impressive, powerful preaching of such men as Mr Galbraith and Mr MacColl of Lochalsh. Specially had he vivid recollections of Mr MacColl’s appeals to the unconverted on Communion Sabbaths in Applecross. The impression seemed almost overwhelming, or as a hearer said, “one would imagine that the very hills would melt under such powerful preaching.”

Deeply interested in educational matters, he was a member of the School Board for some years, and also a very active member of the Ross-shire Education Committee for a number of years. Members of his own family had distinguished careers in Glasgow University, and this may have strengthened his interest in education.

During Mr Macdonald’s college course, he was a diligent student of Church history, and when the Union of 1900 took place he, with other twenty-four ministers, remained loyal to the Free Church of Scotland in its doctrine and worship. The writer has a vivid recollection of the memorable meeting in Edinburgh, when a few devoted ministers and elders took the momentous step of deciding to appeal to the Courts of Justice for the rights and privileges of the Free Church. John Macdonald, along with others, subscribed his name, fully realising the responsibility, financially and otherwise, which this involved. For years after the Union his labours in the West Highlands were enormous. He, along with the late Mr Fraser, Strathpeffer, then minister of Sleat, Skye – with Elders – formed the Presbytery of Skye and the Western Isles, and organised congregations who adhered to the Free Church in Skye especially, in Uist and also in Lewis. Many a stormy night he crossed the Minch and endured many hardships especially in winter months. Yet he was most uncomplaining and cheerful during this arduous toil. The ready response, and the hearty welcome of large congregations, and the people’s great interest in spiritual matters, with the warm atmosphere, refreshed him and were considered by him sufficient reward for his labours.

Towards the end of his life, reflecting on his work, he said he had no regrets with regard to the stand he had taken, and if called upon he would have done the same again. In 1913 he visited Canada and the States, as the representative of the General Assembly, while in 1915 he was honoured by the Church on being appointed Moderator of General Assembly. His presence and his conduct in the Chair, and the addresses he delivered, gave much satisfaction to all. During the debates of the Assembly and other functions he upheld the dignity of the Chair. The fervour of a Scot and the fire of a Highlander he often displayed in his zeal for the cause of Christ; yet he was most tender in his sympathy, frequently in tears. He was an edifying preacher, a sound theologian, plain, clear and evangelical, setting forth the fundamental doctrines of the Gospel. The weight and worth of his personal character were universally recognised. In looking back upon the past, he spoke regretfully of what he considered the departure of much of the greatness and brightness of the highly honoured Church of 1843, and he looked forward with no small anxiety to the immediate future of the Church of Christ in this land.

Justice would not be done to Mr Macdonald’s life as a minister without referring to Mrs Macdonald, a talented, cultured, and deeply pious lady, who strengthened and supported him in the home and congregational work. In his latter years bereavements came to darken his happy home – a beloved son, a daughter, and then his wife, and a second son were removed by death. These blows fell heavily on his tender spirit, although he was cheered and supported by the remaining members of his family.

 

Tribute by Presbytery

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The following tribute to Rev. John Macdonald was set on record by the Presbytery of Dingwall and Tain:

The Presbytery received the intimation of the passing away at the age of 85 years of the Reverend John MacDonald, Rosskeen, with genuine regret, and desire to record in their Minutes the great loss sustained by the Presbytery and the whole Church by his removal. Mr Macdonald was one of the twenty-six Ministers who remained in the Free Church when so many forsook her in October 1900. To his steadfast loyalty in those days the Free Church owes much. During his long ministry he gave diligent and faithful service to the Church, proved himself a workman that needed not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth.

Without detriment to his pastoral work, he actively identified himself with the cause of Education in the County of Ross and Cromarty in the Education Committee on which he served with marked distinction for several years. His welcome presence, wise counsel, and ungrudging help will be sorely missed by the Presbytery with which he has so long been associated. He has now entered into his rest.

The Presbytery express their heartfelt sympathy with his family and Congregation in their great loss.

The Clerk was instructed to send an Extract of this Minute to Miss Macdonald.”

 

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 REV. JOHN MACDONALD, SLEAT

(Died July, 1928)
Author: Professor Donald Maclean, D.D.
Source: The Monthly Record, 1928, p.201

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By the passing away of Mr Macdonald, at the comparatively early age of fifty-three years, the Free Church of Scotland has suffered a grievous loss, and the community among whom he laboured have lost a warm and sympathetic friend. Into his short range of life has been crowded various activities and achievements for the spiritual, social, and educational interests of his countrymen, such as men who have traversed a longer and easier path of life might well envy.

Embarking on his ministerial life with the training that the Bible Training Institute, Glasgow, could provide, and without any experience of the rigid disciplines that Universities furnish, his great popularity as a fluent and luminous exponent of the evangel rested on his natural and gracious gifts, his clear insight and precision, and his penetrating vision into the profundities of truth and the troubled human heart. As a product of grace and self-acquired culture, he stood forth among the ministry of the Free Church an unqualified success, loved, respected, and admired by all, and not least by those who have trodden the hard and weary road of Academic training.

He was settled as a missionary at Skerray shortly before 1900. During the severe testing time that followed, he unhesitatingly cast in his lot, in fellowship with his revered minister at Gairloch, with those who sought to continue the testimony of the Free Church undiluted and unabated.

Soon after 1900, when the Free Church, despite the paucity of her preachers, stuck tenaciously to the traditional requisites of a trained ministry, in the case of John Macdonald, the Church at once recognised his general fitness for the ministry to which he felt called, and they heartily and confidently admitted him into the high office, and right well did he prove himself worthy of the Church’s trust.

With the full flood of youthful enthusiasm impelling his own sincere convictions, his ringing earnestness and clear and incisive utterances soon won for him a place of high esteem among the people of Sutherland and Caithness. His services to the Free Church at that juncture were such as no lover of her testimony should allow to fade from memory. Receiving many calls to wider spheres than Skerray, he ultimately accepted a call from Sleat, and he remained there to the end, obdurate to the many appeals that reached him from city and country congregations.

From there he had on many occasions to direct his Church’s interests throughout almost the whole of Skye and the Southern Hebrides. He did that judiciously; for he knew how to give the tactful command that received respectful obedience without resentment. For, having versed himself in Church law, his authority carried the weight that is always attached to knowledge.

In Sleat, where his life’s work was accomplished, he finely, and on a wide scale, illustrated the practicability of conjoining services of a civil character with those of a spiritual kind without eliminating or submerging the gospel minister in the social reformer.

Few ministers have received so many spontaneous tokens of esteem from their congregations as he, and fewer still have been made the recipients of the gratitude of the community in general for services rendered outside his own immediate sphere as was his happy lot. If the gratitude of a community is a sign of a successful ministry, that laurel now wreathes his cold brow. Even if, as many think, he may have been too lavish in the expenditure of his feeble physical resources, the sacrifice was willingly made in a noble cause, and the fragile frame is committed to the dust without demur.

That was reverently done on Wednesday, the 18th of July last, by a large gathering of mourning people, among whom were twelve ministers of his Church and the leading elders of Skye. The strained features of this company, moving slowly from the manse to the south side of the church, indicated clearly severely suppressed emotions. But the women by the church door could not control assertive nature in pain. Their tears were copious. He was laid in the warm brown soil by the church’s wall, lying towards the sun until the day break.

But as a happy and loyal friend he will be missed by many. The sparkling eye will no longer shoot out its radiant joy, and the hearty laugh we shall hear no more. But he has left behind him a splendid legacy of work well done, of an unblemished character in public and in private and there are not a few who shall continue blessing God that they heard John Macdonald preach the gospel. He had a true helpmate in his wife, the daughter of highly respected parents who have passed away, and to her and to her young fatherless children the sympathy of all admirers of that which is lovely and of good report will go forth.

 

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  REV. MURDO MACDONALD, BARVAS

(Died 7th September, 1918)
Author: K. C. [Kenneth Cameron, Stornoway]
Source: The Monthly Record, December, 1918, pp.195-196

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This excellent young man passed away on 7th September last, after a brief illness at his mother’s home, in Stornoway. It was while discharging duty in a vacant congregation of his Presbytery that he caught the chill which accentuated the trouble that was in his system, and fatally terminated his useful life. Many were the visits that he paid to his aged mother since his settlement in Barvas, and it appears that he had to end his career under her loving roof.

He was born in Bernera, Lewis, and, after spending some years in that most interesting spot, he betook himself to the great Western Metropolis of Scotland. There the greater part of his life was spent as shipwright in one of the great yards of the famous Clyde.

During his residence in Glasgow, the difficult experiences of 1900 crossed his path, and discovered his love to “the old paths ” and his attachment to the Church of his fathers. He did yeoman service for the nucleus that remained loyal to the Free Church in Govan. In after days, his face would light up with laudable pleasure, as he recalled the dear comrades in the fight, who, along with him, helped to unfurl, against great odds, the grand heartening standard of 1843. Knowing the need of his church, he resolved to study for the ministry, so that he might more efficiently help her. In all the classes necessary for the qualifying of men for the sacred office he acquitted himself most creditably, and in due course was licensed to preach the Gospel.

Various congregations sought his services, but he was led to choose the large congregation of Barvas in the Presbytery of Lewis. His health did not permit him to give such attention to this extensive charge as he would desire. Nevertheless, he laboured most faithfully among them for the brief space of three years. During his pastorate, the Sustentation Fund increased, and his ready counsel was given to any who sought help in matters that pertained to the material welfare of the congregation. At the time of his death, he was engaged in collecting money for the repairing of the Church fabrics, but his schemes thereanent were not permitted to mature, and this task is left to others.

As a man, he was quiet and unassuming, yet withal sociable and ready to defend with vigour any position he thought to be right. He adorned his profession and lofty calling by a humble consistent walk. As a preacher, he was earnest, thoughtful, spiritual and experimental, and gave promise of much usefulness in the vineyard. The Chief Shepherd has ordered otherwise, and his charge is vacant, and he has left behind him a sorrowing people.

At the request of his congregation, his remains were carried to the Barvas Cemetery, where, after a very impressive funeral service at his mother’s house, they were laid to rest amid the lamentations of aged sires, worthy matrons, pious maidens, strong men, and school children. He lies buried near the scene of his ministerial labours, where oft he walked in quiet meditation, and where the ceaseless roll of the Barvas waves will be unheeded by him.

Till “the seas of earth” be “no more for ever”; till the Bridegroom comes; till “death be swallowed up in victory”, his precious dust will mingle with kindred dust, and then the Redeemer’s welcome, the victor’s crown, the joy of his Lord forever. We extend sympathy to his sorrowing relatives in their great loss.

 

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 REV. NEIL MACDONALD, COIGACH

(Died 3rd July, 1944)
Source: The Monthly Record, August, 1944

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Two months in succession it falls to us to record the passing of one of our ministers. We regret to report the death of the Rev. Neil MacDonald, Minister at Coigach, at his home early in July after what appears to have been a very brief illness. Sturdy and healthy in constitution and happy in disposition, Mr MacDonald carried his years lightly, and it must have come as somewhat of a surprise even to his friends to know that he had well passed the allotted span.

Born on the west coast of Sutherlandshire, he early removed to Skye, and in young manhood he entered the tailoring trade in the city of Glasgow. When in middle life his mind was directed to the ministry, he entered the University of Glasgow, and the Free Church College and equipped himself with all earnestness and diligence for the work on which he had set his heart. He held pastorates at Clyne, Lochranza, Ardersier, Strathconon, and Coigach, and in each of these proved himself a diligent and faithful pastor.

Under a disarming simplicity of manner he hid a penetrating mind and very shrewd judgment. His preaching was warmly evangelical and was often illumined by flashes of originality. His knowledge of Scripture was both extensive and accurate and he seldom quoted a text without giving from memory the exact reference. In his home he dispensed a generous hospitality and was at all times a genial companion. Much sympathy is extended to his congregation and to his immediate friends, more especially to his niece who was the manse hostess for the greater part of his ministry.

 

Author: J. M., Presbytery Clerk [Perhaps John MacKenzie, Plockton]
Source: The Monthly Record, August, 1944, p.125

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The death occurred at the Free Church Manse, Coigach, on 3rd July 1944 of the Rev. Neil Macdonald at the age of 75 years. Though it was evident to his friends for some time that the earthly tabernacle was crumbling fast, yet his passing came unexpectedly sudden. The end came as he would have it, without trouble to others.

Mr Macdonald was advanced in years when his mind was directed to devote his life to the Lord’s work in the ministry of the Church. After completing a course of studies in arts and theology, he was licensed and ordained to preach the gospel in the year 1914. In the several congregations in which he diligently laboured – Clyne, Lochranza, Ardersier, Strathconon, and Coigach – he was well liked and respected.

His preaching, which was earnest and evangelical, revealed an extensive acquaintance with the Scriptures which he freely and accurately quoted. Mr Macdonald was a kind-hearted and genial companion and he shall be long remembered by a wide circle of friends. His unassuming disposition and guileless demeanour made him a favourite with old and young. Of him it could be truly said that he was a good man and a just, fearing God and eschewing evil.

The funeral service, which was largely attended, was held in the Free Church, Coigach, on 6th July. The service at the Manse was conducted by the Rev. Norman Macdonald, M.A., Ullapool, and Rev. Kenneth Macleay, Lochinver, and in the church by the Rev. Ranald L. Fraser, M.A., Lochcarron, assisted by Rev. Angus Mackinnon, Aultbea, and Rev. John Mackenzie, Plockton. The remains were interred beside the church in Coigach,

The sympathy of many friends is extended to his sisters and to his devoted niece who was his housekeeper.

 

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  REV. DUNCAN MACDOUGALL

(Died 2nd August, 1907)
Author: Robert Greig
Source: The Monthly Record, October, 1907, p.165

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Dear Sir,

I hope that some worthy tribute will appear in The Record to the services of this worthy Christian gentleman. I should just like, however, to crave a little space in your issue to state in regard to him what perhaps may not be generally known throughout our Church, namely, what he was enabled to do for Free St. Columba’s congregation.

After the secession of 1900 and when Free St. George’s ceased to exist, we as a family were thrown out in the cold, and noticed an advertisement stating that services were to be held in connection with Free St. Columba’s Church in hall number so-and-so Melbourne Place. We went accordingly and found out the place, up a stair not too clean nor sweet-smelling. The number attending that service was five all told, including the late Rev. gentleman and his son.

There is no doubt whatever that under Providence, the upbuilding of that congregation was entirely due to the most estimable and valued services of Mr. Macdougall. His prayers were excellent, and his sermons I cannot characterise too highly, astonishing some of us who had been brought up on Dr. Candlish’s preaching. To be brief, we felt we had lost nothing but gained much by coming to Melbourne Place. Shortly afterwards St. Columba’s services were transferred to upper Queen Street Hall, certainly not one of the most cheerful nor cleanly meeting places either, and here, before Mr. Macdougall went abroad, he had worked up the congregation to fill the room, I imagine about 100 or more. Now this is indeed a rare achievement, and one that should not pass unnoticed.

For Mr. Macdougall personally I had the very highest regard and esteem, and I would humbly venture to propose that some fitting memorial of his great services rendered to the congregation should be put on record, perhaps say on a Tablet in their church lobby. I feel sure all are pleased to have the son of so worthy a father, in training for the Ministry of our Church, who himself so well led our psalmody at the crisis above mentioned.

One feels sure the Church will extend to the bereaved family heartfelt sympathy in their great loss. “They that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars for ever and ever.”

I am, yours, etc.,
Shortwoodend, Moffat,
23rd September, 1907
Robert Greig

 

Source: The Monthly Record, November, 1907, p.165

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Major Greig’s generous tribute to the late Rev. Duncan McDougall in our last issue may fittingly be followed up by a few notes on the history of the deceased worthy standard-bearer.

Mr. McDougall was born in Port Ellen, Islay, in 1837, and learned his father’s trade, boat-building, which he followed successfully on the Clyde for a number of years. He resolved, rather late in life, to prepare for the ministry of the Free Church, but about 1874 he entered the Established Church, and was ordained in Oa, Islay, in his fortieth year. He was, however, very much dissatisfied with what he saw in the Established Church, and in 1886 resigned his charge and removed to Edinburgh. During the next few years he worked for the Established Church in Uist and Lewis, and afterwards connected himself with the Free Gaelic Church (St. Columba’s) of which he was an elder at the time of the Union. He had strong sympathy with the Free Presbyterian movement, and during the first years of their struggle he was frequently asked to come to their assistance, and gave his services freely whenever requested.

When the crisis came in 1900 Mr. McDougall had no hesitation as to what should be done. He had a hall taken the day after the Union, and conducted the services for the Free Church on the first Sabbath, and regularly afterwards till he was sent to Lewis about March, 1901. He went to Canada in August, 1901, and after being some time in Winnipeg he went on to British Columbia, and settled at Nelson. His health was very indifferent since 1900, and when seized by his last illness no one thought the end was so near, as he had had similar experiences so often. He took ill on Wednesday, the last day of July, and was attended during the night by one of his sons. On the following day an operation was found to be necessary, and with the resolution characteristic of him, he walked to the hospital, accompanied by a daughter. In the evening he seemed quite resigned to what awaited him, and, as if he anticipated the long sleep “from which there is no awaking,” he thanked his daughter for her loving care. He passed away on the Friday morning, very suddenly, having been conversing with one of the nurses a few minutes before.

Mrs. McDougall predeceased her husband by about two years. Nine of a family, four of whom are in Canada, now mourn the loss of both parents. One is our much-esteemed and promising student, who bears his father’s name. With these young people much sympathy must be felt in their sore bereavement. As Major Greig said in his beautiful letter, it is not possible to over-estimate the value of Mr. McDougall’s work. But for the brave and resolute stand taken by him and one or two others in November, 1900, it is scarcely likely there would have been a St Columba Free Church in Edinburgh to-day. His action was the action of a man who understood the times and knew what Israel ought to do. It was a heroic stand, and God in His Providence has fully vindicated His servant’s zeal and labour of love. He rests from his labours, and his works abide to tell what one man accom plished “who was not afraid of the king’s commandment.”

 

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 REV. DUNCAN MACDOUGALL, Μ.Α.

(Died 4th April, 1954)
Source: The Monthly Record, May, 1954, p.85

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It is with genuine sorrow that we record the passing from our midst of one so well known throughout the Church as the Rev. Duncan MacDougall, Senior Minister of Dunoon. Though not an old man by present-day reckoning, Mr MacDougall retired from the active ministry some six or seven years ago owing to ill-health, but he has been able in that period to give much-needed help to our congregation at Clachan. The end came, with apparent suddenness, on Sabbath, 4th April.

A man of outstanding ability, Mr MacDougall had filled many posts in his lifetime and all of them with distinction. His business acumen found congenial employment in the Free Church Offices in the hectic years of transition and none could recall the difficulties of that period with greater clarity or relate them with greater piquancy than he. His first charge was the large and important congregation of Ness, Lewis, and there are still vivid memories of his ministry there. His subsequent ministries at Fort Augustus, Vancouver, and Dunoon were by comparison short and uneventful. With an original mind, great powers of penetration and analysis, and the gift of lucid and logical expression, Mr MacDougall was a maker of sermons that lived in the memory of his hearers all their days. His incisive and analytical mind would have found ample scope, perhaps, in the legal profession to which indeed he had been apprenticed in his youth, but he felt the call of the Gospel and consecrated his talents to the cause of the Church he loved. He wielded a facile pen and had journalistic gifts of no mean order which he pressed into the service of the truths of Protestantism and the exposure of the fallacies of Rome. In fact, his mind was a storehouse of information on almost any subject and to listen to his conversation was to extend one’s knowledge in directions quite untrod before. The cause of righteousness has lost a valiant defender in his passing. Deep sympathy is felt for his widow and for all the members of his family.

 

Author: A. R. F. [Perhaps Alexander R. Fraser, Dumbarton]
Source: The Monthly Record, September, 1954, p.183-184

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The ministers and men who were in the fore-front of the ecclesiastical conflict waged in Scotland at the turn of the century are now a rapidly dwindling band, and their number is further decreased by the death, which occurred with impressive suddenness on Sabbath, 4th April last, of the Rev. Duncan McDougall, M.A., Senior Minister of Dunoon. Mr McDougall had a first-hand and almost unrivalled knowledge of the events of that time owing to his service as assistant to the late Mr Hay Thorburn, Secretary of the Church.

A native of Islay, and a son of the manse, Duncan McDougall was in his youth apprenticed to the legal profession, but as a young man he heard the call of need of the Free Church in a day of adversity and, relinquishing prospects in a profession in which a man of his intellectual calibre and acumen was almost certain to rise high, he placed himself at the service of the Church in a business capacity, and also gave valued help with the supplying of the numerous vacant charges for which provision had to be made. Heart and soul in the work of the Church he heard the call to full-time service in the Gospel Ministry and for this he prepared himself with diligence and distinction, graduating in Arts at Edinburgh University and in his Divinity course at the Free Church College, showing special aptitude in the Hebrew language of which he made complete mastery.

Mr McDougall was ordained to the Ministry at Ness, Lewis, in the year 1909. There he exercised ministry, still vividly remembered by many in the parish, until his translation to the congregation at Fort Augustus, then in the Presbytery of Inverness. It was from here that he proceeded, under the direction of the Foreign and Colonial Missions Committee, to take charge of the Free Church congregation at Vancouver, Canada. In 1938 he returned to Scotland and was settled over the congregation at Dunoon from the active charge of which he retired owing to failing health in 1947.

Possessed of a richly informed mind, a keen debater with a gift of ready utterance, who wielded a facile pen, Mr McDougall used his gifts freely in defence of the Faith and in the interests of Christ’s cause and church in manifold ways. For more than half a century he served his Church in various capacities until his death, which took place at Clachan Free Church Manse, Kintyre, where, since his retiral from active charge of the congregation at Dunoon, he continued to give useful service in the vacancy. It is with a deep sense of loss. that we pay respectful tribute to a loyal friend, an interesting character, a stout protagonist of the Faith, and a memorable preacher of the Gospel.

To his widow in her loneliness and sorrow, to the members of his family in their loss, as well as to the congregations to which he ministered we extend our heartfelt condolence. May God’s presence and grace be their comfort and supply their need.

 

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 REV. EWEN MACDOUGALL, B.D., PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND

(Died 5th October, 1937)
Source: The Monthly Record, November, 1937, p.270

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The sudden death of this esteemed minister of the Evangel has made a great blank in the Church and circle to which he belonged. Mr Macdougall was a man of sixty-four years whose labours in the Gospel were of such a strenuous kind as to shorten his days. He was a minister for about thirty years of the Presbytery of the Church of Scotland (unattached), who used to be spoken of on Prince Edward Island in connection with the followers of Rev. Donald Macdonald under whose preaching about 100 years ago, remarkable awakenings took place in the Island Province. Mr Macdonald took up an attitude of his own towards other Presbyterian Churches and made the claim that he and his followers were unattached members of the Church of Scotland. They kept themselves apart from the Presbytery of the Church of Scotland which functioned in Prince Edward Island. In later years they were recognised as an outlying branch of that Church. But for the past few years since the State Church of this country disclaimed connection with them, Mr Macdougall and his people were in friendly relation with our Free Church.

They had been all along Evangelical and their recent intercourse with us was of the most friendly and cordial character. Since the death of his brother, who was the worthy minister of the West Parish of the Island, the burden of attending to a scattered people, who met at about a score of centres, fell on him; and he, in the most heroic and self-sacrificing way, took the burden upon his shoulders and bore it to the end. Within the last few months he asked our Church for the assistance of a minister for the coming winter. He has been taken to his rest from his many labours just before Rev. M. Galbraith set out in response to his appeal to share his burden with him. His people mourn the loss of a straight and gentlemanly Christian minister whose message was faithful to the Word of God. He was one of the best known and most highly esteemed men of his native province and his memory will be long cherished and revered. He was a man of a fine presence and physique, of a kind and loving nature and of gracious experience.

The removal of such a man is a loss that the community will feel as well as his congregation and Presbytery. Most of all will his affectionate household miss him. Those who had the privilege of his acquaintance will remember his bright but serious conversation, and they will feel that in his death a worthy man of God whose work was highly valued and whose services will be much missed has been called home by his Lord and Master. Mr Macdougall died on the evening of the fifth of October. As he was known to suffer from heart trouble his death was more sudden than surprising. To look at his stalwart form impressed one with the rigour and vigour of his frame. But strong as he was, the load that he bore proved to be too heavy for him. So he is taken away from the midst of his usefulness.

[He was buried at Argyle Shore Cemetery, Prince Edward Island. At that reference substantial information about his family background is given. See also Ewen and James MacDougall.]

 

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 REV. JOHN MACEWAN

(Died 1918)
Author: S. L. O. [Samuel Lyle Orr]
Source: The Monthly Record, March, 1918, p.39

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Among many other losses the Church has sustained in these later days, few will be felt more keenly than the removal by death of Rev. John MacEwan.

Mr MacEwan, who was a native of Lochgilphead, was early brought under the saving power of divine truth, through the preaching of his much-loved and revered friend, Rev. Mr Fraser, long the esteemed pastor of the Free Church congregation there.

It was not long thereafter until the Church called him to serve her in various capacities. In 1890 he was engaged by the Kirk Session of Hope Street Free Gaelic Church in mission work among Gaelic-speaking people in Glasgow. In this capacity he was highly valued as an esteemed friend and willing coadjutor by the minister; while among all the Christian people who knew him he was one whose exemplary character commended not only himself, but the work in which he was engaged.

When in 1900 the Union of the majority of the Free Church and the United Presbyterian Church took place, and in consequence many Free Church congregations were forsaken by their pastors, and great difficulty was encountered in providing ministrations for them, Mr MacEwan, who maintained a firm adherence to the Free Church and her principles, was found among the most helpful and acceptable in supplying pulpits.

In 1905 the General Assembly, at the request of the people of Southend, Arran, placed him over that congregation, where, in faithful discharge of the duties of the ministry, he continued with unabated zeal until the day of his death. On Sabbath he preached and on Tuesday he died.

The sympathy of the Church is extended to his friends, and to the congregation who both valued him as a friend and esteemed him as a pastor.

 

Pulpit Reference
Author: Peter Clarkston
Source: The Monthly Record, March, 1918, p.39

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Preaching in Southend Free Church on the Sabbath after Mr MacEwan’s death, the Rev. Peter Clarkson, Whiting Bay, made appropriate and sympathetic reference to the loss which the congregation and the Church had sustained. Though far from well, he said, Mr MacEwan had resolved to remain at the post of duty as long as strength was left him. His last message to his congregation was from the beautiful and comforting words: “Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what He hath done for my soul.” Mr MacEwan was a diligent pastor and a man of prayer. During the last year of his ministry he had been much cheered by seeing his prayer answered in a general deepening of spiritual life in the community. Whether in the pulpit or out of it, he carried his message with him, and those who met him felt that they were in the presence of a man of God. The preacher had passed away, but his work remained. Their last thought of him would be in the language of the text, “Mark thou the perfect man, and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace.”

 

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 REV. E. M. McFADDEN, D.D.

(Died 6th January, 1933)
Source: The Monthly Record, May, 1933, p.115

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Many readers will recall the fresh and vigorous personality of Dr McFadden, who laboured in the Free Church from 1906 to 1909 at a time when the help he gave was sorely needed.

A native of Ireland, he had removed to U.S.A. and entered the ministry of the U.P. Church of North America. He came to the help of the Free Church on the introduction of Mr S. Lyle Orr, whose sister was Mrs McFadden. Dr McFadden was called to the congregation of Dumbarton, and was inducted there on 1905. During the time of his ministry the congregation were, by Lord Elgin’s Commission, deprived of their building in High Street, but immediately they set themselves to the preparation of their present building in Latta Street, the design of the building being mainly due to the minister. His clear and evangelical preaching, his pastoral work, and his full share of the general committee work of the Free Church proved of immense value. But in 1909 he was confronted with the alternative of returning to U.S.A. to preserve his American citizenship, or of losing that by prolonging his absence beyond four years. He felt duty recalling him to resume his place in the Reformed Presbyterian Church at Pittsburg, where latterly he was Superintendent of the New Covenant Mission in that city. Dr McFadden died in Pittsburg on 6th January 1933, being in his sixty-ninth year.

 

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 REV. MALCOLM MCINTYRE

Died 10th October, 1903.
Source: The Monthly Record of the Free Church of Scotland, 1903, page 182

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To many the name of this venerable minister will hardly be known, yet in his time there were few more faithful witnesses than he. For many years he was minister of the Free Church of Monikie in the Presbytery of Dundee. He laboured there among an attached people until the infirmities of age compelled him to retire. Thereafter he resided at different places, chiefly in the West of Scotland, where he became known to not a few, who warmly cherish his memory. Increasing infirmity, however, coming on, his declining years were spent in the house of his son, the Rev. D. M. McIntyre, M.A., the successor of Dr. Rev. Andrew A. Bonar, in Finnieston, Glasgow. There at 8 Royal Crescent on Saturday, 10th October, in the 85th year of his age, he fell asleep in Jesus.

Mr. McIntyre was ordained colleague to Rev. Jas. Miller, in Monikie, the father of Dr. Samuel Miller of Glasgow, and his wife was a sister of Dr Samuel Miller and his famous physician brother, Professor Jas. Miller, of Edinburgh. Mr McIntyre was a singularly lovable Christian man. It was impossible to think of him saying an unkind word or doing an unkind act. He loved the truth and loved all good men in the truth. As a preacher he belonged to the school of Scottish expositors. A text with him was not a peg whereon to hang sundry more or less relevant reflections. It was a part of Divine revelation, a thought of God made known to men, to be analysed, set in its true Scriptural relation, and its meaning expounded to men as it bore upon their consciences. In public affairs Mr McIntyre shared the views of Dr. Samuel Miller, and in the Dundee Presbytery stood alongside the late Rev. Thomas Hill, Willison Church, the late Rev. Neil Taylor, Albert Square, and others, who strenuously opposed departure from Disruption teaching, practice and testimony. When he retired from the active duties of the ministry he delivered an address in his Presbytery renewing his testimony and restating the grounds of his protest against much that had been going on. This address was published in pamphlet form, and worthily declares the ground of his faith and trust. Although weak and unable to move about, the writer has reason to believe that Mr. McIntyre was aware of the action taken by those who continued as the Free Church on 31st October, 1900, and sympathised with the stand then made. All recollections of this aged saint are pleasant. In the circle in which he moved and was known his memory will long be fragrant. From an honoured father, whose initials will easily be recognised, we have received the following tribute to Mr. Macintyre’s memory:

On Saturday, 10th October, there passed away the Rev. M. McIntyre, of Monikie, one of the most gracious and devoted of Christ’s ministers For some time he had been looking forward to his translation, and now he is not, God has taken him.

He retired from the active duties of the ministry …. adhering to the principles and contendings of Free Church in 1900, reckoning himself of the Free Church and of the Free Church alone.

Some quotations from his correspondence:

In 1900 he wrote: “God’s hand is stretched out over the Empire at present in a very solemn, even awful manner. He is afflicting with His three great plagues – famine, pestilence, and war – and that with great severity – especially famine, yet there is little national recognition of His hand, if any, and national humiliation and acknowledgment of sin before Him. If this continues we can only look for a continuance and increase of the chastisement. May God of His mercy give repentance and stay His hand!”

In 1901 and 1902 he wrote “When the Lord has tested His truth and tried His servants a little more, I expect that He will distinctly manifest His approval of both.”

“I have no idea what judgment will be given in the earthly court, but I am fully assured the Disruption testimony is approved by the Supreme Judge and will in due time be vindicated by Him.

“Our trust and confidence is that our cause is before a Higher Tribunal, which is both just and gracious and eventually must prevail.”

“I went to the Communion in ____ as an Evangelical Christian about ten days ago. It is the first time since the Union. The next time I go to the Sacred Feast I hope it will be to the Table above.”

“I do not expect to worship in any congregation till I enter the great congregation, as I trust through the great mercy of God ere long to do.”

“I am just waiting for the call to go home, which will, I expect, come soon.”

“I confidently trust that ere long there will be a great outpouring of the Spirit of God on Scotland.”

“I believe it is the design of God to gather into one the various Presbyterian Churches in Scotland on the foundation of the Disruption testimony as to doctrine, Church principles, government, and worship. I believe that He will lead them to see eye to eye in regard to these, and likewise that He will fuse and weld them by an abundant outpouring of His Spirit in the furnace of affliction.”

“In ordinary causes the case is hopeless for such a disproportionate minority; but ours is not an ordinary cause. It is the cause of God, and where He is ultimately there must be victory; and He is where truth is, which we most assuredly possess. The dignity of Christ as King of kings, and Lord of lords, and King of nations, we see comes into great prominence in the latter part of the Apocalypse, and as we are manifestly nearing that time, we may well expect that that high claim will come to occupy great prominence in the Church’s testimony, The sword of the Lord was with Gideon’s 300, and that made all the difference, ‘Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ saith the Lord, and His Spirit is where His truth is. We may well, therefore, confidently rest in hope. God is now trying both His truth and His servants. When the trial is over He will honour both.”

 

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  ANGUS MACIVER

(Died 20th October, 1915)
Source: The Monthly Record, November, 1915, p.184

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The death has been announced of the Rev. Angus Maciver, a well-known minister of the Free Church. The sad event took place at Balallan, in the island of Lewis, on Wednesday, 20th October, and the funeral took place to Fodderty Churchyard, Dingwall, on Friday, 22nd October. Mr MacIver had a somewhat chequered career as a minister.

We first knew him as minister of the Macdonald Free Church, Cowcaddens, Glasgow, in the early seventies. In 1875 or the beginning of 1876, following on the abolition of patronage in the Established Church, he resigned his charge, and became minister of the parish of Uig, in Lewis. There he remained for a number of years, until the General Assembly of the Established Church began to tamper with the formula for elders, when he resigned, and went to Canada. Whether he held a charge there, or simply engaged in itinerating work among Highlanders in the Dominion, is not known to us. He returned to Scotland, and settled in Rothesay, and after the death of the Rev. A. M. Bannatyne, carried on the meeting for Presbyterian worship, which that excellent man had instituted in a hall in the town. When the crisis came in 1900 Mr MacIver was perhaps the first to apply to be re-admitted to the ministry of the Free Church, and his admission was cordially granted. He did good service for the Church, especially in the island of Lewis, for a number of years, and was settled as minister of Strathconon after the decision regarding property in 1904 and 1905.

Mr MacIver could scarcely be regarded as a typical Lewis-man. He was somewhat slow of speech, and deliberate in utterance. He had a firm grasp of the evangelical verities, and was characterised by a genial willingness to be helpful wherever his services proved acceptable. He was pre-deceased by his wife by only a few years, and it was evident that after that event his own physical strength gradually weakened. Mrs Maciver was a member of the Bannatyne family, her father being a merchant in Glasgow. She was a woman of fine spiritual and intellectual endowments, but was for many years an invalid, and unable to take any active part in Church work.

In later years Mr Maciver settled in Edinburgh, and was an elder in Fountainbridge Free Church. A useful man, who served the Church loyally, many friends mourn his loss.

 
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REV. JOHN MACIVER, CARLOWAY

(Died 13th March, 1946)
Source: The Monthly Record, April, 1946, p.53

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The death, with startling suddenness, of the Rev. John MacIver, Minister of Carloway, on the 13th March profoundly moved the Church. It is not too much to say that the Church as a whole, but more especially in the Highlands and Islands, has received the tidings with that sense of bereavement and sorrow that is stirred only by the removal of a brother greatly beloved. That Mr MacIver was held in universal esteem, both as a man and a minister, there is ample evidence, and by his death, at a comparatively early age, the ministry of the Church sustains a breach that will be difficult to fill. Far removed from the heat of controversy, John MacIver moved on a plane of thought and devotion that lifted him above the rank and file of men and gave him a place of special warmth in the affections of the Lord’s people. A man of deep personal piety, sound judgment and blameless life, he was a wise counsellor, a shrewd and discerning speaker, and a shining example of the life that offends not in word or deed. He brought an acute and well-disciplined mind to the study of God’s Word, and his discourses were marked by clear thinking, well-balanced judgment, and severely logical expression. He was an experimental preacher in the best sense of that term – analytical, introspective, and warmly evangelical, and his ministry made its appeal to young and old. His early training as a pupil teacher left its mark upon his pulpit ministrations and he was eminently fitted to instruct and direct the spiritually anxious and perplexed. Deep sympathy is extended to his relatives and to his congregation, who enjoyed his ministry for twenty-two years and gave evidence that they were well able to assess his worth.

 

Source: The Monthly Record, July, 1946, pp.114-115

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Friends throughout the Church will have heard with a deep sense of bereavement and loss of the deeply lamented death of the late beloved minister of Carloway, the Rev. John Maciver, M.A., at the comparatively early age of fifty nine years.

The symptoms of the final stage of the trouble from which he suffered for a long number of years had been apparent to himself and others for a considerable time before the end came. Notwithstanding these indications of his approaching dissolution he calmly awaited the call. Often afraid of it as an issue which would decide forever his eternal destiny, he as often rose above it on the sensitive and fluttering wings of hope in joyful anticipation of being forever with the Lord. The call came suddenly on the 13th of March last and found him ready and reconciled.

Born in Shader, Point, in 1887, he was reared in the wholesome atmosphere of a Christian home. Very freely and very feelingly would he himself express how much he owed for the formation of his own character to the influence of the Christian instruction and example of his pious parents.

As a lad in school his abilities were early noted and recognised by his appointment as a pupil teacher in the Aird School at the age of fourteen. A lasting attachment existed between himself and the pupils he taught there. It was while serving as a teacher at Aird that he came under the saving operation of the Holy Spirit, and was called to the higher service of the Holy Ministry. He graduated at Edinburgh University, completed his Divinity course at the College, Edinburgh, and was ordained and inducted at Carloway in September 1924.

Mr Maciver was naturally rather reserved in manner, very gracious in disposition, and most loyal in his friendship. Temperamentally a man of extremes, his experience changed frequently from the Beulah heights of joy and happiness to the ugly depths located in the vicinity of despair. As a preacher he commanded the affection and admiration of the Lord’s people, not only within his own congregation but also throughout the whole Church. His mind, naturally superior in ability, endowed richly with grace, fired with the unction of living fellowship, could present a powerful, appealing presentation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Few preachers, if any, in our Church have had their ministry so richly acknowledged by the Most High. While serving as a student in Maryhill, Glasgow, a revival took place under his ministry, and his congregation at Carloway had a rich share of the revival which visited some of the congregations in Lewis in 1936. During the whole of his ministry it was no uncommon thing to hear of souls being converted under his preaching.

By the passing away of this honoured servant of Christ the Church below has lost a powerful preacher of the evangel, a sound expositor of the Word, and one of its best and profoundest theologians; his nearest friends have lost a treasure of incalculable value which will tend to carry their affection to the place where their treasure is safely guarded and kept.

To Mrs Mackenzie, Plockton, the only surviving member of the family, we extend our sincerest sympathy with the condolences of the Christian hope. For him to die is gain, For the congregation who had the privilege of his ministry for nearly twenty-two years and who now mourn their loving pastor, we pray that God may provide them soon with an under-shepherd after His own heart.

 

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 REV. JOHN MACIVER, RESOLIS

(Died 28th April, 1922)
Source: The Monthly Record, December, 1922, p.199

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Having been forty-two years in the ministry, Mr MacIver, late of Resolis, finished his course at Cononbridge, where he spent the days of his retirement.

He was a native of Aultbea and a student of the Glasgow University and Free Church College. Early in his probationary life he was settled at Resolis, where he had an attached people who loyally adhered to the distinctive principles of the Free Church. It was evident to any who visited that Congregation that Mr MacIver had a pleasant field to labour in. When in 1900 the test of faithfulness to professed principles was applied, it was his happy lot to find the Congregation almost unanimously ready to keep the Reformation Banner unfurled. They were one of the first, if not the first, Congregation of the Free Church who publicly declared that they would hold by what would remain of the Church of the Disruption. For a number of years Mr MacIver was in feeble health and was compelled to retire from active congregational work. The Congregation had not, however, very long to wait without the privilege of a Gospel ministry.

Mr MacIver was a doctrinal preacher, following the line of Puritan theology, and was acceptable to many stalwart witnesses of his day whose virile religion found refreshing pasture in the great doctrines of grace of which the theologians of that period were eminent exponents. Zealous for sound doctrine, for purity of worship, and for good conduct in ecclesiastical life, and a good reader of character, he kept a watchful eye on the trend of events, and was accordingly ready to give wise counsel when occasion arose. Of an affectionate disposition he was very approachable in regard to all congregational affairs. Other affairs he took little to do with.

Some months before his end he resumed preaching with revived vigour and with evident increased pleasure. In this he probably overtaxed his strength, and caught a cold which made more rapid progress than was noticed, for on the morning of the 28th day of April, what was mortal of him was found bent in the attitude of prayer over an open Bible, evidencing the fact that he departed this life looking up to Him whom he endeavoured through grace to serve, in whose presence the faithful servant is rewarded manifold.

Our sympathy is extended to his bereaved widow and friends.

 

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 REV. MURDO MCIVER

(Died 17th February, 1950)
Source: The Monthly Record, March, 1950, p.65

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The death of the Rev. Murdo McIver, Shawbost, on 17th February removes from the Presbytery of Lewis one of its oldest members and from the service of the Free Church one who was highly respected both for his consistent Christian character and his deeply spiritual ministry. A son of Lewis, he entered the full-time ministry late in life and his equipment was, therefore, not of the purely academic kind. But he brought to his high calling not only a long and varied Christian experience, but a well-balanced and singularly lucid mind, ripe judgment, and deep spiritual weight, all of which found expression in his pulpit ministrations. He was a competent theologian with a comprehensive grasp of Reformed truth on both its doctrinal and its practical sides, and in his analysis of Christian experience he was both penetrating and discriminating. With a rich command of pure idiomatic Gaelic, he was a persuasive and impressive preacher and his teaching made a strong appeal to the more spiritual and discerning of his hearers; in this respect we deeply regret that his ministry was not more widely known outside his native island though the years that he served in the congregation of Aultbea brought his gracious ministry within the reach of many other congregations in Wester Ross who will cherish affectionate remembrance of him. He bore the burden of advancing years with fortitude and unswerving fidelity to duty and he exercised a restricted ministry to within several months of the end. Sympathy is extended to his widow and family and to the congregation he served so faithfully for upwards of 30 years.

 

Author: W. C. [Perhaps William Campbell, Knock]
Source: The Monthly Record, May, 1950, p.96

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By the passing away of the Rev. Murdo Maciver, Shawbost, on the 17th of February last, at the ripe old age of 81 years, the Free Church has lost one of its oldest and most highly respected ministers. His last illness was comparatively brief. It was patiently borne. Grace triumphed over fear and infirmity, and this pilgrim to the celestial city approached the river singing the songs of Zion, and passed over in a wonderful calm to the desired haven.

Possessed of a strong, handsome physical frame, together with a strong, active mind, Mr Maciver was able to continue his pulpit ministrations and to officiate very acceptably till within six weeks of his death. Latterly it became increasingly evident, notwithstanding the robust constitution, that the infirmities of old age were making their common encroachments in undermining the strength of the strong, stalwart body and in reducing the powers of the active mind.

He came under the saving power of the Holy Spirit while yet a young man in his native village of Bragar. Eternal realities were brought home powerfully to his conscience through the death of one of his youthful companions. All the legal remedies through which he tried to pacify his awakened conscience failed to give him peace until the glory of the cross of Jesus Christ shone deeply into his soul, bringing salvation.

As a young Christian he was highly privileged in having the company of saintly aged men who were themselves in intimate personal association with the first fruits of the first Lewis evangelical awakening, which did not begin, as is commonly supposed, by the arrival of Mr Macleod, Uig, but through the arrival and distribution of the Gaelic Bible in Lewis. Thus at the formative period of his Christian character he was deeply influenced by the robust Christianity of these saintly men, he was steeped in the best traditions of Lewis, and it was then that he began his theological training while he walked in this happy company to and from the means of grace.

He became a member in Barvas in 1892, where, with many of his like-minded brethren, he witnessed with unswerving loyalty to the principles of the Free Church during the movement which culminated in the Union of 1900. This zeal for Free Church principles continued with him all his life, and he could brook no deviation from them by himself or others. In 1908 he entered the service of the Church as a Lay-agent under the Highlands and Islands Committee. In this capacity he served with much acceptance in Borve, Glenelg, Aultbea and Coigach. His abilities as a lay preacher were soon recognised, and when ordination was proposed he preferred to avail himself of the advantages of a full theological course in the Free Church College, Edinburgh. Mr Maciver was ordained and inducted to the charge of Shawbost on 20th November 1919, where he continued to minister faithfully to a devoted congregation for upwards of 30 years.

Behind his somewhat stern appearance there lay a warm, loving heart of vast dimensions, and a most sociable personality. In congenial company he could unbosom his joyful soul, relating appropriate anecdotes about the worthies of a past generation. He was remarkably well equipped as a preacher of the Gospel. Grace adorned and exercised the natural gifts with which God had so richly endowed him. A keen, strong intellect, a retentive memory, a strong, pleasant voice with which he could be heard with ease in the largest congregations, combined with a profound experience of the power of godliness, clear views of the doctrines of grace, and a forceful trait of character served to make his preaching clear, solemn and impressive. His preaching was greatly appreciated by the people of God throughout the Island of Lewis, for under his ministrations the flock were fed with the finest of the wheat. On occasions he addressed the Christless with rousing and solemn appeals, and his efforts were used by the Spirit of God in the converting of many sinners.

His intellectual interests were largely confined to the pursuit of further enlightenment on the mysteries of Divine Revelation. He was altogether devoted to the ministry of the Word. As a theologian Mr Maciver’s abilities were very superior, and his knowledge of doctrinal and experimental theology was profound and comprehensive. He had a remarkable acquaintance with the works of many of the Puritan fathers, and with many of the more recent theological writers. Theology for him was not a system of thought but an interpretation of the word of God, and a particular opinion would be accepted by him only when substantiated by the written Word. In preaching or in private conversation he could explain mysterious points of theology with clearness and ease, maintaining the intimate touch with a living Saviour which enlivens theology, thus avoiding the frigidity of a system without a Saviour.

While we recall with lively feelings of gratitude the Divine goodness in sparing him for so long in the service of the Cause of Christ in the world, we cannot but mourn while we think of his vacant place in the Presbytery, in the Congregation, and in his home. Our loss is his gain: “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, from henceforth, yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labour and their works do follow them.”

The Presbytery extend their prayerful sympathy to the Congregation who mourn a faithful pastor, and to the widow and children, whom they commend to the covenant mercy of the God of their father that He may help comfort and sustain them in this their sore bereavement.

 

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 REV. ANGUS MACKAY, FARR

(Died June, 1938)
Source: The Monthly Record, July, 1938, p.172

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In the passing of the Rev. Angus MacKay, senior minister of the congregation of Farr, the Free Church has lost a venerable father and a minister who gave long and devoted service to the Kingdom of God within her bounds. As a man, Mr Mackay was truly one of nature’s gentlemen. Of splendid physique, he subjected himself to a discipline that many would be inclined to regard as rigorous, but that in his case conduced, without doubt, to a long and unusually healthy life. He once confessed to the writer that he had not known the taste of alcohol. His character, as perfectly disciplined as his outer life, was singularly winsome and utterly devoid of anything that savoured of censoriousness or carping criticism. As a preacher he was expressively earnest and warmly evangelistic; his was preeminently a ministry of consolation. While another pen will attempt an appraisal of his life and labours, the writer of this is happy to acknowledge that, during the period he was privileged to have his friendship, his fellowship was a sanctifying and correcting influence, and his Christian character, in its honesty and integrity, an inspiration that will not readily be forgotten.

 

An Appreciation
Author: H. M.
Source: The Monthly Record, August, 1938, p.209

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The late Rev. Angus Mackay was translated from Snizort as an ordained missionary on the 25th January, 1911, and, at a subsequent date, was raised to the full status of the ministry. He laboured faithfully and his services were acceptable to an attached people, until he retired in April, 1937. He was often called to assist at communion services in the neighbouring congregations, as he was a fluent preacher both in Gaelic and English, and his attractive and graceful appearance commanded the attention of his audience. While his physical strength continued, he was an active pastor and the people received his visits with affectionate regard, but latterly owing to advancing years he had to husband his strength and curtail his visits to the homes of his flock which was committed to his charge. He entered into his rest in the 85th year of his age in June last and his labours do follow him, and all his brethern in the Presbytery tender to his widow and family their sympathy and regards, and exhort his congregation, which is now vacant, to abound in prayer and to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made them free, and He, as the Divine Head of the Church will send them a pastor in due time, who will feed His own flock.

A bright light has been extinguished in the North of Scotland by the departure of the Rev. Angus MacKay, Bettyhill Free Church, to his heavenly home. He had retired over a year ago from the active discharge of ministerial duties in his own parish, and was living in retirement with members of his family in Nairn. But his thoughts were still with friends in the North, and he was actually preparing for a trip to the North so as to be present with us at the communion in his congregation on the last Sabbath of June when his heavenly Father called him to his Eternal Home.

His sudden departure was indeed a cause of tears, but our sorrow for the loss of a highly valued friend soon gave way to a very comforting reflection that for our good and pious friend death meant translation from a happy state of existence to a still happier one within the veil where the things we now hope for and have in earnest and in prophecy are henceforth to be enjoyed in a more glorious fullness.

On the 20th of June, the Monday previous to the communion in his Church, Mr MacKay’s precious dust was committed to the custody of mother earth in the family burial ground in Bettyhill Churchyard. Previous to the burial a very solemn service was held in the Church and presided over, as was very appropriate, by the Moderator of our Church, Mr McLennan of Lairg, who had the assistance of the ministers of Brora, Dornoch and Strathy. A very large congregation from all the denominations had met in the Church to show their respect to the memory of the departed and to his family, most of whom were present at the service. To the widow and other members of the family, we offer our sincere condolence, and we trust and pray that the Most High will guide and keep them in those pleasant paths of faith and joy wherein their husband and father walked before them unto his everlasting rest.

Mr MacKay was from his boyhood, a believer and, having received a good education in his native parish, he became very early in life imbued with the desire to witness for Christ. His preparatory training he received at Edinburgh University and for fully 52 years his voice has been heard proclaiming the Gospel with great earnestness. To the very last he maintained the same high standard of fervent preaching, but the most remarkable memory I have of him was a veritable outburst of inspired oratory in English when addressing a Communion table at Skerray many years ago. Without disparaging Mr MacKay’s natural and acquired abilities, which were very considerable, the Holy Spirit gave us on that solemn occasion a real specimen of what He can achieve in those who depend on Him. Mr Mackay lives, and will live for long, in the souls of those who heard and loved him.

 

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 REV. ANGUS MACKAY, KINGUSSIE

(Died 3rd August, 1939)
Author: R. M. K. [Perhaps Robert M. Knox, Buccleuch-Greyfriars]
Source: The Monthly Record, September, 1939, pp.233-234

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In the removal by death on August 3rd of the Rev. Angus Mackay, the Free Church in general, and the Kingussie congregation in particular, have lost one who was universally esteemed as emphatically an able minister of the New Testament.

Angus Mackay was born in Oxford County, Ontario, Canada, in 1854, and had, therefore, attained to the ripe age of 85 years of age when he entered into his rest. He was brought up on a farm to which calling his father belonged, so that when young Angus had decided to study for the Ministry, his father was both willing and able to defray his college expenses. But, his son refused to be burdensome to the family and turned with characteristic independence, to the teaching profession for a time in order to earn enough to pay his way during his college course. Accordingly he entered Knox College, Toronto, duly, and was eventually ordained to the Ministry in 1882. Mr Mackay’s first charge was Eramosa, Ontario, where he remained for a few years, but in 1887 he was called to Lucknow, where his ministry continued until he left Canada in 1904. It was at this latter charge that his deep convictions upon purity of worship brought him into conflict with a section of his congregation, which desired to introduce innovations into their congregational worship, innovations which Mr Mackay could not tolerate. So keenly did he feel in this matter, that because of the strength of the movement in his congregation, and also, no doubt, influenced by the modernistic tendencies in Knox College, he was constrained to tender his resignation at a congregational meeting, without having any clear idea as to what his next step would be, only believing that the Master who had hitherto provided for him and his young family, would still guide his steps aright.

Mr Mackay was, of course, acquainted with the contendings of the Free Church, but as yet he had no direct contact with any of its leaders. He was led, however, to visit Scotland, and it was only when he was in our midst that he perceived how entirely the Cause and its exponents were after his own mind. Henceforth his way was plain; the Free Church needed such help as he could give, and he willingly offered himself in the hour of her need. After assisting the late Rev. Murdo MacKenzie for a time in the Free North Church, Inverness, Mr Mackay returned to Canada where a call from the Free Church congregation of Kingussie soon followed him and to this, his last and best loved charge, he was inducted in July 1905, so that for the long period of 34 years he served the Free Church in Speyside. The outstanding characteristics of Mr Mackay’s ministry are widely known and appreciated. His evangelical zeal, his undaunted courage, his untiring pastoral activity, his missionary enthusiasm, together with his private and domestic devotion and piety, constitute such a cluster of Christian virtues as are seldom centred in any one man. Indeed, the suggestion may be hazarded that his more extensive usefulness was somewhat impeded by the loftiness of his ideals, and the apparently impossible altitude of his Christian standards. And yet, if few could follow him to the heights upon which he lived, many doubtless envied his habitual Christian cheerfulness and spontaneous spirituality.

The manse at Kingussie from 1905 onwards became one of the most remarkable centres of hospitality conceivable, and, notwithstanding the fact of a numerous family, surely no manse table entertained strangers more frequently. The gracious lady who provided at first was not long destined to survive the change to Scotland, and from 1908, Mr Mackay knew the loneliness of the widower to the end of his life.

It was only to be expected that the Church would early recognise the sterling merits of the minister of Kingussie, and accordingly in 1916 Mr Mackay was called to the Moderator’s Chair, an office which, beyond question, he suitably adorned.

We venture to predict that much as Mr Mackay was appreciated during his life, and at his death, as the throng which followed his remains to their last resting place in Kingussie Cemetery bore impressive testimony, yet his excellence was such as will be better understood, and still more greatly valued, now that he is no more among us.

The sympathy of the whole Church will he extended generously to the surviving family.

 

A Further Appreciation

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We have pleasure in reproducing by courtesy of The Highland Times, part of an appreciation of the life and labours of the late Mr MacKay, which appeared in that paper, contributed by one of Mr MacKay’s younger co-presbyters. Editor.]

Already at his best, and in possession of ripe pastoral experience, Mr MacKay laboured in season, out of season, with his people. His qualities were readily observed and in 1906 both the Presbytery of Inverness and the Synod of Moray placed him in the moderatorial chair. The General Assembly called on him to serve on certain of their standing committees within a year of two of his settlement.

He preached in Kingussie and Newtonmore and on week days went afield as far as Dalwhinnie, to hold cottage meetings. His hand was never withdrawn from the plough; his visitations never drifted to platitudes and vanities; his object in meeting the people in their homes was shaped by his view of the ministerial calling and he pressed upon those he visited the attractiveness and invitation of the Lord Jesus.

In 1916 the Church conferred her highest honour on him by appointing him Moderator of the General Assembly. In 1921 he made application to the Assembly for an unordained assistant and during the succeeding years he usually had help with his pulpit from students, which arrangement usually led to more intensive and extensive labour, for until very recently he had a marked amount of vitality, and his years he carried well.

In 1932 he attained his ministerial jubilee, an occasion for great thankfulness on his part, and of congratulations by his co-Presbyters and friends. In 1936 his wonted vigour began to fail, but a willing spirit kept him working. In that year the congregaton asked the Assembly for leave to call a colleague and successor to their minister, and the petition was granted. A colleague was never installed, and the white-haired Christian warrior put off his armour on the 3rd of this month. The glory he had so long gazed at dimly through faith, became an open vision.

His dust rests in St. Columba’s Kirkyard Kingussie, awaiting the last trump. The funeral took place on Monday from Kingussie Church and a large company from Badenoch and the north attended, among whom was the Rev. Farquhar Matheson, Moderator of last Free Church Assembly.

The Rev. Angus MacKay was a man given to hospitality, and his manse was a place well known for its meetings for conference and prayer. He was exact in the order of his household, and family worship was conducted with a tactful catechizing of his own family and grand-children that made the exercise attractive with the fruit of young lives dedicated to the Lord’s service.

In his preaching he was lively, homely, and illustrative. He held his message for both young and old. At times utterly unconventional, his vivacity and transparency won a way for his words. He could do what others would not care or dare just because a unique personality childlike yet forceful and arresting, could command both attention and respect.

Many students came into contact with him and profited by his fatherly advice. His services at Communions were known by many. Deep loyalty to God, to the word of God, the day of God, and the Church of God, were the guide posts of his life.

He is now asleep, pre-deceased by his wife in 1908, having run unweariedly his long course of eighty-five years, of which he spent thirty-five in Kingussie.

 

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 REV. GEORGE MACKAY, FEARN

(Died May, 1944)
Source: The Monthly Record, July, 1944, p.110

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Tidings of the passing of the Rev. George Mackay, Senior Minister of Fearn, received during the sitting of the General Assembly, cast a shadow over the proceedings and touched a tender chord in the hearts of all the Fathers and Brethren. For George Mackay was pre-eminently lovable and was widely and deeply loved. Members recalled how at the Assembly of 1942 he interposed in a debate, remarking that it was probably his last utterance at a General Assembly. Few of his brethren could have thought then that his prophecy should be fulfilled, though his words, in their wisdom and graciousness, suggested one who was casting the shadows of earth behind him. For exactly two more years he lived on, and as he gradually entered the valley the shadow of death seemed for a time to cover his entire sky and blot out the horizon of the far Country. But the light shone through, and the waters were not deep when he passed over.

Others will appraise his unique gifts as a preacher and his graciousness as a Christian. All that the present writer will permit himself to say is that he was one of the most tender and generous of friends. He will live long in the memory of our people as one of the most winsome preachers of the Evangel our Church has known.

 

Author: Principal-Emeritus John Macleod, D.D.
Source: The Monthly Record, August, 1944, pp.130-131

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The removal by death of this well-known servant of the Lord makes a big blank in the ranks of the older ministers of the Free Church, among whom there were few so widely known or so highly esteemed as he was.

Mr Mackay was a native of Caithness. He was born and brought up at Clashchraggan, near Lybster, in the parish of Latheron. The name of Donald Mackay of Clashchraggan, who died about a hundred years ago, is still remembered for the fragrance of his eminent godliness as one of the fathers of the far north.

This Donald was Mr George’s great-grandfather. As a boy George went to school at Achow, and he owed much through life to his teacher, Mr William Campbell, who brought his country school to the front rank of the schools of the county. With this headmaster he served as a pupil teacher, and he finished his school career by taking the first place in the yearly competition that was open to all the schools of Caithness. With such a school record he was likely to shine in his classes at the University of Glasgow, to which he went, and in his first session he was at the top of his year in the earlier examinations. He was, however, unable to sit the main examination for the session, as, before it came off, he was laid aside by an attack of pneumonia, which put him out of action for about six weeks. During the rest of his academic career his time was broken with demands made upon it by preaching engagements. Thus, while he was hardly out of his ‘teens, he was plunged into pulpit work. In these early days he preached a good deal in the Island of Arran, and at once he won the hearts of the old believers who heard him. In particular, his work in the Gospel made an impression on the south end of the island. He was young to undertake such work, but he had already behind him some years of Christian experience, and he owed much to the ministry of Mr Auld of Olrig and Principal MacCulloch, who was then Mr MacCulloch of Latheron. Not only were these ministers helpful to him at the outset of his career, but he felt also the influence of the warmth of the old Evangelical life that was still vigorous in Caithness in his youth and not least was this the case in his home circle. In particular he felt the influence of the life and teaching of George Sutherland of Achow, the last survivor of the lay leaders of the Disruption and the post-Disruption generation. The old-fashioned communion gatherings were not yet a thing of the past in Caithness, and there was still a contingent of the old school that went so far afield as to attend the Creich service in Dr Aird’s day. In the company of such worshippers George was to be found. So he breathed the atmosphere of the Evangelical tradition which had been so powerful in the North of Scotland, and this left him out of sympathy with the modern tendencies which broke away from the good and accepted teachings and usages of former times that were cast in the mould of the Gospel.

During his college course Mr Mackay spent some of his vacations as a student assistant in a district where he might improve his knowledge of Gaelic, for, though he knew from his childhood years the Caithness dialect, he aimed at speaking the language more in keeping with the purer idiom and usage of the Western Highlands, and to a large extent he succeeded. To the end of his days he paid great heed to the correctness of his Gaelic, though he was always more at home in the use of English. Much, however, of his best and most successful preaching was done in Gaelic.

It was during his career as a student that the Free Presbyterian movement took place, and in it Mr Mackay had a share. He was ordained in January, 1898, as F.P. minister of Stornoway. In the year 1905 he took action, along with a few of his brethren, with a view to the healing of the breach between their Church and the Free Church. In this they did not succeed. He and his comrades went on to take the course that they had in vain called upon the rest to take, and were received into the Free Church in November, 1905. Soon after, in the early months of 1906, he was settled as minister of the great congregation of Stornoway, in which charge he put in four years of steady work. He had the satisfaction of seeing that his work of ministry in the Gospel was crowned with not a few tokens of blessing, that told that he had not run in vain, nor laboured in vain. In the year 1910 Mr Mackay was called to and settled in the congregation of Fearn, which was the field of his ministry to the end. Going to Fearn after it had been vacant for ten years, he had much to do by way of getting things in order. In this he succeeded to a conspicuous degree. Here also he did not spare himself, for he abounded in labours at home and from home, in spite of the lifelong handicap of a delicate chest, which gave rise to chronic bronchitis and a racking cough. From these he had freedom throughout the rest which he spent in Australia. During this period he lived in Sydney, supplying the pulpit of St George’s Church whose minister, worthy Mr William Macdonald, was laid aside by loss of voice. Mr Mackay made many friends among the scattered old Free Church people and his passing will be mourned in these circles as much as it will be in the homeland.

After his return to Scotland he continued to labour with unabated vigour and diligence until just two years ago, when he had a stroke from which he never fully recovered. The following year he retired from active service, and it is only a few months since he left Fearn to make his home in Tain. In his retirement he went through sore trial, being sadly vexed with darkness and assaults of unbelief, but for the last few days of his life he was victor in the conflict, and he went home with thanksgiving for a renewal of Gospel comfort. Mr Mackay was a warm-hearted, loving, impulsive man, and he was a man greatly beloved, a man for whom and for whose friendship we have reason to bless God at every remembrance of him.

 

Memorial Service

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In Fearn Free Church on Sabbath, 28th May, 1944, Rev. J. Calvin Mackay, preaching from John 16, verse 33, dwelt upon the following three privileges belonging to Christian people in the world, viz., that of believing in Jesus and the words which He spoke; abiding in Him, instead of being overwhelmed by the world’s tribulation, and rejoicing in Him, because of His victory over the world as evidenced by the continued life of the Christian Church. He then said:

The honoured servant of Christ whose departure we mourn to-day was one whose life showed in a marked degree the benefits of utilising these and many more privileges belonging to Christian people in the world. Believing in Christ with his whole heart and soul, he was an earnest student of God’s Word, which it was his delight to preach. The pulpit was his throne, and his sacred eloquence, impassioned by the Holy Spirit’s breath, kindled fires in the hearts of many of his hearers. As a pastor he visited his flock. He instructed the children in the Word, and some of those who feared his catechising are to-day grateful for his teachings.

Having experienced the worldly tribulation foretold by his Lord, not only did he possess the peace ensured by abiding in Christ, but his life encouraged other tried ones to take advantage of the vital privilege. Moreover, he sought, by warning and exhortation, to shield those exposed to temptation. In happy fellowship with believers of many communions, he and his friends, through united prayer, Christian converse and practical effort, equipped themselves with the spiritual resources with which to maintain consistently the offensive of Christian love. Gracious, affectionate and loyal in his friendships, he was tender in administering comfort and consolation, although stern and courageous in rebuking the wrong; and he was unwearied in seeking the growth in the knowledge of the Saviour of those committed to his care. Some of his words of counsel and enlightenment have been recorded many times, e.g., the goodness and mercy of Psalm 23: 6, he described as the flag-bearers of those on their way to the marriage supper of the Lamb.

Absolutely convinced as he was that Christ had overcome the world, he counted himself to form part of his Lord’s conquering hosts.

He frequently told of the fruits of the Spirit’s work during his ministry in the Island of Lewis. In his last Assembly speech he told of welcoming to the Lord’s Table, after having repeatedly given the solemn invitation, an aged believer who later became an elder in Fearn, and a military officer who shortly afterwards gave his life on the battlefield. Proud of the Church’s privilege and jealous for her honour, he adorned the Moderator’s chair of the General Assembly of his Church. Fervently desiring the world-wide extension of God’s kingdom, he was deeply interested in the work of Foreign Missions. The silver Communion service being used in the Mission Church in far away Cajamarca in the Peruvian Andes bears the inscription of its having been gifted by the Fearn Free Church congregation.

In order to minister to like-minded people in distant dominions, he travelled in Canada and Australia, and cherished for long afterward helpful friendships formed during these tours He was a man on fire for God. His dear friend, the late Dr Stuart Holden, of St Paul’s, Portman Square, London, who on one occasion preached from this pulpit, remarked of him: “He puts first things first; and as for the other things, he has no place at all for them.”

Mr Mackay was happy when attending the meetings of the General Assembly two years ago. Shortly after returning home he was stricken with illness, from which he never, fully recovered. During these two years his physical weakness was accompanied by much depression of spirit. He literally walked in the valley of the shadow of death. Light and peace, however, returned at eventide, and his last few days on earth were spent in glad thanksgiving and triumphant peace. The psalmist’s prayer was answered:

“Oh, thou my soul, do thou return into thy quiet rest;
For largely, lo, the Lord to thee his bounty hath expressed.”

The congregation is favoured by having Mr Mackay’s successor already settled over them. May God’s rich blessing accompany the labours of His young servant, and may part of his ministry consist in reaping an abundant harvest from the seed so earnestly sown by his predecessor. As one of the surviving members of the circle of Rev. George Mackay’s intimate friends, I count it an honour to have this opportunity of paying tribute to his memory. I am sure the entire congregation is united in expressing heart-felt sympathy with the sorrowing widow, and in praying that God’s sustaining grace may be her portion. We thank God for His servant, who wrought so devotedly for his Redeemer’s honour and glory.

 

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 REV. JAMES MACKAY, ARDERSIER

(Died 16th March, 1912)
Source: The Free Church Monthly, April, 1912, p.55

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With unfeigned regret we announce the death of the Rev. James Mackay, one of the most useful of the younger ministers of the Free Church. Not enjoying the pleasure of Mr Mackay’s personal acquaintance, we can only write of him in general terms. The sad event took place at the Free Church Manse, Ardersier, on Saturday, 16th March. Mr Mackay had been ill for some weeks, and at last meeting of the Presbytery of Inverness his condition was so serious that he was granted three months’ leave of absence. He was a native of Brora in Sutherlandshire, and before entering the ministry of the Free Church he was for several years minister of the Baptist Church in Oban. He cast in his lot with the Free Church, to which his people belonged, and in which he had been brought up, shortly after the House of Lords’ decision in 1904. He studied with credit in the Free Church College, and shortly after being licensed was called in 1907 to Ardersier. He was a gifted and popular preacher, possessed of considerable gifts as a public speaker, and well acquainted with the Scriptures. He took an active part in the work of the Church, acting with commendable efficiency as clerk to the Presbytery of Inverness, and carrying on with conspicuous success, through the Instructor, the work among the young, which had been inaugurated by Mr. Orr.

Mr Mackay was in favour as a preacher with many congregations, and was frequently consulted regarding calls. Last year a strong effort was made by the Campbeltown congregation, Argyllshire, to obtain his services, but Mr Mackay elected to remain at Ardersier. This decision gave unqualified satisfaction to his people there. His career has been short, he was only in his 38th year, and much sympathy is felt throughout the Church for his widow and two children, now bereft of a father’s care. We should be glad indeed to receive from someone having personal acquaintance with the deceased a more adequate appreciation of his person and services.

 

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 REV. JOHN MACKAY, ST KILDA

(Died 9th April, 1901)
Author: D. M.
Source: The Monthly Record, May, 1901, p.85

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“Full many a flower is born to blush unseen.”

The Rev. John Mackay lived and died known only by a few – a few who will never forget they had known him, because they cannot. He was unknown, because for thirty years he lived far from the noble crowd, far from the strife and throb of active life, away like another John in a Patmos of his own – St Kilda. Surely none since his day could enter with such sympathy into the experience of St Columba, Erin’s exile – a kindred spirit – who, with his back on his native Isle, sang in these doleful strains on the lonely Isle on West Argyll:

“I should hear the rush of the broken waves against the rocks,
I should hear over by the church the sound of the sea,
I should see her glorious swarms of birds over the prolific expanse,
I should see the beasts of the sea, the greatest wonders of all.”

Thirty years of lonely St Kilda was a discipline which few would wish, but which many would need. The solitude was to him a “cause of no complaint” – of no miserable whining for the excitement that begets the ennui of modern life. Here he always realised himself in the presence of the Eternal. That was all his desire. The swish of the Atlantic breakers against the bald and cheerless rocks; the whirr of wings and monotonous, unmelodious cries of the rough throated Solans, which in myriads lived and died around him, spoke of but one thing the Eternal. So he said.

John Mackay was early in life brought under the influence of divine truth, and, with a fervent desire, the outcome of his own deep, personal convictions, to consecrate his life to his Master, he entered on the necessary preliminary course of study. Struggling against these two giants – indifferent health and straitened circumstances – the goal of his ambition was reached through tortuous windings and after many years of hard work. To eke out the University fees and the miserable pittance which served to sustain the life of many a Highland lad, he taught during the vacation, as was then the habit. Passing through the University and Divinity Hall, he was in due course licensed to preach the Gospel. After some mission work he was appointed to take charge of the congregation of St Kilda. The congregation though small required his services, not only in spiritual matters, but in temporal matters as well. Upon him, therefore, devolved the discharging of the double function of setting before them the high ideals of the Christian religion, and of forming and administering laws for regulating the ordinary life of the little community. He performed his work in both these spheres with apparent success.

A few years ago he retired from active work and lived for a time in Dunvegan, and from there he came to Lochcarron, his native place. There he died on the 9th of last month. As might be expected of one so long absorbed in the contemplation of the Eternal, unaffected by modern thought or environment of books and daily literature, he was strangely original and quaint in his expression of religious experience. There was a peculiar, and, indeed, fascinating old-world touch about all he said, which could not fail to impress us. His prayers were fervent and unctuous, and his love for his Master was ever on his lips. Never did we see, and we may probably never see again, one who came so near to living in full compliance with the Apostolic injunction: “Pray without ceasing.”

As he lived so he died, a Free Churchman full of hope and confidence. The world is poorer that the Rev. John Mackay has gone to his eternal rest, as it is always poorer by the departure of a Christ-like soul. This aged saintly man has gone, but he has left behind him a testimony to what grace can do, which will serve as a stimulus and inspiration for us who bless the Lord that we had known him.

 
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PROFESSOR JOHN ROBERTSON MACKAY

(Died 6th May, 1939)
Author: J. M.
Source: The Monthly Record, August, 1939, pp.209-211

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When Dr John R. Mackay passed away on the 6th of May it might well be said that a prince and a great man fell in Israel. Though for the last few years he passed through sore affliction and was withdrawn from his wonted work his many friends would hardly give up the hope that he might be restored to something like his old activity and public usefulness. His Master saw fit, however, that it should be otherwise ordered. So we must acquiesce in His will.

John Robertson Mackay was born in Strathy on the 25th day of June, 1865. He was of the seed of the righteous, the son of godly parents, and it was in a highly Evangelical atmosphere that he was brought up. From his early days he was a truthful, obedient, and exemplary boy. But it was only during the years of his University course that the crisis of his career came and he passed from death to life. The teaching of the pastor of his youth, Christopher Munro, was blessed to him and through life he was devotedly attached to Mr Munro’s memory. This minister of Christ in his far north country charge was one of the most pious and deeply taught ministers of the post-Disruption generation in the Free Church and it was both an intellectual and a spiritual feast to sit at his feet and learn to appreciate his preaching. With the experience of a new life the young convert felt that he was called to serve in the ministry of the Gospel. He felt like one of old who could say that, he being in the way, the Lord met him and brought him to the house of his Master’s brethren. From the first days of his new life Dr Mackay’s exercises in regard to both the doctrines of the Faith and his own interest in the hope of the Gospel were of a particularly deep and searching character. He was being fitted for useful service in the years to come when he should be called to strengthen his brethren.

Professor Mackay took his High School course in Old Aberdeen at the Grammar School and his first year university was taken at King’s College there. The rest of his university course was completed at St Andrews, where he graduated in the year 1888. He then proceeded to the New College, Edinburgh. There he had the privilege of making the acquaintance of the excellent Dr Smeaton who died in 1889. Though he had not the advantage of being one of Dr Smeaton’s class, his intercourse with the saintly and venerable professor exercised profound influence on his life and thought. In those years the teaching of Dr John Duncan and Dr Hugh Martin, along with his personal friendship with Archibald Crawford, put a special stamp upon his thinking.

Dr Mackay’s College course was taken in the years when the party who were bent on change were putting forth their efforts to sap and undermine the constitution of the Free Church of Scotland. In opposition to their policy there came a rift in the ranks of the Conservative Party that stood in defence of the old order. Mr Mackay, along with a company of like-minded students, took the line that the Declaratory legislation of 1892 altered the constitution of their Church. So they identified themselves with the Free Presbyterian Church when it was set on foot in 1893. On the question on which this break took place the body of the Old School Defenders held that the innovating offending legislation did not secure the revolutionary end at which it aimed. And, in due course, in the great Free Church case, their contendings in this connection were justified inasmuch as the Constitution which they defended was successfully vindicated in the Supreme Court of the Realm.

In 1893 Mr Mackay was settled at Gairloch as Free Presbyterian minister. In this charge he remained till in 1900 he was translated to Inverness where he remained as Free Presbyterian minister till 1918 when he and some of his ministerial brethren were welcomed into the Free Church. During his years at Gairloch from 1896 and at Inverness he was Theological Tutor to his Synod, and shortly after his accession to the Free Church he was appointed Professor of New Testament Exegesis in the Free College. He continued in this office and to adorn it until he was laid aside by long-continued ill-health which unfitted him for his work. He resigned his Chair about three years ago and lived in retirement with his son, Rev. Hugh Mackay, B.D., of Kinglassie.

Dr Mackay was a man of massive figure and of massive mind. In mental outfit he was of the type of John Owen. The Principal of the New College could say of him about 1890 that they had not the like of him for 25 years. He was an able, all-round divine and at home especially in Old Testament studies. He was honoured by the old directors of Princeton when he was approached by them with the view of accepting a vacant chair in their Seminary. He chose to remain in Scotland. He had a rich measure of lowliness of mind and candour. In his disposition he was singularly transparent. In his public religious exercises he had a striking gift of utterance in prayer. His preaching was powerful and comforting and, as a servant in the Gospel, he was much beloved. Now, after the storm of his closing years, has come the rest that will never end. He has left a name that will be a cherished treasure in the memory of the many friends that mourn his passing.
 

A Student’s Memories
Source: The Monthly Record, August, 1939, pp.209-211

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The passing of a professor removes a landmark from the mental life of those who passed through his classes. And yet most students can testify that against the background of the years, the professor recedes and the man stands out in ever growing distinctness; they think less of what he said and more of what he was. The professor himself does not, perhaps, always realise that anything he taught that has abiding value for his students, has that value because it reached them through his own personality. Judged by that standard, Professor John R. Mackay was true to the highest traditions of his office; he lives in the lives of his students for what he was rather than for what he taught. He entered their lives at the most impressionable period of their existence, and he shall no more go out. To many of them his memory remains as the steel girders that strengthen their spiritual life in the conflict with the hosts of unbelief. When they think of him as the scholar, the theologian, and the saint – and to them he was all three – all blend harmoniously in one in the tender-hearted Christian who was at once a father and a brother to them, who touched their lives at so many points and left there the indelible impress of his own gracious and consecrated personality.

It was as the scholar that Professor Mackay was first introduced to us, and the scholar he has remained to us to the end. For his scholarship was far removed from the pretentious kind that grows less impressive with growing acquaintance and that shrivels up under the hard scrutiny of a student’s questioning eyes. His was the attitude of mind that indicated the true scholar, rather than the possession of accumulated knowledge. His first address at the opening of the College Session of 1919-20 on “Theology, the Queen of the Sciences,” revealed the mental calibre of the man. It was not a laboured apologia for theology, nor a mere definition of the boundaries of natural science and the province of theology; it was much more. It was a work of art, a masterly assembling of all the sciences, with theology enthroned in the midst, taking tribute of all, and offering its guiding light to all in the search for ultimate truth. In the intimacy of the classroom, we were able to verify these first impressions of the scholar. The opening lecture of the class each session consisted of a review of the outstanding theological literature of the year; it was a masterly survey, revealing the true book-lover and the student with open mind, mastering new principles and conceptions, weighing each with strict impartiality, indicating the elements of permanent value in each, and finally bringing all to the touchstone of the Book. Professor Mackay respected and admired scholarship in any field of research, and his mental set-up led him to pay deference to sheer, ability in any department of life. His students were ever impressed by his complete sympathies in the field of scholarship. We cannot forget how his countenance saddened, as if it came under a deep shadow, when he expressed his regret that such a distinguished scholar as Dr Sanday had abandoned the Johannine authorship of the Fourth Gospel. On the other hand, he dwelt with unconcealed satisfaction on the support given to conservative theology by men of such scholarship as Dick Wilson, Machen, Robertson and “my friend B. B. Warfield.” If ever, in later years, his students had a mind to offer any criticism it was that he was too ardent an admirer of intellectual attainments; yet there was so much else in his character that provided the suitable antidote to any over-deference to the intellectuals! He maintained, as might be expected, a high standard of scholarship in his requirements of his students. This was indicated in his evaluation of work done in class examinations. There were few things about him that students appreciated more keenly than his method of marking examination papers with strict regard to the quality of the work done. He never indulged in cheap praise and the most that he would say of a paper that had gained relatively high marks was: “This is substantially correct.” On the other hand he was quick to acknowledge good work faithfully done, and most generous in his estimate of his students’ mental powers. In this respect he took the very best out of us. Those who may say, and there will be a few, that he was not a first class teacher, forget that teaching in the highest sense is not so much the imparting of knowledge as the creating of a thirst for knowledge. He was, perhaps, not methodical enough to convey to his students a relatively large number of facts, cut and dried, on any one subject, but he laid the foundations of specialised knowledge surely and stably, and he indicated what the scholar’s attitude to his subject should be. Above all, there was in his teaching that illusive and indefinable thing, inspiration, and for that reason he shall live as teacher in the respect and gratitude of many of his students.

To his students, Dr Mackay will remain an outstanding type of the Scottish theologian. To him theology was not a mere system of truth, theoretically dry and spiritually arid, it was a living structure for living men, an unfolding of the glory of the God and Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The Gospel of John and the Epistle to the Romans were his favourite fields of study. He poured out his soul in adoration of the Son of God as His glory was unveiled in the pages of the Fourth Gospel. His great objects in the study of this Gospel were to prove its Johannine authorship, to read the Gospel in Greek and so “to breathe its atmosphere,” and to concentrate on the teaching of the Gospel concerning the Person of Christ. This latter was his favourite theme, and he delighted to go for it to John’s Gospel, because it included not merely the Incarnation, but the presuppositions and the results of the Incarnation. Hence, he always treated the doctrine of the Person of Christ as taught in the Fourth Gospel under the four divisions: “His essential nature, His Incarnation, the Conditions of His earthly Life, and His Work as Messiah.” How he delighted to expound the thesis of John that “the super-mundane Word is one with the Word Incarnate, and the Word Incarnate is one with Jesus Christ of Nazareth.” Of the Epistles, Romans was doubtlessly the one he felt most at home in. He never wearied of following out Paul’s thesis of “Salvation by a God-provided righteousness.”

His advice on the selection of Commentaries on the New Testament was valuable as the ripe fruit of his own wide reading. His attachment to the Princeton School of Theology was marked and his references to the Hodges, Alexanders, and Warfield were numerous. It was obvious that Warfield was his hero. But he was quite at home in discussing the German School or rather schools of theology of fifty years ago, and he was accurately conversant with the various schools of thought in this country. We were ever impressed by his scrupulous fairness in discussing those with whom, theologically, he was in most profound disagreement.

Notwithstanding his eminence as scholar and theologian, Professor Mackay will live in the hearts of his students rather as the saint and the consecrated servant of Jesus Christ. The tenderness of his Christian feeling was, perhaps, the most impressive thing about him. His opening prayers were an unveiling of his own soul, and for us by far the most valuable “exercise” of his class. In this respect he closely resembled his own favourite spiritual guide, Dr John Duncan. His passionate earnestness and deep feeling as he came to identify “the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob” with “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” and “our own God” left with his students a memory that must remain one of the precious things of their spiritual experience. Certain it is that all the studies of his class were undertaken under the awe of that opening prayer. The beautiful simplicity of his faith was a veritable tonic to his students, and the boyishness of his smile is something not to be forgotten. All combined to form a personality of singular winsomeness and power, whose influence for good will live in the hearts of his students as long as life lasts.

 
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Rev. MURDO MACKENZIE,
Clachan, Kilmallie, and Inverness

(Died 26th May, 1912)
Author: D. MacL. [Donald Maclean, St Columba, Edinburgh]
Source: The Monthly Record, July, 1912, pp.122-123

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When the Rev. Murdo MacKenzie was born in Lochcarron on the 12th of August, 1835, the Parish pulpit was occupied by a namesake, Rev. John MacKenzie, a pronounced Moderate. He had quite a reputation as Moderate of Moderates, but fortunately for the people of Lochcarron the religious life which was buried under twenty years of his preaching was exhumed and invigorated by sons of their own soil, who now appeared as fervent champions of the evangelical cause. Among them was the Rev. Alexander McColl, born at Lochcarron, and the Rev. John Macrae (Big MacRae), born on the opposite side of the loch. The appeals, the earnest devotion, the consistent life of these two men found a ready response in the hearts of the awakened community, so that at the Disruption they could point to the Parish Church and use the famous sentence of Dr Andrew Thomson: “A Church without a people is the most monstrous thing that can exist under the heavens.”

Murdo MacKenzie was born in the midst of such surroundings. Witnessing the awful contrast between the lifeless moderatism and an enlightened evangelicalism, there was created in his mind at an early period a life-long hatred of the former and love for the latter. The impressions of both on the youthful mind were indelible, and any true appreciation of those features in his character so prominent in his after-life cannot be satisfactorily explained apart from a due consideration of the religious environment of his boyhood.

His first school, a Free Church school, was in the village of Lochcarron. Mr Martin was his teacher, and for him he had the highest respect. This unpretentious school was a little room with a rough outer wall battered by the western gales, with a bracken roof saturated by the spray of the ocean. The atmosphere in the dismal interior was dank, and the badly lit and gloomy place was the very antithesis of a modern school. Here, however, Murdo MacKenzie entered on the long and weary road leading to the goal of his educational ambition, athwart which on more than one occasion stood penury and feeble health sullenly contesting the pathway. But native grit and resolute ability here, as in the case of many a Highland lad, had the victory. In his teens lonely, unknown, and unnoticed he entered the town of Inverness, out of which, more than fifty years after, his mortal remains were carried in the midst of a cavalcade of representatives of all the corporate bodies of the town, and as this cavalcade moved through dense avenues of a sorrowing populace, one could see the poor housewife wiping from her eye with her apron the stinging, sharp tear of sorrow, and the industrious artisan bowing his uncovered head with solemn respect as the remains of the lonely boy of fifty years ago passed now to his last resting-place.

After a short course at Inverness he entered the University of Aberdeen in his eighteenth year, and having passed the usual curriculum, he entered upon his divinity studies in Edinburgh, taking a session in the College of Glasgow as well. He had unbounded admiration for his master, Dr Cunningham, and, like most students, a deep respect for Dr A. B. Davidson. He had happy memories of his class-room, and used to rehearse with relish a story of a fellow student, the late Rev. John Mackay of St Kilda. Mr Mackay was asked by the Professor of Pastoral Theology, “What would you do, Mr Mackay, in the event of your losing a case in the Kirk Session?” Mr Mackay instantly replied, “I would take the case to the Court of Session.” The explosion of laughter in a non-intrusion Church that had had more than enough of the Court of Session can easily be imagined.

During his University and Divinity courses he taught in the schools of Moy, Kishorn, and Kiltarlity. He had the reputation of being an excellent teacher, but a stern disciplinarian. Among the many reminiscences of his experience in teaching, one, because of its delicious humour, deserves to be noted. It had reference to the godly Rev. John Fraser of Kiltarlity and a religious half-witted man.

Mr Fraser, who suffered from the weakness of impatience, showed signs of irritation on the slightest provocation. “One winter day,” Mr MacKenzie used to relate, “we had a terrible snow-storm. The school was almost entirely covered by a deep wreath of snow, and access completely blocked. I called on Mr Fraser, and he, along with a number of others, among whom was William, came to the school. When he saw the almost impenetrable pile of snow he asked, “William, what can we now do?” William laconically replied, “Oh, nothing, Mr John, but to wait until the Lord sends a thaw.”

At the termination of his divinity course, and on receiving licence from the Lochcarron Presbytery in 1863, which Court he attended for all his examinations during his divinity career, he was laid aside for a number of years from the effects of overwork. During his illness he stayed with his friend, the Rev. Alexander McColl, and undoubtedly the fellowship with that saintly man, that great preacher and metaphysician, had the effect of formulating the views upon Church polity and government, to which he adhered so consistently throughout his life. Here, too, he closely studied Puritan theology, and acquired a more than ordinary intimacy with the system of theology, the doctrines, and the dogmas of the Reformers, which served well in after life. Here, too, he studied Thomas Goodwin, to whom he confessed he owed, under God, the preaching power that brought him to a position of popularity among the people.

In 1870 be was ordained minister at Clachan, Kintyre, which, by his own efforts as a student, had been raised to a sanctioned charge. It was characteristic of the man that he should enter upon the office of the holy ministry with this prayer, which he entered in a little book: “5th October, 1870. To-day I was ordained to the office of the ministry. May the Lord Himself grant that the union may be a great spiritual blessing, however long or short it may be His pleasure it should last. I preached to-day in Gaelic and English from Rom 1:16.” Influenced largely by the appeals of his friend Mr McColl, who was now settled at Fort Augustus, he accepted in 1873 a call to the Kilmallie congregation. Here he continued ministering with great zeal and much popularity until 1887, when, on the decease of the Rev. Dr Mackay, of the Free North Church, Inverness, he was asked to take charge of that large and influential congregation. There he continued ministering to the spiritual interests of a deeply devoted people, exercising worthily his functions as a citizen in all matters that made for righteousness in public life until death on 25th May last.

He occupied a prominent place in the councils of the Church both before and after the Union, representing her interests at the Pan-Presbyterian Councils at Toronto and in New York. He acted as vice-convener to the Sustentation Fund Committee previous to the Union, and represented the Church also in the Assembly of the Irish Presbyterian Church, and he was Moderator of the General Assembly in the year 1907.

This outline of a life crowded with hard and indefatigable service in his Master’s cause would leave but an imperfect impression of the place he occupied as a preacher and as a citizen of the community. “It is as much the duty of a minister to attend Church Courts as to preach the Gospel.” This is an axiom of the Rev. Alex. McColl, and on it Mr Mackenzie acted all his life. As an ecclesiastic he was scrupulously fair in all debate, vigorous in his presentation of his argument, and magnanimous to his opponents. If the force of his argument did not rest upon close analysis and irresistible logic, his pawky good humour and keen wit served him effectively in all discussion. “Your digressions are always entertaining,” said Dr A. B. Davidson to him, not long before the latter’s death. An interrupter in the Presbytery of Inverness when the Crown Church was being set up, endeavoured to dislodge him from his position by saying that Dr Black was on the hill. The crushing retort came quickly: “No, Dr Black is not on the hill, but he is on a hill.” Probably the following quotation from his speech in seconding the appointment of Mr Henderson, Crieff, for the junior clerkship of the General Assembly at Inverness, in 1888, will serve to illustrate his humour in public discussions, viz.: “When he heard Professor Lindsay state that Mr Henderson had been familiar with Church law from his childhood, it just occurred to him that he had got it with his porridge. (Great laughter.) The Assembly had this year chosen to honour the Highlands in a very special manner. They had come to the Highlands to hold their sittings, they had come to the Highlands for a Moderator, and why not complete the circle and come to the Highlands for a junior clerk (Laughter.) He could not deceive the House in Gaelic and the Moderator in the chair; but there was not a more Celtic name in the Gaelic tongue than Archibald Henderson. (Renewed laughter.) Turned into Gaelic it was just Gille-eas-pie Mac-Eanrich. (Great laughter).”

His great desire was to run a consistent course, to be loyal to his ordination vows. For this reason he was found, along with the Rev. Murdo Macaskill and others, vigorously opposing all innovations in the form of worship, and taking a prominent part in the Constitutionalists’ opposition to the passing of the Declaratory Act. In like manner he viewed with alarm the Union which was consummated in 1900, as its basis infringed upon the traditional and declared testimony of the Church he loved. It was revolting to his sense of loyalty that there should be any ambiguous position taken up with regard to the distinctive principles with which he, along with others, had been associated, and which he struggled to maintain in their entirety. Possessing, as he did, a unique influence in the Highlands, it was only natural that efforts should be made to induce him to enter with the majority into the Union that was being consummated. and in this connection the famous declaration that bore his name, and that had such a sudden and dramatic termination in the General Assembly on the eve of the Union, may now be referred to if only to elucidate certain points that have until now been only partially known. No violence can be done to the reputation or consistency of anyone concerned by so doing. Of the five who participated in the preparation of this Declaration, only the present writer remains to record its history. The Unionists were constantly clamouring for an expression from the Free Church constitutionalists of what they demanded. The Rev. D. M. Macalister of Edinburgh wrote the first draft of the minimum demand. This draft was further enlarged and strengthened at Moy, and written out in my own hand in the presence of the Rev. Angus Galbraith of Lochalsh and Rev. Roderick Finlayson of Daviot. Mr MacKenzie’s connection with it was merely that he moved its adoption in the Presbytery of Inverness. The Presbytery sent it up to the General Assembly with the utmost sincerity, although never hopeful of its being accepted in its entirety. Still, the loud demand from the majority required the formulating of this response. To the Assembly therefore it went, and was, of course, rendered abortive by the preamble affixed to it by that Assembly. On hearing the result Mr MacKenzie at once firmly and without hesitation declared: “We have no course open to us now but to stand by our Church.” The scene in the General Assembly in Edinburgh, when tier after tier of the ministry and laity of Scotland waited with breathless interest to what proved to be Mr MacKenzie’s final speech in the unbroken Assembly, was one of intense anxiety. The issue rested, not with Dr Rainy, but with Mr MacKenzie. Enfeebled in health as he was, and with the surging emotions stirred by time spent in the midst of a company of people whose warm fellowship he had much enjoyed, he bravely made clear his course for the future. The baffled leader, Principal Rainy, with the bitterness that arises from disappointed diplomacy, although holding his passions in control, hurled innuendo and suggestion at Mr Mackenzie, which shall remain for ever as a black stain on the character of the great ecclesiastic – a stain which no literary artist will ever be able to efface.

The supreme business of Mr. MacKenzie’s life, however, was the preaching of the Gospel. The pulpit was his throne and success, even as the world reckons it, in his ministerial life was his in a measure unusual among the ministry of this country. With an accurate knowledge of the systems of theology, he taught his hearers not merely the bald doctrines of the systems, but doctrines that had been vitalised by being first assimilated by himself and tested by his own religious experience. The glories of his adorable Redeemer he visualised. His appeals to the human heart, whose diseases he could diagnose with uncommon power, proceeded from his lips with the penetrating emphasis of conviction, and entered as darts into consciences of men. The racy interludes in his discourses captivated the ordinary hearer, and his readiness in adapting the common things of life for instruction was one of the things that helped to raise him to the prominent position to which he attained. No one could imagine he suffered from nervousness, which is a painful companion of a preacher, yet he always brought the MS. of his sermons in his pocket. When he preached in the General Assembly of 1886 he said: “I was very nervous, but when I saw the Moderator – the Rev. Dr Somerville – nodding sympathetically, I took courage, and proceeded with some liberty.”

Affectionate and genial in his pastoral work, his congregations learned to appreciate his tender sympathy. Among the young, in whose religious well-being he was deeply interested, he worked as a pastor and as examiner in religious knowledge in the Board schools. Some amusing experiences among them he used to rehearse with evident enjoyment. “Why,” he asked the children in a school in Argyleshire, “was Aaron sent down with Moses to Egypt?” “Because, sir,” replied a boy, “he could speak better English.” In his home life he was exceedingly happy. Fatherly and filial affection and devotion were mutual, and the companion of his life, with true wifely devotion, helped him nobly in his lifework, until, in the silent vigils over his ebbing life, she yielded to him the last service of her devotion, closing his eyes in death.

Of the thirty ministers from the parish of Lochcarron sent forth into the Christian ministry, among whom were the Rev. John Kennedy of Killearnan, the Rev. Alexander McColl of Lochalsh, the Rev. Dr MacKenzie of Kingussie, and the Rev. Murdo MacKenzie of Inverness, the last is by no means the least in any of those qualities which have made the great pulpit orators of Scotland the most valuable national assets in promoting righteousness in civil and in family life, in inculcating the great doctrines of the Gospel as the guiding principles of life, and in promoting purity in life and in ideals. Scotland’s pulpit is poorer by the removal of Mr MacKenzie.
 

Author: A. MacN. [Archibald MacNeilage]
Source: The Monthly Record, July, 1912, pp.122-123

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“Know ye not that a Prince and a great man hath this day fallen in Israel?” Murdo Mackenzie was a great preacher of the Evangel – in the Saviour’s sense – “To the poor the Gospel is preached.” He knew better than most men of our time how to present the truth so that the common people heard him gladly. And he had the reward which preachers of this mould can ever reckon on – the cultured and theologically learned delighted to sit at his feet. Those who only heard Mr Mackenzie in these later days following 1900 could form but an inadequate estimate of his powers, say, from 1875 until 1900. Sermons preached by him in old Hope Street Church, Glasgow, where he officiated on Communion seasons alternately with Dr Kennedy of Dingwall, will never be forgotten by many who heard. The attitude of many an expert theologian listening to Murdo Mackenzie in the fulness of his powers was like that of John Owen to John Bunyan, when he said he would have given half his learning to preach like Bunyan. But Murdo Mackenzie the man was greater than the preacher. He was pre-eminently a man of prayer, and whether in ecclesiastical company – at a Communion season or on board of an Atlantic liner – he was so conspicuously about his Father’s business that men took knowledge of him that he had been with Jesus. Yet was there nothing about him of the censorious kill-joy. He could rejoice with those who rejoiced as he could weep with those who wept. Young persons in Mr MacKenzie’s company learned to respect religion and to love a religious man.

 

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 RODERICK MACKENZIE, BACK

(Died 15th May, 1946)
Source: The Monthly Record, July, 1946, pp.109-110

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While news of the passing of the Rev. Roderick Mackenzie, Back, did not come to many in the nature of a shock, his death has meant for not a few a definitely poorer world and for the ministry of the Free Church in the Island of Lewis a blank that will not easily be filled. Mr Mackenzie was a man apart. Of great physical strength, he had mental powers that no university curriculum could discipline and no amount of academic training would ever make his thoughts fit into any stereotyped mould or flow through ordinary channels. With a gift of speech and repartee equal to the virility of his mind, he was a formidable opponent in discussion or debate. Contrary to the general run of gifts that characterise his fellow-islanders, his speech was concise to the point of being epigrammatic, and often of a razor-edge sharpness. But his heart was as large as his physical frame, and he was most amazingly tender. He was a shrewd observer of men and events and his comments were and will remain – to those who heard them – memorable. Those who, like the writer at the very beginning of his ministry, were privileged to share the hospitality of his manse – something that was on a scale proportionate to the man – and to listen to his obiter dicta will have kindly memories of a strong and most refreshing personality of the kind that crosses one’s path but once in a life-time.

 

Author: Rev. Kenneth A. MacRae, M.A., Stornoway
Source: The Monthly Record

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After sore and prolonged sufferings the Rev. Roderick Mackenzie, minister of Back, passed to his rest on the 15th day of May last.

Mr Mackenzie was born at Crossbost in the parish of Lochs seventy-eight years ago. Brought up within the call of the sea he loved it, like so many others of his kind, but the sea was not to claim him, for the Lord had planned to make him a fisher of men. In the working out of Providence he was called to employment in Stornoway, where he made somewhat of a reputation for himself by his physical strength. Grace, however, soon asserted its power in his life and his thoughts were turned to the Gospel ministry. The outcome was that the young man found himself in attendance at Glasgow High School with a view to qualifying himself for the prescribed course of a Divinity student of the Free Church of Scotland. From there he duly passed on to the University and diligently mastered the various subjects of his curriculum.

These were interesting times in Glasgow and in his later days he loved to speak of them. He was in close touch with old Duke Street and all its affairs, and often spoke of Mr Gordon and the secession in his congregation in 1893. Then came the Union, with its specious pleas and overweening intolerance, and all men who lacked conviction and grit were carried away by the flood. Roderick Mackenzie ever had a goodly portion of both, and hence we find him next in attendance upon the Established Church Divinity Hall as a Free Church student, since at that time the Free Church College had not been established.

His course completed, in 1904 he received a call from the congregation of Barvas in his native island, and there he found his hands more than full. Almost alone in the island at the time, his services were in constant demand, specially for communion engagements.

In 1911, however, after six years’ service in Barvas, during which time he amply proved his mettle to an attached people who thoroughly appreciated his worth, he was translated to Back, and thus entered upon a ministry which was to last for the next thirty-six years, that is, until death as Christ’s commissioner gave him his discharge.

His predecessor, the Rev. Hector Cameron, had fought the battle in defence of the faith during the Union controversy with such pertinacity and success that he had carried practically the whole community with him. In Back, then, beginning his ministry as he did in the prime of life, Mr. Mackenzie found a wide field in which there was as much to engage his interests and energies and to fire his zeal.

Mr. Mackenzie was not indifferent to the claims of public life. He took a very great interest in educational matters and served for about twenty years as a member of the Ross and Cromarty Education Authority. He was also a member of the County Council and a Justice of the Peace, and performed useful service as Chairman of the Lewis School Management Committee.

As a preacher Mr Mackenzie was fresh, forceful and interesting. His theological predilections lay along the old lines and in his pulpit efforts he was never tedious. Naturally possessed of an exceptionally ready wit, which, when occasion demanded, he could use with devastating effect, his discourses were usually irradiated with its beams; and this without doubt added to the hold which he was always able to exercise upon his audiences.

He was conscientious in his attendance upon Church Courts – a feature characteristic of the fathers – and while health remained his seat in the Presbytery was seldom empty. For twenty-two years he served as Presbytery Clerk.

At home Mr Mackenzie was to be seen at his best. A more affectionate father or a more hospitable host was not to be found in the whole island of Lewis. To visit him and find him in the midst of his family was a privilege and an inspiration.

Most men are more or less like their neighbours. Mr Mackenzie was not; he was a man all by himself, and these are the men who are most missed when they are taken away.

The end came after a long and painful illness, which he bore with exemplary patience. The writer has been often at his bed-side, but never, even when pain made him wince, has he heard him utter one word by way of complaint. Medical and surgical skill did everything that could be done for him, but his trouble was irremediable. Latterly he became very tired and lost all desire to remain longer in the world than his Master willed. He longed for the sound of the wheels of His chariot, and ere he sank into the last coma, quoted in Gaelic with great feeling the beautiful words of Isaiah 60:20: “Thy sun shall no more go down; Neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: For the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, And the days of thy mourning shall be ended.”

His funeral drew mourners from all parts of the island and the assembled concourse was exceedingly great. Six of his fellow-Presbyters were present and took charge of the service arrangements. Amid the quiet, yellow sands of Gress, and beside the remains of his first wife, all that was mortal of the minister of Back was laid to rest in hope of a glorious resurrection. Of him it might well be said that he had fought the good fight, that he had finished his course, and that he had kept the faith.

The deepest sympathy of the congregation and community is extended to his widow and family, the latter of whom have all made their mark in the professional world.

We who are left in the vineyard to carry on in the Master’s service feel our loss, but we look with expectation to the Lord of the Harvest to provide labourers against our needs. May His Kingdom come!

 

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 REV. ANGUS MACKINNON, POOLEWE AND AULTBEA

(Died 22nd December, 1957)

Source: The Monthly Record, January, 1958, p.16

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As we go to press, tidings have reached us of the passing of Rev. Angus Mackinnon, senior minister of Aultbea and Poolewe Free Church. The death of Mr Mackinnon will be mourned throughout the Highland area where his preaching was so highly appreciated; and particularly by the congregation of Aultbea and Poolewe, to whom the whole of his ministry, exceeding thirty years, was devoted. Mr Mackinnon was a vigorous and original preacher, a master of pure idiomatic Gaelic, and a man deeply grounded in the doctrines of grace. As a pastor, he was always a welcome visitor to the homes of his people for he was a man of warm friendship and ready sympathy. Coming of stock who seemed to have the poetry of the Western isles in their very blood-stream, Mr Mackinnon was himself a bard of no mean order, and the deep exercises of his own soul were often revealed in verses that combined felicity of expression with spirituality of conception. Poems from his pen in The Monthly Record at the time when he was on active service in the 1914-18 war and were warmly received by Gaelic speaking readers. A collection of these might, indeed, form a fitting memorial to their gracious composer. A fuller obituary notice will appear in our next issue; meanwhile, we desire to express the sympathy the Church to his widow and family in their time of bereavement. May the God of all compassion sustain them.
 

In Memoriam
Author: R. L. Fraser,
Source: The Monthly Record

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The ranks of the Ministry have been weakened by the passing to his rest on 22nd December 1957, of the Rev. Angus Mackinnon, Senior Minister of the Free Church Congregation of Poolewe and Aultbea.

Mr Mackinnon was born and brought up in Glendale, Skye, and in a home respected for piety and for parental upbringing. On his mother’s side he was related to the late saintly Rev. Norman Macleod who was Free Church Minister of Portree, Skye, prior to the union of 1900. There was a marked resemblance between the two men. In his youth he emigrated to Canada, and in the city of Vancouver experienced the saving change which led him to devote his life to the Ministry of the Gospel. On his return to the home country he served in the armed forces during the first world war. He studied for the Ministry of the Church and on completion of studies was licensed to preach the Gospel by the Presbytery of Edinburgh. In July 1923 he accepted a unanimous call from the Congregation of Poolewe and Aultbea in the Presbytery of Lochcarron where he laboured for the long period of 31 years, until his retiral from the active Ministry through ill-health.

In the beginning of his Ministry he was supported by a loyal band of worthy elders and praying people whose place was filled in succession throughout the years by others like minded. He had many seals to his faithful Ministry amongst them which resulted in a strong attachment on the part of Minister and Congregation to each other.

During the second world war he served as Presbyterian Chaplain to the forces stationed at the naval base in Aultbea. He spoke of this service as an experience which was of untold benefit to his ministerial life. For over 20 years he represented the district as a member of the Ross-shire County Council where he made his influence felt in matters pertaining both to the secular and spiritual life of the people.

As a preacher Mr Mackinnon had unusual gifts and talents which he consecrated to the service of his Master. His facile use of the Gaelic language, in which he excelled, his art of graphic and illustrative description, his forceful and winning volce, riveted the attention of his hearers and gave urgency to the Evangel which it was his delight to proclaim. At Communion seasons in the several congregations of our Church his presence was warmly welcomed by young and old.

Possessing a strong physique, he unsparingly gave of his time and service to minister to the needs of the flock within the bounds of an extensive parish. He was seldom absent from his pulpit through ill-health.

His peaceable and affectionate disposition won for him an abiding place in the hearts of the brethren who were privileged to enjoy his friendship, while in his walk he was circumspect seeking to adorn the doctrine of his Saviour, Jesus Christ. As a Christian he was humble, ever remembering that he owed all to the Sovereign Grace of God Who had called him to be an ambassador for Christ.

Mr Mackinnon was blessed with a worthy partner who proved an ideal helpmate during a happy married life. The hospitality which they both so generously afforded in the Manse, especially at Communion seasons, will be remembered by many. To his family – two daughters of which are married to ministers of the Free Church – he was a devoted and loving father.

In his prolonged illness while often passing through deep waters, he was sustained by the Word and Presence of his glorious Redeemer. On a Sabbath morning he was called to his eternal rest to hear the voice of welcome, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” and to share in the beatific Vision of the Heavenly Jerusalem. The words which he was so fond of quoting from Dr Macdonald’s hymn on the Christian at the banks of Jordan were indeed applicable to him:

Sud thairis air gach buaireadh mi,
Gach cunnart cuain is gaoith.
Gach laigs’, is ciont, is truaillidheachd,
Gach pian, is gruaim, is caoidh;
Is sud a steach do’n lùchairt mi,
‘S am faic mi gnùis an Righ;
S ‘na chomunn iomlain, urail-san,
Gu seinn mi ‘chliù a chaoidh!

(Then I leave behind temptation,
Danger too, of wind and sea,
Weakness, guilt, and all corruption,
Mourning, gloom, and pain shall flee;
Then I’ll be within the palace,
Where mine eyes shall see His face,
And in fellowship unbroken
I shall sing the praise of grace.

 

At his home in Kildary, where he was nursed so faithfully and tenderly by Mrs Mackinnon and their son, a funeral service was conducted by a number of ministers representing the neighbouring presbyteries. At Aultbea, where his remains were interred awaiting a glorious resurrection, a large congregation gathered to show their respect and esteem for a pastor beloved.

To his bereaved widow, family and relatives, we extend our deepest sympathy.

“Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth. Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them.”

 

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  REV. WILLIAM MACKINNON, GAIRLOCH

(Died 13th February, 1925)
Source: The Monthly Record, March, 1925, p.35

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It is with deep sorrow that we record the passing away on Friday the 13th February, at the ripe age of eighty-one years, of the Rev. William Mackinnon, Gairloch. The removal of so notable a standard-bearer is a grievous loss, not only to the Free Church, but to the cause of evangelical religion in Scotland.

Mr Mackinnon was no ordinary man: he was a unique and impressive personality. In some quarters he might no doubt be regarded as narrow; but in reality he was a man of unusual breadth of mind, endowed with generous sympathies and remarkable intellectual strength. The wide range of his reading, for example, was but one among many indications of the catholicity of his interests. On his day he was a powerful preacher of the Gospel. The present writer has a specially vivid recollection of an address, delivered in the veteran preacher’s native Gaelic at the close of a Communion service, which will always live in his memory as one of the most moving presentations of the evangelical appeal to which he ever listened. He was an uncompromising defender of the historic faith in an age of wide-spread defection, a humble and guileless Christian man, and a warm-hearted and loyal friend. William Mackinnon has finished his course, and it is not too much to add that he fought a good fight and kept the faith. His venerable presence, his sallies of genial humour, his faithful testimonies, and his stirring exhortations, will long be missed in the General Assembly of the Free Church. The sympathy of a wide circle of friends goes out to his sorrowing widow.

 

Author: Reproduced, with acknowledgments, from The Northern Chronicle
Source: The Monthly Record, March, 1925, p.38

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We regret to record the death, on Friday, of the Rev. William Mackinnon, Gairloch, ex-Moderator of the Free Church.

Mr Mackinnon was a native of Strath, in Skye, where he was born in October, 1843. After finishing his curriculum of study for the ministry of the Free Church, he acted for a year or two as Mr Urquhart‘s assistant in Hope Street Free Church, Glasgow. His first charge was that of North Ballachulish, in the Presbytery of Abertarff, where he laboured until called to Paible, North Uist, as successor to Rev. Norman Macleod, the Disruption minister of Trumisgarry. The years of his work in the Outer Hebrides were the part of his ministry to which he looked back with the greatest pleasure. He was then in the prime of his vigour, bodily and mentally, and he wielded a great and beneficent influence on the whole community. Much to his people’s regret he accepted a call to Glenmoriston, where he laboured for a few years with great acceptance. After the separation caused by the Free Presbyterian movement, Mr Mackinnon was called to Gairloch to succeed Mr John Baillie, who was one of the men of mark of his generation. This call he accepted, and for more than thirty years he has been known as Mr Mackinnon of Gairloch.

In ecclesiastical affairs Mr Mackinnon throughout his public life was a steady adherent of the Constitutional party in the Free Church, and in keeping with the outlook of his fellows he aimed at a reconstruction of the Reformed Church of Scotland on lines that would secure the freedom demanded in the Claim of Right of 1842, and would maintain in its entirety the worship and doctrine of the pre-Disruption Church. In 1900 he was one of the little and now fast diminishing band of ministers that stood their ground and favoured the continuity of the Free Church. In the years from 1900 onwards he did a great deal of work beyond the bounds of his own charge. In 1908 his Church paid him the highest honour that she could by calling him to the Moderator’s chair in her General Assembly. This position he filled with distinction. In public matters Mr Mackinnon took a lively interest, and his countrymen had few better friends. In educational affairs his active interest followed to the end. In spite of his years he was a diligent member of the Education Authority of Ross and Cromarty. Here he was highly regarded, and his empty place will leave a blank in the third County Authority.

In person the deceased gentleman was remarkably handsome, tall, straight, and well built. In disposition he was charitable, yet firm. A man of greater simplicity and transparency of character one could hardly meet. His honesty of thought and speech was almost proverbial in the circle in which he moved. There was a beauty about the mellowness of his closing years, and over the Highlands many will feel that they have lost a friend. Old friendships he held sacred in spite of differences of judgment that separated him from those with whom he worked of old. Last summer there was a touching meeting in what had been his old manse of North Ballachulish, where he went to see his successor, [ John Alexander MacAskill] who was in his last illness. Church unions and disunions had parted them, but the old bond held. Now they have both passed within the veil, and the friends that knew of the cordiality of their attachment will look back with satisfaction that before they met above they were able to renew on the verge of the river the friendship of earlier years.

Mr Mackinnon has left a widow to mourn his loss. His congregation and church mourn. But he has come home in his season as a shock of corn fully ripe.

At the service in the Free Church, Brora, on Sabbath, the Rev. Mr Macnaughton made suitable reference to the death of the Rev. Wm. Mackinnon. By his passing away the Church, said the preacher, had lost one of its most faithful servants.

 

Author: Lochcarron Presbytery – Tribute: F. M.
Source: The Monthly Record, March, 1925, p.38

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The Presbytery record with profound regret the death of Rev. William Mackinnon, Gairloch, which took place on the 13th of February last, in the eighty-second year of his age, and the forty-seventh of his ministry. By his removal the cause of Truth and of Evangelical Religion sustained a great loss. Mr Mackinnon had in early life his mind bent towards the service of the Gospel, and in due course he laboured successively in North Ballachulish, North Uist, Glenmoriston, and Gairloch. Regarding the defence of the Truth in an age of religious declension, a most important part of a minister’s work, he steadfastly resisted all inroads of error, maintained the distinctive principles of the Church, and discountenanced the Union of 1900 by which those principles were compromised. He occupied the Moderator’s Chair in 1908. He was kind and hospitable and unflinching in his friendship. Fearlessly he denounced all evil and yet commanded the respect of the community in general. He preached a full-orbed gospel. Mr Mackinnon’s noble presence, transparent character, and unambiguous expression of sound judgment were a support to the Presbytery, the loss of which they feel. He having finished his course, the Presbytery pray that the Head of the Church provide a suitable successor, and they extend their sincere sympathy to her in her sorrow who was his faithful companion in life.

 

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 PRINCIPAL DONALD MACLEAN

(Died 30th January, 1943)
Source: The Monthly Record, February, 1943, p.26

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After having gone to press, tidings reached us of the death of Principal Maclean, and we are sure the news will come as a shock to the whole Church and to many friends outside it. It is indeed, not too much to say that Dr Donald Maclean was one of the leading figures of the Presbyterian communion, well known not only in his native Scotland but among the scattered Presbyterian Churches of Europe and North America. His death brings a sense of irreparable loss however, to the Free Church that he loved so dearly and served so faithfully for upwards of forty years. To us, at the moment, he seems irreplaceable. Only eight months ago he had been appointed by the General Assembly to the office of Principal of our College, and the cordiality and unanimity that characterised his election on that occasion must have given him a sense of the complete confidence reposed in him by his brethren. As Professor of Church History and Principles in our College he endeared himself to several generations of students and left the impress of his exact scholarship on their mental equipment. As a historian he commanded universal respect, and was widely recognised as a leading authority on the Celtic Church. Himself one of the foremost scholars of the day, his translations of Gaelic prose and verse were particularly felicitous, and his Poems of Dugald Buchanan has become a classic. His labours as representative of the Church on outside Boards were manifold, and more than any other single individual, succeeded in interpreting the Free Church to the outside world. His ripe scholarship and devotion to the Calvinistic system of doctrine found expression in his editorship of The Evangelical Quarterly, a magazine in defence of the historic Christian Faith that has enjoyed great popularity in this country and in America for several years. But it is as a Christian man that Dr Maclean is mourned today by those who knew him. Tenacious in his convictions and outspoken in defence of them, he was unfailingly courteous and a splendid type of the Christian gentleman. His ready sympathy, quick understanding and his warm-hearted friendship endeared him to his intimate acquaintances. Other pens will, we are quite sure, write of him for our next issue; it remains for us, here and now, to extend the warm sympathy of the Church to his widow and daughter in their bereavement.

 

Author: Professor J. Kennedy Cameron
Source: The Monthly Record, March, 1943, pp.39ff

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The Free Church of Scotland has to mourn the removal by death from the ranks of her ministers of yet another member of those who formed the Minority in the October General Assembly of 1900, in the person of the late Rev. Principal Donald Maclean, D.D.

After reaching the age of 73 years, and of service in the work of the Gospel ministry of 46 of these years, he fell asleep in Christ. What was mortal of him, has, according to his own desire, been reverently laid to rest in the quiet burying ground of his native parish of Lochcarron. There his dust is left to mingle with that of some of the most godly of the early evangelical ministers of Scotland; and of generations of others of God’s saints, who there await the morning of the Resurrection, when those beds of rest will, out of obedience to the Divine Command, give up their dead. The present time of waiting will not be felt to be long, because of the sweetness of the repose in which their bodies lie, and the ineffable glory upon which their souls have entered.

As one who was privileged to enjoy a long and intimate fellowship with Dr Maclean in the various spheres of the ministerial work in which he had the honour to engage, I feel constrained to attempt, however inadequately, to give expression to my sense of his genuine worth, and the magnitude of the loss that has to be sustained by the Christian Church, through his removal from this earthly scene.

Dr Maclean was the youngest in years of the ministers who in October, 1900, against the stern and trying opposition of former associates, felt conscientiously constrained neither to secede from, nor be a party to the scuttling of, the good old ship of the Free Church of Scotland, which, by the Union then being effected, he was convinced would be done. He also felt that by his concurring in such action he would be doing a great injury to the religious interest of his beloved land, for in his judgment such action, should it take place, would involve a breach of solemn Ordination engagements, and would lead to other actions such as threatened the destruction of the national Christian testimony that was being borne by ecclesiastical establishment in Scotland, and the setting up of a great voluntary Church, to the undoing of Reformed work in the land. Very specially he was opposed to a qualifying of the teaching of the Westminster Confession of Faith by means of Declaratory Acts. Since 1900 till sickness laid him low, he continued to render yeoman service to the work of the Christian Church in respect of the maintenance and propagation of sound doctrine by his able editorship of The Evangelical Quarterly.

In the execution of his work Dr Maclean was careful to avoid entertaining a narrow parochial view of the compliance required by Christ in His commission to His Church to preach the Gospel to every creature. Anything other than a world-wide will and effort came short of the adequate compliance the Master required. He, at times, exemplified his teaching in this respect by his own personal labours which taxed his utmost strength. He travelled extensively in connection with the promotion of the interests of the Work of the Lord; and he thus gained a wide and personal knowledge of the needs of various peoples and of Christian movements among the nations. He thereby acquired a place of information and of usefulness in his own Church that was quite unique, and such as will be difficult, if not impossible, meantime at least, to fill.

His love of the brethren was unfailing, and these were embraced by him wherever he found them, irrespective of their country, breed, or race; yet loyalty to his own Church’s testimony and teaching was never relaxed by him. Indeed, as was manifested by his editorship of The Evangelical Quarterly, he greatly delighted in the work of advancing the interests of Scriptural teaching through all the Churches. He was strongly of opinion that only on a basis of such sound doctrine could national, as well as personal, righteousness be secured, as would prove a fit foundation for lasting peace and prosperity.

He was not conscious of his refusal to accompany the majority of his brethren into the Union as being against the interests of religion. A sense of duty alone could induce him to adopt a course of separation from former brethren that was painful, and had even the appearance of indifference to the good of religion. He would have rejoiced to be with them had he found it possible conscientiously to do so. He was pained exceedingly in spirit at the charges made against him of insincerity and lowness of motive. From all such no man could have been freer. He felt that he was under no obligation to follow the majority of his brethren into the new Church that was to be created by the proposed Union; duty rather called for refusal to enter. He was, therefore, found to be in hearty agreement with his brethren in the Opposition, who disapproved of the disestablishment and disendowment of the Church of Scotland, and of substituting for it a great voluntary Church. He specially disapproved of the qualifying of the teaching of the Westminster Confession of Faith by means of Declaratory Acts. What was needed was a greater and more genuine teaching, and not a lessening of the teaching of that great document. Further, though he viewed the regime of the majority of his brethren to be wrong, he was quite prepared to allow that it was pursued in sincerity, but he was pained to find that his opponents were not prepared to credit himself and those associated with him with being likewise sincere in offering opposition to it, but that instead they attributed motives that he and his associates had indignantly to repudiate. To-day the Free Church is rendered very much the poorer by his removal by death.

 

A Tribute from the Senatus
Author: P. W. M. [Professor Peter W. Miller]
Source: The Monthly Record, March, 1943, pp.39ff

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It is with a sense of profound regret and sorrow that the College Senatus put on record the death on 30th January, 1943, of the Reverend Principal Donald Maclean, D.D. He lived a full life and impressed himself on his generation as a hard worker. The varied duties which he undertook embraced not only the official appointments successively held in the Church as pastor, Highlands Secretary, and Professor of Church History but also voluntary activities as convener of Church Committees, representative of the Church on innumerable outside bodies, and as author of many volumes and religious journals for several fruitful years. Special mention must be made of the yeoman service which he rendered in the religious interests of those serving with the colours in the last and also in this war. He made his mark in more than one field of scholarship, and exercised a wide influence in the Presbyterian communities of the world. Full of years and honours, he did not let his ardour and zeal suffer any abatement, and he practically died in harness.

The great objective of his multifarious exertions was the prosperity of the Church. With a deep and understanding loyalty to the Church of his fathers, he was constantly solicitous for her welfare, her serviceableness, and her good name. It was in the early days of his ministry that the very existence of the Free Church called for the heroic stand in 1900 which has made history, and Dr Maclean contributed his due share to the decisions and strivings by which the testimony of the Disruption Church was preserved for Scotland. His peculiar gifts, while effectively employed in the stormy field of ecclesiastical endeavour, found perhaps their most congenial and fruitful exercise in the calmer academic atmosphere of the Theological College of the Church. During his 22 years teaching Church History, his talents, academic and practical, got full play, and his memory will abide among the generations of students that passed through his hands. Student activities, whether with devotional or intellectual aims received his hearty encouragement and his earnest efforts to welcome and help students from abroad can never be for forgotten.

Dr Maclean’s interests were never circumscribed or sectarian, and in spite of everything he maintained his simple vision of the Kingdom of God unimpaired And no mean success attended his unwearying attempts to further the cause of Christ in general, not alone in the United Kingdom, but in the British Commonwealth and in the Continent of Europe.

And the mainspring of his life and work lay, we must believe in the deep, hidden things of the heart. These abounding energies and remarkable achievements found their origin and impetus in the grace of God possessing the heart and issuing in devotion to the Church and her Great Head.

Many hold that Dr Maclean was at his best in expounding the truth and proclaiming the message of the Gospel, and his distinguished style gave a rare impressiveness and charm to his written and spoken words.

We, his colleagues, mourn the breach caused in the Kingdom through his passing, and our sympathy goes out to the bereaved relatives and sorrowing friends everywhere. We trace to God’s good hand what was done for his servant, the gifts bestowed, the opportunities afforded, the grace, the influence, the success granted, and we say: To God alone be the glory! May He vouchsafe the spirit of prevailing prayer, and in response, thrust forth other labourers into His harvest, that His will be done in earth as it is in heaven.

 

A Personal Tribute from his Minister
Author: G. N. M. C. [George N. M. Collins, minister of St Columba, Edinburgh]
Source: The Monthly Record, March, 1943, pp.39ff

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It is said that when George Whitefield was once asked, in reference to a man of his acquaintance, “What kind of man is he?” he replied, “How should I know; I never lived with him.”

If I may presume to answer such a question in regard to the late Principal Maclean, it is not only because I had the privilege to wait upon his instruction in the Free Church College, but especially because, for the past five years, I enjoyed such close association with him in another capacity that I can claim almost as intimate a knowledge of him as if I had lived with him during that period.

Memories of classroom associations crowd in on one. No student of his will ever cease to be grateful for the well-arranged, exquisitely phrased and scrupulously accurate lectures with which Dr Maclean met his classes day by day; and for the lucid expositions of Church principles by which he sought to lead his students into the same intense and intelligent loyalty to the Free Church of Scotland as had so early, and so lastingly, taken hold upon himself.

But Dr Maclean’s students had an even more valuable preparation for the ministry of the Word than that afforded by those so excellent lectures, and that was, that they came under the influence of a strong and gracious personality. Can we ever forget those brief prayers with which he opened his classes every morning? Always deeply reverent and spiritual, they were clearly the utterances of man to whom the Throne “high and lifted up” was a great reality. The English traveller of Wodrow’s story, who heard Robert Blair preach in St Andrews, declared: “He showed me the majesty of God.” And that was the highest service which our esteemed Professor rendered us – the service by which we shall remember him longest; he showed us the majesty of God.

There are some people who make an excellent impression upon one at the first meeting, but for whom admiration tends to lessen as acquaintance deepens. With Dr Maclean the reverse was the case. Those who knew him best esteemed him most. A well-known journalist who, in a recent and highly appreciative paragraph on him, described him as being somewhat “solemn and severe,” revealed by his choice of adjectives that his acquaintance with the Principal was extremely slight. His countenance, it is true, was of grave cast, but his wit was sharp and his humour unstrained. It was not in him to be effusive; but his heart was warm, his sympathy wide, his affection strong, and his friendship abiding. He had long experience of the rough and tumble of ecclesiastical controversy, for his lot was cast in difficult times. But while he remained so unflinchingly true to his convictions as to leave no one in doubt as to where he stood, he retained to the end the respect and admiration of those with whom he differed.

With his former students Dr Maclean had a special bond, and he remained their friend, philosopher and guide in all matters in which they sought his help. Gratefully do I, as one of them, acknowledge myself his debtor for countless kindnesses. Two letters of congratulation and encouragement which he wrote to me – one on my induction to Greenock Free Church, and the other when the Directors of the Protestant Institute honoured me with appointment to their Lectureship in Edinburgh and Glasgow some years ago – long remained in my desk as prized possessions. When I was inducted to St Columba five years ago, it was he who presided at the congregational meeting and expressed the welcome of the congregation to me; and, during these latter years, he made himself so accessible to me that his death brought me all the poignant sorrow of a personal bereavement.

It was a privilege to visit him in his last illness. It was evident that his Calvinism was not purely academic. “I hope to find you better to-morrow,” I remarked at parting one day. “I know you sincerely do,” he replied, “but whatever way you find me, it will be the Lord’s will, and that is best.” His last clear utterance, made only a few hours before his spirit took flight provides all who mourn him with a comforting, and inspiring memory. “How are you now?” asked a friend who stood by his bed, scarcely expecting an answer, for he had great difficulty in speaking. But clear and deliberate came the reply, “I am thinking of the future when I shall see the face of my exalted Lord.” It was his last utterance.

At the funeral services in St Columba Free Church, representatives were present from a great variety of ecclesiastical and academic bodies. The interment in Lochcarron, two days later, was preceded by a service in the Free Church there, where again a large company, representative of a wide area, and of the various ecclesiastical denominations, gathered to pay their tribute of respect. His mortal remains were reverently carried to their last resting place by the men of his native parish and by the many ministers almost all of them his own students who had come together for the sad occasion. And there he sleeps, not far from Aeneas Sage, who had to catch his people by guile before he caught them by the Gospel; and Lachlan Mackenzie, whose soul-rousing ministry the Lord honoured with a rich increase; and “Ceit Mhor,” one of “Mr Lachlan’s” most remarkable converts.

Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.

 

A Tribute from Holland
Author: Rev. Chr. De Wit
Source: The Monthly Record, March, 1943, pp.39ff

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World-Calvinism has suffered a great loss. Professor Maclean has passed away on Saturday, the 30th January, and when I received the telegram from his daughter, Mrs Macleod, I could not help feeling bereaved.

And so, no doubt, will feel the multitude of our Calvinistic people in the Netherlands.

Prof. Maclean was a great friend of Holland. He knew the country very well, its history and, above all, our Churches.

Times over again he represented the Free Church of Scotland at our General Synods, and he was a welcome guest at the homes of many of our leaders and churchmen.

Church history, the great story of the Kingdom of Christ throughout the ages, had the love of his heart. Just recently I was reading again the Reports of the Second Calvinistic Congress in Amsterdam, held in 1934, and again it is great to hear this fine Christian speak about our principles and ecumenical ideals.

He did not build his ideas of the Universal Church on the sand of sentimentalism, but on the rock of the reality of our Calvinistic faith. In times of war and distress there is a natural tendency to unity amongst the churches. I think it is God’s will that we all should examine ourselves whether we are separated rightly, but. on the other hand, we should be careful lest we arrive at rash conclusions. The only basis for unity between the churches which will be fruitful for the future can be found in Christ Himself.

I was reading some time ago a little booklet written by Prof. Maclean, called “Our Battle and its Banner.” It is a beautiful book; it gives the story of the Free Church of Scotland told at the family table, a story of struggle in spirit and for the truth in the land of John Knox. This year it will be a hundred years since the great Disruption in Scotland took place. I had hoped I would meet the Professor in Edinburgh at this great occasion. God has decided otherwise. His ways and His thoughts are higher than ours. Now Professor Maclean has entered the Church triumphant, he will rest from his labours and he will see in Whom he has believed.

Professor Maclean had a warm heart for our London Congregation. He was immediately ready, after the invasion of Holland, to send his ministers to us to preach for our Joint Scottish-Dutch services.

In a small way we have practised the communion of the Saints of different nationalities and tongues. Here comes together what belongs together! Here is real unity in Christ, the Head of the Church Universal!

We thank the Lord for the service of Prof. Maclean. May He give comfort and heavenly peace to his family.

“The Lord has given; the Lord has taken away; The Name of the Lord be praised.”

 

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 REV. JOHN MACLEAN, ROSEHALL

(Died 2nd April, 1928)
Source: The Monthly Record, May, 1928, p.115

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The Rev. John Maclean, Free Church minister of Rosehall, died at the Manse, there, on Monday, 2nd inst. He was settled at Rosehall in May 1925. His first charge was Kilmonivaig, then he was transferred to Stratherrick, and afterwards to Strontian, from which he retired on account of ill health. He returned to Skye, his native isle. The rest and freedom from the onerous duties of the active ministry were much in his favour, and being of a strong constitution his recovery was complete.

Early in 1925 he preached in Rosehall, and so pleased were the people that they gave him a unanimous call. Soon after his settlement, there sprang up a great attachment between him and his flock, and that attachment was growing deeper and deeper as minister and people came to know one another more intimately. Mr Maclean was endowed with strong, natural talents, of which he made good use. He was a good preacher, especially in Gaelic, and his English discourses were well prepared, and the diction accurate and lucid, betraying a mind of more than ordinary power. He was also a shepherd of tact, and his kindly way and loving regard and solicitude won the hearts of his flock. Whenever he appealed to his congregation, on behalf of the different financial schemes of the Church, there was a remarkably generous response.

The time of his ministry was short in Rosehall, but we believe that it was very fruitful. His funeral took place on Thursday, and the very large concourse of people who attended clearly testified to the high respect and esteem in which he was held by the whole community. His mortal remains rest in Tutim, which nestles among the hills, facing the westward sun; and the sighing of the mountain breeze, and the soft murmuring of the river, calm the agitated soul of the weary traveller who chances to go by.

 

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 REV. HUGH GALBRAITH MACLELLAN, TONGUE

(Died 1930)
Author: J. M.
Source: The Monthly Record, December, 1930, p.303

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A few months have gone by since Hugh Maclellan died, and it is ill on our part to overlook the removal of such a worthy servant of the Lord and of His Church.

Mr Maclellan was born in Islay in the fifties of the nineteenth century. When he completed his course of study, he began his ministry as one of the hard-working, self-sacrificing band of men who kept pace with the advance of civilisation as the Canadian North-West was opening up. This was the Home Mission Field of the Canadian Presbyterian Church. The vanguard, engaged in the task of subduing the earth as they made greater and greater inroads on the regions beyond, tended to get out of the reach of the ordinances of the Gospel. They were not, however, forgotten, and with like-minded willing helpers Mr Maclellan did his share in following them up with the ministry of the Word. As this kind of frontier work became more of a settled order in the regions in which he laboured, he came back to his native land, and when her need was great he came to the help of the Church of early years. There was much work to be done, and those who were willing to spend and to be spent had ample opportunity of showing their good will. There were few labourers in the field that were more willing or self-denying than he was. After the translation of the late excellent John Macdonald from Skerray to Sleat, Mr Maclellan was called to be his successor as Free Church minister of Tongue. Though he henceforward dwelt among his own people, he was still most willing and obliging in helping forward the general work of the Church. He was much loved by his congregation, and by a wide circle of friends whom he had everywhere he went.

In his quiet, modest way he commended himself to the heart of his fellows and now that he is taken away, he will be long and much missed. He took an active part not only in Church work but in educational administration, and he was much esteemed as a member of the Education Authority of the county of Sutherland. Mr Maclellan was unmarried, but he was tenderly cared for, and during the last months of his life, when he was laid aside, it was a pleasure to see how cheerful and contented he was. His was a bright sunset. His natural endowment of talent was not extraordinary, but as a faithful steward he put his talents out to usury and traded wisely with them. His endowment of lowliness and affection was rich, and the fragrance of his Christian life embalms his memory among his devoted people.

 

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 REV. JAMES MACEWEN MACLENNAN

(Died 18th January, 1945)
Source: The Monthly Record, February, 1945, p.21

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In the death of the Rev. J. M. Maclennan, senior minister of Reay, there passes away the longest ordained minister within the Free Church, and a gracious Christian gentleman. Though his active ministry extended over scarcely forty-two years it is fifteen years since he retired – he was ordained in 1889, and of the fifty-six years of his ordained ministry he gave twenty-five in the active ministry of the Free Church, the remaining fifteen being spent in retirement in Edinburgh.

We had not had the pleasure, at any time, of hearing Mr Maclennan preach, but his presence in the congregation radiated a gracious influence, and his manner and bearing had the quiet dignity that one associates with the Scottish ministry of fifty years ago. His passing will awaken kindly memories, especially among our congregations in Caithness, to two of which he gave twenty years of his ministry.

 

Author: G. N. M. C. [George N. M. Collins, St Columba, Edinburgh]
Source: The Monthly Record, February, 1945, p.27

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The death occurred in Edinburgh, on 18th January, of the Rev. James MacEwen Maclennan, senior minister of Reay Free Church, Caithness. Mr Maclennan was a native of Wester Ross, where, in his early youth, he entered into an experience of the saving grace of God, and heard the call which led him to prepare himself for the ministry of the Word. Beginning his studies in this country, he later emigrated to Canada, where, between college sessions, he served his exiled fellow-Highlanders in the Cape Breton district. On the completion of his theological studies, he was ordained to the ministry in 1889, and for the next fourteen years held pastorates successively in Prince Edward Island and in Winslow, Quebec. By that time his mother-Church at home had been sadly depleted in ministerial strength by the Church Union of 1900, and he felt it his duty to return to her aid.

In February 1905, Mr Maclennan was inducted to Berriedale Free Church, Caithness, whence, after a ministry of four years or so, he was translated to the pastorate of Tarbert Free Church, in the Presbytery of Inveraray. But in October 1914 he returned to Caithness on the call of the Free Church congregation of Reay. He continued to minister in Reay until the infirmities of advancing years necessitated an application to the General Assembly, in 1929, for leave to call a colleague and successor.

On retiring from the active ministry in 1930, Mr Maclennan removed to Edinburgh, where he attached himself to the congregation of Free St Columba. In the following year he was admitted to the eldership of the congregation, and quickly endeared himself to the families belonging to the congregation who resided in the district assigned to him. Brought up in the warm evangelical tradition of Wester Ross, Mr Maclennan retained his first loyalty to the end, and lost no opportunity of serving the cause which lay so near his heart. He was a man of gracious and kindly spirit, the testimony of whose life was in full accord with that of his lips.

The funeral service was held in St Columba Free Church on 20th January, when the minister of the congregation had the assistance of Rev. Professor Renwick, B.D., D.Litt., and Rev. Principal-Emeritus John Macleod, D.D. After the service, the coffin was reverently carried out to the waiting hearse by members of the Kirk Session. At the interment, in Comely Bank Cemetery, the service was shared by Rev. Professor A. Ross, B.D., and Rev. A. D. Cameron, senior minister of Creich.

Mr Maclennan is survived by two married daughters, to whom the sympathy of a wide circle of friends is extended.

 

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 REV. ALEXANDER MACLEOD, BACK

(Died 24th September, 1954)
Source: The Monthly Record, October, 1954, p.197

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The distressing news reaches us, as we go to press, of the death of the Rev. Alexander Macleod, Back, Lewis. Mr Macleod’s health had broken down several months ago and after a partial recovery he suffered a relapse necessitating his admission to hospital. There he passed away over the week-end, 25th-27th September. A man of abounding energy and forceful personality, his pastorates at Ness (Lewis), Govan and Back, were marked by manifest tokens of spiritual and material prosperity. His preaching was characterised by warm evangelical fervour and the witness of his life was clear and consistent. It was as an organiser, however, that Mr Macleod made his ability and energy more immediately felt, and within a few months after his induction to each of his three charges he had the congregational machinery overhauled and going at full pressure. In every department of congregational work – Sabbath School, Foreign Missions, Sustentation Fund, District visitation – his influence was immediately felt. His passing in mid-life touches a tender chord in the memory of those who made his acquaintance as a serving soldier during the years of the First World War. It was during that period that he became a seeker after spiritual things and sought for the fellowship of the Lord’s people. To be in his company then was to be conscious of his sincerity, his moral courage, and his resolve to make his witness felt where he had been known in former days. It can safely be said that the deepest desires of his heart found fulfilment when he was eventually accepted as a student for the ministry and he applied himself to his studies with the same thoroughness and diligence that marked his subsequent ministry. A warm-hearted brother, a zealous Christian, a diligent and faithful pastor, his place in the Church below will not readily be filled.

To the congregation of Back, to the widow, and to the family, to whom he was so devoted and solicitous a father, and our deepest sympathy is extended. We who have lost a dear friend and brother beloved can, in some measure, enter into their greater loss.

 

Author: A. B.
Source: The Monthly Record, December, 1954, pp.268-269

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On the 24th of September the death took place at the Lewis Hospital, Stornoway, of the Rev. Alexander MacLeod, the much-loved minister of Back. For some time previously his condition had been critical, so that when the news became known it was not so much of a surprise to those of his friends who were permitted to see him during his illness.

Mr MacLeod was a native of Point and was brought up in his early days under the lively Gospel ministry of the Rev. Rodrick Macleod, Knock, and latterly of Dunoon. It was during the first world war, the great change took place which decided the subsequent course of his life. During the war he served with the County regiment, the Seaforth Highlanders, and on the termination of hostilities he was appointed Territorial instructor at Ullapool. It was during this period that his mind was directed to the ministry, and after carefully examining his motives and ascertaining the Lord’s mind by direction from His Word, he decided to study for the ministry of the Church. He studied at Edinburgh University and the Free Church College. He applied himself to his studies with the same remarkable energy which characterised his whole career. During those years he frequently assisted the late Principal Macleod, who was then minister of the Free North Church, Inverness. Principal Macleod remained his close friend, and one of his sons bears his name.

On completing his studies he was licensed by the Presbytery of Edinburgh, and shortly afterwards he was called to Cross, in the Presbytery of Lewis, where he was ordained and inducted in 1929. After a ministry of over nine years at Cross he was called to St. Columba Free Church, Govan, Glasgow. After a faithful ministry there he was again called to his native island, this time to the congregation of Back, which was the scene of the closing years of his labour.

As a preacher, his utterances were weighty and powerful and bore clear evidence of much careful preparation of heart and mind. Deeply sensible of the perilous state of the unconverted, and imbued with holy zeal for God’s glory in their salvation, he was untiring in his labours for their eternal welfare. Fully realising the responsibilities of his office and that the age in which he lived was one of increasing judgments and crushing disasters to the utmost of his power he worked on, frequently in much bodily weakness. The Cause of Christ was ever on his heart, and his joy was to spend and be spent in the Lord’s service. And though he might have known that his labours and anxiety were shortening his days, we are persuaded that if it had been needful, he could have said with another: “Yea, and if I be offered up on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all. Being an acceptable preacher, he had demands made upon his services which were constant. On that account his labours were usually extensive and were often attended with much physical and mental strain.

Of Mr. Macleod it might be justly said that if the quality of his preaching was excellent it was in his faithfulness as a pastor that he shone. And this was the secret of that close bond that existed between him and the large congregations to which he ministered. He was not only a preacher of the Evangel, but a true pastor who visited his people and was deeply interested in all their difficulties. He was a familiar figure in the hospitals of his native island as he had formerly been in those in the city. His sick-bed prayers were never wearisome, and he never failed on such occasions to commend his Saviour in his usual forthright manner. And his sympathetic handshake at the parting had courage and friendliness in its clasp.

For those who knew him it is difficult to realise that he is gone. His congregation mourns a faithful pastor, his near ones a most attached husband, father and brother; his wide circle of friends one of the most beloved of their number. He is now where

“The inhabitant shall never say that he is sick or sore,
Ne’er complain of desolation or of famine on its shore,
And the more his hurt of evil wearied him his whole life long,
Now the greater is his gladness, and the louder his song.”

His dust was laid to rest in Aiginish, where during his ministry at Ness, he buried one of his children. The large company attending his funeral from all parts of the island bore witness to the esteem and affection in which this faithful minister of Christ was held.

To his sorrowing widow and family we extend our heartfelt and prayerful sympathy.

 

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 REV. ALEXANDER MACLEOD, COIGACH

(Died 9th August, 1934)
Author: R. McK.
Source: The Monthly Record, October, 1934, p.250

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The Free Church has suffered no small loss by the passing of the Rev. Alexander Macleod, who was called from our midst with startling suddenness on the 9th August, shortly after arriving at his destination at Ness where he intended to spend a period of recuperation after a spell of indifferent health. Mr Macleod had just retired for the night’s rest, when, on uttering one final sentence to his partner in life, the end unexpectedly came.

He was a follower of Christ for the long period of forty-five years, his conversion early in life in the days of the late Rev. D. Macbeath of Ness was quite evident and undisputed by the discerning element of the parish, and his movements in life thereafter were in harmony with his profession. For a considerable period he was an outstanding member of the Cross congregation, being noted and highly respected as the leader of praise. In virtue of his rich mellow voice he was an acceptable precentor, and this talent remained with him throughout his life. In the year 1905 he was appointed missionary to the Bernera congregation of Uig, where he laboured for some time with great acceptance to the community. The fruit of his labours is manifest in this part of the vineyard to this day. From Bernera, Lewis, he was translated to Bernera, Harris, thence to Stoer, Assynt, in Sutherlandshire, where he rendered efficient service for the space of twelve years. In this wide and scattered district no efforts were spared by him in promoting the welfare of the people and advancing the Kingdom of Him whom he was faithfully serving. His services in Stoer were indeed thoroughly appreciated by all. Following his sojourn in Sutherlandshire, he was transferred to Glenelg, in the Presbytery of Lochcarron, where he officiated for a short time as a lay agent. At this point he resolved to study for the ministry of the Gospel, and with a view to this consummation he spent several sessions at the Free Church College, Edinburgh, at the end of which time the Church considered him a fit subject for ordination, and according to the wishes of the Glenelg congregation he became their pastor, a step which they never regretted.

When a vacancy occurred at North Uist, the Free Church congregation there presented him with a unanimous call, which he accepted after some serious consideration and deliberation. For four years he ministered in this isolated area to the satisfaction and benefit of all concerned. His last call and sphere of service was Coigach, in the Presbytery of Lochcarron. Nothing could be more pleasing to that congregation than the whole-hearted efforts put forth by the Rev. Alexander Macleod in their interests. The Coigach people were exceedingly generous and hospitable, and highly respected his labours among them.

The death of a dutiful pastor cannot but leave a blank which will not be easily filled, while the removal of a faithful husband from his wife and family must needs be a severe wrench. Two of his sons predeceased him, while seven of a family remain, all of whom are now practically grown up.

The funeral of Mr Macleod, who was sixty-four years of age, took place on Saturday, 11th inst., and notwithstanding the inclemency of the weather was attended by an unusually large concourse of friends and acquaintances from several parts of the island – particularly Ness – who turned out to pay their last tribute to the deceased. Four ministers of the Free Church Presbytery of Lewis were in attendance, namely, Revs. Mr Macleod, Barvas; Mr Maciver, Carloway; Mr Campbell, Knock and Mr Mackenzie, Back.

To his widow, family, and relations we extend our condolences in their irreparable loss.

 

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 REV. ALEXANDER MACLEOD, KILMALLIE AND ARISAIG

(Died 21st April, 1956)
Author: W. J. McL
Source: The Monthly Record, July, 1956, p.147

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The whole Church, and a wide circle of friends outwith her pale, were shocked when it became known that the Rev. Alexander Macleod, Kilmallie and Arisaig, to which charge he had been inducted as recently as June 1954 had passed away suddenly on Saturday afternoon 21st April, while about to conduct a funeral service in his church at Corpach. He had just entered the pulpit when he expired.

Mr Macleod was born at Uig, Isle of Skye, 59 years ago. From early youth he was most attentive at the means of grace. While still a young man, he served with the Navy during the First World War. After the close of hostilities we find him in the vicinity of Kingussie, where he attended the ministry of the late Rev. Angus Mackay. Owing to the strictures imposed by Maighstear Ruaraidh,” minister of Snizort, within which parish Uig is situated, relative to the Sacrament of Baptism, our late friend was not baptised until 10th November 1923, when he received the Sacrament in the Kingussie congregation, where he communicated for the first time on the following Sabbath. After due consideration, Mr Macleod was led to dedicate his life to the service of Him Who redeemed him, and applied for admission as a student of the Church. He took his Arts course at Glasgow and his Theological course at the College, Edinburgh. He was licensed to preach the Gospel in 1934, and shortly thereafter he received a unanimous call to the congregation of Ardnamurchan, where he laboured with great diligence for the period of nine years. His affection for his first love never waned, and he never lost an opportunity of visiting these loyal people. A beautiful and comfortable little church at the Kilmory end of the parish stands as a tribute to his indefatigable labours. His strength remained unabated when he was translated to the Nairn congregation, where he laboured for eleven years until his recent translation to Kilmallie. His work at Nairn was on a par with his previous labours at Ardnamurchan, and had he been spared there is no doubt that the wide field of his last charge would have prospered under his untiring efforts as preacher and pastor. In his three spheres of labour his work was that of faith, and his labour that of love. He was fired with zeal for the glory of God through the advancement of His kingdom, and with ardent desires for the salvation of his fellow-men. He had a very happy disposition and a faculty for making friends. His pulpit messages were forceful and very acceptable, but he was first and foremost a pastor. He loved visiting his flock, and he was found early and often at the bedside of the sick. The Sabbath absentees could look for him on the Monday, and he never disappointed them! He was warmly affectionate, most lovable and friendly. He made no enemies. The large attendance at the funeral service was sufficient testimony to his popularity. Twenty-three ministers were present, and he was laid to rest on the brow of the hill to which he loved to wander betimes.

We extend our deep sympathy to his sorrowing widow, sister and brother, and to his congregation so early deprived of one whom they had come to love and revere. May they be comforted in the knowledge that he whom they mourn has entered, as we believe, into his rest, and that his works do follow him.

 

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 REV. ANGUS MACLEOD, CARLOWAY

(Died 21st August 1913)
Author: R. McK.
Source: The Monthly Record, November, 1913, p.182

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The Free Church Presbytery of Lewis regret to record the death of Rev. Angus MacLeod, ordained missionary, which took place with startling suddenness at the manse of Carloway on the 21st day of August, 1913. Mr MacLeod was born at Laxay, in the parish of Lochs, about 59 years ago, where he was brought up under evangelical preaching and in a pure atmosphere by both ministers and pious catechists, also by elders who were noted for their piety.

Mr MacLeod taught for some years in the Ladies’ School carried on under the auspices of the Free Church, afterwards attended the Glasgow University for two or three sessions with a view of studying for the ministry, but his career was curtailed on account of ill-health. He served the interest of the Free Church at several stations in the Highlands prior to the year 1900, when he was appointed to the Knock congregation before the crisis of Union in 1900; he had no difficulty in adhering loyally and faithfully to the principles of 1843. While serving for several years in that capacity, and during which time excellent work was done by him in the Knock congregation, he got a unanimous invitation by petition from the Park congregation in the year 1909. During his stay at Park his labours were highly appreciated, especially by the discerning people in that congregation.

In the year 1913 the Carloway people unanimously petitioned the General Assembly craving his services and in favour of his translation to labour among themselves as a suitable pastor for their congregation. His settlement took place at Carloway on the 13th of June of this year.

Mr Angus MacLeod was highly respected and his preaching highly appreciated by the godly people of the Lewis. His death causes a blank in the island which cannot be easily filled.

The Presbytery extend their deep sympathy to his widow, son, and daughter, and commend them to the God of Israel who promised to be a Husband to the widow and a Father to the fatherless.

 

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 DONALD MACLEOD, CARLOWAY

(Died 5th December, 1920)
Source: The Monthly Record, January, 1921, pp.3-4

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We deeply regret to have to record the death of the Rev. Donald Macleod, Carloway, Lewis, which took place on 5th December, in the 65th year of his age. Mr Macleod was struck down with a serious illness a few months ago, and he never recovered his strength. The death of his only son during the past year was a sore blow to him, and no doubt affected his health. Mr Macleod was born in Lewis, and after a pastorate of twenty-five years in Coigach, with which his name will long be associated, he accepted a call to Carloway in his native island about seven years ago, and laboured there with faithfulness and diligence until laid aside with the illness to which he finally succumbed. Mr Macleod was a fine type of the Highland minister. A man of deep piety and of guileless transparency of character, he exercised a powerful influence for good in the communities in which his lot was cast. He was a preacher of no mean gifts. When addressing a sympathetic congregation, especially, and when thoroughly warmed to his subject, he could present the evangel with moving impressiveness. He served his generation by the will of God, and has now fallen on sleep.

May the Lord of the harvest raise up others to take the place of the fathers who are one by one being called to their everlasting rest.

 

Author: R. McK.
Source: The Monthly Record, April, 1921, p.54

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The following tribute to the late Rev. Donald Macleod, Carloway, was drawn up by the Presbytery of Lewis and inserted in the Presbytery’s records on the 22nd February.

The Free Church Presbytery of Lewis deeply regret that they have to record the removal by death of the Rev. Donald Macleod, of Carloway, which took place on the fifth day of December 1920.

Mr Macleod was born on the north side of Lewis at Shawbost, where he was brought early in life under the influence of the truth. When a young lad he taught in one of the Ladies’ schools on the mainland connected with the Free Church, which were useful for prospective Highland students in those days. He also taught at Gravir, Park, Lewis, where he associated with men of deep piety. When he was licensed and serving the Church as a Probationer, he was unanimously called to Coigach, in the Presbytery of Lochcarron, where he served the Lord faithfully and conscientiously for the period of twenty-four years.

When the Union took place between the two Churches in 1900, Mr Macleod adhered faithfully and loyally to his ordination vows, and was one of the faithful twenty-five ministers who were the means of continuing the identity or principles in their integrity of the Free Church. His preaching was of very high order – heavenly in tone. When in his element, and having a measure of freedom, very few, if any at all in his day, in the Highlands were more acceptable to the discerning mind than the late Rev. D. Macleod. He never preached at random, he took great pains and labour in preparing his pulpit work, his subjects as a rule were doctrinal, and his great delight with unction and melody was to declare the love and beauty of Christ to his fellow creatures. Throughout his ministerial career he had great admiration for the people of the island in which he was born. He was unanimously called to Carloway and settled there in June 1914, where he continued his faithful ministry till the end of his career – called to his eternal rest in the prime of life to inherit the promise. Mr Macleod was a man of prayer, deep piety, highly respected by all who knew him, especially by the Lewis people.

The blank caused by his death is not easily filled up in the island, and the Presbytery wish to extend their deep sympathy to his relatives, especially to his faithful and dutiful widow and two daughters in their sore bereavement. They commend them to “Him who is the shepherd of Israel who slumbers not nor sleeps.”

The Presbytery also wish to record their deep sympathy with the Carloway congregation in their great loss.

“Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, from henceforth: yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.”

 

Source: The Monthly Record, May, 1921, p.71

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The following tribute to their late minister has been down by the Kirk-Session of the congregation of Carloway:

The Kirk-Session place on record their sense of the deep loss sustained by the congregation through the removal of their beloved pastor, the Rev. Donald MacLeod, on the 5th December 1920. They remember with grateful pride that he was one of the gallant band of ministers who were enabled to maintain in unbroken continuity the Free Church principles and constitution when the great majority formed another Church in 1900. He did this by Divine Grace, although he had his own share of trouble and reproach, and was in due course rewarded by the highest tribunal in Britain vindicating the legality of his testimony, and cheering him in his work for the Master.

They would remember this devoted and loving ministry for over six years in their midst when he proved himself in the conscience of all a faithful ambassador of the Cross, an able minister of the New Testament, a nourisher of the heritage of God, and a solemn unfolder of the evil of sin, its awful issues, and the irremediable loss of all neglectors of the day of opportunity and the overtures of free grace.

They recall his holy life, his delight in the old paths, his love to the Lord’s people, and his fervent prayers and wishes that the Master should be honoured by sinners flocking to his standard. They recognise that their privileges as a congregation have been great; and while they feel his removal, they nevertheless thank the Lord of the vineyard for His gifts to them, and they earnestly hope that many, in the day of Jesus Christ may be seen as the fruits of his ministry in their midst.

They trust that the Head of the Church may in due time send them a pastor who shall follow in the footsteps of Mr MacLeod, and build up Zion. They recommend his widow and family to the fatherly pity and covenant love and gracious faithfulness of the God of Salvation.

 

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 REV. GREGOR AND MRS MACLEOD

(Died 7th December, 1942)
Source: The Monthly Record, February, 1943, p.26

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The entire Church was profoundly moved by the news that the Rev. Gregor and Mrs Macleod our out-going missionaries to South Africa, had been lost at sea through enemy action. Though such losses are frequent these days from every walk of life, the circumstances of this loss make it specially poignant. Here were two young servants of God who had dedicated themselves to His service in the Mission Field and had left for their chosen sphere of labour with the prayers of the Church. The hopes linked up with their settlement in our South African mission field led many to see a new day dawning for our cause in that land. In these hopes and prospects they themselves, no doubt, fully shared. It is a truly mysterious Providence that has decreed that they should not arrive at their appointed station, and, inscrutable though it appears now to us, we would fain believe that these two young lives were not given in vain. Their death on the very threshold of their life’s work is a call to the youth of the Church to dedicate themselves to the unfinished task, and it may well lead to more stirrings of heart than all the missionary addresses of recent years were able to effect. Our warm sympathy goes out to the Foreign Missions Committee in their sore disappointment, and to the Rev. Alexander Dewar, our veteran missionary in South Africa, who had been rejoicing in the expectation of handing over the work to more youthful hands. The deepest measure of sympathies, however, must be reserved for the parents and families of the two young missionaries, and we pray that God may cause His light to shine into their darkened hearts and homes at this time.

 

A Tribute by Foreign Missions Committee
Author: David McKenzie, Convener, Foreign Missions, Colonial, Continental and Jewish Committee.
Source: The Monthly Record, February, 1943, p.31

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The Foreign Missions Committee have to intimate with great grief the loss of their two youngest missionaries early in December. This information was given by South Africa House. The Rev. Gregor and Mrs Macleod were reported lost on the high seas in consequence of enemy action when they were on their way to South Africa. In Free St Columba Church, Edinburgh, a final farewell was said to them on the evening of 18th November. The Committee express their sympathy with Mrs Macleod, Tain, the mother of our young missionary, in her sore bereavement, a loss all the more poignant on account of the death of her youngest son in the same month when flying with the Royal Air Force. For the other members of the household deep sympathy is also felt. The Committee likewise express their condolence with Mr Macdonald, Edinburgh, and his household on the loss of their daughter. For the Rev. A. Dewar and the missions under his care the occasion has its testing element. Both Mr and Mrs Macleod, who were married last summer, were very promising missionaries as testified by their Christian activities during many years past. Mr Macleod was trained in the Public School and the Royal Academy of Tain, thereafter at Edinburgh University and at the Free Church College, where he completed his studies last March. He was presented to the Moderator of last General Assembly when the Report of the Foreign Missions Committee was submitted last May, and by instruction of the General Assembly his Ordination as a missionary of the Church to labour in South Africa was carried through by the Presbytery of Dingwall and Tain at the beginning of September. In due course word was received that he and Mrs Macleod should be ready to sail, and the necessary preparations were made.

Mrs Macleod was a native of Glenurquhart, and identified herself very closely with the work of the Congregation of Free St Columba. As Mr Macleod was held in high esteem in the Free Church Congregation of Tain and Edderton, so also was Mrs Macleod in the Congregation of St Columba.

The Church has suffered a sore loss, and the Foreign Missions Committee give expression to their high appreciation of the noble, generous, and Christian character of these two young missionaries removed in the mid-time of their days. They were both possessed of a zeal for winning souls, earnest in their living, and purposeful in their work. Their activities in the past bore witness to their faith in the Redeemer and their love for His Kingdom. When word came that they must soon embark, they were filled with joy at the prospect of being another stage nearer their prospective tasks in the land of South Africa.

It is hard at this moment to understand this inscrutable course of Providence, but it is certain that even in the midst of this sore trial God’s Sovereign purpose is paramount and that in what appears a terrible adversity these things will ultimately fall out for the furtherance of the Gospel.

The Foreign Missions Committee are very grateful for the expressions of sympathy which they have received, and again they express their condolence with the bereaved, and pray that they will know the light and comfort of the Lord.

 

An Appreciation by his Minister
Author: R. J. M. [Robert J. Murray, minister of Tain Free Church]
Source: The Monthly Record, February, 1943, p.31

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It is with profound regret that we have to record the death at sea through enemy action of our latest missionary and his missionary wife the Rev. Gregor and Mrs Macleod. Of Mrs Macleod’s passing a notice will, no doubt, appear in these pages from another pen; what we propose to do is to pay a brief tribute to the memory of Mr Macleod.

He was born in Tain thirty-two years ago. In the upheaval that followed the Union of 1900 his parents had no hesitation in casting in their lot with the minority. His father was one of a little faithful band who, in that testing time, helped to keep alive the Free Church testimony in Tain. Reared in this atmosphere, and privileged in his Sabbath School days to sit at the feet of that saintly man, the late Mr Donald Mackay, religious impressions were made on his youthful mind. But it was not until he was eighteen that he underwent a saving change and professed his Saviour openly before men. Turning his mind some two years afterwards to the Ministry of the Word, he had but one chief aim to become a servant of Christ in the Foreign Field; and his ardent desire to bring the Gospel to the heathen had not, through the discipline of years of study, in the least diminished. So it was that in his final year in Divinity, ere the appeal appeared in the “Record” for help for Africa, his offer was in the hands of, or on the way to the Convener of the Foreign Missions Committee. Ordained in his native town on September last and set apart in the presence of a large congregation to the Free Church South African Mission, none was happier than he when towards the end of October he was informed to hold himself in readiness for sailing. Asked on leaving whether he would consider at some future time taking a charge in the homeland, he answered: “No! Once a missionary always a missionary.”

All who really knew Mr Macleod will unhesitatingly concede that his was a Christian life of unquestionable sincerity and gracious humility coupled with courage and strength of character. It was evident that his inner life was nourished from a study of the Divine Word and through fellowship with God in prayer. Throughout his student days he was welcomed to many of our pulpits as a most popular and gifted preacher. This excellent young man held a place in the Free Congregation of Tain, which, for a native of the place, might be regarded as unique. No wonder that a deep shadow was cast over the whole town when news came that the Lord in His inscrutable providence took Gregor Macleod away. That two young lives on their way to, and eminently fitted for, the Foreign Mission Field should be cut short, is to us past finding out. We have but to wait with patience the Great Day of disclosures when mystery shall give way to perfect knowledge.

To the grief-stricken mother, bereaved of two promising sons and daughter-in-law within a fortnight, and to the sorrowing sisters and brothers, and also to the bereaved home in Edinburgh, we extend our heartfelt sympathy. May they be sustained by the Hand that has heavily afflicted them.

 

A Tribute from their Congregation
Author: G. N. M. C. [George N. M. Collins, minister of St Columba, Edinburgh]
Source: The Monthly Record, February, 1943, p.32

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It seems only yesterday that we, of Free St Columba Church, were gathered together to bid farewell to Rev. Gregor Macleod – who had attached himself to our fellowship since ever he had come to Edinburgh as a student – and to Mrs Macleod, who was one of ourselves.

The meeting was hurriedly called, for their departure at so early a date was unexpected. But despite the short notice and the dark streets, a large company assembled, and listened with appreciative interest to a weighty address by the Convener of the Foreign Missions Committee, Professor D. MacKenzie; and to a moving exhortation to fuller service, delivered by one who was well entitled and qualified to speak in that strain, Rev. J. Calvin Mackay. But the third main address of the evening was the one which, because of a special circumstance, will live longest in the memory of the audience. It was delivered by the outgoing missionary in acknowledgment of a gift presented to him by the office-bearers of the congregation. It was his last public utterance.

We can picture him still and recall his words – words of high resolve and noble purpose. He and his young wife, he declared, were not dismayed by the dangers of the journey, nor by the prospect of the sacrifice which their chosen career would entail. They were prepared to face it, determined to stick it, and to spend and be spent in the service of their Lord.

Three days later, they left us; and we thanked God for them and were glad to think that our veteran missionary, Rev. Alexander Dewar, was soon to have two such eager helpers as Gregor Macleod – who had already made a name for himself as a preacher of the Evangel; and Bessie Macdonald – for as such we knew her best – who, by unaffected dignity and quiet efficiency, had lastingly endeared herself to the young people whom she had taught in the Sabbath School of Free St Columba.

We followed them with our prayers, beseeching God to be with them. And we have no doubt that He was. The journey was shorter than we supposed it would be, and the destination different; but He brought them “unto their desired haven.”

“Why was this waste of the ointment made?” murmured some of the company, when Mary of Bethany anointed the head of Jesus with her precious oil. But it was no waste. The house was filled with the fragrance of her offering. And we are confident that the fragrance of this double sacrifice will spread throughout the Free Church of Scotland, awakening us all to a new sense of our responsibility for the propagation of the Gospel among the heathen. Not in vain shall Ethiopia stretch out her hands unto God! They have done what they could. Their memorial abideth. Their works do follow them. “He that findeth his life, shall lose it; and he that loseth his life for My sake, shall find it.”

 

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 REV. JOHN MACLEOD, DUKE STREET, GLASGOW

(Died 13th October, 1939)
Author: P. M. J. [Peter M. Jackson, latterly of Milton, Glasgow]
Source: The Monthly Record, December, 1939, pp.307-308

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On the 13th October, 1939, death removed from our midst one who was well known and beloved in the Free Church, the Rev. John Macleod, Minister Emeritus of Duke Street Gaelic Free Church. Yet another of that small band of Constitutionalists who remained loyal to the Old Banner in 1900 has been called home.

Born in Staffin, Skye, he was a true son of the Misty Isle. The sound religious training which he received in his early years greatly influenced his after life. On the death of his father he proved a dutiful and devoted son to his mother.

After his conversion he studied with a view to the ministry at Aberdeen University. When he had completed his studies there he proceeded to the Free Church College, Edinburgh. Having finished his theological course he was licensed to preach the gospel, and not long afterwards he received a call to be minister of Duke Street Gaelic Free Church in succession to the Rev. E. Gordon about 1894.

As the beloved minister of that congregation he displayed his qualities both as an ideal pastor and as an able preacher of the gospel. He exercised a most fruitful ministry in this, his only charge, until he retired and went to reside in Rothesay in 1922.

While there he still maintained a keen interest in the Church at large and did everything in his power to help on the cause of Christ. He was an Assessor to the Lorn Presbytery and a member of the Church’s Committees. For many years he also had the oversight of the small congregation at Strachur in which he took a very warm and lively interest until the day of his death.

He enjoyed good health till the end when, after a fortnight’s illness, he entered into his rest.

A wise counsellor was he especially to the young, kind-hearted, a faithful friend at all times, loyal to the Word of God, a man of prayer, indeed a wrestler at the Throne of Grace. His whole life breathed the spirit of humility and piety.

We commend his sorrowing widow to the Father of mercies, the God of all comfort and consolation.

 

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 REV. JOHN MACLEOD, O.Β.Ε.,
HOPE STREET, GLASGOW

(Died 27th January, 1939)
Author: Anon.
Source: The Monthly Record, March, 1939, pp.60-61

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The death on the 27th January with almost tragic suddenness of the Rev. John Macleod, O.B.E. minister of Hope Street Free Church, profoundly stirred the hearts of all Free Church people and his departure in the prime of life and in the midst of his manifold labours has made a breach on the ranks of the ministry which cannot easily be filled.

There were twenty six ministers and four students that remained loyal to the Free Church at the of sifting in 1900 and of the ministers six are still with us while, of the students, two survive. Mr W. C. B. Munro died a few years after his settlement in Olrig, and now Mr John Macleod, perhaps the youngest of the number, has been called home. Each removal comes to the survivors with a special poignancy, snаpping a bond of intimacy and affection that had been knit and strengthened by the sharing of a common experience of toil and suffering in witness-bearing.

Mr John Macleod was born on the beautiful, sea-bathed shores of Loch Kishorn, in the parish of Lochcarron a fruitful comer of a much favoured parish that gave to the Church of Christ such revered fathers as the Rev. John Kennedy of Killearnan, and the Rev. Murdo Mackenzie of Inverness. In Mr Macleod’s youth the evangelical tradition was still strong in the parish especially among the “men” of many of whom Mr Macleod spoke with admiration and affection, indicating that he had early come under the influence of their saintly lives. After a short experience of office work in Inverness, John Macleod heard the call to the ministry, and with the resoluteness and courage that marked his entire after-life he set about preparing himself for his high calling, at a time when the academic side of the preparation was much more elaborate and rigorous than it is to-day. He entered the John Raining School at Inverness, from there passed into the Glasgow University. It was a time of upheaval in ecclesiastical affairs in Scotland; the union of 1900 had shorn the Free Church of all her three Colleges, and the Free Church College on the Mound had not yet been reconstituted. Mr Macleod’s theological course was, therefore, somewhat broken and he divided his time between the Glasgow University Divinity Hall and that of the Original Secession Church. In 1904 he was licensed for the ministry by the Free Church Presbytery of Lochcarron and ordained to Urray Free Church in January 1905. The congregation was large and harmonious, and they received the young minister with much enthusiasm and affection, which he reciprocated in full measure. The ministers of the Free Church were still few in number, and the work of supplying congregations was both arduous and clamant. Into this work Mr Macleod threw himself with all his might. He was a careful expositor of the Word, a warm preacher of the Evangel, and a diligent and devoted pastor. There were many evidences, on both sides, that the bond of attachment between him and his first congregation remained to the close of his life.

At the outbreak of war, Mr Macleod was the first minister of the Free Church to be appointed chaplain to the Forces. He was – appropriately – attached to the County Regiment, the 4th Battalion Seaforth Highlanders, and for nearly three years he shared their fortunes in France. His kindly nature and approachable manner made him a general favourite with officers and men, and it was the opinion of those competent to judge that he was one of the most successful chaplains that served with the British Expeditionary Force. Lord Guthrie, speaking in the United Free Church Assembly in 1917 on the work of the Y.M.C.A. in France, paid Mr Macleod this striking tribute. “I was at the Free Church Assembly last night and had a most cordial reception, in the building in which I was myself baptized, and under the moderatorship of a most remarkable man, the Rev. John Macleod, Urray. I understand on high authority that among all the ministers from all the Churches of Great Britain there is no man who has had greater power with the troops, Lowland as well as Highland, than Rev. John Macleod. I will tell you the kind of thing the Free Church Moderator can do, and does do. He will go into the Y.M.C.A. Hut, not at the hour of service, but when everything is going on, and he will tap on the table and say: “Men! I want five minutes from you three minutes for a prayer, and two minutes for a word from me.” Every cup is put down, every letter laid aside, and he is allowed to say what he has got to say.” The Army Council had a like opinion of his worth, and he was recalled in 1918 to Senior Chaplain in the Northern Command. The Church fittingly recognised his services as chaplain by calling him to the Moderator’s Chair at the early age of forty, and the King decorated him with the O.B.E.. Perhaps, however, the recognition that he most warmly cherished was the reception he received throughout Ross-shire and the North of Scotland in the homes of the men to whom he had been chaplain and friend, as he went about to bear news of them to parents and friends, and often, alas, to offer comfort under sore bereavement.

In 1918 he was translated by the General Assembly to the charge of Dornoch, as colleague and successor to the Rev. Ewan Macleod, where he laboured for about two years. When the venerable Principal MacCulloch, in his declining years, began to feel the burden of his large congregation too much for his strength, Mr Macleod felt the call to stand by this honoured father and leader of the Church irresistible, and he was translated to Hope Street Gaelic Church, in 1927. The translation gave unqualified pleasure to the aged Principal, and the most cordial and brotherly relations existed between the Senior and Junior ministers to the end. As preacher and pastor Mr Macleod gave to the Hope Street Congregation the best of his years and out of the fullness of his experience. Under his ministry the congregation renewed its strength and became a force in the evangelical life of the City, and one of the strongest missionary congregations of the Free Church.

A man of Mr Macleod’s zeal and public spirit could not confine his energies to his own congregation. Small and struggling congregations throughout the Church, and especially within the Presbytery, found in him a champion and a ready helper. He always kept before him the hopeful prospect of seeing the Free Church expanding in the South, particularly in the populous industrial areas, where he believed her witness was urgently needed and her testimony, when fully known, would come to be appreciated. As a tribute to the place he held among his brethren in the city, and in recognition of his many public-spirited activities, he was co-opted a member of the Education Committee of the Glasgow Corporation. He was also a Director of the National Bible Society of Scotland, a Director of the Scottish Evangelistic Council, a member of the Western Committee of the Scottish Reformation Society, and an active helper in many other movements that worked for the advancement of the Kingdom of God at home and abroad. Through these and similar activities he made the Church he loved and served and her testimony widely known and appreciated.

In the Presbytery he was a wise counsellor, an able administrator, and a keen debater. His co-presbyters bear ready testimony to his brotherliness and Christian charity at all times and under all circumstances. In the General Assembly his voice was frequently raised on behalf of the witness of the Church at home and abroad. As a member of Church Committees, and more especially as convener of committees, his forceful personality and warm enthusiasm for every cause he espoused made him a splendid protagonist, to enlist whose sympathy was almost a certain guarantee of getting things done. His severest critic could merely say that at times his warm heart and ready sympathy led him to espouse causes that were not so worthy of his energies. Through it all, and in spite of the clash of conflicting opinions, he remained a loyal and devoted friend. To many who knew him his gift of friendship was the rarest and most memorable quality about him, and his ready and open-hearted sympathy in the time of bereavement and sorrow was a thing never to be forgotten. Those who received so generously of his sympathy feel they can do no more than offer to his widow and young family that measure of sympathy which he so spontaneously extended to others.

May his congregation, now pastorless, experience much of the Chief Shepherd’s watchful care.

 

Tribute
Author: Vice-Convener, Foreign Missions Committee
Source: The Monthly Record, March, 1939

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When the startling news of the death of the Rev. John Macleod, O.B.E., on the morning of Friday, 27th January, was intimated to members of Committees then assembled in Edinburgh, it was the Foreign Missions Committee which was made to realise most keenly the full significance of his loss.

It was upon the sudden death of Dr Stewart in the spring of 1937 that Mr Macleod was appointed Convener of the Foreign Missions Committee. He had no previous knowledge of the work of the Committee, but from the very outset he threw himself into the duties of the office with commendable zeal and energy. In a remarkably short time, considering the variety and intricacy of the business which comes before the Committee, Mr Macleod acquired a comprehensive grasp of all aspects of our Foreign Mission work and a keen personal interest in the personnel of the different fields. His ability in this respect had something of a unique quality in it. Mr Macleod had a deep sense of the responsibility of the work which was entrusted to him by the General Assembly. Often in private he referred to his first reactions on realising the magnitude of the task which confronted him and how it sent him to the Throne of Grace for Divine strength and leading. His prayers were graciously answered and he received many encouragements. To many who knew him intimately it seemed indeed that his energies were peculiarly consecrated to this branch of the Church’s work which was committed to his charge. Only those who came into close contact with the late Convener realise how much he took the Foreign Mission work upon his heart. His unflagging energy, his keenness, his memory for detail and his faculty for getting things done, were an inspiration to all who had to work with him.

On assuming the Convenership in 1937, Mr Macleod set before himself the laudable aim of reducing the Church’s Foreign Mission debt. On public occasions when speaking at Missionary meetings he never missed an opportunity of holding up this object as a first principle for which he invariably made a stirring appeal. In the conduct of the Committee’s business his watchful attitude in this direction never relaxed.

 

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 PRINCIPAL JOHN MACLEOD

(Died 11th July, 1948)
Source: The Monthly Record, August, 1948

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News of the passing of Principal Macleod early on Sabbath, 11th July, deeply moved the whole Church, for there were few men within her borders so greatly admired and so greatly loved. The present issue of The Record contains tributes to his worth from his own minister, who in the later years of his life knew him most intimately, from Principal Miller, who succeeded him as head of the College, from Professor John Murray, who was an intimate friend, and from the Rev. Robert C. Christie, who was one of his students. Though all these tributes are written with fulness of knowledge and sincere appreciation, one feels that the man himself was bigger than any tribute that pen can write. In the variety and wealth of his endowments he was a man apart, a personality such as crosses one’s path but once in a life-time. Not only was he richly endowed, he was splendidly balanced. In intellectual stature a giant amongst men, he remained humble in spirit and child-like in his trust. Seldom indeed could one find such comprehensiveness of mind combined with such a complete and accurate mastery of detail, or such strength of character combined with such tenderness of sympathy, or such strong willpower and resolute purpose combined with such self-restraint and genuine consideration for others. These were but a few of the qualities that went to produce a character of singular poise and dignity, of impressive weight and lovableness. Over and above all this, there was his unflinching loyalty to the Evangel and his complete submission of intellect and heart to the authority of the Word of God. That an intellect so clear, a mind so penetrating, and a judgment so wise and sound should have been so wedded to the old Evangel that he would not alter a jot or a tittle of it in accommodation to the mood of the age, is not merely remarkable in this generation, but will remain a perennial source of strength and encouragement to men of weaker faith. John Macleod is gone, and it is in no spirit of adulation we claim for him that he left none of his mental calibre and spiritual strength behind him in the Scotland of our day.

 

Author: Principal P. W. Miller
Source: The Monthly Record, August, 1948, 147-149

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He has finished his course. What image of him does memory evoke? A noble, impressive figure, engaged in constant, well-directed effort in a ministry of over half a century. History, if it is wise, will not let his name die, but the final and perfect assessment of his work will The Day alone declare.

Meantime, we shall concentrate mainly on his general service to the Church and his special work in the College, ordering our thoughts and easing our hearts the while.

I
Dr Macleod made himself a place all his own in the Church. His advice was freely sought in the problems and perplexities that beset ministers and congregations. His solidity and weight of character, his wide-ranging interests and clear vision, his insight, ripe experience, and sound judgment rendered him an invaluable counsellor in things outer and inner, great and small. He made his mark, too, in our Church Courts. While he was a past master of Church law and fluent speaker who could think on his feet, he was not a debater in the normal sense and generally stood outside controversies. His contributions to discussions, in which he took a large share, were always relevant and effective, and often decisive. When he had sketched the background and cited the principles which applied, the question in hand was in a fair way to settling itself. By common consent he had his field day in connection with representatives of other Churches in the General Assembly. For a long period it was almost a prescriptive right of Dr Macleod to “introduce” those visitors to the Moderator to be thanked. As he drew on the stores of his unrivalled knowledge of the different countries and communions of the delegates before him, the wonder of the Assembly would grow, the visitors gaze in astonishment, the public, whether fully following or not, knew that there was something fine going on, and all were lifted above the routine of the House and given an ampler vision of other parts and times. On those epic occasions the members underwent real educative treatment and had brought home to them the reality and claims of the Church Universal. Besides, he followed in the wake of Knox, and Melville, and many another, and busied himself with extra-congregational activities. As chairman of the then Inverness-shire Authority, he took an active and leading part in educational administration, and his work attracted the attention and earned the encomiums of experts in the field.

II.
The College, in which somewhat less than half his working life was spent, provided the proper sphere for his distinctive powers, and witnessed his chief successes for the kingdom.

1. His dominant intellectual interests were theological, and this happy bias gave a special flavour and richness to his class prelections, and coloured his ordinary conversation. A convinced adherent and a sane exponent of the Reformed Theology, he assumed more often than he affirmed that it was the system which did justice to the canonical revelation and gave promise of stability and steady growth for the Church. His study and unwearying effort for his students in the things of dogmatic thinking and belief was to bar the ways to natural swerving and straying, the worst of which is doctrinal extremism. No doubt he quoted in support a statement of Charles Simeon, of Cambridge – one of his prime favourites in the pages of history – which runs somewhat as follows: “Truth does not lie in either of the extremes, but in both extremes.” This position may seem to be a matter of course, but the history of religious thought shows and not least in recent days that the method is more honoured in the breach than in the observance. Equally to the point and in season was the caution not to mistake the theology of the heart, canvassed by many good people in evangelical circles, for the theology of the head, that is of the Word. That has not been a common distinction in academic institutions, and in this non-theological age, which affects Conservatives as well as Liberals, the hint should not be thrown away.

That John Macleod was a notable bookman cannot go without mention. A collector he indubitably was, if not in the technical sense, for he had read all his books, and to some purpose. Knowing the highways and the byways of his chosen departments, he took his own way in that vast and confusing region, and encouraged and helped others to go and do likewise. On raising him a question, as likely as not one would be referred to the book that treated of the subject, along with precise references and illuminative comments. As Dr. Macleod was disposing of some books in recent years, he remarked, with unaccustomed feeling: “I had great pleasure in gathering these,” and one was left to guess the pain he felt in dispersing them.

2. The attractions of theology were outmatched in his case by, and had their source in, a pre-occupation with religion, evangelical heart-religion. Scarcely ever did he give an address without striking the Halyburton-like note: “Make sure work of having a saving interest in Christ.” A modern change in preaching the Gospel exercised him much. It was that little or nothing was now being said about the supernatural element in conversion, the special enabling activity of the Spirit. So long as thirty years ago a sermon of his on that aspect of things abides in the memory. Dr Macleod let the white fire of his indignation play on that perversion of the Gospel, which bade fair to “drown souls in destruction and perdition.” It was thought that there may have been an autobiographical element in what obviously stirred him so abnormally. The prophetic elevation, fervour, and almost fierceness of that hour were far from usual. Calm, connected, persuasive reasoning of a richly devout tone was the normal pulpit style with him, and while all the joints of the argument may not have been clear even to the most attentive listener, in the end one was convinced that his case was made out and conviction of the truth of the theme was once for all brought home to mind and heart.

3. But his own personality counted more than with most, and demands some slight scrutiny. What manner of man was he? Without controversy, a man of God. When he spoke – and he spoke much – he spoke by preference of the things that lay nearest his heart, and commended the vital religion he exemplified. With abilities and acquirements that would have brought him to the very front rank in any walk of life, he entered with open eyes on a comparatively restricted and unpopular sphere for conscience’ sake. The courage shown in taking and keeping to that stony, wind-swept track certainly did something to nurture those strong, compelling qualities that informed and energised his actions. His invincible calm and self-possession was, I fancy, not at all akin to the phlegmatic, the rigid, or the indifferent, but the outcome of conquering and disciplining a strong, feeling nature enfolding titanic forces. And withal the garment of humility covered him about. Quite devoid of anything ostentatious, politic, or superficial, his humility clearly flowed from the spirit that speaks on this wise: He must increase, and I must decrease. The piety which moulded the man was fostered by the great devotional classics, which he knew so well, and commended by voice and pen. A search of old files of the Monthly Record alone would surely yield no little spoil on Bunyan and Hervey, Henry and Toplady, Rutherford and Guthrie and McCheyne, and the appreciations of these worthies would prove part of Dr Macleod’s own story. But the grace of God found its chief channel as ever in the Word. How Dr Macleod liked to minister the pure messages of Scripture to his hearers, be they few or many, by keeping close to the text! And the deep things of God offered had first been searched out and savoured by himself. He was at home in showing the grand, mounting arguments of Paul, as in Romans, but one felt that it was in the Johannine books, with their simplicities and sublimities, that he was truly in his element. The solid piety which bespoke a sober religion cannot be overlooked in any attempt to characterise and evaluate his teaching in the College.

4. On the administrative side, Dr Macleod brought his mellow wisdom to bear on the routine and critical business of the College alike. The cautious, eirenic spirit of the man made for friendly discussion and agreed findings in the Senatus. So far as there was a method, he kept a few ruling principles for general guidance, and left the details to be seen to by others or to look after themselves. His supervision was none the less real and beneficial for being little in evidence.

And we may expect his works to follow him. God honours His promises. But men have their part to play. Dr Macleod was cast in a mould of generous proportions and bore a special stamp. Is he a suitable model and examplar? Yes, we can answer, if we grasp the fact that we are to follow the Lord’s as they followed the Lord. “Moses my servant is dead,” said the Lord to Joshua, “now therefore arise.” And Joshua did, and not in vain. The Apostles had their work effectively continued by lesser men. Even our Divine Lord found men to continue, and will yet find them to perfect, His Church, with Him.

 

Biographical Sketch
Author: G. N. M. Collins
Source: The Monthly Record, August, 1948, 152-154

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When Principal-Emeritus John Macleod, D.D., was translated to the Church triumphant very early on Sabbath morning, 11th July, the Scottish Church lost one of the most remarkable of her sons – a man whose encyclopaedic knowledge was drawn upon, and whose right judgment was appealed to, not only by his brethren in the Free Church of Scotland, but by representatives of the various branches of the Reformed Church in many lands

The late Principal was a native of Fort William, and had his earliest educational training there. At the age of thirteen, however, he proceeded to Aberdeen and enrolled in the Old Grammar School of the Granite City “the Barn” as it was commonly called, on account of its architectural plainness. His class-mates there were for the most part his seniors – in some cases by several years – and, if last in age, the lad from Lochaber soon became first in attainment, particularly in the study of the Classics. So markedly was this the case that as his class-fellow, the late Dr. C. H. Milne of Daniel Stewart’s College, recalled in a speech made at the time of Principal Macleod’s retirement, the premier position was commonly regarded as beyond competition, its occupancy was already settled: proxime accesit account was the highest distinction to which the expectations of his keenest rivals could rise.

Crowning his achievements at the Grammar School by becoming Dux, he proceeded to Aberdeen University, and there added to his academic laurels. There were giants in the Arts classes in those days, but John Macleod was more than a match for the best of them in his chosen department, and at the early age of nineteen he not only graduated with First Class Honours in Classics but also secured the premier awards in the ancient languages. His Professors urged him to proceed to Oxford and Cambridge for a further period of study, in which they felt sure he would rise to still higher academic distinction: but John Macleod had already laid his resplendent gifts upon the altar of God, and coveted for himself as the supreme honour of life, the service of his Divine Master in the ministry of the Word.

With a view to widening his usefulness in pulpit service, he took up the study of Gaelic, becoming an authority in the subject. It was in prosecution of this study that he first visited the Island of Lewis, where he met with a type of piety, attractively personified in his friend and mentor, Angus Morrison, which held his admiration for the rest of his life. For more than a year be taught in the Nicolson Institute in Stornoway, and then resumed studies for the ministry at New College, Edinburgh, and afterwards at Assembly’s College, Belfast,

At the Declaratory Act crisis in 1893, John Macleod had sided with the secession party, and in 1897, his theological studies completed, he was ordained and inducted to the pastorate of the Free Presbyterian Church in Lochbroom, whence, four years later, he was translated to Kames.

While at Kames, and subsequent to the Church Union of 1900, he gave valuable service as Lecturer to the students of the remanent Free Church; and in 1906, after his admission to the Free Church the obnoxious Declaratory Act being now out of the way he was appointed to the Chair of Greek and New Testament Exegesis in the re-constituted Free Church College. But his love of the pulpit never left him, and when in 1913 he was called to the pastorate of the Free North Church, Inverness, to succeed Rev. Murdo Mackenzie, on whose motion he had been appointed to a College Chair seven years previously, he accepted, and ministered there until 1930, when the College again claimed him this time as Professor of Apologetics.

The pastorate at Inverness was itself sufficiently exacting to absorb all the energy of an ordinary man; but as well as ministering to a large and attached congregation, John Macleod not only took a very full share in the administrative work pertaining to the Free Church, but also acted as Examiner in Religious Knowledge in the day-schools situated in a wide area of the Highland counties, and was for several years Chairman of the Inverness-shire Education Authority. Three high honours of an ecclesiastical and academic nature were bestowed upon him during his Inverness ministry. He was made Moderator of the Free Church General Assembly in 1920, Doctor of Divinity of Aberdeen University in 1924, and Principal of the Free Church College in 1927. From 1930 until illness compelled him to resign in 1942, he continued to serve in the dual capacity of Principal and Professor.

Principal Macleod travelled widely in the service of the Church, visiting the Continent of Europe, Canada and the United States, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. He was also able, in 1926, to fulfil a long-cherished wish to visit Palestine and Egypt. His last visit abroad was in 1939, when he delivered the course of lectures in the Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, which has since been published under the title, Scottish Theology in Relation to Church History since the Reformation.

The respect which Principal Macleod commanded at one’s first acquaintance with him quickly deepened into strong and abiding affection as the acquaintance ripened. For the Principal was the embodiment of a rare combination of gifts and graces. Profound learning was coupled with child-like humility, firmness with charity, strong conviction with brotherly kindness. Although his ministry was cast in a period of ecclesiastical controversy, his escutcheon never sustained a blot, and he will long live in the memory of all who met him in the ecclesiastical arena, whichever side they were on, as a shining example of that charity that “suffereth long and is kind”. A leading Evangelical of the present day, whose name is as highly esteemed north of the Border as it is in his native South, remarked to the present writer, after he had taken his farewell of the Principal, as it turned out, for the last time, “It has been my privilege to meet many godly men in the course of my ministry, but I have never met a man in whom the level of piety stood higher than it does in Principal Macleod.” And with that estimate, all who knew him will cordially agree.

The late Principal is buried in the Grange Cemetery, Edinburgh, the “Valhalla of the Free Church,” as he himself used to describe it – with only the width of a path between his last resting-place and that of Professor John Duncan, the saintly “Rabbi,” whom he describes in Scottish Theology as “one of the most profound and versatile of scholars, one of the humblest of believers, and one of the most erratic and absent-minded of men” – a tribute which, with the exceрtion of the last clause, is strikingly applicable to himself.

Principal Macleod is survived by two sons and two daughters, to whom, in their irreparable loss, the sympathy of the Free Church of Scotland is extended.

 

Dr John Macleod as Theologian
Author: Professor John Murray
Source: The Monthly Record, August, 1948, 152-154

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It is difficult to analyse and express the deep and tender esteem which one was compelled to entertain for Principal Macleod. To write an appreciation worthy of the gifts and graces with which God endowed him is not an easy task. This is true also when one focusses attention upon his attainments as a theologian. The requisites of a good theologian are manifold and our analysis into a concrete case, can never do justice to the various factors involved. A few of the requisites, with which Principal Macleod was adorned to a remarkable degree, may however be mentioned.

The first requisite of a good theologian is fervent piety. Principal Macleod’s theological interest had its spring in devotion to the God of truth and to the infallible revelation of His mind and will deposited in the holy Scriptures. His faith that Scripture is the infallible word of God was unwavering and his adherence to this principium of sound theology was resolute and uncompromising. The result was that profound reverence which is the soul of piety and the condition of all sound exposition.

No theology is Christian unless it rests upon exegesis of the Scripture. Exposition was perhaps the most noteworthy mark of Principal Macleod’s whole career. His sermons exemplified in a conspicuous way the inspired canon, “a workman that needeth not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth.” Just as the material of his faith was derived from Scripture, so was the content of his theology.

Theology must never be divorced from the rich streams of theological study and formulation that come to us from the past. Principal Macleod was a meticulous and untiring student of history and of historical theology. It was in this field that his knowledge was massive and even encyclopaedic. The masterpiece of his pen, the ripe fruit of a lifetime of thought and research, Scottish Theology in Relation to Church History since the Reformation, provides us with a permanent monument to the fine combination of theological discrimination, well-balanced emphasis and historical knowledge which were such marked characteristics of his thought and work.

If we are to categorise Principal Macleod in terms of the development of historical theology, we shall have to say that he was from beginning to end a devoted adherent, exponent and defender of the Reformed Theology. To particularise a little further, he stood in the direct line of succession to such eminent Scottish theologians as William Cunningham, James Buchanan, Hugh Martin and James MacGregor, and if we cross the Atlantic, to Charles Hodge and B. B. Warfield. For such theologians he had the deepest respect and love. When we say this we must not think, however, that he was the hand-slave of any man. He was a hand-slave of Jesus Christ and his devotion to the Head of the Church as his only Master and Lord led him in humility and obedience to the only infallible rule of faith as the one norm and source of theology. It was in the Word of God he found his foundation and it was to that Word as divine authority and finality he bowed.

May God be pleased to lay upon many of Scotland’s sons the constraint which our reverent friend so manifestly displayed and may those of us who have witnessed his example emulate his simplicity and humility which adorned his confession and commended his faith.

 

Impressions and Recollections
Author: By One of His Students: Robert C. Christie, Saltcoats and Ardrossan, and Stevenston Free Church
Source: The Monthly Record, August, 1948, 152-154

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The news of the death of Principal-Emeritus John Macleod will awaken, among his former students, many memories of the man himself, of his voice and of his mannerisms.

As a man he was humble and kindly, and bore himself with a simple unassuming dignity which commanded respect. To this respect due to him as a man, and as Professor and Principal, was added an admiration for his many excellent qualities, allied to a genuine affection for one, who, at all times, took a personal and kindly interest in the doings and progress of his students.

His prayers never failed to make a deep impression upon all who heard them. He maintained that only the best should be offered to God. This he aimed at in his prayers, which could not be surpassed for dignity, conciseness of language, or beauty of diction. One petition, which was of frequent occurrence, was that the Church might be able to hold fast the Word at home, and to hold forth the Word abroad. Few of his students will forget the prayer with which he almost invariably dismissed his classes, “Lord, let Thy mercy be on us, as we do hope in Thee.”

While we, as students, were acquainted with his versatility, and recognised his learning and wide scholarship, the feature of his mental equipment which impressed us, perhaps more than any other, was the accuracy of his memory. Many a time, in search of an anecdote or quotation, he would reach for a book, and, without hesitation, open it, and read out the appropriate passage. Just as often he would be able to quote accurately without reference to a book at all.

On one occasion I had the privilege of making a short train journey in the company of Principal Macleod, who beguiled the time with anecdotes of Dr Thomas Chalmers and others. Of such anecdotes relating to the religious history of Scotland in a past generation he had a great store. These tales he related, to the delight of his students, in his own inimitable fashion, lapsing where necessary into the Doric, or into the dialect of Buchan. I can also recall one other story in which he imitated to perfection the nasal twang of America.

It can truly be said of John Macleod that he was a great man, greatest in his humility – and never more than on the occasion he took his farewell of the College. I happened to be present on that day though no longer a student and was deeply impressed when he humbly acknowledged that perhaps unknowingly he had grieved or wronged someone who had passed through his hands, adding “I beg their forgiveness, as I seek forgiveness from my God.”

 

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 REV. MALCOLM MACLEOD, KINLOCH

(Died 19th April, 1908)
Source: The Monthly Record, June, 1908, p.112

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Mr. Macleod died suddenly on Sabbath evening, 19th April, after conducting the usual evening service. The cause of death was apoplexy. He appeared to be in excellent health all week, and did more than his ordinary work. He was visiting and conducting meetings during four days of that week.

Mr. Macleod was a native of Lewis. He took all his education in Scotland, with the exception of one winter session, which he took in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He was first in the Free Church Normal Training College, Glasgow, and from there he went to Edinburgh University, and afterwards to the New College. In the summer of 1873 he was sent by the Colonial Committee of the Free Church of Scotland as a missionary to Highlanders in Cape Breton, where he laboured until licensed at Boularderie, Cape Breton, on 31st July, 1874. From thence he went to the province of Quebec, where a large colony of Lewis people were settled, and being called to a congregation there he was ordained on 12th July, 1877. He remained there until called back again to Loch Lomond, Cape Breton, and was inducted to that charge on 19th October, 1887. There he laboured for eighteen years. He returned to his native land in July, 1905. After being received by the Free Church, he accepted a call to Kinloch, Lewis, where he was inducted on 13th September, 1905, labouring with earnestness and zeal, until called so suddenly and unexpectedly to his reward in the 69th year of his age.

 

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 ROBERT MACLEOD

(Died 25th November, 1946)
Source: The Monthly Record, January, 1947, p.6

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Tidings reach us, as we go to press, of the death of the Rev. Robert Macleod, Senior Minister of Harris, which took place at Leverburgh on the 25th November in the 85th year of his age. Mr Macleod’s presence will be much missed in Free Church circles in Uist and Harris, where he has been a prominent figure and a highly respected personality.

For many years before his ordination in 1902 Mr Macleod gave much useful service to the Church as lay agent, and the writer’s earliest, and practically only, recollection of him comes from these days. A man of commanding presence, strong and sturdy physique, he possessed gifts of mind and heart that endeared him to the Lord’s people and made his ministry everywhere acceptable. His strength of intellect was remarkable and though he had not had the benefit of a prolonged discipline of academic training, his remarkable gifts were under the control of a robust common-sense, and, for aptness and conciseness, many of his utterances were memorable. He was a powerful Gaelic preacher, and his expositions of Scripture were both original and practical. Sympathy goes out to his family, many of whom occupy positions of responsibility and influence, and to his congregation, now happily settled under a colleague and successor.

 

Author: A. F.
Source: The Monthly Record, March, 1947, pp.53-54

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The Rev. Robert Macleod belonged to an age and race of worthies fast passing away, where critical hearing and sitting in judgment were not thought of because such power accompanied the word preached, and such spiritual desire marked the hearing. He was named after the Rev. Robert Finlayson, of saintly memory, and one of a succession of eminent ministers in his native parish of Lochs.

Mr Macleod came under the influence of the truth early in life. He was a genuine descendant, and a worthy representative, of that type of living Christianity which flourished in Lewis and the north until comparatively recently. It was his privilege to have heard many of the great preachers of a bygone generation, including in the north, the Rev. Hector Cameron of Back, and in the south, Principal Lindsay, Dr Stalker, and many others. Mr Cameron, apparently impressed with his peculiar gifts and piety, did his utmost to encourage him to study for the Christian Ministry, even to the extent of offering pecuniary assistance to the utmost of his ability. After studying at Glasgow High School from 1892, he laboured as a missionary-teacher at Ullapool, Assynt, and at Daliburgh, South Uist. About 1894, until sometime after 1898, he was missionary at Luing, Argyllshire, after which he went to Carbost, Skye. He was there at the time of the Union. And the fact that the whole congregation of Bracadale adhered to the Free Church, only the minister going into the Union, reflects no small credit on Mr Macleod’s powers of leadership. Later he was for some time at Lochs during a vacancy. He also served at Strathpeffer and at Lochalsh for a considerable period.

It was while at Strathpeffer that he met Lord Halsbury who, as Lord Chancellor, gave his historical verdict in favour of the Free Church in the House of Lords’ case. Mr Macleod saw Lord Halsbury awaiting the train at Dingwall Station. Going up to him, and addressing him with becoming dignity, he said: “I salute your Lordship for your just decision in favour of the Free Church. I believe many of God’s people are praying for your Lordship.” Lord Halsbury’s reply was in as terse and forcible terms as those in which he gave his historic decision. “I did my duty according to my conscience.” With reference to his place in the prayers of God’s people, he added: “Of these I feel unworthy.”

In 1912 he was ordained and inducted in Paible, North Uist, where he laboured until 1923, when he was translated to the congregation of Harris. He remained in that congregation until his retiral last year, when his colleague and successor, the Rev. John Mackenzie, was inducted to the charge. Mr Macleod was one of the few laymen who adhered to the Free Church at the time of the Union. Only the Great Day will reveal what their posterity owe to that faithful band of ministers and laymen who, under God, piloted the Free Church out of the “deep waters” whither her rowers had brought her. Seldom was “so much owed by so many to so few.” Mr Macleod was one of the most indefatigable of this band, who were from the very outset confronted with stupendous demands on their services. His labours were unusually extensive and often attended with much physical and mental strain. He was, however, by reason of his powerful physique as well as his mental gifts pre-eminently fitted for such activities.

His powers of mind were of a high order, and in pulpit and on platform his unusual gifts came into prominence. As a preacher his utterances were weighty and powerful, his preaching always bearing evidence of much careful preparation of both heart and mind. He was under no delusion as to the magnitude of the task he had undertaken or of the formidable opposition to be encountered. Well aware that he who engages in the full and unflinching publication of the Gospel must lay his account for no small measure of opposition he, at the very outset, began his labours as he intended to finish. And he finished as he had begun. What was said of another who “never feared the face of man” was true of him: “he spoke but one language, and spoke on.” He felt the loneliness which is the price of integrity. He was conscious of the changes that were taking place in the religious world around him. He shrank from contact with a religion of excitability and false impressions which was fast ousting his Lord from His sanctuary. He abhorred the popularity that is gained by earthly qualifications and a courtly willingness to sink obnoxious truths, adapting the message to the prejudices of the minds of others.

He passed to his rest on the 25th of November 1946, at the advanced age of 85 years. “The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart, and merciful men are taken away.”

 

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 REV. RODERICK MACLEOD, B.D., DUNOON

(Died 11th March, 1937)
Author: W. R. B. [Walter Rounsfell Brown]
Source: The Monthly Record, May, 1937, p.108

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Our esteemed friend – embodiment of Celtic strength in thought, speech and action – sunk peacably to his rest, in his Manse at Dunoon, on 11th March, then in his eighty-first year.

Mr Macleod was born in Bernera, Harris, and was a pupil-teacher there before passing to Edinburgh University, where he graduated. He had for a long time looked forward to the Ministry of the Free Church; but he had accompanied the express announcement of his objective with such display of critical and militant “constitutionalism” as to make it recognisable by no less than himself that, even in these far-off days, his pathway to a Highland Pulpit would be hampered by much official opposition. He betook himself to Canada as a freer field; attended Pinehill Seminary (the Theological College of the Presbyterian Church of Canada) at Halifax, Nova Scotia; and took the degree of B.D. of Dalhousie University.

His first Charge was, in 1887, at Strathlorne, Cape Breton. Later he was Minister of the important charge of Dunvegan, Glengarry, Ontario, and finally he became Minister of Ripley, in the Huron Track, where his large Congregation was mainly drawn, like himself, from the Long Island.

It was in 1908 that Mr Macleod returned to Scotland, bringing with him Mrs Macleod, a lady of charming sweetness, whom he had wooed and won in his student days; she was daughter of Professor Honeyman, one of his teachers in Pinehill. Mrs Macleod remained as a gracious complement to the robust manner of her husband, until her death in July, 1936.

When Mr. Macleod came back to Scotland the Free Church sorely needed such as he. Called to Greenock he welded together the somewhat scattered elements of the now vigorous Congregation in that place. In 1910 he was translated to Garrabost, Stornoway, to which huge Congregation he ministered until – in realising that time’s admonition counselled a less exacting sphere – he accepted a call to Dunoon. That place, in the Presbytery of Glasgow, lent itself readily to activity in the South; Mr Macleod became better known than ever to his younger brethren who saw, and understood, the large-heartedness of this Father – ever fearless in debate, earnest in preaching, and a minister who could be severe or kindly, as his hearers required for guidance through life.

Mr Macleod filled with acceptance the office of Moderator over the General Assembly of 1921.

Two years ago the Congregation at Dunoon was allowed to call a Colleague and Successor, but they did not use the permission. Mr Macleod abode still in the Manse and continued, almost to the end, to worship as a hearer. Only at lengthening intervals was he able to occupy the pulpit. Early in this present year a deputation from the Glasgow Presbytery waited on Mr Macleod at the Dunoon Manse – he was not well enough for a public meeting – and presented him with an address, and a silver-mounted and inscribed ebony walking stick, in grateful acknowledgment of valued friendship, and congratulation that the Lord had honoured His Servant with long life in acceptance of work well done.

 

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 RODERICK JOHN MACLEOD, DUMBARTON

(Died 1920)
Author: W. R. B. [Walter Rounsfell Brown]
Source: The Monthly Record, March, 1920, pp.64-65

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The passing away of Rev. Roderick Macleod, in the prime of his manhood, has been a staggering blow to his many friends throughout the Church. Only about a week before his death with his accustomed vitality and warm-hearted friendliness, he attended to his usual pastoral duties, and took his share of outside public work. Less than twenty-four hours before the end the writer presided at the annual meeting of the Dumbarton Sabbath School; and although it was then known that the minister was seriously ill every one refused to feel alarmed. It could not be that Rev. R. J. Macleod was to die! The following evening the news of his death came with a stunning effect of unspeakable loss – a sorrow which at first could find no words. Rarely for a man so young was seen such a demonstration of a congregation’s grief as was seen in the Church on Sabbath morning. It was moving in the extreme to see strong men and women broken by sorrow; thus manifesting what a great and personal bereavement his death was to them.

Those who knew Mr Macleod intimately will find it difficult to accustom themselves to the fact of his death, for his genial personality meant so much to them. He had the personal qualities that endear a man to his fellows – great sympathy, a genius for friendship and happy humour. He had a generous and open-hearted nature, and than he no man could be more loyal and true.

From his earliest years, as the son of a saintly father who was himself an able minister of our blessed Lord, he was trained in theology: but it was after his father’s death, while living in Glasgow, that he became publicly interested in spiritual things. Under the ministry of the late Principal McCulloch he openly professed his faith in Christ, and soon after resolved to study for the ministry of the Church. As a preacher he was growing in power and attractiveness. His natural gifts of presence and manner and his native eloquence and fervour of utterance appealed to many, but it was his message that made the abiding impression. The Cross was his theme and his treatment of it always betokened careful study, preparation, and originality. His aim was to bring man with his ignorance, prejudice, passion and sin into captivity to the obedience of Christ; and it is believed that God honoured his labours.

In the Courts of the Church he will be greatly missed. With an independence that was characteristic of him he interested himself in the things that required to be done, and he was careless who got the credit for doing them. “I cannot understand,” he said, “the oversensitiveness which continually is being hurt and, being hurt, cherishes a grudge.” His was a magnanimous nature; he knew nothing of the sour and crabbed spirit which steals from many their independence, happiness, and usefulness. He served his Church in his own way, with his own gifts and aptitudes and he never spoiled the services he rendered by worrying over what others thought or said or did.

His ministry in Dumbarton was short; but it was rich in grace and abundantly blessed. He was beloved by his people all; and by his Christian courtesy, unobtrusive devotion, and warm sympathy won the esteem of the whole community. His own congregation did not monopolise all his interests: he was keenly interested to the last in every good work, and ready to join his brethren in matters that affected the common weal. In every particular, with courage, he did his best to serve the Lord and at the last, with fearless courage, he encountered the gloom of death. Those who watched at his bedside as he lay dying could not understand all he said, but it was with something like new strength that the dying voice uttered: “My hope is in God; I am going to my God.”

All who were privileged to know him will miss him for many a day to come. They realise how great must be the desolation in the more intimate relations of life. But amid the desolation and the anguish there is the comfort – the fragrant and treasured memories that are left behind: the vanished hand still touches; the voice that is still speaks on. And there is the Voice that greets every true servant of God who lived up to his profession, when the door is opened which lies beyond all our losses: “Well done, thou good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things; be thou ruler over many things; enter thou into the joy of your Lord.”

 

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  REV. WILLIAM J. MACLEOD, FORT AUGUSTUS

(Died 5th September, 1958)

Source: The Monthly Record, October, 1958, p.111

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The sad news has just reached us, as we go to press, of the death of Rev. W. J. Macleod, minister of Fort Augustus and Glenmoriston Free Church. We expect that one of his co-presbyters will provide us with a tribute to him for publication in our next issue. Meanwhile, we purpose to do little more than express our deepest sympathy to his widow and son in their sore bereavement.

Mr Macleod was a native of Lewis and a close associate of good men from his early youth. He was no novice in preaching the Gospel, even before he studied for the ministry, and the promise of an acceptable minister was discerned in him from the beginning of his public witness. He was minister successively of Tobermory Free Church; Fort William, Ontario, Free Church; and, latterly, Fort Augustus and Glenmoriston Free Church. Throughout his ministry he was hampered by rather delicate health – the result of military service in the 1914-18 War – but the utmost of his strength was always given to the work in hand, for his sense of duty was strong. For the past year or two he was almost completely incapacitated by illness, and he knew that the sands of his time were fast running out. But he endured his affliction with Christian patience and resignation, and when the end came, it was peace.

His sorrowing congregation will be remembered in the prayers of our people, as well as his wife, who nursed him with such tender care, and his son, a medical student in Aberdeen University, so early bereft of a loving father. May the comforts of the Gospel be theirs in abundance!

 

In Memoriam
Author: F. M.
Source: The Monthly Record, December, 1958, p.241

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The Rev. W. J. Macleod, minister at Fort Augustus and Glenmoriston, was called home to the “House of Many Mansions” on 5th September. He was 61 years of age.

Both in Canada and at home, he was under the necessity of spending fairly long spells in hospital, due to his having been badly gassed in the First World War.

Mr Macleod was a native of Lewis, the birthplace of many Free Church ministers. As a young man he worked for a period in Govan. He was a member of the Territorial Army, and when the war broke out he was, in the course of events, sent to France, and suffered war injuries from which he never fully recovered.

Mr Macleod was minister in Tobermory for three years. Later, he served the Church in Canada for 11 years. During that period he visited and preached in all our congregations from Prince Edward Island to Vancouver. He was inducted minister of the Fort William congregation in Canada and remained there until he returned to this country in 1947. The congregation of Fort Augustus and Glenmoriston gave him a call and he was inducted there in the spring of 1948.

He was of a likeable disposition, which was evident from the large circle of his friends. For a number of years he acted as Clerk of Presbytery and proved very competent. As a preacher, he was highly acceptable to his hearers. He inclined to experimental preaching and to the illustration of the Gospel by the types. He believed much in prayer and put it into practice. In sickness he was very patient and resigned to the Lord’s will. On the occasion of his funeral the Church of Fort Augustus was full to overflowing. Many came considerable distances to express their respect and sympathy. The funeral service was led by Rev. Calvin MacKay, M.A., assisted by other ministers.

Mr Macleod was buried in the Church grounds beside the grave of the first Free Church minister of Fort Augustus, the Rev. Francis MacBean.

The sympathy of all friends is extended to Mrs Macleod and Hector.

 

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  DONALD MACNAUGHTON

(Died 1946)
Source: The Monthly Record, March, 1946, p.38

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The death of the Rev. Donald MacNaughton, Clyne, to whose serious illness we made reference in these columns last month, creates a blank in the ministry of the Free Church that is not easily filled.

Donald MacNaughton was in many respects sui generis. A native of Bernera, Lewis, he was somewhat advanced in life before he decided to study for the ministry. Notwithstanding this initial handicap, he equipped himself creditably for the office, and was an eloquent preacher in both Gaelic and English. He held successively the charges of Aultbea, Dores and Bona, and Clyne, and proved himself a diligent and faithful pastor in all of these. He was a favourite preacher at communion seasons in the Highlands, and on two occasions he visited Canada and preached with acceptance to his fellow-islanders in all our mission congregations there. A warm-hearted preacher of the Evangel, whose witness the Spirit of God has been graciously pleased to own, a loyal and generous friend, a man of strong convictions and frank speech, Donald MacNaughton will live long in the memory of many who sat under his preaching or shared his friendship. The sympathy of our readers is extended to his widow and family, one of whom is at present serving in His Majesty’s Forces.

 

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 REV. JOHN MACNEILAGE, BOWER

(Died 5th January, 1931)
Source: The Monthly Record, February, 1931, p.39

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Much regret has been felt throughout the Free Church, as well as by not a few beyond her borders, because of the sudden passing away last month of the Rev. John MacNeilage. A notice of his life and work appears on another page, and all that we propose to do here is to pay to his memory a brief tribute of personal friendship. Mr MacNeilage was a distinctive personality, and in days when most men seem to be fashioned after the same pattern, it is always refreshing to meet one who appears to have been cast in a mould of his own. He was a man of generous human sympathies, although these were sometimes effectively concealed beneath a certain brusqueness of manner. One often differed from him in public discussion, and there can be little doubt that his habit of over-emphasis when discussing his pet aversions occasionally spoiled a good case. But when all this has been freely admitted, there will always remain in the minds of those who knew him well at least two convictions.

The first is that John MacNeilage was a man of outstanding intellectual and literary gifts. In his early years he had read extensively in the richest fields of English literature, and he remained a lover of books to the end of his days. Then from a study of these models he himself acquired a literary style of high distinction, revealing unusual lucidity and vigour, with a rare command of the arresting phrase and the appropriate word.

The other conviction is that he was a man of deep and earnest piety, whose inner life was nourished from a constant study of the Divine Word, and through fellowship with God in prayer. His preaching gifts, for those discerning enough to appreciate them, were of a high order. His treatment of a subject seldom followed the beaten track, but revealed marked originality and freshness. He will be greatly missed in the intimacies of personal friendship, as well as in the arena of public discussion.

 

Author: W. R. B. [Walter Rounsfell Brown]
Source: The Monthly Record, February, 1931, p.39

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This servant of the Church was called to his rest, with startling suddeness on the afternoon of Monday, 5th January. On Sabbath, 4th January, he had preached twice in his own pulpit, his discourse in the evening being on Rev. 21:5: Behold, I make all things new. On Monday forenoon he attended a meeting of the local Nursing Association, and was then in his customary health. In the course of the afternoon he was seized with a cardiac spasm, which being repeated, he collapsed, and within an hour passed away.

Mr MacNeilage was born seventy-two years ago at Kilcreggan, one of a family whose godly and wise upbringing has been to the furtherance of the Redeemer’s Kingdom. John was the eldest of three sons, Archibald MacNeilage being the second.

Mr John removed to Glasgow, and there began business life in the service of an architect and measurer, at the same time joining himself to Milton Free Church. Afterwards he began business as a Bookseller, Stationer, and Printer. He specialised in Puritan literature and put on the market several cheap reprints of notable books. From 1901 till 1906, he was printer of this Record.

Not content with printing and selling books, he reads books doing so with such purpose as to become versed in general and theological literature in measure beyond the attainment of some who have pursued a College course.

After 1892 Mr MacNeilage found himself in the Free Presbyterian Church, where he had opportunity to discover his capacity as a preacher. Later he rejoined the Free Church, and continued there to exercise his native aptitude for the ministry. In 1908, at the request of the congregation of Dunbeath and Berriedale (Caithness), he was, by the General Assembly, in view of special gifts and suitability to the needs of that congregation, ordained, on special terms, to be its minister. In 1913 he was, by leave of the General Assembly, translated to Bower, in the same Presbytery. Neither of these charges was so large as to deprive the minister of some leisure. This he carefully husbanded for unabated study, and for the expression in periodicals of his conclusions on things concerning both Church and State. The pages of the Record, and recently of the Evangelical Quarterly naturally gave displays of his pungently critical power. The Spectator readily opened its columns to his exposures of the fallacies of unwise politicians.

Mr MacNeilage came indeed to be regarded by some people as one obsessed – one who could not open his lips, or use his pen, without a reference (after the manner of King Charles’ Head) to Trade Unionism and Socialism. This was an unfair conclusion, but in itself an acknowledgment of his fearless thinking and his trenchant language. Though often provocative in, for example, Assembly debates, he always commanded a ready hearing, his wide and apt vocabulary was pleasurably informative. Defeated as he often was, he yet cherished no resentment. In this, and in many other ways, he revealed attractive phases of a character which was kindly and companionable. But during all, and over all, Mr MacNeilage was a notable preacher and honest pastor, as also a man of affairs, in the Presbytery of Caithness, which now, through his death, stands greatly impoverished. Mr MacNeilage is survived by his widow.

His remains were interred in the family burial-place, near Kilcreggan, on Friday, 9th January. A special service was held in Milton Church, Glasgow, at 11 a.m. that day, presided over by Mr Macdonald, Minister of Milton. Among those present were his co-Presbyter, Mr McLennan, late of Reay; Mr McKay, Kingussie; Prof. Morton, Glasgow; Mr Chisholm (Moderator); Mr McLeod, O.B.E.; Mr Smith and Mr Fraser of the Glasgow Presbytery; and Mr Shaw, Junior Clerk of Assembly; Mr McBeath and the General Treasurer. There was a considerable gathering of friends from different churches present to express, as did others, by special message, deep sympathy with Mrs MacNeilage and with the surviving sister and brothers.

 

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 REV. JOHN MACPHERSON, CREICH

(Died 3rd March, 1958)

Source: The Monthly Record, April, 1958, p.76

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The passing, with such startling suddenness, of Rev. John Macpherson of Creich Free Church, is an event that will long be mourned by all who knew him. For Mr Macpherson had qualities that won him many friends. In recent years his health was indifferent, and his activities in the wider service of the Church were thereby curtailed. In Ayr, where he held his first pastorate, he quickly won recognition as an attractive preacher of the evangel. Ever loyal to the doctrines of grace, he bestowed such care on the preparation and presentation of his message that, like Solomon’s “word fitly spoken,” his sermons were “as apples of gold in pictures of silver.” During part of the Second World War period, Mr Macpherson served in lands abroad as a Chaplain to the Forces, and it was during the time of his war service that his health first began to show signs of deterioration. But when he subsequently became minister of the historic charge of Creich Free Church he devoted himself with perhaps more energy than he could well have spared to the many demands of this wide parish. It was, indeed, as a very sick man that he occupied his pulpit on the day before he died.

A fuller notice of Mr Macpherson’s ministry will appear in next month’s Record, but we take this opportunity of laying a stone upon his cairn, and extending to his widow and family our sincere and prayerful sympathy.
 

An Appreciation
Author: R.A.F.
Source: The Monthly Record, May, 1958, p.91

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The Rev. John Macpherson, minister at Creich, passed away with startling suddenness on the morning of Monday, 3rd March. Though not in his customary health on the Saturday, he occupied his pulpit on Sabbath forenoon, and preached with much liberty and power. He took ill immediately on leaving the pulpit and was removed that afternoon to hospital, where he passed away early the following morning.

Thus closed a singularly winsome and earnest ministry of 23 years, first in the congregation of Ayr and for the last 12 years in the historic parish of Creich. John Macpherson came under the power of the truth while still in his late teens and no one who knew him could ever doubt the reality of the change. From the very start of his Christian life he was an earnest witness-bearer for his Lord and his zeal found early expression in giving supply to our vacant congregations. His preaching in these early days had a quality which, even in his maturer years, he had never surpassed. Passionate, earnest and appealing, he proclaimed the message with power that left an abiding impression on his hearers. His gifts and preaching power singled him out for the ministry, and once the decision was made he set himself resolutely to face the formidable prospect of advanced study. With characteristic wholeheartedness he threw himself into the task and never for a moment, however uphill the climb, did he allow himself to lose sight of the goal. Sensitive, painstaking and responsive, he was a diligent and apt student and he attained a highly creditable qualification for entrance to the university. There, and at the Free Church College, he pursued his studies with the same conscientiousness and devotion.

His first charge at Ayr was a valuable training ground where he learned lessons in perseverance and restraint that were to shape his life till its close. Early in the Second World War he entered the Army as a Chaplain ministry to its close.

To those who knew him and shared his confidence he was a loyal and affectionate friend. His preaching took heavy toll of his sensitive and emotional nature and he poured himself unsparingly into the proclamation of those truths so dear to his own soul. Possessed of a full command of English, his diction was rich and graceful and his sermons were carefully thought out and finely expressed. His appeals to the unconverted were specially moving, and this characterised his preaching with increasing intensity up to the very last sermon.

Throughout his ministry he had the constant support and sympathy of his wife, a woman of culture and deep conviction, to whose counsel he owed much. He was greatly blessed in his home and family, and deep sympathy is extended to his widow and son and daughter and to the sole surviving member of his early home.

The congregation that gathered in the Creich church on a very boisterous March day was representative of several parishes and many of the friends of his early youth were present at the interment in the Tomnahurich Cemetery, Inverness.

May God bless the pastorless congregation and cause the seed sown to bring forth in God’s good time a rich harvest.

“But go thou thy way till the end be; for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.”

 

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 REV. MURDO MACQUEEN

(Died 2nd January, 1912)
Source: The Free Church Monthly, February, 1912, pp.21-22

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The New Year opened sadly for the Free Church. On Tuesday, 2nd January, the Rev. Murdo MacQueen, one of her ex-Moderators, died suddenly in his manse at Kiltearn, Evanton, Ross-shire. He had preached twice in his own church on the preceding Sabbath, and conducted the New Year’s Day service on the Monday. He became seriously unwell that evening, and died on the Tuesday morning. His funeral took place on the following Friday, and on the first Sabbath of the New Year Principal McCulloch preached in Kiltearn Church, making suitable reference to the sad dispensation.

Mr MacQueen was about 65 years of age. He was born in the historic manse of Strontian, Loch Sunart, Argyllshire, where his father, the saintly John MacQueen, was minister of the floating church; studied for the ministry, was ordained at Tarbert, Argyllshire, in 1876, and translated to Kiltearn, in succession to the Rev. Dugald Matheson in 1884. There, worthily maintaining the evangelical traditions of Hog and Campbell, Mr MacQueen laboured until his death, retaining in a remarkable degree the esteem and attachment of his people, and serving the Church at large, especially since 1900, with a zeal and untiring devotion excelled by none and equalled by few.

Mr MacQueen was in no sense of the term an ecclesiastic. But for the exigencies of the times, his voice would probably never have been heard from a public platform. For such work he probably would have said, in language used in a like connection by the late Dr Kennedy, “he had no conscious aptitude.” Nor did he render any service in committees. But from the platform Mr MacQueen rendered conspicuous service to the Free Church, especially after the decision of the House of Lords in favour of the Free Church in August, 1904. Нe was Moderator of the General Assembly in that eventful year, and presided at the meetings of Commission which followed. Naturally, on this account, his platform appearances attracted considerable attention, and his caustic criticisms of some personages of inflated reputation in the U.F. Church were made the most of by opponents. The reporters were to some extent responsible for the totally wrong impression of the man conveyed by his reported utterances. In place of giving the gist of his argument, they gave isolated extracts, and always those of least importance to the argument, but the most “spicy” from a sensational point of view. Mr MacQueen spoke strongly because he felt strongly. He was one of those who after 31st October, 1900, received from Messrs Cowan & Dalmahoy (“You’ll heard the name before!” he once put caustically in our hearing) the charitable intimation that, per favour of Principal Rainy & Co., they were to be allowed to remain in their manses and to occupy their pulpits until the U.F. Church needed them. After 1904 Mr MacQueen thought he would get that letter framed, and his indignation at receiving such an impertinent communication was surely excusable in an honest man. Having stood beside Mr MacQueen on the platform at crowded meetings in Stornoway during that stormy period, we bear testimony to the cogency of his argument, and his singular facility in putting the case for the Free Church, so that plain people could understand it. That some of his similes were occasionally more forcible than polite is not to be gainsaid, and his best friends regretted these unwise sallies, but that the man and his message were such as newspaper reports would have led people to suppose, we altogether deny.

Mr MacQueen excelled as a simple, effective preacher of the glorious Evangel, and his zeal as a pastor was sufficiently evidenced by the fact that the U.F. Church secured no footing in it. Those who in later days crowded to Mr MacQueen, expecting the sort of thing newspaper reports led them to look for, were grievously disappointed, and, let us hope, in some cases, savingly impressed. His keen sense of humour occasionally played round his manner in the pulpit, but it was a play of humour which in no wise jarred on the hearer who reverenced the truth. He excelled as a sweet, persuasive Gospel preacher, with a fine sense of the effective adaptation of the truth to the understanding of simple-hearted hearers. His winning impressiveness in prayer was in thorough keeping with his direct effectiveness in preaching, and a service conducted by Mr MacQueen was a refreshing experience for those who desired the new corn of the land. Mr MacQueen excelled himself in the Moderator’s chair in 1904. His addresses were on a high level, impregnated with Scripture doctrine, and marked by a fine spirituality of tone, relieved by flashes of his native humour. Like many of his brethren, he was a warm admirer of C. H. Spurgeon, and his Assembly addresses bore unmistakeable evidence of inspiration from that source. Taking him all in all, the late minister of Kiltearn was a worthy representative of the evangelical traditions of the Highland pulpit, and many a heart is sore to-day because the sweet, persuasive tones of the son of MacQueen of Strontian and Daviot can no longer be heard.

We append an appreciation of the deceased from the pen of one of his co-Presbyters.

He writes: As we stood at the open grave of Murdo MacQueen, a few feet from the resting-place of “Hog of Kiltearn,” many had difficulty in controlling their emotions. One who must have seen more than the three-score years and ten, and who was visibly affected, was heard repeating the memorable words of the noble Christian who, as he entered the fight in which he fell, cried: “Lord, spare the green and take the ripe.” The sorrow was real and deep. Few of us thought that he, whose mortal remains we were committing to the dust, was so near the end when we had seen him last. True, it was his own deep and persistent conviction that the time of his departure was at hand. He often told us during the last three years: “I am an old man”; “I must retire”; “I am not fit for work”; “I am done.” He, however, maintained his post; zeal and sense of duty kept him to the front. We all know now that although the last struggle only lasted for less than twelve hours, he ought to have retired from active service several years ago. His devotion to the cause impelled him to attempt work that was too much for mind and body. Week after week, whether the sun were shining or snow were falling, he could be seen on train, steamer, and coach in all parts of the Highlands. Often his attached flock saw him leaving and arriving at dawn, noon, and set of sun, and wondered how his little frame stood the ceaseless toil and the awful lashing. But he strenuously continued in harness to the very end. Twenty-four hours before his departure he had been preaching from the words: “For this God will be our God for ever and ever: He will be our Guide even unto death.” Some who heard him felt that his work was done: his countenance was sad; his vigour was gone; and he looked like a wounded bird, “alone, alone, all alone.” But before he could be advised to take complete rest, he was taken away from this world of labour, tumult, sorrow, and sin.

He came into the Church bearing a name that many in the north and south revered. It was said of Mr MacQueen of Daviot that he had never offered to God what had cost him nothing; and that he never opened his mouth till he had steeped his soul in prayer. The son in some respects resembled the father, and looked up to him with intense admiration. When a young man, it was observed how he valued the Puritans, and how carefully he analysed their style, and noted down every just and forcible expression. He maintained to the very last his familiarity with them. He clung to the old evangelical doctrines of grace; to the Pauline interpretation of the Cross of Calvary. In the preparation of his sermons he was careful and conscientious, and never became perfunctory. If his preaching did not show the imagination of Kennedy, or the originality of Aird, it was supremely adapted to the capacities and needs of the people. He had great power in instructing, persuading, warning consoling. He was always earnest, profoundly earnest. “Never did I hear him,” said one, “but he deepened my conviction of my miserable state by sin, and heightened my gratitude to the Lord Jesus. He everywhere stirred up reflection and solemnity. His manner, his voice, his diction, his fluency, were alike subject of praise. Those who went only to hear the “unlovely and uncharitable fighter” left astonished at his catholicity, his eloquence, his power. No trace of narrowness or exclusiveness could be detected; and the impression invariably was that he must have been misrepresented and slandered. Everywhere as a preacher he made a decided impression. But he was no leader, and no one knew better than himself that, owing to his temperament, he could never be a leader. His sphere was the pulpit. In Church Courts he was useless; he had no patience with the routine business that had to be attended to. But owing to his thorough understanding and firm grasp of Disruption principles, he didn’t hesitate at 1900. As all know, he espoused the cause in the manliest fashion, he was stedfast and decided. The fear of man he didn’t know; he couldn’t be a craven. With subterfuge he had no patience. How his wrath blazed out against departure from truth! What fire flashed from his eyes when he referred in terse and epigrammatic sentences to those who dallied and parleyed with the enemy! There was something impetuous in the working of his intellect. On several successive occasions he assailed his opponents. In the face of misrepresentation and calumny his sword could not rest; his voice could not be silent. Because of this he was greatly detested; he was thought vindictive. His friends, however, knew that behind the satire, the invective, the epithet there was no vindictiveness, and so they were not inclined to find fault with his exuberance. But it must be admitted that on occasions he could be very brusque and difficult of manner; he appeared passionate, impulsive, and excitable; but undoubtedly his was a nature that was capable of warm attachment. His sympathy was greatly drawn out to those in sorrow. Those who knew him respected him. His life depicts alternations of tempest and calm. After the radiance and the attractiveness in the Church the gloom sometimes followed; he was in the darkness and in the cloud. Of his varying moods he had little control. But now we only wish to think of the courage, the diligence, the prayerfulness. “The waves which raged before are quiet now and still.”

Than he few could tell a more apposite story. One of the last we heard from him was the touching incident Robert Woodrow gives of his father in the Analecta. “He was much affected with his worthy son, Mr Alexander Woodrow’s death, it being somewhat sudden and surprising. Yet he carried himself very Christianly under that sharp dispensation. He went down to the place where his son’s corpse was. He stayed some time. They enquired at him what he had been doing there. ‘I was,’ says he, ‘thanking God for thretty one years’ loan of Sandy, my dear son’.”

The Church he loved so well, and especially the congregation he served so long, are mourning him today. But the Lord says: “Be still and know that I am God.” We may expect to get many a blow if we are faithful to God and his Christ. Here we are never free from frailty and trial; but when perplexed, helpless, and tried, let us not forget where our strength and help lie. “The bush burns, but is not consumed.” We may have often to say with Richard Baxter:

“My knowledge of that life is small,
The eye of faith is dim;
But ’tis enough that Christ knows all,” &c.

Yes, Christ knows all; therefore all things will work together for good to them who love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Like Paul in Adria, they may be driven by contrary winds over stormy seas; but the Lord will be true to His promise – He will never leave nor forsake His people. “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”

 

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 REV. ALEXANDER MACRAE, MARYBURGH

(Died 10th November, 1919)
Author: J. B. M.
Source: The Monthly Record, December, 1919, p.190

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It is with much sorrow that this month we record the death, at a comparatively early age, of the Rev. Alexander Macrae, a worthy minister, and an indefatigable labourer in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Mr Macrae was born at Auchintee, Strathcarron, in June 1867. His full name was Alexander MacColl Macrae, his excellent father, who owed very much spiritually to the renowned Rev. Alexander MacColl, of Lochalsh, having wished that in this form he might express his sense of indebtedness under God to a preached gospel. Mr Macrae, however, with that lowly esteem of himself which was one of his characteristics, never thought himself worthy of being a bearer of MacColl’s name.

Mr Macrae was one of a family of eleven, of whom only three now survive. His parents were of the most respectable in the land, his father, Donald Macrae, being in fact one of the most notable Christians of the parish of Lochcarron in his time. Mr Macrae was thus brought up in an atmosphere of spiritual religion. Even when he himself, as a lad, was apparently living carelessly in the world, his father would sometimes remark that he would not wonder to see his son Alexander yet a minister of the gospel. His father died when but little over sixty years, and did not see his hopes visibly realised in his own lifetime, but that those anticipations of his regarding the future were not mere wishes may be gathered from the sequel. The subject of this notice received his early education in the public school of Lochcarron, and then entered as a clerk in what was then the Caledonian Bank of Scotland in his native township. It was in those days that, through the grace given him, he came to realise the value of the immortal soul and the fearfulness of his own state, as one that had sinned against God and that had forfeited every title to life. We are not in a position to render a detailed account of his experiences at this time, but that he experienced a sound conversion his after-life furnished ample evidence. We know that the first solid peace which he enjoyed was mediated to him through those words of our Lord to the palsied man, “Son, thy sins are forgiven thee.”

When Mr Macrae tasted that the Lord is gracious, his thoughts turned from banking to the ministry, and when, after deep exercises of soul, he concluded it to be his duty to study for the ministry, he devoted himself to the service in a manner which, for constancy and whole-heartedness all the remaining days of his life, has not often been surpassed.

His Arts course he took in Edinburgh, and in Classics and Philosophy he took a good place in his classes. In the year 1890 he entered Divinity as a student of the New College, Edinburgh. He held what was known as the Gaelic Bursary for two years. In the Hebrew class in particular he acquitted himself with distinction, as may be concluded from the fact that his name appears in the honours list for session 1890-91. But those were troublous days in the Free Church for men who desired to hold intact the faith regarding the Scriptures, and other fundamental matters, that was once for all delivered to the saints. The passing of the notorious Declaratory Act of 1892, and that, viewed in the light of all the unfaithfulness to fundamental doctrines that had been connived at for several years before, made Mr Macrae feel ill at ease about his ecclesiastical standing and relationship. His feeling of dissatisfaction with the impasse to which matters had come, caused that he did not return to the New College after the session 1891-92. The remainder of his Theological course he took in the University of Glasgow. When, therefore, the Rev. Donald MacFarlane, and the late Rev. Donald MacDonald, and others, in 1893, formed the Free Presbyterian Church, Mr Macrae, on the understanding that the Free Presbyterian Church meant simply the Free Church of Scotland, as she understood her duty in 1843, considered it his duty to become a Free Presbyterian. In connection with that body of Christians he served nearly all the days of his ministerial life. He was duly licensed to preach the gospel, and in 1894 became the first Free Presbyterian minister of Kames congregation, where he laboured for five years. In the year 1899 he received a hearty call from the congregation of Portree, which he thought it his duty to accept. This proved to be his charge for nineteen years, and with many hardships, in the form of travelling long distances by sea and land, and in all kinds of weather, he may be said to have prematurely worn himself out in devoted services for the Lord’s sake.

It was no dissatisfaction with his people, nor any discomfort arising from straitened circumstances, nor any ambition to ocсuру a more exalted sphere in the Church, that led Mr Macrae to ask admission as a minister of the Free Church of Scotland in November of 1918. What moved him was this. It was a constant source of sorrow to him for years to see, in the Highlands especially, small bodies of people having the same form of worship, and delighting in the same doctrine, congregating every Sabbath as if in antagonistic bodies some connecting themselves with the Free Church, others with the Free Presbyterian Church. He rejoiced to see that in 1900 there stood out a few who were determined to maintain the Free Church in its original sense. Besides, as he read the writings of men like Rutherford and Durham, and came to read the Confession of Faith in the light of the thoughts of men who were parties to the Confession’s production, he concluded that not every reason justified separation, that in fact, in the case of Christian bodies being in the same districts, and holding the same views as to doctrine, discipline, and worship, it was a sin not to endeavour to become one in every ecclesiastical sense. This conclusion, to which we have no doubt he came with a pure conscience, and with the highest motives, cost him much anguish, not because he ever hesitated about the correctness of his action in November 1918, but because he found many with whom he worked agreeably for so many years, and whom he loved in the Lord, misconstruing his motives and actions, and largely estranged from him.

Mr Macrae was in a weakened state of health at the time that he became a minister of the Free Church. A few years ago, owing to a cold which he contracted on one of his preaching tours in Sutherlandshire, he developed inflammation of the kidneys, and he was scarcely ever afterwards, in a physical sense, the man he had been. He had also his own bitter cup to drink during the recent Great War: two step-sons, fine young men, who lived with him, and a nephew, whom he loved as a son, fell in the war.

It was thus, we believe, in a reduced state of health that he volunteered, about the end of the year 1917, to undertake services in the South of England for Gaelic-speaking naval men. During that stay in England he contracted a serious cold which he never overcame, and which settled down into chronic bronchitis. As, however, specialists in chest troubles, whom he consulted, kept assuring him that there was no tuberculosis, both himself and others hoped that, through God’s kindness to us, he might get over his trouble. It was in this state of mind that he accepted a call from the Free Church congregation of Maryburgh in February of this year. He did not go there without the feeling that he had a call from God, a conviction that was supported through the constant and comforting manner in which these words presented themselves to his mind, “Arise, and go toward the south, unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza.” He could not, in the circumstances of his health, have been more favourably situated than he became in Maryburgh. He had a congregation whom he loved, and who loved him in turn. The manse is situated in one of the healthiest and loveliest spots in the land. The congregation was not too large, and from the point of view of pastoral visitation, very compact. Although struggling with so serious a trouble as has already been described, his heart was in the work, and seldom was he off duty during his short pastorate at Maryburgh. The last Sabbath on which he officiated was the third Sabbath of October, when he preached three sermons, his last being from the text: “Strive to enter in at the strait gate.” About that time he seemed to contract a fresh cold, which developed into pleurisy, and ultimately into pneumonia. This was the physical cause of his death. He peaceably passed away on Monday, 10th November, at half-past nine in the morning.

Mr Macrae’s ministry was in a sense a short one, yet it was full of labours. He was a most unselfish and self-denied man. For brethren in the Lord, he was prepared to render what service or help was in his power. To the Lord of all grace, and to His cause, he was willing to give himself up entirely.

In his preaching he dwelt on the Godward side of salvation; in other words he emphasised grace. This caused that his ministrations were savoury and acceptable to the Spirit-taught, and there was such kindliness in his presentation of the truth, that although, upon the whole, he followed the experimental method, others, who might be charitably enough spoken of as strangers to the converting grace of God, felt drawn to him, and to his ministry. So that, without the most popular style, he became a truly popular minister and pastor.

He had naturally a good capacity for business, and doubtless his training in the Caledonian Bank helped to develop that particular talent in his case. He became thus, even in calls which came to him arising out of the temporal needs of his congregation, a very helpful member of society. In Portree he took a deep and enlightened interest in educational matters, and his usefulness in this respect was recognised by the people and School Board of Portree, where he was not only a member of the Board, but for several years before he left Portree, continuously Chairman of that important School Board.

In May of 1899 Mr Macrae married Catherine MacCallum Orme, widow of Mr William Orme, merchant, Helensburgh, by whom he had three children, two girls and a boy. These all survive to mourn their great loss. To them and to other near and dear relatives, and to the mourning congregation in Maryburgh, we offer sincere condolences.

“Help Lord, for the godly man ceaseth, and the faithful decay from among the children of men!”

 

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 REV. FINLAY MACRAE, PLOCKTON

(Died 26th April, 1939)
Author: D. M.
Source: The Monthly Record, June, 1939, pp.163-164

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The benign face and gracious influence of the Rev. Finlay MacRae will be sadly missed from the Assembly and Meetings of the Church, which he attended with enviable regularity throughout his long and faithful ministry. In this respect he followed by conviction the McColl tradition that made regular attendance at Church Courts an inseparable obligation of a minister’s divine commission.

He passed away on the 26th April of this year in the midst of devoted affection, in the calm and peace of a faith that did not irreverently presume on the sovereignty of grace. His unsullied commission he handed to his Lord with the confidence of humble trust. His tranquil life, even the elements in a stormy season seemed to recognize on his burial day. The sun, then, in a cloudless sky, cast the shadows of the majestic “Sisters” of Kintail along the placid surface of deep Loch Duich, a passive remonstrance with human weakness trembling before the mystery of the grave. His remains were fittingly borne to the grave-side by a relay of ministers of a younger generation, who also conducted a solemn service that obviously impressed the assembled people. His body is at rest in a beautiful spot in the well-kept Churchyard of Lochalsh not far from the graves of such earnest and valiant stalwarts of the faith as McColl and Galbraith. His claim on the respect of posterity is none the less real because it rests not on valiance in battle, but on gentleness in pious living.

Finlay MacRae was born in the comparatively inaccessible but historic Parish of Applecross, whose contribution to the expansion of early Christian influences in Scotland is rivalled by Iona alone. During the long dark ages it was seldom without its witness, even if the light of its torch was often faint. When Finlay MacRae was born in this sacred spot more than fourscore years ago, the religious atmosphere along the whole of Western Ross was charged with a power that was liberated by the Disruption and still greatly influenced the thought and conduct of the entire community. Doctrinal preaching was a feature of pulpit ministrations. The inviolable authority of the Word of God lent such weight and gave such precision to the ministrations of ministers and laymen as made the ordinances of the Gospel a purifying and sanctifying influence on the entire life of the people. This created a form of subdued religious life with a warm glow and free of the acerbity which uncontrolled sentiment and emotion beget elsewhere. It was in such an atmosphere that Finlay MacRae’s character took its first form, and its gracious features continued with him to the end.

After receiving and imparting instruction in the local schools, he proceeded to the University, and Free Church College, Glasgow. The “new learning” was then becoming aggressive in the Free Church Colleges. In Glasgow, in particular, Prof. A. B. Bruce was its able exponent in the department of Apologetics. The challenge to his faith, as to that of some others of his contemporaries, could not be shunned. The test was stern, and the issue, under God, depended largely on whether speculative thinking, and scientific hypothesis, so pleasing to proud reason, would oust from his heart and mind earlier convictions which rested on the sovereign authority of God behind His revealed Word. He emerged triumphant from this battle within the veil, and, modest and unassuming, prepared himself, without recrimination or censorious condemnation of a culture whose force he felt, to continue his loyalty in all circumstances to the convictions that remained in possession of his soul.

He was in due course licensed, and entered on his ministries at Knockbain and Plockton, at the latter of which he held the senior pastorate at his death. But since 1900, like others, his sphere of activity comprised the whole field which the Church occupied. His zeal and the warmth of his love to the Evangel multiplied his services beyond what less sensitive consciences might regard as essential obligation. His exact exegesis, his careful analysis of the contents of his message, as well as the well-defined doctrines and close reasoning of his discourses made their own particular and effective appeal without any adventitious help from speech or gesture. Among his people he exercised the restraining and comforting influence which a life so circumspect and devoted could not fail to produce. In his home and in congenial fellowship happiness radiated freely from an inner life that seemed to be undisturbed by those violent forces that make the hidden life of ordinary believers, not unfrequently, a field of harassing strife. To those who knew him best, this unconscious ministry of comfort was not the least helpful feature of his sanctified life. As his counsel and judgment proceeded through channels that were highly sensitive to the danger of human error, his recoil from what seemed to him to be severe though just decisions was merely a response to a tenderness that was surely of great Christian value. The Church which his life enriched is poorer by his departure. The sky of his contemporaries is left grey by his setting.

His young widow, who shared not a few of his own graces, mourns her loss with a strong heart. In this all who knew him join with her, not without humble gratitude to God for his long and abundant service.

 

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 REV. KENNETH MACRAE, LOCHALSH

(Died 10th October, 1928)
Author: F. M.
Source: The Monthly Record, November, 1928

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This worthy minister and Christian gentleman passed away suddenly in his manse and in his native parish on the morning of the 10th of October, and the congregation and surrounding districts were put in mourning. A man of fine physique and muscular strength, he enjoyed excellent health until a few years ago, when occasional attacks of weakness, which increased in frequency and seriousness as time went on, and which he received as warnings, made him apprehensive of the end approaching, and also made him desirous to put the congregation in a position to call a colleague, for which he was to make application at the coming Assembly. Mr Macrae, like most of the young men in his neighbourhood, was in his early years a sailor, and traces of that life could be seen throughout in the frequency of the illustrations which were drawn from seafaring life. He, with two brothers, whom the sea claimed, had schooners of their own, and were successful in their calling until a great storm on the East Coast had brought the career of those two to an end. It was about this time that Kenneth experienced a change in his religious outlook. Having passed through some sharp mental struggles, he got an enlargement of heart while hearing Mr Galbraith, then of Raasay, the evidence of which could he seen throughout his ministerial life in the affectionate and assuring manner in which he addressed his Redeemer. His education at that time was but meagre, but nothing was too humble for him that would help furnish him for the ministry of the Word; and so although grown up Kenneth was not ashamed to take his place among the boys of the elementary school. By perseverance he soon found his way to the Grammar School, and in due course to the University and the Divinity Hall, completing his course of studies very creditably. Having been licensed to preach the Gospel by the Free Presbytery of Lochcarron, he was soon called by the congregation of Glenshiel, where he was ordained and inducted in 1898. There he laboured with much acceptance for eleven years, when he was transferred to the combined charges of Fort Augustus and Glenmoriston. After ministering in the latter place to an attached congregation for over six years, he was called to Lochalsh, to which he was inducted on the 14th of July 1915, and where his useful ministry came to an end, having been for thirty years an ordained minister.

Mr Macrae devoted himself whole-heartedly to his pulpit and pastoral duties, and by his fervent and genial spirit left his mark for a time on the congregations in which he laboured, in each of which there were some who could testify to his genuineness as a messenger of the glad tidings. He was one of the twenty-six ministers who were instrumental in keeping secure the continuity of the Free Church in 1900, and willingly endured his own part of the hardships which followed. Mr Macrae was a man of strong conviction, and had the courage of it, and was on this account a very helpful member of Church courts.

His attached congregation and the Church extend their sympathy to his sorrowing widow and nephews and nieces.

 

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 REV. MURDOCH MACRAE, M.A., KINLOCH

(Died 4th August, 1961)

Source: The Monthly Record, September, 1961, p.178

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By the passing, on 4th August last, of Rev. Murdoch Macrae, M.A., Kinloch, the Church has lost one of her ablest ministers and most winsome personalities. A native of the favoured Isle to which the whole of his ministry was devoted, Mr Macrae served his fellow-isle’s folk in a great variety of ways, for their interests were upon his heart. But he will best be remembered as a gifted exponent of the doctrines of grace, for his pulpit was his throne. The Church honoured him with the Moderatorship of the General Assembly in 1951, and his services in that connection were of the high order that the Church had learned to expect from him. A good all-round student, Mr Macrae excelled as a theologian and historian. In the pulpit he was a commanding figure. Of massive presence, he spoke with an easy, rolling eloquence, disdaining the use of even a written outline to remind him of his prepared plan. That the burden of souls was upon his heart as he preached was evident from the earnest appeals which broke from him as he besought the unconverted that they be reconciled to God.

It was a spiritual and mental tonic to sit with Mr Macrae in his study, literally walled-in by the books he loved, and to get him going on ecclesiastical affairs, or better still, on some aspect of theology. Invariably, the sessions extended far beyond their intended limits, but one was sorry when, out of consideration for frail flesh, they had to end. And in remembering Murdoch Macrae all who frequented Kinloch Manse will remember also, with grateful affection, his like-minded wife, whose gracious ministry in the home made it a place where the highest standards of hospitality and fellowship were always maintained. To her, and to Kinloch congregation, the prayerful sympathy of a very wide circle of friends is extended.

We understand that the Lewis Presbytery have appointed one of their number to prepare a more extended appreciation of Mr Macrae, and this will appear in our columns as soon as it is made available.
 

A tribute by the Free Presbytery of Lewis
Source: The Monthly Record, October, 1961, p.202

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By the death of Rev. Murdoch Macrae, Kinloch, the Free Church has lost one of her most highly regarded and outstanding ministers. Mr Macrae was a native of the Point district of Lewis. After the usual preliminary prepaгаtion in the local school he was enrolled in the Nicolson Institute, Stornoway, of which he was a distinguished pupil. He saw service in the Royal Navy from 1916 to the conclusion of hostilities. After the war he resumed his studies in the University of Glasgow, where he performed his work with high distinction in all his classes. It was during this period in Glasgow that the change took place which influenced his future career. Meeting friends on a Sabbath he was prevailed on to go to church with them. He went without any great expectations. The verse given out was Mark 15 and 31: “He saved others, Himself He cannot save”. Immediately his soul was pierced and he left the church, to use his own words, “feeling lost forever”. After taking his M.A. degree he entered on his course in Divinity in the Free Church College, Edinburgh. There he completed his training for the ministry in 1927. In the same year he was licenced by the Presbytery of Lewis. Shortly after he was called to the charge of Kinloch, where he was ordained and inducted, and where he laboured for 34 years till the end of his ministry. His varied and valuable services in the cause of Christ were recognised by the church when he was called to the Moderator’s chair in 1951.

The work of the ministry was the work of his life, and he entered on it with a mind imbued with an enlightened piety. He was happy in his congregation, labouring in the company of his faithful and devoted office-bearers without friction or disharmony to the end of his ministry. His preaching was of a high order with fidelity and earnestness. His spirit-moving sentiments still re-echo in the minds of those who heard him. Fully persuaded of the importance of giving his people the benefit of a connected view of the whole field of Divine truth he aimed in all his discourses to present in a systematic way all that God had revealed for the salvation of the lost, laying special emphasis on the sovereignty of God. He was equally at home in Gaelic and in English and never apparently at a loss to find the most appropriate words to embody the thoughts of his gifted mind. When expatiating on the glories of redemption he made words to express shades of meaning with a facility all his own. His preaching was eloquent and powerful, the thoughts of his heart revealing themselves in full-orbed expression. His message was always fresh, being the fruits of much labour and careful study. He excelled in extolling the cardinal doctrines of Covenant Theology with which he was thoroughly conversant through long and painstaking study. In his preaching he always laboured under a deep sense of the heavy responsibility attaching to his office. He was indeed “a workman that needed not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth”.

Mr Macrae’s interests were not solely confined to the ministerial office. The many tributes paid to his memory by members of various public bodies show that his interest lay in other fields as well. He always took a keen interest in all that pertained to the temporal as well as the spiritual welfare of his fellowmen. In addition to his administrative ability he possessed a tactfulness and prudence which were invaluable in difficult situations. Whether in the courts of the church or acting with the various public bodies on which he served, in dealing with any subject, those concerned knew that when he spoke they would have an eloquent and vivid presentation of the facts laid before them. His kind and sympathetic disposition made him an outstanding personality, and his efforts on behalf of good causes invariably resulted in benefit to those concerned. His exertions on behalf of the Harris Tweed industry are well known. No man did more to have it stabilised than he. As a member of the Harris Tweed Association he travelled far and wide to maintain its position in the common market. His last visit to the United States in 1958 was in this connection, on which occasion he succeeded in negotiating a reduction of that country’s import tariff in respect of Harris Tweed. His efforts, which included an approach to the President of the United States, prevented the United States market being lost to all who depended on the industry for their livelihood. As one correspondent, in paying tribute to his memory, put it: “His death so early in his busy life is a great sorrow. The future bereft of his presence seems sad and unattractive, but remembering his example it is for those of us who are left to carry on with greater endeavour in the hope of furthering those interests he so unselfishly served.” These words represent the feelings and sentiments of his brethren.

He had a deep and abiding interest in the education of the youth of the county. With their welfare in view he sacrificed his time and energy, serving for many many years on different committees connected with education. It was in this connection that he made his last trip to the mainland four days before his death.

For some time his health had been giving cause for anxiety, and he was subject to frequent attacks which slowly deprived him of his strength. But he continued to perform his manifold duties, taking an active part in upholding various public causes whose aims lay near his heart. He was painfully conscious of the changes that were taking place in the religious world, and he shrank from contact with a religion of excitability and false impressions which he felt was fast ousting his Lord from His sanctuary.

He passed to his rest on Friday, 4th August, 1961. His remains were interred in Laxay cemetery in view of the church where he laboured during the whole of his ministry. “The righteous perisheth and no man layeth it to heart, and merciful men are taken away.…”

Our deep sympathy goes to his sorrowing widow and to all his other relatives.

 

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 REV. NORMAN MATHESON

(Died 26th April, 1952)
Source: The Monthly Record, July, 1952, p.139

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News of the passing of this worthy man, which took place at Inverness on the 26th April, reached us too late for inclusion in the May Record, and though a tribute to his memory and a record of his work have, in the meantime, been engrossed in the records of the General Assembly, we feel that our Editorial columns should contain this short but sincere tribute to one whom we knew and respected as brother-minister, neighbour and friend.

Mr Matheson was a Christian of the old school and his piety belonged to an order that is fast passing out. Possessed of a spiritual and deeply exercised mind he was never far, either in his public ministry or his private conversation, from the heart of things. Though his pulpit gifts were not of the spectacular order, he was a sweet preacher and a messenger of consolation to exercised and tried Christians. His exercises in prayer, both in the home and in public worship, were particularly uplifting. He was of a transparently simple and guileless disposition, but he had a penetrating mind and his intellectual gifts could be more readily sensed in private conversation. The writer of this note will always cherish grateful memories of his brotherliness and helpfulness as a neighbour and his warm sympathy in time of trouble. A more extended notice of his life and labours will, we hope, appear in this magazine at a later date; in the meantime we extend our own sympathy and that of our readers to his widow and family.

 

Author: J. R .M. [Perhaps John R. Muirden]
Source: The Monthly Record, August, 1952, p.168

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Deep and sincere regret was felt throughout Free Church circles, particularly in the North, when the news spread that on Saturday, 26th April, the death had taken place of the Rev. Norman Matheson, senior minister of Kilmorack and Strathglass. On his retirement a few years ago, Mr Matheson had gone to live in Edinburgh, but it is evident that his affections remained in the North because, his health giving cause for anxiety, during April of this year Mrs Matheson and he removed to Inverness. It was thought no doubt that the return to old and more familiar surroundings would help him. That it did so is beyond doubt for during the short time he was spared to enjoy his new home, he seemed to have recovered some of his old vigour and much of that cheerful and happy disposition which his friends particularly remember. But the sands were running out, and the end came unexpectedly.

Mr Matheson was the son of a worthy Free Presbyterian elder and missionary, Donald Matheson, and a native of Kilmaluag, Isle of Skye. He was ordained to the ministry forty-six years ago, in the Free Presbyterian Church, and inducted at Halkirk, Caithness. It was in 1920 that he entered the Free Church, and for the next five years he was minister at Coigach, before moving to Beauly, where he served for twenty years until his retirement.

One will remember Mr Matheson for many things. Notably, as it has been mentioned already, his cheerfulness of disposition. He was a man of a keen sense of humour and a most ready smile. He was one too, for he was a humble man, who never failed in his word of sincere and helpful appreciation of the efforts of his younger brethren in preaching the Gospel. He himself could preach a delightful sermon. Indeed one of the writer’s happiest Communion memories is a sermon preached by the late Mr Matheson on a Friday evening in the church at Maryburgh, on the Three Divine Books that he found in the Nineteenth Psalm – the Book of Nature, the Book of The Word and the Book of Conscience. It was a sermon that could only be described as delightful. And no doubt the “discerning” in Kilmorack and Strathglass, for we are persuaded such are there, can and do recall many sermons like that one. But one doubts not that in that district what is particularly remembered about Mr Matheson, not by his own people only, but by those who never heard him preach, is this that he was a man of tender sympathy in the time of sickness or bereavement. One of the local doctors has borne testimony to the esteem in which he came to hold Mr Matheson from the fact that whenever he was called out to a case of illness, he could be sure of finding Mr Matheson there before him. When during the war many homes were stricken with sorrow or with bitter and prolonged anxiety over those who were missing or in captivity, Roman Catholics and Protestants alike came to recognise this characteristic in Mr Matheson. His own home knew those same anxieties and many in trouble found him at that time a true friend and comforter, the people of the district have not forgotten this.

Mr Matheson is survived by his widow and a family of four sons and six daughters. To them all our sympathy is extended. Theirs is the privilege of knowing in their own experience that “the memory of the just is blessed.”

 

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 REV. NORMAN J. MORRISON, NORTH UIST

(Died 8th January, 1937)
Author: W. R. B. [Walter Rounsfell Brown]
Source: The Monthly Record, May, 1937, p.108

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The first of the four Ministers of the Church who passed away since the present year began was Mr Morrison, the youngest. He entered into rest on 8th January, 1937, in the 62nd year of his age. Possessed of vigour of body, his early demise was unexpected, contributed to, no doubt, by the toll of energy of him when, in the R.A.M.C., he served throughout the War. For force of character and intellectual power he remained notable to the end, withal showing a yielding spirit in matters of lesser moment, or where personal advancement would have led a greedy man to be stubborn. The writer of this notice has pointed recollection of a recent occasion when Mr Morrison’s was the generous part in an important difference.

Although Norman J. Morrison began business life in a Glasgow warehouse, and continued therein for a long time, he was destined by descent and upbringing to be a Minister of the Gospel. His father, Malcolm Morrison, had long been a Missionary of the Free Church in Skye and Lewis; those who knew him have memories of a gracious ministry, indeed of a “scholar, theologian and brilliant conversationalist.” Malcolm was counted a leader among those around him; and “for peace sake,” as was said, he led some of them into the United Free Church. But his positive and spiritual influence over his son, Norman, had been deeper than the father knew. The younger man showed his own quality in 1900 by adherence to the Free Church. After a while he became a Missionary and served the Highland Committee in Broadford, Arisaig and Tobermory. This was before the War. After that interruption he became a student of Divinity, and in due course was licensed. His first settlement was in 1927, at Burghead, to be junior colleague to Rev. James Henry. That Congregation did not give scope for full use of his bilingual gifts. He resigned in 1931 and placed himself at the full disposal of the Highland and Supply Committee for service in Highland vacancies. In May, 1932, he was called to North Uist, and was inducted there. In the brief period from then until his death, he laboured with his accustomed zeal, and with increasing acceptance.

Although stern in some things, and sometimes criticised as a hyper-Calvinist, Norman J. Morrison was a cheerful, joyous soul. An intimate has said of him: “In his touch of humanity, in his elemental goodness of heart, and in his attractive personality lay the bonds which bound him to his Congregation, and to his close friends. His pulpit speaking was in the traditional style of Highland preachers handed down, through his father, from a race of Highland preachers who bent the Gaelic language to their will and made it the medium for the most profound religious topics. Mr Morrison is survived by his widow; his son, a chemist in India: two daughters who are nurses; and a third daughter in a secretarial post in Glasgow.

 

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 REV. GEORGE MUIRDEN, MARYBURGH

(Died 31st July, 1939)
Author: W. M.
Source: The Monthly Record, September, 1939, pp.232-233

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George Muirden was born in Golspie, Sutherlandshire, sixty-four years ago. Owing to the death of his mother, which took place a few weeks after his birth, he was brought up by an uncle, Angus Munro, Birichen, in the parish of Dornoch. The influences of a godly home made a deep and lasting impression upon his sensitive mind, and he was at an early age led to a saving knowledge of the truth. Mr Muirden began life as a mason and followed his trade until the Church, made aware of his outstanding ability and gracious qualities, received him into her service as a lay preacher.

In 1912, he was appointed a missionary at Stoer, where he laboured with much acceptance for about two years. After that he supplied Glenurquhart for a short period. The Training of the Ministry Committee, confident that his talents could be made more serviceable to the Church, invited him to attend college to study for the Ministry. This step he hesitated to take, but after prayerful consideration, interpreting the unsolicited call of the Church as the leading of Providence, he acquiesced. He accordingly entered college in October 1915, and in spite of obvious disadvantages acquitted himself with great credit. As a theologian he was easily head and shoulders above the average. Endowed with a remarkably strong memory, a diligent student of the Puritans, he obtained a wonderful grasp of the doctrines of the Christian faith. His preparations for the pulpit were stamped with the care and thoroughness that characterised all he took in hand. To the devout and discerning his discourses gave the impression that one was listening to a master in Israel. A spiritually-minded student of the Word, he searched the deep things, such as the deeply exercised only could appreciate. Equally at home in Gaelic and in English, his services were in great demand during Communion seasons. This afforded him an opportunity of going, like his Master, from place to place, preaching the gospel of the Kingdom, and of bringing hope and comfort to mourners in Zion. In conversation he was at his best. An ardent student of unfulfilled prophecy, he read extensively on that interesting subject, and it is safe to affirm that in that special branch of study Mr Muirden had few equals. It was instructive and refreshing to hear him expatiating on a favourite theme. Although he possessed such a well-informed mind, and a well-balanced judgment, was so original in his thinking, and could handle the doctrines of grace so powerfully, he was of a most humble disposition. In July 17, 1918, he was ordained and inducted to the pastorate of the Free Church, Tarbat, where he remained until he was translated to Maryburgh on July 17, 1928. In this, as in his first charge, he gave himself wholly to the work of the Ministry, until he was laid aside five weeks before the end came. A genial companion, a true friend, a man of prayer, loyal to Reformation principles, deeply attached to his Church and devoted to his Master’s service, George Muirden, “after he had served his own generation by the will of God fell on sleep”.

He entered into his rest on Monday morning, July 31 last. On the Wednesday following, his remains were conveyed to Golspie and laid in the family burying ground to rest, “until the day break and the shadows flee away.” The large number of ministers who attended, including those from other denominations, was a striking tribute to the high esteem in which he was held by his brethren. He is survived by a widow and a grown-up family of three sons and one daughter to mourn his loss. The oldest son expects to finish his divinity course in the Free Church College next spring, and we trust that his father’s mantle will fall upon him. To all his loved ones we extend the sympathy of the Church.

 

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 REV. ARCHIBALD MUNRO, KILBERRY

(Died 10th April, 1945)
Author: C. S. [Colin Smith, Campbeltown]
Source: The Monthly Record, August, 1945, p.132

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Many older readers will learn with regret of the death of Rev. Archibald Munro, late minister of Kilberry and South Knapdale, which took place on the 10th April 1945. Mr Munro was born in Minard 78 years ago. On reaching early manhood he, like his fellows, engaged in the fishing industry, but, when he entered into a spiritual experience, he felt an irresistible call to become a “fisher of men.” Being a man of marked humility, who sought not great things for himself, he essayed to serve his Lord in the unspectacular role of a colporteur. That his labours in this connection were much appreciated would appear from the unsolicited testimonies that have been made by people dwelling in isolated places. He was a welcome visitor in many homes.

Soon, however, he felt constrained to exercise his gifts in a more public fashion, and, after taking a course of studies in the Free Church College, he was called to the congregation of Kilberry and South Knapdale and there he was ordained in 1910. He found himself in a scattered district where the services required of him were most exacting. He had to preach in stations as many as 20 miles apart, but, in all weathers, he was instant in carrying to his hearers the message of the Evangel. Mr Munro, as a man, was largely devoid of guile. His words and actions were clothed with a charming kindliness and yet he was ever ready to rebuke sin wherever it appeared. He was especially concerned about the growth in Sabbath desecration and was fearless in denouncing it.

Latterly he was visited with periods of ill-health and eventually he was compelled to relinquish his charge. For 10 years afterwards he and his pious wife continued to live in the manse, where they dispensed hospitality to visiting preachers. At length his partner in life was taken from him and he found a home with his brother in Minard. To mark his departure from the scene of his labours the people of Kilberry and district presented him with an illuminated Address which set forth the esteem in which he was held. Soon the illness which was to prove fatal attacked him, and so, in the village where he first saw the light of day, he closed his eyes upon this world. The funeral, which was largely attended, was conducted by members of Presbytery, and so all that was mortal of this good man was laid in the dust to await a glorious Resurrection. The deep sympathy of all is extended to his sorrowing relatives.

 

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 REV. DONALD MUNRO, D.D.

(Died 1937)
Author: Rev. Principal John Macleod
Source: The Monthly Record, July, 1937, p.173

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The removal of a man of God, like the venerable minister of Rogart, casts up on the part of his old friends a long train of memories. And one who knew him more than fifty years ago may be allowed to bring his mite as a contribution to the notices that his death is calling forth. Such memories as his passing calls forth may be linked with those of others who knew him at an even earlier stage of his career. These latter tell of his call by grace in his youth to the knowledge of sin and salvation, and of the place accorded to him by the discerning older Christians of his native Sutherland while he was still in his teens. Those fathers tended to put a young convert on a prolonged probation before he was admitted to the full franchise of their fellowship. In his case, however, so clear and well known was the great change that had come over one, the record of whose former days was itself without blemish, that his elders took him to their heart as one of the most promising young men of his day. Nor did he disappoint the trust reposed in him nor falsify the promise of the outset of his Christian race.

It is believed that in particular the ministry of Dr Kennedy, Dingwall, was blessed to Donald Munro. Those who knew him in early life looked upon him as Dr Kennedy’s son in the faith, and through life he was second to none in his devotion to the memory, and in his appreciation of the teaching of, that great Gospel preacher. At the same time in his formative years Dr Munro was instructed and built up by the rich and fruitful preaching of Dr Aird of Creich, on whose ministry he often waited. Those were the two of the fathers among the ministers who mainly contributed to cast his thinking, his teaching, and his method into the mould that they took throughout his life. Influences of a kindred nature told upon him in the fellowship with the godly elders of his native district from whose lips he derived much of the information that he had in regard to the vigorous Evangelical life of former days in the Northern counties. This information came to be largely supplemented in later years, in particular during his first years in the ministry when he lost no opportunity of drawing out the revered patriarch of Creich, who was the recognised authority for the traditional lore of Evangelical Ross and Sutherland. As he drew out of this treasury he made a point of jotting down as soon as he could the anecdotes, notes and narratives that he thus heard from Dr Aird. Thus he became the custodian for a younger generation of the good things of good days that are gone, which have come down by oral tradition.

When Dr Munro went to Grammar School and University he proved himself to be a rallying centre in Aberdeen, and later in Edinburgh, of fellow students who shared in his outlook and who sought to maintain and to defend the witness and the principles of the Free Church of Scotland. Indeed, one of his special endowments was his aptitude for drawing about him younger men than himself, and for infusing into their mind and heart the sentiments of loyalty to the doctrines of grace to which he was attached and to the purity of worship for which the heroes of his youth, Dr Begg and Dr Kennedy, stood. The gift of drawing young men about him was a talent that was put out to usury to the end of his life. And his devotion to what his Church stood for and to the memory of our Covenanting worthies was a distinct feature of his character. This went hand in hand with a high appreciation of Evangelical godliness as it was to be seen in others who did not see eye to eye with him in many things, so that with all his strength of personal conviction as to where he should stand himself he served to bind together in the unity of the great things of the Evangel, friends who were outwardly sundered in their Church connections.

Throughout life he set a high value on the maintenance of the old religious habit, that was so characteristic of the Highlands in his youth, of waiting upon the special services of Communion seasons. It was a sight to see his picturesque figure of over forty-five years ago, when he was just about thirty years old, as he attended on such services himself and introduced some of his juniors to the fellowship of their elders as they gathered as guests to enjoy the warm hospitality of generous hearts and homes. This attraction that he exercised on the young remained with him to the end as year by year he brought some of his younger brethren with him in his tours and pilgrimages to the moorland monuments, cairns, and graves of so many of our Scots worthies who sealed their testimony with their blood. And on such journeys he attracted to himself, and to the scenes of his interest, some of the shepherd folk and others of the Southern uplands in which year by year he was wont to spend the few weeks of holiday that he took.

Dr Munro, from the start of his ministry in Ferintosh in 1894, took his full share in the preaching work of the Church, and for long years he continued the old and valuable practice of catechising his congregation year by year, and thus keeping in personal touch with the young of his flock. From the time of the Breach in 1900 he threw himself without reserve into the work that fell on the ranks of his Church’s ministry, reduced as they were in their number, and throughout the bounds of the Church became to be as highly esteemed for his message as he was widely known for the extent of his work. He was eminently a minister of the Word, and not an ecclesiastical gladiator. His preaching was faithful with its message of majesty and authority, of terror and urgency. But it was even more distinguished for his full, rich, and free proclamation of the Gospel. Not only did he warn the sinner, he did also what he could to woo him and to win him for his Lord. And there was no ministry that could well be more judicious, tender and sympathetic in bringing consolation to the mourner in Zion. Yet when he was comforting and experimental, he was faithful and searching. Among his fellows he was much better known for the Gospel spirit which he cherished and his personal godliness than for his readiness to be militant and aggressive.

Our worthy father and brother illustrated in his own person and work the Evangelical Ministry of a past whose heritage he sought to commend to the young and to hand down unimpaired to the generations to come.

 

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 REV. W. C. B. MUNRO, Μ.Α.

(Died 23rd July, 1907)

Source: The Monthly Record, August, 1907, p.135

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It is not to-day while the poignancy of grief remains that we can hope to pen anything like an adequate memorial of him whom God has taken. Of all the chastisements which have befallen the Free Church since 31st October, 1900, the sudden death of the Rev. W. C. B. Munro, M.A., of Olrig, Caithness, on Tuesday morning 23rd July, is the most severe. He was a burning and a shining light, and his sun has gone down at noon. Removed by death in the opening years of his ministry, ere yet his powers were matured the loss to his congregation, to the cause of the Free Church in Caithness, and to the Free Church at large is incalculable. And what must it be to his young widow, and their child left fatherless almost before it could know a father’s care. Reserving the tribute which must be paid until a further issue – meanwhile we express our deep sympathy with Mrs. Munro and her child, as well as with the other sorrowing members of the bereaved family.
 

A correspondent from Bower writes:

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We would like to add our tribute to the memory of the Rev. W. C. B. Munro which took place at the Free Church Manse, Olrig, on July 23rd, 1907. It was our high privilege to have this man of God often in our midst and especially on communion occasions. Our last communion was dispensed on July 21st, and on Saturday he discoursed from the words: “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God” (Eph. 2:19). On Sabbath morning his subject was from the words: “For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us” (1st Cor. 5:7), and in the evening: “Yet there is room” (Luke 14:22). This being the last subject he was permitted to discourse upon we give his three leading thoughts. (1) Yet there is room in the willingness of God to save. (2) Yet there is room in the Power of Christ. (3) Yet there is room in the Freeness of the Holy Spirit. The sermon was delivered with great eloquence and power. Truly a prince has been taken from our midst.

We cannot overestimate his worth, as one who was ever ready to defend the whole word of God. In one of our congregational meetings lately he said “If there were only two ministers in Scotland to stand for the whole word of God I would like to be one of the two.” He was tender-hearted, and gentle, and of the true type of a Christian, ever ready to give counsel in difficulty both temporal and spiritual. We feel lonely as he has been taken, but he has earned the rest that remaineth for the people of God. We miss him much as a congregation, we miss him much in the church with which we are identified. It seems very mysterious to us who only can see darkly as in a glass, that he should be taken away in the full glow of young manhood, that such a life of promise should be nipped in the bud. But his work was done and that work was a noble work of self-sacrifice in the cause of his Master. Death has no respect for youth or age, poor or rich; all are alike his victims; the tenderest of earthly ties are rent asunder and in the great solitude and silence that death has caused, we are at this time crushed. But the prey has been taken from the mighty. The captain of Salvation has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light. Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. And now we would seek to band ourselves more closely together as congregations, for the one great end of the advancement of this cause and His Kingdom. We seek to extend our deepest sympathy to Mrs Munro and her daughter, who have been bereaved of a husband and father, and to the other relatives of the deceased.

 

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 REV. WILLIAM MURRAY,
MISSIONARY, SOUTH AFRICA

(Died 4th February, 1923)
Author: A.S. [Alexander Stewart, Foreign Missions Committee Convener]
Source: The Monthly Record, March, 1923, p.38

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By the death of the Rev. William Murray, missionary, Burnshill, South Africa, the Free Church has sustained a heavy loss, and the missionary cause has been bereft of one of its most devoted servants. Mr Murray had come home for a much-needed rest after a more than usually strenuous period of work, during the absence of Rev. Alexander Dewar in this country on furlough. There can be no doubt that the responsibility of superintending the entire mission during that time involved a heavy tax on his strength. In any case he reached his home in Dornoch – where his wife and family had arrived some months before – towards the end of January in an enfeebled state of health. Nothing serious, however, was apprehended, and it was hoped that a period of rest would restore him to his wonted vigour. In the course of a few days, however, symptoms of black-water fever appeared, and after that his strength gradually declined. He passed away on the morning of Sabbath, the 4th February, sustained and comforted by the hopes of the Gospel.

Though not an old man – he was in his fifty-eighth year – Mr Murray had a long and honourable record of service on the mission field. In the year 1888 he was set apart as an artisan missionary for Livingstonia, where he was for a time the colleague of Dr Donald Fraser, and it may be mentioned that at a recent meeting in Edinburgh Dr Fraser paid a high and cordial tribute to his worth. In 1911 he offered himself to the Free Church as a missionary for the South African field, and was cordially welcomed. He was ordained in Hope Street Church in Glasgow on 28th February 1912, and sailed for Cape Colony at the beginning of the following March. He had thus devoted thirty-five years of his life to the mission field.

Mr Murray was a man of solid worth of Christian character. A native of Sutherlandshire, he had the inestimable privilege of having been brought up in a godly home. His father was one of the outstanding Christians of his day in the Highlands, a man in whom fragrant piety was combined with high intelligence, and his mother was a woman of gracious spirit who had learned much of the gentleness of Jesus. The son was worthy of his parents. He was ever loyal to his early training, and united to an earnest simple faith the qualities of practical wisdom and common sense. Perhaps the outstanding feature of his character was its transparent honesty. There was nothing showy about his words or his work, but they were marked by the far higher quality of integrity. There was a ring of sincerity in all his utterances, and whatever his hand found to do he did it with his might. William Murray was a workman who needed not to be ashamed, a humble, earnest, conscientious toiler in the service of the Kingdom of Christ.

His [presence] will be greatly missed in South Africa, where his life and teaching were a power for good. He won a high place in the affection and esteem of the natives, and there is reason to believe that his labours were blessed to the conversion of not a few. His voice is now silent, and his body rests, not beneath a tropical sky, but among the northern hills where he first saw the light. His works, we may confidently say, do follow him. His removal marks the first break in the mission in the missionary staff of the Free Church since 1900. There is an urgent call for other hands to grasp “the torch in flame” which is being passed on by the men who have finished their course. The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few.

Mr Murray is survived by a widow and six young children, to whom the earnest sympathy of the whole Church goes forth in their sore bereavement.

 

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 REV. NICOL NICOLSON, STRATHCONON

(Died June, 1934)
Author: J. McD.
Source: The Monthly Record, December, 1934, p.303

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The Church has lost her oldest and one of her most loyal ministers by the death, in June last, of Rev. Nicol Nicolson, Strathconon.

He was born at Shawbost, Lewis, about 1842. From childhood he had religious impressions, and he became a communicant in his early twenties. Not long after, encouraged by a noted Christian, Calum Mòr na h-urnuigh, his thoughts were directed to the ministry, and in due course he took his University and Divinity classes at Glasgow. During vacations he acted as a teacher, and latterly as student missionary in various places, particularly in Soay, where he met his future wife.

In 1879 he was ordained and inducted at Garve, then a new charge, where he remained for over twenty years. He took an active and vigorous part, by voice and pen, in the Union controversy in support of the Constitutionalist position, and it was a great joy to him when the Free Church position was vindicated by the decision of the House of Lords in 1904.

In 1902 he accepted a call to Shawbost, labouring there for nine years, and in 1911 he went to Strathconon, where he spent the remaining years of his active ministry. He enjoyed his work in this quiet sphere, but here he suffered a heavy bereavement in the death of Mrs Nicolson, a wise and gracious helpmeet. In 1930 he retired, and he was visited by members of the Presbytery and presented with a Bible and address on the occasion of his ministerial Jubilee. He spent his latter days near Keith, under the dutiful care of a daughter.

He was a diligent pastor, and being a first-rate pedestrian, he covered great distances without tiring, even in his later years. As a preacher he was warmly evangelical and always simple and clear in his presentation of the truth. He had a tenacious memory, and loved to relate his reminiscences of the notable ministers and men of his earlier days. For “Macràth Mòr,” of whose life he wrote a short sketch, he conceived the highest regard; he was his ideal preacher and the one who impressed him most. He established a close and abiding friendship with Mr Galbraith, Lochalsh, who, after Macràth Mòr, most appealed to him as a preacher. All the influences, ministers and the rank and file of Christian witnesses of his day, helped to mould his mind and prepare him for his life’s work. Some of his best traits reflected the fine old school in which he received his spiritual training.

He was laid to rest in the churchyard at Garve, beside his wife and several members of his family who had predeceased him.

“Until the day break and the shadows flee away.”

 

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 REV. JOHN NOBLE

(Died 31st January, 1908)
Source: The Monthly Record, March, 1908, pp.46ff

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“I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because Thou didst it.” Psalm 39:9

The above is the text which came into our memory when, on Saturday, 1st February, the Scotsman announcement was read that the Moderator-elect of the Free Church General Assembly had passed away suddenly on the previous day at about 12.30 p.m. It was hard, almost impossible to realise that one who so lately appeared to be in his usual health, who had preached in Strathpeffer the previous Sabbath, had been taken from us. Why the hand of the Most High has gone out against the Free Church in this strange fashion is a thing hard to be understood. There is a controversy with us on some ground when, in the midst of outward blessing, He thus removes from a Church already weak in the numbers of its ministers those who seemed able to render good service for many years to come.

John Noble was born in the famous parish of Ferintosh, in the Black Isle, about the year 1851. His own minister was the Rev. Malcolm Macgregor, M.A., the successor of the “Apostle of the North.” Of Mr. Macgregor the deceased spoke to the writer in terms of the deepest respect. Mr. Noble was educated in the Free Church School of his native parish. He then passed to Dingwall, and while apprenticed to the drapery trade there continued his education by whatever means of self-culture lay to his hand. He was well read, and did not mis-spend his time. In Dingwall he came under the potent spiritual and intellectual influence of Dr. John Kennedy, to whom he acknowledged lasting indebtedness. He by-and-by abandoned drapery, and passed to Edinburgh University, and subsequently to the Free Church College, Aberdeen. He was ordained minister of the Free Church at Lairg in 1885, and there he spent the remainder of his days. He occupied his own pulpit on Sabbath, 26th January. On the following Thursday he conducted Fast Day services in the North Church, Inverness; on the Sabbath following he preached his last sermons in Strathpeffer Free Church, introducing Mr. Fraser to the pastorate there. His text at the English service there was Isaiah 52:7, and his subject, “The Messenger and his Message.” Notes of his English sermon in Inverness are, by the courtesy of our friend, Mr. John Fraser, given in this issue.

Mr. Noble was a man of strong individuality, with great force of character, and a gift of rugged, fiery oratory. He was strangely shy by nature, yet when duty called his was the courage of the man who knew his God. As a preacher he excelled in analysis, and his philosophical turn of mind, which brought him academical distinction in student days, was illustrated in his preaching to the end. He commanded a clear and forcible literary style. His biography of Dr. Kennedy, which he published a few years ago in the latest edition of the Fathers in Ross-shire, is an admirably executed piece of work. Those who never saw the great preacher get a very good view of him in Mr. Noble’s work. The portrait of the man is there, and the appreciation of Dr. Kennedy will appeal to every one who enjoyed the privilege of listening to that prince among preachers. It is understood that the late Dr. Aird, who had a high regard for his younger neighbour in Lairg, left all his papers to him, and that Mr. Noble contemplated writing the biography of the famous Sutherland pastor. Whether he had made any progress with his task is to us unknown.

Mr. Noble was a singularly genial companion. The rugged exterior was found in private converse to be an exterior, and nothing more. His humour was of the cynical, sarcastic order, but was kept well in hand. He had a fund of healthy anecdote regarding the great preachers of his native Black Isle, in which there were for a brief space at one time settled five of the greatest preachers Stewart in Cromarty, Sage in Resolis, Macrae in Knockbain, Kennedy in Killearnan, and Macdonald in Ferintosh. “My leanness, my leanness,” said the Prophet, “I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grape gleanings of the vintage; there is no cluster to eat; my soul desired the first ripe fruit.” This was the refrain of Mr. Noble’s talk with the writer in a comfortable lodging in Brora a few years ago. Now he has gone. The cry goes forth: “Who is on the Lord’s side and who will go for us?

Our deepest sympathy goes out to his bereaved widow, a daughter of the godly Mr Davidson, so long minister of Dallas, to the congregation to which he so faithfully ministered and the Presbytery of Dornoch so strangely weakened by this dispensation.
 

Pulpit References
Author: Various
Source: The Monthly Record, March, 1908, pp.46ff

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The following pulpit references to our departed friend and his spiritual and moral worth are reported to have been made on Sabbath 2nd February.

At the close of the afternoon service in the Free North Church, Inverness, the Rev. Murdo Mackenzie, ex-Moderator, made an appropriate allusion to the sudden death of the Rev. Mr. Noble, the Moderator-elect of the Free Church. It was scarcely a week ago, he said, since they heard Mr. Noble eloquently set forth the message to them, during their Communion services, from the pulpit. On that occasion he thought he had never heard his deceased brother so mellow in speech. Mr. Noble was a man of controversy, but his discourses were entirely free from that element. He preached the pure Word of Life. Ever since he (Mr. Mackenzie) came to Inverness, he had been intimately connected with Mr. Noble who was the late Dr. Aird’s nearest neighbour. Mr. Noble was ever ready to assist any of his brethren in any part of the Highlands. Unassuming in private life, on the platform and in the pulpit he was a gifted and eloquent speaker. It was expected, had he lived, that he would have been the biographer of the late Dr. Aird, as he was the biographer of the late Dr. Kennedy. By the death of Mr. Noble a great blank was created in the Free Church in the Highlands, and his loss would be mourned in many parts.

Rev. Professor John MacLeod, preaching in Free St. Columba’s Church, Edinburgh, said: His clearness of vision, sanity of judgment, firmness of resolution, and depth of conviction made him an invaluable man in our recent conflicts, and he will be sorely missed. The Church desired to put upon him the highest honour it was in her power to bestow, but death has come in, and it will now be so much satisfaction to those he has left behind that they had it in their heart to give him the office that was his due. When our ranks of true-hearted labourers are being thinned, and voice after voice speaks to us, we are called as a Church to instant prayer that the Lord of the harvest may rise up and send forth labourers for His own harvest field.

Preaching in Fountainbridge Free Church, Edinburgh, the Rev. Alexander Stewart said the Free Church had lost one of the bravest of her standard-bearers, and one who had served his generation faithfully and well had fallen on sleep. Mr. Noble was one of the ablest ministers in the Free Church. He was a man of outstanding mental power, whose real strength was not always manifested in his public appearances. It was in private intercourse that he revealed himself fully. The strength of his life was, of course, devoted to the work of the ministry, and he was a doctrinal preacher of a high order. Since the death of the venerable Dr. Aird, of Creich, it was safe to say that no minister in the Northern Highlands commanded wider respect or wielded a deeper influence. It was largely owing to that influence that the people of Sutherlandshire had remained so loyal to the Free Church. For a good many years prior to the Union, Mr. Noble had stood almost alone in his Presbytery in defence of the principles of the Disruption, and he had ultimately the satisfaction of seeing every church and manse within its bounds secured to the Free Church. He was above all a man of clear principle, and everything that savoured of unworthy compromise he abhorred. He had a warm and tender heart. He was a loyal friend, a wise counsellor, and a helper of many in their time of need.

 

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 REV. JAMES B. ORR, SHETTLESTON

(Died 31st July, 1917)
Author: By a fellow-student: A. R.
Source: The Monthly Record, September, 1917, p. 107

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We can scarcely yet realise that it is true, and that never again in this present life shall we behold the grimly-genial face of James Orr. There is something wrong somewhere surely when such lives of bright promise are swept away into the unseen from this world of darkness and conflict where they are so much needed. Only 33 years of service on earth did he see, whose mortal body sleeps now beneath the shell-torn fields of Flanders. Something wrong somewhere assuredly! Not with God, for He is just, and He is love, but with man. Man has got out of touch with God, and is stumbling on blindly in a darkness of his own choosing. When will these sad calamities be ever past?

Thy Kingdom come, oh God,
Thy rule, oh Christ, begin;
Break with thine iron rod
The tyrannies of sin.”

When He comes, the Desire of all nations, many mysteries will be cleared up. Then those who were cut off while as yet it was noon-day with them, and the sun shone brightly upon them, will join with us who now lament their passing, in singing the praises of the infallible wisdom and the unfailing Love that has done all things well.

I entered the Divinity Hall of our Church along with James Orr, in October, 1909. We met then for the first time. He came from Ayrshire, the land of the martyrs, and his speech bewrayed him. I came from Ross-shire, in the bleak and remote regions beyond the Grampians somewhere, but these facts constituted no barrier between us. We did not look at some things – politics for example, and certain theological dogmas – from precisely the same viewpoint, but in spite of that we were drawn together from the first, and became intimate friends. For four years we were together at the Hall, and we finished our course at the same time. These were four happy years in our experience, and sadly sweet memories of them throng around me now.

There is one trait in our departed brother’s character that always stands out prominently when I think of him. He had a deep interest in the abysmal problems of personality and the profundities of philosophy, and was in his element when reasoning about them. At the dinner table, or in the Theological Society, many a time would he discourse with evident relish, almost with gusto, on Predestination and Freewill and kindred topics, and would lead us who tried to grapple with the question discussed into mists and fogs of the mind, while, in strange and untried regions, we moved feebly and irresolutely about, “in wandering mazes lost.” Some of those evenings at the “Theological” are imperishable memories with some of us.

His tragic death is a great loss to the Church. He was interested in Apologetics, and his keen mind, sharpened by unceasing argument and discussion, would have been of use in that sphere of Christian service. The voice of the sceptic and the scoffer and the infidel lecturer is still heard in the land, and James Orr could expose with great acuteness their fallacies.

His gifts he laid at the feet of Christ, and his aim was to extend His Kingdom. Only a few months did he have in the Christian ministry in the Church militant. I preached at his ordination, and, as I laid my hand on his head in the solemn ordination prayer that night, little did I dream that in less than four years he would have died such a death. Oh, the mystery, the unspeakable tragedy of it all! But “nothing is here for tears!” Surely his Master has some grander work for him now in some other part of His vast dominions. He is with Christ, which is far better.

“And I said in under-breath,
All our life is mixed with death,
And who knoweth which is best?

And I smiled to think God’s greatness
Flowed around our incompleteness.
Round our restlessness, His rest.”

 

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 REV. SAMUEL LYLE ORR

(Died 13th January, 1930)
Author: W. R. B. [Walter Rounsfell Brown]
Source: The Monthly Record, February, 1930, pp.39-40

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During three years of retirement the late Moderator bore, with becoming content, the restrictions laid upon him by the slow weakening of a stout frame wherein was locked a heart whose Christian faith knew no slackening.

On 13th January 1930, at the house of his son, who is a professional man in Belfast, Mr Orr entered into rest. On Wednesday, 15th January, his body was committed to the dust in a surprisingly beautiful churchyard at Ballyalbany, County Monaghan, the scene of his first pastorate.

The group of family mourners and relatives in Belfast was augmented from Scotland by these typical representatives of the Free Church: from the Ministry, Rev. Duncan Macdonald, M.A., Milton congregation; from the Eldership, Mr Robert Baird, Saltcoats congregation; from the Youth of the Church, Miss M. E. Rounsfell Brown, Buccleuch congregation and from the Church generally and officially, the General Treasurer.

A party of twelve made, by motor car, the long but pleasant road journey to County Monaghan, in the new Free State. There was witnessed a striking tribute of a congregation’s memory to a pastor who had gone from them a quarter of a century ago. Only three women, and these but maidens, were there; the pews in the beautiful church were occupied by men whose age proclaimed that each of them must have been moulded into Christian life when lads under Mr Orr.

The service was conducted by Rev. James A. Cargin, B.A., Ballyalbany Church; Rev. Wm. Armour, M.A., Monaghan First Presbyterian Church; Rev. Wm. McCoach, M.A., Oldpark Church, Belfast (who had been for a time Mr Orr’s co-Presbyter); and Rev. Mr Macdonald.

Mr Cargin gave a short appreciation of his predecessor’s seventeen and a half years life in Ballyalbany. This, besides being felicitous in expression, was remarkable for the faithful picture (admittedly drawn from the testimony of others) of Mr Orr’s activities, precisely as he had lived after coming to Scotland. Mr Orr, responding to his earlier training as a schoolmaster, had readily made available to all and sundry a wide assortment of knowledge. He had organised Sabbath School classes, week-night classes, and other enterprises for the mental, bodily, and spiritual upbringing of young people. As a pastor he had been a diligent, kindly, and ever welcome visitor to the homes of his people; a messenger always of sympathetic faith to the bereaved, to whom his own equable resignation under heavy personal sorrows had carried comfort and conviction. A Christian gentleman, his devoted life had been his best sermon.

Mr McCoach, out of personal knowledge and long friendship, followed to the same effect. The General Treasurer was privileged to tell the congregation that, as their former pastor had been when among them, so had he been in the Free Church, to which, with sacrificing sense of duty, he came for her help. His notable service to children had been recognised by the Church’s highest honour, and had been that day emphasised by a representative from among her young women. Mr Orr had borne the honour of being Moderator with gracefulness because he had been worthy.

During the interment in the churchyard the writer heard many endorsements of what Mr Cargin had said. One elder referring to the presence in the company of one of themselves, Mr Alex. Haslett, who is a Member of Dail Eireann said: “Mr Orr was for pushing on all of us: he would have had every one of us Members of Parliament, or in other big positions. If he knew of a boy having any gift, he saw that the boy got a chance. Mr Orr kept me attending classes in and about the Church eight days a week.”

The concluding feature of the funeral was, for its courtesy, a tribute pleasing to the well-based reputation of the minister, who, forgetting not his highest office, had lived the full life of a man of God, alert to every claim of surrounding duty. The company from a distance were entertained to dinner in the nearby country house of Mr W. J. Crawford and Mrs Crawford, who are not of the Ballyalbany congregation. Mr Crawford is a merchant, and he and his family belong to the Presbyterian congregation in the town of Monaghan, a mile distant.

 

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 REV. JOHN DAVID RAMSAY, ROTHESAY

(Died 7th June, 1933)
Author: G. N. M. C. [George N. M. Collins, Greenock]
Source: The Monthly Record, July, 1933, p.177

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It was a rare and pleasing experience to hear it reported at last General Assembly that, throughout the preceding year, no Free Church congregation had been bereaved of its pastor. The Commissioners had not long returned to their homes, however, when the sad tidings reached them that a brother beloved, namely, the Rev. J. D. Ramsay of Rothesay Free Church had been removed from the scene of his earthly labours by death. The tidings were wholly unexpected, for Mr Ramsay was not much past “the mid-time of his years,” and looked even younger than the fifty-four years which comprised his allotted span.

Mr Ramsay was a most likeable man. Courteous and kindly, dispositionally bright and cheerful, his very presence seemed to irradiate the sunshine of his native Australia. He was ordained to the ministry of the Free Presbyterian Church of Australia in 1911, but spent the greater part of his ministerial life in Scotland, in the service of the Free Church. After a ministry of four years in Glenorchy Free Church, he was called to Rothesay in 1918, and there continued to labour with success and acceptance until promoted to the Church triumphant.

Mr Ramsay was a man of more than ordinary powers of intellect. The philosophy of religion was his favourite study. An ardent evangelical, he was able to give impressive reasons for the faith that was in him. His fellow-presbyters, who attended the 1930 meeting of the Southern Synod in Greenock Free Church, will recall with undiminished appreciation the excellent and vigorous address on “Modernism”, which, by appointment of the Synod’s Committee on Religion and Morals, he gave on that occasion. It was a magnificent defence of the evangelical faith and a most able exposure of the fallacies, inconsistencies and weaknesses of the so-called “assured results.”

The resistless summons came to this honoured servant of Christ on the 7th day of June. Prior to the funeral on Saturday, 10th June, impressive services were conducted concurrently in the church and manse by members of the Presbytery of Glasgow, assisted by local ministers. The large number of sorrowing people who attended the public service in his church afforded proof of the esteem in which Mr Ramsay had been held in the town. To his sorrowing widow and children, to his congregation bereft of their pastor, to his brothers – Rev. M. C. Ramsay and Rev. H. W. Ramsay, both ministers of the Free Presbyterian Church in Australia – and to all his other relatives, the deep sympathy of all his fellow-ministers of the Free Church is extended.

As for himself, his epitaph is found in the well-known words of an Apostle “he served his generation by the will of God, and fell on sleep.”

 

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 REV. JOHN ROBERTSON, GLENLYON

(Died 8th December, 1936)
Author: A. R. F. [Probably Rev. A. R. Fraser, Dundee]
Source: The Monthly Record, January, 1937, p.15

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There passed from these earthly scenes a gracious and lovable personality when Rev. John Robertson, minister of Glenlyon, died at the home of relatives at Weem, on Tuesday, 8th December 1936.

Mr Robertson was born at Kirkmichael, Perthshire, nearly seventy-six years ago. His mother ambitious for the future of her sons, sometimes denied herself the bare necessities of life that their education might not be hindered. Thus two brothers received a university education and entered the ministry of the Church of Scotland. John, the third son, realising the burden imposed on the home by these demands, decided to forego the advantages of a higher education for which he was naturally qualified, and accepted employment as a herd boy. Later he became apprenticed to a blacksmith, and in pursuance of this trade moved to the Rannoch district. Rannoch occupied a big place in his affections, and little wonder, for to it he owed two of the most potent influences of his life. It was here that as a wild youth he came under the power of the Gospel and learned to know and love the Lord Jesus Christ. It was here, too, that he met the lady, the daughter of his master, who became his wife.

Impelled by love, John Robertson after conversion eagerly sought opportunities of serving his Saviour. In company with another young man he conducted Gospel meetings in the district, and later became an esteemed and acceptable lay preacher. In this capacity he faithfully served the Lord and the Church he loved so well, often taking long journeys first from Rannoch and then from Dalmally. Those preaching excursions brought him to Glenlyon, where he was appointed a Resident Agent of the Church. So acceptable did his presence and services prove to the Glenlyon people that after a few years they decided to petition the General Assembly to ordain him to the ministry in the congregation. This petition the General Assembly in its wisdom was pleased to grant; a decision which no one had ever the slightest reason to regret. From that time until a few months ago, when he was compelled by an affection of the throat to retire from the active ministry, Mr Robertson laboured lovingly and faithfully in the great Glen commending himself not only to his own people but to the whole community by his gracious disposition and Christian courtesy, wise counsel, and evangelical fervour.

Mr Robertson was richly endowed with natural gifts, and failing not to educate himself and keep in touch with affairs, he possessed a well-informed mind from which he drew with advantage both in his pulpit work and in private conversation. Pre-deceased by his wife, he peacefully passed to his eternal rest and reward in the mellowness of old age and Christian experience as a shock of corn fully ripe.

“Well done, good and faithful servant . . . enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”

 

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 REV. JOHN ROSE, LOCHS

(Died 16th September, 1922)
Author: К. С. [Kenneth Cameron, Stornoway]
Source: The Monthly Record, October, 1922, p.167

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The following tribute was adopted at a recent meeting of the Presbytery of Lewis:

The Presbytery of Lewis desire to record their loss through the removal of Rev. J. Rose, Lochs, by death on 16th ult., at Orangedale Manse, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, whither he had gone to reside with his son.

A native of Inverness-shire, his Arts and Divinity Courses were taken in Edinburgh, where he was licensed in 1884. That same year he was ordained over the Whycocomagh congregation in Cape Breton. After years of good service there he went to Ashfield, Ontario. Thereafter he was for some years over the Malagawatch and River Dennis congregation. In these several congregations he devotedly ministered to descendants of Uist, Lewis and Kintail folks.

After twenty-five years’ service in Canada he returned to the Church of his fathers and was settled over the Lochs congregation. This was returning to familiar scenes, for in early years he served in Ness and Kinloch in the capacities of teacher and preacher, and to the former he was passionately attached, and he would often rehearse with gleaming eye and beaming face the interesting spiritual facts of these early days when his fervent nature had congenial exercise.

He gave 14 years’ service to Lochs, and he has left his mark there, and his memory will for many a day be tenderly cherished by his devoted flock. He was affectionate in manner, earnest in labour, ungrudging in service, passionately desirous of the welfare of souls, and there is reason to cherish the hope that not a few are thankful for his crossing their path. În far off Whycocomagh his dust fittingly lies awaiting a blessed resurrection. To his widow and family the Presbytery express their sympathy and hope that the husband and father’s God may help in this hour of separation.

 

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 REV. DONALD ROSS, KILMUIR-EASTER

(Died 1909)

Source: The Monthly Record, July, 1909, p.128

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This worthy minister of the Free Church died several months ago, after a very short period of service as the minister of Kilmuir-Easter, in Easter Ross.

Mr Ross was a man of about seventy. He was a native of Glenurquhart, and was brought up in the Free Church there. He laboured as a city missionary in Dundee, and there connected himself with the congregation that worshipped in Albert Square Free Church under the fruitful ministry of the late Rev. Neil Taylor. He afterwards joined the Baptist community, and was for a period of about twenty years in charge of the Baptist congregation at Bowmore, Islay, with the oversight of the congregations of the Baptist Union in Islay. Mr Ross was held in great respect throughout the island, and frequently officiated in Free Church pulpits.

He came back to his mother Church about the year 1901, and for eight years laboured strenuously in her behalf at many different places. He was a warm evangelical preacher, and a most attentive pastor. Many congregations were eager to enjoy his services as a settled minister, but only at the Assembly of 1908 was he admitted to the status of probationer, and at once he was elected minister at Kilmuir-Easter. His ministry there was short. He preached for seven Sabbaths, but only once in the church after his ordination. His illness assumed an aggravated form, but he struggled on, conducting services in the manse as long as his strength permitted. He was buried, at his own request, in his native Glenurquhart. In Mr Ross the Free Church lost a particularly devoted and strenuous worker. He is survived by Mrs Ross, his second wife, who nursed him with singular zeal and devotion.

 

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 REV. JOHN SHAW

(Died 29th June, 1950)
Source: The Monthly Record, August, 1950, p.157

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News of the death of the Rev. John Shaw, Senior Minister of Leith, will have touched the hearts of many, not only within the Free Church, but far beyond its borders. For our departed brother was not only widely known but greatly beloved by all who came into close contact with him.

Though Mr Shaw’s illness was of a serious nature from its very onset, hopes were cherished for his recovery as recently as the end of May, when an encouraging report was given to the General Assembly at its first Sederunt, and we believe that he was being borne in prayer on the hearts of many throughout his illness. God had seen fit, however, to answer prayer in calling His servant to the eternal rest and he passed over on Thursday, the 29th June, in the presence of those he most dearly loved.

In the Free Church, and in the confidence and affection of his brethren, he occupied a place all his own, and though he had recently retired from the active ministry, his counsel and guidance were invaluable and his genial presence cast a radiance upon every gathering that he entered. The indomitable courage and perseverance that led him, in what many would reckon advanced life, to pursue his studies to graduation, found expression in every department of the Church’s work to which he was called. As minister of the Leith congregation, which he built up from a small mission station to its present healthy condition as one of our foremost city charges, as Clerk of Assembly, first under Professor J. Kennedy Cameron and latterly as Principal, where he attended to every detail with meticulous and conscientious care, as Lecturer in Religious Instruction to our students at Moray House, as Convener of several Assembly Standing Committees, he was ever the same wise, patient, helpful and brotherly servant of the Church.

As a preacher he was orderly in thought and warmly evangelical in his message, but it was as pastor that his qualities of character and heart found the fullest expression. To every home and every individual in his congregation he was a friend whose presence and word of encouragement made the burdens of life easier to bear. Another pen will write of his labours and of his devotion to his Church and his Lord, and it falls to us, here and now, merely to say, what we ardently believe, that there are many who will continue to thank God upon every remembrance of the Rev. John Shaw.

In no merely formal way do we offer the sympathy of our readers to his widow and family and to the congregation of Leith.

 

Source: The Monthly Record, September, 1950, p.188-190

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With the passing of the Reverend John Shaw, M.A., in his seventy-fifth year the Free Church of Scotland has lost one of her leading ministers and the congregation of Elder Memorial Church, Leith, a beloved pastor.

Mr Shaw was a native of Harris and in early life settled in the city of Glasgow to pursue his business calling there. He attached himself to the congregation of Duke Street Gaelic Free Church, where with humility and exemplary efficiency he served as an office-bearer. After a number of years he heard the call to the Gospel Ministry and, already charged with the responsibilities of a home and a young family, he gave up business in order to undergo the ordinary course of education required for the ministry. In October 1919 he came to Leith where as a student in training he took charge of Elder Memorial Free Church along with his studies. Having graduated in Arts he completed his theological course in the Free Church College and was thereafter called to be pastor of the congregation to which he ministered as a student. He accepted the Call and was ordained and inducted on the 11th May 1923. This was his only charge, a very small one when first he assumed care of it, but by patient and consecrated attention it has become a substantial and consolidated congregation – a proof of really evangelistic and home mission effort.

During the days of war when the “black-out” made visitation difficult the Rev. John Shaw might be found in fair weather and in foul making his way to some home in sore need of comfort. In this ministry he excelled so that the house-going pastor made a church going people. Unflinchingly loyal to principle he was, nevertheless, of a generous Catholic spirit so that his name and ministrations were not only acceptable to his own flock but also to many without. His administrative ability and fair judgment were wisely acknowledged in 1926 when the General Assembly appointed him their Clerk. He continued in this post till 1937 when they elected him Principal Clerk. For twelve years in this office he guided the Supreme Court with consummate tact and justice and in many a difficult situation his insight and good nature resolved the conflict or the problem.

The Assembly appointed him one of their General Trustees and more or less continuously chose him to serve on their Standing and Special Committees so that as Secretary to the Sustentation Fund Committee and Convener of the Highlands and Islands, Home Mission and Supply Committee and other executives he gave of his talents and ability to the Church he loved. In the Presbytery of Edinburgh his counsel was at the service of his brethren and on the Committees of that Court and on outside bodies to which he was appointed he worthily discharged the trust imposed on him. He frequently acted as temporary Clerk of Presbytery and though already burdened with many calls he yet deemed it a sacred duty to accept a duty laid on him by a Church Court.

The appointments charged on him by the Church were cheerfully accepted and conscientiously discharged. As a representative on the World Presbyterian Alliance he was accepted with confidence and pleasure by the members. On the Board of Trustees of the Churches and Universities (Scotland) Widows and Orphans Fund to which the Church appointed him as on other outside bodies he served with acceptance. He was honoured by the Assembly to represent them in Canada, where he visited our congregations, and in Geneva, when he was a deputy to the World Presbyterian Alliance.

He was for many years Free Church Lecturer in Religious Instruction in Moray House Training College, Edinburgh, and students preparing for the teaching profession, loved the man and learned from his lips: those of the permanent staff in the Provincial College who came in touch with him showed him well-merited respect.

In 1941 the highest honour in the power of the Church to bestow was conferred on the Rev John Shaw when the General Assembly called him to the Moderatorial Chair: his conduct of the Assembly that year revealed the anticipated efficiency and dignity of his ruling. Towards the end of 1949 his health began to fail, and after months of waiting and Christian resignation the end came on 29th June.

A large congregation attended the funeral service, representing all churches. He was laid to rest in the Grange Cemetery, Edinburgh. To his sorrowing widow and daughters, and to the congregation of Leith, we extend our sincere sympathy.

 

Author: J.O.S. [John O. Sutherland]
Source: The Monthly Record, September, 1950, p.188-190

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A tribute from one of his students at Moray House

It is with profound regret that the many teachers who have passed through Moray House Training College, Edinburgh learned of the passing of Rev. John Shaw. M.A., for many years Lecturer in Religious Instruction in Moray House.

Rev. John Shaw was a man greatly beloved by all; his gracious personality and kindly smile, not to mention his stately figure and pure white hair, made him a well-known personality in the College. All students knew him and respected him, which was evidenced by the many outside the Free Church who attended his classes. As a lecturer, Mr Shaw was aIways well and carefully prepared, and he took great care to instruct his students in sound doctrine. How many lessons did he prepare for young teachers and the chief aim of each was to present Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. He was no mere lecturer, he was a teacher and moreover a constant preacher of the Gospel. How simple, yet how fervent, were the prayers with which he opened his classes! It mattered not which room he occupied – and he had to resort to many a small corner when Moray House was full up – his class always had the atmosphere of a family circle. He knew each of his students intimately (how exceptional nowadays!) and he always had a kind word for each. And with what wise counsel did he send them on their way to instruct those committed to their charge, and always with the gift of a Bible from his Committee.

But his voice was known not only to his own students. We all remember the mornings when he appeared on the platform in the College Assembly Hall. His was no formal prayer, but a true offering up of his desires unto God and an earnest pleading for God’s blessing on the work of the day. And now he is gone, but his work lives on. May the many who passed through his classes continue to pass on to their charges the gospel message which he so faithfully and diligently proclaimed with that strong Highland accent.

 

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 REV. GEORGE SHILTON, SALTCOATS

(Died 5th April, 1932)
Author: R.B. [Robert Baird, an elder in the Saltcoats and Ardrossan congregation]
Source: The Monthly Record, May, 1932, p.113

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It is with deep regret that we record the death of the Rev. George Shilton, minister of Saltcoats and Ardrossan and Stevenston, and formerly of Coatbridge, which took place suddenly of heart failure at Knowsley, near Liverpool, on Tuesday, the 5th of April. His sudden death came as a great shock to his family and congregation.

Mr Shilton was born in West Derby, near Liverpool, sixty years ago. He was trained for the ministry of the Church of England and ordained by Bishop Baker, and served that Church for several years in Liverpool and Birkenhead. Taking exception to the doctrine and practice of that Church, he resigned from its ministry and entered the world of commerce, coming to Glasgow for that purpose about the year 1910.

Not long after settling in Glasgow he came into contact with several members of the Free Church, notably the late Principal MacCulloch, and finding himself in sympathy with the distinctive principles for which she stands, he connected himself with Govanhill congregation, and did excellent service by way of week-end supply from that time until he was admitted to the ministry of the Church at the General Assembly of 1918. He was called to Coatbridge, and laboured there for the next nine years, discharging the duties of his office with approved fidelity, and possessing the full confidence and affection of his own people and the unqualified estimation of all who knew him.

In February 1927 he was called to succeed the late Rev. S. Lyle Orr in Saltcoats and Ardrossan and Stevenston, and continued there till his death. He laboured with diligence in preparation for the pulpit, and in his sermons it was clearly evident that he was animated with a pure zeal for the glory of the Redeemer and the salvation of immortal souls. To the sick and sorrowing of his congregation and to others who desired his visits, he perhaps came nearest and was most appreciated, and he put himself to endless trouble in visiting those who had to go for treatment to the Infirmaries. To the Free Church of Scotland he was conscientiously attached. His soul abhorred the dishonesty of subscribing to Articles which the subscriber does not believe to be agreeable to the word of God and founded thereon.

The general regret occasioned by his death sufficiently testified the high estimation in which his character was held by persons of all denominations. The funeral took place on 9th April to Ardrossan and Saltcoats Burying-ground. The Moderator of of the Glasgow Presbytery, Mr Cameron of Brodick, presided at the service, which was held in the manse, and there were also present Rev. J. MacLeod, O.B.E., Rev. D. Smith, Rev. Wm. Fraser, Rev. D. Ferguson, and Mr John MacDonald, J.P., members of Presbytery, also Rev. T. S. Symington, Rev. J. R. Spottiswoode, Rev. J. Munn, Rev. J. Calderwood, and the Rev. J. Cleminson Bell, ministers in Saltcoats, together with a large gathering of office-bearers and members of both congregations and other friends. The deepest sympathy is extended to the widow and family in their sore bereavement and also to both congregations.

 

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 REV. JOHN PETER SINCLAIR, OLRIG

(Died 11th September, 1933)
Source: The Monthly Record, October, 1933, p.237

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It is with deep regret that we have to record the death of the Rev. John P. Sinclair, of Olrig Free Church, Caithness. A fuller obituary notice appears on another page, and the present paragraph is no more than a brief personal tribute based on a friendship extending over many years. Through the passing away of Mr Sinclair the Free Church has lost one of her most faithful ministers. He was a man of exceptionally fine character, possessing distinctive qualities of head and heart. As a preacher he had a clear grasp of Christian truth, and, although he was hampered to some extent by a weak voice, messages were always thoughtful and stimulating, giving evidence of unusual insight into the meaning of the Divine Word, and revealing a workman-like command of the instrument of speech. In addition to his spiritual attainments, he was endowed in a high degree with sound common sense, and for this reason he was a wise counsellor to those who turned to him for guidance in times of need. He was loyal in his friendships, unswerving in his convictions, and generous in his sympathies. His native county will miss him sorely, for to its service he devoted the whole of his ministerial life, and in its affections he won for himself a secure place. His memory will also be cherished by a wide circle of friends beyond the bounds of Caithness.

 

Author: J. M.
Source: The Monthly Record, October, 1933, p.246

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At the Free Church Manse, Castletown, on Monday, 11th September, Mr John Peter Sinclair, of Olrig, passed away to his everlasting rest. He was in the sixty-eighth year of his age and had almost completed his twenty sixth year in the ministry. He served in two charges, both in the Presbytery of Caithness, having been ordained at Latheron in 1907 and inducted to Olrig in 1919. From the very beginning of his ministry he acted as Clerk to his Presbytery. Owing to the circumstances of the time a much greater share of public work fell to his lot than most ministers are called upon to undertake, and in his own steady and ungrudging spirit he did it all.

Mr Sinclair was the son of William Sinclair of Pulteneytown, Wick, who was in his day the outstanding Christian layman of Caithness. William Sinclair was one of the bosom friends of Mr Auld of Olrig and Dr Kennedy of Dingwall. His like-minded wife illustrated the fine type of religious life that prized the ministry of men like Dr Moody Stuart, the memorials of Dr John Duncan and John Macdonald of Calcutta, and the writings of Samuel Rutherford. Thus from his earliest years the future minister of Olrig Free Church was brought up in the midst of the best and kindliest influences of a truly Christian home.

In his boyhood he went to Texas and spent about ten years on a brother’s ranch there. A few years after his return to Scotland he became a communicant member of the Church. He had learned the fear of God and the teaching of his youthful years was not in vain. His Christian experience was of a singularly equable character. While he had no great frights such as others could speak of he was kept as a consciously needy sinner, a willing dependant on the grace of the Gospel. There were few of this generation that knew better than he the writings of Dr. Hugh Martin, and his appreciation of them kept pace with his knowledge. This will serve to show the solid character of his mind. When he felt called to study with a view to the ministry he was by no means a novice but a man well exercised in Godliness and of mature intelligence and wide information. So from the outset of his public life he spoke with the ease and the authority of one who was well schooled in the message that was given him to deliver. In spite of seriously enfeebled health he remained in harness until the end. Less than a week before his death he attended a meeting of Presbytery. He was confined to his bed for only about two days. Thus he never availed himself of the реrmission given by the Assembly of 1932 to retire from work. More than anyone else he bore for a quarter of century, in the midst of many difficulties and discouragements, the burden of the Church’s work in the Presbytery of his native county.

Mr Sinclair was naturally of a shy and retiring disposition, and would be the last to thrust himself into prominence. But he was endowed with great moral courage, and when he felt that he ought to speak he did not keep back what he had to say. But his great and unassuming modesty kept him as as a rule in the background. In his public work, however, discerning hearers recognised in him a master in Israel of most approved judgment. Though the weakness of his voice was throughout his career a serious handicap, yet his lucid and fresh and convinced and convincing presentation of his message appealed to the intelligence and to the conscience of thoughtful listeners. As a pastor and friend he was greatly beloved. His kind and affectionate nature responded to the varying situations that met him among his people, and this endeared him to them. Wherever his work was known, his memory will be held in the highest regard. And the sympathy of a wide circle of friends goes out to his widow and relatives in their bereavement. “The end of that man is peace.”

 

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 REV. COLIN SMITH

(Died 4th August, 1957)

Source: The Monthly Record, September, 1957, p.177

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This month again it falls to us to record the death of one of our ministers. Many throughout the Church must have learned with pained feelings of the passing of the Rev. Colin Smith, Campbeltown, on Sabbath, 4th August. Though Mr Smith had been in indifferent health for many years, very few of his friends could have realised that his condition was so serious, and the news of his passing came as a shock. Mr Smith’s ministry was exercised mainly within the bounds of his own Presbytery as the precarious condition of his health did not often permit him to go far afield. But in the circles where he was well known his warmly evangelical ministry was deeply appreciated. His entire ministry, with the exception of a very short period in Milton Congregation, Glasgow, was given to Campbeltown, and the fact that when his health had broken down in Glasgow his first congregation received him back with open arms is sufficient testimony to the esteem and affection in which he was held by those who knew him best. Deep sympathy goes out to his widow and daughter and to his loyal and warm-hearted congregation. His presence and labours will be sadly missed in the Presbytery of Inveraray, of which he was for many years clerk.

 

Source: The Monthly Record, October, 1957, p.206

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It is with profound sorrow that we have to record the death of the Rev. Colin Smith. He slept peacefully away on the Sabbath, 4th August, and is now, we believe, with the vast company of the redeemed in His Father’s home. He had a long and trying illness, but patiently, and with complete resignation, bore his suffering and weakness. Though we were hopeful that his life might be spared for a little, this was not his Heavenly Father’s will, and He took him away from his earthly labours in the mid-time of his life.

Mr Smith was born in Tayvallich in 1905, but with the family taking up residence in Greenock he was brought up there. After serving his apprenticeship, he worked as a draughtsman in one of Greenock’s shipyards for several years. His early upbringing, and the example of a Godly mother, left a deep impression upon his young mind, and caused him to be much exercised in spiritual matters. While still a youth, he gave his heart to God his Saviour.

It was during the ministry of Rev. W. MacLeod (now of Dornoch) that Colin Smith was finally led to study for the ministry (even as a boy his heart was towards this work). In 1929 he graduated at Glasgow University, and thereafter pursued his theological course of studies at the Free Church College. Shortly after being licensed by the Glasgow Presbytery, a call was addressed to him from Campbeltown Free Church Congregation. He was ordained and inducted there in June 1932. The whole of his ministerial life was spent in this Kintyre charge, except for one brief year in Milton (Glasgow).

Only a week before his death, his congregation presented him with handsome gifts to mark his semi-Jubilee in the ministry. Owing to his weakened condition, his daughter, Huntly, accepted the presents on his behalf. For a number of years and until his death, he was clerk to the Presbytery of Inveraray. During this time he witnessed many changes within its bounds. Unfortunately, Colin Smith did not enjoy good health. This was a severe handicap to one so talented. Nevertheless, those who under his ministry, and others who were privileged to hear him, will readily accede him the honour of having been one of the outstanding evangelical preachers of our day. In delivering the message of the Cross, he was concise, but plain, simple but appealing. His voice was strong and clear, deep and full. His zeal in proclaiming the joyous tidings was such that often he was exhausted at the close of a service. At the same time, to be evangelical in preaching was with him no effort, but the natural unconstraining outcome of his inner life. Jesus Christ crucified the center of his preaching. He spoke only as he felt and believed.

Under his leadership, special evangelistic meetings were held in Campbeltown during the winter months. These meetings were well attended, and no doubt much blessing followed.

 

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 REV. DONALD SMITH

(Died 16th August, 1944)
Source: The Monthly Record, September, 1944, p.145

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The death of the Rev. Donald Smith of Govanhill, on the 16th August, has come as sad news to the whole Church, and has brought to very many an acute sense of personal loss. Mr Smith occupied a place all his own in the esteem of his brethren, and in his home-call, at a comparatively early age, the Church below has lost one of its most faithful servants and the Free Church pulpit one of its foremost expounders of the Evangel. Our departed brother was no ordinary preacher; his mind was cast in no ordinary mould. Frail in body, and often labouring under the discipline of severe pain, he possessed a buoyant and courageous spirit. He brought to his pulpit ministrations careful preparation, originality of thought and deep earnestness of spirit, that made many of his discourses memorable. Frank and outspoken in disposition, he showed a kindly and generous spirit in all his relationships with his brethren in Church courts. His pastorates at Kiltearn and Govanhill made him much beloved by his people. Our respectful sympathy goes out to his widow and family, and to the Kirk Session and congregation of Govanhill.

 

Source: The Monthly Record, October, 1944, p.168

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In the death of Rev. Donald Smith of Govanhill the Presbytery of Glasgow has to mourn the loss of one of its oldest and most outstanding ministerial members. Mr. Smith came of a stock of whom great things might well have been expected. His father was for many years the highly respected Free Church missionary in Stornoway, a man of no ordinary gifts, while on his mother’s side he was descended from Mr Matheson, pre-Disruption schoolmaster at Breasclet, in the parish of Carloway, whose wife was a sister of the Rev Alexander Macleod of Uig, the first evangelical minister who brought the Gospel to Lewis. With such antecedents it is not surprising that he should have made his mark in the ministry.

Mr Smith began life as a chemist, and was making his way in England in that profession when the call came to him to preach the Gospel, and he virtually “left all” to return to Scotland and study for the ministry.

Ordained in Kiltearn in 1914, he quickly showed organising ability and initiative of no mean order, for that congregation had been without a manse since 1843, all its ministers having lived in a rented house and although the World War was just beginning, he set about the building of a beautiful new manse, costing £1400 and completed in 1916, without asking any assistance from the Church at large. He proved himself an able minister of the New Testament, a diligent and conscientious pastor, an earnest evangelist, a persuasive preacher, and a forceful defender of the faith, whose keen logical faculties and incisive eloquence were dedicated to the exposition of the truth and the uncompromising exposure of error. In Kiltearn he had a number of seals to his ministry.

Called to Govanhill in 1926, he entered on a field of labour where the surrounding atmosphere was scarcely congenial to the testimony maintained by the Free Church. In this difficult sphere he approved himself as a workman that needed not to be ashamed, his blameless and consistent life earning the esteem even of those whose ecclesiastical sympathies might lie in widely different directions, while the zealous and devoted, congregation by whom he was surrounded to the end were a standing tribute to the success of his work as a pastor.

In the Presbytery and other Church courts also his knowledge of procedure and his insistence on what he believed to be right made him at all times a power to be reckoned with. His wise counsel was often invaluable to his brethren, and at our deliberations he will be sorely missed. In 1939 he was elected to the highest honour the Church could bestow upon him, the Moderatorship of the General Assembly; but the state of his health compelled him to decline this honour,

To his bereaved widow and family and sorrowing congregation the Presbytery extend their deepest sympathy. May He Who is the stranger’s shield, the widow’s stay, and the orphan’s help, be to them a very present help in their time of trouble. Until the day break and the shadows flee away!

 

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 REV. RALPH COLLEY SMITH

(Died 16th December, 1900)
Source: The Monthly Record, January, 1901, p.19

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“Know ye not that a prince and a great man hath this day fallen in Israel?” The sad thing is that the generation that now is did not know and would not consider how great the minister of John Knox Free Church, Glasgow, was; and when the cedar has fallen the trees of the forest are not mourning as they ought to mourn.

In all that constitutes true Christian greatness Mr Ralph C. Smith, the man beloved, who, in his eighty first year, fell asleep on Sabbath, 16th ult, was one of the greatest gifts bestowed on the Church which he served so long, and from whose ministry he severed himself before the majority of her ministers and office-bearers formed a Union which he strongly disapproved. It is not generally known, but it should be, that this was the main cause of the complete retiral of Mr Smith from the office he had held for fully half a century. In his enfeebled health, and at his advanced age, he could do no more, and his Master has not asked him to linger long on earth to witness the consequences of the breach in the Free Church of Scotland, which he loved so well, and for which in his youthful days he gladly suffered the loss of very much that flesh and blood holds dear.

Mr Smith was first settled as minister of Shotts Free Church about the year 1850, and although he left there in 1860 the memory of his ministry is still fragrant in the district, and men love to speak of it. He came to Glasgow as successor to Rev. Mr Bannatyne (the father of Rev. C. A. Bannatyne of Culter) in John Knox Church in 1860, and remained sole pastor of the congregation until about twelve years ago, when the Rev. John Buchan was inducted as his colleague and successor.

Mr Smith was a weighty preacher of the doctrines of free grace; he had a mind richly stored with Bible truth, and a deep spiritual experience upon which he was able to draw for illustration and confirmation of the Word written. His mode of presenting the truth was clear and logical. He was not in the usual sense of the word an eloquent speaker, and yet there was a massiveness in his style of preaching which won the admiration of those who had spiritual discernment. Withal, he was full of tenderness, and had an outflowing of charity and brotherly kindness to all which mated well with his fine mellow presentation of savoury doctrine. Those who went to church for spiritual nourishment, who waited on the Word to speak peace and comfort to their souls, found in Mr Smith’s preaching a singular richness and satisfaction.

A wealthy man, Mr Smith was a wise steward of that with which God had entrusted him, and his liberality was as unbounded as it was unostentatious. One of his munificent gifts to the Free Church was the church now known as Rose Street U.F. Church, situated in a main thoroughfare in a densely-populated locality. This he purchased (when, after the late Dr McNaught left the Free Church and joined the Established Church, it came into the market) and handed over free of charge to the Free Church. Many a struggling congregation has been aided by him; and many a manse, where the difficulty of making ends meet was keenly felt, has been cheered by his kindly gift, slipped in so quietly and with a fine regard for the susceptibilities of those needing help but slow to acknowledge the necessity.

In public matters Mr Smith took little active part, but he was not unobservant, and when duty called, even although weak in health, he was found at his post. During the old Union controversy he was one of the followers of Prof. Gibson and Dr Samuel Miller in the Glasgow Presbytery, and he made his last public appearance there in Nov., 1898, when he seconded Mr McCulloch‘s motion disapproving of the new preamble, questions and formula. It was a great speech – the ablest by far to which we listened on that aspect of the question – and it was never answered. It is a thousand pities that it was not published. It was the means of turning back at least one who had then intended entering the United Free Church and has not done so. By that great speech, and by his resignation in the beginning of October last, Mr Smith emphatically indicated where he stood in respect of that which has caused the breach amongst us; and the writer, at least, will acknowledge that he felt his feet standing on an even place when he knew he was in Mr Smith’s company.

And now the end has come; the soldier’s task is o’er, the battle day is done. None who knew Mr Smith can for one moment doubt that his ransomed spirit has now experienced the fulfilment of the truth embodied in the great text from which he preached one of his most characteristic sermons: “I know whom I have believed; and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.”

 

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 REV. ALEXANDER STEWART, D.D.

(Died 3rd April, 1937)
Author: W.
Source: The Monthly Record, May, 1937, pp.109ff; June, 1937, p.127

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Born: Glen Glass, Ross-shire, 1870. Died: Edinburgh 3rd April, 1937.

Minister (1) of Oban Free Presbyterian Church, 1898-1905; (2) 1905: of Fountainbridge Free Presbyterian Church, Edinburgh, 1905-1905, (3) of Fountainbridge Free Church, Edinburgh, 1905-1918; (4) of St Columba Free Church, Edinburgh, 1918 onwards.

Editor (1) of the Instructor (Free Church Magazine for the young), 1906-1917; (2) of this Journal, 1917 onwards.

Moderator of the General Assembly, 1928; Convener of the Foreign Missions Committee of the Free Church. Chairman of the Scottish Reformation Society. Chairman of the Eastern branch of the Lord’s Day Observance Association of Scotland.

Laid aside for about a month by an illness involving operation, Dr Stewart returned from a Nursing Home to his Manse with prospects of complete recovery. Indeed, he left his room and was able to resume his place in family life. But an attack of tonsilitis set in, accompanied with feverishness. Pneumonia supervened and quickly it mastered his enfeebled strength, and at an early hour on Saturday, 3rd April, he entered into rest. The news of their loss quickly spread among members of St Columba Congregation. The Church was crowded at the forenoon service next day, when the Rev. Principal John Macleod, D.D., began the service. Throughout that day, in the Congregation, and next day, throughout the Free Church and in many public circles there were indications of regret at the close of a life of conspicuous usefulness.

The funeral took place from St Columba Church, on Tuesday afternoon, 5th April, when present among the mourners were prominent members of the Church of Scotland, and of other denominations, as also representatives of the Reformation Society and of the Lord’s Day Observance Association. Principal Macleod presided over a large company, who were upstanding in respectful silence as the Coffin was brought in and laid before the vacant Pulpit. After the 23rd Psalm had been sung, Rev. Dr Donald Munro (Rogart) led in prayer; an Old Testament lesson was read by Rev. Hugh G. Mackay, M.A., B.D. (Kinglassie, and Clerk of Presbytery) representing his father, Professor John R. Mackay, D.D.; George Mackay (Fearn) read a New Testament lesson. After prayer by Rev. Archibald Macfadyen (Gorgie Baptist Church), Psalm 107 (verses …) was sung; the Benediction was given; and the Coffin was lifted to the shoulders of Elders and carried out; and so the impressive service ended. It was noticeable how all taking part (save Mr MacFadyen, a younger man and a friend of recent years) were – or represented – the intimates of Dr Stewart’s student days.

At the graveside in Grange Cemetery, Rev. Robert M. Knox (Buccleuch-Greyfriars), Dr Stewart’s nearest neighbour minister, prayed, surrounded by a very large company wherein were many ladies.

Appreciations of Dr Stewart’s abilities and the excellent use to which he had put them have been given, in the press and otherwise, in no grudging spirit. Edinburgh and Glasgow newspapers and several of the Highland papers at once gave details of his activities and interests with acknowledgment of how broad had been his sympathies, transcending the concerns of the Free Church, yet constantly putting these foremost as being, in his estimate, vital among the things that matter. The following letter, from the columns of the Scotsman, is worthy of special note:

April 6, 1937

Sir. – I feel impelled to add a word to the fine appreciations of the late Dr Alex. Stewart that appeared in your issue of yesterday. At the service broadcast from the Usher Hall, which was attended by our King and Queen, Dr Stewart read the Old Testament lesson. Listening, I recognised his voice, though his name did not appear in the order of service as published. Few speakers in Scotland could have read that passage as he read it. I had heard him preach only three times, and his marvellous reading greatly impressed me each time. I had heard no such fine reading since I had heard Dr Andrew Bonar more than 40 years ago.

I am, etc.

W.

 

Author: Donald M. Smith, Buccleuch-Greyfriars, Edinburgh
Source: The Monthly Record, May, 1937, pp.109ff; June, 1937, p.127

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At the close of the forenoon service on 4th April, Mr Donald M. Smith, Session Clerk, in the absence of the Minister, paid the following tribute to Dr Stewart. It was fitting, said Mr Smith, that some reference be made to the great loss which the Church had sustained by the death of Dr Stewart, who had so suddenly and unexpectedly been taken from them. Dr Stewart was essentially a spiritually-minded man who walked in close Communion with his God, and it resulted from this that his life was a life of service, of service to the Congregation of which he was the pastor beloved; of service to the Church and of service to the community. He was endowed with high abilities and conspicuous graces, and those he devoted to the cause of his Master. His usefulness to the Church, particularly in the publications and foreign missions departments of her work, could hardly be over-estimated. Dr Stewart was a strong supporter of Protestantism and advocated the Protestant cause with ability and vigour against all opposition. He was a supporter of all good causes, and his death would be a severe loss to the Christian community.

His services as a preacher had been of much help to the Congregation of Buccleuch and Greyfriars, particularly at Communion seasons.

 

Other References
Author: Various
Source: The Monthly Record, May, 1937, pp.109ff; June, 1937, p.127

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In Kilmichael Parish Church, Drumnadrochit, on that same morning, the Rev. Alexander Fraser spoke of Dr Stewart as a man of wide sympathies who rejoiced in the progress of Christ’s cause wherever found. Last September he had taken part in the Strathpeffer Convention, to which ministers and members of all Evangelical Churches in the Highlands gathered. His addresses, marked by lucidity of thought, discerning exposition and earnestness of appeal, would remain with those who heard them as a fragrant memory of a man of God and a student of His Word.

At the meeting of the Southern Synod in Stirling, on Tuesday, 6th April, and at the Eastern Executive of the Presbyterian Alliance, in Edinburgh, on 7th April, respect was paid to Dr Stewart’s contribution to the labours of these bodies, the words of Professor Curtis in the Alliance meeting being marked by affectionate warmth

At Committee meetings in the Free Church Offices, on 7th April, each Committee paid a sorrowful tribute; especially so in the Welfare of Youth and Publications Committee, where the Convener (Rev. George Mackay) appraised the Editorial skill to which this Record bore witness. In the Foreign Missions Committee, the Vice-Convener (Mr Donald M. Smith) spoke the thoughts of the Committee in memorable words which will be found, in due course, embodied in the Committee’s Report to the General Assembly. An excerpt Minute of sympathy was directed to be sent to Miss Stewart, and to Dr Stewart’s brother.

 

Author: Various
Source: The Monthly Record, September, 1937, p.213

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The General Assembly was shadowed by the recent departure of Dr Stewart.

Supplementary to the tribute given in the last issue of the Record it is befitting here to reproduce, conveniently together, the several enconiums submitted in the General Assembly by three Assembly Committees in their Reports.

Finance Committee Report: The Committee place on record their sense of loss in the removal of one who has occupied so outstanding a position within the Courts of the Church, and who, by his conspicuous ability and graciousness of character, adorned every office that he filled. As a member of this Committee, and as one of the General Trustees of the Church, he brought a well-disciplined mind and a ripe judgment into all the deliberations of the Committee and left the impress of his Christian personality on all his associations in life.

Missions Committee Report: For a considerable number of years Dr Stewart acted as head of the Church’s Foreign Missionary administration with unabating zeal – a zeal which was according to knowledge. His wide outlook in matters of Mission policy, his grasp of the details of administration, his wisdom, discretion, and his single-heartedness in service were qualities which made him an ideal Convener. The Glory of God and the extension of His Kingdom over the earth, he ever kept before him as the end of his endeavours; and it was in dependence upon, and in communion with his Master, and under the guidance of His Spirit that he prayerfully strove to advance the Missionary enterprises of the Church. In times of difficulty he displayed courage and resource; and he possessed the tactfulness which was frequently of value in removing stumbling-blocks from the path of the Committee. His attitude towards the Missionaries in the service of the Church was ever most cordial and sympathetic, and all who had relations with him as Convener must have recognised the sanctified spirit in which he sought after the highest ideals of Missionary effort. Dr Stewart’s literary gifts and eloquence enabled him to present the Reports of the Committee to the Assembly in the most attractive form, and on these occasions his speeches were so characterised by spiritual fervour and felicity of language that they became outstanding proceedings of the Assembly.

The deliverance on the Committee’s Report contained this passage:

The Assembly record with profound regret the death of the Convener of the Committee, the Rev. Alexander Stewart, D.D. They record at the same time their thanks to God for the notable services Dr Stewart was enabled by His grace to render to the Church in various capacities, and, in particular, in connection with her Missionary activities. They recognise the self-sacrificing character of his labours, his wisdom and discretion in the conduct of affairs and the noble zeal which he displayed for the extension of the Kingdom of Christ. They would remember Dr Stewart as a man of faith and prayer endowed with high abilities and conspicuous graces, which he laid as gifts upon the altar. The Church has been enriched by his years of service and by his example. The General Assembly recall with satisfaction the cordial and sympathetic relations which, ever existed between him and the Missionaries abroad.

Publications Committee Report: The Committee place on record their deep sense of loss in the removal of one who occupied so outstanding a place in the Councils of the Church and was for upwards of 31 years a valued member of this Committee As the first Editor of the Instructor, he conducted its affairs from 1906 to 1917, and secured for the magazine a warm place in the affections of the youth of our Church, and won for it much admiration outside its borders. He was Editor of the Monthly Record from 1917 till his death, and his facile pen and wise judgment gave inspiration and guidance to the Church during those years of social and ecclesiastical transition. Possessed of outstanding ability and fine dialectical skill, he seldom failed to shed light upon the most difficult problems that faced the Church, and his literary work, both as Editor and Author, was marked by keen spiritual insight, a graceful literary style, and a fine devotional spirit.

 

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 DONALD STEWART, ABERFELDY

(Died 20th November, 1930)
Author: W. R. B. [Walter Rounsfell Brown]
Source: The Monthly Record, December, 1930, p.304

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There passed away on Thursday, 20th November, at Prestwick, Ayrshire, to which he had but recently removed, Rev. Donald Stewart, minister of Aberfeldy congregation. Last General Assembly granted him leave to retire as at 31st December next. The period of rest he had earned, and to which he had looked forward, has soon been changed into the eternal rest.

Mr Stewart was a student of the past days of the Free Church, having studied in the New College and taken license nearly forty years ago. After license he was called, by domestic reasons, to return to the agricultural life in which he spent his youth. At the crisis of 1900, however, he found himself free from these more immediate entanglements, and, preferring to cast in his lot with the poorer section of the Church, he allied himself, early in 1904, with the Free Church. After a period of service as a supply preacher he was on 27th December 1905 ordained to the Barony Congregation, Glasgow. From there he was called to Renton; and from Renton he was called to Aberfeldy, in the Presbytery of Edinburgh.

Although handicapped to some extent by having spent the more formative years of early manhood away from the ministry, Mr Stewart brought to his new duties resoluteness of purpose, a useful experience of men and things, a kindly disposition, and a sanctified spirit. His diligence as a pastor, his fidelity as a preacher, and his pious life earned for him the esteem of many friends within his congregations and among other associates. Not one of the churches in which he ministered was large; but Mr Stewart gave himself wholly thereto. To be compelled to retire from the ministry after a period falling short of twenty-five years duration, was to him a disappointment – explainable by the lateness of its beginning, but accepted with resignation.

His co-presbyters marked their esteem for him by recommending to the General Assembly the most liberal possible terms for his retirement. The General Assembly, by endorsing the same, showed the Church’s appreciation of his work, and particularly of the special help he had rendered to the Church in her necessity.

Mr Stewart is survived by his widow, and by one son, who has already enrolled himself as an under-graduate student for the ministry of the Free Church.

 

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  REV. PETER STEWART, KILBRANDON

(Died 16th July, 1914)
Source: The Monthly Record, August 1914, p. 146

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Many throughout the Church will regret to learn of the sudden death of the Rev. Peter Stewart, Free Church minister of Kilbrandon and Kilchattan (Easdale and Luing), which took place in Glasgow on Friday, 16th July. Mr Stewart had been in weak health for some time, and so recently as in May last appeared personally before the General Assembly in support of a petition to be relieved of his charge, to which he was inducted in August, 1909. In spite of his weakness, there was no indication then that the end was so near. Mr Stewart was little known to most of the ministers and elders of the Free Church as it is constituted to-day. Up to the date of his application to be admitted to the Free Church, after the decision of the House of Lords in August, 1904, it was not supposed that he was in sympathy with the Constitutional party, as it was called, and in an obituary notice which appears in the Oban Times of 25th July, it is expressly stated that he was not.

From that notice we learn that Mr Stewart was a native of Ardeonaig, Loch Tay, where he was born 63 years ago. He was educated at the Free Church school in his native parish, and afterwards at the public school in Callander. He was one of the teachers under the Ladies’ Society in the Highlands, and eventually studied for the ministry. He became assistant to the Rev. Mr Pearson, of Kilarrow, Islay, an anti-Unionist of the old controversy, and in 1881 was ordained colleague and successor to that worthy man. He remained in Islay, first as a Free Church and then for a time as a U.F. minister, until after his re-admission into the Free Church, as indicated. He was subsequently inducted as minister at Easdale and Luing, and from what is written in the biographical notice above referred to, endeared himself to all classes in that widely-scattered district.

Our intercourse with Mr Stewart was slight. He appealed to us as a kindly, well-intentioned man, ill-equipped for battling with adverse currents, yet during nearly all his ministry in Islay compelled so to battle. He is described as a man who would have been at home in any evangelical denomination. He leaves a widow and grown-up family to mourn his loss.

 

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 REV. ALEXANDER STIRLING

(Died 22nd April, 1908)
Author: J. G. W.
Source: The Monthly Record, June, 1908, p.113

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It has pleased God to call away from earthly service the Rev. Alexander Stirling, minister of the Free Church at Rothesay, who peacefully fell asleep on the 22nd of April. Son of a Free Church elder, Alexander Stirling was born at Kirkintilloch, and was trained for the ministry in the Free Church College, Glasgow. After being licensed he was for some time assistant to Dr. Samuel Miller of Free St. Matthew’s in that city. In 1865 he was ordained minister of the Free Church at Monkton, and remained there sixteen years, thence going to John Knox’s Church, Stepney, London. In 1886 he was called to the Presbyterian Church in York, where he laboured till the latter end of 1905, when he accepted the call to Rothesay.

During his York ministry Mr Stirling discharged the duties of chaplain to the Presbyterians among the forces stationed there, and was successful in winning and retaining much esteem and affection both in his own congregation and in the army. This has been touchingly shown since his death by the number of sympathetic letters received by Mrs. Stirling, one of which may be mentioned as coming from Lady Wauchope, widow of the gallant general who fell at Magersfontein, and while stationed at York had been much attached to Mr. Stirling and a regular worshipper in his church. A memorial service was also held in York, at the same time as the funeral service in Rothesay.

In December 1905 Mr. Stirling was inducted as minister of the Rothesay Free Church, and speedily made himself admired and beloved by his people. “An eloquent man, and mighty in the Scriptures.” His wonderful memory enabled him to quote from all parts of God’s Word apparently to any length; and with that he had a way all his own of putting and pressing home the truths of the Gospel, which powerfully attracted and maintained attention. Thus the congregation was increased and consolidated, and has been left in a very different position outwardly from that in which it was when he first came. And inwardly? Signs of blessing were not wholly lacking, but the full result will only be seen “after many days.” We trust that his labour has not been in vain in the Lord, and that the Word of Life which he held forth has prospered in that whereto it was sent. Being dead he yet speaketh in the following parting exhortation to his family, which is also most fitting for his mourning congregation to lay to heart: “I die in the Protestant faith which I believe to be the only true religion of the Bible, and my dying request to you all is that you make sure of a saving interest in Christ by faith in Him who is our only Saviour and all our salvation; that you lead godly and holy lives from day to day; and that you, and I, and all of us without an exception may meet again at Christ’s right hand on the great day of His Second and most glorious appearing.”

Mr. Stirling had reached his seventieth year, and had not been in very good health for some time. Still his health seemed improving latterly, and we had great hopes that summer might see him restored to a considerable measure of strength. But the Most High saw otherwise, and pneumonia carried him away after a brief illness. The large number of those who attended the funeral, including several ministers from other denominations, testified to the general respect in which he was held.

With the sorrowing widow and family deep sympathy is felt, and while the Church as a whole is poorer, his removal is a specially heavy blow to his attached people. Brethren pray for us.

 

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 REV. ALEXANDER TAIT, LYBSTER

(Died 23rd January, 1929)
Author: J. McN. [John MacNeilage, minister]
Source: The Monthly Record, 1929

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We regret to report another breach in the ranks of the Free Church ministry, Rev. Alexander Tait, minister emeritus of Lybster, Caithness, passed away on 23rd January last. Mr Tait had attained a good old age, being well over the four-score limit. He was born shortly after the Disruption, the son of a Caithness farmer. He had two brothers, and the whole three found their way into the service of the Church. When Mr Tait had finished his studies he went to Canada, where he fulfilled two laborious ministries. His younger brother, Donald, also did the same, and he still survives as an aged servant of the Canadian Presbyterian Church. Mr Tait’s first charge was in Ontario. He was then called to Vancouver where, we believe, he had an interesting ministry. At the eve of the Church Crisis (1900-1904) he returned to Scotland, and soon found work among the vacancies of our struggling Church. He was a familiar figure in Buccleuch Free Church, Edinburgh.

In 1905 he accepted a Call to the Free Church congregation of Lybster, where he remained diligently preaching and visiting till 1920. In that year he found a colleague and successor in the person of Rev. Henry Mackay, M.A., M.B., and he retired to spend his old age in his native village of Halkirk. Save the last two years, however, he was more or less regularly employed in preaching. He was often in request for week-end supply throughout the Presbytery. A prolonged service that he did as locum tenens in the Watten vacancy was very useful and thankworthy.

Mr Tait was a person of calm and dignified demeanour, sensibly breathing an air of devoutness. He was, withal, very humane and reasonable, and his presence in joy or sorrow was welcome in homes. His preaching had a flavour of “Keswick” about it, and he was a diligent reader of such periodicals as the Christian and the Life of Faith.

Having served his own generation, by the will of God he fell asleep and was buried among kindred dust in Halkirk Churchyard.

 

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 REV. JOHN WATSON, KINLOCHEWE

(Died 10th December, 1922)
Author: W. McK. [William McKinnon, Gairloch]
Source: The Monthly Record, February, 1923, pp.22-23

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The Rev. John Watson of Kinlochewe died there on the 10th of December after an illness of about a month’s duration. He had not been at all strong for some years, having had a stroke, which incapacitated him for heavy work, but he carried on his ministerial duties without help until within a month of his death. He was sixteen years in Kinlochewe. Mr Watson did not spend his whole life in the ministry. He was, like some others, brought into prominence by the Union of 1900, when some others like him who lived a quiet, civil life stepped into the breach to help the Free Church. But Mr Watson intended to study for the ministry from the first. Why, after attending the Arts classes in the University of Glasgow and Medical classes, he turned aside to teaching I am not able to say. He was for some time one of the teachers of the Edinburgh Ladies’ Association in Mull. His public life was spent there and in the parish of Moy – his native place until he came to Kinlochewe, where he died, regretted and mourned by the whole community not only in Kinlochewe but in Gairloch and the whole county.

Mr Watson was twice married, and left a widow, a son, and a daughter, with whom the whole Church sympathises in their bereavement.

This sketch might now come to an end, but it is proper that something should be recorded regarding his ministerial life and work. It is easy to say that Mr Watson was a loyal Free Churchman. He did not stand by her in 1900 from any other reason than his love to the Church and the principles she held. He was old enough to be personally acquainted with many of the ministers and men of the Disruption, and their faith he followed. Considering the changes that have taken place from the standpoint of these men, the state of mind of men of the age of Mr Watson can only be one of lamentation when he views the faith of the present day and the ecclesiastical state of Scotland. His preaching was, of course, purely Evangelical, and Christ was the foundation of all. This made him very acceptable to his own people and other congregations he visited. The connection between him and his own people was most sincere and intimate, and he entered into their feelings and bore their burdens in a very sympathetic way. In this respect really I can honestly say Mr Watson was never weary in well-doing. He spared no labour nor money in ministering to their wants and those of others. He was not what people call a great preacher, but few men get so high a place in the affections of his people as he. Mr Watson could very justly be said to be guide, philosopher, and friend to the Kinlochewe people. He conducted himself wisely and was a man of affairs and tact. It is well known Mr Watson was consulted all over the country as a physician, and he was looked upon indeed as an expert in that respect, and people everywhere consulted him, and the beauty of it is that he never came into collision with or offended local doctors. I rather think they looked upon him as an assistant, and he had himself, of course, the wisdom to keep within his own bounds. But what I wish to report here is how he had attracted the love of those who consulted him. His kindness and patience were wonderful, and now thinking and speaking of him they shed tears.

Mr Watson was towards the end of his life a greatly afflicted man. The hand of the Lord was laid upon himself. He lost a very promising and beloved son in the war, and other afflictions bent him down, but he bore them patiently. He was a most congenial, kindly brother to meet and co-operate with, and to the present writer his removal makes a great blank in the religious life of Gairloch, and the surrounding districts.