OUR readers will be interested to observe in the report of the Synod Meeting given elsewhere that the Rev. Neil Cameron, St. Jude’s, Glasgow, has been appointed to go to Canada to visit our new mission field there, and that Mr. Allan MacIachlan, elder, has been asked to accompany him as a fellow deputy. These brethren set sail by the steamship Lakonia on Friday forenoon, the 25th July, and we trust that by the time this number is in the hands of most of our readers they will have safely reached Montreal, their port on the other side of the Atlantic. Their final destination, however, is Bruce County, Ontario, and this will involve another day’s travelling by rail. We are sure that it is the earnest prayer of the Church that the Lord will carry them in safety and comfort to the field of their labour, and that He may prosper them in the work they have been sent to perform.
The circumstances which have led up to this mission are simple in character, and are familiar to all who have been attentive readers of this Magazine since its start. Shortly after Messrs. Macfarlane and Macdonald lifted a testimony for the truth in 1893, Mr. George Forrest, Brucefield, Canada, an aged and attached friend of the principles of the Church of Scotland Free, wrote a friendly and sympathetic letter to, if we remember rightly, the late Mr. Macdonald, expressing his entire approval of the step of separation that had been taken for the truth, and informing him that the testimony which had been raised had some sincere friends in Canada. The Rev. John R. Mackay was instructed by the then Presbytery to acknowledge the kind expression of sympathy. Mr. Forrest replied, and gave an interesting account of the position he and his friends occupied in Canada. This letter appeared in our issue of September, 1896. He showed that they had been compelled from love to Free Church principles to take up a separate position there. There had been two unions in Canada; one between the Free Church and United Presbyterians in 1861, and the other between the Canadian Presbyterian Church as then constituted and Established Churchmen in 1875. One minister, the Rev. L. Macpherson, and quite a number of people refused to enter the first union, but owing to troubles that
arose in connection with the matter, he at last joined the Canadian Presbyterian Church. When, however, the second union was carried through, Mr. Macpherson and another minister, the Rev. J. Ross, along with two elders, one of whom was Mr. Forrest, firmly voted against it, and within a few weeks of its consummation, organised themselves into a separate presbytery. These ministers are now dead ; but those who remain of their followers still meet together in little groups, here and there, throughout the country. They have had occasional supply from one or two stranger ministers, but have no stated ministerial help. In these circumstances, they addressed a letter to the Synod of our Church last year, asking to be embraced as part of our mission field, and requesting us to send across a minister for some weeks to preach and dispense ordinances, and promising to pay all expenses. The letter was signed by 49 names. These names indicate that most of the bearers of them are either natives or descendants of natives of the Highlands of Scotland. This circumstance should draw out with increased interest the sympathies and prayers of our Highland people.
It is not easy for us as a Church to spare even one of our ministers for a few months, so many are the calls in the home field, but it is not the easy task the Lord always calls His people to perform. We live in troublous, backsliding times when faithful ministers of truth are few, and if we feel the pinch of limited supply ourselves, we should not be slow to sympathise with, or to help, as far as possible, those who are even in a more deserted case than we are. We ought to regard all who love the truth as it is in Jesus, wherever they are, as brethren beloved, and to seek their interests even as our own. Sometimes people of a selfish spirit say, “Attend to your interests at home first ; convert the people in your own country first, and then go to another.” This is not the voice of true charity. The love of Christ embraces the whole election of grace throughout the world, and it has been often observed that individuals and churches have received a special blessing for themselves in praying and labouring for the interest of others that required their help at a distance from their own immediate field.
We have no doubt, therefore, that all among us who desire the prosperity of Christ’s kingdom throughout the length and breadth of the world will be diligent in prayer at a throne of grace that the Lord would make the visit of our brethren to Canada a season of special blessing, and that He would richly own and bless the preaching and other labours of Mr. Cameron among our friends there. We believe that all who truly fear the Lord in our new mission field will be anxious not only or merely for the establishment of a sound Presbyterian organisation in their midst, but also for the advancement of Christ’s kingdom in the conversion of souls and the spiritual edification of the body of Christ, and surely it is more than worth a minister’s pains to go round the whole
world if he be instrumental in the salvation of one immortal soul. May the Lord grant in the riches of his free and sovereign grace that souls may be born in Zion in connection with the present mission, and that the people of God may be abundantly revived, comforted and edified ! O that he would hasten the glorious time when all the nations and principalities of the world shall be made subject to Christ and shall acknowledge Him as their adorable Redeemer and King !
We expect our deputies back (God willing) in the course of three months. During this time the supply of the pulpit of St. Jude’s devolves on the ministers of the Church, and it will be the utmost endeavour of the Committee appointed to see to the constant regularity of this supply.
— Letters of the late Captain Ross, Wick.
BEAUFOY STREET,
PULTENEY, March, 1892.
Many days Jacob was going in the Christian profession before he was right *crooked. What a fine time he had when he saw a ladder from heaven to the earth, and the angels descending and ascending, and the Lord at the top ! What rejoicing he got ! He was never so near heaven in his mind before. He got a real Bethel, and had need to get cash from heaven for his journey. He had a long journey to go, and had never gone the same way before. But the Lord was leading him in the right way till he came to the very place he was seeking. We do not know all the thoughts that went through his mind on the way ; but the dream he saw at Bethel gave him strength all the way. Perhaps he had some doubts and fears that robbers were in the way. But the Lord had help near him. Who met him but Rachel ? and when she told him who she was, what joy came to his heart ! This is the way the Lord deals with His people when they have a great work to do. The Lord will give food for the journey, as Joseph gave to his brethren. When Jacob heard Rachel’s story as to what she was, his heart leaped for joy, but not so much as at Bethel. The creature will see more glory in what the Lord reveals from heaven than in what he hears from man although he is relieved from his trouble at the time, and praises the Lord for the deliverance.
Like Israel encamping at Elim, where there were so many wells of water to quench their thirst and a lot of palm trees, Jacob forgot the trouble he went through when he got many temporal comforts. He thought he was right as to the way in which he
* The meaning is, “before he was thoroughly sensible of his crookedness or sinfulness.”—ED.
got a great lot of cattle, but he got a lot of trouble also to keep down his pride. He was becoming rich in everything, and was intending to remain where he was ; but Laban began to envy him. His troubles began because the Lord would not leave Jacob there, for He had promised the land of Canaan to Abraham. Jacob would have to go back. He thought as many of the Lord’s people do in every age ; they think that, when they get plenty of what pleases their own minds, they may take rest like Israel in the wilderness. When they were near the promised land, and thought they were to be in it in a short time, the Lord turned them back till they were near the Red Sea to make them weary of themselves ; and they were giving up hope ever to reach the promised land. Thus was Jacob led by the Lord as soon as he left Laban. He thought he was now safe from trouble, but Jacob could not be without trouble. The Lord sent Laban after him and he was also told that Esau was coming with 400 men. O what a shock ! Nothing for him now but ruin ! His wives, children and himself to be killed by his own friends ! He thought his own heart caused all this, but not so. It was the Lord’s purpose toward Jacob to put him into trouble. But see how near the Lord was to him when He blessed him and made him go halting all his life long. His troubles were not yet over. He lost Joseph, and when he was to lose Benjamin, he said, ” All these things are against me,” whilst everything was for his good. Did you think the Lord would take you to the promised land of heaven without sanctifying you ? The Lord knew Jacob would need all the troubles He sent upon him, in order that he might see more of His wonders. When he saw the chariots Joseph sent for him to take him to Egypt, where he was governor of the land, he said, ” Joseph is yet alive, and I will see him before I die.” Then all his trouble fled. He saw that all he went through was the Lord’s doing.
None will go to heaven without being made holy, and the more sinful and corrupt creatures are in their own feeling, the more they are like the work of grace on the souls of sinners that the Lord is dealing saviourly with. It is not in having a great show in a profession, it is in the soul’s being brought low before the Lord as in the 102nd Psalm, where the psalmist says, that he ate ashes as bread and that his drink was mingled with tears. This was, perhaps, his former religion turning upon him and saying he was nothing but false all the time and causing him to fear that eternal death would come upon him on account of the religion he had. You should keep your dark side to yourself and should not show it to the world. Be missing what you had, and be glad for what you have. I would like to see a hundred in the town in your case. Read the history of Joseph.
I am enjoying a great portion of health, but my wife is in a weak state of health but is quite reconciled. Mrs. W. Sinclair is about the same way. All the rest of the friends are in their ordinary way.
R. R.
The following letters were written to the late Alexander Morrison, Castletown, a valued friend, and a worthy exercised Christian, who died in April, 1901, at an advanced age.—ED.
PULTENEY, 4th January, 1889.
MY DEAR FRIEND,—I see we are coming to old age and not using our years as people should, but what can we do? There is sin in all our works and even in the form of worship we go through. How little of the love of the Almighty is in our praying and speaking about His great works and the wonders He did for His people! He is saying about them “O that my people had me heard, Israel my ways had chosen.” But He knows there is nothing in His people as they are in themselves but sinning against His holiness. Sin is left in them that it may be a humbling weight on their souls, as long as they are in this world. It causes them to cry, “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” This world would not be a place for them if they were without sin. The Apostle was crying for deliverance from the body of this death. It was becoming very heavy, and he was tired of it. Often the Lord’s people will be thinking they never got grace. It is good for you that He made you a poor sinner, sometimes lost, but it was to seek and save the lost Christ came into the world. We are here doing nothing that will do us any good. If the Most High will not do it for us, we can do nothing that will benefit us; but if we get an interest in that work He did and finished in Himself, it is the only way sinners will get through an evil world.
I intend going to Halkirk this week, then to Thurso, if well, and home your way.
ROBERT ROSS.
BEAUFOY STREET,
PULTENEY, 14th March, 1890.
MY DEAR FRIEND,—I got your welcome letter. I see you are not keeping well, as also your wife. My wife is confined mostly to her bed. She seems to be content with her lot, a great comfort to any sinful creature.
Nothing but everlasting power can bring any to their right mind, but the Most High gets everlasting praise from creatures that nothing could tame but His own love and power. What a wonder that such a glorious One would make choice of such as you! But sometimes you will have enough to believe it. I was reading this morning the thirteenth Psalm. “How long wilt thou forget me, Lord? for ever?” But how near the Lord was to him at the time, for he could also say, “But I have all my confidence thy mercy set upon.” It’s not the Lord that is changing but we who are changeable creatures. And indeed the Most High will keep His creatures low in their feelings oftentimes that they may see their nothingness. What an eternal wonder
that the Lord made man at first a holy creature in His own image, that man believed Satan who changed him into his image, but that the covenant the Father made with Christ from eternity stood fast. He will save them whom He purposed to save in His love; He knew them all, and will lose none of them. Grace can change them from sin to His own image. The Most High will be more glorified in their salvation than in their being in the state of misery for ever.
Remember me kindly to your wife; she will be often wondering will she be made fit for heaven. But all came lost sinners to the world, and are by nature children of wrath. It is God that is rich in love who made the difference, and it is they who found themselves unlike heaven that will get there, and no wonder they have all that feeling.
ROBERT ROSS.
BEAUFOY STREET,
MY DEAR FRIEND,—I have not much news to tell . . . . We were sorry that we were not at home when you came to the town, and were also sorry to hear that you got cold, and were not well for some time after. I was all the year thinking of going your way, but I can’t say when it will be. I am backward to say, “If the Lord will.” I must say I am often in ignorance of that great name, and sometimes wondering that ever anyone of the seed of Adam got any knowledge of it after losing the knowledge and fellowship they had with their Maker, living such a holy life without a cloud of darkness in their whole soul. He gave such a plain law to them, and left them to the freedom of their own will. Satan worked on the will till he deceived Eve, and all her seed after her. Satan told the woman that she would not die. Boston says that all her seed is under that delusion, and I do believe that every creature of Adam’s race is under it till this day, except those whose eyes have been opened by the Holy Spirit to see the evil sin brought on our nature. I know I had the thought that I would get to heaven some easy way, but now I see that sin has shut the eyes of everyone, and who can open anyone’s eyes but He who has the eyesalve for the people’s eyes whom the Father gave Him to redeem. And what a ransom He paid for them before He purchased them and delivered them from sin and Satan in themselves, and the power of darkness that is deluding the whole world lying in sin. . . . Yours truly,
ROBERT ROSS.
PULTENEY, July, 1894.
MY DEAR FRIEND,—I got your welcome letter yesterday. I have no news to give you but the news old people will have.
I have a kind of belief that I will die, but I am putting death away as far as I can. What delusion sin brought on our nature!
We will not believe the truth. All the fallen race are putting death as far away as they can. Indeed, death is something we cannot fully understand. What an awful thing to be going to an eternal world to be in misery through endless ages! An hour of the sense of this would be enough to make us distracted, if a remedy was not in the sight of our souls. That remedy would need be a sight of the glory of the Father in the face of Christ Jesus. This would change us into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord. I put it down as the apostle has it in the third chapter of second Corinthians and the eighteenth verse—”But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord.” This is the way the Lord is changing His own redeemed ones. But there will be a great many in heaven who cannot now fully see the Lord’s work in their own souls, though they have gone through this work in regeneration. With kind love to wife and yourself.—Yours truly,
ROBERT ROSS.
Letters of the late Donald Mackay, Student.
STRATHY POINT.
MY DEAR FRIEND,—As you were asking me to write you, I will try and do it. But Israel’s help must come from the Lord; and the soul will not move except the water of life come upon it.
It is not a small thing to be born of God, to be taken out of the family of the wicked one, and to be united to blessed Jesus; but there is one thing sure, and that is, that no one will bring forth fruit to God except he be united to Jesus and drink out of His fulness. It may be easy for me to speak of these things, but it is quite another thing if a soul has to live on the bread that comes down from heaven. There is one thing true concerning the children of Israel when they were in the wilderness—they would need either to starve or get bread from heaven; they would need to get water by the power of God. What would it do for them to be speaking about bread and water, unless they would get it? May the Lord grant to give us the living bread that cometh down from above.
The Sacrament here is past. I hope you will try and come soon for the Sabbath. Murdoch Mackay (the elder), you know, is taken from us, and he has left a barren place behind him. It was pleasant to me to be about his body the while it was with us. Blessed are they who die in the Lord, for death itself is only an opening for them into a better place. I might write more if it was not for the dulness of my spirit. There is no wisdom that will overcome the wisdom of the wicked one but the wisdom that is of God.
We have heard of the death of Mr. Watt. We ought all to feel for the relations. But they are not to be pitied whose God is the Lord, for their affliction, which is but for a short time, worketh for them an eternal weight of glory. And the children of Israel got the Jordan better than much of the wilderness.
Remember us all very kindly to all the friends, and tell them to be praying for us. Tell them to pray for a poor sinner. With love to you all, cold as it is.—I am,
DONALD MACKAY.
STRATHY HEAD,
6th September, 1898.
MY DEAR FRIEND,—I was very pleased to get your letter yesterday. It was just after arriving home from Armadale that I got it.
Perhaps you have heard of the death of Mrs. Macdonald, Armadale. She was taken home about eleven, Saturday forenoon. She has entered the rest which remaineth for the people of God. The fruit of the Spirit was so clearly seen in her, which is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. But I need not inform you of these things, as you knew her yourself. I was informed that her last words were, “Lord God, my Saviour.” How little we can understand of the rest which remaineth for the people of God! Who can conceive the joy of a soul made perfect in holiness, and immediately passing into glory to enjoy unbroken fellowship with Christ and with the just made perfect? If fellowship with the Church on earth is so pleasant, how much more so where holiness shines everywhere! But what a desolation she has left in Armadale, and in the congregation, and in the poor, sorrowing family.
We are longing for the coming of the Communion, which is expected on the fourth Sabbath of September. Hoping that you are all well; with kindest regards,—I am, yours sincerely,
DONALD MACKAY.
MISERABLE are those who measure the authority of a doctrine by the numbers receiving it. Truth always overcomes, though for a time it is found among the few. He who, for proof, betakes himself to numbers, confesses himself conquered. Let me see the beauty of truth, and immediately I am persuaded. A multitude may overawe, but cannot persuade. How many myriads could persuade me to believe that day is night, that poison is food? In determining earthly things we do not regard numbers, shall we do so in heavenly things? I reverence numbers; but only when they produce proof, not when they shun inquiry. Can you confirm a lie by numbers?—Athanasius.