(Continued from page 64.)
AS to my request about Mr. M’Cara’s leaving the place, I thought I was answered thus, “What ye know not now, ye shall know hereafter.” And there came such a sweet power along with the words, which made me to say, “Lord, it is enough.” And as for my request to be kept from apostacy, I was answered, “My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in thy weakness.”
On the back of this solemnity I was much affected with the sense of judgments, both present, and what I feared was coming. At this time we were threatened with both sword and famine. When I thought on His righteous judgments, my heart trembled within me. O how often did I supplicate the throne of grace, that the Lord would give strength according to the day of trial; for I was afraid that trying days were a-coming. Yet there are two things I was apprehensive might be our judgment. I could not consent to the first, namely, the Lord’s leaving the land, and taking the precious gospel from us, and the gospel ministers; making us again a habitation of idolatry. Another thing I could not consent to, the want of the Lord’s presence in the furnace; for His presence will make even the furnace sweet: I would willingly yield to any trial, whatever He would see fit to tryst us with, if so be it were to purge away our sins, and make us more holy; but to submit to the taking away the gospel from Scotland, that I would never do; no, my heart would never comply with that. I find that in the gospel which answers all cases. Then I was disposed to say, “O Lord, for thy glorious name’s sake, remember this sinful Church and nation; and when thou comest with Thy sore judgments, let them be for purging and purifying both ministers and people, that they may come out of the furnace all glorious, that other nations may see Thou lovest to dwell in this covenanted Scotland. Now, Lord, for Christ’s sake, when Thou in wrath visitest this land, and although I should fall in the common calamity, yet let my soul be united to Thee in peace. O do not suffer me to flinch from the least article of Thy truth. Let not my self-ends get more room in my heart than Thy glory. But, O Lord, if it were for Thy glory to hide me in the grave, before Thou comest out of Thy place, to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquities, yet, ‘Not my will be done, but Thy holy will.’ Now, O God, seeing there is such a vehement desire in my heart to be with Christ, O when wilt Thou bring me to the full enjoyment of His glorious presence within the vail, where no intervening cloud would ever cover me from His blessed face again; and where I may be free from sinning, free from a wicked heart, and free from a tempting devil?”
PERIOD NINTH.
This period gives us an account of her being visited with bodily trouble; her resignation to the will of God therein, though impressed with the views of its being lengthened out: together with the reasons why she so often desired to be disembodied and get home to her Father’s house; and the agreeable entertainment she met from the Lord both in public and private.
EVER since I can rightly remember, it hath been my kind Lord’s way with me, oftentimes to hedge up my way with thorns of affliction; by this, He has made me to escape some of the pollutions of the world: yet He has punished me less than my iniquities deserve. However, under these afflictions, the Lord hath been very kind to my soul, in manifesting His glory to me, whereby I have seen more of the vanity of the world than ever I saw by affliction: He has given me sometimes such a view of His glory, as darkened the glory of all created objects, and by which I got above the clouds of darkness and unbelief now and then; and glad would I have been never to have come down to the world again.
About the middle of August, 1757, it pleased the Lord to visit me with afflictions on my body. O what am I, that He should be so condescending to me, as to warn me of afflictions before they came upon me! He bore in upon my mind these words; Amos iv. 12, “Because I will do thus unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel;” and Exod. xix. 5, “Be ye ready against the third day.” The Lord by His grace, enabled me to put the whole of this work back into His own hand, that He would sanctify and prepare me for what He had a mind to do with me. O what divine majesty I saw in reading this 19th chapter of Exodus! O what of His love shined to me in other parts of the inspired and blessed Word! A sweeter time than this I never enjoyed, for I saw that in the Holy Scriptures which I never saw before. O sirs, but a believing view of the soul’s meeting with its Redeemer, and receiving a crown of glory from Him at last, is an excellent support under the heaviest affliction. Faith represents Christ as standing by the furnace as a refiner, where His gold is melting, carefully overseeing the trials of His people, that they may work for their good, and ready to bring them out thereof when they are sufficiently purified from their dross.
At this time, however, I was greatly in the dark about the language of the rod. I often begged of God, that “He would shew me wherefore He contended with me;” and if there be any secret sin I know not, He would shew it unto me. It is exceedingly distressing to be under a silent rod. The Christians of old have taken much pains to know the voice of the rods that they met with, as is clear from 2 Samuel xxi. 1, and Job vii. 20. Yet it is not every man, nor every woman, that can take up what the rod speaks; it is only the person who is endowed with much heavenly wisdom from God.
One day when I was meditating on the voice and language of the rod, it came into my mind that this rod may be for the trial and exercise of my faith; for I remember, when my kind Lord was pleased to bring me into the chambers of His presence, and make me give myself away to Him, then, I thought, through the strength of the Lord’s grace, I would be content with cross and loss—with any trial He pleased. But this I greatly desired, that He would keep my interest in Himself clear to me, and also keep me about His own hand. “O Lord, if Thou givest me riches in this world, give me a heart to dispose of them for Thy glory; and if poverty be for Thy glory, O make me content with it, or any thing Thou pleasest.” I have heard of one who said, He is an unworthy wretch that cannot be content with God in Christ, with the want of all other things. But, ah! how ungrateful have I been to Him! I have been a backslider in heart; yet, O what hath He done for my soul! and how many signal tokens of His love hath He bestowed on unworthy me, which many of His own dear children did not experience, at least, in such a measure? Job v. 15, “Happy is the man whom God correcteth.” I dare say that afflictions have been no small mercy to me—the Lord has often hedged in my way, from sin, with the rod; yet, notwithstanding the Lord’s goodness to me, when He had laid His afflicting hand on me, I had a new conflict to fight with Satan and my own predominants. I could not get my will brought to submit to God’s will. My great conflict was, these twelve years bygone, in my afflictions, to get my heart brought the length to be cheerfully content and submissive to God’s will when He turned me back again into the wilderness.
Here I will give some account of the reasons whereupon my desires to die were founded.
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I was as one impatient till I be above, at uninterrupted fellowship and communion with glorious Christ. I will never be at rest, enjoy what I will, until I get Christ—until I obtain those endearing and immediate embracements of that noble Plant of Renown, the flower of the stock of Jesse, who is the light of the higher house. It hath pleased the Lord to give poor unworthy me such lively discoveries of the love of God in Christ, that I longed to be altogether with Him, where there would be no more parting again.
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I desire to be “avenged on my enemies, indwelling sin.” O that the Lord may enable me to carry the blood of Christ continually along with me, in the hand of faith, especially in the day of battle, for the enemy flies at the sight of it: “And they overcame by the blood of the Lamb” (Rev. xii. 11). O how sweet have these words been to me, “Stronger is he that is in you, than he that is in the world: these enemies whom ye see to-day, ye shall see no more!” I longed much for the “victory over Satan,” and a “deceitful heart.”
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I desired to die, because I was so useless for honouring God
in the world, where He is so much dishonoured by all ranks and denominations.
- I desired to die, because I was afraid of “falling in time of trial.” I was very much assaulted this way: but my great relief was that which has been my life, viz., the promise, 1 Cor. x. 13, “There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” It is not what I have, that makes me promise, or expect through-bearing; but what is in Christ, and the promise.
At this time, however, I was timorous to meet with death. I thought, many are the trials the Lord have brought me through; but death is a trial I have no experience of. O that I could praise the Lord for His astonishing love and condescendency to me at this time, although a night of sore affliction on my body. O how sweetly did the Lord shine on these words to me, “Take this rod in thine hand, therewith thou shalt do signs,” namely, the rod of promise in the hand of faith; with Psalm xviii. 28, “For thou wilt light my candle; the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness.” O the astonishing sovereignty of the grace of God! By the Spirit of God shining on these words, I thought that death was no more to me but to throw myself into the arms of glorious Christ. I was indeed once as much afraid of death as any, when I stood trembling under the terrors of God’s law; but in the mercy of God, and by the power of His grace, I was made composedly, and with joy to look death in the face: I now dare to look it in the face, in its most ghastly shapes, and hope to have the victory through Christ. I really longed for it. O for the grace of patience to wait for His coming.
It pleased the Lord to recover me a little out of this affliction; but these words very much haunted my mind, Mal. iii. 1, “The Lord whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple; even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in.” “I will come again, and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also” (John xiv. 3); “Rest in the Lord, and patiently wait for him; do not fret.” I truly thought this was the voice of God to me, for, although I dared not repine at His afflicting hand, I longed exceedingly to be with the Lord. I desire to believe, that there is not a grain weight of affliction in my cup which infinite wisdom doth not think fit should be there. And I firmly believe, and desire to rest upon this, that infinite wisdom and infinite love was at the mixing of the cup: and His tender heart will carve no more out to me than what He enables me to bear. O it is comfortable that Christ hath gone to heaven by the way of the cross; that His blessed feet hath trodden that way; and that His precious lips hath drunk of that cup. That has been a sweet word to me many a time, “In all your afflictions, I am afflicted.” Well may I say, “Behold what manner of love is this,” to such an unworthy creature.
On 23rd October, Mr. Cock preached on Zech. xiii. 7, “Awake, O sword, against my Shepherd; against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts.” This day he was on the application; and he exhorted believers to devote themselves away to the Lord, and all that they had to Him, who had exposed His breast as a living shield to the sword of justice for them, and he also exhorted us to prepare for sufferings. He said, “Some of you may live to see suffering days for the truths of Christ.” At hearing of this, I was afraid that I would flinch from the truth when a trying time would come. Then these Scriptures were made sweet and comfortable to me: “Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might; and He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light.” Said I, “not unto thee, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God.” This was a sweet night to me: after I came from the ordinances, I went to a secret place, where I again made a new resignation of myself to the Lord’s service, to do and suffer whatever He pleased, and should call me to; on condition He gave me strength to do it. I deny all strength of mine own to do any thing that is good. Daily experience hath taught me the truth of this: “Therefore, O Lord, I again and again give up myself to Thee, in a sacrifice to Thee this night; and, in testimony hereof, I have thought it, I have spoken it in prayer, and now I have written it.”
The 30th of November, 1757, I set apart for fasting and prayer. At this time I was affected with the sense of judgments, both present, and what I feared was a-coming. It was reported that the French were coming on us. At this time we had the Highland Watch lying in our place, whereby the town was greatly defiled by their abominations, and the holy name of God dreadfully blasphemed; and many were the indignities that was done to the Lord Jesus Christ. At this time there were few making conscience of putting honour upon the Lord by witnessing for His cause and testimony. We are all obliged, by the oath of God, to own it and cleave to it, although many at this day are ashamed to own these vows. But, alas! who can think upon our sad, deplorable condition, and not have their eyes affecting their hearts, and wishing that their head were waters, and their eyes fountains of tears, to weep day and night, if it were possible, with tears of blood, for our great and grievous defections, backslidings, and apostacies from God, and from a pure covenanted work of reformation? No nation in the world hath so far changed their glory for their shame. For these, and many other abominations, I desire to be humbled this day before the Lord.
(To be continued.)
As we go to press we have received a letter from the Rev. J. R. Mackay, M.A., who gives a favourable report of his visit to Winnipeg. He sends a sketch of the late Mr. John Mackay, Swordly, Sutherlandshire, which however must be held over till next month.
The late Mr. Angus Macdougall, Elder, Oban.
MR. ANGUS MACDOUGALL was born at Kilninver, near Oban, in the year 1831. At the age of eighteen years he came to Oban and was apprenticed to the joiner trade with the firm of Mr. James Dalziel. After learning his trade, he worked for some time in Glasgow, but returned again to Oban, where he continued till he finished his days. As a business man and contractor he was very successful, and gained a well-deserved reputation in Oban and the surrounding district as a proficient builder and a man of integrity in all his transactions. Several of the principal buildings in Oban and its neighbourhood bear ample testimony to his competence and skill.
As he was modest and reticent about himself, we are not able to write much concerning the way in which the Lord dealt with him at the time of his conversion. The fact of his being an eminent man of God could not be doubted. He often spoke to us about a young man, who was studying with a view to the ministry of the gospel when Angus was a young lad. This pious and earnest student addressed meetings in the Kilninver district which Angus attended, and the impression made then on his mind continued fresh until his dying day. This young man died shortly after. It seems that he was savagely dealt with at that early period of his life; so that he, like Samuel, knew the Lord from his boyhood. He said to a friend who had a conversation with him about conversion, that he was for years more or less under convictions of sin and misery when he was a young man, much impressed under sermons he heard, and coming away in tears and distress; but that he did not obtain a clear deliverance until on one occasion at Oban. He was just leaving a service he had attended, and was in much soul anguish, when these words came with much power to his mind: “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” These words were accompanied with such light, comfort, and power from on high that he felt his burden and chains fall off, and his soul set at liberty. He now felt prepared to be for Christ and not for another, though all the world should rise against him.
When he was about thirty-four years he entered the married state. Love, tenderness, and sympathy characterised him as a husband and father. His wife died before we knew him, but we have been informed that she was a true helpmeet for him. The year before his marriage, 1864, he was ordained an elder in the Free High Church, Oban. The Rev. P. Cameron was pastor of that congregation then. This shews that he was an elder during forty-nine years—thirty of these in the Free Church, and nineteen in the same Church designated the Free Presbyterian Church. Few men could understand better than he, the causes of our
separation from the so-called Free Church in 1893, and being a man of real integrity towards God and men, he, with the utmost firmness, held the faith steadfast to the end. As a man, he was of a very meek and unobtrusive disposition, and abhorred any flattery or ostentation; but in the concerns of God’s cause and in maintaining His truth, he was bold as a lion. His motto was, “No surrender, no compromise,” while God’s Word was being torn by Rationalists. During all the years he was an office-bearer in the Church, he took a very sincere interest in the young. He took great pains to teach them the fundamental doctrines of God’s Word and the Shorter Catechism, and after they left the class, he followed them with his prayers from day to day. He was pre-eminently the friend of the young.
The brotherly love and harmony that existed between him and the other members of our Kirk-Session in Oban were admirable. It was true of them that each thought the other better than himself. The admiration with which he spoke of Mr. Crawford’s public exercises knew no bounds. He used to say of him: “He is a grand man; and indeed we are highly privileged in having such a man to preach to us on Sabbath and week days.” This was also the opinion of Mr. Crawford as regards Mr. Macdougall. He said to us often that he ought not to take the services, while there were others more qualified than he in the Oban congregation—especially Mr. Macdougall. Before Mr. Crawford was removed from them, he made known his mind to them as to whom they should call as their pastor, and when Mr. Macdougall moved that they should proceed to give a call to their present pastor, he informed the congregation that they followed Mr. Crawford’s advice on this matter.
Mr. Macdougall was a steady, faithful friend. Once he took any one as a friend, he continued a friend indeed. When he had to change his mind about any of his former friends, all we ever heard him say of such was: “I was wrong in my opinion of him.” The pleasant smile with which he received one, made one feel how glad he was at meeting one. His house has been a home for the ministers during the past eight years, and he, and his daughter and son, made every one of them feel quite at home under their hospitable roof. His prayers at family worship in his own house were very striking. The childlike simplicity and reverence with which he presented his requests to the Father in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, made the impression on all our ministers that he was a mighty prince in Israel. He was truly a man who had strong faith in the promises of God. This kept him from being tossed to and fro in sifting times, and from being despondent, when trials came.
The Free Presbyterian Church had a warm place in his heart. He had no doubt about the scripturalness of the position taken up in 1893, and from it he could not be moved. His care of its concerns was not confined to Oban, but, on the contrary, he bore
upon his spirit, from day to day, all our congregations at home and abroad. When one met him, he always inquired about the cause of Christ and its prosperity everywhere within our bounds. We feel that our Church, and the cause of Christ throughout the whole world, lost one who really loved Sion, and inquired after her welfare.
During the last few years of his life he was a sufferer and unable to take the active part in the worship of God’s house which he formerly did; but no one ever heard a murmur from his lips. His true Christian patience and submission to the will of God was admirable. The day his beloved friend, Mr. Crawford, was buried, he attended; and when the remains were carried out of the house, he said, “I will be the next.” This saying has been verified as regards the elders of Oban. The week on which the Rev. Alex. Mackay was ordained, he felt weaker than usual, and kept his bed expecting, by doing so, that he might be able to be present; but he was not able to do so. He expressed his very great pleasure at the fact that the congregation had now a settled minister over them, and implored the blessing of the Head of the Church on both minister and people. This was on Friday the 29th November—the day after the ordination. We left him on his bed that day at noon. The last words he said to us were: “The Lord knows what the end of this trouble will be; but I know that my time here will not be long.” When we bade goodbye with him, he began to weep. Next day he passed away to his everlasting rest about two in the afternoon at the ripe age of eighty-one years. His remains were laid to rest in Pennysuir Cemetery on Thursday the 5th day of December. Many friends travelled long distances to be present, and a very large assemblage of the people of Oban attended his funeral. One could discern on their faces that they held him in much esteem. We mourn our loss, and would pray that the Lord would raise up the children to fill the places left empty in God’s house by the removal of the fathers and mothers.
We desire to express our deep sympathy with all his family, and also with the Oban congregation. N. C.
“Infant Baptism: Proved an Apostolic Practice.”
THIS is the title of a valuable pamphlet recently written and published by the Rev. J. Iverach Munro, M.A., United Free Church, Canisbay. Mr. Munro, who is more orthodox in his general views than the average United Free minister, has been studying the subject of infant baptism to some purpose, and has produced a work that is fitted to give very substantial confirmation to the views of those who believe in infant baptism, as well as to awaken serious doubts in the minds of those who oppose the
practice. While Mr. Munro’s line of argument is not new, it has seldom received the attention it deserves, and his present effort fulfils a most useful function in calling attention to and driving home the line of reasoning referred to. Our only complaint against Mr. Munro is of a literary kind, namely, that he does not pay sufficient attention to the construction of his sentences and the lucidity of his statements. We would strongly advise that in a second edition he should re-write the first chapter, with a view to improvement in this respect. Such revision would greatly enhance the value and usefulness of the work, especially among ordinary readers, who are not familiar with his argument, and require exceeding plainness of speech.
A word now as to the argument itself. Mr. Munro points out (1) that there was perfect unanimity in the Church in New Testament times on the whole subject of baptism, whether infants were baptised or not; (2) that this unanimity is to be explained on the ground that the Church’s then practice was directly based on the will of the Lord Jesus Christ and His Apostles; the Church then acted according to this will, and no one ventured to oppose it; (3) that if, when the question as between infant and adult baptism is first definitely raised in the early Church shortly after the times of the Apostles, there is no evidence of infant baptism as already in practice, but only of an attempt to introduce it, then that would be very strong evidence that infant baptism was not practiced in the Apostolic Church; but if, on the other hand, when the question as between infant and adult baptism is first definitely raised in the early Church, it is found that the Church has been already practising infant baptism, that would be equally strong evidence that infant baptism was unanimously practiced in the Apostolic Church; (4) that the practice of infant baptism was first in the field is the testimony of history; (5) that if we find that the man (Tertullian) who first urges adult as against infant baptism, does not object to infant baptism on the ground of its being an innovation, or contrary to the will of Christ and His Apostles, and that he lived so near to Apostolic times as to have abundant opportunity of knowing from others what that will was, we have every reason to conclude that no such conclusive objections were available to him, infant baptism being no innovation or anti-apostolic practice; and (6) that Tertullian’s objection is manifestly due to fleshly wisdom and legality, not worthy of a Christian father but of a father of rank Popery, namely, that baptism ought to be delayed as long as possible, because sins committed after it are more heinous than those committed before it.
We have stated Mr. Munro’s argument partly in our own words, and it appears to us most convincing in favour of infant baptism as a Scriptural practice. We leave the further amplifications of his argument to the discovery of the readers of the pamphlet. It may be had, price sixpence, from Messrs. P. Reid & Co., “John o’ Groat Journal” Office, Wick.