It is with very deep regret that we record this month the death of Mr. John Auld, 14 Ronald Street, Glasgow, elder in John Knox’s Congregation. Mr. Auld, who was only a little more than a fortnight unwell, caught a severe influenza chill from which he never rallied. Some time ago, however, he was six months laid aside with a pretty serious trouble, and it is feared that this trouble left effects behind, which unfitted his constitution for resisting another attack of severe illness. Be this as it may or not, Mr. Auld was called away, in God’s providence, on the 9th March, in the midst of his usefulness, at the comparatively early age of forty-nine years. He has left a great blank in the congregation to which he belonged, as well as in his own family.
Mr. Auld was a native of the village of Tollcross on the outskirts of Glasgow. His parents were worthy and pious persons, who died a few years ago, and notices of whom appeared in this Magazine, in February, 1912, and October, 1913. His father was an attached adherent of the ministry of the late Rev. Jonathan Ranken Anderson, and continued in connection with the John Knox’s Tabernacle Congregation, after Mr. Anderson’s decease in 1859. The subject of this notice, who was not born till 1866, was trained up at the feet of the elders and others who survived Mr. Anderson and conducted the meetings of the congregation. It was during this time, when he was probably about seventeen years of age, that he came under decided concern for his soul. We cannot supply many details, but we know that he was in considerable distress for a time, and that it was the case of the Syro-phenician woman, powerfully applied to his mind, that gave him the first ray of hope and spiritual comfort. “Truth, Lord, but the dogs eat of the crumbs that fall from the master’s table.” The deep sense of personal unworthiness which was evidently begotten by the Spirit at this period, was a feature in his Christian character and exercises to the last.
In 1896, Mr. Auld, along with the remnant of the congregation, joined the Free Presbyterian Church, and when a division took place at a later date, remained in close association with said Church. As a deacon and elder, in the John Knox’s Free Presbyterian congregation, he did noble service, which can never be fully told. For several years past, through death and other causes, he was almost alone in the performance of the various kinds of work that fell to him as an office-bearer, but he did all with great conscientiousness and care in an ungrudging and self-sacrificing spirit. He acted as congregational treasurer, and as clerk of deacons’ court and session. On Sabbaths, he taught a class for young people, and when the minister was absent, he often conducted the regular services. Through diffidence he never delivered addresses of his own, though we believe he was quite capable of doing so if he had chosen, but read sermons of ministers, past and present, in a reverent and appreciative manner, and that with such ability of elocution and expression as made them equal to spoken discourses, and very edifying to the hearers. Mr. Auld did not acquire much education in his early boyhood, for he went to work when he was between 12 and 13 years of age, but he improved himself at evening classes later on, and became quite an accomplished man, being, among other things, a first-class shorthand writer. His prayers were always orderly, comprehensive, reverent, and spiritual. He had thoughts of the gospel ministry in his earlier years, and the special enlargement and ability which he manifested at times suggested possibilities of future usefulness on earth, which, sad to say, are now for ever closed.
It is not too much to state in conclusion that Mr. Auld was an office-bearer of rare efficiency, possessing wisdom, humility and practical worth in a marked degree. While diligent in many ways in connection with the Church, he was exceptionally quiet and unobtrusive, and manifestly sought the honour which cometh from God only. So lately was he in his place, looking after the affairs of the congregation with his accustomed regularity, that some of us can hardly realise that he has gone the way of all the earth, never to return. But we have the profound satisfaction of sorrowing, not as those “who have no hope, for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.” His death is a great loss to Church and world, but to him it is unspeakable gain. Without exaggeration, we may affirm that he was one of those servants to whom the commendation of the Lord, recorded in the 25th chapter of Matthew, is given: “Well done, thou good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.”
The deepest sympathy is felt for his sorrowing widow and young family of five, the oldest being only seventeen, and also for his sister, Mrs. A. Sinclair. May the Lord, who has been a husband to the widow and a father to the fatherless in all ages, be very gracious to them and provide for their needs, both temporal and spiritual! And may He sanctify to us all this solemn dispensation of His holy providence! The call goes forth: “Be ye also ready; for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of man cometh.”
J. S. S.