MRS. MACKENZIE, the subject of this notice, was born in Clashnessie, Sutherlandshire, in the year 1855. She had the great privilege of being brought up by God-fearing parents, who instructed her in the knowledge of His ways. Her mother was one among many in Assynt who supported the cause of truth by joining the Free Presbyterian Church in 1893. The early training Mrs. Mackenzie received in youth left its impress upon her during her lifetime. She often spoke with tenderness of the Lord’s witnesses in her native parish who used to speak about the dark and troublous times that would soon come upon Church and State.
After her marriage to Hugh Mackenzie, of the parish of Assynt, Mr. and Mrs. Mackenzie removed to Castletown, Caithness, where they sat under the ministry of the late Rev. Alexander Auld, of Olrig. She always spoke of Mr. Auld as a pastor who, in his life and doctrine, preached the whole counsel of God to his people.
Upon the death of her husband, Mrs. Mackenzie joined her large family of sons and daughters in Winnipeg. She found to her sorrow that the modern mode of worship and easy religion which she or her fathers had not known was firmly established in this new country. It was a matter of rejoicing to her that there was a Free Presbyterian congregation in Winnipeg, and she gladly became identified with it.
We always found in Mrs. Mackenzie a desire after the things pertaining to salvation, but we believe that towards the end of her life she was brought more and more to see that these only were all-important. She often spoke of our last communion season in Winnipeg as a time of reviving and light, and latterly her conversation tended almost altogether towards the way of salvation through Jesus Christ.
Mrs. Mackenzie was a great sufferer during her last few years, but she bore it all with great resignation. When the writer called to see her in hospital shortly before the end, she said that the Lord had been supporting her by His promises during the last weeks of her illness. “I have not the same comfort now,” she added, “but I believe He is dealing with me in this way so that I may simply, as a sinner, put all my trust in the mercy of Him in whom alone there is salvation.”
The Lord gave her His presence on the Sabbath evening. On Monday she gathered her children around her, and exhorted them to seek the Lord while they had health and strength, and while He was waiting to be gracious. She passed away that Monday evening, 25th February, in the Winnipeg General Hospital, to that land, we believe, where the inhabitant shall not say, “I am sick.” May the Lord raise up the children in the room of the fathers, and thus heal the breaches on Zion’s walls in our day!
M. G.