MR. WILLIAM MACKAY, EDINBURGH.
IT is with sorrow that we record this month the death of Mr. William Mackay, 109 Warrender Park Road, Edinburgh, who passed away on 20th August at a ripe old age—about eighty-seven years. Mr. Mackay was one of the original adherents of the Free Presbyterian cause in Edinburgh, and continued to be steadfastly attached to the same to the end of his life. He was a man who took much interest in Church matters from an early period, and being a staunch Free Churchman of the Disruption type, he viewed with dismay the course of declension in doctrine, worship and discipline that went on in the old Free Church, and did not hesitate to express his mind very strongly and pointedly when he got the opportunity. Possessing ability with the pen, he often took part in ecclesiastical discussions in the press, and his pithy, intelligent, and well-expressed letters are not forgotten by those who followed these discussions with interest. Being a thorough and consistent adherent of the “Constitutional” party, he had no
hesitation in supporting the Rev. D. Macfarlane and those who abode by the original constitution of the Free Church in 1893, and who refused to associate any longer with the “Declaratory Act” Free Church. Mr. Mackay was fully and justly convinced that the Free Presbyterian Church was the real Free Church of 1843, and of this mind he continued, as has been already indicated, until he breathed his last. The subject of this notice never became a communicant. Though of a very decided turn of mind in regard to the principles he held, he was of a quiet, unassuming disposition in spiritual matters, and appeared to shrink from the above important and desirable step through a sense of unworthiness. We believe him to have been a humble, sincere Christian. His death is a loss. We express our deepest sympathy with his widow and family in their great bereavement. J. S. S.