IN the early hours of Thursday, 30th May, there passed away the most familiar figure amongst our Ontario congregations. On that morning Daniel Clarke, of Egmondville, breathed his last. It is not easy to draw a faithful word portrait of any man. To outline the figure of Daniel Clarke as a spiritual force, so that friends may recognise the man they used to welcome, is more difficult still. Yet there are some facts which it is well to chronicle that those left behind may benefit.
Daniel Clarke was born at Heisbrechy, Tongue, Sutherlandshire, Scotland, on 18th December, 1831. As a little herd boy he used to read the New Testament. As he read the Gospels, he would weep over the cruel conduct of His enemies towards the Lord Jesus. But he was a lively lad who joined with his companions in their play with eagerness of heart. In their troubles, sometimes with their teacher, as he would tell with a frankness all his own, he was loyal through and through. So, as too often is the case, he learned with them the wicked habit of taking the Lord’s name in vain and of using profane language. His weeping then would soon be forgotten, and he could swear when angry. Yet some convictions would arise, and the self-condemning thought would seize his mind, “Ah! you are swearing now after being so pious.”
When sixteen years of age, he removed with his parents to Oxford County, Ontario. Many godly persons settled in the part where now he found his home. Gospel privileges had not been left behind. Yet the memory of the Sutherland clearances burned itself into his mind, and he was as one who left behind a home he loved. Thus he would emphasise, as one to whom the lesson had cost him dear, that in Canada “Jack is as good as his master.” But he was soon to find in the strange land to which he came, that One over whose experience of cruel treatment he used to weep. Rather was he found of Him.
About two years after his coming to Canada he fell in with a book of Willison, of Dundee. He used to work out with the farmers about his home. The family, with whom he was working this summer, had the book on loan from a neighbour. With commendable regard for the property of others, he was asked to carry the book home one evening. It was given into his care. He thought he would like to have a look into it himself before returning it, and so sat down to read it. He was reading but a short time when the truth went like an arrow to his heart. He was seized with the awful conviction that he was on his way to eternal perdition. So sorely did this conviction lay upon him that he could not stay in the house that evening. The shaft was truly from Him who subdues the people to Himself. As is the case regularly, where the Spirit works with power, he sought to be alone and apart. He would enter into his closet now and shut his door about him to plead and pray. What he wanted was, not to be seen of men, or to be spoken of by the godly and serious as a promising case. The business was quite too commanding and serious for that. Outward show there could not but be when the blithe and lively youth was gripped by such solemn thoughts. Yet it was not of his devising, for “the kingdom of heaven cometh not with observation.”
For many a day and night he went with heavy heart and troubled soul. He was a guilty soul whose conscience was no longer lulled to sleep. In Satan’s service he had too long spent his strength. So his sleep was disturbed by the dread of Satan’s preparing to bind him to cast him into the furnace. At times he would cry aloud out of his sleep for deliverance. He feared death, because he expected to drop into hell the moment of death. Thus for upwards of two years his distress continued, though not always with like intensity. At one season he was engaged gathering stumps and roots into heaps for burning in the process of clearing the land to till it, but was so sorely beset that he would have to retire behind the stump heaps for a minute or two to plead for mercy. Thus he would spend the day trying to do what his hand found to do with all his might, but finding what he had to do above all else in pleading for mercy.
Sometimes he was particularly tempted to give over praying as vain. What answer was he ever getting to his cries? He was only getting at times into deeper trouble, and the prospect was not bright. But when he seemed at the point of giving up, he was stirred up to greater earnestness and diligence in pleading by the words of the Lord Jesus, “Seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you; ask and ye shall receive.” These words followed him to keep him from falling from prayer. Thus he waited upon the Lord, for unto whom could he go, for He alone has the words of eternal life? Nor did he wait in vain. Relief came to his soul through the words, “Thy Maker is thy husband.” He could not tell their place in Scripture for many a day after, but they came with such authority and shed such a light abroad in his mind with accompanying effect upon his heart, that he was released from bondage and had much joy in his new-found liberty.
His heart now meditated some return for the Lord’s goodness to him; but what could he do? He thought that if he lived a few years, he would surely be a great Christian, and he had a desire to be a preacher. Circumstances prevented his following this desire after the ministry of the Word. Being the oldest of the family, he had to help to bear the burden of care, which was not small. He came to live near Brucefield, and so under the ministry of Rev. John Ross there, when about twenty-one years of age. Some time later he took unto him a godly wife; but she was left with him only a few short years when she died. For many years before his death he was much troubled with palsy in his hands, and was wont to say, “That I got for my rebelliousness against this dispensation.” He never much indulged the hurtful passion for self-justification, and would rather question than approve the line of his own conduct, where others could see no need for his questionings. It was in the year 1875 that he removed to Egmondville, where he resided till his death. Throughout the greater part of this period he had the comfort and enjoyed the care of his hospitable and worthy help-meet who survives him.
The Union in 1861 of those Presbyterian Churches in Canada which corresponded, broadly speaking, to the Union of 1900 in Scotland, gave him much anxiety. He admired the stand of opposition taken toward it by Dr. Bayne of Galt. Yet, as John Ross of Brucefield was an ardent supporter of it, and he was thus left in an isolated position, he remained in communion with the United Church. He did not see the same ground for opposition to the Union of 1875, which corresponded in a way to that now agitated for between the Established Church and the U.F. Church in Scotland. However, John Ross was out and out against Union this time, and his good friend sympathised with him. About this time Daniel Clarke was asked to become an elder in Brucefield congregation, but as he was removing to Egmondville, he did not accept. He was largely instrumental in building up a congregation in the community, where now he had his home. But after some years, much to his grief, he found himself almost alone in the congregation in his earnest opposition to departures from purity of worship. On the occasion of his seat in church being vacant, as he no more could find it proper there to join in worship, a young man of the congregation, being told the reason of his absence, said, “Well, I had rather see Daniel Clarke in his seat, than the church full of organs.” How sad it is that those who are marked as men of God are yet readily brushed aside, in order that the cravings of the carnal may be nourished! This is to put the Lord outside the door.
It was about the year 1898 that Daniel Clarke began to become a familiar figure amongst our people north and south. He was requested to act as a missionary amongst our various groups. He soon made a place for himself amongst us, and his was a unifying influence throughout amongst our scattered groups. His comely, intelligent and open countenance became ever more welcome in the homes and meetings of our people to the end. He regularly attended with the visiting deputies at the various stations during their ministrations. The weight of his years began to tell upon his strength, and gradually the pins of his earthly tabernacle were being loosed in preparation for its dissolution. On one occasion his doctor could not see that he could possibly recover; but, on telling him, received the reply to the effect: “I shall recover, for I have it from the Physician who knows better than you.” He did recover, yet by such strokes he became too weak latterly to accompany our deputies, whose visits to him at his home he highly appreciated.
His was a deep and weighty character, transformed by the renewing power of the Holy Spirit. He might at times appear cold and almost forbidding to such as were not acquainted with him, but the high regard in which he was held by old and young, wherever known, due to the goodwill he regularly manifested toward his fellow-man, sets that fact in its true light. On one occasion at family worship, he declined, on being asked, to conclude with prayer. He was on his knees before another word could be spoken. The one, who asked him, afterwards asked him why he had acted so. He gave a kind and tactful reply. Some years later, he asked a friend who was present at the incident, if he remembered it. On learning that his friend did remember it, he gave the true explanation. For some days previously he had been in the depths and feared that all was wrong with him for eternity. Just before worship was begun that evening, and when the waters flowed most strongly over his soul, the word came with power, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee.” He said that he couldn’t engage in prayer as requested, for he would break down. This recalls to mind what a friend told concerning the late worthy Hugh Jack, of Newton, Ontario. He came once to this friend’s house in such a state that he seemed ready to faint. After resting a while he explained that, as he was on his way, his mind was exercised on the word, “By Babel’s streams we sat and wept,” etc. Suddenly such a view and sense of the love of God was vouchsafed him that he became quite weak. It is in holy resurrection bodies these saints shall forever drink in that love, of which such glimpses were granted them here.
No more shall we behold his welcome face, so restful, yet ready to beam with kindly humour and goodwill. No longer shall his wise counsels be at our command, nor his edifying services be looked forward to with desire. His memory shall linger long, and though from earth at length it fade away, yet shall it prove with him, “The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance.”
To his widow and her daughters, to his son and to his friends, we extend sincere sympathy.
W. M.