IT is with deep sorrow and regret that we write a brief sketch of the late Mrs. Johnstone (to whom reference has already been made in the Magazine pages), who passed away at Portgower, Helmsdale, on the 19th October, 1919, at the age of seventy-five years.
Our dear, deceased friend was one of the most discerning, deeply-exercised, and warm-hearted of God’s children known to us. We cannot say at what time the change from “darkness to light” took place in her experience, but we believe it was at an early period of her life. She told us on one occasion of a certain time when she was brought very low. She was taught her lost condition, and felt and saw her low estate—that there was no lifting up for her in men or angels. But when the Lord’s time of favour came, the following verses, applied with power, were the means of lifting her up:—
“In our low state who on us thought:
For he hath mercy ever:
And from our foes our freedom wrought:
For his grace faileth never.
Who doth all flesh with food relieve:
For he hath mercy ever.
Thanks to the God of heaven give:
For his grace faileth never.”—Ps. cxxxvi. 23-26.
The writer can say, from experience and observation, that she was a true, sympathetic friend to any who were really in soul concern. How heartily also she extended her warm hospitality to the remnant of the Lord’s people among us! Many now in glory, and many still here below, often enjoyed the warm welcome in her little “prophetess’s chamber” at Portgower. She was a loyal Free Presbyterian in every sense of the word, and a generous and liberal supporter of the cause. Perhaps some might think her reticent, for her words were few, but when she did open her mind one could see that her understanding was more than ordinarily enlightened in the doctrines of the truth. Her estimate of herself was very lowly: she was truly “clothed with humility.”
Mrs. Johnstone was frequently very ill and almost at death’s door. On some of these occasions we have met her friends, and enquired how she was. “Oh, do you know,” was the surprising reply, “she is away at such a Communion.” Such was her way when she regained a little strength: she was off after the bread of life to her soul. Her last illness was lingering and painful, but it may be said of her: “Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” Although much tried at last, her end was peace. Her hope was upon the Rock against which “the gates of hell” cannot prevail, and she is now “where the inhabitant shall no more say, I am sick.” Her mortal remains rest in the burying-ground at Loth till the resurrection, when the dead in Christ shall rise first. Friends everywhere feel much sympathy for her sisters. There is a blank in our hearts and in the congregation, and we feel in public and private that a praying friend has departed.
J. A.
Helmsdale.