MR. KENNETH MACKENZIE, Drumandaroch, Strath, Gairloch, departed this life on 3rd December, 1919, at the age of seventy-nine years. A large concourse of people attended the funeral to Gairloch Churchyard. The departed was a native of Strath, Gairloch—strong, well-built and healthy—and was forty years carrier for Messrs. Wordie & Co. from Achnasheen to Gairloch and Torridon. His worthy Christian wife, Christina MacLennan, a true helpmeet, a native of Kinlochewe, predeceased him. She was a spiritually-minded person, and it was truly edifying to be in conversation with her.
It was during the ministry of the late Rev. John Baillie, Free Church minister, Gairloch, the deceased passed from death to life. The truth blessed to his soul was: “For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us” (2 Cor. i. 20). Some time thereafter he became a communicant. It was the Rev. J. Baillie who first asked him to take part in leading the praise in the congregation, and for ten years he continued as one of the preceptors in that congregation. For the period of twenty-six years he assisted, with much acceptance, in leading the service of praise in the Gairloch Free Presbyterian Congregation. Of him the Rev. J. Baillie said, in the Free Church: “Mr. Kenneth MacKenzie will yet be a very useful man in the Church.”
In 1893, when the Free Presbyterian Church was formed, the deceased joined it, and no one was more loyal and devoted to the Church than he was. He was a most useful man in looking after the interests of the congregation. When no other office-bearer was present to take charge of the services, he always on Sabbath and week-day conducted a prayer meeting. In that respect he is greatly missed. For twenty-five years he most cheerfully, and without any remuneration, attended to the lighting and extinguishing of the lamps in the church. To him it was a labour of love. “I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than dwell in the tents of wickedness” (Psalm lxxxiv. 10). He was well versed in the Truth, and at night when, on odd occasions, no lamps were lighted in the church, he led the service of praise, including the intoning of the Psalm lines.
The late Mr. Malcolm Kennedy, Kishorn, Lochcarron, frequently attended the Gairloch Communions. On these occasions he was always the guest of Mr. Kenneth MacKenzie, whom he highly respected and loved.
There was a family of four sons and one daughter. One son was drowned in Loch Scridan, Mull; and in 1896 another son, Kenny, died at home. The latter was studying with a view to the ministry of the Free Presbyterian Church, but God called him to the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. His devotional exercises at the prayer meetings in Gairloch brought the dew of heaven upon the souls of the hearers. Indeed, the sweet fragrance of these exercises is now and again recalled, with much pleasure, by many in the parish. “The memory of the just is blessed.”
When Mr. Kenneth MacKenzie was a youth, dancing assemblies were held in the parish, but he never attended any of these. On a certain occasion the late Rev. Duncan Mathieson, the first Free Church minister of Gairloch, entered the building in which one of these gatherings was held, and cleared out the young women, but they, soon thereafter, in defiance of solemn warnings, returned to enjoy their folly.
The late Mr. Murdoch MacIver, Achnasheen Hotel, had on several occasions slept in a building at Flowerdale, Gairloch. It happened that Mr. Kenneth MacKenzie was, at that time, a boy at Flowerdale, and slept in the same building, and often, in the dead of night, heard Mr. MacIver engaged in prayer. When, in September, 1887, he heard that Mr. MacIver had refused to convey, on Sabbath, Queen Victoria’s private mail bags, from Achnasheen to Loch Maree Hotel, where Her Majesty then resided, he remarked: “No wonder that the praying man refused the Queen’s request, for, as a boy, many a sleepless night I had listened to him praying aloud during the greater part of the night.”
The deceased was able to conduct family worship till within three or four days of his death. He was conscious to the end. Shortly before he died he asked for a drink. Before he partook of it, he asked God’s blessing thereon, and after he had taken it, he returned thanks to God. He peacefully passed away. We greatly miss him, and his warm welcome and pleasant smile.
To his two sons, and daughter, and grandchildren, and other relatives, we extend our deep sympathy; and pray that the Holy Spirit, that proceedeth from the Father and the Son, may be their daily teacher.
D. MACK.