ISAIAH had to complain in his day, “The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come. He shall enter into peace: they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness.” We can fully homologate the lamentation of the prophet, both as regards the desolation left behind when the righteous are taken away, and the fear that they are taken away from evils that are sure to come, if repentance and reformation do not speedily prevent them.
Mr. Allan MacLachlan was born in Broadhill, Island of Coll, Argyllshire, in the year 1839. Concerning his parents, we cannot say anything as to their piety, but he often spoke to us about an aunt of his who was considered in those days one of the brightest Christians in Coll. She seemed to have made a deep impression on his boyish mind as a woman given much to secret prayer. He often told us of the visits paid to Coll by Ewen Cameron, Morvern, and the prayer meetings he kept in the house of this eminent woman. These meetings had such effect on him that he was in the habit of preaching himself in imitation. But boyish freaks of this kind are not always indicative of the future man, but in his case, although he was about thirty-three years of age before a saving change took place, he continued orderly in his conduct and free of the sins of which too many are guilty in their days of youth.
At an early age he left his native island and came south. He spent several years in Bute as farm servant. When yet young he went to learn engineering, and spent the most of his life in the Caledonian Engineering Works at St. Rollox, Glasgow. He was not long a tradesman when he married and set up a house of his own in Glasgow. Allan and his young wife knew not the Lord. They attended regularly the services held each Sabbath day in Hope Street Free Church. The late eminently godly Rev. Mr. Urquhart was then preaching law and gospel faithfully in that church to perishing sinners. Both Allan and his young wife were awakened under his preaching, and both passed through a great mental conflict before the light of the glorious gospel of Christ shined into their hearts. When the relief came their joy together in Christ was unspeakable and full of glory. The admiration in which they held their minister, even to the last, was really to esteem him very highly in love for his work’s sake. This saving change took place in the year 1872. The writer did not know them till the year 1893. Mr. Urquhart had entered into his everlasting rest several years before then, but one would not be long in Allan’s company without realising the tie that continued unbroken between him and his father in Christ.
Not long after his conversion he became a member in full communion, and shortly after that he was elected a deacon in the Hope Street congregation.
The backsliding of the Free Church was a cause of real grief to the Lord’s people within her pale for many years. There was at that time a few in works at St. Rollox who feared God, and spoke often one to another concerning the painful departures of the Free Church from her doctrinal creed and principles, such as the late John Campbell, Neil MacKinnon, Donald Kelly, Allan MacLachlan, and a few others. John Campbell was in the weighing office at the gate of the work, and there they met at meal hours to discuss passages of Scripture and the state of the cause of Christ in those days. They designated the office “John Campbell’s College.” The brotherly love that existed in the hearts of these men towards one another was sincere and lasting. They are now together where the wicked cease from troubling, and where the weary are at rest.
In the year 1893, when the Free Presbyterian Church was formed so as to continue the identity of the Free Church of Scotland, Allan MacLachlan and Archibald MacColl left Hope Street Free Gaelic Church and joined St. Jude’s congregation. They were told the night they left that they should not join St. Jude’s, because that congregation would come to grief for lack of funds in less than two years. This prediction has not been verified. Allan was told also that within two months’ time he would repent of the step. But this prediction miscarried, for he told a friend shortly before the end, “I have never repented of the step I then took.”
In the year 1894 Mr. A. MacLachlan was duly elected and ordained as an elder in the St. Jude’s congregation. He entered into his duties as an elder wholeheartedly, and did all in his power to advance the cause of Christ in the congregation. None could have adhered to the creed and principles of the Free Presbyterian Church more faithfully and steadfastly than he did to the end.
In the year 1900 a relative of his left in his last will and testament a large sum of money for Allan and his brother John. As this money was in Australia it became necessary for them to go there to get matters relative thereto settled. After his return he gave up work, and went to Tighnabruaich, Kyles of Bute, where he purchased a good house, in which he resided till the end of his days.
In the year 1902 he was sent by the Synod of our Church, along with the writer, to visit groups of faithful people in Ontario, Canada, who refused to enter into the unions consummated there in the years 1861 and again in 1875. These friends sent a petition to the Synod craving to be received by the F.P. Church, and asking that a deputy minister might be sent to preach the Gospel to them for a few Sabbaths. We remained eight weeks among our people in Ontario, whose attached friendship and hospitality neither of us could forget. Allan’s affable nature and frank manner made our people there quite at home in his company. He and the late Mr. Daniel Clark, Egmondville, were like twin brothers all the time we were there. A better companion no one could desire. He entered with his whole heart into our duties, and his prayers at the prayer meeting held revealed the deep concern of his heart for their soul’s salvation. The earnestness of these prayers could not be forgotten by the hearers. Many of the people with whom we went there into God’s house are now in eternity, but the writer is persuaded that those left yet of them in time retain a warm recollection of Mr. MacLachlan. His interest in them did not pass away, but, on the contrary, they continued to have a very warm place in his heart to the last. This was in a very special manner the case as to his profound affectionate regards towards Mr. Clark. This was most beautifully reciprocated on Mr. Clark’s part. These two lovable men are now together on Mount Zion above singing the praises of Him who washed them in His own blood and made them kings and priests unto God.
Mr. MacLachlan was a most faithful friend, but he held God’s truth as being of more value than that the least iota of it should be compromised for the sake of any man. This steadfastness caused that one could place the utmost confidence in him as a man who would always stand like a rock in backsliding times. He was very far from loving controversy when it could be averted without doing injury to Christ’s cause and the souls of men; but he could give no quarter to men who could say and unsay expressions about our Church’s position as it might suit their own whims.
Several years since he had to undergo a very serious operation, which had to be repeated owing to lack of care on the part of doctors after it was performed. This gave such a severe shock to his nervous system that he never regained anything approaching his former vigour. But he took it very submissively and patiently as being the will of the Lord towards him in the Lord’s inscrutable providence. The low opinion he held of himself as a sinner before God caused him to be dumb about it, not opening his mouth because it was the Lord’s doing.
Mr. MacLachlan’s seat in the Lord’s house was never empty while he retained strength enough to bring him to it. Being of a lively disposition naturally, which as it became spiritualised by the grace of God, he was one of the most attentive of listeners. His mind was constantly exercised in the Word of God, especially in the great doctrine of the Atonement. To spend a night in his company was a treat not to be often met with in our day. His grasp of divine truth was profound and accurate. The writer will ever remember the nights so enjoyed as an oasis in the barren desert of the present materialistic age. Time slipped away unknown, until the early hours of the morning demanded separation.
Towards the end a friend said to him, “You are too hard upon yourself by going to church in your weak condition.” To which advice he returned the answer. “I go to church for three reasons: (1) Because it is my duty towards God; (2) because it is a duty to my soul to seek the bread of life; (3) because it is my duty to my neighbours to set a good example to those who desire an excuse to remain at home on the Lord’s day.” The last time he appeared in church was on the occasion of a week-day service, held in connection with the moderating in a call to the Rev. D. MacKenzie. He said on that occasion, “This will be the last time that I will have the privilege of appearing in the public means of grace.”
He had a great desire for some time to see a Christian friend of whom he heard a good report, but had not the privilege of meeting him hitherto. Not long before his last illness this friend went to Tighnabruaich and paid him a visit. Not knowing him, he asked him whether he knew the man Mr. MacLachlan desired so much to see. To his great surprise and joy he learned that the visitor was the very man. Another friend, Mr. Archibald M’Coll, elder, St. Jude’s, who had for years been confined to the house through a serious illness, was so far recovered that he was able to go down to Kames for a week or two; he also called to see him. This was the elder who left Hope Street Church along with him in 1893. Many a time they went together to God’s house, and took sweet counsel about the cause of Christ and the concerns of their souls, and now, for the last time in this world, the Lord, in His providence, brought them together. Their meeting was a comfort and encouragement to both, and it revived their spirits to call to mind the days of old and the Lord’s wonderful goodness and mercy which followed them all their days.
But one would have to hear Mr. MacLachlan’s prayers at family worship to form an estimate of him as a man of God. The earnestness with which he wrestled with the Lord for a blessing upon the cause of Christ at home and abroad, and very specially for his own family, could not but make an endurable impression upon any heart less hard than an adamant stone. How he interwove the great and precious promises and invitations of the gospel into his petitions before the throne of grace remains as indelibly upon the writer’s mind as when they were uttered. If any of his children should be found at the great day on the left hand of the Judge their father’s prayers on their behalf will add exceedingly to the anguish of their souls. May the Lord grant each of them timely repentance, and make them by His grace heirs of eternal glory.
A friend called to see him a few days before he took to his bed, and asked him how he felt. “I am,” he said, “waiting for a boat to take me across, and it is likely that if I were ready to go it would be here.” His last illness was such that he could not partake of any solid food, and consequently he became very weak. Yet in his weakness his mental faculties remained quite as keen and lively as when he was in good health. He could not only listen, but follow any portion of Scripture read, repeating word for word, under his breath, as the reader went on. On one occasion he desired that the one hundred and fifth Psalm should be read. The verses which he seemed to have a special interest in were 8 to 12, “He hath remembered his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations: which covenant he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac; and confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant; saying, unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance: when they were but a few men in numbers; yea very few and strangers in it.” He repeated the last two verses as above in such a solemn and emphatic way that one could never forget it. Like a brick builder laying one brick solidly on the other, he repeated word after word as if laying a foundation. He then exclaimed, “No, nothing can separate from the love of Christ.” At another time the same friend read the 14th chapter of John’s Gospel. He remarked, “How wonderful are the words: ‘If it were not so I would have told you!'” The tone of his voice revealed that he had found a deeper meaning in these words than his friend did who had read them to him. He was at that moment venturing his all for eternity on the faithfulness of Him who had spoken them. Until about two days before he passed away he was singing in his spirit of the mercy of God. In prayer he was much exercised about the spiritual concerns of his own family and the cause of Christ at large. But immediately before the end came he was much exercised in prayer, often repeating the words, “Lord come and save a poor sinner.” This showed that all his hope of salvation was entirely in the Lord’s merit and mercy. But at the end he was led into solid peace through faith in Christ as his righteousness and his all. A view of the finished work of Christ caused him to break down in tears, and as trying to turn away from us he expressed these words:—”Who could reject Thee? Thou art so worthy! Oh, who could refuse Thee after all Thou in love hast done?” As he thus found his feet on the sure foundation his heart went out in pity to those who were still without it. He prayed for the Church at home and abroad, for our nation, and for days of revival and spiritual quickening. His last words were: “Oh that I had a draught out of the fountain!”
In such exercises he passed away in the arms of two of his family, his eyes gazing upwards as if beholding something unseen by others. His Lord had come to take him to be with Himself to behold His glory. He passed away on the 13th day of August, 1921.
His remains were laid to rest by the members of his family and many friends in Kilbride burying place to await the Archangel’s trumpet on the last day.
To his worthy life companion and each one of their family the writer desires to express his sincere sympathy in their sorrow and loneliness. May the Lord be a Father to the fatherless and the stay of the widow!
N. C.
Oh what soul-undoing bargains do some make with the devil! He is a great trader for souls, he hath all sort of commodities to suit all men’s humours that will deal with him. He hath profits for the covetous, honours for the ambitious, pleasures for the voluptuous: but a soul is the price at which he sells them: only he will be content to sell at a day and not require present pay—so that he is paid on a death-bed, in a dying hour, he is satisfied.
—John Flavel.