DUNCAN GILLIES was born in Port Wemyss, Islay, in the year 1850. His father died when he was so young that he did not remember him. His mother was a God-fearing woman. So far back as he could remember, she used to take him by the hand to all the meetings of the public means of grace on Sabbath and week-days. He had the great disadvantage of losing her while he was yet a boy. No doubt such a mother did all she could to instil into the mind of her boy his lost condition as a sinner before God, and the salvation He provided in Christ crucified to meet the needs of the guilty sinner. But all her efforts did not produce godliness in her boy, only that he was naturally wise, upright, and moral in all his conduct. This in itself was something to be thankful for, for too often the children, who are brought up in the fear of the Lord, when they get free of parental control, give loose rein to their sinful lusts, and become even more reckless than others who had not the great privilege of such exemplary training in their early days. But such will have more to account for at last, for “to whom much is given, of him shall much be required.”
Duncan Gillies came to Glasgow at the age of eighteen years. In the year 1878 he married Miss Christina Macdonald, a native of the Island of Lewis, who was in all respects an helpmeet for him through all the trials of their life together. They were adherents of Main Street Gaelic congregation. Two years after their marriage, he was awakened in an extraordinary degree to a realisation of his guilt as a sinner in the sight of God. How this came about is not known, or who was God’s messenger to him, or whether it came from reading God’s Word in private, cannot now be verified. However, it proved to be God’s call to him. He was at this time so tried in his mind that sleep departed from him for whole nights together, till at last Mrs Gillies was much afraid that his reason would give way, and that he would land in an asylum. One morning, while he was in these great distresses, his wife, before she went with his breakfast to where he was working, opened the Bible before leaving, when the word came to her mind—”Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that this man should not have died.” This encouraged her in her distress. When she reached the place where he was working, she asked him how he was, and he told her that he felt better, for he had received much comfort from the words—”Arise, take up thy bed and walk.”
He became a member in full communion with Main Street congregation two years later—in 1882—and two years after that he was made a deacon in it.
When the writer came to Glasgow in 1892, to assist the Rev. Evan Gordon in Main Street congregation, Duncan Gillies held the office of a deacon in it. The fact that the Free Church of Scotland had passed that year, in May, the Declaratory Act, by which her constitution was very seriously changed, caused deep searchings of heart to many within her pale. All her true friends and adherents felt that they were placed in the same plight with those in the days of Hosea, who were commanded to “Plead with their mothers, plead; for she is not thy wife, neither am I her husband: let her, therefore, put away her whoredoms out of her sight.” Duncan Gillies felt that, if the Free Church refused to listen to the pleading of her children, he was bound in conscience to adhere to her original constitution and creed. So, when she refused to listen to their appeals to turn to the Lord and to His Word, three elders and eleven deacons left Main Street congregation. None did so more heartily than Duncan Gillies. These men saw that this was the only way by which they could continue their adherence to the doctrines and principles of the Reformation and of the Free Church. They were slandered as schismatics, ignoramuses, bigots, and as breakers of church unity, but none of these things moved them. The condition of Christ’s cause in Scotland to-day proves up to the hilt that they acted wisely and timeously by gathering up their wares out of the land into the fortress. They let property and money go in order to hold by the faith and a good conscience.
In the year 1911 there was an election of elders in St Jude’s congregation. Duncan Gillies was elected, and he accepted the responsible duties of that office. He conscientiously attended to these duties during the time he remained in Glasgow, and he endeared himself to all his brethren in the Kirk-Session by his affability and sincerity as a gentleman and a Christian.
In the following year, 1912, he removed to Sandwick, near Stornoway, where he lived till the time of his departure, on the 4th day of September 1924. A fortnight before the end came, he attended the Communion at Broadford, Skye. He was very happy there.
He told friends that “he had not such liberty of soul since he went to Lewis as he had that Sabbath.” One of those present wrote us:—”I never heard such prayers and blessings on our meals from him as he had at that time. He spoke continually either on Christ’s sufferings and work, or on the Spirit’s work in the souls of God’s people. During the action sermon on that Sabbath, the preacher stated “that the Saviour answered, in His trial before His enemies, questions as to who He was, but held His peace when charged with many crimes.” After sermon, he said “the reason for that was that Christ was then standing before law and justice in the room of His people.” He went home from Broadford in his usual health, but his time to leave this world had come. He suddenly became ill, and suffered much pain to begin with, but it did not continue long. While suffering that pain he said—”I will not be left long in this condition.” He was only thirty hours ill when the end came very suddenly. It was then noticed that his conversation had been for some time continually about eternity. “He was much given to secret prayer since the Lord had mercy on his soul. At the family altar he was in the habit of pleading specially for the Lord’s people, describing their temptations and trials, and asking deliverance for them. He never forgot to pray for the young of our generation, and for the reviving of the Lord’s cause in the land. He also spent much time reading God’s Word, and towards the end much less time than formerly in reading his favourite authors, such as Rev. Thomas Boston, etc. He was always in the habit, when in the company of the Lord’s people, to keep up conversation about passages of the Word, upon which he had been meditating, and when he expressed his own view of them his spirituality and activity of mind in God’s truth could be discerned by all present. He could not bear wrong views as to the clear meaning of the Scriptures or the state of the Cause. This sometimes caused disagreement, but he held to what he believed to be truth, irrespective of the effect that it might have on his opponents. At the same time he was full of tenderness towards the weakest, in whom he perceived the sincerity of the work of the Holy Spirit.
Duncan Gillies kept the sorrowful aspect of his soul’s trials and temptations a secret from the world. He opened his heart and poured out his complaints in the ear of the Hearer of prayer. This was a proof of his discretion. He made free with a few of the Lord’s people, in whom he had full confidence, and on such occasions the depth of his spiritual experiences became very manifest. Ostentation or flattery he absolutely abhorred. He was one of the sincerest friends the writer had the pleasure of knowing, and the beauty of it was that one could not doubt the unselfishness of it. But he has gone to his everlasting rest, and will not awake nor arise from sleep until the heavens be no more.
We express our sincere sympathy with Mrs Gillies and each member of her family, and would commend them to the Father of the fatherless and the Judge of the widows.—N. C.
Literary Notices.
GEORGE MULLER, OF BRISTOL, by Arthur T. Pierson, D.D.
Glasgow: Pickering and Inglis. Price 2s 6d net.
This is the thirteenth edition of the well-known life of that remarkable man of prayer, George Müller, of Bristol. A biographical sketch appeared in the Magazine many years ago, but if any of our readers wish to know what was accomplished by prayer and implicit trust in God we cannot do better than direct their attention to the life of this extraordinary man. With George Müller’s views on church polity and in some other matters we do not agree, but no one can read his life without being deeply impressed with the deep spirituality of his mind and sense of utter dependence upon God. The life is sold at the remarkably cheap price of 2s 6d.
UNION WITH ROME: Is not the Church of Rome the Babylon of the Book of Revelation? by Bishop Christopher Wordsworth, D.D.
London: Charles J. Thynne and Jarvis, Whitefriars Street, Fleet Street. Price 2s net.
This at one time well-known essay by Dr Wordsworth is now in its thirteenth edition. The reader, if unbiased, after reading it will not have much doubt in his mind that the Church of Rome is the Babylon of the book of Revelation. Bishop Wordsworth was a High Churchman of the old school, and his High Churchism comes out quite prominently at one or two places in his argument, but he is out and out against union with Rome. If this booklet was widely circulated in England, we feel it would open the eyes of many who are heading straight for Rome.
THE TWO BABYLONS, OR THE PAPAL WORSHIP PROVED TO BE THE WORSHIP OF NIMROD AND HIS WIFE, by the late Rev. Alexander Hislop.
London: S. W. Partridge and Co., Grosvenor Gardens, Victoria. Price 6s net.
The author of this well-known work, which has been reprinted by Messrs Partridge, was at one time parish schoolmaster of Wick, and afterwards Free Church minister at Arbroath. Dr Wordsworth, whose essay is reviewed above, shows conclusively that Rome is the Babylon of the book of Revelation, and Mr Hislop brings forward abundant proof that she is well worthy of the name. The pagan origin of Christmas, Easter, the Nativity of St John, the Feast of Assumption, and the worship of the Mother of the Child are clearly shown, together with many Roman customs which have a like origin.
THE ROMAN CHURCH AND HERESY, by C. Poyntz Stewart.
London: C. J. Thynne and Jarvis, 28 Whitefriar’s Street, E.C. 4. With Illustrations. Price 2s 6d net, paper covers.
This is a reprint of an excellent essay by the Vice-President of the Huguenot Society, London. It is packed with the most condemnatory evidence of the Church of Rome’s cruelty as a persecuting church. Mr Stewart has his subject thoroughly in hand, and no one can read these pages without being impressed with the historical erudition so conspicuous on every page. The guilt of Rome in the well-planned and horrible Massacre of St Bartholomew is brought home by the clearest evidence from historical documents. No fair-minded person after reading Mr Stewart’s incriminating evidence can have any patience with the plea, sometimes advanced, that the whole cold-blooded and diabolically conceived plan was due to the French Court, and that the Papal Court had nothing to do with it. The essay is one of the most damaging indictments ever preferred against the Church of Rome.
Notes and Comments.
Union of the Churches in Canada.
The Canadian Church Union Bureau of Information reports that 676 Presbyterian congregations so far have voted to enter the United Church of Canada (Presbyterian, Methodist, and Congregational) in June next, while 155 voted for non-union, of which 111 are in the Province of Ontario. Four hundred and one churches have entered the Union without voting, and their membership is not included in the ballot figures.
Ur of the Chaldees.
The Joint Expedition of the British Museum and the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania has been busily engaged in excavating at Ur of the Chaldees, the pagan home of Abraham, the father of the faithful. Modern scholarship got rid of Abraham and regarded him merely as a mythical figure, notwithstanding the place given to him in the Word of God. Evidence has already been produced of the fact that the ancient inhabitants were worshippers of the Moon, a worship upon which Abraham turned his back forever on the day when, in obedience to God’s call, he went out from his own country, from his kindred and his father’s house, and journeyed on towards Haran, leaving his countrymen to serve “other gods.” The finds up to date have reference to a period anterior to Abraham, but the work of the archæologists may yet unearth material that will throw some light on the customs of Abrahamic times.
Geology and the Flood.
Prof. McCready Price, in his “Q. E. D., or New Light on the Doctrine of Creation,” makes the following interesting statement:—”Another conclusion from the facts enumerated above is that there has obviously been a great world catastrophe, and that this must be assigned as the cause of a large part—just how large a part it is at present difficult to say—of the changes recorded in the fossiliferous rocks. This sounds very much like a modern confirmation of the ancient record of a universal Deluge; and I say confidently that no man who will candidly examine the evidence now available on this point can fail to be impressed with the force of the argument for a world catastrophe as the general conclusion to be drawn from the fossiliferous rocks all over the globe.” The modern theory of Successive Ages which has dominated modern Geology, and which fits in so well with the evolutionary idea had no place for a universal deluge, but it is interesting to note that Prof. Price reads the story of the rocks quite differently from his fellow-geologists, and finds by the most striking evidence which he has produced in a series of learned books on the subject that true Geology tells of a universal catastrophe that overtook the world.
Socialist “Sunday” Schools.
At a recent conference of the London and District Council of Socialists’ “Sunday” Schools there were some significant statements made by a few of the speakers. Councillor Chandler (West Ham) complained that the school movement was not taken seriously by the adult Socialists; in fact, they treated them rather contemptuously. “The accusation has been made that the Socialist Sunday school movement is anti-religious,” said the Councillor, “but it is not opposed to religion. Neither are we supporting it; we are merely cutting it out. Our Socialist movement is greater than any religion. Its ideals are greater than Christ, or greater even than God, and we want to bring about a universal brotherhood.” After this blasphemous speech, one of the delegates emphasised the necessity of appealing to the advance section of the Labour Party—the I.L.P.—to help the movement. If the Labour Party wish to escape the curse of God they will not only shun this movement, but use all the means within their power to counteract it.
An Appeal.
The new settlers at Tallisker, Skye, most of whom belong to our Church, propose to build a new place of worship immediately. They are compelled to do this, because they have no suitable place of worship at present. As they are comparatively poor, they look to friends throughout the Church to help them to defray the cost of the new building, which will run into hundreds of pounds, as it is meant to be large enough to accommodate 350 people. Subscriptions may be sent to Mr Alexander Nicolson, Struan House, Struan, Skye, or to Mr John Grant, General Treasurer, 30 Duncraig Street, Inverness. The Western Presbytery cordially endorse this Appeal.—John Maclachlan, Moderator; D. M. Macdonald, Clerk.
Attitude of the Foreign Office to the See of Rome.
The notorious attitude of the Foreign Office in the appointment of an Envoy to the Vatican has been explained as due in large measure to the influence of high officials on the permanent staff who are Roman Catholics, and the following paragraph from the “Universe” (Roman Catholic) probably explains Mr Chamberlain’s attitude to the above situation and his recent visit to the Pope. The “Universe,” commenting on Mr Chamberlain’s visit to Rome, writes:—”Cardinal Gasparri must have heard that Mr Chamberlain’s daughter is receiving education at the Mayfield Holy Child Convent, that his sister-in-law is a Catholic, and that at a recent dinner at Claridge’s, in honour of Cardinal Gasquet, he graciously seconded the toast of the Cardinal’s health.”
Addresses and Sermons by Dr Duncan.
These Addresses and Sermons, collected by the late Rev. James S. Sinclair, and for the first time printed in book form, have been seen through the press by Mr Alexander Ross, Parbold, Lancashire. The book is published by Messrs C. J. Thynne, 28 Whitefriar’s Street, Fleet Street, London, E.C. 4. The price is 5s 6d post free. The book may be ordered direct from the publishers, or from Miss Grant, 33 Academy Street, Inverness. We hope to have a review of the volume in next issue.
Diary and Sermons of Rev. Alexander Macleod, Rogart.
The Diary and Sermons (four) by this eminent servant of Christ, which appeared in various years in the Magazine have been collected and issued in booklet form, and may be had from the Editor. The booklet consists of 60 pages, and is bound in limp cloth. The price is 1s net (1s 2d post free).
Church Notes.
Communions.
— March—First Sabbath, Ullapool; second, Ness, Portree, and Tarbert (Harris); third, Lochinver; fourth, Kinlochbervie; fifth, Tolsta. April — Fourth Sabbath, St Jude’s (Jane Street, Blythswood Square), Glasgow, and Wick. May —First Sabbath, Kames and Oban; second, Dumbarton; third, Edinburgh. June — First Sabbath, Coigach; second, Shieldaig; third, Dornoch, Glendale, and Lochcarron; fourth, Gairloch and Inverness. July—First Sabbath, Lairg and Beauly; second, Tain, Staffin, and Tomatin; third, Daviot, Halkirk, Flashadder, and Rogart; fourth, Plockten and Bracadale.
Notice to Congregational Treasurers.
The General Treasurer desires to inform Congregational Treasurers that the books will be closed on 31st March, and all contributions for the current year should be in his hands by that date. Congregational Treasurers are also reminded of the Synod’s finding that audited financial statements are to be forwarded to the Clerks of their respective Presbyteries as soon as possible after the end of the financial year (31st March).
Call to Stornoway.
At a meeting of the Northern Presbytery, held at Inverness on 27th January, a call, signed by 648, from Stornoway, was accepted by the Rev. Malcolm Gillies, Halkirk.
Acknowledgment of Donations.
John Grant, 30 Duncraig Street, Inverness, General Treasurer, acknowledges, with grateful thanks, the following anonymous donations up to 10th February 1925.
SUSTENTATION FUND.
—Per Rev. N. Cameron—Anon., Argyll, £1; Anonymous, Lochmarae postmark, £1.
COLLEGE FUND.
—Per Rev. M. Gillies—A Wellwisher, Halkirk, £5; Two Friends, New York, 10; Anonymous, Lochmarae postmark, 10s.
GENERAL BUILDING FUND.
—Anonymous, Lochmarae postmark, 10s.
ORGANISATION FUND.
—A Friend, Calgary, £1 10s.
JEWISH AND FOREIGN MISSIONS.
—A Friend, Golspie, 10s; “Interested.” Ardrihaig postmark, 10s; Two Friends, New York, 10s.
HOME MISSION FUND.
—Friends, Arrina, Shieldaig, 9s.
The following list of anonymous donations have been sent for publication :—
STORNOWAY CONGREGATION.
—Mr N. Macleod, treasurer, Stornoway, acknowledges, with thanks, the sum of £5 for congregational expenses from a Friend, Chicago.
EDINBURGH CHURCH PURCHASE FUND.
—Per K. Mack.—A Friend, 5s; Wellwisher, 20s; a Friend, Gairloch, 5s; a Friend of the F.P. Magazine, Bute, 6s.
NORTH UIST MANSE REPAIR FUND.
—Friends, Buffalo, £10 7s; Lochmaddy, £2; Canada, £1; Kitchener, Ontario, £4 3s 9d; Toronto, £1; Tarbert, Harris, 4s; Reancarn, £2 10s 6d.