AS intimated in our last issue the Rev. Neil Cameron, St. Jude’s Free Presbyterian Church, Glasgow, passed to his everlasting rest on 9th March, 1932, aged 77 years. He was born at Kilniver, near Oban, 25th August, 1854. When he was four years of age his father removed to Cladich on Loch-aweside, where his parents remained for six years. When he was about ten years of age his father removed to Ardnamurehan and while in that district Neil attended the parish school of Kilehoan. It was while in this district he was attacked by a very serious illness. His parents concluded he was dead and preparations were being made to dress his body when he revived to the great joy of those present. In connection with this illness he says: “I cannot recollect that one thought passed through my mind at the time about God’s goodness and mercy in sparing my life, or how things would have been with me in the world of spirits if I had been taken away. Indeed the truth was verified at that time in my experience—’God is not in all their thoughts.'” Four years later he had another serious illness but was brought back again from the brink of the grave. “Not even a thought about my lost state as a sinner before God,” he says in writing of this experience, “nor about the awfulness of a lost eternity, so far as I can recollect, made any impression on my mind then.” The first serious impressions that appear to have been made came through intercourse with a godly man in the district who one day asked him the question: “Do you pray Neil?” “Sometimes,” he thoughtlessly answered. “Take good care that your prayers be not like that of the Pharisee,” was the good man’s warning. “More than I should beware of that danger,” he pertly answered. “That is very true,” remarked his faithful admonitor and then walked away. In recalling this incident Mr. Cameron says: “It caused my wicked heart and mind great delight that I had fenced so well as that the man was silenced.” But the matter was not yet disposed of for on meeting this man a few days after, the question was repeated and the same answer given to it. Then came the solemn warning: “Well, let me warn you that if you neglect to bend your knees to pray to God to have mercy on your soul beside the stones, trees, and rocks of these hills where you have so many opportunities to do so, these stones and rocks will rise up to condemn you on the Great Day of Judgment and they will cry aloud against you, if you be on the left hand of Christ.” The warning went home to his conscience, every time he looked on the stones and the rocks. They preached to him of judgment and the impression made that day never left him entirely when he was alone. He now began to pray and when in the hill attending to his duties as a shepherd he would take out a New Testament which he carried in his pocket and read it. He noticed that sins of which he was guilty were condemned in it to eternal death. This made him listen with attention to the sermons of the ministers of the Church of Scotland to which he belonged but there was no warning to flee from the wrath to come nor was the way of salvation through a crucified Redeemer set forth. He made up his mind to cease listening to this faithless preaching and as he was very prejudiced against the Free Church he found himself churchless. One Communion Sabbath, however, he had gone many years before this to hear Rev. Angus Mackay, Glenshiel, and there was such authority in the sermon preached, that ever afterwards he believed that God could turn him from his sinful ways. He thought also of the many godly men belonging to the Free Church who kept prayer meetings and pondering over these matters his prejudices against the Free Church vanished. He now became interested in what was going on in the Free Church and kept himself informed through reading the Perthshire Courier and the Signal both of which advocated the principles of the conservative and constitutional section in the Free Church. Inwardly he was in great mental trouble when alone and in secret prayer, “but when I met my vain companions,” he writes, “none of them would be more vain than myself.” He made hundreds of vows to be wise but they were only made to be broken. He then began to read God’s Word with more care in the hope of getting deliverance from this state of mind. He spent ten years in these struggles but no progress was made. When he was about twenty-five years of age the word “sinner” came with such overpowering effect upon his mind that he went aside immediately to pray for mercy and forgiveness. A period of six months followed this experience in which he was in great distress of soul. Everything in the world became valueless to him. His sins were ever before him and he could not walk any distance in the hills without going down on his knees to plead for mercy. “At last,” he says, “peace came to my conscience which I thought was peace with God so that I felt very happy now thinking that I was saved. But when I went among my fellow-shepherds to attend duties connected with our work, my goodness passed away like the morning cloud and the early dew that goeth away. I am now convinced that during the five months that succeeded the peace I felt were the most sinful part of my life. During the whole of this struggle, which continued more or less during eleven years, I was not conscious of the awful depravity of my nature. It was my actual sins that troubled my conscience. But during these five months I cannot recollect that I was troubled even with the sinfulness of my practice, so that I was really more dead and careless than I had been during the ten preceding years.” He felt himself now in double distress concluding that the peace of conscience he had felt was nothing but the natural conscience which, after being alarmed by the terrors of God’s law, ceased to challenge him for his sins. He felt also, that he had quenched the common operations of the Spirit. Referring to this experience he writes: “I had real proof that false peace may come into the conscience to deceive a poor sinner for eternity and the fear of being a castaway brought me so low physically that I could hardly attend my duties. My sleep was almost gone and also my appetite for food. In this awful condition of mind I sometimes stood for a long time praying that God would speak to me from heaven by an audible voice to assure me of forgiveness, refusing to leave the place till He would do it. I have wondered many times since, that the Lord did not strike me down for my presumption for the ground upon which I pleaded with Him was my own miserable and wretched condition whereas the only way of forgiveness is through the blood of Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son.” His distress reached a climax on a Sabbath in April, 1879, when he felt himself on the brink of despair. At family worship the married shepherd with whom he had lodged was in the habit of keeping family worship morning and evening. When they went on their knees to pray at night he began to plead with the Lord that He would reveal Himself as a sin-forgiving God to his “guilty wretched soul.” In an instant light shone into his troubled heart revealing to him Christ crucified in all the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. Accompanying this was the application of His merits to his guilty soul and immediately he felt all his guilt and misery gone and he could truly say: “He is all my salvation, and all my desire.” He longed for the end of the shepherd’s prayer that he might retire to his room to give thanks to the Lord for His wonderful goodness and mercy. We have heard him speak of this wonderful deliverance and in telling of his feelings at that time he said that on going out next day early in the morning to gather the sheep he never saw God’s creation so beautiful in all his life, every blade of grass seemed to point to the Creator. We have dwelt on his spiritual experiences at considerable length as they throw a flood of light on the faithfulness of his preaching in warning sinners of false refuges. The various providences leading up to his entrance on study for the ministry as recorded in this autobiography* are very interesting but must be passed over meantime. His studies were pursued at the University, and New College, Edinburgh. He also took certain classes in divinity at Glasgow University. When in Edinburgh his strong personality gave him a leading place among the little band of students who disapproved of the new movements in the Free Church. Occasionally he preached, in turn with his fellow-students, and at that early date his preaching was blessed to some.
* Three chapters only were finished, and they will in all likelihood see the light at no distant date.—Editor.
In 1896 Mr. Cameron was called to St. Jude’s, Glasgow, which was to a large extent made up of those connected with Duke Street and Hope Street Free Church who were dissatisfied with Dr. Rainy’s ruinous policy. Prior to his settlement in St. Jude’s, Mr. Cameron acted as assistant to the Rev. Evan Gordon, Duke Street Free Church. In 1896 there began a ministry in St. Jude’s that was signally owned of the Lord and only the Great Day will declare how many souls heard the gospel as the gospel of their salvation from his lips. He gathered around him a large congregation in St. Jude’s who loved him as few ministers are loved now-a-days. His preaching was too faithful to please people who wished to get to heaven by an easier way than is set before us in Scripture but the most discerning of the Lord’s people loved the faithfulness that characterised it. He shunned not to declare the whole counsel of God to his hearers. As a preacher his services were much in demand in the Western and Northern Highlands and many heard the gospel to their eternal salvation from his lips. In his latter years there was a beautiful mellowing in the message delivered—not that there was a holding back of any of the solemn truths that touched the consciences of his hearers—but the sweet, winning note of the gospel was more noticeable than in the preaching of his early years. There was a commanding impressiveness when he spoke and one had the feeling here was a man who realised his awful responsibility to the God whose message he professed to deliver. As a public witness for the truth there was no uncertain sound and whether his witness-bearing was received or not no one was in doubt where he stood. His testimony on behalf of Sabbath observation made him many enemies—some of them coming from very unexpected quarters. In his shepherd days God had sealed this respect for His holy day to him in a most signal manner which left a lasting impression on his mind. The story of this may be given at a later date. He could not bear the idea of any tampering with God’s Word and this came out time and again. His opponents might think him unduly harsh in the castigations he gave them but he spared neither friend nor foe when the interests of truth were in the balance. This explains also his attitude to the present Free Church in the advances made for Union with our Church. Mr. Cameron regarded the position taken up by our Church in 1893 was in defence of the truth and he would not be a party to lower the testimony raised then whatever others might do. A man of tenderer feelings than he got credit for by many, he felt keenly the departures from our Church of some whom he highly respected and loved though he did not spare them for their manifest departure from the position taken up by them in 1893. If at times he used strong language he differed from others who did the same but who as time went on adopted the very position which by their strong words and actions they formerly condemned; with him their was no recoiling from the position he took up in 1893. As a servant of the Church he was specially useful in the Church courts; his clear judgment was invaluable when difficult situations arose and his presence will be missed by his brethren when they meet in Synod. Mr. Cameron was the first deputy to visit the Canadian field and it is not too much to say that he had a very warm corner in his heart ever afterwards for the people in that part of the world though recent developments non-plussed him and caused him grief. In 1921 he and Mr. Angus Fraser visited our South African Mission and our people out there still retain pleasant memories of that visit. For a considerable number of years Mr. Cameron acted as Convener of the Finance Committee and also of the Foreign Mission Committee—the work of which was dear to his heart. As a man Mr. Cameron appeared to many to be inexorably stern—a man that looked only at the sterner side of things and never allowed his conduct to be affected by his feelings. This is quite a wrong view of him. He was a man who could weep with those who wept and in sorrow and in suffering he could be very tender and sympathetic. It is quite true, of course, that when he went forth to do war against what he esteemed to be error he spared neither friend nor foe and one does not wonder that those who received the blows should have unpleasant thoughts about the person who delivered them. He was gifted with keen discernment and his judgment of men was remarkably accurate but he was not infallible and at times he grievously erred in giving too much place to some who afterwards gave him a great deal of trouble. In his passing the Church of Christ has lost a faithful servant and his congregation a devoted pastor. He served them faithfully and well and though he had many invitations to leave Glasgow he decided to remain with his first choice until death snapped the tie. We, with them, mourn the loss sustained but while the standard bearers are falling we would not be unmindful that great though the loss may be the battle is not necessarily lost because the standard bearers have fallen. As long as the Captain of Salvation lives who has in His right hand the seven stars it is a call to us to gird on our armour and live as they lived and fight as they fought until the day be done. May we, with an open Bible before us and the record of what He has done for His Church in all ages be kept from thinking any thought or uttering any word that questions His power to maintain His cause in the days to come as He has done in the past. As stated above the end came on 9th March. All that devoted attention and medical skill could do was done but God’s time had come and His servant was called home. A friend who was with him at the last informs us that Mr. Cameron requested that the nurses attending on him should be called in and that worship should be conducted. He himself asked a blessing on the reading of the Word and in doing so quoted the first six or eight verses of the 32nd Psalm. The Psalm was then read over and the last three verses sung. Psalm 105 was then read. To one of our younger ministers who was present he said: “I strove to uphold the truth of the Bible you do the same,” and later on added: “Stand true to the Church to which you belong.” He quoted several times the second and third verses of the 40th Psalm—”He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And He put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear and shall trust in the Lord.” The last words he was heard to utter were: “All my hope and confidence is placed in Thee alone.” This was the manner in which this modern Mr. Valiant-for-the-Truth passed over. His remains were followed to their last resting place by a large concourse of his sorrowing people and friends from the Northern and Western Highlands and were buried in a grave next to Rev. James S. Sinclair’s, his fellow-labourer for so long in Glasgow. “Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men.”
Who would true valour see,
Let him come hither;
One here will constant be,
Come wind, come weather.
There’s no discouragement
Shall make him once relent,
His first avow’d intent
To be a pilgrim.—Bunyan.