ANDREW FINLAYSON was the grandson of Mr. James Finlayson, Skigersta, who held such an eminent place in the days of Rev. Mr. MacBeth and latterly in connection with the stand made in Ness by the Free Presbyterian Church. James Finlayson’s memory is still savoury in the minds of the few survivors of these stirring days and who remember his deep, solemn manner in expressing the profundity of the eternal love of God toward guilty men, and our absolute need of being embraced in that love, if we were to enjoy nearness to Him in Christ during our sojourn here and to all eternity. He had a special place for his grandson, Andrew, and expressed the conviction that Andrew would yet be a witness for Christ. The knowledge of this cost Andrew Finlayson many a conflict but, we trust, it was one of the things that worked together with other things for his eternal good.
Andrew used to tell us (for he was one of the most open-minded men we ever knew) that the Spirit of God strove with him from his earliest days. He grew up, however, to manhood and was many years married before he underwent that change of which the Saviour spoke to Nicodemus, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.” In the Providence of the Most High, he went out to British Columbia, Canada. It was while there that he was awakened to see his lost condition as a sinner and was brought to an utter end of his own resources in the matter of his salvation. Shut in completely to a confession before God of being absolutely undone for eternity, and as he used to put it, as if God were asking him: “Are you now admitting that you are altogether an heir of wrath?” Light from Heaven shone into his heart by the application of that precious Scripture:—”I will betroth thee unto me forever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving kindness, and in mercies. I will betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the Lord” (Hosea, II. 19, 20).
Andrew was now in a new world. His joy and liberty was such that he could not but declare what the Lord had done for his soul. Shortly after obtaining the liberty of the gospel, he came home, and poured out his experience of the power of the truth into every ear that would listen to him. In his singleness of mind, he set his jewels before every one who professed the Saviour, not understanding at that time, the experience of the spouse when she had to utter her sad complaint:—”They smote me, they wounded me: the keepers of the walls took away my vail from me” (Song, v. 9). Our late revered missionary, Mr. Malcolm Macleod, acted the part of a spiritual nurse to our friend, Andrew, and rejoiced that the Lord had raised up a witness to stand in the breach. Malcolm heard a sermon about this time which was on the same lines as the advices he was giving to Andrew. It was based on Proverbs, xxx. 2, on the words of Agur. The preacher said that Agur kept his great coat buttoned up till he got an opportunity to speak to Ithiel and Ucal. Agur knew that the professors of religion in his day could not make right use of his experience. When he met with Ithiel and Ucal, he could speak his mind to them:—”Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man!”
It was upon the shoulders of Andrew Finlayson that the burden of the missionary-ship ultimately fell, after Mr. Malcolm Macleod’s removal, in 1927. Mr. Norman Norrison, elder, did all he could to keep the services for some time, and gave his help till he was confined to his home with failing health. For the few years Andrew Finlayson was spared, he proved himself very acceptable in his expositions of the Word, and had a warm place in the hearts of the discerning people among us. For over a year before his removal, he was almost altogether laid aside with severe blood pressure which did its own work on his body. He was only 52 years of age when he departed this life, on the 7th day of January, 1935. He left a widow and a large family to mourn his loss, also brothers and sisters, and a devoted people who greatly loved and respected him. May the Lord raise up in Ness and elsewhere, young men and women to take the place of those who have been removed to their rest, and who served their generation after the will of God, ere they fell on sleep.—Malcolm Gillies.