AS the years are passing on, death is taking toll of our office-bearers, as these pages from time to time indicate. It again falls to us to put on record the passing away of Captain Nisbet, one of the elders of St. Jude’s for a number of years. Captain Nisbet was born in Kilchoan, Ardnamurchan, in 1858. As to what means the Lord took to bring him to see himself a sinner our information is not definite. One account is that the prayers of his mother made a lasting impression on his young mind which was never effaced. Another account says it was through the death, by an accident, of a brother over forty years ago. It may be that both were used by the Lord in His sovereign wisdom to achieve His divine purpose. Certain it is that the Lord has blessed a mother’s prayers to many a sinner as likewise He has blessed sudden death. These serious impressions, no doubt, prepared the mind and heart which were to come under the mighty power of the Holy Ghost. Captain Nisbet followed a sea-faring life as so many of his countrymen from Ardnamurchan have done. When his ship came into Glasgow he attended St. Jude’s congregation. While attending this congregation he was on two occasions elected to the eldership. On the first occasion he refused to accept office but on the second occasion was prevailed upon to accept the eldership. No doubt, he felt his absence from the congregation owing to his sea duties interfered with the duties of eldership. On leaving the sea, mercifully preserved like so many others during the great War, he retired to Kilchoan where he spent the remainder of his days. He lived a life of prayer during these years and meditation upon God’s Word. As the end drew near his wife told him she had written the family—”I wont see them,” he replied, “I am going home.” He often quoted in Gaelic the Psalmist’s words: “But I have all my confidence thy mercy set upon” (Ps. xiii. 5—Metrical Version).
Captain Nisbet was twice married. To his widow (a daughter of the late Mr. Donald Mackay, Saval, Lairg) and his family we extend our sincere sympathy.