By Rev. D. M. MACDONALD, Portree.
It is with sincere regret that many would hear of the unexpected death of the late Rev. M. Gillies, who for about twenty years was the highly respected and popular minister of the Free Presbyterian congregation of Stornoway, where his ministry was greatly appreciated.
Mr. Gillies served the Church faithfully in London as a student, and in Winnipeg for several years. After a short pastorate in Halkirk, Caithness, he accepted a call to Stornoway some time after Rev. N. Macintyre, their former minister, was translated to Edinburgh, and had the heavy burden of several Lewis congregations on his shoulders for a considerable time. He thus became well-known throughout the Island, and laboured in season and out of season preaching the Gospel he loved so well to his fellow sinners. He was well acquainted experimentally with the Doctrines of Grace, and his discourses were finely balanced, being doctrinal, practical and experimental. He delighted in preaching a crucified and glorified Saviour, as the only hope for lost sinners, and, like Paul, he gloried in the cross of Christ.
He excelled in handling unusual texts and it was interesting to note how he sought to point out point after point and applied his subject in such a manner as to be for the spiritual benefit of his hearers.
His ministry was blessed to souls, and especially to the people of God, who were often edified and refreshed by his ministrations all over the Church.
Being possessed of a ready wit, he could express himself in a very original manner, which fixed the points he wanted to make clear in the minds of his hearers.
As a man and Christian, Mr. Gillies had admirable qualities which won for him the love and respect of his own denomination and of some outside who knew him well.
Like the good Master he served, he was of a humble mind and ready to put others before himself. He never spared himself if any of his brethren wanted his assistance, and he would do everything possible to help the cause of Christ. That is what he lived for, and it might be said of him as the inspired Apostle said of himself—“For me to live is Christ, to die is gain.”
For a number of years he served the Church as Assistant Clerk of Synod, and laboured in this capacity with the greatest devotion and unselfishness.
His kind and homely manner endeared him to those who were familiar with him, and his hospitality was great. In this respect, he was well supported by his amiable partner, who showed much kindness to guests in the house.
A great blank has been made in the Church by his removal to eternal glory, and his sorrowing congregation have lost a faithful, zealous, and able minister of the New Testament. The whole community is the poorer by his death. They have lost one who had their highest welfare at heart and was an example to them in his public and private Christian life. We sympathise with them and his family in their great loss. May the God of all Grace grant them all the rich consolations of His Gospel in their sorrow.
Personal Tribute.—The Editor feels he cannot let this opportunity pass without paying tribute to one whose friendship he enjoyed without a shadow of a cloud from Mr. Gillies’ Canadian days, through his Caithness ministry right on to the day when the cord was so suddenly and unexpectedly broken. His readiness to help, referred to above, was characteristic of him and both by pen and typewriter he was willing to come to one’s help. He had a humble opinion of his literary productions and in sending articles to the Magazine he invariably added a note—”if considered suitable.” He evidently did not consider that he was the best judge of what was suitable.
The following in a letter from the Rev. J. P. MacQueen to us shows that our friend had a strong feeling that the summons to cross over had reached the Stornoway Manse. He confided to Mr. MacQueen at Uig Communion, “I have a strong feeling that this is the last Communion that I shall ever attend at Uig. When asked where are you going? He replied with emphasis and earnestness: “I am going to heaven.” He repeated this three or four times in such a manner as to deeply impress Mr. MacQueen. We conclude this tribute by a short extract from a finely-expressed tribute in the Northern Chronicle (Inverness) which we understand is from one of our ministers. Here is what is truly said of Mr. Gillies as a preacher:—
The Rev. Malcolm Gillies was no ordinary preacher of the Gospel. He was especially gifted as an original and versatile Bible expositor, and excelled in the uncommon gift of spiritualising in an edifying, instructive and eloquent manner Old Testament themes, such as historical events in the history of Israel, the Song of Solomon, and what has been termed “out of the way” texts.
Few preachers in our day excelled Mr. Gillies in the rare gift of giving clear Scriptural and logical expositions of the evangelical meaning underlying the types, sacrifices, symbols, emblems, ordinances and ceremonies of the Old Testament economy. It was, however, on Communion occasions, in both English and Gaelic, that Mr. Gillies fed the Lord’s heritage with the finest of the wheat.” It is in this connection especially that his edifying sermons and expositions on the theme of themes, “Christ and Him crucified,” will cause Mr. Gillies’s memory to be revered and warmly and gratefully cherished by those—and they are many—at home and abroad, who had the privilege of being his edified hearers. These, assuredly, will bless God on every remembrance of him.
We extend to his widow and family our heartfelt sympathy and to the pastorless congregation to whom he declared the glad tidings of salvation our sympathy in the great loss sustained by them particularly and by our Church in general.—D.B.