“KNOW ye not that there is a prince and a good man fallen this day in Israel?” was David’s mournful comment on hearing of the death of Abner, a skilful strategist in war and peace. These words, we believe, give fitting expression to the feelings of Ness congregation and the community at large when it became known that Donald Thomson, a good soldier of Jesus Christ, had passed to his eternal reward on Monday, 5th January, 1948. His end was not unexpected. For several months he was called upon to pass through severe bodily afflictions which he bore with the patience that was so marked a feature of his character. While his earthly tabernacle was showing signs of its approaching dissolution, the heavenliness of his conversation and his spiritual exercises could not fail to leave with those privileged to hear him an assurance that for him to die would be gain. A few days before his end he expressed to a friend who had called to see him his desire that the Lord would sanctify him and take him home to be with Christ. He retained consciousness almost to the end, and when asked how he was he would faintly whisper: “I am very well.” The gracious serenity of his countenance seemed to bespeak the peace and the joy in the Holy Ghost that sustained him as he was passing through the dark valley of the shadow of death. He was fearing no ill because the Lord with His rod and staff was his comfort and stay. And even after his soul had entered the house of many mansions to be forever with the Lord, his countenance in death retained a comeliness that seemed to give as through a glass darkly, a glimpse, as it were, of the beauty of holiness that will adorn the bodies of the redeemed when fashioned at the resurrection like unto the glorious body of Christ their Head.
Donald Thomson was born 78 years ago last July in the parish of Ness. Ness in those days was as the garden of the Lord, favoured by Him by a succession of able ministers of the New Testament, chief among whom were Revs. Finlay Cook, John MacRae (MacRath Mòr) and Duncan MacBeath. The memory of the saintly Rev. Duncan MacBeath, who died in 1891 is still green in the parish. The people of Ness revered him as a prophet. His sayings and predictions are still treasured. During his ministry times of refreshing were granted from the presence of the Lord, and sons and daughters were born in Zion. As a faithful watchman he blew the trumpet of alarm with no uncertain sound. He viewed with sorrow the subtle attempts the enemy by means of Rationalism, Infidelity, and Arminianism was making in Scotland and elsewhere upon the faith once delivered to the saints. To one still spared he once said: “The clouds are darkening, the shower is gathering, I would not wish to be alive when it comes, but supposing only three should stand for the truth in Ness see that you be one of them.” In 1893 the Declaratory Act was passed. The enemy had come in like a flood, but the Spirit of the Lord, according to promise, raised a standard. By this time Mr. MacBeath had finished his course and had received the crown of life promised to all who shall be faithful unto death. But the Lord did not leave Himself without witness. There were Obededoms in the parish who had a care and concern for the ark of the covenant and who would house and guard it, with their eye toward the day when the Lord would arise to have mercy on His Zion, and when the ark would return to Jerusalem amid the rejoicings of the latter day glory. A reproach and a scorn unto their neighbours, they separated from doctrines and practices contrary to the Word of God in order to maintain pure and inviolate the testimony and the law which He places in Israel, that the generations to come might know them and set their trust in God. Among the honourable women who followed Christ in His down-trode Cause at that time was “Mairead Donn”—the widowed mother of Donald Thomson. A joint obituary of this worthy woman who for nearly four score years professed Christ publicly in the world, and of here like-minded friend, “Mairead Iain Alasdair,” appeared in the Free Presbyterian Magazine a few years ago under the title, “The Two Margarets.”
When Andrew Finlayson, who succeeded Malcolm MacLeod as missionary in Ness, died at the comparatively early age of 52 in January, 1935, the burden of the congregation fell on the shoulders of Donald Thomson and his brother elder, John Morrison, the son of a worthy father who stood in the day of trial. John was an Israelite indeed in whom there was no guile. With a life becoming the gospel of Christ and in faithfulness to the testimony raised, he adorned his profession until his lamented death in May, 1937, at the age of 61. From 1937 until his death, the congregation of Ness was favoured to have Donald Thomson to feed them as David did his people according to the integrity of his heart and to guide them according to the skilfulness of his hands. Last summer the congregation in appreciation of his long and faithful services made him a handsome presentation.
In his walk and conversation, Donald Thomson exemplified an outlook and cast of character that is fast disappearing from our midst. There was in his bearing a solemn dignity that attracted attention. His kindness of manner, his affection and hospitality endeared him to all who became acquainted with him. These qualities, natural to him, were adorned and enriched by grace. But it was in the public services of the sanctuary that the alabaster box of a life lived in the secret place of Him that is Most High was broken and the sweet fragrance of the aloes, the myrrh and the cassie of a humble and contrite spirit flowed forth. The noted John Brown of Haddington, who as a shepherd lad in his young days, walked miles on Sabbaths over the hills to hear the Rev. Ralph Erskine, used to say concerning the sermons he heard from his devoted pastor: “There we were brought face to face with the God of Israel.” That was the impression given when Donald Thomson rose to pray. His approaches to the Most High were marked by a reverence that at times produced an awe upon the congregation that could be felt. He began in low, broken accents savouring of a deep sense of unworthiness and invariably quoted the words of the father of the faithful: “Behold now I have taken upon myself to speak unto the Lord which am but dust and ashes.” As he proceeded, and as access was vouchsafed, the pitch of the voice was raised and with a holy boldness he poured forth his soul in confession and adoration. Who can forget with what solemnity he used to quote when praying for the careless and the indifferent: “Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?” or his fervent pleading for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit? He seldom prayed without quoting the passage through which the Lord granted him gospel deliverance in the day of his distress. “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” Donald Thomson was pre-eminently a man of prayer. The late Captain K. K. MacLeod once remarked to the late John Stewart, Lochcarron that he was meeting no one in whom he thought he was seeing the image of Christ reflected so beautifully as in Donald Thomson. His face shone, but he wist it not.
He was not a stranger to the temptations of Satan. He knew what it was to be assailed by Apollyon in the Valley of Humiliation. During his last illness he told how Satan appeared to him in bodily form and standing by his bedside said, with a sneer on his face, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” “That is true,” replied Donald, “but it is also written, ‘Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world,’ and with that the adversary fled.
The waves of trial and conflict which in recent years beat upon our Church, and which are now spending themselves on a barren shore in failure and frustration, found Donald Thomson steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. These roots of bitterness with their disruptive fruits he firmly believed and maintained were of the planting of Satan. He was through the grace given him faithful in his day and generation. He has now entered, we believe, into the joy of His Lord whom he loved and served on earth. He fought a good fight. He kept the faith, and although dead he yet speaketh. His life and testimony live on in the memory of those he left behind, and his often quoted parting salutation: “Bi thusa firinneach gu bâs, agus bheir mise dhiut crûn ne beathe” (“Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life”).
To his widow and family at home and abroad deep sympathy is extended in the loss of a loving husband and father. May it be given to them and to us to give ear while it is still called to-day to the word of exhortation: “And thou, Solomon, my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve Him with a perfect heart, and with a willing mind; for the Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek Him, He will be found of thee; but if thou forsake Him, He will cast thee off for ever.”—W. M.