ONE of John Bunyan’s characters is Mr. Standfast. When the pilgrims came upon him they found him “upon his knees, with his hands and eyes lifted up, and speaking, as they thought, earnestly to one that was above.” It was in prayer especially that the “pilgrims” united themselves to our friend. They loved his prayers. There was a ring of honesty and dependency about them: “an odour of a sweet smell,” of giving place to the Divine injunction, “give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if you do these things ye shall never fall.” Standfast’s answer could be read into them: “Why, we are as you see, upon the Enchanted Ground; and as I was coming along, I was musing with myself of what a dangerous nature the road in this place was, and how many that had come thus far on pilgrimage had here been stopped and been destroyed. I thought also of the manner of the death with which this place destroyeth men. Those that die here die of no violent distemper; the death which such die is not grievous to them. For he that goeth away in a sleep, begins that journey with desire and pleasure. Yea, such acquiesce in the will of that disease.”
Mr. Fraser was born at Strath, Gairloch, in 1877, where he made his home for the last twenty years of his life. Though his moral character was irreproachable, as a young man, yet he had no “hope” and was “without God in the World” till well on in life. He could say with Samuel Rutherford: “Like a fool as I was, I suffered my sun to be on high in the heaven, and near afternoon, before ever I took the gate at the end.” The days when he neglected his soul and despised Christ were not easily forgotten. He often repeated, in his approaches to the throne of grace, the words of the metrical psalm—King David’s prayer—
“My sins and faults of youth,
Do thou, O Lord, forget;
After Thy mercy think on me,
And for Thy goodness great.”
“I could never get my love off that man; I think Christ hath something to do with him,” Samuel Rutherford said of John Brown, who afterwards became minister of Wamphray. In like manner, James Fraser seems to have been kept before the minds of those who feared the Lord. Incidentally, we heard him tell of an occasion, while a young man, and it was when listening to the late venerable servant of Christ, the Rev. Donald Macdonald, Sheildaig, in the teabaidh on the Sabbath of a Communion. The good man, evidently, was describing the privileges of the Lord’s people, either during the sermon or in his address at the tables, and young James was listening intently, and at the same time in his heart saying to himself: “It would be good to be among these.” To his great surprise, the preacher stopped and in his usual agile manner turned to where he was sitting and uttered words which our subject never forgot: “You are there, young man, and you are saying: ‘it would be good to be among these,’ but you seek Christ and Christ will receive you.” It was the fulfillment of the word of the Lord: “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him.” James was a veteran of the Boer War. He joined for service with the Lovat Scouts. He used to tell that he met the late Rev. J. R. Mackay at Kinlochewe, and he told him he had joined for service in South Africa. The minister just raised his hat and quoted from Psalm xci.:—
“A thousand at thy side shall fall,
on thy right hand shall lie
Ten thousand dead; yet unto thee
it shall not once come nigh.”
Another time while in Africa, his people did not hear from him for a considerable time, and they were greatly concerned. There was a good woman then at Lonmore, a Mrs. Jessie Mackenzie, and she came to his mother at the height of her concern, and told her not to worry about James, that he was quite safe and that she would hear from him on a certain day. It turned out to be true—the letter came on the very day the good woman said. He had been in hospital, and that was the cause of the delay in writing. The good people followed him with their prayers, and their Covenant God was not silent.
On the cessation of hostilities, Mr. Fraser was invalided home after an attack of typhoid fever. Afterwards, he was selected as a representative of the Lovat Scouts and received the freedom of Inverness.
We are not in a position to say at what particular time of his life he lent his thoughts more seriously to the concerns of his soul and made Christ his “one thing.” Neither can we state with certainty what means the Lord used to lead him to the Saviour. But one would not be long in his company till he would discover that the late Rev. N. Cameron’s ministry was very useful to him. He told of his experiencing the power of the truth while listening to Mr. Cameron. The text on this occasion was Psalm lxviii. 18-20, and it was in Glasgow. He said that he experienced so much of the Lord’s presence under that sermon that if the Lord had not withdrawn His hand he could not bear it longer. This, of course, may not have been his first experience of his Lord’s gracious presence. He wanted the words of this Psalm read to him when on his death-bed. Like the Psalmist: “Surely I will remember thy wonders of old.”
After his return from Africa, he spent about seventeen years in the Strontian district, in Argyllshire. Apart from his military career, for he kept his connection with the Lovat Scouts till the end of the first World War, his worldly calling was, to begin with, a gamekeeper, and afterwards, a successful sheep-farmer. He held farms in different parts, and had a good knowledge of live stock in general.
He became a member in full communion in 1926 after he had come to reside in his native parish. He was elected and ordained an elder four years after, an office which he adorned by diligent attendance to all the duties connected with it. He would give an address at meetings when occasions required it. He was a speaker to the poor and needy. One of his favourite quotations with appropriate remarks was Psalm cx. 3: “Let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord,” laying the emphasis on the seeking. Another favourite subject of his was the Syrophenician woman, and he was heard quoting from this narrative on two occasions when very near his end, and when he could speak but little. Another of his favourite references was Peter. How he faltered and was blown down, as he would say, by a “maid servant’s” question, and at another time had courage with a single sword to venture an attack on a band of men. He would point out Peter’s military valour on the one hand and his failure on the other hand in the hour of trial, as a warning that none need boast. But in James himself there was a combination of military valour, and by saving grace, Christian fortitude, which would enable him to endure the greatest difficulty rather than encroach upon the conscience of his duty to God.
He was a faithful and conscientious upholder of the position of the Free Presbyterian Church as settled in 1893 to continue and uphold the principles of the Free Church as formulated in 1843. Mr. Fraser was also an ardent defender of the Lord’s Day and zealous in his Master’s service generally and not easily daunted. He was “a succourer of many,” a generous helper of all in need, and excelled in his obedience to the command: “Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth.” He showed his love to the cause of Christ in many ways. One of these was his remarkable liberality.
He enjoyed good health throughout his life but within a year of his end his vigour began to decline. Though his trouble was not of a serious nature, he was too late in going for medical attention. He died in a Nursing Home in Edinburgh, on 30th March, 1948, and one of the last Scriptures, if not the last, that he quoted, in answer to some question his wife put to him regarding his hope for eternity, was: “O Lord, my hope and confidence is plac’d in thee alone.”
Like Mr. Standfast, he received his summons to go over the bridgeless river, and he hastened to go. “At this time, there was a great calm in the river; wherefore Mr. Standfast, when he was about half way in, stood a while, and talked with his companions that had waited upon him thither. And he said, ‘This river has been a terror to many; yea, the thoughts of it also have often frightened me; but now methinks I stand easy. . . . The thoughts of what I am going to, and the conduct that waits for me on the other side, doth lie as a glowing coal in my heart. I see now myself at the end of my journey; my toilsome days are ended. I am going to see that head that was crowned with thorns, and that face that was spit upon for me. I have formerly lived by hearsay and faith; but now I go where I shall live by sight and shall be with Him in whose company I delight myself.'”
Mr. Fraser’s removal is no ordinary loss to the congregation and church. The sincerest sympathy is felt for his widow and son, brothers and sisters.
—A.B.
He may have more grace than another who brings not forth so much fruit as the other; because he hath more opposition, more temptation (Isa. xli. 17). And sense of the want of all is a great sign of somewhat in the soul.—Dr. Owen.