The great Ingatherer of the redeemed is taking home from the wilderness of time to the place which He of old promised them, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself.” Mrs. Macdonald was in her eighty-first year when the midnight call came to her.
The early part of her life was spent like that of the poor Ephesians before the blessed gospel reached them, i.e. “without God and without hope in the world.” Nevertheless, while in that state she was not ignorant of the common strivings of the Holy Ghost. The faithful preaching of Mr. Ewen Mackenzie, who was then missionary at Kyle of Scalpay, caused her to have many serious thoughts of eternity, and a dread of the common sins of the day.
Of him she used to relate most interesting and edifying anecdotes. On one occasion her mother rebuked her for laughing too heartily in the presence of their eminent missionary, to which he replied, “Before long the Lord will turn her face Zionward, but will cause her to drink both deeply and often out of the wells of Baca.” Mrs. Macdonald found the saying of the Man of God to be true. It was, however, before she met these severe trials that the Lord dealt savagely with her soul. It was under the preaching of the Rev. D. N. Macleod, Ullapool, then minister of Tarbert, while preaching from the words, “And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire” (Matt. iii. 10), that the arrows of the truth pierced her heart.
For quite a time her cry was that of Job, “O, that I knew where I might find Him.” In God’s appointed time, the peace of the Gospel reached her distressed soul through the words of Isaiah liv. 10: “For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.”
The removal by death of her husband and three of her family left her alone in the home. The Lord strengthened her, so that she often confessed with the sweet Psalmist of Israel, “It was good for me to have been afflicted.”
A year before the end came, the Lord manifested to her that her sojourn here was nearly at an end. True to His promise the Messenger came on 2nd April, 1952. Shortly before departing she sang sweetly the last part of the 73rd Psalm, “Whom have I in the heavens high but thee, O Lord alone? And in the earth whom I desire besides thee there is none,” etc., etc.
The writer first met her at Achmore Communion about 20 years ago. She was always friendly and pleasant. She was the mother of Rev. J. A. Macdonald, who is our minister at Applecross. May the Lord comfort those whom she left behind to mourn her loss.—D. J. Macaskill.