The subject of this sketch, who was born in Roag, a crofting township near Dunvegan, was well known to Free Presbyterians, far and near, who attended the Communion services at Vatten. She had evidently been well taught in her youth, and that teaching stood her in good stead in after years. She told us that she had been repeatedly tempted to go to dances with other young women, but that she could not do so owing to the restraining influence of the Bible and what she had been taught as a young girl. This is a lesson to parents in regard to the bringing up of their children, and they would do well to give ear to the Scripture injunction, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old he will not depart from it” (Prov. xxii. 6).
In the case of Mrs. Montgomery the seed thus sown was like the natural seed sown in the ground which is for many days hid under the clods, yet in due time it begins to appear, “first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.” Where the Word of God, accompanied by the power of the Holy Spirit, finds a place in the heart it begins to bring forth fruit, making those in whose hearts it is sown, living epistles “known and read of all men.” In early womanhood she was married to Mr. Neil Montgomery, and they set up house in Vatten. From the time of their marriage they had an open house for the Lord’s people, and especially for those gathering to the Communion at Vatten, and there are many now in glory who experienced their kindness and who held sweet fellowship with each other under their hospitable roof. In her last days she would often refer to those who spent the Communion season with them in their early married life, and who were now gone home. That they were not a small company can be understood from the fact that during the Communion days she, her husband and family slept in an out-house while their dwelling-house was left to the strangers.
Though from the time she came to reside in Vatten everyone who knew her gave her the place of a God-fearing woman, yet it was not till August, 1947, that she came before the Kirk Session in order to be admitted to the Lord’s Table for the first time. As a background to this delay there is wellnigh a lifetime of struggle with temptation—the tempter working on her fear that if she would take this solemn step she would bring a reproach upon the Cause of Christ. Though, in one way, she was losing much by delaying to witness publicly on the side of Christ, yet in another way she was gaining, for it caused her many an errand to a Throne of Grace. We noticed that every Communion at which none came forward for the first time was a sad time with her, and also that those Communions when some came forward was a time of temptation for her, for while she rejoiced that someone was given strength to profess Christ, the fact that she did not get that strength herself made her fear that she was a castaway. The time of her deliverance from this weakness, however, came. She appeared before the Kirk Session and was joyfully received by them. After being received by the Kirk Session it is very evident that in the short distance between the Church and her own home, the tempter set on her again, for on entering into the house she met one whom we believe is now in glory with her, and from whom we had the incident, she rushed into her arms and said, “I wonder if I have done right after all.” That she had done right no one but herself would question, and the harmony between her walk and her profession pointed clearly to the genuineness of that profession.
During the Second World War, in common with many other mothers, she had a time of great trial and anxiety. Their six sons were in the services and her concern for their temporal and spiritual welfare caused her to be a constant pleader at a Throne of Grace. That was her only resort in all her trials and she learned to value it highly. The Lord answered her prayers and they all came home, through many dangers seen and unseen, without a scratch. This afforded her matter for praise as long as she was in this world.
Her life as a public witness on the side of Christ, however, was not destined to be long. A form of rheumatism set in which left her so crippled that she was not able to walk the short distance between the house and the Church. This was a great trial for her, for she could say with the Psalmist, “Lord, I have loved the habitation of Thy house, and the place where thine honour dwelleth.” Though she could not be present as far as her body was concerned, yet her mind was there, and she made a point of knowing from those who had been present what the subject of discourse was. Often, when staying at her house between the services, we gave her a summary of the morning discourse, for which she seemed truly grateful. Some time before she was taken away, she so far recovered as to be able to go to Church occasionally when the weather was favourable.
The end came suddenly. On Sabbath, 18th May, 1952, a little more than a month after Mrs. Campbell, Waternish, was taken away, on coming out of Church we were told that she had passed away on the Saturday. The cause of death was thrombosis. For her it was not death. It was a translation from a life of grace to a life of glory, and an entrance into the fulness of that joy unspeakable and full of glory which is the portion of all who truly follow Christ in this world. She left a sorrowing husband, six sons and two daughters, one of whom, the wife of the Rev. Donald Campbell, Edinburgh, has been taken away since. May the Lord raise up other witnesses in place of those whom He has taken away.—J. Colquhoun.