John Matheson was born in Chile in the year 1890 where his father had taken his wife and family. John was the fourth child in a family of five.
His father died in this foreign land and the family was left in very poor circumstances. It meant difficulty and trial for his mother Christina Matheson but this woman of fine character and who in later years proved herself outstanding for her godliness not only brought her family back to Lewis but brought an orphaned cousin back with them.
Christina Matheson raised her family in the village of Knock, and whilst they knew poverty, the deep affection which the family had for the mother, and the high regard in which she was held in the cause and community, and with which she is remembered today by the older generation, declare her to have been a mother in Israel indeed.
John took out his trade as a blacksmith and served in the 1914-18 war. He was reticent about his own personal experience but on one occasion when coming back from a service at the Ness communion, he was drawn to speak and one in the company on arriving home, wisely took down in writing what he had said. Let John speak for himself — “Though serving in the 1914-18 war I had no concern for my soul but was as hard as the hardest, although I noticed that many of the men turned religious in the face of danger”.
“I was always fond of reading and after being discharged from the army, instead of sharing the ploys of other young men, I spent all my spare time reading. My mother said to me one day “Why not read the Bible instead of these books?” I took her advice and very soon was gripped by the truth. I saw something of my lost condition and realised I was fit only for a lost eternity.”
“For years I was under great concern — sometimes thinking that the Lord spoke peace to my soul but right on the back of that would come a warning rebuke, and I knew not where I was. Many of the godly were praying for me, I know, and some of them at last told me that they believed I was out of the path of duty when I did not make a profession of faith in Christ. One such man even went the length of saying to me on the Saturday evening of a communion “It is at the Lord’s table you should be tomorrow. If you get strength to go, and if the session question your right to be there, tell them I have the word of God for it — “Loose him and let him go, for the Lord hath need of him”. With that he offered me a token but that was not sufficient warrant for me. But then when the Lord spoke to me with his Truth — “I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindnesses have I drawn thee”, I vowed that if ever I had the opportunity again I would make a public profession”.
“Accordingly when the next communion came round I sought and obtained strength to pay my vows. It was still the above portion that guided me but I had no comfortable encouragement in my own feelings, I went on in Faith.”
“But after being received by the session the joy of the Lord flooded my soul. On that Saturday evening the whole Bible was a living Word and Christ the life of it. I got a particular blessing from Isaiah 53 — such a blessing as I could not put in words.”
“At the table the face of Rev. Neil Cameron came very vividly before my mind’s eye but I attached no special significance to that, except that I believe he was praying for me. Also I believe that the man who encouraged me with the aforementioned portion of truth got it from the Lord for his own support, as he had been carrying me on his spirit in a very real way. Another godly woman who was earnest in her pleadings for me at a Throne of Grace said to me when I met her on one occasion — “Oh, John, I wish I was able to write so as to tell you the portion I got for you from the Lord. I did not even see a person that I could ask to carry it to you.” To that I was able to reply in all honesty — You did not need to write or to send it by any human being; I got it alright”.
From the time that John professed in 1929 and for many years as a Deacon and Elder in the Stornoway congregation, it could be said that he adorned the doctrines of his Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and that he feared the Lord above many.
He held a very warm place in the affections of the Lord’s people, and he was held in high esteem by old and young alike.
He had his trials and tribulations like all the Lord’s people and for many years he was subject to a mental affliction which necessitated his being hospitalised from time to time. That this illness was a heavy burden for himself and others to bear, there can be no doubt, but in it the faith of John was tried and tested and it was evident to those who knew him that the furnace was but making him more meet for the inheritance of the saints in light.
To one who visited him in hospital, the last occasion on which he was there, he said “I am willing to be taken and I am willing to stay; I think I am understanding what it is to be within the will of God”. That John was willing to spend and be spent for Christ none who knew him could doubt. Inasmuch as in him lay he took a full share in the conduct of the Cause over many years, and this he did in the spirit of the gospel.
Perhaps it was in prayer that he excelled most. Having an excellent grasp of the doctrines of the Truth, and able to express himself in choice language, and until very near the end of his wilderness journey able to quote the Truth accurately and at length, his prayers were striking, and the poor and needy in Zion were brought with him to the blood-sprinkled mercy seat. How often he was heard to quote in prayer Hebrews 2 verse 14 to the end.
Some of us who were present can never forget the language of his prayer at family worship in the manse, Stornoway, beside the dust of his pastor whom he loved dearly and whose ministry he had valued highly. In the course of his exercise he used language of this sort — “We would not keep him from Thee; Thine is the greater title to him. Thou didst love him from all eternity. Thou didst come to this world for him. Thou didst live for him. Thou didst die for him. Thou didst rise again for him”. This we believe was the life of John Matheson; everything he related to Christ. He could say with the Apostle “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain”.
If he had a favourite psalm it was the 72nd. Many a time it stirred him up, many a time he got a glimpse here of the Kingly majesty of his Prophet and his Priest.
Latterly John’s memory began to fail, but to the last his exercises were most acceptable. To those about him it was clear that he was fast ripening for glory. About a month before he died he said to his sister who so lovingly cared for him over the years “Death is here” and when his pastor, visiting him said “John, you will soon be in glory” he smiled assent. On the 24th day of May, 1967 John fell asleep in Jesus — that Jesus who loved him with an everlasting love from all eternity, and who had brought him so tenderly and carefully along a wilderness journey that had its peculiar trials and difficulties—that Jesus who had kept him from falling and who had seen to it that John would get home with clean garments. A prince and a great man has fallen in Israel and the cause below is much the poorer for his passing.
May the Lord raise up many in the Stornoway congregation who will love the Lord Jesus with a pure heart fervently as John did.
H. G.