IN this frozen age, wherein carnality, self-love, and all iniquity increase, and love to the saints decreases and waxes cold, as the Lord forewarned His Church, the least spark of the love shed abroad by the Holy Ghost in the heart of a sinner towards God, His cause, truth, and people ought to be highly valued. The few remarks which follow are given to the public against the expressed mind of the subject of them. He asked a few days before his end came that all the notes of sermons, &c., left by him should be burned, and that no notice should be taken of him in our Magazine. Knowing his true humility and hatred to ostentation or flattery, we have decided that what we intend to write would not be in the least against his mind; but his request has caused us to curtail very materially what we at first intended to insert. In these circumstances our friends will understand that many things which might be published have, in deference to the wish expressed above, to be withheld; but we hope that the few remarks recorded may not be without interest to our readers.
Mr. John Hamilton came under concern for his immortal soul’s salvation when he was a young man in the city of Glasgow. It seems his struggles were long, and that like many others of the Lord’s people he thought at first he should be able to hold the company of his former sinful companions and get peace of conscience. In this he failed. When the Lord begins the good work He will carry it on till the day of Christ. In very few did the work of the Spirit of God appear more clearly than in him. He lived a most exemplary life, and his private conversation was almost entirely given up to spiritual concerns. He at that time made up his mind to give up his trade—for he was a joiner—and to study with a view to the ministry. He attended the Glasgow University and got successfully through some of the classes, but owing to the failing condition of his health he had to give it up. Few were so faithful in the pulpit as he. He spoke directly to the reason and conscience of the sinner, and pressed home the imperative duty of closing in with Christ upon the terms of the gospel. To the Lord’s people, both in his prayers and preaching, he was very helpful, and caused many who were faint-hearted to take courage. In nothing was he more conspicuous than in the fear he had of sin. He almost in every prayer used the words of the Psalmist, “Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee.” For the last few years especially, none could be much in his company without having the impression that his time here would not be long. For several years he had been a missionary among the Highlanders at Clydebank, where he was loved and admired by all who came in contact with him. In the year 1893 he married, and sometime thereafter he left Clydebank, and went to Oban. He officiated to our congregation there, giving the greatest satisfaction, until in the autumn of 1896 he was laid aside through the effects of a severe cold. He never was of a robust constitution, and his friends were much afraid that he would not get better. We take this opportunity of expressing our appreciation of the noble manner in which that congregation dealt with him. For fifteen months he was unable to do anything publicly, and they continued to pay his salary to the end. Our apology for stating this fact is: “For even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto my necessity. Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may abound to your account. But I have all and abound: I am full having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God.” We now give the following statements as we received them from Mrs. Hamilton as she had them from himself. He was for a long time under conviction of sin, and when he would go out of town on Saturdays with his companions, his conscience continued to gnaw at him for his conduct. The word of God in the hand of the Spirit would give him no peace. He often spoke of the faithful, but tender manner in which the late Rev. Mr. Urquhart of Hope Street, Glasgow, spoke to the young about the eternal concerns of their immortal souls. We heard him frequently speak with great reverence of this godly man. He seemed to have derived great benefit from his faithful ministrations.
“In his private life he was, especially for the last sixteen months, hanging upon the Lord in such a way that I often feared he should not be left long on earth. When he got a glimpse of the Saviour, or a little of His fellowship he was bright and happy; but when he lost sight of this he got depressed and low in his mind, felt the awfulness of sin, and that there was nothing in him but sin and back-sliding.” This reminds us of the experience of David the sweet psalmist of Israel, “And in my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved. Lord, by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong: thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled.” Of his love to the Lord’s people much could be said without exaggeration. If he heard any one speak disparagingly about any of those whom he regarded as the Lord’s people, he would rebuke and exhort such an one with much firmness. We have witnessed this upon more than one occasion. He had very strong attachment to those whom he regarded as the Lord’s people. This love seemed to be growing in him from day to day. He was truly a companion of them who feared the Lord. In friendship he was most constant and sincere. He could never flatter anyone, and this may have caused a certain class of men to think that he was rather frigid in his manners. This impression was quite erroneous. When he got into the company of the godly he was very free and cheerful; but in the company of worldly minded men he was very cautious and spoke most sparingly.
The state of the Church in Scotland grieved him much. He looked upon formality in godliness as the most deplorable of all delusions. Hypocrisy in religion he could not bear with at all. His concerns for the perishing souls of the young of this generation, but especially the young of the Oban congregation, were very deep and continued with him till his end came. His earnestness in pleading for their immortal souls cannot be expressed in more appropriate words than those of the Apostle—”Of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.”
“The Sabbath breaking in Oban, in the summer time especially, by visitors and some of the natives of the town, grieved him exceedingly. He was going to Church one Sabbath evening, and saw a large brake full of people standing at the door of one of the hotels going away for a drive, and he shuddered at the sight. That evening he spoke very strongly against such desecration of the Lord’s holy day. He often warned the people of the heinousness of this sin against the eternal God. Another form of this deplorable sin which caused him much pain and grief, was that he saw some of the poor people putting clothes out to dry on the Sabbath day, and, should rain come, taking them in again. ‘This is,’ he said, ‘even worse than Glasgow, for I never saw them doing this.’ He deplored the selling of milk by carts and in shops on the Sabbath, and he said to me—’Mark these carts, and don’t buy a pennyworth of their milk on the week days.'” It is very deplorable how loose the people are in their observance of the Lord’s day. Men may feign religion as they choose, but the Sabbath will be a sign between God and His people till time shall be no more.
“During the last fifteen months he was unable to go before the congregation except three Sabbaths. He felt somewhat uneasy for a while about his worldly affairs, but the Lord gave a full relief to his mind from such concerns. He was, at the same time, much tried with a sore temptation that it was against the Lord’s mind he came to Oban, but about a fortnight before his end came, he said—’I believe now that it was the mind of the Lord that I should have come to Oban, for as He intended to lay His hand upon me, no other congregation would have dealt so nobly with me as the Oban congregation did.’ He said, about six weeks before his departure—’If I could go out to speak, though it were but once every Sabbath, I think I would be more faithful in speaking than ever before. But O, I am afraid I am only back-sliding, and I am afraid that is why the Lord has laid His hand upon me.’ Being much troubled with a severe cough, he said several times—’I should not be grumbling; if I could exercise patience the Lord would put all things right. Be you praying that the Lord would give me patience.’ He fully realised that the time of his departure was at hand, but for the last three weeks of his illness he was much brighter than I ever saw him before. For up till this time he had a strong desire to get more time, that he might preach the Word of God to his fellow-sinners. When he came to understand that it was death, he said—’O, the goodness of God to me! that He should have had mercy on me.’ Again he said—’O, how foolish are they who neglect their soul’s salvation till they come to their deathbed. This is not the time to begin to seek peace with God through Christ.’ I said to him, ‘If I were so sure of rest beyond death and the grave as you are, I would like to depart also.’ He said, ‘Don’t say that, but seek preparation for eternity, and await patiently the Lord’s time.’ When I would sit down to read, and asked him which book shall I read? he said—’O, read the book of books, the Bible; the glorious Gospel of the precious Word. ‘O that men to the Lord would give Praise for his goodness then, And for his works of wonder done Unto the sons of men.’ These words he very often repeated. About ten minutes before he passed away, I said to him—’The Lord Jesus will stretch out His arm to bring you over the Jordan of death. Do you believe this?’ With a great effort, he said, ‘Yes.’
Thus ended a truly pious young man—being only forty years of age. His dust was laid by the congregation, and a great many of the people of Oban, in the Pennynfair Cemetery, to await the blast of the archangel’s trumpet on the morning of the resurrection.
N. C.