NOT till the great day of judgment will it be seen how much the Most High blessed the labours of the godly catechists of the Highlands of Scotland. Some of them were men of uncommon gifts and piety. The crop of witnesses, which sprang up under the teaching of these godly men, headed by not a few faithful ministers, have the stamp till their dying day of the pure milk of the Word of God, by which they were fed in their childhood. The milk-and-water doctrines which have become the plague of poor Scotland for the last thirty years have drawn many a bitter tear from the eyes of those who, as lambs, were reared among the flock which fed in Bashan and Gilead. Give a lamb good milk, plenty of it, and plenty of sunshine in spring, and you may expect a sheep that will stand to old age the battling of the elements; but let the upbringing of the lamb be the opposite of this, and vitality, courage, and power of endurance will be greatly lacking. The former part of our illustration is exemplified in the life of those godly men, and the latter in that of the weaklings that in many cases rose after them, who are now filling (but only in name) the place held by the godly men that are fast disappearing from our land. The doctrines of the Shorter Catechism, expounded by men filled with the Spirit of God, laid a foundation in the minds of these men, a stone of which the devil, with his vast host of scoffers, could not raze. The subject of the following remarks was one of these noble men.
Hugh Stewart was born in Branault, Ardnamurchan, Argyll-shire. His parents were most respectable, and had a large family. About the time that Hugh reached early manhood, a most pious catechist—Mr. Kenneth Ross, a native of Lewis—was sent to Ardnamurchan by the “Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge throughout the Highlands.” Many were the blessed fruits of the labours of this godly man. Hugh was among them. Not long after this he left home for Glasgow, where the most of his life was spent. He became an elder in the MacDonald Free Church. His brother, Allan Stewart, was also an elder in the same congregation. He was also a man of eminent piety, and, though younger than Hugh, predeceased him two years. He left the Free Church in 1889, on account of the innovations introduced into it from year to year, and eventually became a member of St. Jude’s Free Presbyterian Church, Glasgow, as soon as that congregation was formed in 1893. These two brothers “were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided.” They left together the MacDonald congregation when their present minister voted for the first time in favour of disestablishment in the Free Church Presbytery of Glasgow, and they went to Hope Street Gaelic Free Church. They held that the establishment principle is Scriptural, and that settled the matter with these brave men. Voluntaryism, with its destructive and demoralising tendencies, had no place in their creed or principles. One who had the privilege of holding fellowship with them handed us the following statement, which we give in full:—“We must confess that the most precious moments we have had on earth were spent in the company of Hugh Stewart, and of his brother Allan. There was a group of men at that time in MacDonald Free Gaelic Church, i.e., Hugh Stewart, Allan Stewart, John Campbell, John Macdonald, Archibald Macintyre, with the holy man of God, Mr. Logan, as their minister, whose labours some of us will not forget while we have a being. Hugh Stewart was a man who would convince anyone having the least of the discernment of the Spirit, and having the least knowledge of his life in private or in public, as one who underwent the great change from darkness unto light, and from the kingdom of Satan unto God. He was mighty in prayer, and often caused others to feel that he had the ear of the King. He felt and knew the powerful influences of the carnal mind, and that it was of a truth enmity against God and the salvation of his own never-dying soul. He knew the depth of iniquity in his own heart, not because he was worse than others, but because the light of the Spirit of God had illuminated his mind to perceive it above many. The body of sin and death was his daily burden, which caused him to be a wretched man in himself. One could know easily when he got access into the holiest of all through the new and living way, for the joy upon which his soul then feasted could be seen beaming in his countenance. The class of professors to which Hugh Stewart belonged is fast disappearing from our midst.”
Hugh Stewart was a very charitable man, and therefore could not bear that which is evil, either in himself or in others. We were often struck by the comprehensive sympathy manifested in his prayers, both in public and in private. Once on a Sabbath day, in a town on the west coast of Argyllshire, he had to engage in prayer in church, and a friend who was present sends us the following:—”He wrestled most earnestly with the Lord that He would have pity upon the low state of His own cause, and upon the great dishonour done to His name, especially by those in high places in the Church, who were busy distorting the truth and putting it out of joint. He then, with great fervency and weight of Spirit, said—’If it is not Thy blessed purpose to have mercy upon them, grant that their folly may be made manifest to all men.’ He often exclaimed in prayer, “O the hope of Israel, the saviour thereof in time of trouble, why shouldest thou be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night? Why shouldest thou be as a man astonied, as a mighty man that cannot save?” Another petition often presented by him before the throne was—”Remove, in Thine infinite mercy, this hard rock out of our breasts.”
He was a man highly thought of by all the Lord’s people who had the privilege of knowing him. At the question meetings he spoke very concisely, and very much to the point. A few of his remarks on one occasion have been sent us, which were spoken in connection with a question based on Heb. vi. 18:—”Who fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.” “Christ, as the holiest, entered into the holiest of all as forerunner; He entered the door of righteousness. This door He keeps open for the entrance, after Himself, of all that believe in His name. Fleeing for refuge from the wrath to come, His people needed a strong foundation for their hope. This foundation is made up of two natures, and the two natures appear in the Scriptures in such places as the storm on the Sea of Galilee, where at once the manhood and the Godhead of the Redeemer are clearly set forth. As long as they were dead, this people could not flee. When He first found them, He found them dead. He did not leave them so. ‘You hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and in sins,’ quickened together with Christ, and saved by grace. Now that they are alive, they flee. With life came feeling, and with feeling a sense of their deserts, their state, and their needs. Under the saving teaching of the Spirit regarding their needs, they have to cry—’Draw me, and we will run after thee.’ He who has gone before them has prepared a place for them, and will yet come and take them to His rest. He will not leave them to the wild beasts of the wilderness. He has created a thirst in their souls that cannot be satisfied unless they, even now, get moments on the bosom where there is eternal rest. By His dealings with them, He has left them poor and weak, and has created desires in them which communion with God alone can satisfy. They are now emptied vessels. He has spoiled on them the filthy rags of their own righteousness. He has taken them from a fearful pit, and set their feet on the Rock, and has given them a new song, even praises to Him who loved them. If they get but one breath drawn from the bosom of the Father, what boundless joy they have, but this they do not get without its being followed by the waves and tempests of unbelief and darkness.”
He lived continually under the Scriptural impression of the shortness of our time on earth. He called his life on earth “the few minutes he was to be here.” None felt more their need of being kept from evil than he. This caused all his sayings and doings to have something real in them, as he felt himself hastening to an endless eternity, and looked upon temporal things as mere shadows. He was very humble, and very seldom mentioned any duties in which he engaged, but his humility did not prevent him from warning most faithfully those who held lax views of the Word of God, and of the sanctity of the Lord’s day. For the last five years he felt so frail that he could not leave the house (his son’s—the Free Church Manse, Inveraray) to come to Glasgow. About a year before he died, a friend who had called to see him asked him, “What have you to say about the conflict of faith?” He replied, “I am convinced that all my enemies will be drowned in the Red Sea.” He had no bodily pain up to the last; for this mercy he was devoutly thankful to God. He was up and going about the day previous to his death. An hour or two before the end came, he said—”Oh, how precious to be on the Rock! I am safe there.” He then fell asleep for a very short time, and, on awakening, said—”Thou fairer art than sons of men; Thou wilt receive me to glory.” The last audible words heard from him were, “Thou wilt not leave me—no, never.” Thus, at the ripe age of 78 years, passed from our midst last spring one of those whose absence makes the world poorer and colder to the strangers throughout the land. His remains were interred in the Inveraray burying place, there to await the morning of the resurrection and the coming of Christ upon the clouds of heaven. For true, unfeigned humility, few equalled him; for sincerity about the cause of Christ in the world, the salvation of his own soul and that of others, none could doubt him; for consistent detestation from first to last of the fickleness of some men in this land about the truth of God, the subordinate standards of the Church of Christ, and their own vows, all gave him the highest credit; and for genuine charity towards, and fervent love of, the true brethren and sisters in the Lord, Hugh Stewart was in the eyes of all eminently distinguished. “The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance.” N. C.