JOHN M’LEOD was born in the year 1846 at Scourie, in the parish of Eddrachillis, Sutherlandshire. Of his parents it can be said that they were very respectable. His mother died when he was only eight years of age. His father was a strict observer of the Fourth Commandment, and gave a good example to his children. When the deceased came of age he went to sea with his father, while latterly he was in charge, as captain, of small vessels trading in the mercantile service till his health broke down. He then came home, about thirteen years ago. We cannot be sure when the spiritual change took place, but it was evident that there was a great change in him when he came home from the south, where he went to consult eminent physicians in regard to his disease, which was cardiac disease, accompanied with dyspepsia, which occasioned most severe pain. He was an untiring reader of the living word, and was much given to prayer, like the Psalmist of old. He was a great admirer of ministers of the stamp of the late Dr. Kennedy, Dingwall, whom he often heard. On Sabbath and week-days he conducted family worship morning and evening regularly, and read portions of the word privately daily. He also read audibly on Sabbath evenings such books as Baxter’s “Saints’ Rest” and “Call to the Unconverted,” Boston’s “Fourfold State,” M’Cheyne’s Sermons, and Dyer’s “Christ’s Famous Titles,” the last named being the book he prized and loved most next to the Bible. He was also a diligent student in Church matters, and mourned over the departure of the Free Church from her Disruption moorings.
In 1893 he was among the first in this place who left the Church calling herself the Free Church of Scotland. He used to say that Revs. Messrs. M’Donald and M’Farlane were the true successors of Dr. Kennedy and Dr. Begg, and that their names, for what they did in separating from an unclean Church, would be held in grateful remembrance by the true people of God in all coming ages, when the names of the introducers of the new religion would stink in the nostrils of all. In the latter end of 1901, steps were taken by the Free Presbyterians here to erect a place of worship, he being the chief mover in the undertaking, which resulted in a handsome church of wood and iron being erected, which was opened in the summer of 1902.
After taking a journey to the Synod of the Free Presbyterian Church at Inverness in July, 1902, by the consent of the congregation, he was successful in having a missionary placed over the congregations at Scourie and Kinlochbervie. He was much rejoiced in spirit at the opening of the church, and we have heard him say that it was one of the happiest days he had on earth when he saw the Lord’s cause reviving, and the church which was built a standing testimony against the false and destructive tendencies of the age.
In September of 1902 his disease became very acute, and he was confined to bed. In October the first communion of the Free Presbyterians was held, but he was unable to attend through extreme weakness. He was elected as an elder, but was not ordained as he could not attend. It was very trying for him that he was not enabled to attend the first communion of the Free Presbyterian body, although he was the chief means in getting the place erected in which they assembled, but he was very much resigned. In the end of October he got a little better, and was able to rise daily and conduct family worship, but again being overcome by pain and weakness, he had to return to bed—the bed from which he never rose. He himself said that he would never rise from this bed of sickness. It was always his request on his death-bed to have the unerring and eternal Word read to him very often. A week before his death it was evident that his end was not far away. He was getting weaker and weaker daily, and was subject to convulsions; the last he took was on a Saturday, from which he did not rally. He passed peacefully away at 4.30 on Sabbath morning, the 18th of January, 1903. “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth. Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours, and their works do follow them.”—Rev. xiv. 13.
He was predeceased by his youngest daughter, who died, aged 15 years, in February, 1902, eleven months before him, and his wife, who died in August, 1900. He was buried beside his wife and daughter in Oldshoremore Cemetery on Wednesday, the 21st January, the remains being carried by a great assemblage of people who paid their last respects to his memory. What struck one most about him as a godly man was his genuine love for the written Word of God, his love for the true people of God, and his earnest desires and untiring efforts for the progress of the cause of Christ in the land.
“Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth : for the faithful fail from among the children of men.”—Psalm xii. 1.