IT has been our mournful duty, and yet our privilege, since the issue of this Magazine began, time and again to record the removal of those from our midst that were the salt of the earth and the light of the world; and in connection with the record of their removal to give some sketch of their life and character. In so doing we have made an effort to keep the righteous in remembrance, and to stir up those they have left behind to follow their faith and to practise their works. On no occasion in the past have we had greater reason to do this than we have now in the case of the late Archibald Crawford of Tighnabruaich.
Mr. Crawford was born in the month of May, 1815—about a month before Waterloo. His birthplace was the farmhouse of Largimore, on Lochfyneside, in the extreme north of the parish of Kilfinan. Until he was twelve years old this was the home of his father, Duncan Crawford, who was one of the elders of the parish. Archibald was the youngest son and the second youngest child of the household. From Lochfyneside his father removed to Lochstrivenside, to the farm of Trouston, which he held in lease for nineteen years. The youngest son, when he grew up, acted as his father’s shepherd, and as the older members of the family settled for life, on him devolved the management of the farm as increasing years told on his father’s strength.
Up to the age of twenty-two the subject of our notice lived a stranger to the grace of God. There was nothing to mark out his conduct from that of his neighbours. He was neither better nor worse than those about him. His natural character was forceful. He was a born leader of men. In those early days this feature showed itself in the way in which he was the life of every company and the leader of his companions in fun and frolic. At an early age his superior talents appeared. At the age of eight he made some verses to the setting sun. The poetic vein was worked from that time until the whole current of his life was changed. So strong did the faculty of versifying grow with exercise that, to quote his own remark on the subject, there was scarcely anything his eye could light on that did not call forth a verse. The poems of these days he wrote down, and they filled a thick volume, but when the change came over him, the idolised gift was kept in check, and to the end of his days he never again devoted any attention to its cultivation. Nay, he burned the volume that contained his youthful effusions, and did what he could to secure that this chapter of his life should be blotted out. Fragments of these pieces still survive, however. They were remembered by his acquaintances, and so handed down by oral recitation. One piece extends to more than two hundred and fifty lines, and with the rest, serves to show the ease he had acquired in the use of tuneful words and the general mastery he possessed of the art of Gaelic poetry.
Archibald Crawford, however, was destined for something nobler and better than the honours that local good neighbourhood or poetic talent can confer. When the set time came, the Lord called him by His grace and made known His Son in him. The great crisis of his life was in the year 1837. In those times there was an evangelical revival spreading over Scotland. But the ministers of the district in which he lived did not seem to be much affected by it. It is true that in Dunoon Dr. Mackintosh Mackay was then preaching, and to name no other, Peter Macbride was a minister in Rothesay. The Jews and the Samaritans, however, had almost as little in common as the Evangelicals and the out and out Moderates, and it was Mr. Crawford’s lot to be brought up under a “moderate” ministry, so that in the parish of his residence he had few opportunities of hearing gospel preaching.
His first spiritual exercises were very searching, and in his own neighbourhood he was long before he discovered any that were acquainted with anything like them. The first people he met with that were capable of sympathising with him were some survivors of the Baptist body that followed Donald Bàn Macarthur, of Port-Bannatyne. Before, however, he made the acquaintance of any exercised Christians, he was providentially put in possession of Bunyan’s “Grace Abounding.” In this narrative he found a picture of his own experiences. There were scattered throughout Cowal and Bute aged followers of Macarthur, some of them Baptists and others not. These countenanced no ministry that they did not count a gospel one. But they went long distances to the communions and preachings of those they looked upon as sent by the Head of the Church. Thus they waited on the ministry at Lochgoilhead of Rev. Donald Macgilvray, who, after spending a number of years in Cowal, went in 1831 to Kilmallie, where he died. Some of them waited on the gospel preaching at Rothesay, where, at least from the days of Mr. Robertson, of Kingussie, there was a succession of men that determined to know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
After some time of struggle and loneliness, Mr. Crawford discovered that the gospel was preached in Rothesay. Accordingly he began to cross every Lord’s day to Bute, walk into Rothesay, and there wait on the ministry of Mr. Macpherson of the Gaelic charge. Week after week his exercises seemed to be known to the minister, and under his teaching he was led and fed. About the beginning of these Sabbath journeys to Rothesay, when first his presence in the congregation began to be noticed, he was waylaid by one of the elders as he hurried away at the close of the service. This man accompanied him part of the way, and to him in conversation he communicated some of his soul’s trials. Next Lord’s day Mr. Macpherson had occasion to come across some of the very matters on which his exercised hearer and the elder were conferring on the previous Sabbath. Mr. Crawford concluded in his youthful simplicity that the elder had told the minister what he had confided him with, and so, as the elder met him again when service was over, with a view to accompanying him on his way, he was told at once that, as he had not kept to himself what he had heard the previous week, he should have no more of Mr. Crawford’s mind.
When our friend gave up hearing the minister of his parish, he did not do so without speaking plainly to him about the character of his preaching and ministry. At first when he crossed to Bute to go to Rothesay he had to row the boat alone; but the influence that even at this early period of his career he wielded is shown in the fact that, before he had been long going, two boat loads of people accompanied him on his journey. The gospel had begun to become precious to many.
In the year 1846 Mr. Crawford removed with his now aged parents to Kilbride, a farm in his native parish. Here he spent 19 years. At first he held himself very much aloof from those that were about him, but through time he discovered some like-minded with himself in the district. Especially he used to speak of a godly old woman who by the time he came to know her was on her death-bed. She had been awakened under the teaching of Finlay Munro, and brought to the light of the gospel under that of one of the Haldane preachers settled at Clachan in Kintyre. As we are now but giving a sketch of his career, we do not enter into details. Other hands will probably contribute accounts of many incidents in his history, and perhaps if there are any to be filled in by way of supplement to these the writer may assay the task of taking up his pen again to relate them in these pages.
Noticing the spiritual destitution of those about him soon after his settlement at Kilbride, he began to keep a Sabbath school, but officious tyranny stepped in and put a stop to it. Henceforward for the space of about twelve years Mr. Crawford took no active part in public work. But at the expiry of that period he was led to take steps that had important results. He was known as a serious, thoughtful, intelligent man, and some of his neighbours and acquaintances on the occasion of a movement among them in which unsound doctrine was prominently brought forward came to consult him with regard to the things they were hearing. Week after week they came, until at last every Friday evening he had a meeting of his neighbours and servants to whom he opened up the Word of God and the way of salvation. This meeting was soon transferred to the church at Millhouse, where for two years a crowded congregation waited on his instructions. These were times of refreshing. A quiet, genuine, solid revival work was in progress, and many to the day of their death, and some we believe that still remain, were the fruit of these meetings. There was no excitement or crying out. There were no sensational measures employed, but the pure word of the Lord was applied to the consciences of the people, to a great extent in the form of proposing questions and answering them, and only the floor and desks wet with tears after the congregation went home testified outwardly to the emotion called forth at this blessed time. Many were then born in Zion. The burden of opening up the Scriptures to his fellow-sinners lay heavily on Mr. Crawford’s spirit, and at this period he would sometimes, in spite of all the demands that his worldly position made on him, spend whole days with his Bible in private. At last the season of steady spiritual work came to an end, and, kept down in his own inward experience, he found it hard to meet the craving that was all around him to break the bread of life to his spiritual children. At this juncture he made the acquaintance of the late Dr. Kennedy of Dingwall alike in his ministry and in his person. This acquaintance proved one of the turning points of his outward life.
When his lease of Kilbride was out, Mr. Crawford lived for some time in Kames, and while there he stedily held Sabbath services at Kilfinan, seven miles away. These services were in Gaelic, as it was seldom that he undertook to conduct any public exercises of worship in English. In the year 1866 he went to the North country and made the acquaintance of many of the worthies there at Communion gatherings and in their homes. Dr. Kennedy and worthy Mr. Macdougall, Fodderty, secured his services for Strathpeffer while the Skye railway was being made. Here every Sabbath evening for a considerable period he kept meetings. For five months on end he was in charge of the congregation in Strathconon, and for that time he lived with worthy Hector Jack, for whom to the end of his days he had the highest regard. Thus, with intervals which he spent at home in Tighnabruaich, where he now had built a house, two or three years had passed away. The Union question was then coming to a critical stage, and on the suggestion of Dr. Mackintosh Mackay, formerly of Dunoon, Mr. Crawford was appointed an agent for the Anti-Union party throughout the Highlands. In this capacity he travelled through a great part of the North Highlands, Perthshire, and Argyllshire. Though Caithness was not in his district he turned aside to view the land. Here he came to know godly David Steven, who more than any man whom he met on his travels impressed him and won his heart.
After his work in connection with this mission was over, he retired to his native district, where, however, he did not long remain, for in the year 1872 he went to live in Greenock, where for fourteen years his home was. Here he was the centre of a knot of excellent men that were connected with the Gaelic church. One of them in particular he was much bound up in—Dugald Gray, a native of Jura, a man like himself, of independence and steadfastness. In the year 1886 he returned to Tighnabruaich, where he resided to the end of his days. In all the concerns of the Church of Christ at large he took a most lively interest—particularly was his interest intense in all concerns relating to the Free Presbyterian Church. The signs of the times he viewed with undisguised alarm. The state of the generation lay heavy on his spirit, and now that he is removed one of the wrestlers with the Angel of the Covenant has been taken from our midst.
Mr. Crawford was a man of very unusual mental power. Along with the faculty of close reasoning he had a well-balanced judgment, and what is not common in connection with much mental outfit he had a great power of illustration. This, we might say, was the form that his poetic imagination assumed on being expressed in its ordinary manifestations. One could gather from the choice figurative language he at times used that behind it there must be a good measure of the poetic temperament. Strong as his reasoning powers were, there were few that leaned so little as he to the broken reed of human understanding. The logical outcome of certain elements, taken by themselves, that enter into the system of revealed truth, is apt to get undue prominence from those that go more by system than by Scripture; and to the end of his days he was the declared opponent, and that in an increasing measure, of the custom of driving theological schemes to one-sided, ill-balanced conclusions. There was a caution, along with a certain largeness of view and wide outlook, characteristic of him, that made him a valuable counsellor. Along with this he was possessed of a fearless independence such as left him steadfast in his judgment whatever human authority might be brought in array against him. His memory was strong and retentive, and all his faculties were vigorous, so that he was a very all-round man.
He was a man of considerate kindness, but great resolution—a strong and altogether sterling character.
As a spiritual man, perhaps his most outstanding feature was his solemn reverence for the authority of the Word of God. It was given to him to realise it as sharper than any two edged sword, and to its voice he submitted himself with childlike simplicity. At an early stage in his career he was much tried with the system of those that emphasise the sovereignty of grace so as almost to lose sight of the sinner’s responsibility in view of the Gospel. Those that enjoyed the conversation of his later years may well remember how careful he was to resist any tendency towards higher Calvinistic views in theology. It was his great fear a few years ago that the danger, to which our ministers as a class were liable, in their rebound from the fashionable Arminianism of the day, was to be entangled by the views of those that refuse to insist on the free grace of the Gospel and the open door set forth therein, whereby sinners as sinners may draw nigh to God through the death of His Son. Latterly, however, he was persuaded that the responsibility of sinners to respond to the command of the God of all grace was brought into due prominence, and this afforded him satisfaction. In connection with this aspect of things he used to dwell much on the method the Lord Jesus took to deal with the demoniac’s father, “If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.” Again, “Search the Scriptures: . . . . . . for they are they that testify of Me, and ye will not come to Me that ye may have life,” was a passage that he frequently emphasised.
In connection with the easy going use of the means of grace in which multitudes rest, he used to insist much on the direct plain-spoken message of the Baptist, “Who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” and also on the words of Isaiah, “Who hath required this at your hands?” “Let sinners,” the outcome of it was, “but consider the profession their presence in the house of God involves. Their formality in sitting as His people and hearing as His people but grieves the Holy Spirit and increases the blackness of the dark cloud of judgment that overhangs us.” There is such a cloud, and in homely yet expressive phrase he would say, “Smoke from our chimney has gone to make it.” “While the blood of souls goes down, men dance in the Holy Place of God.” Zeal for orthodoxy unaccompanied with a chastened contrite spirit he spoke of as “soldiering,” and he lamented the extent to which this prevails.
Some preachers of this kind he once compared to Highland cattle with plenty of horn but very little milk. One thing he missed above everything else in the generation he found rising up about him, and that was a reverential awe of the Eternal.
We have almost unwittingly glided into a description of what manner of man Mr. Crawford was, but as further opportunities may be afforded to enter on this subject, we shall not prosecute it further at present. While he was engaged in public service he discouraged the action of those that came to consult him about their spiritual case. This he did in order that any treatment their cases might receive in public they might take in a proper spirit. In his later days, when he no longer engaged in public work, he was much resorted to by those who had spiritual exercises, and in these years he became much more free, communicative, and accessible than he had previously been. Indeed, any one that paid attention to his instructive conversation in these years might derive from it much guidance, as from that of a veritable Greatheart. His treatment of Scriptural characters and incidents was most refreshing. Perhaps Abraham would be the subject or, as was more common latterly, Job or Jonah. Once the veteran got his sail spread he made great way in connection with these themes. His staff would be balanced as he balanced his positions or measured as he measured his words, and the hearer had himself to thank if the conversation ended and he had derived no clear and vivid views of truth from the graphic utterances of the sage.
Mr. Crawford was much given to self-examination, and one of the passages that for years kept him at a standstill was the words in Philippians iii., “being made conformable to His death.” With regard to this he was quite clear at last, and quite characteristically he found the key that opened the lock in the narrative of Jonah. With his questioning, searching spirit, he was much kept down, and much distressed, at the inward experience he had of the power of sin. This served to keep him abiding in Christ, esteeming all his own righteousness as filthy rags. But, much as he was kept under for years, the end was triumphant. He was concerned as it drew near that he might have the full use of his faculties to the last, and this was granted him. Inquiring one day during his last illness as to how a neighbour was, whose end was being daily looked for and who was still alive, he remarked, on being informed of this, “He keeps the world hanging on a hair’s breadth of His purpose.” The old pith and vigour were in the words.
A few days before the end came, a question was put to him purposely to draw out his views in prospect of what was before him, and his answer was—”The Life that is above, that death could not seize, that is my Portion, if portion I have.” The “if” clause of this answer was needless at last. A day or two before the end the difficulties that oft beset him melted away, and the time of the singing of birds was come, “O,” said he, “that He would say to my soul ‘Arise, my love, and come away.'” In this he seemed to rest and to rejoice; “My Beloved is Mine and I am His.” He laid stress on the Mine and on the His. In the delightful enjoyment of communion with the Lord he was eager to depart, “to be with Christ, which is far better.” With all this personal comfort and assurance as to the future he forgot not the care of the generation he was leaving behind; and what he often expressed his ardent longing to see, showers of grace descending for the refreshment of the Lord’s garden, he prayed for to the last. In these last days words that had often exercised him were sweetly on his lips—”Said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldst believe, thou shouldst see the glory of God?” He was now on the eve of seeing and enjoying the blessing of him that believes to whom there shall be a fulfilment. Thus as a shock of corn fully ripe, a patriarch has been removed from among us.
On Monday, December 21st, 1903, he entered into rest, aged 88 years, and on the 25th he was buried with his fathers in Kilfinan Churchyard. Beside him lies the body of his old friend and fellow-believer, Hugh Douglas, who, also at a good age, preceded him but a few weeks to the eternal world. “The faithful fail from among the children of men.” There they lie, till the trumpet shall sound, in the glorious hope of a blessed resurrection.
J. M.