IN his book “Ministers an Men in the Far North,” the Rev. Mr. Auld apologises for chronicling some recollections of the godly women of that time by quoting the words of the Apostle, “In Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female.” As is known to northern readers of this magazine, the outstanding piety that characterised these eminent women has almost wholly disappeared from among us, but if there still remain “one or two berries in the outermost branches,” certainly Janet Mowat was one of these.
She was born of humble parents, her father, James Mowat, being a crofter in the parish of Thurso, a man of a meek and quiet spirit, and latterly an office-bearer in the Free Church there. But his daughter Janet was no ordinary young woman. There being no sons in the family, she assisted her father in working the croft, following the plough, reaping the harvest, and even cutting drains and ditches. And her mental powers were in no way inferior to her physical capacities. The late Mr. Hosack of the Crofters Commission told the writer that when a few years ago Sheriff Brand and he were in the north no one that they examined—man or woman—exceeded or even equalled Janet Mowat for intelligence and grasp of mind.
But it was not on these grounds that her character won its respect. It was because of her sterling religious principle. When a girl the ministry of the late Rev. David Campbell, Dunnet, was blessed for awakening her to know her lost state as a sinner and to lead her to the remedy provided in the Gospel. Every Sabbath morning before most people were awake she might be seen going along the road towards the village of Castletown, and then traversing the Dunnet Links towards the church, a distance of eight or nine miles from her home. After Mr. Campbell’s death she became an attached hearer of the late Dr. Taylor, Thurso.
Janet’s Christianity, as much as any one we knew, was an illustration of the excellence of the injunction—”Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly.” Her mind seemed saturated not merely occasionally, but constantly with views of divine truth, and one would not be long in her company until she began to speak of what she was finding in the Scriptures—notably in the Psalms. The last time the writer conversed with her Janet quoted the 17th verse of the cxxxii. Psalm—”There will I make the horn of David to bud,” adding “David’s horn is a divine horn, a full and inexhaustible horn, and so it will still bud from age to age.” “What are the buds?” she asked. “The buds—surely the buds are the precious Words of Truth coming in the rich anointing of the Holy Spirit.” That is rare in our day,” was said. “Yes, it is,” she replied; “but look, it’s all here, ‘I will make it to bud I will do it; I cannot break my word; I will do it.’ Oh! to get hold of the Divine I.”
Her appreciation of the efficacy of God’s Word was not only experimental, but practical. Travelling one day in a stage coach a young man being the only other passenger, he, to beguile the journey, began to sing hymns. When he had finished Janet said, “Sing a psalm to us now, man.” “Well, I like the hymns,” he said; “they are so sweet.” “Maybe they are,” replied Janet, “but if the Lord will put a hungry heart and conscience within your breast, my dear lad, you will want something more substantial than sweeties.”
Coming out of a church, where the giving out of the line in the praise had been recently discontinued, she accosted the precentor—”Oh, man, what ails ye at the Word of the Lord that you did not sound it aloud to-day in the great congregation? Your singing without it was like cold milk that had the cream skimmed off.”
By reading and reflection Janet had made herself well acquainted with the contentions of the Church of Scotland from Reformation times downwards, and therefore became dissatisfied with the attitude of the Free Church in making void the testimony raised by our forefathers for the honour of Zion’s King, and for her determination to be subject to His infallible Word as her only rule. Consequently when the witnessing party separated in 1893, she identified herself therewith, and became a member of the Free Presbyterian Church, although she gladly heard any who proclaimed the old Gospel and upheld the old paths. She much enjoyed an address given last autumn by Mr. Archibald MacNeilage, Glasgow, in which it was established that in all ages the Church of Christ, when endeavouring to know and to do the will of her Lord, might be as assured of His guidance and presence amid her difficulties and perplexities, as was Israel in the wilderness when led by the pillar of cloud and of fire. Referring afterwards to this, she remarked—”Many nowadays tell us that they get their religion in the New Testament, to the disparagement of the Old. But, no, no, the grace of the Gospel, the grace of the Everlasting Covenant, is as truly made known in the Old Testament as in the New. The Lord is One and His Name One in all generations.”
An internal complaint, that had been weakening her for some time, developed acutely in the beginning of this year, and being accompanied by frequent fainting fits, her strength rapidly declined. “Hold thou me up, so shall I be in peace and safety still,” was her exclamation one morning when attempting to move up in bed, and a few hours thereafter she entered into that “peace and safety” which is “the everlasting inheritance of the saints in light.”
C. R. A.