BY THE REV. EWEN MACQUEEN, BONAR, SYNOD’S DEPUTY.
FATHERS AND BRETHREN,
As you are aware, we left the Broomielaw, Glasgow, by the T.S.S. “Caledonia,” on Saturday, the 19th day of May. In using the personal pronoun in the plural number, I include Mr. Samuel Fraser, 39 Scott Street, who accompanied me. Mr. Fraser offered to travel with me, and paid his own passage, and I shall not forget his kindness and services to me. Things went on smoothly until we came to the North of Ireland, when the sea and the boat shewed signs to some of us that their motion was stronger than our nerves. However, I can say of my experience on the Atlantic that I suffered more on the little Minch in five minutes than I suffered during the week’s time we spent in our journey to the new-world. As we cleared away from the head of Ireland, things were pretty monotonous, as our floating township of about 1800 souls was propelled along. The only thing that diverted our attention was a struggle between Russians and Irishmen. They began a tug of war. The Russians being too strong for the Irish, it put up the Irish blood, and the latter were for fighting it out. These, although similar in respect of the corruption of their nature, were dissimilar in speech. The Russians were unwilling, however, to fight, and the way in which they expressed their disapproval was to put up their two hands crying out, “Bursh, Bursh.” In the end they were separated by one of the officers. The next thing that diverted our attention was a three-masted schooner, which, as we thought, was shewing a flag of distress. On bearing down upon her we found that she was deserted of her crew, and allowed to drift along before the wind and waves, with nothing but a stump of the foremast carrying two little sails, the other mast being broken a little above the deck. Although not very spiritual in my mind, she presented to me a very lively picture of the lapsed race of our fallen progenitor. We are like her, drifted along on the ocean of time, by our lusts and the enemy of our souls, to be broken at last on the rocks of the wrath of God, if Christ, the life of His people, will not come to rescue us. The next thing to be noticed is that as we were drawing near the banks of Newfoundland, we experienced a cold which soon made us button our coats. We were ignorant of the fact that this was the place where icebergs are wont to roll. But the sailors, who knew the place better, were aware of what occasioned this difference in temperature. They kept taking the temperature of the water every half-hour, until at last, in the distant horizon, we beheld a grey speck which proved at length to be a huge iceberg. This iceberg, according to the computation of the sailors, was about 150 feet high and about 200 feet long. As we drew near it, it got cold indeed, and it reminded me of the fact that this is the way we are, for as the Spirit of the Lord draws near us, we are almost freezing the Spirit away, so that He might, say of us, “Oh, how cold!” As we left it behind, we were glad at heart that we were putting a distance between ourselves and that frozen stranger which had so surprised us. As we went to our berths on the Friday night, we sighted a steamer heaving in sight from the south, and when we were retiring for the night she was opposite our berth windows. We cherished the idea that before the morning would dawn she would leave us a long way behind, but on awakening next morning we found that she was exactly still opposite our ports. This race between us brought out what is in human nature, each wanting to be first; still it proved beneficial to us as in this way we were the first to gain the pilot, a circumstance which enabled us to get opposite Sandyhook by 12 noon (Saturday). This Sandyhook is so called from the sandy nature of the soil, and the hook-like appearance it here assumes.
As we sailed up the Hudson and beheld the Yankee prowling pleasure boats, and the towering sky-scrapers, we could not but understand that the American must be a man at once active and ingenious. We were landed at New York about 3.30 p.m. on Saturday, where we had to undergo a searching examination from Customs’ officers. After passing without difficulty through this ordeal, we drove to an hotel, as we knew no other place wherein to rest over the Sabbath. Americans are wont to run down the kind of weather we have in this country, so that I was led to think that we should get little rain in New York. But, as we got up on the Sabbath morning, we beheld a dark cloud in the east, no bigger than a man’s hand, as the prophet speaks. In about two hours the sky was overcast, and then lightning began; and such lightning as I had never seen the like. After the lightning, thunder, then wind and rain. These came down—not in the way we were wont to see it, but as if bucketfuls should be thrown down from heaven. From this experience I understood one passage of the word of God as I never understood it before—I mean those words: “I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground.” On Monday, unaccompanied by my companion, I proceeded south to Princeton, with the primary intention of visiting a relative. While there I called to see one whom I took at once as being an humble Christian and an eminent divine, Professor Benjamin B. Warfield. I may say about him that during my stay in the Western Continent, as, indeed, also since my return home, he has been often before my mind. I returned that same evening to New York, and next morning we left New York by the New York Central Railway for our destination in Canada. As we steamed along the banks of the Hudson, the scenery was truly grand. It reminded me of some of the finest parts of our Highland scenery. We arrived at Buffalo at four p.m., and through our own inactivity, and the difficulty of getting our Scotch money changed into current American coin, we lost the connection for Canada that evening. We were thus under the necessity of staying in Buffalo over-night. We, however, got a suitable connection for our destination next morning, and we were thus, in the kind providence of God, brought to Seaforth at one p.m. on Wednesday. At Seaforth there met us a dear young friend—Mr. D. A. Matheson—who conveyed us to Egmondville, to the house of Mr. Daniel Clark, who, along with Mr. George Forrest—who was also in Mr. Clark’s house waiting to welcome us—cheered our hearts, as did the brethren who met the apostle at Appii Forum and the Three Taverns. After partaking of the good things produced by the Canadian soil at Mr. Clark’s house, we left in the evening by the stage-coach for Brucefield. There we stayed for two days under Mr. Forrest’s hospitable roof. On Friday afternoon we left Brucefield for East Williams, where it was appointed us first to seek to break the bread of life to our fellow-sinners in Canada. We resided here with Mr. Hugh D. Ross, where we met with the amplest kindness. We stayed in East Williams for three Sabbaths, and during those days visited the most of the families connected with us. I was cheered to find how ready our people there were to ask that the Word of God should be read with them in their respective houses. On the first Sabbath, to an encouraging congregation, we preached Gaelic once and English twice. The second Sabbath was Communion Sabbath here, and the ordinary services—as among ourselves—in connection with the Communion were observed. We had also district meetings in Lobo, West Williams, and Lochaber, which were well attended. The Sabbath following the Communion was our last in East Williams, and on Tuesday we left, having the feeling that whilst among our people here our own soul had been refreshed, and now that we were parting, possibly never to meet again here below, we could not but feel like the Ephesian elders—sorrowing most that we should not likely see them any more. On Tuesday after this last Sabbath at East Williams we returned to our kind friends at Brucefield. Next Friday we left Brucefield for Kincardine, accompanied by Mr. Clark. At Kincardine there met us Messrs. Hugh Graham and Hugh Mackenzie, by the latter of whom we were driven out, in the evening, to the house of Mr. John Cameron at North Lyne, who kindly received us and hospitably entertained us, as, indeed, he has been doing towards all our deputies. We remained for two Sabbaths in this district, but did not administer the Communion. At the Sabbath Morning Services a goodly number of Lochalsh people attended at North Lyne, and we found it easy to address a large and attentive congregation. At the evening services, with fewer of our people, and with a mixed gathering representative of several denominations, I sometimes felt more like a lion-tamer than a man that would be declaring the glad tidings of great joy. We had, while here, the privilege of visiting Mr. John Morrison, a native of Scourie, in Sutherlandshire, who is now for sometime afflicted with blindness, but whose intelligent and pious conversation as well as warm affectionate manner were a source of true comfort to us. Here also, we visited a certain widow Macleod, a native of Assynt, who has been for many years confined to bed with rheumatism. I rarely anywhere met with a warmer Christian woman than Mrs. Macleod. We had a meeting in the house of Mrs. MacVean, at Tiverton, and another fairly well-attended meeting at the house of Mr. Hugh Mackenzie, Kincardine, after our second Sabbath in the North Lyne. The second, third, and fourth Sabbaths of July were spent in Lochalsh. Here we resided with Mr. William Matheson, whose kindness towards us was not surpassed by any that met us. All the services were very well attended, and as at East Williams, the second was observed as a Communion Sabbath. Here we performed the only baptisms—those of two children—administered by us in Canada. The people appeared intelligent, and listened most attentively to the word preached. I may say that while here I was impressed with the necessity of the Free Presbyterian Church doing what it could to maintain its existence in Canada, on account of the levity of much of the ordinary ministry there. For example, on the Friday of our Communion at Lochalsh, there was a garden party in connection with the erection of a Presbyterian Church there. I was credibly informed that at this party whereat four or five ministers were present, the time was occupied, among other things, with the singing of what they call old country songs, such as—and I mention the words for no other purpose than to make my meaning plain—“The girl I left behind me,” and similar vain songs.
Our next station was Brucefield, where we stayed two Sabbaths, administering the Communion on the second of those Sabbaths. This was the smallest gathering numerically of all; but, especially at the Communion Services, Brucefield was visited by so many of the Lord’s people from our several stations in Canada, that, so far as we might judge, what was lacking to us in numbers, was made up by the presence of Him who promised that where He was there His people should be. Here we had the last parting with the most of our dear friends beyond the sea, and on Monday evening, as they left for their respective abodes, we could not but feel what a privilege it had been to have met with a people whose hearts were warmed by the love of Christ.
From Brucefield we came via Egmondville and Stratford to Newton. At Stratford we visited a friend of our cause there—one Mr. Robertson, a native of north Perthshire. He had had a great desire to be present at the Communion in Brucefield, but we were sorry to find that his bodily weakness had rendered this impossible to him. At Newton we stayed for two Sabbaths, and were hospitably entertained at the house of Mr. Phineas Macdonald. The Communion was not administered here, neither did we hold week-day services among them, as in the interval between the two Sabbaths I went as far as Coldwater, near the Georgian Bay, to visit relatives. The services here—although the congregation has been shattered by divisions, as I suppose you know—were well attended. And although some of them may have considered me austere in manner, I cannot but wish them well here and hereafter.
Now, as we look back on the time spent in this Mission, we cannot but acknowledge that it was good for us to have been there—although we were made in the midst of our labours to stand still and to know that the Lord is God, by the fact that while here we received, by cablegram, the intelligence first of the removal of my friend Mr. Fraser’s dear and worthy mother, a mother in Israel, and afterwards of my own dear and youngest infant child—still, with fears within, and troubles without, we were supported by the Lord. I shall not venture to say what He may have been pleased to perform through our weak endeavours, but this I can say, that my tongue was not made to cleave to the roof of my mouth while addressing them, nor did I feel the Word coming back upon myself. I hope that He who promised that His Word would not return to Him void, may be pleased to water it, and give it increase. With many of them I would desire to be in eternity. There were, I may add, five Communicants in all who came forward to the Lord’s Table for the first time.
And now that our services were over, we felt a little like the Psalmist when he said, “Oh, that I like a dove had wings,” and we should soon have been in our dear native land. Our friends wished us to visit Niagara, but we felt a cry louder than the noise of its majestic waters, proceeding from our congregations at home, and our dear bereaved families. There being, however, ample time ere we could get our steamer at New York, we did visit Niagara. It was indeed a sight, as this volume of the waters of a great river poured over a perpendicular precipice of about 150 feet, but to me it but suggested the reflection that this is the way in which poor sinners are carried by the current of their lusts, over the precipice of the wrath of God, into the bottomless pit, if not prevented betimes by Christ.
On our return journey, we spent two nights in New York, in the house of kind friends from Canada, Mr. and Mrs. Mackenzie. These were extending a kind invitation to future deputies who might visit Canada by New York. On the forenoon of Saturday, 25th August, we sailed from New York for Glasgow, where, on the 3rd of September, we safely arrived, feeling ourselves deeper debtors to God for His grace and providence than when, three months before, we had left our homes. We shall always have a kindly remembrance of our obligations to Messrs. Gordon and Macdonald, chief and second stewards of the T.S.S. “Caledonia,” for they did all in their power to make us comfortable.