THE Free Presbyterian Congregation of Inverness, and indeed the cause of genuine piety in the land, has suffered no little loss in the removal of Thomas Forbes, whose death took place at 40 Baron Taylor’s Lane, on the evening of the 6th December.
Thomas Forbes was born at Woodlands, Evanton, about sixty-nine years ago. When he was still a child, his father removed to Dingwall, and Thomas had thus the privilege of being brought up under the powerful and blessed ministry of the late Dr. John Kennedy. He appears to have been kept from his youth from anything fitted to tarnish his moral character in any way; but it was not until he was about eighteen years of age that he became a man of a decidedly Christian character. At that time, as he heard Dr. Kennedy preach one Sabbath evening, the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, wounded him so deeply that from the depth of his pain he cried out in church, and had to be carried home. He was then an apprenticed carpenter, but so heavily did the state of his soul lie upon him, that for about a twelvemonth he was unable to prosecute his trade. Dr. Kennedy’s ministry was in this time of trial of great usefulness to him, but he used to say that the clearest manifestation which he got of the glory of Christ and of the way of salvation through Him was whilst engaged in prayer in his mother’s closet.
The late worthy Alexander Macdonald, afterwards catechist at Dingwall, being employed with the same master as was Thomas Forbes, and being himself a man of deep Christian experience, began at this time to take an interest in him, and was the means of inducing him to start work again, and helped him by his counsels and example very greatly. Alexander Macdonald died only little more than seven years ago, and he and Thomas were life-long most intimate friends.
In the course of time Thomas Forbes removed to Inverness, where he carried on a considerable business of his own. During Dr. Kennedy’s ministry, however, notwithstanding how sincerely he prized the Gospel ordinances which at the time were to be had in Inverness, he very frequently walked on Sabbath mornings all the way to Dingwall, returning home to Inverness that same day, having enjoyed a day’s hearing of Gospel-preaching at the mouth of one, of whom it is not too much to say that he was his father in the Lord.
When a testimony had to be borne for the truth in 1893, Thomas Forbes was one of the first in Inverness who identified himself with that cause, and during the past fourteen or fifteen years he proved himself an unflinching friend of the same. In 1900 he became a member of the Kirk-Session in Inverness, and the Kirk-Session no less than the congregation feel that in him they have lost a valuable member.
Thomas Forbes was not a public speaker or teacher—only once have we heard him speak to “the question,” but that effort was with such success that we often wished that he were not so reticent. He was valued for his prayerfulness, for his wrestlings for a blessing upon the proclamation of the Gospel, for his mournings when his Lord was absent, and for his rejoicing when the Lord spake to his heart.
J. R. M.