THE subject of this brief notice was born in the year 1837 in the island of Pabay, Harris. He seems to have had religious impressions in his early years, which did not allow him to be altogether a stranger to the exercise of secret prayer. When he attained the age at which he could earn for himself, he left his native place and made his way to the Strathspey district, where he became employed as a ploughman. At this employment, and in this place, he spent the vigorous part of his life. While he resided in this district he had the privilege of hearing godly ministers, among whom was the Rev. Mr. Logan, whose memory and worth he cherished to the close of his life. In after years he referred to those ministers and men he heard and saw, with much delight, and all the more that such conversé recalled to his memory the scenes of former years. Being a man of reticent disposition and unassuming manner, he maintained all along an attitude of reserve on the subject of his own spiritual experiences and the Lord’s gracious dealings with his soul. On this account we are unable to give what otherwise would be a great pleasure to us—a statement of the Lord’s dealings with him, which dealings are usually connected with the new birth, without which no man can enter the kingdom of heaven.
When he was about forty years of age he gave up his work and returned to Harris. He was thrifty and careful of his hard-won earnings, and after coming home he deliberated as to how to turn these to the best account. He decided on conducting a merchant’s business in Tarbert. But before doing this he felt he lacked the amount of elementary education necessary for the orderly carrying-on of such work. In his early years he laboured under educational disadvantages, which were then common in remote parts of the Highlands. This led him to place himself under the tuition of Mr. D. Bethune, who was then schoolmaster of Tarbert, Harris, and thus he acquired what enabled him to begin and carry on a business for a considerable number of years, in which, among other things, he exhibited sterling honesty and straightforwardness.
When the movement in the old Free Church against the passing of the erroneous Declaratory Act took place, and eventually culminated, in 1893, in the formation of the Free Presbyterian Church by the faithful men who felt it to be their conscientious duty, before God, to separate from the main body, in order to uphold the testimony for the truth (which was threatened with extinction), and to conserve the original constitution of the Church intact, a large number of the people throughout Harris joined heartily in the cause. As regards the village of Tarbert, however, very few comparatively stood in the evil day, and rallied to the support of Christ’s cause and truth. But among the few in Tarbert—and they were beset with sources of discouragement and opposition on every hand—who stood by the truth was found the late Murdo M’Kinnon. When the path of duty was made clear to him he had no hesitation in sharing the obloquy which graceless professors, no less than the worlding, heap on those who prefer to obey God rather than men.
He was latterly ordained an elder in the Tarbert congregation; and to the end of his days he was whole-heartedly devoted to both the material and spiritual interests of the congregation. Indeed, without disparagement to others, it might be said that none was heartier than he in the matter of forwarding the general interests of the congregation. He was also accustomed to speak on Friday of the Communion; and although not an outstanding speaker on such occasions, he was none the less a likeable and edifying man. As a speaker, one was impressed with the honesty and simplicity with which he expressed his convictions, and the entire absence of affection or presumption. He was of a meek, humble spirit, which oftentimes showed itself in the deference which he paid to the opinions and views of others when they appealed to him as being according to the truth. He, invariably, in speaking to the question, backed up his own view of the truth by appealing to and sometimes aptly quoting Puritan authors such as Boston and Bunyan, with whose writings he was well acquainted.
He was predeceased by a son three years ago in whom he took particular delight, and who, as we have been informed, gave evidence of having undergone a saving change before he died. He was never the same after the death of this son, for it was a severe blow to him in his old age. Murdo M’Kinnon died, after being confined to bed for a month, on the 9th of June last, aged 73 years. His removal has caused a great blank in the Tarbert Session and Congregation among whom his counsel was of much benefit. The sad outlook of our day is that, when the fathers and elders are removed, the children are not raised up to take their place in the sanctuary. “Be not wroth very sore, O Lord, neither remember iniquity for ever; behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people. Thy holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.” We express our sympathy with the bereaved family.
M. M.
Pernicious Literature.—At the recent Baptist Congress held in Glasgow, the Rev. T. B. Meyer, London, informed his audience that there were 500,000 copies of impure literature sent out of London every week. This is a serious state of matters, and it is all the more difficult to be dealt with, because literature of this kind is not read in the open, but stealthily. That 500,000 copies should be pouring out of London every week is surely a condition of things to cause alarm. The boasted forces of civilization cannot fight such powers. Christ’s gospel is the one remedy for the healing of the nations.