THE subject of this notice was born near Strathcanaird, Lochbroom. At an early age the Lord spoke to her through the words, “I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye salve, that thou mayest see” (Rev. iii. 18). She was in deep soul distress for many years. One day, however, as the late Rev. George Macleod, of Ullapool, preached from the above-mentioned text her soul was freed, when the light shone into her heart “to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” She did not hastily go to commemorate the death of Christ. A long time elapsed before she approached the minister privately, with a view to doing so. She gave such satisfaction as to what God wrought in her, that she was readily admitted.
She wrestled with God in prayer with perseverance. Hours used to be spent by her in pleading, as if, Jacob-like, she said, “I will not let thee go except thou bless me.” Her pleading was enlarged, for it extended to the whole world, for the advancement of Christ’s glorious kingdom. She delighted in the Word of God, which was much more precious to her than “gold, yea, much fine gold.” For forty years or so she used to walk to Creich to hear the Gospel preached by the late Dr. Kennedy and others. Having got “water out of the wells of salvation,” she sought diligently to them to be refreshed and revived by the Spirit of God.
She praised the Lord for having raised up men to lead people in the right way at the separation in 1893. When some went from us to be plunged into ecclesiastical quagmires in other Churches, she unmovably held by the testimony raised by our Church. In considering the signs of the times she frequently repeated what she once heard Dr. Kennedy say at Creich: “Alas! poor Scotland, though exalted and joyful, little dost thou anticipate what is before thee.”
For about eight years she was confined to bed. During that time she might say with the Rev. Robert M. M’Cheyne, “God is now teaching me the use of prayer.” On the twenty-fifth of October she was freed for ever from the troubles which afflicted her, having entered into the joy of her Lord. Her remains are laid in Ullapool Cemetery. “Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grape gleanings of the vintage; there is no cluster to eat. My soul desired the first ripe fruit.”
A. S.