WE beg to record with sincere regret the death of William Campbell, one of the elders of the Glendale congregation. His death took place somewhat suddenly on the 9th of December. He was out at the prayer meeting on Thursday night, as was his usual, and just as he was tending his way home in company with others, he was suddenly seized with an illness which rendered him unconscious. In this state he continued until he breathed his last, early on the Saturday morning. He had attained the ripe age of ninety years when the summons to depart came; and it may be said that it was literally true of him that he hardly, if ever, knew what bodily sickness was during that lifetime, such was the man’s physical strength and robustness. Notwithstanding that this was so, the Lord laid His hand on William in other forms. He told us more than once that seven of his family, ranging in age from early youth to the maturest years of manhood, died and were laid by him in their graves before himself.
William’s company was very entertaining. It may be said—if the figure is allowable—that he was a little receptacle of anecdotes, social and religious, which he could relate all along to the close of his life without the least hesitancy. The ease and clearness with which he used to deliver these, one after another, gave us the impression that, considering his old age, his mental faculties were possessed of exceptional vigour and power. In conversation on religious topics he invariably fell back on the days of the late Rev. Alexander M’Coll’s ministry in this parish, latterly translated to Lochalsh. For this champion of the faith, taken as a man, a christian, and a minister, William entertained deep and lasting respect. William was very frank and open, and free, I should say, of any tinge of duplicity. He was sincere and honest in his religious character. On account of this frank manner and disposition which characterised him he frequently provoked resentment which brought him into dislike and trouble. We remember him telling us—an instance of his openness is this, even when the story to some extent told against himself—that when he appeared before Mr. M’Coll and his elders for obtaining the privilege of baptism for his children, that servant of Christ called on his most prominent elder to catechize William. When he satisfactorily answered the questions asked of him, the Rev. Mr. M’Coll ended by saying to William: “You seem at any rate to possess a sufficient amount of head knowledge and self-righteousness. You can go.” William listened to this compliment with an unruffled spirit and took it well—very unlike many who cannot bear rebuke in our day.
He was a constant attendant at the means of grace, and whoever would be absent from his place or seat in the house of God, William was not that one. His face, which was sure to be located right in front of the pulpit, would be seen quivering with eagerness to hear what was being said. He was slightly deaf. He was actually drinking in all he was hearing, and could rehearse a good deal after he came home. This showed what the bent and exercise of his mind was when attending on the public worship of God. He was not like the generality of hearers—listless while they profess to be listening to the word, and indifferent as to whether or not they benefit by or carry it with them. William indeed was somewhat like Lydia, “whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul.” In all kinds of weather he would come to the church on the Sabbath and week-days, while many a young man and woman in Glendale would, to shun the weather, stay in their houses. They would consider a rainy day—what William, old though he was, had no difficulty in waiving aside—a sufficient justification for keeping to the fireside.
He had a deep interest in the cause of Christ in the place, and in no more convincing manner did he exhibit that interest than in his exercise in prayer. He was at times mighty in prayer, especially when he had his times of enlargement. At other times he would feel straitened—a common experience of the people of God. He was not ignorant of Satan’s devices; he knew his temptations, and on several occasions he divulged to confidential friends some of these. His prayers in public were also marked by this phase of experience. At times we were struck by the fervency of the petitions and the penitency of the confessions which pervaded his public exercises. Prayer was his mightiest weapon in expressing himself. He was much attached to the congregation of Glendale, and much concerned for the spiritual condition of the rising generation among it; he pleaded earnestly for times of reviving and quickening, and for the salvation of sinners; he deplored the widespread apathy in the things of God and the sinful indifference to the divine claims which characterise our day and generation. He had a keen sense of the contrast between the present and the days of his youth, and saw that the changed conditions were very much in the direction of evil and declension, so far as religion was concerned.
We feel very much the blank which his removal has caused in our congregation and among our praying people. What need there is that the Lord should arise and plead the cause which is His own, and display His mighty power, so as to raise up the children instead of the fathers, who are being so rapidly removed from our midst! To the bereaved widow and the other members of the family we tender our sincerest sympathy in their bereavement.
M. M.