IN the death of Mrs. Mackenzie, Carnoch, and of Mr. William MacGillivray, Gorthlick, the Free Presbyterian Congregation of Stratherrick has, within recent months, lost two of its most valuable members. To the memory of Mrs. Mackenzie, we hope, when we have ascertained a few more facts, to pay our tribute later on. In the meantime we would seek to point the lesson of Mr. William MacGillivray’s life.
The subject of this brief notice was the second son and child of William MacGillivray, and of Margaret Fraser his wife, and was born fifty-nine years ago at North Lyne, Gorthlick. Along with his elder brother John, who is happily still left us, William appears to have become at an early age the subject of a saving change, and a partaker of the Spirit of grace and of supplications even from his youth. Writing from Brisbane, Australia, to his aged parents as late as 1894, he says: “I may say that there are a good many years now, since I began to pray, and I have not stopped it yet. I sometimes find it the best of all the habits I have ever indulged in. It is a good habit for young and old, a habit that yields no regrets; it gives solid relief, and is a source of happiness under all circumstances in Scotland or Australia.” That spirit of prayerfulness which came to him, when he was herding his father’s cattle, was a leading feature of his life as a Christian man to the end. He had the benefit of a good and solid education, and when sixteen years of age, left the paternal roof to serve as clerk in an office in Inverness. He afterwards conducted a business as family grocer in that town on his own behalf. In Inverness he was a great influence for good, and several pious men in Inverness to the present hour have the kindliest recollection of what Mr. William MacGillivray proved himself to be in those early days. We are credibly told that with the late Rev. George Mackay, D.D., he was quite a favourite. In connection with Dr. Mackay’s congregation, he conducted a Sabbath School in the Markinsh School. With other like-minded young men he also conducted a weekly Prayer Meeting in the same school. There has come to our hand a tract which Mr. MacGillivray, for the benefit of the children he taught, issued on his own behalf at this time. Its teaching is simple and Scriptural, and fitted to do good, and we herewith print it, so that by it our departed friend although dead may yet speak: “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”—John vi. 37.
How mercifully kind is the dear Friend of poor lost sinners! How carefully He shows that He is taking away every objection from the soul that seeks a way of escape, who is made willing to be saved according to the gospel covenant, by grace, through faith! (Ephes. ii. 8).
Lest such should be discouraged, how graciously He lays down their marks and feelings, and invites them, with all the readiness and mercies of God, to come unto Him! Hear His words: “Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”—Matt. xi. 28.
Are you tired of the slavery of sin and the servitude of Satan and the world? Are you heavy laden with guilt of conscience and fear of heart? Behold the loving Saviour standing with His arms stretched out to receive you, and these are the words that proceed out of His mouth: “Come unto me and I will give you rest.” “He is faithful that promised” (Heb. x. 23), and He cannot deceive you. “He will not alter the thing that is gone out of His lips.”—Psalm lxxxix. 34. Prove Him; come unto Him. He is able to save and He is willing to save. Why therefore should you doubt Him?
But you say, “I am a great sinner.” Be it known to you that Jesus Christ is an Almighty Saviour. You can say farther than that: “I have continued a long time in open rebellion against Him; I have been many years sinning against Him with a high hand!” Be it so; you are not where mercy will not reach you, neither is your wound remediable to the skill and power of the Great Physician. Are you still bringing against Him this, “I am a sinner of a rare kind; of sinners I am the chief?” Even to you is the word of this salvation sent. The blood of Christ is the blood of God in the flesh (Acts xx. 28), and therefore it shall cleanse from all sin. 1 John i. 7.
The righteousness of Christ is the righteousness of God (Rom. iii. 23); therefore it is fully capable of justifying the most ungodly. Do not fall into despair; for thus saith the Saviour, who loves poor lost souls, “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” He maketh no distinction, being “unwilling that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”—2 Peter iii. 9.
But you say, “Do I not require to make my heart better and reform my life, before I take courage to draw near to Him?” If you wait till you accomplish this in your own strength, you will, after all, die in your sins. He must do this for you, and this He will effectually do for you, when you come to His cross, confessing your sins and trusting in His blood for your atonement. You must come to Him just as you are, a poor, wretched sinner, to be washed in His blood, to be clothed in His righteousness, to be sanctified by His Spirit, and to be prepared for His glory. Why are you refusing to accept of that which He is so ready to bestow? And that freely, “without money and without price” (Isaiah lv. 1), even forgiveness, holiness, and heaven. He receiveth sinners publicly. (Luke xv. 2) in order that he may save them, and He hath solemnly declared, “Him that cometh to me,” let him be who or what he may, “I will in no wise cast him out.” Accordingly, He said, through the Prophet Isaiah, “Come now, and let us reason
together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isaiah i. 18).
The tract thus reprinted will give a more accurate conception of our friend’s views of the Gospel than any general description on which we might condescend. In the course of time Mr. MacGillivray left Inverness for Brisbane, Australia, but not to make wealth in that great colony. For a time he had comparative prosperity, but ere long he lost through a flood the best part of his property there. Shortly after this he was, as the result of typhoid fever, afflicted in his bodily health, and so, acting upon medical advice, he sought his native land again. When he returned to Stratherrick (we think it was in 1894 or 1895) the Free Presbyterian congregation was already an established fact there. With this congregation Mr. William MacGillivray at once associated himself, and by his readiness to conduct services in the English language, he placed our congregation there, and especially the younger section of them, for the last seventeen years under great obligations. Nor was that the only way in which he rendered great service. Such was the sanity of his mind, his devotedness to the truth, and his disinterested care for others, that he was quite a tower of strength to the cause of Christ in his own district.
Fully a year before the end came, he was afflicted with a malady which, never quite leaving him, at length brought him to his grave. But throughout his trouble one found him cheerful, and his hope in Christ supported. Even the very day he died, he was in some small measure able to attend to business. His end was peace.
Mr. MacGillivray is survived by a widow, and a son and daughter, for all of whom the sincerest sympathy is felt.
J. R. M.