BY THE REV. ALEXANDER MACKAY, OBAN.
DEAR MR. EDITOR,—In sending you a brief account of my work in connection with the Mission to the Forces, I shall naturally have to refer to certain items which have been from time to time brought before your readers by my predecessors. Although the same road, however, has been traversed so often, and its various features so ably described, yet your readers, who by their generosity made the Mission possible, are entitled to a separate report from each one who has been labouring in this field.
I left Oban on the 8th December and arrived in London, after a comfortable journey, the following afternoon. My headquarters while in England were at 8 Wellington Square, Chelsea. After a day’s rest I proceeded to Chatham, where I spent my first week-end among the naval men. Chatham, like many of our towns in Scotland, is practically in darkness at night, and I would have had no little difficulty in finding my way if I had not been favoured with the light of the lamp which the Creator hung out in the sky to rule the night. The services in Chatham are held at seven o’clock in the evening on Saturday, Sabbath, and Monday, every alternate week. During the three week-ends I was there the attendance was very good, and my work was most encouraging. The men are mostly from Lewis, but there are a few from all parts of the Highlands. I have met there lads from my own native village, Strathy. The men themselves keep a prayer meeting every night of the week that a minister is not present. As I conducted three services every week-end I was with them, I used to get one of the men to engage in prayer either at the beginning or at the end of one or more of the services. I must say that these exercises were a source of encouragement to me. It was a beautiful sight to see lads in naval uniform rising in the midst of their companions and calling upon the name of the Lord in prayer. These prayers were brief, earnest, hopeful, and scriptural. When I began my labours among them I did not expect to find such a number of Christians among our naval men, but I found out before I was very long in Chatham that there were a good number present who were exercised Christians, and not a few who were seeking the Lord. This made it easy for me to address them from God’s Word, and every occasion on which I did so I felt it good to be there. My last week-end in Chatham was to a certain extent clouded by the news that many of the men were under orders to leave, and among them some of those who used to take part in the meetings. May the Lord surround them as with a wall of fire!
In Portsmouth the services are held on Friday and Sabbath nights at seven o’clock, and Haslar Camp is visited on Saturday
afternoons. The services at Portsmouth are quite as encouraging in one way as those held in Chatham. Perhaps there were not such a number of pious men there as at Chatham, yet at the same time there were a few whose very countenances, under the preaching of the Word, indicated that they knew the truth, and that the truth had made them free. I felt, however, that there were more at Portsmouth who were anxious about their salvation than even in Chatham, so that, as far as personal choice was concerned, I could not decide which place I preferred to labour in. The meetings in Portsmouth were well attended, but I had more there on my last visit than on my first. There are no meetings held in Portsmouth by the men themselves. The last time I was there a good number came in from Whale Island and also from ships in the harbour. I had in my audience, the last night I preached, sailors who had been in one of the engagements with the Germans, in which the enemy was sent to the bottom. They came to speak to me after the service, and said that they had not heard a Gaelic sermon since the War began. They were serious in their conversation, and asked me to remember them and H.M.S. — at a throne of grace. The men attending the services at Portsmouth are largely from Skye, although, like Chatham, there are some from all parts.
During my sojourn in London I paid several visits to the London hospitals, where I met many wounded soldiers from Scotland. These brave fellows were very glad to have such visits. Some of them are maimed for life. Others had their nerves shattered, through having been buried alive while under heavy shell fire. I met one brave lad there from Lewis, with whom I had an interesting conversation. His arms were literally full of shell splinters—”souvenirs,” as he called them! He was also badly wounded in both legs. One has a curious feeling at the heart while visiting these hospitals, especially when one sees brave lads with a leg or an arm off, as the case may be. These are the most pathetic cases of all.
The time we are living in is one of sorrow such as the world has not experienced since “the flood.” I gave away several New Testaments (Gaelic and English) to sailors at Portsmouth, to wounded in hospital, and also to soldiers in the trains. I had most interesting talks with soldiers, sailors, and others on my travels, but to relate these might seem too egotistical in a letter of this kind.
I should like to emphasise the necessity of keeping this Mission going. The men at Chatham and Portsmouth wished me to convey their grateful thanks to our Church for following them, as we have been doing, with the Gospel. My thanks are due to Messrs. Angus Fraser and William Grant for their kindness to me during my stay in London. May the Most High bless our weak, imperfect labours among our dear soldiers and sailors!—Yours, etc.,
ALEXANDER MACKAY.
The late Mr. Angus Clunas, GENERAL TREASURER, INVERNESS.
THE January number of the Free Presbyterian Magazine brought the solemn news of the death of Mr. Angus Clunas to the knowledge of readers of the Magazine everywhere. His decease has caused real and deep mourning not only in the Free Presbyterian congregation of Inverness, which (apart from the nearest personal relatives) has been most directly affected by it, but also in the whole Free Presbyterian Church. The Editor of this Magazine, in a note suffused with fine feeling, which appeared in the January number, summed up the reason of this sorrow in a sentence: “Mr. Clunas was a man of God as well as a capable man of business.”
In the little opportunity for biographical work which, in providence, the writer has at the present moment, little more can be here attempted than the giving of a brief reference to the turning-points in Mr. Clunas’s life.
Angus Clunas, son of Andrew Clunas and his wife, Catharine MacPhail or Clunas, was born in Drumliath, Strathnairn, Inverness-shire, on the 27th of June, 1844. His father, Andrew Clunas, was regarded wherever he was known as a man of great integrity and a very capable man of business. His occupation at the time when Angus was born, was that of general contractor. Angus’s mother, a truly pious woman, whom it was our privilege to have known, was an exceptionally kind and naturally genial person; and the subject of this memoir had, in this respect, quite a striking resemblance to his mother. When Angus was little more than of school age his father removed with his family from Drumliath to Inverarnie, also in Strathnairn. In Inverarnie the Clunas family were within a short distance of the Free Church school of Dalvourn. To this school, therefore, he went, and soon proved himself an apt scholar. His purpose evidently, when in his teens, was to choose the teaching profession, and with this in view he both became indentured and served an apprenticeship of five years as pupil teacher in the Dalvourn school. About the time, however, that Angus had finished this apprenticeship, his father removed from Strathnairn to Strathdearn, having taken from Sir John Fowler the farm of Laggan, which is situated towards the heights of the latter Strath. I have heard it said that the state of Angus’s health was causing his parents some anxiety about this time, and they may have thought that farming would be more conducive to robustness than teaching, and this may, as one factor, have weighed with Mr. Clunas, sen., in resolving to add farming to contractorship in order to earn a livelihood for himself and for his family. But even after the family had settled in Laggan, Angus must still have had thoughts of improving himself educationally, as he is known, after their leaving Inverarnie,
to have for some time attended the High School, Inverness, as a pupil. But here again his studies had to be broken off, as his father, who at the time had a considerable contract at Inverbroom, required his services there as bookkeeper and overseer. When this contract was finished, the subject of this memoir seems to have settled down, first along with his father and afterwards as successor to his father, on the farm of Laggan. It reveals the desire he had for the public good that, even in his farming days, he used during the winters to gather into his home the children of the heights of Strathdearn, for whom the School Board had so far failed to provide the usual educational facilities, and gave them lessons in elementary subjects.
It is somewhat difficult to trace the rise and progress of Mr. Clunas’s religious history with much fulness, as, although very genial and approachable, he was also somewhat reticent.
He was surrounded by strong religious influences from his childhood and during the whole course of his life in this world. What the domestic influence of his childhood’s days would, in this connection, have been may be gathered from what has already been said of his parents’ piety. In their close neighbourhood at Drumliath there lived—as deserves to be remarked—John Forbes, whom the late distinguished Donald Cattanach spoke of as “the heaviest grain of heaven’s wheat” then living in those Straths. Mr. Clunas was, it is true, only a child when the family left Drumliath, but those to whose influence he was then most susceptible were not children, and his frequent allusions in his maturer years to John Forbes shows how much he himself felt this influence, although only indirectly.
When the family removed to Inverarnie he was, as one may say, within gunshot of the Rev. Archibald Cook’s home and church, and although Mr. Clunas in his latter days looked upon himself as having been but a child of wrath when, say, in 1861, he left Inverarnie—that is, four years before Mr. Cook’s death—yet it is certain that Mr. Cook’s preaching made and left a powerful impression on his mind. It is only a few months since the present writer heard Mr. Clunas tell with great feeling how, when little more than a boy, he remembered seeing Mr. Cook stand and serve at the head of a Communion Table, and how Mr. Cook, with a loud cry—as of one that had got a fresh and reviving glimpse of his theme—again and again and again reiterated upon the preciousness of the blood of Christ as intrinsically enough to redeem a thousand worlds.
One has also, on good authority, heard how Mr. Clunas on one occasion made frank acknowledgment of the help he had derived from a sermon which he heard the late Rev. Francis MacBean of Fort Augustus preach on a certain occasion in Stratherrick. That must have been shortly after the Clunas family had removed to Laggan.
Mr. Clunas, all the same, must have reckoned that all the
religious impressions he was the subject of were evanescent until what time he heard the Rev. Donald Macfarlane, who is happily still spared to us, and was at this time Free Church minister of Moy. It is certain that, in connection with this ministry, Mr. Clunas learned the truth of his sinner-ship, and all that that implies, as never before; and there came then a turning-point in his life, when he had to learn the bitter lesson of the curse that by nature lieth upon everyone that keepeth not all the things that are written in the book of the law, to do them. It is a regret that one is not in a position to trace the steps by which Mr. Clunas was led to a sure and lasting peace, but it is not without reason that one says that, in his being brought out of the horrible pit—in his having a new song put into his mouth—his beloved mother and his scarcely less beloved pastor were mainly the instruments chosen of God to that end. From that time forth Mr. Clunas continued to make steady progress in the divine life.
But it is as the first General Treasurer of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland that Mr. Clunas will be longest most lovingly and sorrowfully remembered. The circumstances in connection with which he undertook and continued for twenty-two years to fulfil the duties of this office, were altogether such that those who prized him could never look upon him as General Treasurer, but as a gift from God. It was just about a year before the Free Presbyterian Church took up its distinctive position that Mr. Clunas was led to give up his farm in Laggan, and, with his widowed mother, came to reside in Inverness. No one could be more whole-hearted in counting that the Rev. D. Macfarlane’s Protest and relevant other actions, in 1893, were absolutely necessary, if Scotland’s testimony for the evangel were to go down unimpaired to succeeding generations, than was Mr. Clunas. When, therefore, the Free Presbyterian movement was set on foot and the cause was gaining adherents in many parishes—especially in the north of Scotland—and a General Treasurer became a necessity for the orderly administration of business, Mr. Clunas, on being asked, willingly undertook the service. It was a position to which at the first no salary was attached, but first and last it was with him a labour of love. His course, in providence, had given him the necessary clerking training, and his genial way and high character caused that it came about that one may, without exaggeration, say that there was not a single Congregational Treasurer in the Church but deemed it an honour and a pleasure to transact business with him. He always regarded the prosperity of the Church funds that passed through his hands as if it were a matter of direct personal interest; and we have no doubt that the general prosperity which has hitherto been the lot of those funds may be looked upon, in part at least, as an answer to his prayers, for in all that in which he took a deep and anxious interest his resort was to the throne of grace.
Mr. Clunas will be long missed in the congregation of Inverness,
where he was Sabbath School teacher, occasional leader of praise, Congregational Treasurer, and elder, and where, through the grace of the Most High, he performed the many duties inseparable from all these offices with much ability and with much unction.
Although, as a result of measles, he was subject from childhood to bronchial troubles, yet, up to the limit of the allotted span of life, he had a fresh and somewhat youthful appearance. This, in spite of the fact that for the past few years he bore unfavourable symptoms, led his friends to hope that he would, for some years to come, be usefully spared them. But such was not the counsel of the Wiser than the wisest. On Monday, the 29th November last, he attended the funeral of a friend belonging to the congregation, and seemed then in his usual. That night, however, he was taken with a severe pain in the region of his heart, so that himself and others reckoned that the end of his sojourn here below had come. His life was spared for just the week following. He never really rallied after that experience of the night of the 29th, but he did not in the interval endure much pain. He, in fact, seemed to feel no doubt at all during that last week of his life that the end had come, and he repeatedly expressed surprise at the calmness which he said he felt in the presence of death and of eternity.
Mr. Clunas had his own share of domestic sorrows. His wife and two boys predeceased him. He is survived by an only daughter, Catherine M. Clunas, for whom the sincerest sympathy is felt by her father’s many admirers and friends. J. R. M.
Death of the Rev. Walter Scott, CHESLEY, ONTARIO.
IT is with deep sorrow we record this month the death of the Rev. Walter Scott, our minister at Chesley, in Ontario, Canada. Mr. Scott, who was of delicate constitution, took a severe illness last year, from the effects of which he never fully recovered. He battled, we learn, heroically, with his great weakness for a time, going from his bed to the pulpit and from the pulpit to his bed, but at last he was compelled, in God’s providence, to succumb, and was wholly confined to the house until his death, which took place on the 18th January. We expect (d.v.) to have fuller particulars later on, but, meantime, we subjoin an extract from a letter received from Mrs. Scott, in which an interesting account is given of his last days.
Though suffering much weakness, it is quite plain that Mr. Scott had an “abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” He was a sound and lively preacher of the Gospel, and a faithful witness for the truth. His removal is a great loss to his congregation and to the cause of Christ in general.
We extend our deepest sympathy to his respected widow, to his sister, Miss Scott, and sister-in-law, Miss Macdonald, who are in Chesley, to the congregation there, and also to his friends in Scotland. May the Lord in His mercy console and strengthen them, and heal the breach on Zion’s walls!
The following is the touching extract from Mrs. Scott’s letter:— “My last letter would prepare you for the sad tidings now. My beloved husband was taken on Tuesday, 18th January, to be, as we believe, for ever with the Lord. His latter end was that of the righteous. I wish you could have been a spectator. On Sabbath night he asked us to assemble at the bedside for worship. He then gave out the 103rd Psalm from the thirteenth verse, and although in great weakness of body, propped with pillows, he sang with all his heart. Then he asked us to read the seventeenth chapter of St. John’s Gospel, after which he engaged earnestly in prayer. On Monday afternoon, he said to me, ‘Well, my end is approaching, and for your comfort I wish to say that I am leaning to nothing in myself—for there is nothing there but filthy rags—but my hope is all centred in the righteousness of Christ, in His finished and perfect work. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin.’ He then continued, ‘My only regret is leaving the little flock pastorless, but the Lord knows what is best, and He can provide for His own people.’ The weakness then increased, and he was not able to speak for some hours, when all at once he said distinctly, ‘I’m going now; good-bye, my dear ones; the Lord bless and keep you. He will never leave, nor forsake you.’ For several hours after he lingered, the breathing gradually getting less until we thought it had ceased for ever, when all of a sudden he raised his head (which before had been sunk for hours) to a sitting posture, with his eyes uplifted, and the only way I can express the look of his countenance was a heavenly rapture, a beaming smile overspreading it, and then his mouth forming the word, ‘Oh!’ The next moment, with a gentle sigh the spirit had flown. . . . Among his last wishes was one for an appeal to be forwarded to the Synod for the supply of the congregation.”
Since the above letter was written, an appeal has been forwarded from a congregational meeting, held on 2nd February, for supplying the vacancy in this Church without delay.
The Chesley Congregation has suffered rather severely within the last three or four months. Besides the minister, two of the leading men, Messrs. Kyle and Thomson, have been taken away. We extend our deepest sympathy to all surviving relations and friends.
OH, the noble purposes that have withered, the sublime prospects that have failed, the millions of immortal souls that have perished, by putting off the present season for a more convenient time! “Soul opportunities,” says an old author, “are more worth than a thousand worlds.” And they are rapidly sliding by with the days of your youth.—J. A. James.