(Continued from page 262.)
REV. JOHN SINCLAIR, BRUAN.
IN a sermon, he thus spoke: “Christ said that one soul was of more value than the whole world. Oh, have you an immortal soul laid upon you? Come to Him with it, and He says, ‘I will give you rest.’ Are you afraid of hell? Aye, if you seem to have one foot in hell, come to Him. Oh, you cannot come? Well, look to Him. You cannot look? Breathe after Him. ‘Hold not Thy peace at my breathing, at my cry.’ If you come, the burden of your soul will be taken off your hands.”
(Ministers and Men, by Rev. A. Auld.)
When Mr. Sinclair was on his death-bed, Donald Mackay, Clashcraggan, was in the house one night, and, having gone out about bed-time, he said on returning that he never saw a house like this, “because (said he) the Lord is outside and inside, and everywhere about it.”
REV. JOHN MUNRO, HALKIRK.
Mr. Munro said on one occasion: “Such a spouse as Christ came to seek was never heard of. She was foolish, helpless, and naked. And should He give her clothes, she could not put them on, and although He put them on, she could not keep them on, and although He kept them on, she could not keep them clean.”
When bidding goodbye to a young man who was leaving for the south, he said: “May the Lord keep you, my young man, and if He will keep you, you will keep yourself.”
Mr. Munro had much of the assurance and joy of faith. On one occasion he had a friendly discussion with a worthy and scholarly minister as to the right definition of faith. When he saw that his friend had the best of the argument, he finished the subject with the happy remark: “You may be able to give a better definition of faith than I can, but I can believe as well as you.”
This friend (the late Rev. Dr. W. R. Taylor, Thurso) told that on one occasion he was about to leave the Halkirk manse on horseback for Thurso, when he expressed some fear of safety to Mr. Munro, as the animal on which he was seated was young and liable to be restive. Mr. Munro, he said, replied by lifting up his two hands, and exclaiming, with great warmth and emphasis, “You will get safe home!” Knowing that the man of God had good ground for his assurance, Dr. Taylor felt his fear completely removed, went on, and reached home in safety and comfort.
Mr. Munro spoke of how the love of forgiveness was shed abroad in the heart of the saints, and said that Manasseh was a great sinner, and filled the streets of Jerusalem with the blood of saints, but that Manasseh got repentance, and, when he went to heaven, not one of the saints whom he injured would say that he had done them an ill turn.
REV. ROBERT FINLAYSON, HELMSDALE.
Speaking of the parable of the prodigal son, he made the following spiritual enlargement: “When the Father wanted to bring forth the best robe on the prodigal’s return, the servant brought the robe that was upon Adam in the state of innocence. “That one will not do,” said the Father, “go and bring a better one.” He then brought the robe the angel Gabriel wore on his messages. “That will not do either,” said the Father. “There is no other robe,” answered the servant, “but the one which belongs to the Son.” “That is the robe I want,” said the Father, “bring it with you.”
Mr. Finlayson, speaking of the servant who said that his “master” was an austere, hard man, “gathering where he had not straved, and reaping where he had not sown,” remarked that his opinion of that servant was that he was never really a day in that blessed Master’s service, as, if he had truly known Him, he would not have called His service hard.
Corrections.—Last month on page 365 “charged” should have been “changed;” and on page 391, in note on “Poisoning the Wells,” “rendering,” etc., should have been “revealing, as it does, the virulence.”