WILLIAM MACKAY departed this life at Clashspionan, Rogart, on the 10th day of September, 1919, aged sixty-two years.
The subject of this sketch was never, in the providence of God, a member in full communion in the Free Presbyterian Church. He looked forward on two successive occasions, at least, to the Communion Sabbath in the parish of Rogart, with an earnest desire to sit at the Lord’s Table and witness before his death for God and His Anointed. But it was not to be. For many years he was broken in health, though occasionally able to attend services up to within three years of the end. For about two years he was mainly confined to the house, and largely, indeed, to bed.
Born in Rogart, and educated there, he early left the parish and entered the Government service, in the Customs Department. He served for periods in Newcastle, Lincoln, Orkney and Alloa—in the last place having also in his district Charlestown and Inverkeithing. That he was faithful, exact, and conscientious in his duties is beyond doubt. His reputation for accuracy was such that much was entrusted to him alone to attend to, which ought probably to have been divided among several officers. He indicated that he overworked himself latterly, and to this was probably largely due his complete breakdown in health. In 1905 he returned to his home in his native parish, never to return to work.
On leaving Alloa his fellow-officers presented him with a beautifully-bound Bible, which he generally used in his reading, though well-acquainted with the Scriptures in Gaelic. He usually read at family worship in course. The last chapter read by him was 1 Cor. xv. It took him two or three readings to finish it in his weakness. He closed the Book, where the mark still lies as he left it, to open it no more. We believe that he read the Word of God to profit, and was secretly fed by the Holy Spirit. “Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein.”
He was of a retiring disposition—even to a fault—was patient in prolonged and severe suffering, and, above all, was remarkably clear and exercised in the truths of the Gospel. It may be remarked that the family to which he belonged and himself were of the Established Church, but for many years his sympathies were with the Free Presbyterians, and, as was indicated, he asked to be received to full membership, were he able to come forward.
We here append an extract from a paper which he began to write shortly before the end. He remarked on one occasion that he thought he got understanding in the way of life, and entered into the Kingdom of God, when about thirty years of age. The account left on record by him deals with experiences leading up to the lasting change which then took place. We quote from the paper, as follows:—”In the following lines I shall try, God willing, to give an account of the Lord’s wonderful dealings with me in bringing me to the knowledge of Himself, as well as showing me my own condition spiritually. I had been an intellectual believer in the truths of the Bible during the greater part of my life. But my hopes and ambitions were mainly, if not entirely, in connection with this world. . . . But, at a certain point of time, I became conscious that another Being was speaking to me, and dealing with me. The first thing He said to me was, ‘Free-will or no free-will, wrongdoing and sin is followed by punishment and suffering.’ I then was asked, ‘If there is suffering in this life, why should there not be in the next life?’ Then He showed me that what was in the bud, as it were, in this life, would be at maturity in eternity, for good or for evil. I was then shown that there was in myself a tendency to folly and sin that I had no power at all of my own to resist. I was told that that was equally true of every descendant of Adam. I was shown that the misfortunes which happened to me when I was young, and which I believed led to the ultimate breakdown of my health, and for which I used to lay the chief blame on others, were really due to my own sins, and He showed me how that was. Before this I had been under the impression that, if I had plenty of friends, I would be very happy. But He made me to understand that human friendship could never satisfy the soul. He showed me how very shallow the best human friendship was in comparison to the Divine love. It was revealed to me that in the human soul there was what seemed to me an infinite depth which only God could fill, and, as it were, an infinite capacity for happiness which He alone could satisfy. . . . He showed me that, without a new nature, it was impossible to be saved—that, if the best man on earth, but with his nature unchanged, got the place of an angel in heaven, there would be that in himself which would inevitably draw him down to degradation and ruin.” With these words, his account breaks off.
He is gone, we humbly and gratefully believe, to his rest—to the city where “the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.” His mortal remains are interred in the Old Churchyard, Rogart, where also the bodies of many of the Lord’s people, who lived in that parish, do rest in their graves till the resurrection. With his surviving sister we sincerely sympathise. D. A. MacF.
HE that provides food for his family and fodder for his cattle, in the harvest, shall eat the fruit of it and enjoy the comfort of his labours when others shall be exposed to shifts and straits. And he that provides for eternity, and lays up in his soul a good foundation against the time to come, shall eat when others are hungry and sing when others howl (Isaiah lxiii. 14).—Flavel.