MRS. G. MACTAGGART was born in Alexandria, near Dumbarton, about eighty years ago. When about sixteen years of age she was brought to see her need of an interest in Christ as a Saviour. Having revealed her mind to a good man in the place, he told her that, if she would know the peace that passeth all knowledge and understanding, she must look away from her own doings to the doings of Him who gave Himself as a ransom for His people. Mrs. MacTaggart, having married, made her home in Dumbarton, but was left a widow with four young children, her husband dying at the early age of thirty. However, He that is the widow’s stay and the orphan’s help was with our dear friend in her adversity, and enabled her to bring up her family to be a comfort to her in her declining years.
During her residence in Dumbarton, Mrs. MacTaggart was identified with the body which kept the name of “Free Church” till 1900. Her minister, Rev. Mr. Tait, was an evangelical preacher, but he did not take a decided stand against the rationalistic teaching of the day. The result of this weak attitude was that our friend knew little about the Free Presbyterian Church in 1893, and for some years afterwards, except that it was “a sect which was everywhere spoken against.” However, Mrs. MacTaggart came at length to live in Glasgow, and she went from one church to another seeking the bread of life. In a city once famed for great Gospel preachers, our friend went to and fro seeking the Word of God, and could not find it. But, in the providence of Him that ruleth in all things, Mrs. MacTaggart came to be intimately acquainted with the late Miss Mackay, Dingwall, and they being together at Strathpeffer, she accompanied her friend to the Inverness communion. Being asked what she thought of the preaching, she said: “That is the teaching I have been searching for all this time in Glasgow; the Church that gives this teaching is the Church I will follow all the rest of my days in the world.” Coming back to Glasgow, she connected herself with the St. Jude’s congregation, and she often told us that she learned two things there which she knew little of before—the one, that she was a poor, unworthy, sinful creature, and the other, that Christ was an all-sufficient, all-suitable Saviour.
It is now nearly ten years since Mrs. MacTaggart, accompanied by Miss MacTaggart, joined her married daughter in Winnipeg. One thing that influenced her in going there was that we had a congregation in that city, and her coming was a source of strength to the cause. To the very end she was in full sympathy with the Church in all points and in its attitude towards other Churches, and was hopeful of its prosperity in Canada as well as at home.
Mrs. MacTaggart was a great sufferer during the last few years, but she was called to endure in her last year what few have to meet with in the way of bodily pain. She was over a year in the valley of the shadow, expecting each day that the call would come, but, though it brought instead increasing pain and weakness, we never saw her without hearing her quote that text: “God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able.” In her, patience had its perfect work, for she was enabled to lean on Him who “giveth songs in the night.” She had the consolation of the loving ministrations of her own family, all of which had come to be of one mind with her regarding the Church of her adoption. But she rested on the promises and faithfulness of Him who had entered as the forerunner, and His intercessory prayer was the life of her spirit: “Father, I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory.” She was released from the body of humiliation, and entered in to inherit the promises on the 28th of January, 1920.
May the Lord comfort those who are left behind to mourn, and raise up witnesses in the room of those who are taken away. M. G.
Note from Rev. Neil Cameron, St. Jude’s
Rev. Neil Cameron, St. Jude’s, kindly adds the following Note:— Mrs. MacTaggart came back to this country from Canada, and stayed on this side for over a year. During that time she used to spend the week-ends with us. The writer had the privilege of knowing her mind better, on that account, than he did while she lived in Glasgow, and was a member of St. Jude’s congregation, before she went to Canada. She was a sincere Christian, and the deep knowledge she possessed of her own heart and mind’s depravity caused her to be very humble. Her modesty was one of her valuable ornaments; but when she made free with a friend in private, as she did on several occasions with the writer, she showed that she was possessed of a vigorous mind, a good and sound understanding in the faith of the Gospel, and a sound judgment as regards her concerns, both as to temporal and spiritual matters. The suitableness of the Gospel to meet the absolutely lost condition of man, was her sheet anchor. One could see in her countenance how she enjoyed to listen, in private or in public, to Christ’s power and willingness to save the guiltiest of sinners, who looked to Him alone for salvation from sin and all its consequences. Christ, and Him crucified, was the rock upon which she stood, and when she had the light of His countenance shining in her heart she did rejoice in the prospect of going into an endless eternity. She has now gone to be with Christ, to behold His blessed face and to enjoy uninterruptedly His fellowship in the new Jerusalem.
As Mr. Gillies, who knew her so well, has written the above sketch of her life and death, the writer feels that he should not add more; only that he desires to associate himself with Mr. Gillies in an expression of deepest sympathy to each member of her bereaved family in their sorrow.