IN Dr. Kennedy’s Days of the Fathers in Ross-shire and Rev. Alexander Auld’s Ministers and Men in the Far North, we are presented with a rich collection of the notable sayings of that class of men who were pre-eminent in their day for high Christian attainment and deep insight into God’s Word. Some of these men were endowed with talents of the highest order such as Sandy Gair; while others were noted for the beautiful childlike disposition of their character such as James Macadie, Watten. But whether richly endowed with mental gifts or otherwise there was a rich spiritual experience common to them all that gave them a foremost place among their fellow Christians, and their sayings were treasured by the Lord’s people because of the encouragement or warning they contained. The Preacher of old said that the words of the wise were as “goads” and as “nails.” The figures used are significant and instructive. The goad was used to the ox in the plough as a reminder that he was lagging behind, and the nail suggests fixedness as opposed to indefiniteness of position. And such a description may be well applied to the sayings of “the Men.” These sayings were highly valued in other days, and as Mr. Auld’s book is now difficult to obtain, we are presenting to our readers a number of the sayings of “the Men” in the far North of Scotland in the hope that our readers may be benefited thereby and thus realise the truth of the saying that the lips of the wise feed many.
Communion of the Lord’s People.—
“It is not when the Lord’s people are together that they have closest fellowship, but when they are separate; for then I pray for you and you pray for me; I get a promise for you and you get a promise for me; so you live on my grace and I live on yours until we meet again.”—John Grant, Strathy.
James Macdonald, Father of Dr. Macdonald, Ferintosh, and Sandy Gair.—
James, on hearing Sandy Gair pray for the first time, took him aside and said:—”I have three faults to find with your exercises. You mention the Divine Name too often, and not with sufficient reverence. You have too many repetitions, and you continued too long.” “I will take these hints from you, James,” said Sandy, “but you must remember that when Christ enlisted you it was gold pieces that were going, and one could count down a large sum in a few words; now-a-days we have but copper coins. However, if they bear the king’s stamp, I hope you wont throw them away.”
Sound Advice.—
“Don’t be kemping (striving to get before others) in the harvest field, lest you cut your fingers and spoil the corn. Don’t be throwing stones at others, lest you dislocate your arm. Don’t appear in public in either such tawdry or such gaudy garb as will make others look twice at you. Don’t carry the big drone of the bagpipes on your shoulder; it makes much noise, but gives no distinction of sound.”—John Tait, Halkirk.
Like, yet very different.—
In illustrating how closely nominal profession will approximate true godliness in appearance, Sandy Gair supposed the following dialogue to have taken place between Isaac and Ishmael:—Isaac said—“I have Abraham for my father.” Ishmael—“So have I.” Isaac—“I am the child of many prayers.” Ishmael—“So am I.” Isaac—“I have received the seal of the covenant in circumcision.” Ishmael—“So have I.” Isaac—“But I got a deliverance from heaven.” Ishmael—“So did I.” Isaac—“Yes, but I got my deliverance through sacrifice, and you by a drink from your mother’s bottle.”
The Children of Israel in the Wilderness.—
In another dialogue he supposed one having met the children of Israel after they had crossed the Red Sea, harassed and in good heart, marching to the Land of Promise. “What people are you?” “Oh, we are the Lord’s people, whom He has delivered from the land of Egypt, for whom He has divided the Red Sea, and whose enemies He hath drowned, so that we will see them again no more.” “And where are you going?” “To the Land of Promise—the land flowing with milk and honey.” “And when do you expect to get there?” “Oh, very soon; in six weeks at farthest.” Then they parted, but nearly forty years afterwards the same person meeting a great multitude of people, somewhat like those he met before, said to them, “Surely you are not the people that expected to be in Canaan in six weeks?” “Yes, the same, and here we are yet, and it will be the greatest wonder if we ever see the good land.”
The Sitting in Peter’s Chair.—
In an argument with a priest on one occasion the priest clinched his argument with what he deemed a crushing and unanswerable statement. “Don’t you know,” he said, “that the Pope is sitting in Peter’s chair?” “Well,” said Sandy, “Peter was in that chair once, and that was when he denied His Master, and the Pope has sat in it ever since.”
Times of Reformation and Backsliding.—
“When the winter is passing away,” he said on one occasion, “the change is more noticeable by the increase of light rather than by the increase of warmth. On the other hand,” he remarked, “when the days began to shorten, night was felt to come on more suddenly than any one expected; and so when backsliding commenced, men came more quickly under the power of darkness than themselves or others looked for.”
The Child with the Toy.—
On speaking of the fiery serpent on one occasion he said—“A child had been bitten by the fiery serpent; and there were many attempts made in various ways to induce him to look to the brazen serpent, but all in vain, until some one observed that the child had a toy in its hand. The toy was snatched from him, and the child, lifting its head, got a sight of the brazen serpent and was healed.”
The Manner of the Lord’s Dealings with His People.—
“I see in Scripture that the manner of the Lord’s dealings with His people is that He brings them to a wilderness to prove them, and to let them see what is in their hearts. ‘The day of the Lord is darkness, and not light, as if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him, or went into the house, and a serpent did bite him.’ I think the ‘lion’ is the guilty conscience, the ‘bear’ the blasphemous heart, and the ‘serpent’ is the flesh that warreth against the spirit. The soul is the field of battle, the battle being pitched in the valley of experience. Conscience sounds the alarm, and Christ orders the combat on the very ground on which Satan gained the victory. In the 5th chapter of Galatians you will see Satan’s seventeen pieces of artillery levelled at the breast in which Grace is lodged, the commanders-in-chief being Ignorance and Unbelief.”—Sandy Gair.