MRS NICOLSON was born at Uig, Skye, in the year 1843. Her father, Donald Lamont, was a man of sterling worth who had to endure considerable hardships for truth and conscience sake in his day. This example of consistent piety was not without its effect on Mrs Nicolson.
The Lord called her effectually in her youth out of the world and its sinful pleasures, and she gave ample proof in all her after life that she was really separate from it. She could say with Ruth—”Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.” She lived 26 years at Portree after leaving Uig. During her stay there she lost her husband and a son and daughter.
The writer remembers distinctly the satisfaction it gave the late worthy Neil Mackinnon when Mrs Nicolson made known to him that she had separated from the so-called Free Church in 1893. She continued a consistent Free Presbyterian to the last, and felt more convinced as the years rolled past that the step she took then was the right one.
Her son, Donald Nicolson, who acted the part of a dutiful son towards her changed the home from Portree to Lamlash in the Island of Arran. She accompanied him there. She used to come up to Glasgow occasionally for the week-end. The writer had the great pleasure and privilege of knowing her more intimately during the five years of her sojourn there than he had up till then. From conversations with her on these occasions he formed the opinion that she was a deeply exercised Christian. Her real womanly modesty combined with prudence in all she said and did, and the intelligent grasp with which she held the doctrines and principles of God’s word, made a deep impression on the writer’s mind. She impressed him as being, without exaggeration, a mother in Israel.
Her son got settled at Duisdale, Sleat, Skye, eight years before her end came. In this place, owing to distance from the means of grace, and the infirmities of age, she was not able to attend often; but that did not abate her love to the Lord’s people or to the cause of Christ. She wrote repeatedly to the writer to encourage him when a few of the ministers of our Church were putting forth their utmost efforts to bring about a union with the Free Church. The schism these men made in the F.P. Church caused her much pain and anxiety. She lived to see that their efforts did not succeed in breaking up the Church, for which she expressed her profound thankfulness to the Lord.
The Rev. Ewen Macqueen called to see her shortly before her end came, and notwithstanding that she was confined to her bed, she caused notice to be sent to some of her neighbours so that Mr Macqueen would preach. This was the last time she heard the gospel preached in this world.
Mrs Nicolson was truly a lover of the Lord’s people. It became very evident when any of them visited her, that they were truly her people, and that she delighted in their fellowship. They were to her what the Roman brethren were to the Apostle Paul, who went to meet him on his way as a prisoner to their city: “Whom when Paul saw, he thanked God, and took courage.” The late Neil Mackinnon and his wife used to go now and again to see her. Their visits were to her like an oasis in the wilderness. They are now together where there will be no parting for ever.
The night she was taken away, she took part in family worship about 10 o’clock, and she entered on her everlasting rest before 3 o’clock next morning. This took place on the 29th March 1921. Her remains were laid to rest at Portree to await the day upon which all they that are in their graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God and shall come forth; they who have done good to the resurrection of the just, and they who done evil to the resurrection of damnation.
We desire to express our sincere sympathy with her dutiful son, and all who mourn our loss.
N. C.
An t-Urramach Aonghas MacMhaoilan.