ANOTHER of the elders of St Jude’s has been taken away to his everlasting rest. As one after another of the Lord’s people are removed to be with Christ, and so few raised up to fill the gaps to the house of Israel, the desolations become greater. The prayer of godly Asaph, “Lift up thy feet unto the perpetual desolations,” is most suitable to us in this generation. The Lord did gloriously lift up His feet to the desolations in Scotland in the past. This was true both in the Lowlands and Highlands. The Island of Lewis, the native place of Angus Macrae, had days of the right hand of the Most High. In the year 1824 that eminent servant of Christ, the late Rev. Alexander Macleod, was inducted in Uig, Lewis. In that year the congregation of Uig was vacant, and a man of that congregation saw in a dream that a man came across the Minch, having the sun resting on his shoulder, and that he went overland to Uig. He told this dream to a neighbour. They were both in Stornoway on a day when the mail boat came from the Mainland. Mr Macleod was one of the passengers. When he stepped on to the pier, the man said to his companion, that is the man I saw in my dream. The parish of Uig, of which it was true that its people sat in the region and shadow of death, saw, indeed, a great light. Four years after Mr Macleod went there, the Kirk-Session of Uig, after a searching examination as to knowledge and experience, both of law and gospel, received into full membership at one communion season four hundred of their young men and women. These were times of love to many a poor, lost sinner, and their adherence to the end in the way of holiness, proved that the work was of God, the Holy Ghost. In the parish of Lochs, in the same island, and about the same time, the Lord blessed abundantly the labours of the Rev. Robert Finlayson. So that, when the writer went to Lewis for the first time, in the year 1893, a beautiful crop of old men and women met him, who looked back to those times of revival with joy and thankfulness to the Lord. Angus Macrae, in childhood and youth, must have had the great privilege of the godly example of many who adorned the Gospel by a holy walk and conversation.
The subject of this obituary was born at Swordle, east of Stornoway, in the year 1856. All the writer can say concerning the care that may have been taken by his parents is that, they had attended well to his education; for he had a very intelligent knowledge of the English language, and a competent training and capacity for any ordinary business. At the time of his boyhood and youth, the general conversation of the people of Lewis turned on religion, and repetition of the sayings of godly men and ministers. This had a good effect on the mind of the rising generation. It is to be feared that as the godly are passing away, this good practice may pass away, and that vain talk will take its place, to the great loss of parents and children. May the Lord pour His Spirit again upon this backsliding generation, so as to turn the hearts of the children to the fathers and the fathers to the children.
Angus Macrae lived in this world till he was well over forty years without God and without any real hope. Some years after he came to Glasgow the writer noticed that his attendance on the means of grace, on the Lord’s Day and at the prayer meetings, became very regular, and that he seemed to be listening to the Word preached, with rapt attention. This continued for a few years, so that the writer came to the conclusion that it was not “like the morning cloud or as the early dew that goeth away.” At last he appeared before the Session for examination, with the intention of becoming a member in full communion. It then became evident that he was in possession of a thorough knowledge of the doctrines of grace, and that his experience of both law and gospel was clear and scriptural. In the course of a few years there was an election of elders and deacons in St. Jude’s congregation. When the votes of the members were counted, it was found that Angus Macrae was at the head of the list of elders. He accepted of the office, and was highly respected and beloved by all his brethren in the Session and by the congregation. He attended diligently and judiciously to all the duties of his office, till circumstances in the Divine Providence of God caused that he had to leave Glasgow.
The writer failed to procure a man to supply our Mission in London, and knowing the ability of Mr Macrae, both in Gaelic and English, and his soundness in the faith, he approached him, explained the difficulty in which he was placed, and urged him to go to London. Angus was a mason to trade and was earning good wages; but he magnanimously agreed to go notwithstanding the considerable financial loss that it incurred. He gave good satisfaction in London. After he returned he was sent to Kames in order to supply there during a vacancy. While he was there he suffered very much from rheumatism in his legs. On this account he left the place. One of the elders there wrote that “he never listened to any man whom he would put before Mr Macrae as a preacher.”
The Western Presbytery brought before the Synod their urgent need at the time of a missionary for the people of Achmore, Lewis. Angus Macrae, when approached, agreed to go there. He remained at Achmore for a few years, and was greatly appreciated by the people. He had on several occasions expressed to the writer his desire to go to Tolsta. Some few years since the people of Tolsta sent a request to the Western Presbytery to the effect that they desired that Angus Macrae should be given them as their missionary. The Synod agreed to the request of the Tolsta people, when the case came before it. So Angus went there. The writer saw him at Breasclete in the month of August last year. He was then suffering much pain in his chest and from want of breath. He told that the doctor informed him that he was suffering from catarrh in the bronchial tubes. After asking some questions concerning the symptoms of his affliction, the writer came to the conclusion that he was suffering from Angina Pectoris, and that his end was not far off. The writer saw him for the last time, “till the heavens be no more,” on Monday, 13th day of last September. He was then in his bed, but had been out in the church the day before, and attended to the duties of an elder in serving the communion tables. He became much worse before the end of that week, and continued to grow worse till Sabbath, 3rd October. That day he sent for some of the men of the congregation, told them that his end had now come, and that they were to bury his remains beside the dust of God’s people in Tolsta Cemetery. His remains were laid to rest, in accordance with his wish, in the Tolsta Cemetery on Wednesday, the 6th day of October 1926. “Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away.” Thus the days of the pilgrimage of Angus Macrae came to an end here. By the congregation of Tolsta his removal is felt very keenly, also by all who knew him, especially by the Session of St Jude’s, Glasgow, of which he continued to be a member to the last, and also by all that congregation among which he had been so well known. There were not many that had a more intelligent grasp of the causes which led the Free Presbyterian Church to separate in 1893 from the so-called Free Church of that date, than Angus Macrae, and that held more steadfastly to the position then taken by us. He will be greatly missed by our Church, which he loved and faithfully served, and especially by the congregation of Tolsta.
The writer desires to express his deepest sympathy with Mrs Macrae and all the family, also with his brothers and sisters, and with all who mourn for their and our loss, which was his great and everlasting gain. “Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth.”—N. C.