ANDREW SINCLAIR was born in Glasgow in the year 1860. He was only seven years when his father died. His mother, who was a wise and thrifty woman, brought up her family respectably and carefully. She was praised by Andrew “as a good mother to him” up to the last. When the saving change took place the writer could not say, but that it did take place was manifest to all who knew him. So far as the writer can ascertain, he became a deacon in the Milton Free Church about forty years ago. In 1893 he separated from that congregation and joined the Free Presbyterian Church. To the position taken then he adhered consistently and faithfully to his last day on earth.
When the late Rev. J. S. Sinclair was settled as pastor of the Tabernacle congregation of the Free Presbyterian Church in 1896, Andrew Sinclair became a deacon of that congregation. He left the city shortly thereafter, and went to reside at Kilwinning, in Ayrshire. He lived there during eleven years, but continued to exercise his office of deacon in Mr Sinclair’s congregation. During the time he lived in Kilwinning, the congregation of the Tabernacle became divided—some remaining in the Tabernacle, and the rest followed Mr Sinclair in his adherence to the F.P. Church, and set up in Carlton Place, under the designation of John Knox’s congregation. He adhered to John Knox’s. In the year 1916 he became an elder in this congregation, and did his utmost to uphold and strengthen the hands of his minister, Rev. J. S. Sinclair, till the Lord deprived him, the congregation, and the Free Presbyterian Church of his services in the year 1921. Andrew Sinclair did all in his power for that congregation after the removal of their pastor. He was desirous that the congregation of John Knox’s should be continued, and called on the writer so as to have his opinion about the matter. The writer encouraged him, and offered to help him as much as he could in continuing the separate existence of John Knox’s. But when a meeting of the congregation was held for that purpose, they resolved to join the congregation of St Jude’s. This took place in August of 1921, and as a consequence he became then an elder in St Jude’s congregation.
The writer knew him intimately since then, till the Lord called him last July to his everlasting rest. He was very diligent and conscientious in his attendance upon all the duties of his office, both as regards visiting and being regularly present at all meetings of the Kirk-Session and Deacons’ Court. Consequently his presence is greatly missed by all the office-bearers of St Jude’s, and also by the people who had the privilege of knowing him when he visited them in their own homes.
Since the Kirk-Session of St Jude’s was constituted for the first time in October 1893, nineteen of our elders have gone to their everlasting rest. Two of these were removed this year. On the two last occasions that an election and ordination of office-bearers took place, the writer thought, and perhaps said, that he was ordaining office-bearers then for the last time, because many of those set apart were much younger than he; but the Lord saw and ordered otherwise. When going back in thought to those men, who refused to remain in communion with infidels in denying the infallibility of the Bible and the true doctrines of the grace of God in the year 1893, the writer feels thankful to the Lord for the grace and faithfulness He bestowed on them, and for the encouragement and strength they were to himself and the cause of Christ in the world, especially in St Jude’s. Mr Andrew Sinclair was one of the men who stood steadfastly ever since 1893 to the position taken up then. He was not a man that said and did one thing to-day and another to-morrow. He was a man of a sincere conscience as to his duty towards God and his fellow-man. Straightforwardness was one of his strongest characteristics. He was admitted to the Western Infirmary, Glasgow, about the middle of June. The doctors had a good hope at first that he would recover; but by the middle of July they concluded that so far as man could see, there was no hope. He continued calm and composed, and told his wife that the Lord would provide for her and for the children. The last time Mrs Sinclair had worship with him in the Infirmary, he asked her to read the 14th chapter of John’s Gospel, and the 22nd chapter of Revelation. He repeated the 23rd Psalm. Then he prayed earnestly for Christ’s cause throughout the whole world, and expressed his great fear that our sins as a generation against God’s law and the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ would bring upon us the wrath of God. He prayed also for the Free Presbyterian Church as a whole, for some of her congregations by name, and also for her ministers and for her students. After this he spoke but very little, as he had a difficulty in breathing, but continued conscious to the very last. “What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodness thereof is as the flower of the field: the grass withereth, the flower faileth: because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it; surely the people is grass.” “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”
The writer would express his sincere sympathy with Mrs Sinclair and her family, as well as the true sympathy of the Kirk-Session, Deacons’ Court, and all the members and adherents of St Jude’s, and would pray that the Lord will be to them “a Father of the fatherless, and a Judge of the widow”—and that He would act towards them and they by His grace towards Him agreeable to the Scripture—”Leave thy fatherless children. I will preserve them alive; and let thy widows trust in me.”—N. C.