IT has pleased the Lord, whose ways are in the deep, to remove two of our esteemed missionaries in Lewis during the course of a year. On the first Sabbath of October last year Mr Angus Macrae, missionary at North Tolsta, passed away to his rest, and on the first Sabbath of October this year began the saying concerning Mr Malcolm Macleod, Ness, that “he was not, for God took him.”
Malcolm Macleod was born of upright and respectable parents at Swainbost, Ness, about 73 years ago. He proved, in common with the rest of Adam’s children, that he was born in sin and shapen in iniquity. As he himself would confess, he endeavoured from childhood to act according to his own will, though conscience testified that that nature and will were opposed to God’s law. An incident in the early boyhood of Malcolm illustrates the truth of that Scripture which says:—”A word spoken in due season, how good it is.” A godly woman in Swainbost saw him chasing an animal near her house on the Sabbath. She administered a solemn rebuke in the name of the Lord of the Sabbath which kept Malcolm from such actions ever after, and which was as fresh in his memory at the age of 70 as it was on the day it was spoken.
It was Malcolm Macleod’s happiness to have become a trophy of saving grace in youth when about 17 years of age. He used to tell how, on a prayer meeting night in Ness, he was on his way to spend the evening “ceildhing” (meeting in a house for amusement), when a passage of the Word arrested him and showed him his sin of going “ceildhing” when others were met to worship God. He thought at first he would defy the message and the Messenger, but the same Word spoke again with overwhelming power. Malcolm had to go back home, and having changed his garments, he went off to the house of prayer and crept in behind the worshippers. With a mind awakened to a sense of his state as a sinner, he left Ness for Dingwall to learn his trade as a blacksmith. His spiritual troubles increased upon him, so that he could not for a time rise from his bed.
His kind master sent a doctor to find out Malcolm’s disease and to cure him. The doctor prescribed medicines, but Malcolm never ceased all his lifetime from pitying that doctor who thought he could cure a wounded spirit with his medicines.
He waited on the ministry of Dr Kennedy all the time he was in Dingwall, and often spoke lovingly of the doctor’s preaching, which was a well of living water to so many, but it was not in the public means that Malcolm’s mourning was turned into joy. There is a spot in or near Dingwall where Jesus made Himself known to Malcolm Macleod as his Redeemer and Saviour. It was there that the union was effected which shall never be broken in eternity, as it was never in time. It was then he saw that “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” The first prayer we remember hearing from him was at the close of a discourse on “Can the children of the bridechamber mourn as long as the Bridegroom is with them?” He said in that prayer:—”Lord, we thought one day that we were not only the children of the bridechamber, but that we were married to the Bridegroom, but we have been well acquainted with fasting since that day.” The last time he was in Dingwall he was with Mr Macfarlane in the manse. Malcolm rose to go out, and Mr Macfarlane asked him where he was going. “There is a spot here,” he said, “that was very sweet to me on one occasion. I am going to see it once more.” When he came back Mr Macfarlane asked him how he found the place. “The place is the same, but it was not to me to-day as it was on that occasion.” “I thought that would be the way you would find it,” said Mr Macfarlane.
Malcolm came back with his household to Swainbost and worked at his trade as a blacksmith till he retired a few years ago. He greatly valued the ministrations of the godly Mr Macbeth, Ness. A number of pious people used to wait near the church for the evening service on Sabbath, and would spend the time together speaking on spiritual matters. Each Sabbath evening Mr Macbeth would take up the subject the men were discussing among themselves and set it fully forth in the light of truth, though there was no earthly way whereby the men’s topic could reach the study of the minister. Thus in Ness, as in other places, brethren dwelt in unity, and the precious ointment was on the head of Aaron and went down to the skirts of his garment.
There were a few outstanding men in Ness who viewed with dismay and deep grief the disastrous attacks that were made on the principles of the Free Church, which culminated in the passing and confirming of the Declaratory Act in 1893. Malcolm Macleod was one of a few that resolved to continue the Free Church on her constitutional principles, and though he had to endure hardness on account of the stand he made, he faithfully adhered to the position then taken up to the end. He used to say publicly and privately that they did what they did before they ever saw the “dosanan” (faces) of the ministers who went back to the Free Church after the Union of 1900.
In due time he was appointed missionary in the Ness congregation, and his affectionate and faithful dealing with souls, as well as his great ability as an expounder of the Word of God, won for him the love and respect of all our people, young and old, and of all who knew him. He was a most precious speaker at the fellowship meetings on the Fridays of our communions. We will give only one saying of his on such an occasion. He said that the Lord’s people loved to walk in the footsteps of the flock. “When our fishing boats,” he said, “would be leaving for the English fishing grounds, the boats behind would try and keep those in front always in sight; each boat would aim at steering as directly as possible in the line of the one going before.” His comment on that simile was that the Lord’s people would endeavour to follow in the way of those that went before them in everything in which they followed Christ.
Mr Macleod’s illness began about a year and a half ago. He was for some months confined to bed, but was enabled to be at the services fairly regularly to the end. Latterly he could only attend the weekly meeting owing to his inability to walk to the church on the Sabbath. The Lord had been sending messengers to him from time to time during these months, who made plain that the King would not permit him to be much longer away from His immediate presence. On Sabbath evening he retired once again, as he had often done that day, to his closet, where he was wont to wrestle in prayer. His wife, anxious on account of his longer delay than usual in coming forth, entered and found that he was not able to return unassisted. He was helped to bed, and in about an hour’s time he passed peaceably away into the desired haven where the weary rest from their labours. He left a widow and four daughters and one son, with whom we would express sympathy in their great bereavement, and pray that they may be partakers of that grace for which her late husband and their father was so conspicuous. The Ness congregation mourn under a sense of their loss, which is a loss to Lewis and to the Church at large. May the Lord who has taken away so many of His people from our midst speedily raise others to fill the breaches in the walls of Zion.—M. G.