MURDO CAMERON, Kishorn, was well known in the West Highlands as a man of eminent standing among the Lord’s people. He was very retired in his natural disposition. This accounts for the obscurity in which his memory has been shrouded hitherto in the public place given to other worthy men of God in the “Free Presbyterian Magazine.” This year some fragments concerning him came to our hand, so we decided to put them on record in order that nothing should be lost to posterity through our negligence. The writer met Murdo Cameron in his own house in Kishorn, in December of 1890. After a few general remarks in the house, he came to convoy the writer a part of the way. The subject, galling to the hearts of all the lovers of God’s truth in the Free Church of Scotland at that time, was her flagrant departure from holding the infallibility and inerrancy of the whole Bible, and the boldness with which men in office in the Church tore the Confession of her faith in pieces, despite their own vows to God and men that they would assert, maintain, and defend it, and that they would follow no divisive course from it. It became evident to the writer that Murdo was exceedingly pained at heart on account of the scandalous conduct of these men, and the great dishonour done to the Lord by a Church which tolerated such infidelity and daring irreverence to God’s truth within her pale. In the year 1893, Murdo Cameron was among the first to join the party who separated from the Free Church of the Declaratory Act in order to continue the existence of the Free Church of 1843 in her strict adherence to the Bible and the Westminster Confession of Faith. He was present at the first Communion services held by the Free Presbyterian Church at Inverness. A godly woman, Mrs Mackenzie, Douglas Row, in that town, asked him—”What is your opinion concerning this stand that has been made in vindication of God’s truth?” He answered that he believed the witness raised in vindication of God’s truth would not die out in Scotland till the glory of the latter days would come. When Mrs Mackenzie told the above to the writer, she quoted a text of truth which he mentioned as the ground he had for what he said; but the writer regrets that he cannot remember the passage. He told her also that great trials would meet this small Church, and that these trials would begin in Inverness. This part of what he said has so far become a fact. The other part of it, if men will be faithful to God’s truth, will also be accomplished. The which may the Lord grant. The following covenants, written and signed by him, were sent us:—”Kishorn, June 4, 1869. I am here this day, O Lord, to go about a great work, which I am not capable of. Therefore, I desire Thy assistance. That which I have to do is to enter into an engagement with Thee, and I desire, Lord, that Thou wouldest consent to the bargain. Say not to me, What hast thou to do to take my covenant into thy mouth; but though Thou shouldest say the same to me, Thou art righteous. Yet I will plead upon Thine own Word: ‘Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.’ O Lord, I am this day to subscribe with my hand that I am the Lord’s, as I promised in Gairloch on the Communion Sabbath, June 4, 1869, in the wood of Shieldaig there, where I did beseech the Lord not to approach me in anger at His table that day. I gave up myself to be wholly at His disposal soul and body and all my cares for time and eternity; but all is to be done in the strength of Thine own grace. I deny all strength of mine own to do anything that is good; daily experience has taught me the truthfulness of this.” When the Rev. Duncan Matheson was fencing the Lord’s Table, he said—”Come and fulfil your vow, you vowed this morning in Gairloch, to the Lord at His table.” This does not mean that I did not know the Lord to be gracious before this time, and in witness hereof I do subscribe with my hand the 27th day of June 1869.—Murdo Cameron. “Another year, going to Gairloch, I left Alikin early in the morning on the Communion Thursday, and held worship in the hills, and entered anew into covenant with the Lord to be His by the assistance of His grace, and prayed that He would consent to this covenant engagement. The Rev. Mr Matheson began the Communion services that day by reading Isaiah, 44th chapter, and preached from the first five verses, and spoke specially on making a covenant with the Lord. He said—”And you who did this to-day in the hills coming here, I call you to the Lord’s Table on the coming Sabbath, and keep it in possession till the day of your death.” At another time, at the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper at Dingwall, I promised that, if the Lord would reveal Himself to my soul at that sacrament there, I would be His by the assistance of His own grace, whatever He would call me to suffer for His name and cause. The Lord did reveal Himself to me there, to the praise of His grace be it recorded. To this I subscribe with my hand, the 21st day of April 1877.—Murdo Cameron, Kishorn.” The following statement found among the papers sent me was made by Murdo Cameron’s daughter:—”1st April 1882.—I do this day give myself up to the Lord with all my heart, by the help of His grace, soul and body for time and eternity. I take Christ to be my portion for ever to be for Him and Him alone. If I live, may I live to the Lord, and if I die, may I die in the Lord.—(Signed) Barbara Cameron.” May the Lord grant that these secret engagements between the Lord and living souls, longing souls, breathing after His fellowship, and an assurance of their interest in Him, which are now brought to light, be blessed to others struggling on their way to Mount Zion above. Murdo Cameron departed this life in June 1897. So far as the writer could ascertain, he was over 80 years when he passed away to his everlasting rest. “I said, thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living.”
—N. C.