ANOTHER God-fearing man in the person of the above was removed by death in June 1926. The Assynt congregation has sustained the loss of quite a few men and women who had reached a ripe old age within recent years. This godly man was 87 years old when death called him home. It was clear that it was on Christ and Him crucified he rested his hope and salvation for eternity. Thus to him there was no other name given under heaven among men whereby we must be saved. He was a follower of the truth, the means of grace, and the Lord’s people from his young days. It was rather by his love and attachment to these that his Christian character evinced itself than by any outstanding public gifts and profession. To the possession of these he made no pretence. Adorned with a meek, humble, and peaceable disposition, which in the sight of God is of great price, he persevered in grace to the end.
He had vivid recollections of the ministry of the late Rev. Mr Ross, Stoer, whom he revered as a faithful minister of Christ, as well as of the worthies of the time. He used to speak of them with the utmost delight. It was somewhat late in life before he made a public profession, and, before as well as since, he lived a consistent Christian life, and kept himself unspotted from the world.
Laterly he was ordained an elder in the congregation; and though he was deeply conscious of his own unfitness for the solemn requirements of the office, yet realising what the needs of the cause of Christ were in the congregation, and putting aside his own feeling, he cheerfully complied. And therein he proved himself a likeable and useful member to the end. He was a praying man and a reader of his Bible, and mourned over the low ebb to which vital religion had come, and the increasing departure from former attainments in the land.
He heartily adhered to the position of the Free Presbyterian Church since its formation, and was grieved at the happenings within its own pale whereby this position was weakened. He had no doubt as to the necessity there was for raising this testimony for the truth against the errors in doctrine, the serious and radical changes made in the Confessional Standards and creed, as well as in the public worship of the then Free Church, and that the necessity for the maintenance of this testimony is as insistent as ever.
It was noticed regarding him through the last few years of his life, that he grew steadily more spiritual in his exercises and conversation, and one would not be long in his company when his mind turned to divine and spiritual concerns, in which he delighted.
To his worthy wife, who survives him, and the son and daughter who tended him, as well as to the other members of the family living in distant parts of Canada, we extend our heartfelt sympathy, and may the grace of a Triune God take saving effect upon them, so as to enable them to follow in their father’s footsteps.
M. M.