ON Thursday, the 29th day of November, the mortal remains of the late Capt. James Dawson, who passed away shortly after midnight on the previous Monday, were laid to rest in Pennytuir Cemetery. He was surrounded in his closing days by his children and his children’s children, who took every possible care of their aged parent. To them we extend our deep sympathy.
As an account of his seafaring life appears elsewhere, it is unnecessary to refer in detail to it. For the greater part of his days he belonged to those who go down to the sea in ships. These see the works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep. We may here note that he was dismissed his post as master of a yacht for objecting to meet friends of the owner at some port on the Lord’s Day. There was previously an agreement between them not to cruise on the Sabbath Day. He was, however, ordered to weigh anchor and proceed, and as it seemed to Dawson to involve neither necessity nor mercy, he refused. He consequently lost that berth. At intervals he found it necessary to look for work ashore, turning his hand to whatever he could do, for the support of himself and his family. Latterly he was master of a yacht on Loch Etive, and there he strained his heart while handling her, along with others. This was really the beginning of his end. He never recovered from that strain, although able for a considerable time after returning to Oban to move about and attend the house of God. A shock some time ago brought down still more the tabernacle of his body, and another, quite recently, made it evident that he was soon to leave the garments of mortality behind him in the river of death. The days of his earthly pilgrimage were eighty-five years.
Another of the older members and elders of the Free Presbyterian Church has thus passed away to his eternal rest. We are unable to say much as to his conversion, but it is believed that the Holy Spirit awakened him to a sense of his lost condition when, one day, he was lying on a hillside in Cowal and saw an explosion occur before his eyes in a powder factory. It was certainly clear that he had experimental knowledge of his own depravity, of his own inability to exercise faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and, above all, that he got that knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ which it is eternal life to have. Psalm 25 and Psalm 84 were particularly precious to him. These were no doubt blessed to him by the Holy Spirit. The former is penitential, and if one characteristic may be emphasised more than another, it is retrospective. The other glories in the gracious presence of God in His temple and is especially prospective. The believer is blessed with the mercy and favour of God now, but that is the pledge and earnest of more to follow. God’s altar is none other than the house of God, and the very gate of heaven to those in whose hearts are His ways. They are as sparrows, often feeling lonely on the house-tops, but their nest is at God’s altar. They brood over a portion of God’s Word and bring forth praises and thanksgivings and intercessions. Every one exercised in this way eventually appears in the eternal Zion before God.
Owing to his peculiar circumstances in Providence, the late Captain was frequently far from the public means of grace, but, whenever possible, he certainly was a regular attender. He knew that the Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. He was in this an example to his family and to all who knew him. The Lord said of Abraham, “I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, and do justice and judgment.” Our late friend sought to walk in these footsteps of the flock, and so to purchase to himself a good degree. He had no dubiety as to his connection with the cause for which this Church stands. He trod on no slippery ground as regards scriptural views of the love of God, or the atonement of Christ, or the work of the Holy Spirit, and the worship and government of the Kingdom of Christ in the world. He knew what it was to groan over a body of sin and death. Yet he could doubtless say, by the grace of God, “Thou knowest all things—Thou knowest that I love Thee.” He voiced no murmur, and showed no complaining spirit in his closing illness, despite much weakness and pain. Death has now ended troubles and trials for him. “What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple: and He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.” “Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”—D. A. MacF.