THIS worthy man was removed to his eternal rest on the Sabbath morning of the October communion in Tolsta last year. He was the last of that generation of office-bearers in North Tolsta who endured hardness in separating themselves ecclesiastically in order to maintain the Word of God in its integrity and a conscience void of offence. For this reason, as well as for his own personal worth, his name should continue savoury among us, and a notice however imperfect, should be published in our Magazine concerning him.
Angus was awakened in early manhood to a knowledge of his lost condition as a sinner and brought to close in with Christ as the only Saviour for lost men. The particulars as to this great change have not been communicated to us, but all who knew him had no doubt of its reality. “By their fruits ye shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles?” He made a public profession of his faith in Christ some time before the confirming of the Declaratory Act as the new constitution of the Free Church. The confirmation of that unholy Act served to show how far the Free Church had left Reformation principles in her wake, and who they were that would prove love to Christ and His Cause by zeal according to knowledge in defending His truth, which like Himself was despised and rejected of men. Spurious love may vent itself in many trite and high-sounding words. The jealousy of true love is cruel as the grave and as coals of fire against that which strikes at the sovereign, prophetical and priestly rights of the Lord Jesus Christ as the adorable Head of His Body the Church. There were men and women in North Tolsta as well as in other places who had this holy jealousy and Angus Maciver was one of them. To the end of his life here, he continued to witness for the truth and enjoyed the testimony of a good conscience that he was in the path of duty.
For the last nine years, Angus Maciver was the eldest member of the Kirk-Session in Tolsta and was willingly accorded the leading place by all his younger brethren. One who was present in the Schoolhouse on the Sabbath after the Tolsta Church was destroyed by the tornado of March, 1921, still remembers Angus giving out at the beginning of the service, Psalm 46.
“God is our refuge and our strength,
In straits, a present aid.”
Though it was not as easy for him to express his mind as it was to some of his brethren, his remarks were always scriptural and practical, and his godly, consistent life gained him the utmost respect both in public and private. Angus was one who did not entangle himself with the affairs of this life, except in so far as was necessary to provide for his household. It was otherwise with him as a son of consolation to all those who were in sickness or trouble. He was remarkable for his kindly sympathy and diligence in visiting such homes, and he is greatly missed as one to whom it shall be said in the Great Day: “I was sick, and ye visited Me.” Both his circumstances and his talents inclined him to this Christian duty and we believe he used them to the glory of God.
He was remarkable for his strength and vigour of body till the trouble developed which proved fatal. Neither cold nor storm kept him from the means of grace nor from other duties. He suffered much during the six months of his illness but he bore it patiently, thanking the Lord for all the good things in providence bestowed on him during a long life and seeking to be prepared for the end which he felt approaching. He was comfortably sustained by the truths of God’s Word and enabled to lean upon Christ in His fulness as the Saviour of sinners. He fell asleep in Jesus on the 6th October, 1929, at the ripe age of 86 years. Our sympathy goes out to his family and to the Tolsta congregation and we pray that the Lord will take the children in the place of the fathers and heal the breaches of Zion which are so many and so wide in our dark day.—M.G.