AMONG those recently removed to their eternal rest and whose departure we have reason to mourn because of their usefulness in Christ’s vineyard we mention the above as one well known to many of our people in Skye. Mr. Morrison was born in Kyles Scalpay, Harris, in September, 1854, and passed away on the 2nd of May, 1935, in the eighty-first year of his age. In appearance he was tall and of powerful build. He always enjoyed good health until within a few years of his death when his heart gave way and he became gradually weaker until he died. For nineteen years he ministered to our people in Flashadder and was well liked because of his genial disposition and kindly manner.
He cast in his lot with the Free Presbyterian Church at the beginning and continued faithfully his attachment to its principles, doctrines, and practice to the end. From his successor in Flashadder (Mr. Nicholson) we have received the following particulars about the Lord’s dealings with him. He did not pass through much law work but was drawn to the Saviour in prayer and by the Word of God. He was led to cast his burdens on Christ by that passage; “Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am” (John xvii. 24).
“I very often,” Mr. Nicolson says, “went to see him while he was bedridden, a period of about four months, and enjoyed being with him although at times he was very low in mind and full of doubts. Calling one day shortly before the end I asked him how he was. ‘Well,’ he replied ‘I was very happy most of the day.’ ‘What made you so happy,’ he was asked: ‘The Holy Spirit enriched my soul,’ he said, ‘with several portions of Scripture but especially by one passage and I have lost it. That is what makes me so downcast at present.’
We then had worship together and I concluded with prayer during which I happened to quote the verse he had lost and which caused his temporary depression. On rising from my knees I noticed he looked quite cheerful and, taking my hand, he said: ‘I have to thank the Lord that it pleased Him to give you the portion of Scripture while on your knees which I lost. This is it: “The time to favour is come, the time that thou hast set”‘ (Psalm cii. 13). On being asked what application the passage had to himself, he replied: ‘I am either to get better for a short time or to be taken away soon.’ ‘Then,’ I remarked, ‘You look for a home better than any earthly one.’ ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘and I would not give up my hope of that for the whole world.’ About a week afterwards he departed, we believe, to be with Christ.”
His conscientiousness and care for Christ’s cause were exemplified in a somewhat uncommon manner many years ago when he and one of our best known ministers, returning from a meeting, were caught in a heavy storm in Loch Tarbert. He was then a deacon and had the Church collections with him. Mr. Morrison was afraid they all might be drowned so severe was the storm and in order that the collections might not be lost he tied them securely to one of the boat seats hoping that they might be saved should he be lost. We extend our sympathy to his widow and relatives. May they be enabled to follow in the footsteps of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.—D. M. Macdonald.