THIS widow passed away at her home in Strath, after a lingering illness, on 27th December, 1938, at the age of seventy-four years. She was a sister of that godly young man, Kenneth Mackenzie, who died when in the course of studying for the ministry of our Church. His memory is still fragrant in the minds of our older people. Of him the late Mary Mackintosh wrote the descriptive lines that follow:—
“Kenny’s place with us is vacant: pleasant was his life while here:
His the kindly word of comfort and the drooping heart to cheer.
Bright his smile to cheer the mourner, thought diffusing, fragrant
sweet.
“Twas his joy to lay soul-trophies at his loving Saviour’s feet.”
From a letter written to her, forty-one years ago, by this beloved brother we can gather that her thoughts were bent heavenward then. It was, however, as late as the ministry of the late Rev. Duncan Mackenzie before she made a public profession. Of her spiritual experiences at her conversion and after we can say nothing. She was one of the “hidden ones.” Hidden by her disposition, she was very reserved and would shrink back from notice. This restrained her in religious conversation, especially in regard to her own experiences. Her disposition, however, did not keep her from professing her Lord publicly, both by sitting at His table and by providing “things honest in the sight of all men.” She was kind-hearted to all. Her place in the house of God was never vacant while the strength of her body could take her there. To see the places where the Lord’s praying people used to sit in the sanctuary now vacant, through death, is a heart-break; but there is a consolation —”the righteous has hope in his death.”
She left behind to mourn her loss one son and one daughter, also two brothers, but one has died since.—A. B.