“W OE is me,” complains Micah, “for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grape gleanings of the vintage; there is no cluster to eat; my soul desired the first ripe fruit. The good man is perished out of the earth.” Well may we have the same complaint as he had. The Lord did make minute search in the corners of His field ere this terrible time of searching for iniquity began and which still continues, and removed to His garner ripe stalks of Heavenly Grain. “The righteous are taken away from the evil to come.”
This worthy elder, John Stewart has not been seen among us since the 30th October, 1936. “He walked with God and was not for the Lord took him.” He spent his sojourn here seeking in the spirit of prayer to be taught to pray. He prays not now. He sees His face and has His name written on his forehead. It is not proper that no notice should appear in our Magazine keeping John Stewart in remembrance. Hence this belated effort to fulfil a duty of love.
He was born at Blackpoint, Slumbay, Loch Carron about the year 1848. Both his parents were considered as God fearing persons. His father made a public profession of his faith in Christ and obedience to Him and took his own part in the worship of the Sanctuary. His mother did not profess publicly. Nevertheless the witness of the work of the Holy Spirit in her heart could not be hid. We read that Jesus “entered into a house, and would have no man know it: but He could not be hid.” Neither can the abiding Presence of the Comforter be hid. Godliness must come out from the closet to witness for Christ. Some
time after John Stewart had undergone a saving change, John’s father gave out the question at a fellowship meeting and at the close of the service, it was John, his son that was called upon to pray which is an unusual proceeding.
From his boyhood upwards and on to the age of 45 or 50 years, John Stewart was exemplary and moral in his daily life but was both ignorant and careless about “the one thing needful.” The Lord often uses His providence as the handmaiden of His grace in calling His people effectually, and that is conspicuous in the experience of our worthy friend. He was working at his trade as a mason on the top of a house on the summit of a cliff overhanging the pier at Portree. He fell from the house-top to the bottom of the cliff, receiving a broken limb and other serious injury. This was used by the Lord along with the knowledge he had of the Scriptures, to awaken him to a true sense of his lost and undone condition as a sinner and his need of a personal interest in Christ as a Saviour. This took place in the year 1889.
It was under the preaching of the Rev. Mr. Galbraith that John Stewart was brought into the liberty with which Christ makes His people free. John had in after years to separate himself entirely, not from what that minister taught was duty to Christ’s cause but from what Mr. Galbraith did in practice. The fact of Mr. Galbraith’s usefulness to John being used as an argument against him in not doing as Mr. Galbraith did, his reply was:—”Every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.” I. Cor., iii., 8
He was an elder in the Lochearron Free Church congregation before the Free Presbyterian Church was formed. In that Kirk Session he faithfully opposed granting the privilege of sitting at the Lord’s Table to a certain prominent lady who was guilty of attending a dancing party, even when instructions came down from Dr. Rainy that the privilege was to be granted. John would not submit to any authority contrary to God’s Word and his ordination vows. He tabled his strong dissent against the finding of the Kirk Session. It is known that he spoke to the question at the first communion held by the Free Presbyterian
Church in Shieldaig, and he was a savoury speaker on such occasions right on to the end. John Stewart excelled in the exercise of prayer, he often used the same expressions but they were no vain repetitions. They were the pouring out of a heart keenly sensible of the vileness of sin and yearning for nearness and fellowship to the Saviour.
Our friend, when presiding at a service, never would attempt to give a lecture and always confined himself to the reading of the Scriptures and prayer. It seems, however, that the last time he presided at a meeting, he dwelt at some length on Malachi, iii., 17, “And they shall be mine, saith the Lord, in the day I make up my jewels.” His remarks were touching and savoury. When one of our ministers called to see him shortly before he died, he said that he was very near his end. When told that it would be good for him when his end would come, “Is that what you say,” he answered, and after a pause, he said, “But there is one thing, that is, I feel very much loosed from this world.” He passed away at Achintee, Strath Carron, which had been his home during the last 21 years of his life. The righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance. To his three surviving sons we tender our deepest sympathy. They are sons for whom many earnest prayers were offered up by their father and may his God be their God. “Help Lord, for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men.” Psalm xii., 1.
M. G.