By Rev. ROBERT ELDER, D.D., West Free Church Rothesay.
I.
“And behold, a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him” (Matt. xvii. 5).
THE Lord of Glory lived in this world, “despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.” But, besides the testimony of His glorious miracles, there were glimpses of His divine majesty given in His times of deepest humiliation. One of the most notable of these we have in the narrative before us. We learn from the chapter preceding that about this period of His public ministry, Jesus began to forewarn the disciples of His approaching sufferings and death. But immediately thereafter came this great event of His transfiguration, narrated by three of the Evangelists with historic calmness and precision, and bearing the full stamp of divine reality. It is, beyond doubt, an incident of great spiritual significance, designed to cheer the holy human soul of the Redeemer in the prospect of His agonies; to manifest to the Disciples, for their encouragement, the glory of that death which they deprecated; to transfigure, if I may so speak, the cross itself; to proclaim Him Lord and Lawgiver of His Church; and to foreshadow His future glorified condition.
It is not my intention to speak of the facts and circumstances in detail, but, while adverted to these, to fix your minds especially on this sublime statement of the fifth verse, “And behold a voice out of the cloud which said, This is my Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him.” May the Lord teach us by His Spirit, giving “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
I. Let us consider whose voice it was that spoke. We are told that while Peter was uttering his rash proposal mentioned in the verse preceding.—“behold, a bright (or luminous) cloud overshadowed them,” (namely, the three glorified ones, Jesus, Moses, and Elias), separating them from the three Disciples, proceeding out of the cloud, and uttering the testimony which is here recorded. It is significantly added in the next verse—“and when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were sore afraid.” Looking at the whole facts mentioned, we cannot reasonably suppose that this cloud was some mere natural phenomenon, or any other than the glorious Shechinah cloud, the symbol of the divine presence all through the Old Dispensation. We read of it at the setting up of the tabernacle, and again at the consecration of the temple, when, as it is written, “the cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord” (I. Kings, viii. 10, 11). Hence it is called by Peter, who was one of the three eye-witnesses on this occasion, “the excellent glory,” and he casts the light of inspiration on the question before us by this clear, definite statement,—“He received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to Him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased” (II. Peter, i. 17). Beyond all question it was the voice of God the Father.
But these facts, on which I need not dwell, convey to us important practical lessons. In our present state, even when spiritually enlightened, we are not fit to bear the manifestation of heavenly glory, with its blissful fellowships and enjoyments. The symbol-cloud also teaches us that here we cannot see to the end of the things that are revealed; while the voice from the cloud reminds us that, in this world, Christ’s people must “walk by faith, not by sight.” It is the same great and solemn lesson which the Lord taught Israel of old by Moses, “Take ye, therefore, good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb, out of the midst of the fire” (Deut. iv. 15). May the Lord teach us, by His Spirit, to stand in awe before Him, and restraining vain curiosity and daring speculation in things spiritual and divine, to say from the heart with true humility, “I will hear what God the Lord will speak.”
II. Of whom did the voice testify.—“This is my beloved Son!” The narrative informs us that there were three glorified persons there, and Luke particularly states, concerning Moses and Elias, that they “appeared in glory.” These two glorified saints were unquestionably sons of God, having of old received “the adoption of sons,” having been born again and sanctified by the Spirit, and having long before entered on the heavenly inheritance of sons. They were beloved of God, and pleasing in His sight, having served Him faithfully on earth, and now serving Him in perfect purity day and night in His temple above. But no doubt was left in the minds of the Disciples that this divine testimony from the cloud had reference to Jesus only. There seems to have been something peculiar in the radiance which shone, as from within, on His countenance and person, and also in the attitude of the others towards Him, which marked Him as exclusively the object of the testimony. To this Peter evidently alludes when, speaking of the scene in the passage above quoted, he says, “We were eye-witnesses of His majesty.” We have the same significant utterance, accompanied by still clearer evidence, at the baptism of the Lord Jesus by John, when, “lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and resting upon Him; and lo, a voice from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased” (Matt. iii. 16). You remember how John speaks of the meaning and effect of this testimony, “And I saw and bare record that this is the Son of God” (John, i. 34).
The design obviously was to separate, in their estimation and in ours, between Jesus and all others, whether in heaven or on earth. This is my own beloved Son, says Jehovah, in a sense peculiar, unparalleled, divine. And so the Apostle John, another of these three chosen witnesses, declares: “We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father” (John, i. 14). It is, in short, a divine testimony to the supreme divinity and eternal Sonship of the Lord Jesus Christ, that, as it is written,” all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father” (John, v. 23). It is also written that no man knoweth the Son but the Father; and here the Father comes forth to declare Him.
But let us not overlook the fact that this testimony was given to the Son of God incarnate. The veil which hid His divine glory was drawn aside for a moment, and God the Father bore witness to Him, and to these chosen disciples, and through them to us and to the world, that this same Jesus is very God. “Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness, God was manifest in the flesh” (I. Tim. iii. 16). Oh, to have a clear apprehension, by faith, of the truth and spiritual significance of this great mystery,—Jesus, our Brother and Kinsman-Redeemer, and yet “the brightness of the Father’s glory, and the express image of His person!” This is the grand foundation of our hope, the secret of His people’s peace. “Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord” (Phil. iii. 8).
III. Consider the scope or burden of the testimony, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”—There are two parts in this divine testimony,—the one pointing to Jesus, personally, and the other, mainly, though not wholly, to His offices and work. 1. As to the former, the Father says,—”This is my beloved Son,” or literally, “my Son, the beloved.” This word of Jehovah expresses infinite, eternal and unchangeable love, illustrating not only the divine glory of Christ, but the unfathomable depths of divine grace toward sinners in and through Him. From eternity He was the Beloved of the Father, “the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father,” “daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him,” one with the Father in nature counsel and working. Like the Father Himself, He was infinitely worthy to be loved, and was, therefore, infinitely beloved of the Father and of the Holy Ghost. But, as mediator now incarnate, we are here specially called to regard Him as the object of the Father’s love: “Behold, my servant whom I uphold: mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth” (Isai xlii. 1). God the Father loved Him (if we may say so) with a peculiar love, for consenting to the scheme of redemption, and freely entering as Surety into covenant bonds, in His zeal for the Father’s glory, and in love and pity for the sinful and perishing, given Him by the Father. He loved Him when He mixed for Him that cup of wrath which the people had deserved to drink and laid on Him the awful chastisement of their peace—”Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts.” “Therefore” said the Lord Jesus, “doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life that I might take it again” (John, x. 17). So now, the Father proclaiming it to the joy of the Redeemer’s soul, and for strengthening the faith and hope of His people. But what an affecting view is thus presented of the marvellous grace of God in the redemption and salvation of sinners! “God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son.” “He spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all.” “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” How blessed to be partakers of this love of God in Christ, and, by living faith uniting us to Christ, to be “made accepted in the Beloved!” How heinous the sin, and how aggravated the condemnation, where this glorious exhibition of God’s love is treated with indifference, and this rich provision of His grace is refused in unbelief!
- The second part of this divine testimony, says, “in whom I am well pleased; and this I apply mainly, though not solely, to the offices and work of Christ. The Father is “well pleased” or divinely satisfied with the person of Christ as the God-man, the grandest manifestation of His glory to the world. He rests also with supreme delight in His entire qualification for all that is implied in His mediatorial work, His divine sufficiency combined with perfect human sympathy, together with the crowning fact that “God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him.” Here is found one to whom God can confidently entrust the interests of His cause and glory, and to whom poor perishing sinners can look with assured hope for the salvation of their souls. Accordingly, when this great device of divine grace and wisdom was revealed, the heavenly host praised God saying, “Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, goodwill toward men” (Luke, ii. 14).
But again, and especially, God is “well pleased,” because, in and through Him, all the conditions of the covenant of grace, and all its promises, are gloriously fulfilled. The eternal Son of God came, and assumed man’s nature into union with the divine, that, as the Surety and Substitute of His people, He might “make His soul an offering for sin” and “fulfil all righteousness,” that God “might be just and the Justifier of Him which believeth in Jesus.” When the fulness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that are under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons” (Gal. iv. 4); and the Father, anticipating the glorious success of the undertaking, here proclaims, “this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” In Him I see my holy law fulfilled in all its just demands and threatenings; in Him I recognise the substance and fulfilment of all my gracious promises. In witness of this, Moses, the great lawgiver under God, and Elijah, the great prophet of Israel, appear with Him in glory, and, as Luke informs us, “speak of His decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem” (Luke, xi. 31). That great event, they testify is the perfect fulfilment of all the law, and the prophets. They proclaim the fact of a perfect dying Messiah to be the grand fundamental doctrine of the Old Testament, as well as of the New. They honour Him as their own Saviour and Lord, and, with adoring gratitude, declare that His cross is their crown. It is as if they hereby joined in the testimony of His forerunner, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” A bright and heavenly illustration this, of the truth, “that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself” (II. Cor. v. 19). And once more, God is “well pleased” because, in and through Him, the richest revenue of glory rebounds to Jehovah’s name. There never was so far as revealed to us, so grand a display of the moral attributes of God, all in harmonious exercise. Never was there such service rendered, nor such a sacrifice presented on God’s altar. And then, what glorious fruits, in the justifying of sinners by God’s grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, the coming forth of the Holy Ghost to quicken dead souls, to sanctify believers, and to prepare those who had been heirs of hell for heavenly and eternal glory! God is well pleased, not only with but in Christ, and, therefore, in all who, by living faith, are found in Him; and He rejoices in and over them for ever as His purchased possession and peculiar treasure.
(To be continued).
Thomas Shepard of Cambridge.
II.
(Continued from p. 133).
A N examination of Shepard’s writings will explain somewhat his pulpit power. Although he died at a comparatively early age, his published writings are voluminous. His “Parable of the Ten Virgins,” intended to elucidate and settle the controversy occasioned by Mrs. Hutchinson’s errors, at least among his own people, has won from men like Calamy, Greenhill, Jackson, Ash, and Taylor, such testimony as this—”That though a vein of serious, solid, hearty piety runs through all this author’s works, yet he hath reserved the best wine till the last.” His other publications are his Theses Sabbaticæ; “Cautions against Spiritual Drunkenness;” “The Sincere Convert,” a most searching, pungent, and discriminating treatise; “The Sound Believer;” several Sermons on important subjects; and a letter entitled “New England’s Lamentation over Old England’s Errors.”
Shepard’s impressiveness was not in his voice or manner. He spoke in a low tone, and his mind was of too solid a texture to be swept away by the breath of excitement. His power was in his thought, his intense earnestness, and the evangelical simplicity of his doctrine. His own experience enabled him to deal in a masterly manner with the self-delusions and sophistries of the human heart. No one understood better how to unmask a hypocrite. His rebukes of sin are of the most scathing kind. He depicts the horrid loathsomeness of a depraved nature, the misery of guilt, and the terrors of its final doom, with appalling vividness. In setting forth the peace and joy, the privileges and hopes of the believer, he speaks like one who had himself entered within the veil.
His style is rarely one that would be accounted elegant. Only occasionally do his sentences sparkle with metaphor. His similes, which are quite frequent, are often homely, sometimes bordering on the vulgar. Yet there is no weakness of expression. The language is terse, plain, level to the comprehension of the humblest. Occasionally, discrimination and distinction are carried to an extreme. The Puritanic mannerism of sermonizing largely cleaves to Shepard. But his positions are clearly laid down, and the scope of his argument is readily discerned.
And yet we meet scattered through his writings sentences which bespeak for him intellectual gifts. Of self-righteous men he says, they “dig for pearls in their own dunghill, and will not be beholden to the Lord Jesus.” Of men by nature dead in sin he remarks, “Their bodies are living coffins, to carry a dead soul up and down in.” “Great politicians,” he quaintly says, “are like children, always standing on their heads, and shaking their heels against heaven.” His intense earnestness and solemnity of feeling scarce repress the humour which is often ready to break out in almost ludicrous illustrations. Some men, he tells us, confess and forsake their sins “as a dog doth his vomit, not because he hates his carrion, but because he fears the cudgel.” In dealing with the sinner who imagines that he has some good in him, he says, “If thou hast any good in thee, it is but as a drop of rose-water in a bowl of poison.” These things “are in thee like a nest of snakes in an old hedge. Although they break not out into thy life, they lie lurking in thy heart. They are there as a filthy puddle in a barrel which runs not out because thou happily wantest the temptation of occasion to broach and tap they heart.”
There is a rich vein of wisdom running through some of his homely sayings. “Nothing is man’s cross but man’s will.” “The deepest sorrows run with least noise;” a sentence which reminds us of Cowper’s—
“Deepest streams
Oft water fairest meadows; and the bird
That flutters least is longest on the wing.”
Again he says, “Cain can build away his sorrow.” “Sweetness before sense of sin, is like cordials before purging a foul stomach.” “A bare conviction of sin doth but light the candle to see sin. Compunction only burns his [the sinner’s] fingers, and that only makes him dread the fire.” “External motives, like plummets on a dead clock, set them [men] running. To show that the practical is as bad as the theoretical atheist, we are told, “He that plucks a king from his throne, is as bad as he that saith he is no king.” The substance of Foster’s admirable description of the necessary capacity of the man who assumes to know that there is no God, is suggested by a single sentence of Shepard—”He must have the wisdom of God, and so be a god, that comprehendeth the essence of God.”
But with Shepard these pointed sentences are more frequent in which the truth in its most simple and direct form is brought home to the mind and heart. To the sinner his style of address is fearfully plain and solemn. “God is thy all-seeing terrible judge; conscience is thy accuser; a heavy witness; the world is thy jail; thy lusts are thy fetters.” Many men, restrained by external motives, fear outbreaking sin, “are but as wolves chained up, tame devils, swine in a fair meadow.” To show that men may go far in outward duty, and yet not near heaven by a single step, we are told “Judas went far, but he was covetous; Herod went far, but he loved his Herodias; every swine hath his swill, and every wicked man his lust.” To the rich, he speaks in very plain words: “If you have not right to God’s promises, the curse of God is stamped upon every cross and penny, and upon everything you have; . . . yea, all that thou hast in this condition, is but as if thou shouldest twist a cord together to hang thy soul in hell.” Again, the bearing of all sin against the divine authority is forcibly presented; “In every sin, thou dost strike God, and fling a dagger at the heart of God.” Sometimes whole paragraphs read like a string of proverbs. “One enemy within the city is worse than many without. A traitor on the throne is worse than a traitor in the open field. The heart is Christ’s throne. Swine in the best room is worse than a swine in the outward house.” Again: “Jesus Christ is not got with a wet finger. It is not wishing and desiring to be saved that will bring men to heaven. Hell’s mouth is full of good wishes. . . . A man must fight against the devil, the world, himself, who shoot poisoned bullets in the soul, where a man must kill or be killed. God hath not lined the way to Christ with velvet, nor strewed it with rushes.”
In his pictures of the heart, as well as of the age, his strokes are powerful and vivid. Wickedness is seen in life-portraiture, mouthing out its blasphemies, belching forth its impieties, revelling in its lusts. The features of depravity are lit up with lurid horror as by the blaze of a burning world or the flames of the pit. The masks of hypocrites are, by the utterance of a telling sentence, changed to glass, and the rays of truth shot with blazing light down to the very depths of a rotten heart. Ere he left England, Shepard had daguerreotyped the morals of a land which had Laud for Archbishop, and the Book of Sports for its ritual of Sabbath observance. He saw towns and villages where “there is no faithful minister, no compassionate Lot to tell them of fire and brimstone from heaven for their crying sins; no Noah to forewarn them of a flood; no messenger to bring them tidings of those armies of God’s devouring plagues and wrath that are approaching near unto them; no pilot—poor forsaken creatures—to show them their rock, either because the parish is too poor, or the church living too great to maintain a faithful man—the strongest asses carrying the heaviest burdens commonly.”
Again, describing men who “stand upon their titular profession of the true religion,” but who are “devils incarnate in their lives,” he says, “Look up and down the kingdom, you shall see some roaring, drinking, dieing, carding, . . . in taverns and blind ale-houses; others belching out their oaths, their mouths even casting out, like raging seas, filthy frothy speeches; others like Ishmaels, scoffing at the best men;—yet these are confident they shall be saved. Why (say they) they are no Papists. Hang them! they will die for their religion, and rather burn than turn again, by the grace of God.” Shepard thinks their superior claims might be met as those of a criminal, who boasted he was a gentleman, were by the judge, who assured him that he should have a higher gallows. So they would be entitled to heavier plagues in hell. In dealing with “hollow professors” he says, “It is in our Church as it is in an old wood, where there are many tall trees; yet cut them and search them deeply, they prove pithless, sapless, hollow, unsound creatures. These men twist their own ruin with a finer thread, and can juggle better than the common sort, and cast mists before their own eyes, and so cheat their own souls.”
Few of the Puritan divines of his century are Shepard’s equals in forcible and earnest dealing with the human heart. He hunts its guilty fancies to their hiding-place. He uncovers the secret springs of motive. He arraigns the transgressor with almost the sternness of one of the old prophets. His words burn and sting in the conscience. But in all this law-work his simple aim is to bring men truly to Christ. He means to be thorough. He will allow no subterfuge, no self-delusion. But when this preparatory work is complete, he unfolds the richness and glory of the gospel with a glowing fervour. Now he seems in his pulpit to stand far up on Jacob’s ladder, expatiating on the unseen glory. Sanctification, adoption, and the final blessedness, are portrayed by one to whom they seem wondrously familiar. Here is his chosen ground. Here his stern stinging words desert him, and his speech is the dialect of the land Beulah. Cotton Mather pronounces him “one of the happiest men that ever we saw.” We can well believe him; and if any man was prepared to appreciate the force and beauty of Shepard’s own language in regard to death, surely he was himself: “If a child be at board from his father’s house, though he be at play with his fellows, yet if he see horse and man come to fetch him, he is glad, and leaves his play and companions to go home to his father willingly; so here we are at board in the world, and we are at play, as it were among the creatures, but when death comes, which is as horse and man, we should be willing to go to our Father’s house, which is best of all.” Throughout his active, useful life, Shepard seems to have shaped his course to the line of his own words—”Use thy duties, as Noah’s dove did her wings, to carry thee to the ark of the Lord Jesus Christ, where only there is rest.” That rest Shepard found.—Family Treasury.
Brief Meditations on Certain Passages of Scripture.
By the late Mr. ANDREW CAMERON, Elder, Oban.
II.
“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth and the life” (John, xiv. 6).
IT is pleasant to notice how the Lord Jesus Christ discourseth with His disciples, like a mother speaking to a little child who is crying after her when she prepares herself to go abroad. The child cries and the mother bids it be still for she is only going to a friend’s house. It still cries and she tells it she is only going to prepare a place for it there where it will be much happier than at home. It is not satisfied and she tells it again although she goes she will come again; then it shall go with her and she will not part from it any more. The child is yet impatient but she tells it that it knows whether she goes and knows the way by which if, need be, it may come to her.
Jesus Christ is the way from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City. He is the way from man’s ruin by sin, from its guilt, from the wrath of God on account of it, from its fear, and from its power, into peace and reconciliation with the Father. By the fall man lost communion with God and Christ is the way to have communion restored to man. Christ is the way to get back to the image we lost by the fall. “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.” Christ is the way to happiness. He says, ‘Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’ This is a perfect way. The road comes to you. Christ will come where you are, like the Good Samaritan coming to the man who was wounded by the thieves and left lying half dead.
Christ is a free way; there is no toll-bar. He is the door, if any man climb up some other way he is a thief and a robber. See Christian meeting Formalist and Hypocrisy: they saw no difference only the coat that was on Christian’s back, which Christ gave him to hide his nakedness when He stripped him of his rags.
Again, our Lord teaches that He is not only the way to our Father’s house in heaven but that there is no other way. Men must go to heaven by faith in His vicarious death and atonement, or not go there at all. We should mark carefully what an unanswerable argument this sentence—”No man cometh unto the Father but by me”—supplies against the modern notion that it does not matter what a man believes, that all religions will lead men to heaven if they are sincere, that creeds and doctrines are of no importance, that Heaven is a place for all mankind, whether heathen, Mahometan, Roman Catholic, or Christian, and that the Fatherhood of God is enough to save all at last of all sects, kinds and characters. Our Lord’s words should never be forgotten. “There is no way to the Father but by me.” God is not a Father to any but to those who believe in Christ.
Again, Christ is our life in that He is its author, its object, and its end. He saves us from death by His atonement which satisfies the law. He delivers us from the power of Satan. He is the Author of inward spiritual life because He procures for us the gift of the life-giving Spirit. He is the object of life. He is our life; as He is our joy, our portion, our everlasting inheritance. He is the end of our life. It is Christ for us to live, and to die is gain.
The late Mr. Donald Campbell, Deacon, Wick.
IT is about four years now since the late Mr. Donald Campbell, deacon, of Wick congregation died. He was practically unknown to Church friends beyond the boundaries of Caithness except in the case of those who were familiar with Wick on communion occasions; yet those who knew him intimately will agree that he was a man worthy to be remembered as a Christian and a gentleman. He was one of the original members of the Free Presbyterian Church in Wick when the congregation worshipped in Pulteneytown Academy, prior to their having a Church or a minister. He, with his two sisters, cast in their lot with those who rallied to the support of the testimony for Truth raised by the late Rev. D. Maefarlane, in 1893.
Mr. Campbell was ordained a deacon in, 1901, after the Rev. Donald Beaton, now of Oban, was ordained minister of the congregation; and acted as Clerk of the Deacon’s Court and Treasurer of the congregation for the period of thirty eight years until laid aside before his death which occurred on Friday the 12th day of May, 1939, on attaining the ripe age of 85 years. He quietly and faithfully discharged those duties which devolved upon him, although he did not take an active part in the public services of the sanctuary on account of a natural reticence and shyness. Nevertheless, he obviously loved the gates of Zion, and true and appreciative lover of the doctrines of grace. He was seldom absent from his place in the house of God throughout well nigh forty years. During his latter years, when confined to his home on Sabbath, he complained of how he missed the public worship of God. In conversation he expressed living and gracious interest in the truths of the gospel of the Redeemer and especially of the precious doctrine of the forgiveness of sins, which appeared to particularly affect him when dealt with in the preaching of the Word. Wholeheartedness and consistency characterised him in his support of the Free Presbyterian Church and its distinctive testimony to the end of his days. Mr. Campbell was unmarried and some years before his death, his worthy sister and companion, Miss Jessie Campbell, a member of Wick congregation, was taken away to her eternal rest. This was a grievous loss to him. After her death he related that the night before she died, she was unwell but bearing no signs of serious illness. Before retiring for the night he enquired of his sister how she felt. In reply she gave him to understand that her view was that she would soon be away from this world to be with Christ. He did not take this news seriously as meaning that the end was near, but chided his sister in an affectionate manner as to asserting that she was ready for heaven. She, thereupon, solemnly replied, “He has said it Himself:—’Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee'” (Song of Solomon, iv. 7). Mr. Campbell then related that he retired for the night, but during the night he was wakened out of his sleep by the following words speaking to him:—”I will fill this house with glory” (Haggai, ii. 7). They so impressed him that he rose, obtained paper and pencil and wrote them down, and retired to bed again. After rising in the morning, he went through to his sister’s bedroom to see how she was and thereupon discovered that she was gone. The Lord had indeed spoken to her and had now come for her during the night to take her to be with Himself—”That where I am there ye may be also.” It was considered probable that his sister died just about the time Mr. Campbell was aroused from sleep by the words quoted above during the night. The cause of Christ is weakened when one here and another there, of the children of the Covenant, ripened by divine grace, are gathered away to the garner of heaven. “Christ the first fruits; afterwards they that are Christ’s at his coming” (I. Corinth. xv. v. 23).—R. R. S.
The late Miss Catherine Malcolm, Wick.
MISS Malcolm was born at Dunbeath, Caithness, in February, 1860. Her father, David Malcolm sought to bring up his children in the fear and admonition of the Lord and Catherine with others was regularly catechised and also questioned about the sermon heard after returning from the house of God. The family came to reside in Wick in the year 1870, and before reaching the age of thirty Miss Malcolm became a member of the Free Church, Pulteneytown, Wick, this being prior to 1893. She made a habit of writing down Scriptures which impressed her and texts of sermons she had heard with observations of her own exercise of mind. Many of these notes were found after her death. Those who left the Free Church in Wick on account of the Declaratory Act of 1893 and formed the Free Presbyterian Church congregation, worshipped for a time in a school—Pulteneytown Academy. In the course of time Miss Malcolm joined this company. While writing, there is before me her own account, as to how she was guided to become a Free Presbyterian. It is as follows: —“Sabbath, October 26th (no year given) Acts, viii. 29: ‘Go near and join thyself to this chariot.’ Since writing down this I see something very strong in the word join, meaning as much to join myself to this people. II. Cor. vi. 17-18: “Wherefore, come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you and will be a Father unto you and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.’ These two scriptures brought me out to the Academy. . . . The Union* is wrong and these people of the Academy are right in that His name is most honoured.” Much more might be related of what she left on record regarding her spiritual experiences in connection with God’s Word; but the foregoing extract will suffice to indicate that Miss Malcolm was an exercised Christian seeking to be guided by the divine “lamp” and “light” of God’s Word and not by the wisdom of men. She was of a happy disposition and would sing the Psalms of David while doing her household duties. We are confident in saying that she was truly adorned by God’s grace, with “a meek and quiet spirit.” She was in her own experience, a poor unworthy sinner, ever requiring the great Saviour “Jesus Christ, the righteous” (I. John, ii. 1). Sometimes in Church she could not sing certain verses of the Psalm given out because she had not the strength spiritually to do so. Then as she said herself, she would receive strength to sing part of some verses. She was given much to prayer for herself, those around her and on behalf of the cause and Church of Christ in an evil world. Miss Malcolm died on the 24th day of March, 1942, at the age of 82 years. And we have reason to hope that she is altogether taken up with the acclamation:—“Salvation unto our God that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb,” with others of the Church triumphant. We extend sympathy to her niece and nephew who resided with her and cared for her most kindly in her last illness.—E. E. S.
* The Union of the Free and United Presbyterian Churches in 1900.—Editor.
Mr. Alick Macdonald, Lochmaddy.
MR. Macdonald was, I believe, a member in the late Rev. D. Macfarlane’s congregation at Tomatin. His mind was well-stored with Scripture which he used to good effect against mere secular or theological learning, which he considered had done much injury to the Church of Christ. On a question day he used great freedom of speech, by which he gave great uneasiness to those who came within range of his philippics, which usually extended for an hour or more. During his latter years he was blind. His children lost a good and faithful father. Mr. Macdonald died about the age of 76.—W. B. N.
Mrs. Mary Macdonald, Hougharry.
MRS. Mary Macdonald, widow of Mr. Gillespie Macdonald, elder in this congregation for many years, became a member in full communion shortly after her husband’s death. He died at the age of 90. Her memory was proverbial and anyone of slender attainments in Scripture could easily pray with her provided he attempted to quote Scripture, since she invariably repeated Scripture after Scripture once she got a start. She was a great catechist and young ministers had to be careful in her presence as she was likely to ask embarrassing questions. It was quite usual for her to ask when one came in to see her: “Did you pray for me since I saw you last.” Her grandsons and daughter now live in the old home. They lost a kind father and a worthy grandmother.—W. B. N.
Mrs. Christina Macdonald, Knockline.
MRS. Macdonald, Knockline, died at the ripe age of 92. She was a most diligent hearer of the Word, attending regularly until her strength literally failed. She would put to shame many younger people, some of whom sometimes develop symptoms of ill-health on Saturday night but recover easily on Monday morning. During her latter years Mrs. Macdonald was somewhat unsettled in her mind, but she always got her bearings when spiritual matters were the subject of conversation. She was much attached to Rev. D. M. Macdonald, Portree, who was the first minister settled here after 1893. Our sympathy goes out to her daughter left alone in the home.—W. B. N.
John Macdonald, Elder, Dusary.
THIS worthy man died on Sabbath, 10th of October, this year, at the age of 87. He is survived by his widow and grown-up family of ten out of twelve, most of whom are married and settled down. It seems he was brought to know the Lord while a young man, and before 1893 was a member in the old Free Church. In that year he cast in his lot with the Free Presbyterian Church. As a Christian he was sound in doctrine, fervent in prayer, punctual in attendance, and a helper to the cause of Christ. One hearing him speaking to the Question would, however, gather that Mr. Macdonald considered these and other qualifications as simply the fruits of saving faith. Many responsibilities were thrust upon him in connection with the congregation but the most difficult to him was to take services which he often had to undertake. Mr. Macdonald was a general merchant in North Uist and experienced difficulties and temptations of a peculiar kind which were no doubt sore trials to him. But like Christian in the “Pilgrims Progress” he kindly came up to the gate over which was written in letters of gold, “Blessed are they that do His commandments that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the city.” And then it was said to him, “Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” On the day of his death he asked his youngest son to read Psalm iv. and John chapter xv. Our sympathy goes out to his sorrowing widow, his two daughters and eight sons almost all who were able to be present at his funeral.—W. B. N.