By Rev. JAMES A. TALLACH, Retiring Moderator, 22nd May, 1945.
For our light affliction which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. II Cor. 4: 18.
IN these precious words the Apostle makes particular reference to those afflictions and labours immediately attendant upon the preaching of the gospel. Where and when the gospel is preached in purity we must reckon with afflictions and trials. Their absence indeed would be a cause for serious misgiving. As long as there is sin in the world the reproach of the cross will not cease. But the words of the Apostle express a truth of much wider application, an application which no doubt embraces the whole church of God on earth. So far as we are concerned there is here a message for us as individuals, and also for the church as a body, which with the blessing of the Lord provides a subject for meditation not inappropriate to these times.
In considering this passage as we may be enabled let us look at it First as containing for us something of CORRECTION. “Not at things seen, for the things which are seen are temporal.” Too often do we give that place to things seen and temporal which ought to be given only to things unseen and eternal. This is a mistake which must be corrected. Secondly, there is something in these words for our INSTRUCTION and IMITATION. “While we look . . . at the things which are not seen.” We are to range ourselves alongside the Apostle, to adopt his point of view and to see as he saw.
Thirdly, There is something here for our CONSOLATION. While we are thus engaged this happens: “Our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” What an amazing transformation is this!
First then, a word of correction. The ordinary man of the world, the unconverted man—whether religious or not, many very religious men are unconverted—only and always looks upon that which is seen and temporal. He is quite blind to what is unseen and eternal. He therefore requires correction in an absolute and radical sense. Dead in trespasses and sins and unaware of the reality and glory of eternal things his heart and life are taken up with what is seen and temporal. He seeks to make a little heaven for himself out of those things which lie to hand. For a time he seems to succeed and his labours appear to yield some reward, but sooner or later it comes to naught, and his heaven ends in hell. Scripture deals in a very solemn and emphatic way with this mistake. You remember the Parable of the Ten Virgins. Five were wise and five were foolish. Wherein consisted the folly of the latter? Blind to things unseen and eternal—the secret work of the Holy Spirit, regeneration, and grace—they looked only upon things seen and temporal—their lamps, their vessels and their companions,—the Bridegroom came, they were not prepared to meet Him, the door was shut and they were caught. You remember the house-builders. One built upon a Rock, keeping his eye on things unseen and eternal. But the other man wanted quick results. What is seen and temporal is good enough for him. Given a spell of good weather, and saves time and labour and skill. The foundation is soon laid, the building grows rapidly; why, it is finished before the other has well begun. Yes, but listen to this, “the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.” There is again the case of the Rich Fool. “I will say to my soul, soul thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease; eat, drink and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee.” Scripture abounds with parables, warnings and exhortations of this solemn nature each one of them designed to correct the mistake of looking at things merely seen and temporal to the neglect at things eternal, ere it ends in disaster.
But it is not alone the unconverted man of the world who is liable to this error. The enlightened Christian who has seen something of the reality of eternal things, often finds to his dismay that there is still in him an evil heart of unbelief which always hankers back to the old things of time and sense. To guard against this error, and to correct it, requires gracious and sustained effort. Life itself and the world we live in are just teeming with those things seen and temporal, some of them lawful enough in their own place, others definitely unlawful, and each of them exerting an influence upon us tending to usurp that place in our thoughts and affections which ought to be given to the things of God. But Scripture exhorts us to “lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us . . . looking unto Jesus,” “while we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen.”
Someone said of the Children of Israel that they left Egypt in one night, but it took forty years of severe discipline to get Egypt out of them. In this they are but as a looking-glass faithfully reflecting what every man of God finds is the case with respect to his own heart. Even the godly Thomas Boston records in his diary, “I have noticed that whenever I have felt inclined to make for myself a soft easy nest, lined with feathers, and to sit down in it and take my rest, the Lord hath put a thorn in it and compelled me to get up and go on my way.” “Strangers and Pilgrims on the earth,” is more than a title, it is a description true to fact; “this is not your rest, arise and depart.”
Well, let us graciously and humbly accept the correction. Oh, would God we had the wisdom to accept it, and to make a daily, yea an hourly, adjustment of our outlook accordingly; otherwise how can we escape the rod of the Lord’s correction. Attracted by the beauty of the plain of Jordan, Lot made choice of it as his dwelling-place. “But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly,”—that factor Lot seems to have left out of account, and what happened?—”Flee for thy life, tarry not in all the plain.” “And Abraham got up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the Lord: and he looked towards Sodom and Gomorrah, and towards all the land of the plain, and beheld, and lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace.” The Rev. N. Cameron used to tell, with great effect, of a gracious man of whom he had read. This man set up in business, married, and in the course of time, had, I think, four sons. His business prospered remarkably, but it began to make undue demands on his time, his thoughts and ultimately his heart. In the interest of his business he even ceased holding family worship except upon Sabbath morning. His business continued to prosper. But the time came when the Lord began to deal with him in another way. First his wife was removed by death, and that affected him, but not for long. Then his four sons, one after the other died. On each occasion he seemed to be deeply affected, and gave promise of true penitence, but these impressions were all too successfully drowned in the cares and concerns of a business, which now began to show signs of declining. In spite of all his efforts the decline steadily continued, until in his old age all that was left to him of worldly possessions was his large well-furnished mansion house. One day while he lay seriously ill inside, the house itself caught fire. It was only just in time that those attending him were able to carry him out to safety. He was laid on a mattress on the lawn in front of the building, which by this time was blazing furiously. As the man gazed upon his last remaining possession of things seen and temporal, and that being rapidly consumed before his eyes, he raised his head in his hand with his elbow on the pillow, as if to get a better view of all that was taking place, until finally the whole roof collapsed with a loud report amid belching clouds of flame and smoke, and he was heard to say in a very chastened and affecting way, “Thank God I am cured at last.” “The fire shall try every man’s work . . . if any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.”
Secondly. A word for our instruction and imitation. “While we look at those things which are unseen and eternal.” The Apostle speaks of men whose understandings have been enlightened to see these things.
Scripture supplies the key to this great mystery of seeing the invisible; it is “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,” and consequently, “through faith Moses saw Him who is invisible.” It is required of every spiritual man that he so train and discipline himself as that this looking upon the unseen and eternal becomes the constant habit of his mind; and this is no easy attainment. What a rare master in this aspect of godliness the Apostle was! How the grace of God shines forth in the manner it had inclined and enabled him to look always upon those things which are unseen and eternal, and to give them that place of pre-eminence in his heart, judgment and labours, which God has assigned to them.
During the present war most men in Britain will have learned to use a rifle. In shooting, the first difficulty to be overcome is the proper use of the sights in relation to the target. The sights are very necessary. They are things near the eye. The target is a long distance away—perhaps half a mile. At first the recruit is naturally inclined to focus his eye upon the sights and he perhaps wonders how his shooting is so bad. Later, however, he learns to fix his eye upon what he wants to hit; and keeping that object steadfastly in view, he simply aligns the sights upon it, and from then on his shooting shows improvement. These things seen and temporal are there, near at hand, but we must learn to align them in relation to those other things unseen and eternal. This important lesson the Apostle had learned well, and habitually practised, “While we look at things unseen and eternal.” We are instructed to go and do likewise.
What are those things? We can but briefly allude to a few of them. First there is the tremendous fact that “God is,”—a fact that ought always to predominate in our point of view. You remember how the Shorter Catechism answers those questions which relate to the being and nature of God?—”God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth. There is but one only, the living and true God. There are three persons in the God-head, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory. The decrees of God are His eternal purpose, according to the counsel of His will, whereby for His own glory, He hath fore-ordained whatsoever comes to pass. God executeth His decrees in the works of creation and providence. The work of creation is God’s making all things of nothing, by the word of His power, in the space of six days, and all very good. God’s works of providence are, His most holy, wise and powerful preserving and governing all His creatures and all their actions.” How incapable our sin-darkened minds are of grasping the full significance of these great truths. But then they are for our faith to look upon; to gaze steadfastly and intently upon; to look so that the effect of them may sink into the depths of our very beings; enlightening, solemnising and humbling us; purifying, enriching and strengthening us. Surely that point of view, and any judgments and actions proceeding from it, which in any measure fail to take these fundamental truths concerning God into account, are in that measure distorted and dangerous. In his hardness of heart Pharaoh says “Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go.” The subsequent history of Egypt—a history written in fearful judgments, disaster and death—is the inevitable answer to that bold challenge. But Moses, looking upon things unseen and eternal “saw Him who is invisible,” and from then on Egypt, with its mighty throne, its pleasures of sin, and all its tempting treasures became for him as if they were not. “He endured as seeing Him who is invisible.” Oh! what he endured during those 40 years in the wilderness! But evidently long before the Apostle wrote the words of our text Moses had discovered his secret, and by means of it those 40 long years contract into a mere moment, and the crushing burden of their affliction becomes light; and those 40 years have wrought out for him a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Is it permissible for us to think that the heaven of Moses is 40 times richer in glory than it would have been had it taken him but one year to cross the wilderness? May the Lord in His rich mercy give each of us to be well instructed in the faith which sees Him who is invisible.
Again there is the fact that the spiritual world exists now, and its things, though unseen, are all around us, so that each one of us is in direct contact with them and they with us. This is a fact of supreme importance which must not be left out of account. The Word of God throughout its whole extent builds up before us a spiritual structure infinite and eternal, distinct from, and vastly more important than, the material universe with which we are naturally so familiar. This spiritual world is impressed upon our notice continually as something which is real and substantial. Sin is a reality in this world—a terrible reality. Salvation is a reality, a glorious reality. Heaven is a reality, an infinitely desirable reality, hell is a reality, inconceivable in its darkness and horror. But, oh! my friends, are we as habitually impressed with the solemn reality of these unseen and eternal things as we ought to be? Do we apprehend the awful significance of eternity to the soul that is lost? Sometimes severe accidents happen in the streets of Glasgow. I have seen one or two, and the sight is not soon forgotten nor are the impressions easily effaced. There are countless numbers of our fellow-creatures living and dying all around us without God and without hope, and going down to an eternity of wrath unrelieved. Is it not a serious reflection upon our spirituality of outlook that so little impression appears to be made upon us by such a sight? What of our near and dear ones, our friends and acquaintances, the people of our congregations and communities whom we may know to be in a state unprepared to meet with God in peace? Every man, woman and child living stands, wittingly or unwittingly, in direct relationship to these unseen and eternal realities, and the relationship is one either of blessing or cursing, either of life or death, of salvation or damnation. No doubt, with the return of peace to this war-stricken world of ours opportunities for usefulness will be widely opened to the Church of Christ in Scotland and throughout the world. May the Lord put within us the urge to avail ourselves of these opportunities. Oh, that men would be raised up having the solemn and impressive fact of a spiritual and eternal world ever before their minds, who would stand in our pulpits and, without fear or favour, declare the Truth of God to their fellow men. In answer to an appeal published in our Magazine eight months ago for teachers for our Mission in Africa, the Foreign Missions Committee received one reply; one solitary reply! How great the responsibility of those must be to whom God has given the physical and intellectual equipment, but who, in the interest of some passing whim, seen and temporal, lack the will and the urge to lay their talents at the Redeemer’s feet.
Another of those things unseen and eternal, constantly to be kept in view, is that which constitutes their true glory. The Word of God leaves us in no doubt of what that glory is. From the time that Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain down to the present, there is one object of pre-eminent glory constantly impressed upon the attention of men. That glory is not seen. Nay, when men look upon it with unspiritual eyes, they see nothing in it but an object of derision and contempt, and it frequently becomes the subject of the drunkard’s song. But for all those hosts of sinners redeemed by grace the Cross of Jesus is the Glory of God’s Kingdom.
The world has its own standards of glory. It is the fashion of the passing hour to honour our military men. Well worthy of it they are; by all means let every man who deserves it receive due reward according to the standards of respect prevailing among men. But let us not forget that the spiritual world of things unseen and eternal has also its standards of glory. The glory of men like Eisenhower and Montgomery is won at the expense of Hitler and Mussolini. The glory of Christ is maintained and advanced by the destruction and defeat of all the forces of evil, and the trampling of sin, death and hell under foot. The glory of the Cross is this, it crucifies the world, it crucifies the flesh and its lusts, it crucifies sin; and it advances all that is holy, all that is righteous, all that is honourable and glorifying to God. Oh, let us keep this in mind and never forget it. How those things seen and temporal will intrude between us and the glory of the cross, how woefully successful they are in stealing the allegiance of our hearts. How in our pride, our folly our self-indulgence we dote upon these things which ought rather to be nailed to the cross and left to die. The glory of the cross of Jesus is a glory with which it has been invested not by man but by God,—let any man tarnish it at his peril. How well the Apostle had learned this lesson,—“God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world.” “I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” That was how he looked at it, and therein we are instructed to go and do likewise.
Let us notice one other of those things unseen and eternal which must not be lost sight of. That is the Eternal Purpose of God. In any true view of God’s Kingdom this must be taken into account and accorded a prominent place. The private soldier on guard on a lonely outpost has his own conception of war—a conception formed from personal privation, danger and fatigue, and therefore very limited and apt to be distorted. How different is the view of the commander, away back at Headquarters, looking at his war maps and seeing the battle as a whole, involving hundreds of thousands of men and all their respective dispositions as regiments, brigades and armies, with all the background of supply, and the extensive lines of communication right back to the principal base. What a wonderful view his is of the whole complicated situation. In any successful campaign, what a tonic it would be to the weary, dejected private could he but get a glimpse of things as the commander sees them. It is no unusual thing for the true Christian warrior to find himself affected by the situation as that private soldier, and to conclude, “Oh, what’s the use, this is a hopeless business.” Elijah, fleeing to the wilderness, lying under the juniper bush wishing to die, is a case which will readily occur to your minds. At such times what a spiritual tonic it would be for us to see, even through a glass darkly, the mighty plan God has in His mind, “He is in His mind, who can turn Him; and what His soul desireth, even that He doeth.” “To Him a thousand years are as one day, and one day as a thousand years.” And is not such a privilege ours? Are we not required to look upon things unseen and eternal? We have the Word of God which is the revelation of His mind. We have the past history of the world, which is but the contribution of the centuries to the minute fulfilment of His eternal purpose. What will future history, right up to the last solemn transactions on the Great Day be, but the continued orderly development of the same mighty purpose which He in His Grace and Wisdom foreordained, and in His Almighty power brought to pass, for His Own Glory. Think of the Second Psalm, “Ask of Me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost part of the earth for thy possession.” Think of the ninth chapter of Romans, “What if God, willing to show His wrath, and to make His power known endured, with much long-suffering, the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had afore prepared unto glory,” and the seventy-second Psalm, “His name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in Him: all nations shall call Him blessed.” Yes, surely, the Purpose of God is among those things unseen and eternal which must be taken into account. How profoundly thankful we should be for it, and for all the certainty we are justified in placing in the fulfilment of it. This is especially so with respect to these times, when the Church of Christ has to mourn over the lack of converts, and the back-sliding of many who profess the name of Christ, the terrible hardness of heart which seems to meet the gospel in every quarter. Oh, with what a yearning heart may the Church of God in Scotland look back to days of the right hand of the Son of Man, to the early days of our own Church when, by the testimony of many witnesses, spiritual warmth, single-minded unity, and fellowship were such characteristic features of our people. But while these reflections give just cause for sorrow and searchings of heart, does that mean that the power of God according to His purpose is less effective to-day than it was then? Not by so much as the weight of a grain of sand. God’s mighty purpose according to His eternal election is being as surely and as completely carried out these days as it was when thousands flocked to the preaching of the Gospel. “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out.” Well, these are some, among many others, of the things unseen and eternal we are to look at. To so look steadfastly and constantly as to become filled with them—our hearts filled with them, our time, our outlook and our labours. While we do so then our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
Here lastly is something for our consolation. Surely that view of affliction which makes it light and momentary is full of consolation. That is just what it becomes in the view of the Apostle, and he here encourages the people of God, and the Church of God in all ages in the daily practice of this looking upon the unseen and eternal, so that they too may experience this miracle of gracious transformation—Our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Here is something wonderful for faith to exercise itself upon, for the actual fulfilling of these words in our inner experience is itself among the things unseen and eternal. Considered in itself affliction, and especially such affliction as was the daily companion of the Apostle, is anything but light and for a moment. Naturally we are rather inclined to enlarge our affliction than to belittle it. I suppose we have all found such a disposition in us, a disposition to indulge ourselves in self-pity, to nurse our grievances, to make martyrs of ourselves and to draw a kind of morbid satisfaction from our sufferings. This is nothing other than a subtle form of self-idolatry which unless it is conquered will surely conquer us. The Apostle shows us how to conquer even as he had conquered. He, afflicted probably as no mere man had ever been afflicted, resolutely refused to be overborne, but kept his eye fixed steadfastly upon things unseen and eternal, and in so doing he saw his affliction in true perspective, occupy its proper place and assume its rightful proportions—Our light affliction which is but for a moment. “Every sin deserves God’s wrath and curse both in this life and that which is to come.” What comparison does our affliction bear to the just reward of our sin in eternal torment? And oh, how light when considered in relation to those infinitely awful sufferings through which the Lamb of God wrought out our redemption on the accursed tree! To attempt comparison here would seem to border upon sacrilege—“Draw not nigh hither; put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.”
Again, while we look upon things unseen and eternal, affliction worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory by contributing very considerably to our sanctification. “By these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit,” said godly Hezekiah. Heart sins are thereby brought to light and nailed to the cross and left to die,—worldliness, pride, rebellion, forgetfulness of God, hypocrisy, etc. Certain graces of the Spirit which would otherwise be untried are called into activity,—submission, humility, patience, faithfulness, etc. Other graces are stimulated to greater activity,—faith, hope, love; and thereby the holiness and spirituality of the whole soul are promoted. The glory of Christ is more clearly perceived and His presence and fellowship more eagerly sought for. Many precious portions of Scripture shed light upon this subject; “I will bring the third part through the fire and will refine it as silver is refined, and will try it as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, it is my people: and they shall say the Lord is my God.” “Now, no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous; but grievous nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.” Surely that affliction is light and but for a moment when compared with these great and blessed fruits which in the hand of the Lord, it is the means of bringing out,—refined silver, gold tried and purified, the peaceable fruit of righteousness. In one of his letters to Lady Kennure, Samuel Rutherford writes, “Madam, tire not, weary not: I dare find you the Son of God caution; when ye are got up thither, and have cast your eyes to view the golden city, and the fair and never-withering Tree of Life, that beareth twelve manner of fruits every month, ye shall say, ‘Four-and-twenty hours abode in this place is worth three score and ten years’ sorrow upon earth.’”
It is, by the blessing of God, largely through the labours and the afflictions of the Church that sinners are saved. The Church is the spiritual mother of God’s children, and it is when she travails she brings forth children. It is no unusual thing in the history of the Church to find that times of great tribulation have been most productive of spiritual fruit. The maintaining inviolate of the Truth of God, the preaching of a pure gospel, the exercising of a faithful, wise and affectionate discipline, and the quiet prayerful waiting upon God, are functions of the Church militant which, when consistently carried out, rouse the hosts of darkness to fury. No church on earth need expect to do battle with Satan for the souls of men and come through unseathed. But we are looking at things unseen and eternal—the souls of a countless multitude gathered out of every nation and kingdom under heaven as a result of the Church’s labour and tribulation,—sinners called, convicted, converted, justified, sanctified and glorified. And are there not some at least of that mighty host who lovingly and thankfully look up to the Church of our fathers as their spiritual mother? What are all the afflictions through which the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland shall have passed in comparison with the eternal weight of glory wrought as a result of the salvation of all those whom she has been the honoured instrument of bringing out of darkness into God’s marvellous light? Samuel Rutherford said, “If one soul from Anwoth meet me at God’s right hand, my heaven shall be two heavens in Immanuel’s land.” Not only are they glorified with an eternal weight of glory, but Christ is glorified in them with an exceeding weight of glory. “His glory is great in that salvation: honour and majesty hast thou laid upon Him.” In that glory the whole Church of God will participate, “He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.” The Apostle would have us fix our attention upon the joy of harvest rather than upon the weeping of seed-time. In doing so we, too, may comfort ourselves and encourage ourselves with this precious truth, “Our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” May the Lord graciously enable us to do it.
The Late Mrs. Ann MacKenzie, Badfearn, Aultbea.
THIS good woman passed away on the 18th day of last April. She had entered into the 92nd year of her pilgrimage a month before. She was born in the Island of Crowlin. This Island lies off the coast of Applecross Parish and is not now inhabited. Mrs. MacKenzie married when young and settled in the north part of the Parish of Gairloch, first at Mellon-Udrigle and afterwards at Badfearn where she died.
We never heard her state the time of her life she was changed in state and nature, but her son, Christopher, an elder in the Kames Congregation, stated to us that it was when she was comparatively young. The portion of truth that gave her relief in her extremity was II Cor. 12:9: “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” This and other truths were her staff for her whole wilderness journey. She was illiterate. The isolated Island where she was nurtured accounts for her illiteracy, together with the little interest parents, and the local authorities that were, took in the education of children in those days. Mrs. MacKenzie, however, had a good mental capacity and though she could neither read Gaelic nor English she had a great knowledge of her Bible. The Lord had endowed her with a memory not of the ordinary kind, so that she was able to retain a great deal of what she heard read. When one read with her at family worship she would often go before him repeating the chapter in a whisper. And as for the Psalms she could repeat from memory all the familiar ones. To give her a good grounding in the knowledge of the fundamental truths of God’s Word she knew “The Shorter Catechism,” that great body of Divinity which is much neglected in our day.
Of her illiteracy Satan made use. He discovers every weakness in the believer. He would often try to persuade her that certain portions of Scripture, which were made precious to her, were not in the Bible, and she would have to labour under these temptations till she got some one to confirm to her, that they were part of God’s Word. She had a store of the sayings of the outstanding preachers she had heard in her day, together with the pithy utterances of the “men” who spoke to question on the Friday of the Communions. With these she often entertained her visitors. In her solitary hours during her declining years she exercised her mind in recalling these sayings. She was confined to the house for a number of years, and to bed for a considerable time when the infirmities of old age crept in. Her mental powers and senses, however, continued with her unimpaired to the end. She took a keen interest in the services of God’s House and in Communion seasons, when she could no longer attend these herself. Her heart was there: “My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord.” A little time before she was taken she summoned those who were at home of her family to her bedside, and gave them many advices relative to their souls good for eternity. She repeated a portion of the 22nd Psalm. She then said, “He is coming, He is coming.” When asked who was coming, she said, “The Lord Jesus.” Immediately after she passed peacefully away. Her husband had died forty-eight years ago, and two of her family predeceased her, while five still remain. It was her daughter, Mrs. Trotter, who resided with her and nursed her in her declining years. “Help, Lord; for the Godly man ceaseth.”
A.B.
Mr. Archibald Crawford, Elder, Oban.
It is with sincere regret we record the passing away of another of our elders, Mr. Archibald Crawford, Oban, on the 26th May.
Mr. Crawford was the eldest son of Mr. Duncan Crawford, one of the eminent men with which the Free Presbyterian Church was blessed at the beginning of her career. He, in turn, was the nephew of a still more eminent man, Mr. Archibald Crawford, Tighnabruaich, a man whose sayings were often quoted by our older ministers and whose opinions on religious and ecclesiastical matters were often referred to.
The subject of our memoir though thus highly honoured came into the world a lost sinner, and lived in it as such, until God’s time came when He showed him his lost state and the provision He made for such in the Son of His love. Some time after he made his public profession Mr. Crawford was elected a deacon of the congregation, which office he filled to the satisfaction of all concerned. After serving as a deacon for a number of years he was elected an elder, an office in which he served until his death.
Mr. Crawford served as an officer in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in the first Great War in which he was badly gassed, from the effects of which he suffered ever afterwards and which was probably a predisposing cause of his death.
Mr. Crawford had a kindly heart which showed itself in looking after the interests of afflicted and needy persons. He did not hesitate to put his hand in his pocket when occasion required while taking care that his left hand did not know what his right hand did. Owing to a timid and reticent nature he never summed up courage to speak in public.
During his illness the Psalms with which his mind was stored became a solace to him when passing through the Dark Valley. He was highly esteemed by the congregation and by his fellow office-bearers. We tender our heartfelt sympathy to his widow in her great loss of a beloved husband and to his sisters in their great loss of an affectionate brother.
D.B.