Through the sudden passing of the Rev. M. Gillies, in the early hours of Tuesday, 25th September, the Church of Christ on earth has lost an able minister of the New Testament.
Although his passing was sudden, it was not unexpected by himself. Since his illness in the early spring, it was evident that he was not without intimation from his Master in Heaven that the time of his departure was drawing near.
His first appearance in public after his illness was on the Friday of the Tolsta communion, towards the end of March. In the opening prayer of the services of the day, it is no exaggeration to say that he enjoyed an extraordinary measure of liberty, many remarking afterwards that seldom, if ever, had they heard a prayer like it. The burden of his prayer was on behalf of the cause which he so dearly loved, and so faithfully served. “We shall soon be out of sight,” he remarked, and with that earnestness and soul-refreshing unction, he pled that the Lord would raise such as would be counted faithful to maintain and uphold the Testimony raised on the side of Christ and His down-trode cause in Scotland. The impression one got that day was that, having served his generation in the office of the ministry, he was taking a solemn farewell of the Church militant, and was now awaiting his exodus to the Church triumphant.
At his own Communion in August, he served, as was his custom, the last table, basing his address on the significant words in II. Peter—”Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance; knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me.” In the evening he took the Gaelic service in the Church, and with unusual unction and power preached from Matt. xxvii. (51-53).
On Sabbath morning, September 23rd—his last Sabbath on earth—he preached from the words, “And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” The night before his death he read at worship the last chapter of II. Timothy, containing the Apostle’s triumphant farewell, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing.” In the concluding prayer—his last public exercise in time—he quoted the first part of the above passage. A few hours afterwards he was awakened out of sleep by a severe pain.
Having repeated in Gaelic verse 17 of Psalm CIII, “Oir gabhaidh thairis osag ghaoith’ s cha bhi e idir ann,” he lapsed into comma, and about 6 a.m. on Tuesday entered the rest which remaineth for the people of God. The large concourse from far and wide which attended his funeral—one of the largest seen in Stornoway for many years—evidenced that a prince and a great man had fallen in Israel.
As a preacher, Mr. Gillies shunned not to declare the whole counsel of God. Through the efficacious teaching of the Holy Spirit, he had an experimental acquaintance with the distinctive doctrines of grace. His preaching, therefore, was not in the enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. He faithfully declared the state of every child of Adam’s race as lost, ruined, and undone, and deserving hell as his eternal portion. He held forth Christ, the only and eternally begotten Son of the Father as the One who came to seek and to save that which was lost, and with equal clearness and force, he emphasised the absolute necessity of the effectual and gracious work of the Holy Spirit in applying to sinners the redemption purchased by Christ. With consummate skill, he could handle as few, the varied cases of the tried and tempted household of faith. As a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, he rightly divided the word of Truth, keeping nothing back.
By all endowed with a measure of gracious discernment to prize and value a living ministry and a witness for Truth, his passing is felt, and in the strength of that grace which enabled him to persevere unto the end, they would seek to take a firmer hold of the precious Presbyterian heritage bequeathed to them, and of which Mr. Gillies proved himself a faithful custodian, and to hearken anew to the voice which says—”Behold I come quickly: hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.”
Stornoway Gazette.