As the years roll along it is the painful experience of some of us to see one after another of the Lord’s people, whom we knew and to whom we were attached, removed out of the world. Though our loss is their great gain, yet we cannot help mourning over their removal, especially when the Lord is not raising up others to take their place. Among those whose departure we thus mourn is Mrs. Christina Lamont, Roag, Vatten.
Mrs. Lamont was a daughter of the late Mr. Ronald MacSween, who had been for many years a missionary of our Church at Coigach. Her mother also feared the Lord, and we may be sure that they did their duty in endeavouring to train their family in the fear of the Lord. This is a duty required of all parents, but such parents as fear the Lord have often to mourn that they are seeing no fruit following their efforts. The parents of the subject of this sketch had that mortifying experience, for their daughter lived many years without God and without hope in the world. However, when God’s time came, the arrows of conviction fastened in her conscience and the struggle which followed was deep and prolonged, so that she could say with the Psalmist: “The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell got hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow.” She reckoned herself the chief of sinners so that now, instead of resenting any slighting of her, as she was formerly ready to do, she would be wondering that any one would speak a kind word to her. He who, through the work of the Holy Spirit, brought her to see herself as a sinner, also revealed Himself to her as her Saviour.
After she had attained to a hope that she had an interest in Christ, Satan made many a desperate assault on her, so that her condition might well be described in the language of the Holy Spirit: “They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wit’s end.” At last, in August, 1936, those who knew her well had the satisfaction to see her coming before the Session in order to be admitted to the Lord’s Table for the first time. The Lord spared her for nearly ten years after this and kept her profession unspotted. She was, however, no stranger to the temptations of Satan, and was often brought very low, yet the Lord was giving her the victory. To visit her in her very hospitable home, and converse with her on spiritual and eternal realities, are among the incidents which leave with us pleasant memories. At communion seasons her house would be full of the Lord’s people, and her only regret, on these occasions, was, that more did not come.
For many years she had been struggling with a painful bodily affliction which made it necessary for her, at last, to have an operation. Complications set in and she had to be removed to Edinburgh for medical advice. While she was in hospital in Edinburgh, we called to see her, and she told us that she got the truth: “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord. The Lord hath chastened me sore: but he hath not given me over unto death.” As she had failed visibly since we had previously visited her, in her own home, we concluded that, in her case, this truth was not to be fulfilled with respect to her body, but had no doubt but it would be true of her soul. As nothing could be done for her, it was decided to remove her to her home in Skye. With that end in view, she was taken to her son’s home in Larbert, where it was intended she would rest for a day or two. There, her condition became worse and she passed away, we believe, to her eternal rest, on Sabbath, 7th April, 1946. On the day of the funeral, which was to Dunvegan Cemetery, the large concourse of people which gathered from far and near, manifested the respect in which she was held by those who knew her.
As regards the affairs of her large family she was diligent, well-deserving the character of the virtuous woman in Proverbs xxxi., but while this was the case, higher matters were given the chief place. The chief end for which she lived in the world was the glory of God and the good of His Cause, and she showed this to her family and others by precept and example, for, though battling against a painful affliction her place was seldom empty in the public means of grace. She always kept a cheerful countenance to the world, but those who knew her intimately, knew that she had trials and temptations which grace alone enabled her to bear. Grace carried her through till she went in to join the ransomed throng of whom it is said: “Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.”
To her husband, who is a respected elder in our congregation, we tender our sincere sympathy, and to their large family, and would take this opportunity of reminding them of the counsel of the Holy Ghost: “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them.” Also we extend our sympathy to her brothers to whom she was very attached.
“Help Lord; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men” (Ps. xii. 1).—J.C.