MURDO Morrison was born at Ballantrushal in the parish of Barvas, Lewis, on the 24th day of March, 1877. He was the second son and the fourth child of the family of John Morrison and Jane Macdonald. His father and mother feared the Lord and taught their children the truths of God’s word.
Murdo left school at the age of 15 years and was sent to Stornoway to work in a draper’s shop. From there he went to Glasgow to work in one of the shops in that city.
It would seem that the Spirit of the Lord was striving with him before he left Stornoway. He attended the public means of grace, read the word of God in private, and was not a stranger to secret prayer. These means the Lord blessed to his soul in convincing him of his sins as being against God, and exposing him to, not only all misery in this life, but the wrath of God throughout eternity. The Gospel deliverance came to him on a Sabbath Day as he was reading in the Epistle to the Ephesians and the 1st chapter. It was an experience to be remembered by him while he lived, for he drank deeply of the love that provided salvation, and such a glorious salvation for perishing sinners.
His thoughts were at this time turned to the work of preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, which he had received, by which he had become a new man, and everything had become new to him. There were many mountains in his way—how could they be removed?—for none but the Lord could take them away. One of the great obstacles before him was that he might be deceived in this solemn matter of a call to preach the gospel. Our ways and times are, however, known to the Lord and He brings about His own purposes in a way that will be to His glory and our good. The hearing of a preacher who was to assist at the Communion in St. Jude’s Free Presbyterian Church, led him in a way he had not thought of as yet. He made his way to hear the preacher—the late Rev. Donald Macfarlane—and in the sermon that day his own experiences were so minutely dealt with, as the experiences of God’s true people, that his heart was united in love to the preacher, and to the testimony he was the honoured instrument to raise on behalf of the truth. From that day onward, Mr. Morrison regarded himself as belonging to the Free Presbyterian Church. He came forward to the Kirk-Session to be received as a member in full communion and as such was accepted.
The desire which began to take possession of his heart to study with a view to the ministry of the gospel only increased as time passed. He was seeking guidance from the truth, and this passage especially, caused him to cast aside all doubt as to his duty: “No man, having put his hand to the plough and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke ix. 62). He came before the Session to be recommended to the Presbytery. The Session being satisfied and also the Presbytery that the works done in him, and the call that came to him were from the Lord, he was received as a student of the Free Presbyterian Church.
He had attended for some winters previous to this, evening classes at a Glasgow High School. He had made such progress in the subjects necessary for the arts course in attending these classes that he was ready to enter the University to study the usual subjects embraced in the arts course. As he passed out of the University to take up the study of the Word of God in the original languages, the study of the history of the Church of God, of the Confessions and of Theology, he found himself in a more congenial atmosphere than is generally the case in the University course. Mr. Morrison, we understand, was a good student, taking a high place in all his classes.
He was licensed by the Western Presbytery at a meeting held at Breasleite, Lewis, in the month of November, 1908. He received his first call from the Glendale congregation, where his ordination and induction took place on the 14th day of January, 1909. He left Glendale in 1913 to become the first Free Presbyterian minister set over the congregation of Assynt. For the long period of twenty-one years he laboured in that congregation, and his labour: we are assured, were not in vain. The Lord promises His blessing with the gospel of His grace and the showers of blessing were not denied to His people in Assynt.
In May, 1934, he accepted a call from the Raasay congregation. During the two years he laboured in Raasay, his health was causing much anxiety which resulted in his having to go south for treatment. He was admitted to the Royal Infirmary, Glasgow, for three months and was advised to leave the wet climate of the west for the drier climate of the east coast. Mr. Morrison had thus to leave Raasay and to come to a place where it was expected his health might improve. He retired from the active work of the ministry in 1936, and came to reside in Tain, Ross-shire.
During his residence in Tain, which was until he finished his course in the world, he preached in various congregations under the Northern Presbytery. Last summer he supplied our congregation in Stornoway for two months. The change to his native air seemed to benefit his health, and we had hoped that he would be left among us for some time, preaching the good news of the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. After returning home from Stornoway he took the services in the Dornoch-Rogart congregation for two Sabbaths with much acceptance. He occupied the pulpit of our church in Tain frequently during the absence of the missionary, besides supplying our congregation in Inverness. When the Lairg-Bonar congregation became vacant, we looked forward to Mr. Morrison being with us to help in supplying it. He was able to come to Bonar for two Sabbaths, but before he was due to preach there again, the Lord had removed him from this world to be forever with Himself.
During his last illness he experienced much of the Lord’s presence, and concluded that his time to leave this world had come. He mentioned one truth that was a great comfort to him, namely, Psalm xciv. verse 14: “For sure the Lord will not cast off those that His people be, neither His own inheritance quit and forsake will He.”
He passed away, we believe, to be for ever with the Lord, on the 8th day of January, 1947, being thirty-eight years a minister of the gospel.
It can be said regarding Mr. Morrison that he preached law and gospel. He experienced in his own soul the power and evil of sin, and that the remedy God provided is sufficient to supply the need of perishing sinners. To this remedy he directed sinners, and warned them of the consequences of rejecting it. His great theme in his preaching was Jesus Christ and Him Crucified, risen and ascended to the right hand of power, there interceding on behalf of sinners.
Like all the true people of God, and as a servant of Jesus Christ, he had his own share of the sorrows of this life. As a parent, he deeply mourned over the death of two sons taken away comparatively young. It was to the Word of God he resorted for comfort, knowing that He who gave has the right to take away.
To his sorrowing widow and family we extend our deepest sympathy in their great loss. Our prayer is that the Lord will be a Husband to the widow and a Father to the children. May they take heed to the command: “Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near” (Is. lv. 6).—F. M.