IN Vol. XI. of our Magazine there is an obituary notice of a godly woman, Jessie MacLeod, Strathy Point, Sutherlandshire, by the Rev. John R. Mackay, then of Inverness. In this notice there is a reference to an occasion in this dear woman’s life when she was found by a friend weeping bitterly while contemplating the crossing from time to eternity, an experience about which we know nothing, but an experience we all very soon must know.
Death to the Christian may and often does appear as something to be dreaded, and we read of those “who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”
Satan has nothing in his fallen nature but enmity against God and man, and he therefore puts forth every effort to harass God’s people irrespective of their weaknesses and afflictions.
This was the case with Jessie MacLeod on that occasion when her friend found her weeping and asking herself the question, “How wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?”
But there was a sequel to that weeping which the Rev. Mr. Mackay did not mention. The friend who tried to comfort her on that occasion ended by saying, “Maybe you will find yourself in Glory without knowing anything about the crossing of the river.” That was exactly how this dear Christian went to her Father’s house from the vale of tears.
She had been somewhat weaker than usual for several days, but there were no signs of her approaching departure. This same friend heard of her indisposition and went to visit her. As he came to the end of her cottage he met her sister-in-law, Mrs. Angus MacLeod, who attended her. Mrs. MacLeod said, “You better not go in just now, as I am after giving her a hot drink, and she has just gone off to sleep.” So he waited for an hour and then went in. Jessie was lying in the same position as she was when she went to sleep—not a limb had moved from that posture, but she had crossed the river. She had slept in Jesus, and God had taken her to be with Himself for ever.
Jessie MacLeod and Jean Robertson, as she was always called, although she was Mrs. William Mackay, that is, the mother of the late Rev. J. R. Mackay, and the late Murdo Mackay, were two outstanding Christians. Mrs. Mackay was one of the most discerning Christians one could meet. Her son Murdo was once asked if he could explain in any way this wonderful trait in his mother’s character. He said that she always was guided in her conclusions by the passages of God’s Word that came before her mind. Some of her conclusions were bordering on the prophetic, as some of those still living can testify.
Her husband was one of the most upright men in his generation. He was a great admirer of Rev. Christopher Munro. On one occasion he remarked that in the providence of God it was a good thing that Mr. Munro had died before they had to make the stand they did in 1893, for that if Mr. Munro would not have come out that he did not know what would have happened. Mrs. Mackay replied, “We would have come out although all the Mr. Munros on earth would stay in.” Such was the firm conviction of this gracious woman of the absolute necessity of the stand made in 1893 for the Word of God, and the doctrines founded thereon in our Confession of Faith.
Murdo shared to a large extent his mother’s discernment, and to a friend who enjoyed his friendship and confidence he more than once said that he was afraid his brother John—then F.P. minister, Inverness—would turn aside. His actual words were, “Tha feagal orm gur claon Iain fhein” (The translation is: “I am afraid John himself will turn aside.”). This was said many years before there was any indication that his brother would go over to the Free Church. When his friend remarked to Murdo that the Most High Himself would not allow such an eminent man as Iain to turn aside from the position he had taken up and had so masterfully defended, Murdo could not agree, and after events proved him to have been right in his sorrowful anticipations.
But they are now both in Glory where there will be no deviation from the perfect worship of God throughout endless ages.
When one looks back over the years to 1893 many changes have taken place since then. The most of “the salt of the earth” whom we then knew have “The swelling of Jordan” behind them for ever, and we who have survived those long years, and the many unexpected and unlooked for changes, are feeling like the Psalmist when he said, “I watch, and am as a sparrow alone on the house-top.”