THOSE who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity are sad at heart when they hear of breaches being made upon the walls of Zion, and more especially, if the breaches be due to the removal of the young whose life of promise and usefulness is unexpectedly cut short. To this class John Macdonald belonged. About 35 years ago he was born in Uiginish, Skye, and from early childhood he showed marked signs of regard for the things that matter. As a boy at school, his eagerness to know his Bible and Shorter Catechism was rewarded on the Religious Knowledge Examination Day. His love for the Lord’s Day, his desire to be in God’s house on Sabbath and on week-days made him very different from many other boys.
It is very remarkable that in some instances those with whom the Lord takes saving dealings, and whom He calls home to heaven in early life, have something about them in childhood which endears them to parents and to others. Of John it was true that he was most obedient and was not known to have spoken back to his parents, yet it is believed he had attained to the age of manhood before he had undergone a saving change.
When he was about nineteen years of age, he came south to work and to reside with a paternal uncle who was overseer of the estate of Claddens, Airdrie. He must have felt very keenly to have been so isolated at this time for there was no possibility of getting now to the public means of grace as in former days. He had his Bible, however, and the Bible, we believe, is searched more diligently by those who love a preached Gospel when they are deprived of that inestimable blessing.
To show that his mind was taken up more with the Gospel and with the House of God than with the vanities and follies of sin in which so many in this godless age indulge, the following related of him is ample proof:—
On one occasion he was told he could go to Glasgow if he wished to attend the Skye Gathering. John remembered that it was the prayer-meeting night in St. Jude’s, so he did not refuse the opportunity of getting to Glasgow. He enquired for the Church and was very happy to have got to that prayer-meeting. It must have been like an oasis in the desert.
In two or three years’ time his uncle died, and John, being an upright and most conscientious worker, was promoted to overseer. This change in his circumstances no doubt gave him greater opportunity to get to the public means of grace which were so very near to his heart. He came to the city for week-ends and was most grateful to the kind friends who extended him hospitality.
It now became very apparent that the Holy Spirit had wrought effectually in the soul of John Macdonald, the marks Rev. John Kennedy of Redcastle gave of those in whom the Holy Ghost works savingly, viz., “a sharp ear towards the Word of God; a closed mouth and a bowed head; and a warm eye towards the Lord’s people.”
It seems it was through that passage, “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me: and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out”—coming powerfully to his soul, he received a good hope through grace, and no one would ever doubt but he was of that number whom the Lord prepares to hold uninterrupted fellowship with Himself.
Almost three years ago he was ordained a Deacon in St. Jude’s, and shortly afterwards he was appointed Clerk of the Deacon’s Court—an office which he filled most efficiently.
His interest in all that was done for the spiritual and temporal well-being of the Congregation was very evident. His pleasant smile and his hearty hand-shake as he stood at the Church door while the congregation assembled for worship make his absence a real loss to many who only knew him just as one of the office-bearers. What some of us miss most is the loss of his prayers.
Shortly before his last illness, John was asked to pray for the last time in public—and the writer as well as others took particular notice of the wonderful nearness he had that night to the Lord at the throne of grace. He was being prepared hurriedly for that place “where the wicked cease from troubling and where the weary are at rest.”
On the 11th October last, he was admitted to the Royal Infirmary, Glasgow, and some of us hoped and prayed that he would be restored to his former health and usefulness but He who does all things well, ordered it otherwise, and our dear and worthy friend, on the ninth day of November, was removed to “the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”
John Macdonald was a young man of sterling character. May the sweet fragrance of his humility and piety abide in the congregation which he loved so well.
We desire to extend to his sorrowing widow and to his young daughter, to his parents and to the rest of the family, our deepest sympathy.
“May they all be bound in the bundle of life with the Lord.”—D.J.M.