“Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.” (Matt. 28, 19-20).
THE work of the Gospel is one, but it is divided into two parts—teaching and baptizing. Christ gave His disciples the command not only to teach but to baptize. The disciples of Jesus have reached us here in the Shangani Reserve and we must be very careful that we do not give them less work to do than their Lord has given them. Many parents are quite pleased to let the missionaries teach their children their school lessons and the Word of God but they do not give them the satisfaction of carrying out the second part of their work—baptizing. With teaching they find no fault but they are not at all concerned about their being baptized themselves or their children being baptized. They have no interest in turning from sin or stretching out needy hands to Christ without which baptism has no meaning. Sowing time should be followed by harvest time and teaching the Word of God should be followed by baptizing those who have received that Word.
Who are to be baptized? You will say “Let our children, if they will receive the Word of God and bear His mark upon them.” But what of yourselves, you parents? Are you to be left outside? Are you quite willing to see your dear children enter the Kingdom of God while you yourselves are shut out through the hardness of your hearts? The Word of God is not only for children but for fathers and mothers, for stooping grandmothers and for grandfathers like myself. It is for all nations and for all ages and kinds of people. Why should you exclude yourselves from eternal life when Christ’s command to repent and be baptized is directed expressly to you?
You may try to excuse yourselves by saying that you place no barrier between your children and Christ. Some of you may even claim that you encourage your children to come to the Saviour. That is false and foolish. Children follow the deeds of their parents and pay little heed to words which contradict deeds. If you are serious in the matter of salvation and want your little ones to seek Christ and to find Him, begin seeking Him yourselves! Show them the way! Be their leader in the path of Christ.
Some people think that the disciples of Jesus have an easy task. It is no easier to-day than it was when the first disciples were sent out with neither purse nor shoes. The servants of Christ here in Shangani suffer the heat of the sun by day and the torturing bites of mosquitoes by night; and day and night they carry the burden of our souls. How can they rest in body or be at ease in mind when our sins testify that we will not receive the Word of their Master? Oh! my friends, I tremble for you because of the way in which you treat God’s messengers. In olden days when one of our kings sent forth a messenger, he was respected and feared because he carried the word of the king. To ill-treat him meant to ill-treat the king. So it is with the disciples of Christ. They are the messengers of the Great King and if you reject them, you reject God Himself.
The late Farquhar MacLennan, London.
IN common with other congregations of our Church, London has from time to time to mourn the loss, by death, of men and women whose main object in life was to uphold the Cause of Christ generally, and particularly relative to their respective congregations. Recently two such, in the persons of Farquhar MacLennan and Miss Christina MacKenzie, late of Claverton Street, London, have thus been removed from time to Eternity, and so, in their case, from the church militant to the church triumphant.
Farquhar MacLennan, our worthy Gaelic precentor and occasional Gaelic preacher, was born in Collam, Stockinish, Harris, on the 4th August, 1905, and passed away to his everlasting rest and glorious reward on the 28th April, 1950, so that he was thus in the forty-fifth year of his age.
Though well built, and of a strong, vigorous and robust constitution—the very picture of health—he began to complain of internal pains about a year ago, but as his doctor did not consider his case urgent or serious, it was only a few days before his death that he was admitted to hospital. He survived his operation, which was performed by a specialist of international reputation, about ten days, when he had a relapse which proved fatal, despite the apparent success of the original operation. The present writer, who visited him on the afternoon of the day before he died, never suspected death, till after bidding him good-bye, when the Scripture spoke with arresting power and authority: “Help Lord, because the godly man doth daily fade away, and from among the sons of men the faithful do decay,” (Psalm xii, 1, metrical version). While this truth confirmed our long-held conviction relative to the genuineness of our esteemed friend’s piety, the unexpected suddenness of the announcement of the end of his earthly career grieved us beyond words, as few events have done for years.
While there were godly women in our London congregation, now in glory, who were mothers in Israel, and other younger ones who were “the salt of the earth,” it is only a sober statement of fact to state that the death of Farquhar MacLennan, regarding practical usefulness in the congregation, the fruit of real godliness, has been the greatest loss sustained by this congregation since the death of its original founder, the excellent and faithful Donald Sutherland. Like his worthy predecessor, Farquhar MacLennan’s chief interest in life was to attend, even to the most minute detail, to everything pertaining to the welfare of the Cause in London. Eccleston Hall was indeed his second home, so frequent and faithful were his attendances on everything that pertained to our services there. As a conspicuous instance of his love and faithfulness, in this connection, he declined the offer of an excellent remunerative post outside London because it would deprive him of the precious privilege of bringing up his young family of three boys and a girl in a Gospel atmosphere. Such exemplary self-sacrifice and self-denial are very rare nowadays, but it proves the reality of Christian profession and loyalty. He thus believed in the principle of nearness to a church with a pure, primitive Scriptural worship, like the faithful Justus of old, “one that worshipped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue,” (Acts xviii, 7).
He became a member in full communion in 1937. He was not ignorant of Satan’s devices, and knew what sore temptations and trials were. He often complained, among like-minded friends, of the ceaseless activities of the inbred corruptions of the old Adamic nature, while on rarer, but blessed occasions, he experienced the joys of a sense of the Divine presence and favour. In his public exercises at the weekly prayer-meeting, as well as at Friday Fellowship meetings, he manifested that his was no mere theoretical head knowledge, but deep and edifying experience of the operations of supernatural grace in the heart.
Had he been so inclined, being a person of more than average intelligence, our friend could have had a successful academic career, but instead, for a time, he preferred a sea-faring life, in connection with which he visited various parts of the world. He ultimately settled in London, where he became a fully qualified electrician.
The place, date, and other detailed means of our friend’s conversion, were not minutely inquired into. All we know in this connection is that it was while listening to a sermon preached by one of our present ministers that Farquhar MacLennan passed from death to life, though some years previously he was “arrested in my wild career,” as he would say himself, by a sermon preached by another of our ministers. His warm attachment to the Cause and people of God were ample proof of the reality of that radical change of state and nature.
On his death-bed, in answer to her request for a message to her, he earnestly and solemnly urged his wife to seek the Lord with her whole heart, and to bring up the children in “the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” He further told her that at his death and funeral she would be amazed at the calmness and coolness with which she would be sustained throughout, as he himself had prayed accordingly, and so it actually transpired. He frequently said on his death-bed regarding hopes of recovery, “Oh, to be resigned to the will of God, whether it is going to be life prolonged, or death.” In his public prayers at the weekly prayer meeting, during the past year, he constantly referred to the shortness of life, emphasising “especially regarding some of us.” One could multiply instances of his sudden and increasing maturity in spirituality, especially during the past twelve months, but the valuable space of our Magazine will not permit of further enlargement. May the present writer be permitted to request the prayers of the Lord’s people, especially for his young widow and four fatherless children, the youngest of whom is not yet school age, while the oldest has not reached school-leaving age. May this solemn bereavement be blessed to them all, as well as to his father, brothers and sisters, and may we all, as a congregation, be blessed with the sanctifying use of this sore afflicting dispensation of Providence.
—J. P. MacQ.
The late Miss MacKenzie, Dumbreck, Glasgow.
MISS MACKENZIE, late of Claverton Street, London, died at Kittock Park, Dumbreck, Glasgow, last April, in the 81st year of her life, and her remains were interred in her native Stoer, Lochinver. She was more or less blind for several years and, for the last two or three years, bed-ridden. It is to the lasting credit of Miss Margaret MacLeod, Kittock Park, that she nursed Miss MacKenzie—whom she knew in London—all these years in her hospitable home, the fruit of sincere practical Christian love, as there was no blood or marriage relationship between them.
It was while under the preaching of the Rev. James MacLeod, Greenock, then a student in London, that Miss Christina MacKenzie was first awakened to a sense of her lost and ruined condition by nature, as a sinner before God. It was, however, years afterwards, under the preaching of the late Rev. Donald MacLeod, Shieldaig, then a student in London, that she experienced the liberty wherewith Christ makes His own people free, and soon afterwards she became a member in full communion in our London congregation. She adorned that profession to the end, and witnessed a good confession before many witnesses.
The practical fruit of this conversion was that she manifested the deepest interest in all things pertaining to the welfare of Christ’s Cause and Kingdom. With the cordial consent of her master, whose parents she had served before him, 59 Claverton Street, London, became a home from home to many church-going Highlanders in this city. It was no uncommon occurrence to see from six to ten people at her hospitable and generous table on Sabbath, who could not otherwise walk to their respective places of abode after the Gaelic service, and be back in time for the night service. Thus, and in many other ways, she manifested her practical interest in the Cause, fulfilling the Gospel precepts: “Use hospitality one to another without grudging,” and “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” We naturally mourn the deaths of these true helpers of the church. Let the reader observe the doing and end of the Lord. Miss MacKenzie entertained the Lord’s people and other church-goers in London, and in the evening of her declining years and general helplessness, God provided for her the splendid home of Miss Margaret MacLeod, who nursed her gently, tenderly, and admirably, to the end of her earthly pilgrimage (Psalm cvi, 43). We take this opportunity of expressing our sympathy with her nieces, nephew, and other relations, as also of expressing our heart-felt gratitude to Miss Margaret MacLeod for her exemplary labour of love to a sister in Christ. Next to the Saviour Himself, and His invisible church, our two departed faithful friends loved, with the utmost loyalty, the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, the most Scripturally pure, primitive, and apostolic branch of the visible church in the English-speaking world to-day.
—J. P. MacQ.
Searmon.
Leis an Urr. R. SIBBES, D.D.
(Air a leantainn bho t.d. 59.)
Aobhar 3. A ris, feumaidh e bhi na obair an Spioraid, do bhrigh gu bheil feoil agus fuil làn uabhair agus dh’iarraadh iad fireantachd a bhi aca dhoibh fein. B’ann de’n nàdur so a bha na h-Iudhaich, agus b’ì a cheist bu mhotha i, bho thoiseach an t-saoghal gus an latha’n diugh, ciod i an fhireantachd sin leis am feum sinn seasamh am fianuis Dhé? Ach freagraidh Spiorad Dhé gach ceist dhiubh sin. A luchd mo ghràidh, a thaobh a chuid is fearr againn, ged a bhitheadh-mid ann an staid gràis, mar a thoir an Spiorad Naomh dearbh-shoilleireachd, bithidh sinn ann an dorchadas, agus cuiridh sinn gach ni an teagamh. Uime sin, cha’n e mhàin gu’m feum sinn an dearbh-shoilleireachd so ‘s a cheud dol a mach, ach mar an ceudna, fad ar cuairt. Mar a dean an Spiorad Naomh so, tuitidh sinn ann am priosan dorchadais; uime sin, tha dearbh-shoilleireachd bho’n Spiorad Naomh feumail.
A luchd mo ghràidh, bu chor dha so gu’n toireadh e dhuinn an aire a thoirt cia mar a dh’eisdeadh-mid agus cia mar a leughadh-mid, agus ar eur gu tagradh air son dearbh-shoilleireachd an Spioraid anns gach ordugh. O Thighearn, deonach Spiorad an fhoillsichidh, agus thoir na lanan far mo shùilean, chùm agus mar a tha iad so na’m firinnean annta fein, gu’m bi iad na’m firinnean dhomhsa. Aom m’anam chùm agus gu’n tilg mi mi fein air do thròcair ann an Criosd.
Ceist. Feumaidh mi nis cuisean a fheargairt a tha iomadh anam bochd air a shràchadh leis. Mo thruaigh. Cha’n eil dearbh-shoilleireachd agam leis an Spiorad gur e Criosd m’fhireantachd, uime sin ciod e mo shuidheachadh?
Freagairt. Tha mi freagairt gu’m bheil cuid a faotainn tuilleadh dearbh-shoilleireachd ‘s a tha cuid eile. Bitheadh neach mi-chùramach mu dheasdanas naomh, agus tha ni’s lugha de dhearbh-shoilleireachd aig, ach bitheadh e dichiollach annta, agus gheibh e an Spiorad Naomh a toirt dearbh-shoilleireachd dha ni’s motha gur a leis fireantachd Chriosd. Tha mòran ann de dhaoine dàna a tha tionndadh gràis Dhé gu macnus, a chionn gu’m bheil iad air am mealladh le Satan cha’n eil amhrus aca a thaobh an staid, ach ‘s ann a tha beachd aca orra fein mar dhaoine math a tha ann an staid gràis, agus iad a smuainteachadh gur e so dearbh-shoilleireachd an Spioraid; ‘n uair is e so an riaghailt choitcheann nach eil dearbh-shoilleireachd spioradail iomlan, ach tha ghnàth air fhàgail anns a chridhe truailidheachd theagamhan. Mar a tha bàta air acair, a dol thuig agus naith, gidheadh a tha tearuinnt’, is ann mar sin a tha’n t-anam a fhuair fior dhearbh-shoilleireachd, tha e tearuinnt’ ged a bhitheadh e air a luasgadh a null agus a nall le eagalan ‘us teagamhan, tha an t-acair air neamh.
Gabhaibh so mar aobhar comhfhurtachd ann am faireachadh gach uile chreidmheach, gun toir an Spiorad uibhir de dhearbh-shoilleireachd dhoibh air fireantachd Chriosd, agus a ghleidheas annta a leithid de chumhachd gràis ‘s a bheir dhoibh an tilgeadh fein air tròcair Dhe ann an Crìosd; agus cha mhùch Dia an t-sradag sin. Ged nach bitheadh ach ro-bheag de sholus ann gidheadh bithidh teas ann. Cuiridh Dia an Spiorad do’n chridhe, cho fad agus nach brath se e fein thairis do eu-dochas, agus leigidh e leithid de ghath soluis a stigh do’n anam agus nach bi uile chumhachd ifrinn comasach air a chumail a mach. Ach ‘s e ar dìmeas fein is aobhar nach eil barrachd dearbh-shoilleireachd againn, gu bhi briseadh troimh gach ni a tha ‘s an rathad. ‘S e so sochair Crìosduidh cùramach, dileas, dearbh-shoilleireachd a bhi aig mu fhìreantachd Chriosd.
(Bi leantainn.)