THE late Mr. John Munro passed to his rest at the home of his son-in-law, at Cononbank, Kirkhill, in March, 1950, at the ripe age of about ninety years. He was born in Achmore, Lochbroom in 1860, and, according to the information kindly supplied for our few notes, came under the saving influence of the truth while still a young man. One of the godly men of his native district rebuked him for some reason. This was evidently blessed to him. The dealings of the Lord with him ended in a clear break from the world. He became a member in the Free Church before the passing of the Declaratory Act of 1892. Rev. Mr. MacMillan was then the Free Church minister in Ullapool. When the creed and constitution of the Free Church was changed by the above Act becoming law in the Church, both John Munro and his late wife had no doubt as to what they should do. He was away from home, at work, at that period, and decided to cast in his lot with those who stood by the supreme and subordinate standards. He did not know his wife’s mind at the time. She acted exactly as he did without knowing his mind until later on. They never regretted the step which was taken in this matter.
He was, in the course of time, ordained a deacon in the congregation of Ullapool and, later on, in 1929, became an elder in the same. The friend who supplied these particulars informed us that Mr. Munro was a man who had the courage of his convictions, as is shown by the following incident.
Shortly after the Separation in 1893, when the late Rev. Alex. Macrae—then a student—was conducting services for the Free Presbyterian Church in Ullapool, John Munro and two other men came by boat to convey Mr. Macrae to Scorraig. Going up the road from the pier, they saw Mr. MacMillan approaching, and John’s companions proposed to turn aside to avoid a meeting. John refused. Mr. MacMillan asked them why they were in Ullapool, and was told. He began to show them that they acted wrongly, and finished by saying, “John Maciver, Scorraig, is a very wise man, but I am wiser.” John immediately replied, “The truth says, ‘For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth'” (II Cor. x, 18).
We desire to insert a brief account of the wife of this worthy man. She passed away in Daviot about ten years before her husband. She belonged to Strathcaniard, Lochbroom, where she was born in 1867. She underwent a saving change while very young, during a sermon preached by the late Rev. Mr. Urquhart, of Hope Street Free Church, Glasgow. This was at the Communion season at Aultbea. Mr. Urquhart remarked at the time that he believed that two would be taken out of the kingdom of sin and Satan before the close of the solemn season. She was one of them. After this, she was in service at Mugasdale Lodge, near Laide, where those occupying the Lodge were much given to dances and such entertainments. This worried her, as her employment made it needful for her to cater for them. Prayer was her resort, and the Hearer of prayer did not fail her on these trying occasions. Several times the arrangements were upset in ways unaccountable to the promoters of the balls. After the last Communion which she attended in Laide, she said that she believed it to be her last on earth. The words were strongly before her mind which led her to this conclusion, “I will drink no more of this fruit of the vine until that day that I drink it new in the Kingdom of God.” She, with the late Mr. Munro, came in October, 1940, to live with their son-in-law and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. Macleod, of Daviot, where she passed away after being resident there for three months. She was seventy-two years of age at the time of her death.
Mr. Munro lived for about ten years longer. He died on the 7th March, 1950. On the night before the end, his daughter said to him that she hoped he would get some sleep. He answered, “What would be good would be to be with Christ.” John Munro at his death went to be with Christ.
Little need be added to these notes, which were kindly supplied by Mr. Duncan Mackay, one of the sons-in-law. John Munro was a most earnest and diligent servant of Christ. He had ample reason to stay at home latterly owing to frailty and stomach weakness, had he wished to do so, but if at all possible, was most attentive at the public means of salvation and at Communions. It was a cause of regret to us often that he would not attempt to speak in public in English, either in prayer or at a fellowship meeting. It was a privilege to have him engage in prayer indeed. He died at Cononbank, Kirkhill, and the funeral took place at Laide. We miss him much from our midst, and desire that the grace of saving faith and the anointing of the Holy Spirit may richly rest on those who nursed him tenderly to the end, and upon the several members pertaining to the family of these godly parents.—D. A. MacF.
You take it hard that you are not answered, and that Christ’s door is not opened at your first knock. David must knock: “Oh, my God, I cry by day, and Thou hearest not, and in the night season I am not silent” (Ps. xxii, 2). The Lord’s Church: “And when I cry and shout, He shutteth out my prayer” (Lam. iii, 8). Sweet Jesus, the heir of all, prayed with tears and strong cries: once, “Oh, my Father!” again, “Oh, my Father!” and the third time, “Oh, my Father!” ere he was heard. Wait on, die praying, faint not.—Rutherford.