The remnant of the God-fearing among us is becoming smaller as the years pass by, and unless the Lord will soon return to His Church and cause in the exceeding greatness of the power of His Spirit, few indeed will be the number of genuine witnesses for the Lord Jesus Christ to be met with. Yet the blessed Head of the Church will not leave Himself without a witnessing people, however scattered and few they may be to-day.
The late Mrs. Bruce was one who loved the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and was the seed of the righteous. Her father, Alexander Oag, and his wife were both esteemed as godly persons, and Alexander himself was noted for his piety. He was a farmer, first in the parish of Latheron, Caithness, and then at a place called Thrumster Little, near Wick. There was a family of seven daughters and three sons, and the late Mrs. Bruce was the second daughter.
She was born at Latheron on 22nd September, 1872, and died on 10th March, 1952, at almost 80 years of age, in her own home at Bruandale, South of Wick. Her marriage to the late Mr. William Bruce took place when she was 21 years of age; and her husband, for about the last 30 years of his life, was an office-bearer in the Wick Congregation. She was also a member in the congregation for a somewhat longer period.
Shortly after her marriage she went forward to the Lord’s Table for the first time in the old Free Church; but as to personal details of her call by grace at that time, we are not able to relate her experience. Nevertheless of this we can testify, that Mrs. Bruce revealed the fruits of grace in a lively and consistent Christian life and conversation. It was her delight to converse upon the Scriptures and the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ and His Kingdom. Of this we had personal and frequent knowledge. She had most evidently a clear and intelligent grasp of the Truth of God and was possessed of a strong Christian character, which was all of the free mercy of her covenant God.
A lady called one day to see her and began to tell her of a sermon heard in the Free Presbyterian Church. This lady expressed the view that the ministers of Mrs. Bruce’s Church were too strict in their preaching. But she replied that there were no ministers in the Church too strict in their preaching for her.
As to reading, the Bible was her main book; and we are informed that she could repeat from memory the whole book of Isaiah and all the Psalms in metre. A family of seven, of whom one son and three daughters survive, were carefully trained in the Scriptures and Shorter Catechism, according to the Scripture injunction to bring up children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
After the death of her husband in 1949, she gradually failed in health, although she was able to be up and about until the day before she died. We believe she left this world for the better country, even an heavenly. May the family be led into the consolations that are in Christ Jesus.—R. R. S.