At its last meeting in May the Synod instructed the Foreign Mission Committee to draw up an appeal for funds to erect and equip a Teachers’ Training Centre at our Mission in Shangani.
Such a centre has always been extremely desirable as it would enable us to train our own teachers for their duties in our schools on the Mission field. At present we have to rely on trained teachers from other centres of training and the position is not so satisfactory. Recently, however, a new ruling by the Government forbids the opening of new schools unless a certain percentage of the teaching staff are trained. Accordingly a centre where we can train our own teachers has not only become desirable but an imperative necessity in order to maintain our present schools and open new ones. Added to this, once a denomination opens a school in any particular district in the Shangani Reserve, the Government look upon that district as the particular sphere of that denomination for religious and educational purposes. This means that unless we can open schools we cannot expand our efforts to carry the Word of Life to the natives, and as we cannot open schools without trained teachers, a Training Centre once more becomes imperative. Rev. James Fraser’s Report tells of rapid advance by the Roman Catholic Church, who lack neither staff nor funds and who are acutely aware of the position.
It is considered that the centre would consist of various buildings, including a classroom, dormitory, lecture room, dining room, etc., the estimated cost being £2,000. Rev. J. Fraser himself would have oversight of the Centre and the Synod gave authority to Mr. Fraser to visit the congregations in the Church, lecturing on the Mission and taking collections for the above project. Due to his state of health Mr. Fraser will not be able to go over all the congregations and expressed the hope at the Synod that all would understand this.
The Foreign Mission Fund has had to bear heavy expenses this year due to travelling and still heavier expenses of this nature lie before it. It was decided therefore to open this Appeal Fund, and we look for the prayerful and liberal support of our people for this further attempt to advance the Cause of Christ in Shangani. Donations should, of course, be sent to the General Treasurer.
“For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be made rich” (II Cor. 8, 9).
JOHN COLQUHOUN, Convener.
DONALD MACLEAN, Clerk.
The late Mr. Angus Morrison, Valtos, Uig.
Early on New Year’s morning, 1953, the chariot of heaven called at the home of our friend in his ninetieth year to bring him to the rest which remains to the people of God, and where years and time shall be no more. While yet a very young man, Angus Morrison manifested a more than common interest in the gospel and in the affairs of Christ’s Kingdom here below. Many were of the opinion that he should witness publicly on the Lord’s side, but he refrained from doing so for a considerable time afterwards. As he himself used to relate, God’s time had not yet come, but when it did, it was impossible to keep back from commemorating the dying love of Christ any longer.”
Angus Morrison had the rare privilege of listening to faithful preachers who warned men and women against eating and drinking unworthily, “not discerning the Lord’s body.” When the Rev. Alexander McLeod was settled in Uig in 1824, there were eight or nine hundred communicants in the congregation. In view, however, of the spiritual ignorance of the people, Mr. MacLeod decided not to administer the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper during the first year of his ministry, and when the ordinance was at length observed the communicants had dwindled down to six. Under Mr. MacLeod’s ministry the parish of Uig became as a garden of the Lord. “The Rev. John MacRae (MacRath Mor) testified that the finest moral spectacle he had ever witnessed during his whole career was that of the
Uig congregation under the pastorate of the Rev. Alex. MacLeod” (Memoir of Rev. A. MacLeod). In 1875 on account of the Voluntaryism which was now becoming rampant in the Free Church, over 1,000 people in the parish of Uig left the Free Church and joined the Established Church which had shortly before then rescinded the Patronage Act. The elders and deacons of the Free Church in Uig in their formal resignation state inter alia: “In leaving the Free Church we firmly maintain that we stand by the Free Church principles of 1843, but repudiate and disown the Voluntary teaching which has been the main reason for this deliberate action in returning to the Established Church.” The great majority of the converts and members of the Rev. Alex. MacLeod were among those who carried with them the ark of the testimony into the parish church of Balnackill. It was thus in an atmosphere of piety unfeigned and devotion to the crown rights of the Lord Jesus Christ that Angus Morrison was reared.
Continuing a member in full communion in the Balnackill Parish Church for a good number of years, Mr. Morrison was elected to the eldership. This office he declined to accept in view of the proposed union between the Church of Scotland and the United Free Church. Angus was a highly intelligent man and well read in the contentions of the Church of Scotland. One of his favourite books over which he often poured was the late Dr. Begg’s book in defence of the “Establishment Principal.” Its contents he mastered, and with that racy skill of delivery which was characteristic of him, he was not slow to make known the principles at stake in connection with the Union. Never could the Balnackill congregation which in 1875 made a stand against Voluntaryism unite with the U.F. Church which was Voluntary, Arminian and rotten to the core with Higher Criticism. Accordingly when the Union took place in 1928, the Balnackill congregation, except for a small remnant, joined the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. It was not until 1892 that Voluntaryism and Arminianism became the new creed of the Free Church. The Rev. Donald MacFarlane by his protest in 1893 conserved the creed of the Holy Scriptures—both Voluntaryism and Arminianism being contrary to the Word of God and to all the confessions of the Reformed Churches in Scotland, England and the Continent of Europe.
No sooner was the stand made by the Balnackill congregation in refusing to enter the 1928 Union and in joining the Free Presbyterian Church than they discovered in measure the truth of Revelation xii 17: “And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Angus Morrison received letters fiercely criticising the Church he had now joined. These he did not make public lest the mind of the congregation would be influenced through these tactics of Satan.
Now, fully persuaded that he was in that branch of Christ’s visible Church which adheres most closely to the Bible and Reformation principles, Angus Morrison accepted the eldership, which office he faithfully and diligently adorned to the end. For many years he was a member of Synod and Presbytery. In all the trials which our beloved Church met with in recent years, not once did we find him wavering. Blessed are they who endure unto the end. He lost his wife in early life, and he was thus left with the concern of a young family. On more than one occasion he told the writer how the Lord manifested to him beforehand that he was to pass under the rod of affliction. A year previous to this sore bereavement he awoke early one morning with the words, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous; but the Lord delivereth them out of them all” (Psalm xxxiv. 19). For months he pondered over those afflictions which meet the just in the valley of Baca, but never thought of the removal of his beloved partner, until one day while working on his croft, God through His word spoke to him: “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you” (I Peter iv. 12).
In the absence of the minister Angus conducted the services. He was most orderly in his handling of God’s Word, and the people listened to him with interest. He read much and made use of the same. With every opportunity he warned the people against coming judgments, when the love of many for the truth of the Gospel would wax cold. He was grieved at heart to see the falling away of the generation from the doctrines of the Confession of Faith which were dear to him, being the doctrines of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, to the popular Moody and Sankey evangelism which is not from the Holy Spirit of Truth but from Satan as an angel of light. He was a beautiful Gaelic preacher and retained his voice almost to the end.
We desire to extend our sincere sympathy to his family and relatives both at home and abroad, but especially to the one who so faithfully and lovingly attended him in his declining years. May the Lord who is rich in mercy to all that call upon Him, enrich them one and all with the righteousness of Christ, that it, too, may be well with them at life’s journey’s end.—J. N. MacD.
The late Mr. John Gillies, Stockinish.
The above was a worthy elder of North Harris congregation, who passed in his eternal rest some time ago. There cannot be the least doubt but John Gillies was a loyal and faithful witness of Jesus Christ, and it is a matter of regret that, as in other cases, not much can be gleaned concerning him from those who knew him most intimately, in order to do justice to the memory of one who was so
devoted in furthering the Cause of Christ in his congregation for many years. As the writer only met him occasionally, it is impossible to give a full account of his activities in relation to the Cause, like the old-time obituaries in the Magazine.
He was received as a member in full communion on 13th April, 1912. Twelve years later he was elected Deacon, and having been proved, and obtained to himself a good degree, and great boldness in the faith, ten years later he was elected and ordained to the office of an elder. An old friend of his says that he was brought to some realisation of his state as a lost sinner, in view of eternity, on the occasion of listening to a sermon preached by one of the late ministers in our Church. John Gillies was one of the humble and meek ones, and scarcely ever made any reference whatever to his Christian experiences, even to his most close associates, but that he adorned his profession in walk and conversation in a manner becoming to the Gospel cannot be gainsaid. His devotedness to the witness raised in defence of the Truth of God in 1893, and his loyalty to the Free Presbyterian Church were outstanding features of his character. It was a privilege to be associated with him in church courts, and to have his company at communion seasons, especially on the Friday, when speaking to the Question. He always spoke well to the Question, but in conversation he was of such an unassuming and retired disposition that he had very little to say. He will be missed at communion seasons in the church militant, but we have reason to hope he is now in the church triumphant. Being a victim of asthmatic complaints for years, he had many sufferings in this vale of tears, which are now at an end for ever. His mortal remains were conveyed by a large concourse of friends, who came to pay their last tribute to the dead. The service was conducted by Rev. Malcolm Maesween, M.A., who happened to be in the district. May the Lord bless the sons and daughter and grandchildren who were left to mourn his loss. May they be enabled to follow his footsteps! There was no prayer at the grave, as this practice is frowned on by the Westminster Divines in their Directory of Public Worship, as leading to prayer for the dead. According to the English Churchman of April 3, there was an R.C. prayer for the dead included in the service from Marlborough House Chapel in memory of Queen Mary, an avowed Protestant.—D. J. Macaskill.
Improve the remembrance of those Gospel truths which you have heard from the mouths of your ministers now at rest: their labours were not intended by the Lord only for a present relief to your souls during their speaking, but for afterward. Remember how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast (Rev. iii. 3).—Samuel Petto: 1682.