Mrs. Cameron was a daughter of John Macdonald, elder in the Gairloch congregation, and a lay preacher well known throughout the Church in the olden days. She had two sisters who were known for their devotion to Christ while in the vale of tears, namely, Mrs. Robertson, Edinburgh, and Mrs. Munro, Inverness. The whole three sisters left a marked blank in the congregations with which they were associated that is not easily filled.
Mrs. Cameron was born at Sand, Gairloch, where her father resided for a long period of time after he removed from Craig. Though she was brought up under a roof where godliness was in daily practice, she was not touched by the truth till well on in life. The means which the Lord used to bring her to a sense of sin and of her need of Christ is not now known, but that she was taught deeply of the Holy Spirit no one with any discernment could doubt. She had a profound knowledge of the evil of sin, of the deceitfulness of her own heart, of the force and subtlety of her spiritual enemies, of the strictness and spirituality of God’s holy law. She knew that in herself she was a sinner ready to perish, but in Christ she had her only hope, believing that he was able to save to the uttermost. She could speak confidently of her hope, but not as if she were beyond the reach of doubts and fears. She publicly indicated that Jesus was her master and she a servant by accepting the revealed will of God as her standard and rule of life.
She could, with the Psalmist, we believe, sing with her whole heart:
“How sweet unto my taste, O Lord,
Are all thy words of truth!
Yea, I do find them sweeter far
Than honey to my mouth” (Ps. cxix. 103).
—Metrical Version.
She had her share of the afflictions of this life. The severest stroke of all, we believe, was the loss of her youngest son Roderick, who in his 19th year was drowned in the Firth of Clyde, when his ship, a government vessel, was run down at anchor by another ship in September, 1942. But this sore dispensation she bore in humble submission to the will of God: “I was dumb. I opened not my mouth because thou didst it.”
Our subject was a respected member in the congregation for 23 years, and her age and constitution gave hope that she might be spared for many years. How often does the Lord write “vanity” upon all our expectations! She was suddenly called to her eternal rest during the early hours of 4th September, 1953, when her age was about three-score years.
Our sympathy goes to her husband, an elder in the congregation, and to her two sons and daughter, who lost a most affectionate mother.—A. B.