“The righteous perisheth, and no may layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come.” We are often brought face to face with this solemn truth in connection with the removal from time to eternity of those who, by their walk and conversation, were witnesses on the side of Christ and against sin in our congregations, and are deeply conscious of the great blank which each of them leave behind them when they are taken away. This was true of the subject of this sketch, whom the writer remembers as Miss Mary Macleod, in Glasgow, in the fast receding past, during the ministry of the late Rev. Neil Cameron. Though, in common with the rest of Adam’s fallen race, she was born into this world a child of wrath, yet at the time we knew her she was attentive on the means of grace, and years afterwards loved to speak of that time in a way that caused one to conclude that her soul was nourished under the faithful preaching of that eminent servant of Christ. What she heard on Sabbath and week-days sent her to her Bible, and to her knees in secret, and the fruit that followed was that she was enabled to entertain a good hope through grace. She was not ignorant of the devices of Satan, and we believe that his temptations and a deep consciousness of her own sinfulness kept her back from making a public profession at the time. After being married her home was in Waternish, where she was a great support to the Cause of Christ there. On many an occasion the present minister of the congregation felt that he was much the better of her presence and her prayers.
In 1944 she came before the Kirk Session, and her knowledge and experience, together with her consistent walk, was such that there was no difficulty in admitting her as a member in full communion. It was the beginning of a period when the religious profession of members in our congregation was put to a very severe test. While the whole congregation was attacked, by holding out to them that the Church had departed from its Constitution, a special effort was made to win over the members, and those who were not making a public profession but who manifested a warm side to the Cause of Christ, to believe this falsehood. Such was the vehemency and subtlety of these attacks that she confessed to us more than once that it was the Lord Himself who kept her steadfast. In being kept, she had to part with others who were making a public profession. It was a real trial to her in various ways, and we well remember meeting her at the time, when with real concern, she expressed the fear that owing to the fewness of those who adhered to the Church in Waternish, we would not be able to keep public services there, and especially, seeing that men who made loud proclamations about having lacerated consciences over the Church’s departure from the Constitution, took illegal possession of the Church building there, for which they had not the least vestige of a title. We also remember the relief of mind, expressed in her countenance, when we assured her that, as far as the Lord would enable us, we would have public worship in Waternish for the faithful remnant who adhered to the Church. This we have been enabled to do to the present in spite of the prophesying of men who seem to have derived their inspiration from the same source as Sanballat and Tobiah (Nehemiah iv. 1-3).
These services were a joy to Mrs. Campbell’s heart as she expressed to us on several occasions. She also had another joy. When we were worshipping in the Church it was not easy for her to go home between the services and had to accept the hospitality of those who were nearer the Church. She ardently desired to give others the same hospitality, and when of necessity we had to worship in the School-house near her home, that desire was gratified, and her ungrudging hospitality was experienced by us and others. It was a real pleasure to sit with her for a short while between the services on Sabbath afternoons for, though she would be the last to speak about herself, yet one could from the drift of her conversation detect her inward experiences and see clearly that she was no stranger to the devices of Satan or to the sweet consolations of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The end came suddenly. On Saturday morning, 12th April, 1952, we got a message that she had passed away the previous evening and immediately called on the bereaved family. We learned from her husband that she had been unwell for a day or two, but on the day she died she had been feeling better, was up and attending to household duties. In the evening she sat at the fire for a while, reading the Free Presbyterian Magazine. After some time her husband, who was alone with her, noticed her putting the Magazine on a table beside her and putting her glasses on top of it. She then leaned back in the chair on which she was sitting, and without a moan or a struggle she entered into the presence of her Lord, there to experience His fellowship world without end. The Cause of Christ in Waternish is much the poorer by her removal but the Lord does all things well.
On the following Tuesday we committed all that was mortal of her to the dust in Trumpan graveyard there to await the coming of the Lord Jesus to give the bodies of His saints a glorious resurrection.—J. Colquhoun.