We have beautiful records in the Word of God of the life history of many of God’s people from Abel to Malachi—from John the Baptist to the beloved apostle John. How many countless numbers of the Lord’s people (young and old) who are in glory of whom we have no account of their life, walk, and conversation while they were in the world? Their life history is before their Lord “where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.” How many of them passed out silently, quietly, and unobserved by their fellow creatures from a bed of sickness, from the prison cell, or from the waters of the ocean that became the graveyard of their mortal bodies! We may be causing pain, and mental suffering to the minds of some when we write in the pages of the Magazine about certain individuals, and quite possible some of the most pious in the sight of the Lord passed over in silence.
The greatest care should be taken that no unnecessary irritation is caused by writing biographical reports of men, or women that happen to be Church members when nothing of peculiar interest can be recorded, but that they were in full communion with the Church and that the writer hoped that their “later end was peace.” The most obvious reason that moved the fathers of our Church to give a brief account of the lives of men and women (Mothers in Israel) in the pages of the Magazine, was that they were the ripe, and steadfast Christians who stood in defence of the Word of God along with the Revs. D. Mac-lane, and D. MacDonald, in May, 1893. We doubt not but they had in mind that the generation that was coming after them should know, that the godly men, and women who separated from the corrupt Free Church were outstanding in piety, conviction, and sincerity of purpose. In many instances the biography was brief, chaste, and few facts recorded of each individual. The writers were not canonising the subjects of their biographical sketches. They were merely registering their honest, sincere, and humble testimony in defence of the Word of God, sovereign free grace, and redemption through the blood of the Lamb of God.
The vain graceless “religious” world could not discern their piety, and spiritual life—”a hidden life.” Some of them were more prominent and outstanding in their public witness in defence of the Word of God, because of the special gifts that were given them. But they were all of one mind, and, therefore united in spirit as well as in their witness, and deeply concerned that the glorious gospel of the blessed God should be handed to us, free of Dr. Rainy’s cursed, and soul destroying Declaratory Act. What an oasis they left for us in the midst of the greatest declension from the Word of God in these modern ages! The subject of our present narrative is Norman Shaw, late of Dunoon, a native of the Island of Harris, Inverness-shire. Mr. Shaw was a healthy man all his days, and his friends were not looking for a sudden change in his case. The sudden change came, and the soul of Norman Shaw was at his eternal rest before we knew that he was ill! When asked about his health, “I am very well,” was the usual expression, and so he was a healthy man all his days.
But death is the master of us all! The body must pass to its long home, and the spirit must go to the God who gave it! It was while learning his trade as a tailor in Tarbert, Harris, that his mind became occupied with the great realities of eternity. At this period of his life he was an adherent of what was then known as the United Free Church. One Sabbath morning in his usual seat in the Church, the minister, said among other things, “that for himself, he did not believe all that was in the Westminster Confession of Faith.” Young Norman was more than amazed at this statement from the pulpit, and as he told us, “The thought passed through my mind, well, if you had not agreed to the Formula at your Ordination, you would not be where you are to-day.” There and then Norman decided that he was in the wrong place of worship, and from that morning to the day of his death the Arminian United Free Church never saw Norman Shaw within its door.
Some few years before this time the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland was formed, and a settled congregation in Tarbert, for a large part of the people of Harris had joined the Free Presbyterian Church, and Norman joined the Tarbert section of the Congregation. At this time there was one of our outstanding lay-preachers in charge of the congregation, Mr. Donald Bethune. Mr. Bethune was an educated gentleman, an able expositor of the Word of God, law and gospel, and a reprover of sin, vice, hypocrisy, and deceit in all its forms. Young Norman was quite content to sit down at the feet of this gracious man of learning and sincerity. Like many others at this time he found the Church of his fathers within the pale of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. He felt in his soul, and conscience that he was now in the Church of his fathers which was lost on him while an adherent of the Declaratory Act, Arminian Church of Dr. Rainy and his henchmen. He also saw that those who had separated from the Reformed Church were schismatics. Norman Shaw was a very intelligent man, well read, being of a studious mind, and as a self-educated man got a thorough grasp of what he read, and carefully studied. One would not be long in his company when it would be obvious that he was no ordinary man that whatever he applied himself to that it was not in a half-hazard manner he did it. He now applied his mind to master the causes, and the reasons of the dreadful separation, and the breaking up of the Reformed Church into fragments. He made a thorough study of it—and indeed he was among men of great discernment of the times while he sojourned in Tarbert, Harris. Some of them outstanding in their spiritual understanding of the Word of God, and how the church should be ruled, and governed according to His Word.
At this time young Norman was nurtured in an excellent college of God-fearing men. What a privilege! After Norman ended his apprenticeship, he decided to take up a sea-faring career, and joined a ship that his uncle was master of at the time. Norman was not long at sea when he felt the difference between the Forecastle of this ship, and the room he had left behind in Tarbert, Harris! His ambition was to study navigation and master all the charts of the seven seas, so that one day he would be in charge of a ship himself. He was not long going to sea when he got tired of his environment and decided to quit this way of living. He got a job with the Clyde Lighthouse Trustees. He was stationed at Toward Lighthouse. Here he remained for ten years doing his daily work honestly and efficiently to the entire satisfaction of his employers.
Norman was notified by his employers that he had to do some “experimental wireless work” on the Lord’s Day. On strict conscientious grounds Mr. Shaw refused to do unnecessary work on the Lord’s Day. It could be done on any ordinary day of the week without interfering in any way with the usual daily work of the lighthouse. The trustees became furious, their pride hurt, and there was nothing for it but to dismiss this honest and faithful servant at once! If the employers had the use of ordinary common sense they could see at once, and appreciate the honesty of this man, who, if need be, was prepared to sacrifice all his earthly possessions rather than sin against God, and thereby violate his own conscience! The trustees dismissed this man for seeking to honour his God, and obey His command, “Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy.” He never refused to do the works of necessity and mercy on the Sabbath day while sailing on the high seas, or when engaged at Toward Lighthouse. Why then was he dismissed the service of the Lighthouse Trustees? In the spirit of Nebuchadnezzar, the trustees in effect said, “let the furnace be heated seven times more than it was wont to be” and let Norman Shaw be cast into the furnace of the fury of the trustees. Oh, the madness of man against God! How brutal his rage, and how insatiable his desire for revenge! Mr. Shaw was a married man with a young wife and young children, but what did the trustees care about his wife or infant children. They dismissed him, thrust him out of the house, for all that they cared, let him and his family die on the hillside. Their pride was hurt, their fury was great. Their conduct was exposed in the press at the time.
The Church came to the aid of their faithful Church member and Parliament was moved. Members of Parliament also stood on the side of Norman Shaw. The Right Hon. Sir Thomas Inskip, K.C. (as he was then) and the Hon. F. A. Macquisten, M.P., described the conduct of the trustees as “a disgraceful piece of oppression.” But Satan defeats his own ends all the time, for Mr. Shaw got more friends than he would ever know for his noble defence of the Lord’s Day. A house was provided, and himself and his family were better off than he would have been if he had remained in the service of the cruel trustees all his days, hurting his conscience and sinning against God. The poor trustees forgot that they had to appear before the judgment seat of Christ to receive their sentence for their conduct. That was the class of men in Britain, France, Russia, etc., that roused the working masses to cast them down to the ground. In our day the “shop steward” is the master of the employer! What a change! We do not justify it, but we do consider it a divine judgment on the employer of labour.
“In all thy ways acknowledge Him; and He shall direct thy path” (Pro. iii. 6). Mr. Shaw was one of the most agreeable men that we ever met. He was coming to our house twice a year (at communion seasons) for twenty-four years. One could not entertain a more humble, kind, and considerate man in every way. He was firm and steadfast on the side of the Lord and His Cause. We experienced that during the uproar unstable men and women caused in Glasgow and Inverness. He weighed the situation well, measured his men in the light of God’s Word, and was thoroughly convinced that their tactics were of the flesh and not from the Spirit of the Lord. He conducted the services in connection with our Church in Dunoon for many years. He never wavered however few the number who might attend the services he so faithfully, and conscientiously conducted without any salary or payment of any kind. His heart was in the cause of his Lord. We mourn the loss of a true friend, a humble Christian, and a faithful member of the Free Presbyterian Church. His record is on high! He was not a man of many words. He was a man of action.
Our deepest sympathy goes out to Mrs. Shaw and to all the members of his family in the great loss of a loving husband, an affectionate father, a wise counsellor. We hope the seed sown by the father among them will bring forth fruit to the glory of God, and their individual salvation. May they be able to say with people of God, “The LORD of hosts is with us; and the God of Jacob our refuge” (Ps. xlvii. 7).—James MacLeod.