This good woman passed, we believe, to her eternal rest on the 27th day of May, 1955. Had she lived another three days she would have reached her 95th birthday. It was at Fleuchary, Dornoch, the residence of her daughter, Mrs. Ross, that she ended her pilgrimage. She practically spent the whole of her long life in Strath, Gairloch, where she was born, apart from the five years she spent with her brother in Wales in her young days, and the thirteen years she resided in Paisley after her marriage. Her maiden name was Macintosh, and our older readers will have recollections of her pious mother, Mrs. Thomas Macintosh. She had a sister, Mary, who was a humble follower of the Lamb, and died many years ago. Mrs. Bain was another of her sisters, who died some years ago, “having obtained a good report through faith.”
Mrs. MacLeod was somewhat old before she made a public profession, that is not to say that she was old when she was changed in her state and nature. She was very reserved and slow to speak of her personal spiritual experience, but she was one whose life was an epistle of Christ that could be known and read of all men”—her “conversation” was in heaven. She was naturally of a bright disposition but she was not a stranger to indwelling corruption which made her “groan within herself.” The burden of her corrupt nature drew from her many an ejaculatory prayer, when she could not resort to her “closet,” to Him who “hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted.” She was one who sought a better country that is an heavenly, and laboured to enter it. She could say with holy Jacob, “All the days of my pilgrimage are few and evil.” The days of the believer are evil, and it is well they are but few, and in this shipwreck of man’s felicity he sees the shore and a landing place where he may be safe at length. The standing place of the just is in Christ Jesus, and is a standing place of prospect, in which he rejoices “in the hope of the glory of God.”
Mrs. MacLeod was an example in her attendance on the public means of grace, for as long as she could drag her legs, and it is dragging them she was latterly, though tall and stately in her carriage, her seat was never empty. She was an old “land-mark,” as we may say, in the congregation, who is fondly remembered and much missed. Her death was the effect rather of the gradual decay of nature, than of any distinctly marked disease. We have no information about her end, but as John Newton used to say, “You need not tell me how the man died; tell me how he lived, and I can tell you how he died.” To her daughter who nursed her in her time of need, and to her son, our elder, we extend our sympathy. A.B.