Bonar Bridge and Lairg
When a man dies who was good in the sense that Barnabas was good, the loss to the Church was great, but it is felt most keenly when he was one of a useful few in a small congregation. That was what many felt when George Murray passed away to his eternal rest on 6th October, 1964. His lifetime was spent in his native district, and for thirty years, first as a member in full communion and then as an elder, he had taken an active part in the affairs of the Lairg and Creich Joint Congregation. Latterly there was only one other elder living locally to share with him the burden of the pastorless congregation, and when eventually George was removed by death, a sense of the extreme weakness of Christ’s Cause in these parts gripped the hearts of all who felt concern for its welfare.
Badbea, the little farm on the shores of Loch Migdale in the hills above Bonar Bridge was George’s birthplace. Only a mile to the west was the spot on the hillside where the great gatherings of people from all parts of the country assembled at the Creich Communion. To this event, held annually on the third Sabbath of August, came year after year such noted preachers as Dr. MacDonald, Ferintosh, Rev. John Kennedy, Redcastle and Dr. Kennedy, Dingwall. There were many of the Lord’s people in Creich in those days, and George’s father was one of them. It is an evidence of the esteem in which Alexander Murray was held, that he had been made an elder at the early age of 27 years.
Into this godly home George Murray was born on 17th August, 1883. It was the Friday of the Communion, and Dr. Kennedy was again present. The visit was to be his last for he died in the following April. Often in after years when the great Communion gatherings had become only memories, George referred to the Doctor’s prediction that a sign of the approaching declension in the Church would be the people gathering in tens when formerly they had done so in hundreds.
Badbea was a Christian home in the fullest sense. Both parents had as great a concern for their children’s spiritual welfare as they had for their temporal well-being, and the truths of God’s Word were early brought to bear upon the minds of the children. Sandy Murray would no doubt be remembering his own upbringing. He could recollect being put to bed by an aged relative when he was only two years old, and being requested to repeat after her, “Create a clean heart, Lord, renew a right spirit me within.” Not only the Murray family dwelt at Badbea. Ellen Logan, a godly woman, found a haven there in her declining years, and young George often was called upon to read to her the Scriptures on which her soul lived.
As a youth George worked with his father who was a road-contractor, and they were both engaged in laying out the grounds of Andrew Carnegie’s large new mansion of Aultnagar, high above the River Shin half-way between Lairg and Bonar Bridge. In 1910 George went to Aultnagar as gardener and caretaker, and here he spent his long working life. He married Mary, daughter of Donald Kelly, a St. Jude’s elder, and a family of sons and daughters was brought up in Aultnagar Lodge.
In 1933 George publicly professed faith in the Saviour and in 1940 he was made an elder. Until 1946 when Rev. D. J. Matheson left Lairg to go to Glasgow, George attended church at Bonar. After that he regularly cycled to Lairg to keep the services there. The homeward journey of five miles is all uphill and must have been very exhausting for a man in his sixties, as George now was. It was by self-denying activities of this kind that what was in George Murray’s heart became evident. He had little of the gift of self-expression, and it was love to the Cause of Christ at a time of need and not any desire for prominence that impelled him to lead the worship in public when pulpit supply was not available. His heart rejoiced when the Rev. D. M. MacLeod went to Lairg in 1956, but he lived to be again saddened at seeing the congregation once more without a pastor.
George Murray was very strong physically, and he was an old man before his strength began to wear. A series of illnesses then gradually curtailed his activities. Nevertheless, he still attended the various Communions in the district until the time of the Tain Sacrament in July, 1964. He took very ill on the Thursday, and when the Creich Communion came round five weeks later, George was still in a critical condition. Yet he recovered sufficiently to come home to Badbea where he and his wife made their home with George’s sisters in the year or two following his retirement. In September he again became ill, and after a few weeks was taken away on the 6th October from his state of weakness to, we believe, that place where the inhabitants do not grow old or say, “I am sick.” Although during his last days he was often rather confused in his mind, George Murray gave abundant evidence of his interest in Christ and of his desire to be with Him, which is far better. He desired a full conformity with the will of his God and Saviour, and his death was undubitably the death of the righteous.
A large number of men followed the remains to the old cemetery at Creich, and made it plain that they mourned his passing. Church and Community are alike the poorer by it. George was an upright man, humble, loving and kind. He spoke his mind in a manner that honest people appreciated but there was no edge to his tongue. His conversation was seasoned with salt. With his death there is lost a great store of information and edifying anecdotes of his native parish and the godly of a bygone day. To his widow and family, the oldest being Rev. Alexander Murray, and to his brother and two sisters we extend our sincere sympathy and hope that to them the memory of the just will be blessed.—A. McP.