To the late Hugh Mackay, Elder, Vancouver. From Dominions and Colonial Committee
The Committee desires to record the deep sense of loss caused by the death of Mr Hugh MacKay, elder, Vancouver, on 7th March, 1966.
A native of Sutherland, Scotland, Mr MacKay was born in the year 1887, and was the son of God-fearing parents who cast their lot with the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland in 1893.
In 1907 Hugh emigrated to Canada, where, with brief intermissions, he lived during the remainder of his life. After a short time in the Province of Manitoba, he moved to British Columbia to make his home in Vancouver, along with his like-minded wife, where their family, consisting of two sons and four daughters, was born.
Though he had the privilege of an early and close association with the Lord’s people in his native country, and though incidents in his formative years made lasting impressions on his mind, it was in the land of his adoption that Hugh MacKay was brought to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. His piety was reflected in the sincere and active interest he took in projects designed to advance the Kingdom of God at home and abroad. An admirer of the principles of the church, he took a prominent part in the formation of the Vancouver congregation, which he served with much acceptance as an elder and as a lay preacher. A man of sterling character, of unimpeachable reputation, and of true piety, his witness made a lasting impression. Like the Apostle Paul, for Hugh MacKay “to live was Christ, and to die was gain.”
In expressing sincere sympathy with the widow, family and congregation who have been thus bereaved, the Committee would commit them to God, whom their friend loved and served. “Mark the perfect man and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace” (Psalm 37, v. 37).