Although latterly Mr Macleod’s bodily weakness was such that he was confined to his room, his mental faculties remained unimpaired and there were times when, sitting up in bed, he would become quite animated. When the fire would burn, he could not forbear speaking. At such times it was a rare privilege to be in his company. Often he would single out some point of interest in the chapter that had been just read at family worship and would then proceed to comment on it. Perhaps the portion read would bring back before his mind’s eye scenes of long ago, or sermons heard in his youth would be recalled to memory. In his own inimitable way he could recount notes of old worthies and events in the past in a most interesting and edifying manner. For the prosperity of the Cause of Christ world-wide, among all nations, he to the last earnestly prayed. After a lifetime of prayerful study of the word of God there was no doubt in his mind as to the scripturalness of the Post-millenial view of Christ’s second advent, and his prayers for the coming of His kingdom and the glory of the latter days are, like David’s, now ended but not yet answered. “Let the whole earth be filled with His glory.” His love to the people of God crossed all denominational boundaries and embraced the small and great fearing God under the canopy of heaven. Yet he had a particular love for the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. We are sure he homologated what the Rev. Neil Cameron declared at the meeting of Synod in 1918: “We hold that we are united in heart to all the true people of God throughout the whole world, but we deny that we are bound to unite in outward church fellowship with them on that account. Our forefathers believed that there were many of the true children of God in the Episcopal Church of England in their day, but notwithstanding their love to them, they would not unite with them at the expense of giving away the Creed, principles and practice of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland.” The ardency with which he, when necessary, could defend the Church’s separate position against its detractors may be seen from the manner in which he on one occasion refuted the false and unwarranted assertion of a Free Church professor that the Free Presbyterian Church had “neither a past to refer to nor a future to look to.” Fifty years after the separation we find him declaring it as his conviction that the Free Presbyterian Church had been from the very beginning a special target to Satan, the great enemy. The witness for God’s word raised by the church had “hit the enemy sorely and therefore the enemy hit at the church again and again and would continue to do so as often and as bitterly as he possibly could.” All this had caused much sorrow, Mr Macleod said, yet God had brought her through. Five years later in 1948, we find him expressing his mind thus: “There is no going back, my friends, for the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. So far as I understand things, it was not nearly so necessary in 1893 to make the stand she did as it is now. Things have gone from bad to worse every day. This age, yes, and this land is full of traitors to the Lord Jesus Christ . . . whose names, sad to say, are on many communion rolls, for there is a great forsaking of the true faith in this land as throughout the world in this sad day of ours. It is indeed a cloudy and dark day — so dark and cloudy that whoever will get through safely and be accounted worthy of the Lord will have reason to praise God throughout eternity.”
Those with whom Mr Macleod was associated when the Church was in its infancy, and to whom he was deeply attached, were all away to “a better country, that is, an heavenly” before him. This accounts for the feeling of loneliness which he shared with Mr Cameron and which he said was often with him, although he also did not lack friends in the world. Like Mr Cameron (Memoirs page 160) he could, no doubt, remember something of “the warmth and spiritual joy” that was felt by those who separated in 1893 in the means of salvation and also “the unity and the love which then existed between brothers and sisters in Christ, as also the seals set upon the word preached in the conversion of sinners to God” which made them absolutely sure that the Lord approved of the step they had taken. As a young man he personally knew, loved and respected that eminent Christian and true-hearted Free Presbyterian, Archibald Crawford of Tighnabruaich. To the end of his life he cherished memories of conversations he had had with him and it is no small indication of the regard which that godly man had for him that he should take him into his confidence as he did. Although as to age many years separated them, they had much in common and not least that they were both of that stock to whom the words of Jeremiah had a particular significance relative to their ecclesiastical position in Scotland before and after 1900, “Let them return unto thee; but return not to them.”
Mr Macleod, as was previously mentioned, was predeceased by his wife and also by all his brothers and sisters. His nearest surviving relatives now live in New Zealand — the descendants of his brother Malcolm. His niece, May, came over to this country to care for him during the last few years of his life and this she did lovingly and devotedly. Prior to her arrival from New Zealand Miss Isabella Bain of Gairloch served him dutifully and self-denyingly as a housekeeper and it is fitting that in any account of Mr Macleod’s life her name should be mentioned. In a full age he came to his grave, “like as a shock of corn cometh in his season.” His removal left a great blank in Ullapool and in the Free Presbyterian Church at a time when watchmen on the walls of Sion are so few, and darkness so great and the enemies of the cause so subtle and numerous. To those coming after him he left this on record: “I say this to the rising generation, that they have been left a goodly heritage — a heritage of which they have every reason to be proud, and it is their duty to value that heritage, and leave it to those who will come after them, unimpaired as others left it to them. Let them make conscience of that before God, to be faithful to what was left by those who went before them. It was not the work of men and women at all. It was the Lord’s work. Well, they are duty bound to serve Him. If not, I pity them when they will meet the Lord on the last day. I pity them from the bottom of my heart who will be unfaithful and will not do their utmost to preserve that heritage for the generation coming after them.” We who profess to follow after are called upon to pray as he so earnestly did that the Lord would send forth labourers into His own harvest, and that our distinctive witness as a church would be maintained until the time to favour Sion shall come. When that blessed time arrives, as we are persuaded it will, he and those who were associated with him at the beginning of our separate existence shall be accorded a place in the ecclesiastical history of Scotland, denied them now by contemporary writers, and we may be sure that many books will then have to be revised, including one not so very recently published purporting to deal with the Puritan hope of the Lord’s coming to revive His own work, and which passed over the Separation of 1893 in silence! He, having kept the faith, finished his course and departed to receive his crown. A prince and a great man fell in Israel — a servant and minister of God entered into the joy of his Lord to join the Church triumphant in heaven and the company of those of whom it is written: “And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.” (Daniel 12:3).
John Macleod.