There is, Solomon tells us, “a time to be born, and a time to die.” These two events were to be separated by over one hundred years in the case of the subject of this brief obituary.
Mrs Gunn’s parents were both professing Christians nurtured under the ministry of the revered Rev. Duncan MacBeath. Parental instruction and example would seem to have had, in her case, the desired beneficial effect, and from the time that she left home to earn her living in Stornoway, which was at the tender age of fourteen, she was known as one who was morally upright and circumspect as to her outward behaviour. A further thirty years were, however, to pass by, before the Saviour came to call her effectually by His Spirit and thus make Himself precious to her soul. Gospel light and liberty came with the words, “Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.” At the time, we are told, she was walking along Matheson Road. In August, 1922, while the Rev. Neil MacIntyre was still minister in Stornoway, she was received as a member in full communion.
From the cheerful disposition that Mrs Gunn manifested outwardly, one might think that the years of her pilgrimage were largely free of troubles and sorrows. Yet, she knew, more than most, what it meant to be fed on ‘the bread of tears.’ Her husband was taken away in 1920, and of the seven children born to her only two survived her. Four, including twins, passed away in infancy, and news of the death in America of her only surviving son came to her ears six months before her own end.
On her 100th birthday she received the customary telegram from the Queen. In connection with being thus honoured, she was heard to say that she had previously received a ‘telegram from her own King.’ Whether or not, she meant by this remark that she knew that she was shortly to be summoned into His presence, we cannot tell, but three weeks later, she, in fact, departed, we believe to take up her eternal abode in the palace of that King, “to be with Christ, which is far better.”
Throughout her declining years and during her last illness, she was tenderly and lovingly cared for by her two surviving daughters. May they, in mourning the death of their beloved and godly mother derive much comfort from the consideration that they “which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him.”