Obituaries

Miss Netta Watt, Inverness

The family of the late Don. and Mrs Watt, Lybster, Caithness, always spoke highly of the great kindness they received in the home of Capt. Robt. Ross and his daughter, Joanna, where they were brought up from childhood. The loss of their parents so early in life was to a great extent mitigated by the affection and christian atmosphere of their new home where they were taught to fear God and keep His Word. Janet Watt was born in her parents’ home in Lybster in 1885 and eventually went to live in London where she was joined by her older sister, Joanna, later to become the wife of our Tain missionary, Malcolm MacEwan, and her aunt Joanna, daughter of Capt. Robt. Ross. They lived in Seymour House, Chelsea where the death of their brother, Frank, took place at the early age of 33 years. A group of young men from the North of Scotland who came to London to work organised religious services in connection with the recently formed Free Presbyterian Church and arranged that some of our ministers should come down to preach to them in London. Prominent in this movement were Mr. Wm. Grant who later after the First World War became minister at Halkirk; Mr. Donald Sutherland and Robert Sinclair, for many years our London elder, and Seymour House became the hospitable centre which drew together the small community of people who attended the Church services. Rev. N. Cameron, St. Jude’s, Glasgow, was moderator of the congregation and took a deep interest in the London cause.

The sisters, Joanna and Janet, returned to Scotland, accompanied by their aunt Joanna. In 1920 the death of their aunt who had guided their early lives in the Wick home affected them profoundly and particularly in the case of Janet, her distress was deep and severe and awakened in her alarm for her own spiritual state. The loss of so many of her close friends, the death of her brother, Frank, at an early age had broken up the secure world in which she lived and forced her to think of the eternal world. She could no longer settle down on her lees. The training of the home and the deep interest in the public services of God’s House were not sufficient now to allay her fears or bring her relief. Her terror was increased by a dream in the night when she obtained a sight of Christ suffering on the cross which prostrated her for days. The late Rev. James S. Sinclair who was in Wick at the time visited her and by his seasonable counsel and prayers was the means of bringing her some help in her affliction. This seems to have been the reason of mercy to her soul for from this time forward she manifested the joy of salvation and was careful to keep herself in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. She joined herself to the company of the Lord’s people and entered into their spiritual conversation, not as one of the companions who followed the Church as she formerly had been, but as one of the Lord’s redeemed people.

In Halkirk their home was like what Seymour House had been in London, the dwelling place where the righteous loved to resort together, especially at communion seasons, to enjoy fellowship in the Gospel. The Lord’s people in the north who attended these seasons were made welcome in their home. In 1963 they moved to Inverness where Mrs. Janette Campbell could be at hand to attend to the needs of her mother and aunt, for the frailties of age were at last beginning to appear. They lived nearby in a small cottage which comfortably accommodated them and the like-minded friends whom they loved to entertain. They enjoyed the frequent visits of their brother, Robert Watt, and missed him when he was called away to his heavenly rest. Eventually, they had to go to live with Mrs. Campbell where they received all the care and nursing which increasing infirmities might make necessary. Mrs. MacEwan suffered a leg fracture as the result of a fall and was removed to Raigmore Hospital where after a few weeks of distressing weakness she finished her earthly course. From this blow Netta never really recovered but pined after her sister though she did not complain. She took to bed from which till the day of her death she did not rise. Her mind was exercised in meditating upon the great things of the Gospel, the memory of past seasons of spiritual enjoyment among the Lord’s people and the familiar words of scripture which comforted and refreshed her soul. Though her memory sometimes failed during the long months of her last illness in the things of the world, there was no confusion in her spiritual talk. She showed a contented spirit, waited patiently upon the Lord’s time with thankful acknowledgement of the Lord’s daily mercies and longed to be away to the better country. She quietly departed from this earth in September 1974 to be for ever with the Lord. Netta Watt was a living example of the wisdom of meekness which is in the Lord’s sight of great price and to which He has added His blessing, “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth”. The meek and inoffensive walk of this humble christian were the visible marks of the true disciple of the meek and holy Jesus. “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection; on such the second death hath no power.”

A.F.M.

Alexander MacLean, Gairloch

Alexander MacLean was born in the year 1893. Some forty years later it was that his spiritual life began, when he became a new man evidencing that he was now ‘in Christ Jesus.’ This experience began, as is usually the case, with a conviction of sin, during which time he was made to seek salvation. The wounds of his soul, caused by the law of God, were mollified when the Holy Spirit applied to him the words found in John 6:37 — “him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” So precious were these words to him that a long time elapsed before he was able to quote them in public. He publicly professed in 1937 and he was made an elder of the Gairloch congregation in 1946. He was asked to become lay-missionary at Laide fifteen miles away and he believed that the Lord directed him to accept the appointment. His missionary labours were constant and painstaking as one who knew the value of souls. Each Sabbath he travelled to Laide by bicycle in all kinds of weather conditions, and while, on many occasions, he returned home soaking wet, he had to relate that on his journeys to the place he never received such wettings as hindered his engaging in his duty. When he retired from missionary work at Laide, after serving the congregation for over thirty years, they showed their appreciation by presenting him with a valuable gift. Besides his work at Laide he preached elsewhere occasionally.

The process of sanctification continued during his life. A knowledge of his own sinfulness and an awareness of the deceitfulness of his heart kept him exercised in soul and made precious to him such portions of the word of God as, “the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth us from all sin.” Another result of this self-knowledge was a constant spirit of self-examination, being jealously afraid lest the good work had not been begun. When he would give out a portion of the word of God on a day of self-examination, it would be such a portion as — “I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord.” As he began to lose the strength of his legs he used to say that he was conscious in this of the Lord’s keeping him down for he knew that if his strength had been left to him as he desired, his pride would have been less mortified. His desire was to be right for eternity.

It was his custom to attend several communion seasons throughout the church. As a leader of the praises of God in public worship, not only did he possess the necessary qualification of a melodious voice, but he performed the duty with an obvious regard to the words which he sang. In prayer, he revealed a wide concern for the kingdom of God, embracing the ends of the earth in his petitions — pleading for Ireland ‘where there is much shedding of blood’ — for those persecuted for the faith of the gospel in other lands — for those on the mission field — for those assembled at communion seasons. In his approaches to the Lord in prayer he was reverent and one felt that when he prayed the Lord to ‘open our understanding that we might understand the Scripture,’ he was conscious of his ignorance.

In his home he extended a most warm welcome to all the church people. His house was open for the use of the gospel and in this respect all that he did he did most unselfishly and never gave the impression that he was looking for reward.

In all his trials he manifested a gracious spirit and committed himself to the Lord. On the occasion of the loss of his wife he was specially helped by the words of psalm 73:

“Thou, with thy counsel, while I live,
wilt me conduct and guide:
And to thy glory afterward
receive me to abide.”

During his last illness which lasted several months he quietly waited for the salvation of God. At this time psalm fifty one was frequently on his mind, and his last conscious response was to the singing of a psalm.

Of such we are commanded in the Scripture — “whose faith follow.”

He bore the burdens of Christ’s Cause until his end and often attended upon the means of grace with his bodily strength much impaired. As it is recorded of others, “These all died in faith,” so it was with him on the 20th October, 1975. And thus we are left with yet another blank.

Alfred E. W. MacDonald

John MacCuish, Elder, Kenmore

The subject of this obituary was born in 1894 in the village of Leackee, N. Harris, the first son of the marriage of Donald MacCuish and Mary Ann Morrison. His only sister died when he was sixteen, and when she was aged one. Three years later, a brother passed away at five years of age, and his mother died in childbirth, at the age of forty-six. These were heartfelt bereavements.

John MacCuish had to leave his native island to obtain employment, at first, with the West Highland Railway, and later, sometime after the outbreak of the First World War, he joined the Merchant Navy. During the time spent in the Merchant Navy his father passed away, seven years after his mother’s death, and on him then fell the care of providing for the needs of an orphaned family. In 1923 he married Catherine MacKinnon, and that same year left Harris, with other members of his father’s family, to settle at Kenmore, a village on the N. Applecross coast. It was to be here that he and his wife were to spend the rest of their sojourn together, and where they raised a family of four sons and two daughters.

Such an outline would be incomplete without any reference, first of all, to the most important event in his life — his conversion. He was reticent, it seems, regarding the matter. This was not altogether due to natural shyness, but (as he said, after hearing some injudicious remarks by a speaker at a Question meeting on one occasion, “cast not your pearls before swine . . . etc.”) it was a matter of principle with him, like many of a bygone generation, not to unbosom himself to all and sundry, about the work of the Holy Spirit in his soul. Nevertheless, his godliness was undoubted. Such ought not to be despised by those who talk readily of their experiences.

Although bereavements were naturally heartbreaking, and had a solemnising effect, they were not the means of his conversion. He was in his early teens brought to a sense of his lost condition under the preaching of Mr. A. Fraser, Ballachulish, a godly missionary who laboured in Harris for some years. This most useful West Coast Missionary was closely related to Dr. David Livingstone, the African missionary-explorer, whose ancestors hailed from Mull. (Obituary F.P. Magazine Vol. 41). At the age of eighteen while at work on the railway, John MacCuish was so much under soul concern that he lost interest in everything, even to the extent that he had stopped writing home. He was in such a state that he was afraid to be left alone, in case he would throw himself under a train. He was several months in that condition. One day he had a letter from a boy still at school in his home village with which there was a tract enclosed. On the tract were the words “him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out”. That verse was the means of relieving him of his burden, of bringing him to trust in the divine Redeemer, and was a source of comfort to him — “even to this day,” he said to one who was close to him, when giving the above account, four years ago.

In 1951 his fourth son Ronald died of leukaemia at ten years of age. He was a remarkable boy. (Obituary by the late Rev. Wm. Grant appeared Y.P. Magazine Vol. 16). He on one occasion paid tribute to his father’s piety. Ronald prayed one evening on going to his bedroom, but then after getting ready for bed, he was going to pray a second time. His mother, thinking at the time that this was a tactic to delay his going to bed, said to him that he had already prayed. “What harm is in that?” he innocently replied, “father prays without ceasing.”

John MacCuish came to the Kirk Session, in Shieldaig in 1954, desiring to sit at the Lord’s Table for the first time. The sermon that day had been preached from the words “yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but he forgat him.” One of the elders remembers that at that Session meeting John mentioned Ronald’s death (although the exact words are forgotten) as if there was some connection between that sad event and the reason for his coming forward. The Session unanimously agreed to grant him his desire, and gave him a token, and thereafter in the year 1960 he was ordained an elder.

In 1969 he spent eight weeks in Raigmore Hospital, but then was discharged having apparently got over his trouble. He did not fully recover though for about two years he was able to get up, and sometimes go outside. For the last four years of his life he was bedridden. Never was he heard during this prolonged trial to complain even once. Not only was his illness borne with patience, but with gratitude for every kindness. He said once when still able to speak “we are still left here, but we shall give account of our stewardship — O what a stewardship!” He did not think highly of himself. In lowliness of mind he esteemed others better than himself.

A man of more than ordinary Christian consistency, John MacCuish was a witness for true godliness in this community. Although of a retiring disposition, he was all his days pledged to the separate position taken by Revs. D. MacFarlane and D. MacDonald in 1893. Of kindred spirit with the godly fathers of the Free Presbyterian Church, he had her good at heart and prayed for her prosperity. On 13th July 1975 he departed this life, to be, we believe, with Christ where “the Lord shall be their everlasting light and the days of their mourning shall be ended.”

Sympathy is extended to his widow, three sons and two daughters, as well as three surviving brothers. May the Lord heal the breaches made here and elsewhere.
D.M.C.