The late Mr Angus Gillies, St Jude’s, Glasgow
Angus Gillies, who passed away on 3rd September, 1976, was born in Umachan, Island of Raasay, on 3rd December, 1892, being the eldest of a family of seven. Because of the vacancy prior to the induction of the Rev. Donald MacFarlane in the Spring of 1892, there were a number of children to be baptized when he went there. Among these were five boys — four in the North End of the island and one in the South End. Angus Gillies was one of these boys. Mr MacFarlane said to one of his elders that he believed that all five boys would yet be witnesses on the side of Christ. This took place, as all five publicly professed their interest in Christ and all at different times. Four of them became elders in the Church.
After leaving school, he worked for a few years in Raasay and then took up a sea-faring career. He later married and settled in Glasgow where he was employed, as so many Highlanders were, by the Clyde Navigation Trust. He continued in this employment until he retired. During the First World War, he served in the Merchant Navy. In 1916, his ship was attacked by a German U-boat and although the ship eventually escaped unscathed, Angus felt that his escape had not been merely a matter of life or death, but also a matter of life or a lost eternity. His subsequent re-action was to keep repeating part of Psalm 119 from verse 33: “Teach me, O Lord, the perfect way of Thy precepts divine . . .”, but acknowledged afterwards that this brought him no relief.
How long he remained in the state of conviction of sin, we do not know, but it was obvious to those closest to him that he had found the Messiah many years before he made a public profession in 1941. There is no doubt that the Holy Spirit used his reading of the Word of God to open up to him the way of salvation and to enable him to embrace by faith the Saviour therein revealed. His frequent references to the two on the way to Emmaus and words often used by him in public prayer (“It was in Thy word that Thy people found Thee and it is in Thy Word that they will be seeking Thee”) are evidence of the way in which the Holy Spirit dealt with him.
On 24th March, 1946, he was ordained and inducted to the deaconship and to the eldership on 6th March 1949. In discharging the duties of these offices, he showed a true sense of responsibility and felt the weight laid upon him by his ordination vows. His particular gift was his visiting of the sick, the lonely, the bereaved and the aged and infirm. By all such he was held in the highest regard and they deeply miss his kindly interest in them and his prayers for them. He was a man given to prayer and sought the blessing of God not only for himself and his household but also for this generation, whose backslidings from the Word and worship of God filled him with so much grief and concern.
Angus Gillies was deeply attached to the testimony of the Free Presbyterian Church, believing it to be the Cause of the God of his salvation. He was entirely free from any wavering in this particular matter and felt distressed by any appearance of lukewarmness on the part of those who professed to be united to Christ and to His Truth. He maintained a cordial relationship with his brother-office-bearers in the congregation where he spent so much of his life. While we all miss his presence and prayers, we rejoice in the hope that he has entered the haven of eternal rest.
“Then are they glad because at rest
and quiet now they be:
So to the haven He them brings
which they desired to see” (Psalm 107:30).
In expressing our heartfelt sympathy to his sorrowing widow and family, our prayer is that the Lord will show Himself as the widow’s stay and as a father to the fatherless.
Donald MacLean
Mr Alexander Colquhoun, late of Glendale
Alexander Colquhoun was born in Glendale on 11th February 1903, and died at his home in Milivaig on 6th March 1976.
It would appear that while relatively young, the Holy Spirit wrought a saving change in Alec’s heart. To hear him speak to the Question, one would conclude that even prior to his conversion he enjoyed no ordinary measure of restraining grace. What deserves more notice, however, is the fact that having found the Saviour Alec Colquhoun desired to serve Him and commend Him to others. He laboured for many years in Fort William as a missionary. Endowed with wisdom, and possessing no ordinary ability, he served that congregation with acceptance.
On retiring to his native Island, Mr Colquhoun’s services as a lay preacher were again sought, and these were given ungrudgingly to the church in Glendale. As Clerk to the Kirk Session and Deacons Court, he carried out his duties quietly and most efficiently. The deep sense of genuine grief occasioned by his sudden death could literally be felt on the day of his funeral, and one sensed that Alec Colquhoun was loved, not only by his relatives, but by many who came to pay their last respects.
Mr Colquhoun’s sterling fidelity to His Master, and to the Free Presbyterian Church was not vociferous, but this did not detract from the impact his gracious witness made upon the community. The writer remembers him as ‘a quiet prince’, whose life and walk spoke more loudly than words.
To his sorrowing and lonely widow we extend our heartfelt sympathy, and commend her to the God of all grace.
“The memory of the just is blessed.” F.M.