15th January, 1946. As I now go to Edinburgh, D.V., for an operation, and know not that I shall return, I wish to state that my nearly twenty years with my dear congregation in Halkirk and Helmsdale have been spent in harmony, and my yearning desire is their eternal prosperity. May seed sown bring forth fruit even while my voice is no longer heard by them. I have, in weakness, put life and death before them and God will require it.
From the brink of eternity, I say to the careless among them, “Consider your ways.” To the Lord’s children — “Be of good courage and He strength unto your hearts shall send All ye whose hope and confidence doth on the Lord depend.”
To all, I say, “Time is short, realities await you, and there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved but that of the glorious Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. Hold fast to the distinctive and very necessary testimony of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. Beware of any and every tendency to undermine it. Buy the truth and sell it not.
To my brethren in the Northern Presbytery I express deep gratitude for all they have been to me. We are a united and harmonious company of brethren. Together we have been through tribulation and the Lord was with us. Farewell, brethren, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
Farewell, my dear congregation, continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving.
Farewell, all my sisters, brothers, relatives and friends — meet me, if that be the sovereign will of God, where parting there is none. “They shall be brought with gladness great and mirth on every side Into the palace of the King and there they shall abide.”
I recall with great pleasure the six months spent in Canada and U.S.A. Notwithstanding sins of omission and commission, the Lord was very gracious to me, and though much to cast down, in matters left behind in the church at home, I was enabled to do what was laid to my hand. To many friends “Overseas,” I bid “Farewell, be valiant for the Lord Jesus Christ and His Cause.” May labourers arise in all places to serve the Lord.
London Congregation
You have a special place in my heart. You came into existence, as a Mission, in answer to prayer. You became the birth-place of souls. You have been carried through the trials and dangers of two wars. Carry on prayerfully, watchfully and zealously. I go hence, a poor sinner, with no hope but that of the merits of Christ’s finished work. “None perish that Him trust.”