Rev. John Colquhoun, Glendale
This worthy minister of the Church was born in September 1896 at Leinnish, Colbost, Glendale, Skye. His parents were Duncan Colquhoun and Marion Morrison and he was the second of a family of four, the eldest of whom died in infancy. When about 10 years of age the family removed to another village, Milivaig, Glendale, where he attended the local school till he was 14 years. Being of an independent and studious turn of mind, he profited by the advice and help of the local school master in the use of sound literature from the school library, both Gaelic and English. A godly neighbour supplied him with religious works, especially in Gaelic and with the religious instruction from his mother who taught him to read the Gaelic Bible at a very early age, he laid the foundation of a sound education in early life. This taste for good literature followed him through life and as a student in Glasgow, he was well known in the second-hand bookshops which in those days abounded in the city.
What were undoubtedly the first religious impressions that he experienced, to which he referred in later life as giving a decided religious character to his life, occurred at the time of the Glendale communion. He was at this time between the ages of 16 and 17 years. It happened that Rev. N. Cameron, St Jude’s, Glasgow, came to assist at the Glendale communion and as was his custom John attended the services. On Thursday forenoon, Mr Cameron preached from the words: “O Lord, I have heard thy speech and was afraid; O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy” (Hab. 3:2). As he meditated on these words on his way home, the thought forceably struck him: “I have no work in me to revive.” So great was the distress of mind occasioned by this realisation which he suffered at this time that he said: “I do not yet know how I walked the three miles back to my home.” That evening Mr Cameron preached from the text: “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to thy word” (Ps. 119:9). But as he said: “If I was brought to realise in the forenoon that I had no work in me to revive, Mr Cameron simply tore me to shreds in the evening.” This was undoubtedly the beginning of the work of the Holy Spirit in convincing him of sin.
This same year he went south to begin work on the railway at Kilmacolm and although it meant a walk of 24 miles each Sabbath, in coming and going, the six miles to the Greenock Church to attend the morning and evening services, he was regularly in his place at public worship. He suffered much persecution in this place on account of Sabbath work, but strength was given him by the Lord to remain steadfast. For instance, at one time when he faced dismissal for refusing to do Sabbath work, the late John MacKenzie, student, came to supply Greenock on the Sabbath, and John said: “He described my case and condition as if he had been told all about it, and I can never forget the comfort and strength I received that day through John MacKenzie.” One Saturday, however, when he refused to go out to work on the Sabbath, the foreman dismissed him and, as the country was at the time engaged in the 1914-18 World War, gave him the necessary documents with instructions to report on Monday at the Military Headquarters at Stirling for military service. The Commanding Officer who interviewed him told him that he should not have been sent, for his work on the railway exempted him from military service and sent him back to his work. He moved to Eglinton Toll, Glasgow, but again was compelled to leave because of Sabbath work. Eventually, he made the acquaintance of the late Norman MacKay, one of St Jude’s elders, who helped him to find work at Buchanan St. Station, Glasgow, where he was himself employed. His joy knew no bounds. This had always been his desire that he might find work in Glasgow so that he might be under the ministry of Rev. N. Cameron. Here he experienced the liberty of the Gospel and was received into full communion with the St. Jude’s congregation.
Mr Cameron took a deep interest in him, often having him up to the manse, and many a precious evening he spent in his minister’s company, evenings which he used to refer to in after years as those occasions on which he received advice and counsel which were to prove of great help to him in his future ministry. It may be that Mr Cameron had some premonition that the young man before him would one day be a minister of the Church and deliberately drew upon the fruits of his own early struggles and experiences and recounted the events which led to the formation of the Free Presbyterian Church in which Mr Cameron himself took such a large part, for his future guidance. For some years he held the office of deacon in St Jude’s congregation until he was received as a student of the Church by the Southern Presbytery in August 1927.
The work of the Gospel Ministry had for some time before this been on his mind, over which he was greatly exercised, and prayerfully sought to ascertain the Lord’s will, as he felt called to the office of the ministry in the Church. The passage of God’s Word which confirmed him in the decision to enter the ministry also prepared him for the trials and sufferings which every tried servant of Christ must expect to meet in the Lord’s service: “Be thou a partaker of the afflictions of the Gospel” (2 Tim. 1:8), and of the truth of these words his long ministry was to provide ample proof. He completed his Arts course, of which one year was given to our London congregation during which he attended London University, and thereafter studied Divinity under Rev. D. Beaton, Oban, the Church’s tutor. He was duly settled over the Glendale congregation in his native parish, being ordained and inducted to the charge on 28th September 1933. The parish in those days was largely populated, and 650 names were attached to the Call, but of this large congregation he had the sorrow during his long ministry of seeing the large part removed by death. Some time after coming to Glendale, he was united in marriage with Miss Jessie MacKay, Clydebank, who proved a true help meet to her husband in the Master’s service and a like-minded follower of the Lamb. He relinquished his charge in 1974 because of failing health and retired to Inverness.
Mr Colquhoun was much sought after during his ministry by congregations who wished to secure him for their pastor but he could not be prevailed upon to leave his first love. In the pulpit his statement of doctrine was clear, well reasoned and solid for he loved the old paths in theology and practice. His knowledge of the History of the Church, which was detailed in some periods of the Scottish Church and particularly of his own Church, was full and accurate which made his contributions to the work of Church Courts, in the pages of the Church Magazine and in the public press, valuable and helpful. He published two pamphlets dealing with the “Free Offer of the Gospel” and the “Sacrament of Baptism” which were constructive and useful. For 22 years, till failing health led to his resignation, he acted as Clerk of the Western Presbytery besides holding the position of Convener over long periods of the Jewish and Foreign Missions and of the Religion and Morals Committees, the account of whose proceedings, yearly presented to the Synod, was largely from his hand. Twice he was Moderator of Synod.
In his own congregation, his affections and sympathies were attracted to the young, over whom, no doubt recalling his own early experiences, he yearned and grieved, when they had to leave home to seek employment in the south. From the pulpit he warned the young of the dangers that beset them in youth, often dwelling on the words: “My son, if sinner entice thee, consent thou not” (Prov. 1:10). In warning them of the perils of strong drink, he would often quote the words: “Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise” (Prov. 20:1). He spared no trouble to oppose and to warn his people against the inroads of strong drink and appeared at innumerable meetings of the Licensing Board to contest the dangerous readiness of these Boards to grant drink licences, and was at times successful. He was completely attached to our Church’s Testimony against unsound doctrine, unscriptural practices and lack of discipline found today in the professing church, the fruit of the church’s declension since the passing of the Declaratory Act of 1892 by the old Free Church into law, and made no effort to conceal his strong feelings when any laxity or wavering from that Testimony came to his notice. He served his generation nobly by the will of God and has now entered upon his reward.
He was spared to enjoy a short period of retirement in the evening of his days, ready to help when he could with the services of the House of God and glad to welcome to his home his old friends. On 3rd February, 1976 he took the prayer-meeting in the Inverness congregation, in the absence of the minister on Church work in Rhodesia, and spoke from the words: “For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee” (Is. 54:10). This proved to be his last appearance in public, for he took ill the following day, a week later was removed to the Royal Northern Infirmary, Inverness, and passed away in a coma on 17th February, 1976, aged 79 years. His remains were interred at Tomnahurich Cemetery, Inverness. To his sorrowing widow we offer our sincere sympathy and commend her to the Lord’s gracious care. She was a succourer of many, a tower of strength to her husband, and to her loving interest and care in preserving the main facts of her husband’s faithful service and witness, we owe the bulk of what is written here. “Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether” (Song 2, verse 17).
A.F.M.