The late Mrs John Martin, Wick
Mrs Martin passed away to her eternal rest with the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, about twenty months after the death of her worthy husband, Mr John Martin, Elder, Wick. This was also an unexpected loss and grief to the family and the Wick congregation.
She was born at Leacklee, Stockinish, Harris, on the 29th November, 1906, being the youngest member of a MacCuish family of thirteen children. A few days before she died, she travelled to Inverness to be with her daughter and son-in-law, Dr and Mrs James Tallach. Being a weekend there, she took unwell on Monday, 13th February, 1978, and was removed to hospital, and died early Tuesday morning, 14th February.
Mrs Martin trained as a teacher in Edinburgh and taught in the Western Isles, before settling in Glasgow. She married in 1936. Many years later, after coming to Wick with her husband, she taught for a time in Wick High School.
She became a member of the Wick congregation in April, 1962, and in the testimony of her spiritual experience she quoted the words of Job: “I know that my Redeemer liveth”. And she gave continual evidence until the day of her death, that she knew, loved and followed her Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. She was devoted to the Word and Worship of God in her home and in the house of God. The gospel of the Redeemer was obviously what her heart was set upon and in which she found bread for her soul and encouragement. Her place in the Church or Sabbath was seldom empty and this was true of her respecting the weekly prayer meeting also. During the prayer meeting which she attended before leaving for Inverness, an address was given from the words: “Whom having not seen, ye love” (1 Peter, ch. 1), during which it was observed that the time was coming when those who loved the Lord would be like Him and see Him as He is in heaven. Little did anyone present that evening think that Mrs Martin would soon be ‘absent from the body and present with the Lord’.
Mrs Martin was like-minded with her late husband in connection with the Word of God and the gospel and in showing great kindness and hospitality to friends. As a widow, she lived alone by choice in her home in Wick for nearly two years, and the members of her family devotedly kept in regular touch with their mother. She must have felt a sense of loneliness at times. This we discussed now and again when visiting, but she never complained: the Lord upholding her by His gracious presence.
The family were greatly privileged in their parents, who gave them a Christian and wise example and exercised a tender care for their spiritual welfare and their good and prosperity otherwise.
The funeral service was held in the Church, Wick, and a goodly number of people were present to show their sympathy to the family and other relatives. They, and we as a congregation, need to be comforted and enabled to follow on to know the Lord until our end come. R. R. S.