Mrs Kate Smith, Uig, Lewis
As the Lord often demonstrates His Sovereignty in the methods by which He calls His people effectually at the first, so He reveals it also by the manner in which at the end of life’s journey He calls them to be forever with Himself. Some true believers are left for long to suffer pain and weakness, others are called quickly “to be present with the Lord”. It was with awesome suddenness that the subject of this brief tribute was called to eternity on August 15, 1990. She was drying some dishes with a neighbour, at the home of her son, when without a word or even a cry she departed this world. A solemn reminder to us all of the words of Scripture, “Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.”
The writer has been unable to discover any details of Kate’s early Christian experience but the fruit of her latter life proved the change in her to be a genuine one. She made a public profession of her faith in Christ in June 1962, when she took her place at the Lord’s Table for the first time beside her husband, Murdo, who was to become a worthy and respected elder in the Uig congregation. At the time of her death she was the longest in profession of the small band of communicants in Uig who “declare plainly that they seek a country”.
One of the clearest features of her life was her obvious relish for the
public Means of Grace and her place was never empty if she could at all be there. For this reason we were all the more conscious that a blank had been made in our midst and that the vacant place would never again be filled by Mrs Smith. Not only did she value the ordinary Means of Grace but she and her husband travelled frequently to Communion Seasons in the Island and beyond, an exercise she continued even after his death till advancing years took their toll.
She loved to be with the Lord’s people and her choice of friends displayed, in our judgment, a high level of discernment. She often spoke feelingly of happy times in their home at Valtas when Rev. W. MacLean, Ness, supplied the Uig pulpit during the vacancy. Her frequent referring to this time leads us to conclude that it was then that she first tasted that the “Lord is gracious”. Being of a discerning disposition, she gave no place to those who sought to change the foundation or practice of the Church in which she had found the Saviour, in His doctrines in His ordinances and His people.
As we mourn the passing of a lady who was a lover of the Cause, an upholder of our Church’s distinctive testimony and an appreciative hearer of the Gospel, we can only pray that the Lord would look on us again in mercy as a congregation and build up the waste places raising up the sons instead of the fathers and the daughters instead of the mothers. Again we express to all Mrs Smith’s relatives sincerest sympathy. Our prayer for them is that they would be brought to seek the Lord and to find the salvation that is in Christ for sinners.
D. J. MacD.