Mrs Grace M MacLean
Grace Margaret MacLean was born in the year 1926. Her father John MacQueen was highly respected in educational circles in the Inverness area and was headmaster in Beauly. When he was appointed headmaster in Merkinch School in Inverness in 1938, the family moved to that town. Her Mother, Helen Campbell, was a professing Christian whose obituary appeared in the Free Presbyterian Magazine in 1956. Grace was their only daughter. There were two sons, Hugh and Sandy.
Over a period of years the family experienced the pain of bereavement. Sandy, who was a civil engineer engaged in construction work in Persia, was killed instantly when a load of concrete fell on him. He was only 33. Approximately six months later, Grace’s father dropped dead suddenly. In 1979 her other brother, Hugh, who was a chartered accountant and a director in India of Singers, the sewing machine company, was found dead in his hotel room in Singapore as a result of a heart attack. Although Grace was, no doubt, deeply affected by these sad and solemn events, she manifested a submissive spirit to the will of God.
In 1946 Grace left home to embark on a nursing career in Edinburgh
Royal Infirmary. After five years she moved back to Inverness to be near her mother, who had contracted a serious illness. She obtained a post in the Royal Northern Infirmary and, as would be expected, faithfully and lovingly helped to nurse her mother until her death.
It was after her return to Inverness that Grace came under soul concern. After a time of spiritual darkness, she obtained the glorious liberty of the gospel when the Holy Spirit effectually applied to her soul the words: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved”. This deliverance took place in the privacy of her bedroom. She became a communicant in the Free Presbyterian Congregation in Inverness in June 1953. Shortly after making a public profession she suffered a very severe temptation which spoiled all the services of each communion season she attended. This temptation arose from the fear that she was not receiving the benefit she was expecting to receive at the Lord’s Table. In the mercy of the One to whom she was looking for deliverance she attended a Daviot communion. The text at the Monday service was Luke 22:28, “Ye are they which have continued with Me in My temptations”. Although the preacher did not know Grace or the nature of her temptation at the time, he was led to deal with the matter of temptation in the sermon. Grace mercifully obtained such a deliverance from her particular temptation that she was never troubled by it again.
In the providence of God the minister who preached this sermon was to become Grace’s husband. He was Rev Donald MacLean, minister of the Free Presbyterian Congregation in Portree. Some time later, the marriage took place in Inverness Free Presbyterian church, on 8 November 1955, and Grace moved into the Portree manse. The congregation soon took Grace to its heart and she herself felt very much at home with the godly men and women who warmly welcomed her into their fellowship.
During their stay in Portree three children were added to the MacLean family: Donald John, Murdo and Helen. In 1960 Mr MacLean was translated to the St Jude’s congregation in Glasgow and a notable ministry continued there, in the good providence of God, until his retirement in the year 2000. In 1961 Rachel, the fourth member of the family, was born. During her time in Glasgow, Mrs MacLean endeared herself to the congregation and showed herself to be, in every respect, an exemplary lady of the manse.
To the young people who attended the minister’s meeting for study of the Westminster Confession of Faith and other biblical themes, Grace showed hospitality and took a special interest in them from a spiritual as well as from a temporal point of view. Her hospitality extended to students from all parts of the country who were studying in universities and colleges and many of them subsequently expressed their deep appreciation, not only for the
hospitality received between services on a Sabbath afternoon, but also for appropriate advice of a spiritual nature.
Rev Donald MacLean was for many years the Church Tutor in Systematic Theology and Apologetics, and while classes were held in the manse Mrs MacLean welcomed divinity students from Scotland and abroad and showed them hospitality. Many ministers, past and present, have expressed their enduring sense of gratitude for the kindness they received from her. It is no exaggeration to say that the older ladies in the congregation loved Mrs MacLean, who used to visit them regularly and take them for trips in her car while she was able to drive. She sometimes took a number of them to lunch on special occasions. This was all done unobtrusively and is only known because of the enthusiasm of those who received her kindness in expressing to others their appreciation.
The Glasgow manse in Kingsborough Gardens was a large town house and provided an open door for visitors from Australia, New Zealand, Africa and Canada. It would be impossible to list those from these countries whom Mrs MacLean welcomed over the years. As long as she was able, she extended hospitality to many at communion times, but the time came when she had to have hip replacements and for the last 20 years of her life she was the victim of severe pain – pain which she endured with Christian fortitude. In the autumn of 2006 she had a fall at home and required another hip operation. The operation itself was successful but serious bleeding ensued and she was not expected to recover, but the Lord’s time to take her to Himself had not yet come. She told a visitor that the doctors had informed her that they had almost lost her the night before. And then she said, with a beautiful smile of resignation, “I knew nothing about it, but He knew”. Clearly the thought that the Father of mercies knew her situation was a great comfort to her.
This period in her life was a time of severe trial when she suffered intense pain but a time when she experienced the comfort of the presence of the great Intercessor Himself. She told her son Donald John that, at this time, the fear of death was completely taken from her and that she was quite content to depart and to be with Christ. It was not to be. The prayers of her devoted husband and family, and of many in the congregation, were answered and she was able to return home. She was still suffering great pain and was admitted to hospital several times during 2006.
In the spring of 2007 Grace and her husband were offered a room in Ballifearry, the Church’s care home in Inverness. No doubt it was with considerable sadness that they contemplated leaving St Jude’s, which they loved so much. But they recognised that it was no coincidence that this
provision had been made for them at such a time of need and many prayers of gratitude to the Most High were offered up outwith the family by members of St Jude’s and by others throughout the wider church.
Both Mrs MacLean and her husband were full of praise for the high standard of care they experienced from a devoted staff. And members of staff were deeply impressed with the Christian spirit which Mrs MacLean, in spite of incessant pain, was enabled to display. Grace was an outstanding witness of the power of the gospel of Christ in the life of His people. Like Phoebe of old she was a succourer of many. Even when she was in pain she visited the sick. The present writer remembers seeing her in a Glasgow hospital over 20 years ago. It emerged, in the course of conversation, that she had visited four other hospitals that day. Although she did not mention it, it was evident to us that, even so long ago, she was suffering pain.
Mrs MacLean was regarded by all who knew her as all a minister’s wife should be. She was the soul of discretion and was, doubtless, a great strength to her husband during his ministry in Portree and Glasgow, his many years as a Tutor and his many other duties in connection with the Church of Christ among us. Her Christian character was shown in the loving care she extended to her mother-in-law over a period of 13 years. Mrs MacLean senior had taken a stroke and required, more or less, constant attention.
Grace was a shining example of a God-fearing Christian lady. We came to love her and to esteem her highly and could not but wonder at the patience she manifested while suffering such intense pain.
On the first Sabbath of March 2008 Grace was admitted to hospital, where a haemorrhage into the back of the brain was discovered. Over the next two weeks she became gradually weaker but responded in a measure while family worship was being conducted. On one occasion towards the end, one of her sons was singing psalms to her. When he thought that she was no longer aware, he stopped but his mother asked him to continue. On the morning of Saturday, 15 March 2008, in the presence of all her family, Grace was called home to participate in the rest which remains for the people of God, to be with Christ which is far better.
During her exemplary Christian life we believe she desired to be like Christ and ultimately to be with Him – a desire encapsulated in these precious words of the Apostle John, “We know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is”. The large numbers who gathered at the worship in the Inverness church and at the burial in Linn cemetery in Glasgow bore eloquent testimony to the esteem in which Mrs Grace MacLean was held. She will not soon be forgotten. There was a fragrance about her which reflected the genuineness of her Christian profession.
To her devoted husband and her caring family, Donald John, Murdo, Helen and Rachel, we extend our deepest sympathy. D R MacSween