Rev J S Sinclair
The aged trees of righteousness are being cut down one by one throughout the country, and there is much need that importunate prayer would ascend to the God of Israel for the filling of the breaches, so that His cause might be strengthened and His name glorified in the land.
On this occasion, we notice with much sorrow the death of Donald Gunn, Halkirk, Caithness, who passed away on 20 April 1902. He had reached the ripe age of 82 and was much esteemed as a man of deep and fervent piety. He was born in 1820 in Shurrery, in the parish of Reay, Caithness, and enjoyed for many years the privilege of the gracious and faithful ministry of the honoured Rev Finlay Cook, who was settled in Reay in 1835. His coming was hailed with delight “by the Lord’s people in that parish and surrounding districts. Worthy Janet Macleod, Sandside, in the fulness of her heart lifted up her hands and exclaimed, ‘Lord, bless the whole earth’.” Alexander Auld, Ministers and Men of the Far North, (Free Presbyterian Publications, 1956 reprint, p 79). It has again been reprinted by the same publishers, in a reset edition.
The subject of this obituary was brought to the saving knowledge of the truth under Mr Cook’s ministry. Warm was the love he ever cherished for the memory of that worthy minister; and he seldom engaged in conversation on a spiritual topic without quoting some remark by Mr Cook in tones of the deepest affection and reverence, almost always describing him as “the man of God”.
Mr Gunn was a sheep manager and was for a time in the parish of Dunnet. There he sat under Rev David Campbell of the Free Church, an able minister of Christ, and a faithful witness for the truth in his day. Mr Campbell was a watchman on Zion’s walls, who gave no uncertain sound on the errors of the times, and was strongly opposed to the delusive Union movement which has culminated in the formation of the United Free Church.
Mr Gunn was a man of more than average mental power and took an intelligent interest in all the controversies which agitated Church and state in his time. His grasp of any subject he studied was clear and comprehensive, and he could express his views in language of great point and power. He had a profound admiration for Rev John Kennedy, Dingwall – as indeed had all right-minded people who knew that eminent preacher – and read with much appreciation his articles on the Union controversy.
Mr Gunn deeply deplored the backsliding of the majority in the Free Church and, when the well-known Declaratory Act was passed, he cordially supported the protesting minority and joined without delay those who formed the Free Presbyterian Church. He had dark views of the state of true religion throughout the land, and in this connection often read the eighth chapter of the prophet Amos.
As to his personal piety it may be said that Mr Gunn was one who had deep and solemn views of eternity and divine things. A friend well writes: “He greatly feared resting in a profession of religion without knowing the reality of it. ‘Thousands,’ he would say, ‘in this day, are entering eternity with a lie in their right hand. O eternity, eternity, five minutes of the realisation of it would be enough to unhinge the strongest reason.’” While we heard him on one occasion acknowledging that he remembered the time when he took heaven and earth to witness that Christ was his choice and portion, he was yet a man subject to great inward conflicts and temptations. He was not permitted to remain long in a self-complacent frame of mind, but was kept a lively wrestler at the throne of grace. To use an expression of his own about others, “No rust was allowed to lie on his soul”.
In such seasons of soul trouble, however, he was not easily comforted. He would sometimes exclaim, “Though all the Christians in Scotland should tell me I have an interest in Christ, I would not believe it. Only the Spirit of God can make me believe it by shining on the page of the Word.” His life was a long conflict; yet at eventide there was light, and his last days were composed and even bright. It is worthy of note, as coming from one who was led to examine all matters in the light of eternity, that he said to a friend on his deathbed, that whatever other doubts and fears he had, he had none as to the step of separation for the truth taken in 1893.
Mr Gunn, though a man of commanding presence and ability, was very diffident as to taking part in public worship, yet latterly, when circumstances called for it, he assisted in the conduct of the meetings in Halkirk to the great satisfaction of the people. He was much concerned about the cause of truth in the district, and it gave him much satisfaction when a minister was recently settled there.
At the Friday fellowship meeting, on the last communion occasion, he gave out the question, which was based on 2 Corinthians 1:21-22; and the words are indicative of the deep spiritual line of thought which characterised his exercises: “Now He which establisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts”. He desired marks of the persons described by the Apostle. Perhaps we should not omit noting that Mr Gunn, though a man of deep and marked experience of the power of the truth, deprecated the tendency of speakers at fellowship meetings sometimes to lay down too hard and fast lines as to the first dealings of the Lord with the souls of His people.
A petition of his in prayer was: “O Eternal Love, let the river of life flow through our souls”; and another: “Leave us not like the dead fish that are carried down the stream of iniquity, but make us like the living fish that swim against it”.
It is only a few months since his mother-in-law, Mrs Hobkirk, to whom he was affectionately united in the Lord, died at a very advanced age, and now he has followed her, as we firmly believe, to the everlasting rest that remains to the people of God. He leaves a widow and family, with whom much sympathy is felt.
“Help, Lord, because the godly man doth daily fade away;
And from among the sons of men, the faithful do decay” (Ps 12:1).
There is no surer refuge, when the enemy distresses us, than renouncing ourselves, to profess the only name of Christ Jesus, who died for our sins and rose again for our justification. For if the enemy shall say, We have sinned; our answer is, Christ has died for us, yea is risen again, yea is ascended into heaven, etc. If he say we lack the righteousness of the law, we must answer, Christ has fulfilled the law, that we by Him might be made the righteousness of God. If he say we are in nature corrupt and therefore both unworthy and unfit for the kingdom of heaven, we must answer him with the words of Christ Himself, For their sakes have I sanctified Myself.
Richard Greenham
Self-suspecting is a great preservative from perdition, whereas self-confidence is a sad prognostic of apostasy.
Andrew Gray