The death of the late Malcolm Gunn, elder, North Tolsta, has left a breach in the walls of Zion that is keenly felt in Lewis and farther afield. Calum, as he was commonly known, was a man of sterling worth and integrity, who was enabled to guide the affairs of God’s cause with discretion and wisdom during many years of service as an elder.
Calum was born in November 1934, the son of Donald and Margaret Gunn of Skigersta, Ness. His mother was a bright and warm-hearted Christian, who followed him in her prayers with maternal love and spiritual anxiety for the welfare of his soul. Calum had the further privilege of being reared in a place where the gospel was faithfully declared and where the witness of the Lord’s people was clearly and consistently before the eyes of the community. He remembered the practice of one of the elders in the congregation, Mr Donald MacDonald, Dòmhnaill Rudair, who lived nearby. Whenever Calum would happen to be in his house, the godly man would ask him to fetch him a drink of water out of a barrel at the end of the house and, when he would return with a filled vessel, this would give him an opportunity to ask a blessing in Calum’s presence and pray for the welfare of the young boy’s soul. Calum could not have failed to understand that he, at that stage of his life, was outside the kingdom of God and that the spot of God’s children was not upon him but, sadly, this did not seem to concern him unduly when he left home to go to sea at the age of 16.
After around seven years at sea, Calum decided to join the police and, after his initial training, he was stationed in various locations in Central Scotland. His abilities were recognised in the police service and he steadily rose through the ranks, eventually attaining the position of Chief Superintendent. His methodical and clear intellect were valued to the extent that he was employed in lecturing for a time at the Scottish Police College at Tulliallan. He used to say of the earlier period in his life that all that was in his mind was ambition to progress in his chosen career.
The time came, however, in the Lord’s providence when he was apprehended by the claims of the law of God so that his mind was diverted from pursuing his ambitions for earthly advancement and was now brought to desire to be among the Lord’s people and to be able to say with the Apostle
Paul, “that I might apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ”. On conveying the late Mrs Catherine Ross, latterly of Laide, to a railway station, Calum was struck by her parting comment that “without Christ there is nothing”. Try as he might to shake it off, he could not escape from the fact that all his earthly pursuit was for nothing if he would remain without the one thing needful. A period of months passed when Calum could find no relief for his distressed soul. When he would open the Bible to seek for encouragement during this time, all he would read would bring charges of condemnation against him.
The year of Christ’s release was near at hand, however, and he was brought to gospel liberty through a sermon preached in Ness on the subject of “the blood of sprinkling” (Heb 12:24) by Rev John MacLeod, then of Stornoway. This sermon was preached, as far as we are able to ascertain, in the summer of 1973, when Calum was at home with his young family on annual leave. He went to his Bible that night and found Christ near as he read through the Song of Solomon. That wonderful allegory of the love of Christ to His Church now opened up a whole new realm of spiritual communion to his soul. He could now relate to his mother how he felt that the whole burden of his sin, which had been troubling him so much previously, was now entirely removed through that precious blood of sprinkling. His bonds being now loosed, he was given the strength to make a public profession of his Saviour in the Glasgow congregation shortly afterwards.
He married Etta Murray from Ness in 1960 and they were blessed with a family of two sons and two daughters. Etta predeceased him, passing away in 1995. Some time later he was married to Miss Agnes Campbell, of the North Tolsta congregation. Calum was initially ordained to the eldership in the Stirling, Perth and Dundee congregation in 1984 and was elected to the eldership in the Ness congregation in 1991, on retiring from his work as a police officer to his native Skigersta. After his removal to North Tolsta in the year 2006, he was again elected to the eldership in the congregation there. As a Session Clerk he performed his duties with meticulous care, and gave wise and faithful counsel and encouragement to his brethren. Calum served on both the Synod’s Finance Committee and the Jewish and Foreign Mission Committee for considerable periods of time and we have no doubt that his prudent opinion was valued by his brethren on these important Committees. The number of Synod members who wished to pay public tribute to our late friend was an indication of their respect for him.
In the year 2000 Calum and Agnes spent six months in Kenya, where Calum’s abilities were highly appreciated when he acted as Mission Administrator. He served in the same capacity again for a further period in 2004. The
local people around the mission recalled him as a fair-minded man and Calum had a great affection for them likewise. In Lewis, he was involved from the outset in the establishment and governance of the Bethesda Care Home in Stornoway, where many have received nursing and palliative care during the final stages of life.
Through grace Calum adorned his office and profession and was enabled to keep his garments unspotted from an evil world. As a Christian he was firm, modest and humble in his walk before men and was therefore held in the love and esteem of the people of God. His gifts were of a high order, as was seen in his edifying addresses on the Word of God and the orderly manner in which he prayed publicly. Calum’s prayers were filled with earnest and impressive petitions that sinners would lay to heart their need of preparing for eternity. He was possessed of a serious disposition and his gravity in the courts of God’s house was just one measure of how real the solemnities of the world to come were to him. It was his constant desire to be melted at the feet of a crucified Saviour and frequently quoted the words of the prophet Habakkuk, “Though the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines, the labour of the olive shall fail and the fields shall yield no meat, the flock shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet will I rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation” (Hab 3:17,18).
One notable feature of Calum’s public exercises was his ability to speak to the question at fellowship meetings. He did not attempt to expound the passage or give direct exhortations to the audience, rather he was able to give edifying remarks and illustrations about the marks and evidences of the faith and life of God’s true people in connection with the actual point under discussion. One verse he often quoted on such occasions was from Philippians 2:3, “In lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves”.
Greatly beloved in his family circle, he was highly respected by all in the wider community and was a generous and kind-hearted friend to young and old alike. He battled bravely with serious illness for the last decade of his life and he was prepared for the final summons when it came from the Judge of all the earth on 23 March 2017. We mourn his absence from our midst but have the confidence concerning him that “if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Cor 5:1); “A good man showeth favour and lendeth, he will guide his affairs with discretion. Surely he shall not be moved for ever: the righteous shall be had in everlasting memorial” (Ps 112:5,6). We extend our sympathy to his like-minded widow, Agnes, and to his children, Joanne, Donald, Eileen and Iain. Our desire for them is
that their father’s God would become their God and that his people would become their people.
(Rev) A W MacColl