The Ullapool congregation have suffered a great loss in the removal by death of Mr William (Willie) George Macleod, at the age of 87 years on 3 October 2020. William was born on the 12 December 1932, one of six siblings. He was brought up in Strathkanaird, eight miles from Ullapool. After the normal course of schooling he entered further training in agriculture at Balmacara and Craibstone before returning home and in providence built up a successful business over the years. In 1969 he was moved to profess faith in Christ publicly for the first time and thereby began what would be a long and sometimes very trying wilderness journey to the heavenly Canaan.
On 12 August 1975 William was joined in marriage to Morag Macaskill, daughter of the late Rev A Macaskill, Lochinver, who had been a spiritual father to William and now in providence his father-in-law, whom he held in the highest regard. This marriage was blessed with three daughters but sadly the eldest died at four months of age.
William became an elder in April 1981. He was esteemed in many respects and chiefly his attention to the preaching of the gospel. He was gifted by God for this duty and obviously blessed with much understanding in the fear of God. He had clear and deep spiritual experience which manifested itself in prayer and preaching along with clear evidence of his humility, esteeming others greater than himself.
Ullapool congregation had been left vacant following the departure of Rev Neil Ross and William felt this most keenly. Since then, until now, the task of the elders was increased in the absence of a settled ministry. The burden fell on William and his brother elder, and for many years this led to William being engaged more frequently in taking church services and in other aspects of church life. It could be said of him as David, King of Israel, said about
Abner, who had come to his help: “Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel?” (2 Sam 3:38)
The Kirk Session together with the congregation express their genuine sorrow and sense of loss and would extend their sympathy to his widow, a true helpmeet, and those of the family that remain. Our prayer is that they would experience the promises, “Thy God commands thy strength”; “As thy days, so shall thy strength be” (Ps 68:28; Deut 33:25). (Rev) A E W MacDonald
Book Reviews1
From the Mouth of Lions, Sermons on the Book of Daniel, by Hugh M Cartwright, published by Reformation Press, 240 pages, hardback, £23.40; paperback, £12.90.
This is an excellent volume. It contains 12 sermons, one on each chapter in the Book of Daniel. And in each of these sermons – preached on consecutive Sabbath evenings from mid-January 2008 – Mr Cartwright succeeds in giving an overview of the whole chapter.
For example, in summing up the account of the fiery trial of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, he notes that attention is concentrated especially on “the faithfulness of these three men to God and their readiness to adhere to the principles of their religion, no matter what the consequences. They were instrumental in maintaining a testimony to God in Babylon, and they did so, not knowing . . . what the outcome of their stand would be. But they did believe that it was for them to worship the one living and true God, and not to give way, not to compromise the principles of their religion in any way.” This leads him to announce his three main points: (1.) They “were habitually prepared for this crisis”. (He goes on to explain that this was “because it was their habit, by the grace of God, to be governed by the fear of God”). (2.) They “were sustained by their confidence in God”. (3.) They “were committed to God, whatever the outcome”. And in his concluding remarks, Mr Cartwright makes the point: “That is the call that is addressed to us in our generation – not to compromise with evil”.
In concluding this sermon, the preacher also notes that “in the book of Daniel, Christ is at the heart of it. In Chapter 2, Christ was the stone that was going to break the great image. In Chapter 3, Christ was there to sustain His people.” At the start of his sermon on Chapter 6, there is a further comment on the main theme of Daniel: “The incidents recorded in the first six chapters of the book of Daniel illustrate the theological message of the book – the
1Both books reviewed here may be obtained from the Free Presbyterian Bookroom.
sovereignty of God in the affairs of men and the care which God takes of His own people and His own cause”. Again, at the start of the final sermon, the preacher notes that “the general thrust of this book is . . . that the history of the Church is completely under the control of God, and that although God brings His people through times of great trial and testing, both individually and collectively, yet He is making everything work together to the accomplishing of the purposes which He has in view”.
Chapter 4 of Daniel records Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and his being cast out to eat grass as an animal. This lesson is brought out: “We have a God who really is God – a God who rules. We see that working out in the salvation of sinners. We see how the sovereignty of God comes to expression in saving sinners – in bringing sinners to a knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we see it in all of providence, that God was working everything according to His plan, in a way that will manifest the glory of all His perfections.”
Again, the concluding remarks on chapter 6 begin thus: “Surely this whole incident is calling on us to set the Lord always before us. To be governed by the fear of the Lord. To be aiming at the glory of God. And to follow the Lord fully – to be faithful to Him, in all the pressures which may be brought to bear on us. Whatever the seeming outcome may be, we are to believe that the right way, whether it leads to a den of lions or not, is always to be followed. The right way is not to be determined by the consequences, but by the revealed will of God.”
When Mr Cartwright comes to the more difficult parts of Daniel, in chapters 7-12, he continues to expound the passage before him and to apply it, with his feet firmly fixed on solid Scripture principles. He emphasises, “Whatever may be said about the details, there is no doubt that the overall thrust of these visions is to convey to Daniel and to God’s people that, however triumphant the powers of ungodliness may seem to be, God is in complete control of the situation. All these kingdoms will pass away. But the kingdom of Christ will endure for ever.” He mentions the general principle: “When we come to the Bible, we should come with a desire to understand something of what God is saying to us and to benefit from it, and to be stirred up to live in a way that is glorifying to Him”. Yet he warns that “when people are trying to work out what this and that puzzling thing means, they risk losing sight of the purpose for which it has been given to us”.
In expounding chapter 8, for instance, the preacher explains the fulfilment of the prophecy in some detail, but the main thrust lies in the general lessons to be learned. His main points are: (1.) “Evil may rise to great heights and seem to triumph.” (2.) “Everything is under God’s control, and He will triumph in the end.” (3.) The “instruction we should derive from these facts”.
He makes the further point, in introducing Chapter 12: “Many people are very serious about trying to work out the times and the seasons. But whatever may be the particular significance of these times and years and days, the emphasis is certainly that although the time may be long, yet it is limited. It is controlled by God, and He has His time for everything, and when His time would come, Christ would appear.”
The final main point on this chapter deals with “the encouragement” to Daniel that he would “rest and stand in [his] lot at the end of the days”. The preacher says, “When the Lord’s people leave this world, when soul and body are separated, they rest. Their body rests in the grave, and their soul enters immediately into the blessedness of heaven, where they rest from temptation and they rest from sin. . . . One moment they’re struggling. They’re in conflict with the corruption of their own natures. . . . And the next moment, their souls are made perfect in holiness! Sin has been banished from their lives for ever, they never have to worry about temptation again, and they never have to worry about falling into sin again.”
Mr Cartwright was describing here what we fully believe he has now experienced. We trust that many will profit from these sermons both in understanding the Book of Daniel better and by receiving the scriptural application that is made in them. May readers lay this book down with a (clearer) conviction that God is ruling over everything that happens.
The Priesthood of Christ, by Peter MacBride, published by the Scottish Highlands Reformed Book Trust, paperback, 107 pages, £7.95, MacBride was born in Argyllshire in 1797. For part of his teenage years, he lived with his uncle Neil MacBride in Arran, who was a minister there. During that time, in 1812-13, “a great awakening occurred under the ministry” of his uncle, and it was probably about this time that “he received his first serious religious impressions”.2 As a student in Glasgow, Peter MacBride attended the ministry of the noted John Love and no doubt benefited greatly from what he heard. In 1825 MacBride became a minister in Rothesay, in the Isle of Bute, and continued there till he died, in 1846.
His death brought the following tribute from “Rabbi” John Duncan: “How can I forget that it was ever my privilege to hold familiar converse with one whose mind, naturally of the noblest mould, carefully stored with the best and solidest learning, divine and human – deeply subdued in days long past to the obedience of the gospel, and richly filled with the Word of God dwelling in it in all wisdom and spiritual understanding?” He “was ever”, Duncan continued, “pouring forth without straining, and as it were without
2Disruption Worthies of the Highlands, Edinburgh, 1877, pp 159-60.
effort, streams of wholesome doctrine, hallowed affection, and growing aspirations after the glory of God and the salvation and universal good of his fellow men”.
This book contains a series of sermons on Hebrews 4:14-16: “Seeing then that we have a great high priest . . .”. It treats such subjects as: the Person of Christ, His appointment to be a priest, His work in making atonement, His suffering, the fruit of His sacrifice, His intercession and ascension, and His character as High Priest.
In speaking of Christ’s priestly intercession, MacBride speaks of Him as “perfect in His office, for He engages and undertakes to do for sinners all that they need to be done for them that they may be saved. Are they guilty? He engages to reconcile them to God, and instate them in His favour and Fatherly love. Are they ignorant? He engages to instruct and enlighten them in all that concerns their eternal peace and well-being. And are they disobedient and helpless? He engages to bring them to submit, and to protect them in His service and ways. In short, are they lost? He engages to save them.”
A little later, the preacher shows his warm desire that sinners would come to Christ and receive at once from Him a full salvation: “He is perfect in His salvation. All things are now ready. ‘Come ye’, it is said, ‘to the supper.’ . . . O sinner, come to Christ this day; you will find, on so coming, all that yourself could wish Him to be.”
When speaking of the gifts that Christ procured for sinners, MacBride refers to (1) redemption, so that these gifts may be imparted through the means of grace; (2) the Spirit, “for rendering the means effectual”; (3) “access unto the favour of God through faith”; (4) deliverance from sin, so that God’s people may be sanctified; (5) “grace for every duty and trial”; (6) fellowship with God and “His indwelling by His Spirit in them”. MacBride sums up: “He has secured every blessing of salvation here and eternal glory hereafter; all is enjoyed through the merits and intercession of the glorious Redeemer. See here the rich fruit of His mediation and ministry above.”
MacBride’s Remains were first published in 1848. The book under review is the second, and smaller, section of the Remains. The editor was Alexander MacBride, a relation of his, who also was a minister in Bute. Probably because of a lack of time, the editor had the volume printed directly from Peter MacBride’s manuscripts, apart from omitting repetitious material at the beginning of each sermon. Consequently the present publishers have felt it necessary to do some editing “to improve grammar”, for instance, and “to clarify ambiguous wording”. The Priesthood of Christ is recommended as an example of the profitable preaching from Scottish pulpits in an age which knew more of the blessing of the Holy Spirit than, sadly, we know today.
MacBride concludes this series of sermons by emphasising several aspects of the greatness of this High Priest. No doubt there was sincere worship in his heart when he asked his hearers: “Can you see any to commit your case to [who is] more worthy of it than this Saviour?” May readers come to an end of this book with something of that worshipful spirit in their own hearts!