An uncle of David was a tenant of Achosnich, a small farm at the upper end of the strath. David spent many a year with his uncle, David working the land and taking care of the place when his uncle would be absent attending to other matters. His uncle married a sister of Angus Murray, who lived in Balloan, outside Dornoch, but as David himself told us, [Angus and David] did not know one another well until they met on the evening of the wedding day, because, although he and Angus were both born in the same district, David was so long away from home. While others were taking delight in all sorts of activities connected with weddings in these days, Angus and David, who had now recognised one another as being of one spirit, were speaking of the King in His beauty and the land that is very far off.
Not even death severed the union that was forged between them that night. I remember the evening when Angus died. David was then blind. After we had attended to Angus’s remains, I was going to take David back to his own home, and as we sat in the trap together, he turned and said, “O well, he is now gone and another of his spiritual discernment I do not know in Sutherland today. I had 60 years of real acquaintance with him, for it is 60 years ago from this time that my uncle was married to Angus’s sister. That night, Angus and I were united together and, although it would be proclaimed from the highest hill in Sutherland, the worst thing that ever came between me and Angus, from that time till now, would give neither of us reason to hang our heads in shame. The Creator gave me a little more patience than He did to Angus, and at any time when I thought that Angus was going too far, I had only to say to him, ‘You realise that people are only waiting to get a swipe at you’. Angus would stop immediately.”
What I saw that day will never be forgotten by me all my days. It was on the Monday of the monthly prayer meeting. The Sabbath before, after the service was over, I said to David that I was afraid that, unless we went to see Angus the next day, if we were spared, we would see him no more in the body. David said immediately that he was willing to go and see Angus after the meeting the following day. Both of us left about a quarter to two.
We had no sooner entered the room where Angus was lying than it was evident that his breath was about to depart. The old Christian was lying, his eyes closed, unaware of who came in or went out. I guided David into the room. Angus’s wife went close to his head and said to him, “Are you hearing?” To which Angus replied in a broken voice through shortness of breath, “What is that?” She replied, “It is David Ross that has come to see you”. Angus replied, “The noble youth, has he come?” David in stroking his head said, “O poor youth, may the Lord prepare you for the journey that is ahead of you”. Angus was no longer capable of saying anything further, but there was no one that saw him move his shoulders that would not understand that his soul was about to be given the last blessing on earth from the mouth of David Ross.
Angus’s son and wife did not think that he was so near to death as we thought and, because some food had been prepared in his son’s house, near at hand, they persuaded David and myself to leave the bedside, that we might refresh our bodies by partaking of the provision made. We constrained David to ask a blessing on the mercies provided and, after doing so, he broke out in this manner, “The person who is nearly related to us and whom we knew for so long, wilt Thou not speedily prepare him and take him home with Thee”. The blessing was hardly concluded when a cry came to us from Angus’s wife that he was about to depart. I ran down and, when I reached, Angus was without tremor or movement, breathing his last. Twice he breathed softly and the soul departed. This was how Angus Murray and David Ross parted from one another on earth, and may we not say as David said of Jonathan, “Thy love to me was wonderful, surpassing the love of women”?
It was on the journey home that evening that David spoke of Angus’s discernment: “When we had that noble man George Kennedy as our minister, he was not himself able to preach for a long time and it was probationers that we would have, usually a new man coming Sabbath after Sabbath. Angus would be in his place every Sabbath. He would attentively listen to the first prayer and, if he discovered in it what made it evident that the man had grace, he would listen very attentively to the sermon that would follow. But if he got nothing in the prayer, he would fold his plaid over his head and he would not respond to what the man was saying, and it was rarely that I found him astray in his judgement.”
But to return now to David himself, we noted that he was with his uncle in Achosnich. At the same time there was in the parish of Rogart an honourable ambassador [of Christ] called Alexander Macleod, who had spent a part of his life in Lewis and who was richly used of the Lord in turning sinners from their heart defection to the knowledge of the truth, in Uig, Lewis. David felt bound to him as one to whom the Lord had commanded, “Feed my sheep”. And oftener than not on a Sabbath morning, David would leave Achosnich for Rogart, that he might have sustenance for his soul from the mouth of Alexander Macleod. As he would himself say, “It was not the case that I was despising the minister of our own parish, but I could not help it. I never felt tiredness although I had a long distance to walk.”
David was not one who gave his mind to everyone, and there were some, especially in the days of his youth, that regarded him as morose. But morose he was not; together with God’s grace, there was bestowed upon him much natural wisdom; and without casting any aspersion on others, we think that he came to be close, and even closer than we have seen in our day, to the Lord’s commandments to His disciples, “Be ye wise as serpents and harmless as doves”. Although it is not right that we should judge by appearance, we believe that there was no one who saw his bright face that would not know that there was here an elder that could stand before kings. And no one would be half an hour in his fellowship but he would bring out of his treasures things new and old.
He was well acquainted with venerable men and women that were numerous in the area in the days of his youth, and he retained in his memory much of their conversation and of their profound sayings, which he could recount attractively and orderly when the circumstances were appropriate. Nothing arose but David had something from the godly fathers which shed light on it. There was a certain person whom we have mentioned in speaking of Angus Murray, and that was James Matheson of Clashnacrae. David was very attached to him and many a precious thing he told us of him, but it would prolong this account if everything was to be mentioned.
At times when the sacrament would be dispensed in the surrounding districts, James and David would often be put in the same room. James would not stay long in bed, for he spent the night lying down on his knees before the Lord. Once they were in the same room in the town of Golspie and, as David would say, “I had a healthy body and I would sleep soundly”. But that was not the way it was with James. Scarcely would his eyes be closed when he would be on his feet. The family with whom they were living were comfortable as far as things of this world were concerned and plenty of wool blankets were placed over them in bed. When David woke before the light of day there was not a bone of James there. He looked around the chamber and did he not see him face down on the rug in front of the fire-place. He rose and spread the two blankets on James’s exposed body and, as he would say himself, “There was no one in the morning prayer meeting so lively and so warm as James”.
They were another night together in the house of Angus Gray, Lairg, at the time of the summer communion. As usual, James and David were placed in the same bed. “I slept as usual”, said David, “but at the dawn of the summer day I awoke and there was no sign of James”. I looked round the room, but he was not there. I rose and had a look at the head of the house and I saw James kneeling among the bushes that were above the house. I returned to the house and took with me an armful of the plaids belonging to the friends who had come to the communion, and I spread them on his body in case he might be cold, and when we went to the prayer meeting, James was as lively and genial as a lark. In this way David was a nurse to James and James was a help to David.
Note: This article continues a translation, by Rev John MacLeod, of an account of the life of David Ross, Dornoch, which was written in Gaelic by Rev Ewen MacQueen. The first articles were printed in volume 22 of The Free Presbyterian Magazine.