In his "Days of the Fathers in Ross-shire", the great John Kennedy – one time minister of the gospel at Dingwall, and a close and devoted friend of Charles Haddon Spurgeon – spends a whole chapter of his book telling about "The Men of Ross-shire". "'The men' were so named" he tells us, "not because they were not women, but because they were not ministers." It was the place of "The Men" in those days to lead in prayer and to expound the scriptures at the "Fellowship Meetings" which accompanied the Communion seasons; and the Christian standing and character of the majority of those on whom this office fell explains very clearly why the county of Ross-shire in those days was as "the garden of the Lord".
Alister Og of Edderton is a good example of the Christian piety that came to be an accepted feature of those who would stand for the Lord and for His truth, and this man's council was often sought by those in need of spiritual guidance. John Kennedy tells of a certain man who had come to seek out Alister and to ascertain his mind on the text "Pray without ceasing". "On his arrival," we are told, "he found Alister busy digging his croft. 'You are well employed, Alister,' he said on coming up to him. 'If delving and praying, praying and delving be good employment, I am,' was the answer which met the enquirer's difficulty before he stated it."
Perhaps it was because Alister Og of Edderton "prayed without ceasing" that he had little difficulty in resigning himself to the good providence of his God in heaven. The story is told of the stranger who came begging lodgings of Alister and his wife on a cold winter's night. The request was kindly granted, but the kindness unkindly repaid, for on rising the next morning Alister Og and his wife found the stranger had departed and had taken with the web of cloth that the pair had just completed. The wife was indignant, but the good man of the house was persuaded that he had exercised the Lord's will in admitting the stranger the night before and was now persuaded that God would yet vindicate His name. "If there is no other way of defending His cause," the man told his wife, "the Lord will send the man who stole the web back with it again."
That evening, a thick hill-fog began to descend on the hills of Ross-shire, and Alister Og and his wife were seated by the fireside when a knocking was heard on their croft door and a request for shelter for the night was made. On opening the door, Alister Og discovered the stranger of the night before with the missing web of cloth on his back. Having lost his way in the fog, he had wandered in a complete circle, back to the house of the Edderton weaver, just as the Edderton weaver had said would happen.
Hugh Ross or Hugh Buie, as he was commonly called, was listed as the foremost of "The Men" of his day in Ross-shire. He was unable to read or write, but had the Word of God deeply implanted in his heart and mind, and when his heart was lifted to God in prayer it was the very gate of heaven itself. On one occasion, while staying overnight with a farmer in Clascarnich, he was asked to lead in prayer at the family worship, but declined the invitation in favour of the "head" of that home. Such was the jumbled nature of that prayer that Hugh Buie was deeply penitent for his refusal to "seek the Lord's face," and arriving at a friend's home the following evening, he was no sooner asked to pray than he was on his feet and pouring out his requests before the Lord. This was so unusual for the quiet, retiring Hugh, that his friend spread the story around, so that, when Hugh was ever again hesitant in rising to his feet in his own fellowship at Ferintosh, his minister - the famous Dr. Macdonald - would say to him, "I find we must send you again to Clascarnich."
"Removing in his last days to Resolis, "Mr. Kennedy tells us, "he sat under the ministry of Mr Sage. Seated in his usual place on his last Sabbath, which proved to be his last day on earth, he seemed unusually happy … after sermon he accompanied the minister to the manse. Having sat at the dinner table, he asked a blessing in his own clear, unctuous way, and having taken up his spoon, he quietly laid it down again, leant back in his chair, and, without a moan or a struggle, fell 'asleep in Jesus' in the ninety-ninth year of his age."
John Clark of Cromarty "may be claimed as one of the 'men' of Ross-shire," we are told, "for it was there he usually heard the gospel." He seems to be best remembered for his "down-to-earth" illustrations when called upon to preach. He once caused no small commotion at Cromarty by declaring very emphatically at a fellowship meeting that not a builder or tailor in Cromarty could be saved. All the masons and needlemen were vastly indignant, not understanding that John refereed to 'the builders' who rejected the 'chief stone of the corner', and to all who were patching with rags the righteousness for themselves." "When his tall figure became erect as he rose up to speak," it is said of him, "and when with both hands he threw back his white flowing locks, exposing his expressive face, he looked a man that might have graced a senate."
Hugh Ross of Kilmuir serves as an admirable example of the source of the men of Ross-shire's deeply held convictions. Theirs was the exercise of heart and mind that makes "sin appear exceedingly sinful," that "flees from the wrath to come," and which gladly "takes up the cross and follows Christ," however heavy that cross might appear. Hugh Ross was a proud man in the days of his unregeneracy, and, on once occasion, having bought himself an elaborate highland outfit went to the Saturday preparatory service for the communion at Fearn. One of the Lord's sharp arrows, however, pierced the proud regalia of Hugh Ross's old nature and he was laid very low under the conviction of sin. "Easy believism" had not found its way into the church of the men of Ross-shire, and for months Hugh Ross of Kilmuir walked, as Dr. Kennedy says, "under the shadow of death".
He began attending on the ministry of God's Word from Sabbath to Sabbath, but such was his conviction of heart and mind that he wouldn't even venture across the threshold of the building, but stood huddled against the doorway of the church as the drops from the eaves fell down upon him and formed themselves into icicles on his hair during the long winter months of conviction. On one especially bitter morning, an old elder of the church at Fearn, seeing the pathetic sight that Hugh Ross afforded, crept up behind him and pushed the young penitent across the doorway and into the house of the Lord. "The day of his deliverance had fully come", and as Hugh Ross had sunk to the depths of spiritual despondency, so he now rose to the heights of spiritual joy and usefulness: "Those whom the Son sets free, they shall be free indeed." Three of the children of the old elder were brought to Christ under the ministry of the man whom their father had almost literally "pressed into the kingdom", and many more in Ross-shire were to rise up and call him blessed.
Such were The Men of Ross-shire. And surely their lives and times in that country made of it - in Scotland – what Mr. Spurgeon said the Puritans' lives made Essex in the south: "The Galilee of England".
This Page Title – The Men of Ross-Shire The Wicket Gate Magazine "A Continuing Witness". Internet Edition number 62 – placed on line September 2006 Wicket Gate contact address – Mr Cliff Westcombe cw@wicketgate.co.uk If you wish to be notified when each new edition goes on line please send an e-mail to the above address Magazine web address – www.wicketgate.co.uk |