THE VISIT TO THURSO.
Saturday was a day of real and greatly-needed rest with the evangelists, as the journey was so short. The Wick friends had planned several pieces of work for that day, but Mr Moody, remembering he was mortal was obliged to say, No… Seventeen years ago Mr Moody made a short visit to the town, of which many have still fragrant recollections. Here, as everywhere else throughout Scotland where one or both of the evangelists have been, one meets with some who received such a blessing then as has coloured all their intervening life and testimony. When Mr Moody was here the pastor of the first Free Church, Dr Ross Taylor, was a man well stricken in years. He is still in the pastorate, having attained the patriarchal age of eighty-six, and having laboured in the Gospel in Thurso for the long period of sixty years - a thing unique, we should imagine, in modern church annals. There is talk now of appointing a colleague and successor.
SABBATH'S MEETINGS
were six in number. At the morning hour of service Mr Moody preached to a large concourse in Mr Miller's established church, where a specially erected platform had superseded the pulpit; while Mr Sankey and Mr Robertson took part in an interesting service for young people in the West Free Church. In the afternoon Mr Moody faced a densely crowded congregation in Dr Taylor's Free Church. In his discourse he smote the drink traffic and traffickers hip and thigh. With his quick eye he discerned the way in which his words of rebuke had struck home, but that did not abate the boldness of his testimony. At the same hour Mr Sankey and Mr Robertson assisted the pastor in addressing a large and deeply interested assemblage in the Established Church. Mr Sankey sang for the first time two of his new songs in the little book already referred to in this report – “What a wonderful Saviour” (No 5) and “Our Saviour King” (No 54). The grandly majestic chorus on the latter is sure to find a lodgement in memory and heart.
In the evening a united meeting was held in the Parish Church, which was crowded out long before the appointed time, The passages being thronged with people who stood through the long service. The overflow was accommodated at the West Free Church, where Mr Sankey and Mr Robertson took part. To the immense throng in the Parish Church, Mr Moody preached on the rest that Jesus gives. The throng was melted down under his appeals and incidents. Almost everyone stayed to the second meeting, when Mr Moody again explained the way of salvation, the people hanging on his words. By and by the congregation had to be dismissed, but some adjourned to the vestry for personal conversation, which was continued for some time. It was a very hopeful day for Thurso.
A very remarkable requisition has been sent to the evangelist from Aberdeen that is signed by no less than 83 ministers in the city and neighbourhood belonging to the Established, Free, United Presbyterian, Congregational, Baptist, Wesley, Episcopalian and Evangelical Union churches. With such a spirit of union existing, surely the stay of Mr Moody and Mr Sankey in the granite city during the Week of Prayer will make the New Year a memorable one in that community. The evangelists have received some pressing invitations to be present at anniversary gatherings in London, Edinburgh and elsewhere. With a short time at their disposal, it is manifestly out of the question that they should be diverted from the proper object of their mission to attend meetings of that kind. Will friends make a note of this?
CHRISTMAS WEEK IN THE FAR NORTH
We have come to associate the Christmas time with holiday making and the loosening of the bands of daily work. Not so Mr Moody – on this occasion at any rate. Perhaps he and his fellow workers have never had a fuller and busier Christmas week since they started out on their Mission as heralds of that blessed gospel that was first proclaimed on the first Christmas Eve. A brief diary of the five days – Monday to Friday inclusive – will have its interest for the sympathetic reader. The weather was simply splendid throughout – bright and bracing with a cloudless sky. At Halkirk and Brora no instrumental help was provided, and Mr Sankey was not present at those places. It need scarcely be said that many were disappointed, but in these northern parts the general good has to give way to the prejudices and fancies of a select few. There are signs however that the coming generation will strike off the shackles of “use and want” and claim for themselves the enjoyment of that liberty which belongs to the dispensation of Grace.
MONDAY
This morning Mr Moody and his party drove from Thurso to Castleton, 5 miles distance. It is a small town of 1,000 inhabitants, its principal industry being connected with a quarry of Caithness paving stone. The Free Church pastor was unfriendly, in more than a passive way, but some of his people arranged for the meeting, which was held in the Established Church. The building was well filled even at that early hour on Monday forenoon. Mr Sankey was in excellent voice and his two gospel sermons in song fell on very attentive ears. Mr Moody put all his heart into his hour’s talk on “Seeking the Lord.” If there had been time for an after-meeting many would certainly have welcome personal conversation, for the spirit was manifestly at work convicting of sin, of righteousness and of judgment to come. Castleton was the most northerly point reached by the evangelist; though the physical temperature was cold, the hearts of the people were by no means so hard to ‘thaw’ as one of your contemporaries stated last week.
In the afternoon, Mr Moody spoke on “Assurance” to a fairly good congregation in the West Free Church, Thurso. On this subject of Assurance a little incident, related that same day to Mr Moody by a country minister, tells its own tale. This minister was catechising the children of his congregation and one question was, “What is the outward sign of an inward Faith?” Nobody out of the Highlands of Scotland would ever guess the answer, which was “Doubts and Fears!” Another little incident for which the present writer can personally vouch, shows that the responsibility for such an extraordinary doctrine does not rest with the juveniles. At a meeting in the church of which this same minister is the pastor, the names were being taken of those who were anxious to have further light and guidance in spiritual things. An old man, who desired to give his name, said he was an elder in the church. “But surely you’re not an anxious inquirer. Are you not a Christian?” “Weel I’ll not be so sure aboot it!” Such a fact as that goes a long way to explain the present religious condition of the North of Scotland.
Monday evening saw a great audience in the Established Church of Thurso. At the close of his powerful gospel appeal, Mr Moody divided the forces for the second meeting. The women remained in the church and were spoken to and dealt with by Mr Johnstone of Marnoch, who had come on from Brora; the men were asked to go to the Free West Church, a few minutes walk away. Here Mr Moody took the reins and quite a number of men, more or less young, gave outward token of soul concern.
TUESDAY
Another glorious winter day. After a drive of 5 miles Mr Moody preached to a large assembly in the Free Church at Halkirk. The people in this village seem to understand the fitness of things, but they have planted a distillery and poor house very near to each other. It afterwards transpired that Mr Moody had the manager of the distillery among his interested hearers. It need hardly be said that the preacher did not spare the strong drink; but this whiskey god is so securely seated in the affections and tastes of the people (not excluding the ministers by any means) that it will need many sermons to dethrone him. A deep impression was made by the single service at Halkirk, if one might judge by the attitudes of the congregation at its close.
The subject for the afternoon Bible Reading in Thurso was “Prayer”, and it was a season of much refreshing to the Christians present. Mr Moody’s words on mutual forgiveness as one of the elements and essentials of true, effectual prayer were with power and did not lack their application. Mr Moody sang the touching home song, “My mother’s prayer”, and many a chord of bygone memory seemed to be struck.
The closing evening meeting in the Parish Church was very large. Mr Moody chose a topic that he is fond of having for a final message, “Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.” Mr Sankey’s song, “Not far from the kingdom”, was a powerfully moving keynote; it was the first time he had sung it in Scotland. In an early part of the service, Mr Moody gave a few interesting details of his Bible training Institute in Chicago, for which he is very anxious to secure some promising recruits during his present visit to Scotland. He is planning great things for the World‘s Fair of 1893 and he wants to enlist helpers now, who after a year’s practical training in the Institute, may be ready to step into the ranks of those who will do battle with all the varied forms of evil that are likely to concentrate themselves in Chicago on that occasion.
The closing after-meeting in Thurso West Free Church was perhaps the very best that Mr Moody has had during the Scottish campaign, so far as human calculation can go. The body of the building was well filled with those who had come over from the Parish church. After some brief counsels from Mr Moody, the enquirers were split up into sections. Mr Sankey had a very interesting group of young women in a side room. Mr Robertson dealt with a number of young men in another room. The other workers had plenty to do in conversing with those who remained. The reaping work went on for a considerable time, and there was every indication that the feet of many waiverers and many timid ones were that night firmly planted on the heavenly way, with their faces Zionward. There is a fine band of earnest and enthusiastic young men at Thurso, with Mr W Campbell at their head and they took hold of the work in a very delightful fashion. Without casting any needless reflections on the attitude or the zeal of the pastors in the North of Scotland, one may safely assert that if these recognised spiritual leaders of the people had thrown themselves into this special effort with all the abandonment and self-effacement that characterised the Christian young men of Wick and Thurso, much greater things would have been, and would yet be, accomplished. It was not far from the midnight when the last workers left the building that Tuesday evening. The work in Thurso will not be allowed to subside and we hope to hear for months to come that the fruits of this earnest effort to stir the spiritual life of the community are still manifesting themselves.
From, "The Christian," December 31st, 1891.