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Notes
from “The Kirk above Dee Water, Rev H M B Reid (1895).
The Last
words of the Rev Mr John Macmillan on his death bed, November 1753” ..
Prayer being ended, he inquired where that word was, ‘Yea, mine own God is
He ?’ and being told it was the last line of the xlii. Psalm in metre, he
caused the verse to be read, and said, ‘Yes, I know and am assured of
it—yea, mine own God is He.’ He then complained he had no feeling in the
little finger of the left hand. Another went to perform worship,
and be ordered to sing in the xci. Psalm to the tenth verse and caused
read the four last Verses of the xcii. Psalm.
“After
prayer was over, being now past midnight, he said he thought he had no
feeling in the left hand, so sensible was he of life departing from the
extremities of his body. Upon which, it being said to him, that as he had
been desirous of his departure and to be ever with the Lord, so it seemed
to be evident that the time of his change was at hand, he cheerfully
replied that he could welcome the King of Terrors, as a messenger sent
from his Heavenly Father, to bring him to the mansions of glory, and
added, ‘Lord, I have waited for Thy Salvation’
“The
last words which he was heard to speak, within a few minutes of his last
breath, were, ‘ My Lord, my God, my Redeemer, yea, mine own God is He:’
and the few minutes remaining after he ceased speaking, he was observed to
be in a praying and praising disposition. And after he had fully finished
his course, with a pleasant countenance, his eyes lifted up, and his right
hand a little raised up to heaven, he willingly resigned up his soul to
his beloved and faithful Saviour.
“Thus
comfortably and joyfully he resigned his soul to God, in the eighty-fourth
year of his age, on Saturday, the 20th day of November (os.), 1753.
From a
very rare pamphlet—” Observations on a Wolf in a Sheepskin,” published
1753. and written by C, U., ie Charles Umpherston, surgeon in Pentland See
Reformed Presbyterian Magazine, vol. fur 1871, page 279.
MACMILLAN’S EPITAPH IN DALSERF.—The monument, which is about to be
repaired, is four-square, and has the following inscriptions:
East
Side—A
public tribute to the memory of the Rev. John Macmillan, minister of
Balmaghie in Galloway, and afterwards first minister to the United
Societies in Scotland, adhering at the Revolution to the whole Covenanted
Reformation in Britain and Ireland, attained between 1638 and 1649. An
exemplary Christian: a devoted minister; and a faithful witness to the
Cause of Christ died December First, 1753, aged eighty-four.
Look unto
Abraham your father; for I called him alone,
and
blessed him and increased him—Isa. Ii. 2.
North
Side—Mr
Macmillan acceded to the Societies in 1707. The Reformed Presbytery was
constituted in 1743; and the Synod of thc Reformed Presbyterian Church in
Scotland in 1811.
Hitherto
hath the Lord helped
us-—i
Sam, vii. 12.
South
Side—Erected at the grave of Mr Macmillan by the Inhabitants of the
surrounding Country of all denominations, who testified their respect to
his much venerated memory, by attending and liberally contributing, at a
Sermon Preached on the spot, September eighth, 1839, by the Rev. A.
Symington, D.D., Paisley.
Why
should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’
sepulchres, lieth waste.—
Nehemiah
ii. 3.
West
Side—Mr
Macmillan was succeeded in the ministry by his son, the Rev. John
Macmillan of Sandhills, near Glasgow, who died February Sixth, 1808, aged
seventy-nine; aud by his grand-son, the Rev. John Macmillan, of Stirling,
who died October Twentieth, 1818, aged sixty-eight. These preached the
same Gospel, and ably advocated the same public cause, adorning it with
their lives, and bequeathing to it their Testimony and the Memory of the
Just.
Instead
of thy fathers should be thy children.
— Psalm
xli. i6.
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