Reasons for not forsaking the assembling

The account is given of William Mackay, Diarachdcory near Tongue, Sutherland an eminently godly man of the nineteenth-century when Sutherland had many outstanding saints.

"He came one Sabbath to the church of Tongue on a day of drift and snow, during the ministry of old 'Mr. William', a distance of about sixteen miles, and there was no road at that time. After the close of the service the Minister asked him why had ventured out on such a stormy day, when only people in the near neighbourhood were at the service.

In reply, he stated that there were three things that moved him to attend the house of God:
1st- The Lord had given him strength and he considered it his duty to wait on Him in public worship.
2nd - He came to add to the number in the congregation and thus encourage the minister when he knew that many would absent themselves. 3rd-He came so that if the Spirit of God should be moving in the church that day, He might not find his pew empty."

From Records of Grace in Sutherland