This week on Things Unseen we've been thinking about people who have been special gifts

of God to us, in the way they've helped us come to faith and then grow from being babes

in Christ into at least spiritually speaking young men and women. And I've been talking

about some of these people yesterday, about a man dressed in black. I want to mention

another man. He had the very Scottish name of Hamish. I met him through some friends

in the church I went to as a teenager. They were all slightly older than I was and took

me with them to various Christian meetings and introduced me to their Christian friends,

too. I know some of them prayed for me to become a believer and I'm grateful for the way

they introduced me naturally to the wonder of Christian fellowship. Because like all

young Christians I was a little like the pilgrim in John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress.

I needed older companions and their wisdom, people who were already on the way. And one

of these was Hamish. I've actually had more than one friend called Hamish. But this was

someone I got to know when I was still in my mid teens and a relatively young Christian.

Not the time I had no idea what age Hamish was when you're 15 or 16, anyone who's

working five days a week and drawing a salary is by definition almost ancient. But anyway

Hamish took an interest in me and talked to me about spiritual things as I'm sure he

did to others. I don't think he would have minded it if I said he was an unusual person.

And looking back I remember he wasn't a Presbyterian. He belonged to a non-denominational

church. I don't know if he'd ever heard the expression reformed theology. And he encouraged

me to read books that were popular among some groups of Christians in those days books

that, to be honest, were different from the books I tend to recommend to younger people.

But what struck me was his evident love for Christ and his seal for the gospel. And

...