In the late 1860s, Douglas Russell came from Scotland to visit his relatives in the Clyde and Valens area of Ontario, Canada. Finding people interested in the gospel, he started g
ospel meetings and saw many souls saved. He returned the next year and taught them the truths of believer’s baptism and gathering unto the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Fifty were baptized in one day and an assembly was formed. McBains were among those first believers in Clyde.
Some 40 or so years later, the 19 year old Lorne McBain (1900-1977) was awakened through his mother’s death. Then while working as an auditor in Toronto, he was invited to the Massey Hall for the 1920 Easter Conference. Sitting in the balcony, he witnessed a large company of believers remembering the Lord and thought, “These people are going to heaven and I am going to hell.” That afternoon, while Mr. John Moneypenny quoted to him John 5:24, Lorne grasped the truth that Christ had died for his sins. He said nothing immediately to Mr. Moneypenny as to his discovery, but at the conference gospel meeting that evening he received assurance that he was saved. Soon afterwards he was baptised and received into fellowship in Central Hall, Toronto. Commended to full time service 4 years later, he went on to preach the gospel for the next 53 years. A diligent soul winner and a gracious Christian gentleman, he lived to see many souls saved and several assemblies planted. He was the father in law of the late Mr Norman Crawford.
In this message, given in Main Street, Vancouver, in 1976 (the year before he died), Mr McBain expresses his conviction that “gathering to the name of the Lord Jesus” is a precious truth that needs to be constantly repeated. The “place” that God has chosen is a place of gathering, separation, commemoration, discipline and ministry. During this message he tells numerous stories of ‘the old days’ and how God worked in the lives of people in relation to this truth.
