John Macdonald of Calcutta
4. A Preacher Used by God
Rev Neil M Ross

Having noted that John Macdonald died in Calcutta in 1847, we now glance back at some of the striking features of his life of devoted and unstinted service to his Master. Preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ was what John Macdonald lived for above everything else. For this honourable work he could not substitute any other, however pleasurable and profitable. The characteristics of his preaching, says Tweedie, were "solid rather than brilliant, and durable rather than striking," but "his discourses were marked with a rich unction of evangelical truth. The depth and variety of his thoughts, as well as the whole structure of his sermons, showed with what diligent care they were prepared; while the seriousness and pathos of their delivery made it always evident that not to please, but to profit, the souls of his hearers was the one object of his preaching."

He "was trained first in the school of his father, whom he regarded perhaps as, upon the whole, the chief of living preachers," notes Tweedie. He was also moulded or largely influenced by the profound and spiritual views of John Owen and Jonathan Edwards, who were his favourite authors, and therefore "his theology was massive and substantial, while in opening up its treasures, he was fearless and undaunted, but never harsh". Although mathematics was his favourite subject in college, we are informed that there was "little abstract reasoning in his style, or not much to indicate that he could master the difficulties of higher mathematics, but there was much that was far better - the results of a reason matured and invigorated by such exercises".

He deplored the kind of preaching that was the hallmark of emerging young preachers. "They can give a fine discourse," he wrote to a friend, "they have good styles and composition, pretty ideas, some acute reasonings and, perhaps, an excellent arrangement, but how little of the gospel, of the leading and fundamental doctrines of redemption, do they bring forward! How little of real divinity have they in their discourses! If they do bring forward these, do they so like men convinced of their supreme importance, pressing, nay forcing, them on their hearers?"

John Macdonald's own preaching was characterised by an uncommonly searching directness. With regard to his very first sermon, we noted his comment: "The more close and faithful it was, the more strength did I feel". He sought increasingly, says his biographer, "to 'come to close quarters' with men about their souls, taking Knox and others for his model". When he read the Reformer's life again, he said in his typically self-deprecatory manner: "What a poor, soft coward am I! Lord, help me to be bold for Thee!" But he was in fact most faithful and fearless in applying the truth to all classes of hearer.

At the same time he ever felt his need of the help of the Holy Spirit. Tweedie observes that at an early stage in his spiritual struggles, when searching the Scriptures and comparing spiritual things with spiritual, "he was led to entertain those profound convictions regarding the need of the Spirit's teaching which eventually signalised him among preachers, and formed the explanation of his success in winning souls".

Prayer was constantly connected with his preaching. "Prayer preceded, prayer accompanied, and prayer followed all his efforts as an ambassador for Christ." After preaching he often recorded his prayers of thanks for help given and blessing granted, but he also confessed his sins in holy duties. Tweedie says that "his cry was, 'Vile, vile indeed I am,' and that his Lord heard him bemoaning himself".

His preparation for the pulpit was not curtailed even in his busiest London days. It was rather the reverse. "Again and again," we read, "he refers to the need of systematic preparation for the pulpit, and again and again does he condemn its neglect. Though he rarely wrote out his sermons at length, he has been known to study nine or ten successive hours on the days dedicated to preparation for the Sabbath; and his diary clearly exhibits the solemn importance which he attached to such work." Like the servants of God in every age he had his trials in preparing to preach. On one Saturday he recorded that, having been severely harassed that day about his choice of subject for the Sabbath, "I have begged from the Lord, and He has not left me empty. O for His mighty converting Spirit!"

He also had deep confidence in the power of the bare word of Scripture in the hand of the Spirit of God. He wrote to a friend: "Nothing will do but 'Thus saith the Lord'. I have tried the wisdom of words, the pathos of feeling, the power of imagination; but I find one 'Thus saith the Lord: Hear, ye dry bones,' better than them all. When I have that, I feel as if standing on a rock; I feel as if I had a weapon that will not shiver in my hand; I feel that I am safe, and that they to whom I speak have to reckon with Him and not with me. . . . There is in a text of Scripture a something that sticks to the conscience whether men please or not; nay, sometimes so adheres that after many days it puts forth its germ and springs up into life eternal, contrary to our probabilities."

One reason for his intense and constant devotion to Christ and the preaching of the gospel was his entering into a solemn covenant with God, which he wrote out and subscribed on his birthday in 1829. His biographer says, "Without deciding here on the propriety of such a step, regarding which holy men have been much divided, we may mention that, soon after he had subscribed the deed, he became agitated and doubtful lest he had acted presumptuously in the matter. . . . He at once sought to be strong in the grace that is in Christ, and to pay his vows to his God."

In the document is not only the more solemn part of his engagement but also opening paragraphs about the nature of the transaction, his motives for engaging in it, the grounds on which he did so, and the spirit in which he desired to perform it. He was, he said, full of fears, but desired and resolved to pledge himself to the Lord, in the strength of divine grace.

A key sentence in the covenant is this: "And I do solemnly and totally and eternally devote myself unto Thee, and do vow, in the strength of Thy promised grace, henceforth to strive to walk worthy of that high vocation wherewith I am called: and also do vow that I shall ever desire to seek Thy glory as the great aim of all my conduct, and shall also seek to promote that glory among my fellow men to the utmost of my ability". In his final paragraph he prays, "And now, unto Father, Son and Holy Ghost, the only living and true God, my Lord, my Redeemer and Sanctifier, on the ground of the most sacred obligations, and in the faith of promised grace, do I bind myself to be sincere, faithful, obedient and persevering in all above laid down".

On his next birthday, his twenty-fourth, he renewed his covenant, concluding with this prayer: "As without Thee I can do nothing, my waiting eyes are fixed on Thee, for the aid of Thy Spirit and the grace of Thy Son, through whom do Thou accept me. Amen." The whole tenor of the remaining 17 years of his life bore the clearest testimony to his faithfulness, by divine grace, in performing his vows unto his covenant God.

In fulfilling both his covenantal and ordination vows, John Macdonald not only had his eye constantly on the Word of God, but also upon divine providence. The minuteness with which he watched the various events of providence, ever seeking to learn lessons from them, was remarkable. In his solemn covenant with God, he vowed, "I shall ever consult Thee in all the circumstances of my lot and seek only that which shall be most for Thy glory, and shall endeavour to follow the leadings of Thy providence". He had the strong and abiding conviction that "the Lord makes known His mind to His people in providence as well as in the Word, when the latter is consulted as the interpreter."

In his sermon on Enoch walking with God, he said, "As the eyes of a servant are to his master, or of a child to his father, so ought the believer to have his faith directed to his God. He should especially seat himself under the vast heaven of providence, and with the glass of the Word sweep the whole canopy of events and providential movements; for these are fulfilments of God's will, and rich discoveries of His relative character, to the children of men."

Certain providences formed a crucial element in his coming to a decision about his call to the ministry, and his call to minister in particular places. When he received the invitation from the London congregation, he wrote, "Whether to accept it or not, is my doubt". But in waiting on the Lord "he was led to a conclusion," says Tweedie, "which both the providence and the grace of God abundantly ratified". And when he was in London, he kept his eye on providence for opportunities of further usefulness.

Having later received a number of calls from other congregations to be their pastor, he wrote, "It is remarkable how providence has been trying me since I came here". He notes four approaches made to him, including one from Fodderty congregation. His prayer was, "O Lord, if Thou wilt have me to remove to the other charge presented to me in Thy providence, then make this manifest to me, so as that I may know it to be duty, and comply cheerfully, notwithstanding all the pain connected with it".

The place to which he next removed was of course India, and again the hand of providence was most clearly manifested in directing him. In the middle of 1835 he wrote, "Whilst in regard to my missionary cares I meet with no marked providence to decide me, yet it would seem the design of God, for whatever end, to keep the matter before me by a variety of little incidents of an unexpected kind". At length he was clearly closed in to the conclusion that it was his duty to go abroad as a missionary, and in the providence of God he received a call from the Church to go forth.

He could not but marvel at the providences connected with the Disruption. Afterwards he wrote, "Events of providence, when so designed of God, try men, in character and system, to the uttermost. Coming like the rolling avalanche, with the force of a present, urgent and irresistible necessity, they compel men to say yea or nay, to flee or fall, to escape or die - deeds, not words; actions, not theory; conduct, not profession must be, and then are, the sure result."

John Macdonald held that "the Bible is the mind, and providence the work, of one God, and when these two meet, light will arise upon the soul". At the beginning of one year he wrote, "The providence of the past year has to me been full of God - full of all His attributes and glory".