JOHN MACKENZIE, popularly known as Big John of Udrigle, was born at Loch-Droing, near Cove, in the parish of Gairloch, about the year 1860. After serving as a farm hand at Gairloch, Isle Ewe, and other places, he finally settled down at Udrigle, Laide, where he conducted business as merchant and cattle dealer. It appears that his religious experience had a history dating back to the days of his youth. He himself is known to have associated his first serious thoughts of eternity with a boating incident, in which he, then a young man, and others were in imminent danger of their lives. He was observed to be under deep concern for a long time, and to be much addicted to secret prayer. This exercise the Lord signally blessed to him by making it the occasion of His graciously revealing Himself to him in Christ as a sin-pardoning God. It was as when Jacob wrestled with the angel until he obtained the blessing. The words which brought comfort to his afflicted soul and upon which he was enabled to drop his anchor were these:—”My Father which gave them me is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand” (John x. 29).
The writer met John Mackenzie for the first time in the year 1894. The first thing that impressed him was the build of his physical frame. He was tall, erect, exceedingly well built, with golden hair and full whiskers, and a fine open countenance, betokening a true, kind-hearted Highlander. In after days the writer learned that his first impression of “poor John”—a name by which he became known even in his business as a merchant—was a correct one. No man could make his guests at communion season and at other times feel more at home in his house than he. One always realised that his great delight lay in entertaining the Lord’s people, and having them in his most hospitable home. The same mind characterised Mrs Mackenzie and each one of his family. And the more one knew of them the more pleasure one felt in going to their well-conducted home.
There were at that time six godly men in our Mission at Laide. These men, along with a very considerable following of the people, were not prepared to abandon the creed and principles of the Free Church of Scotland—which were the same for which our forefathers at times of persecution suffered the loss of all things and counted them as dross for the excellency of Christ—at the caprice of Dr Rainy and his rationalistic majority when he changed the whole face of the then Free Church by passing the Declaratory Act. None of them could be more hearty in this than John. One of these worthy men was an elder, viz., Mr Roderick Maclean, and John was a deacon. But four of these men were removed to their everlasting rest within a few years after the stand was made. Roderick and John were left to carry on the work of the Mission. They set about the building of a good church, and showed real heartiness in the undertaking.
John Mackenzie did all in his power to get ministers of the Free Presbyterian Church to go there to preach to the people. He conveyed them there at his own expense, and sent them away. The diligence with which he endeavoured to have the people’s spiritual concerns attended to was really most exemplary, so much so that the writer one day, while he was driving him to a place where a religious service was to be held, said to him—”I desire to thank you very sincerely for all you have done and are still doing for the cause of Christ in this place.” The answer he gave was as follows:—”Some years before the separation, I was in a place where I could see no prospect of how I could bring up my family in a comfortable way, and every effort I made to get a suitable place failed. I then made up my mind that I would set apart a day of fasting and prayer, so as to place before the Lord my difficult position. I went on the day fixed for that purpose to the hill, and prayed to the Lord that if He would give me a place I would do all in my power to further His cause in the world. Not long after this, and without any application by me, the Factor on the estate wrote me and offered the farm on which I now am. So you can see that no thanks are due to me for performing the vow I then made to the Lord.” The above revealed not only that he was a truly godly man, who was setting the Lord before him, but that he was also a man who had a tender conscience to act up to his promise.
There was an election of elders in the Laide congregation, and he and another worthy man, who is still left with us, were elected. They both accepted the office. Thus there were three elders there for a time. The other two left the district, so that John was left alone so far as elders were concerned. He acted in that capacity with the utmost faithfulness and impartiality to the end. The missionary who supplied the place during the last year of John’s life told us that John would not take anything for his board and lodgings. After a considerable time the missionary said to him—”I cannot continue to live here unless you will charge me for my board and lodgings.” John answered him—”That means that you must go elsewhere, for I will not charge you a penny while you are pleased to remain under my roof.” He gave proof of the grace that was in him not so much by words, but by his actions.
The cause of Christ everywhere had a warm place in John’s heart. This was seen not only in the heartiness with which he did all he could to assist it by his actions, but especially by the financial support which he cheerfully gave. He gave five pounds annually, to support our African Mission, along with substantial help for Sustentation Fund, and that notwithstanding he had not much money to his credit in bank. He brought the truth, “The Lord loveth a cheerful giver,” to the writer’s mind more than once. It was after his removal that the fact became known that this was not done out of superfluity of means. One of the first ministers at the Reformation in Scotland was settled in the town of Perth. His name was Mr Wodrow. This man spent all his income in teaching and boarding in his own house students in preparation for the ministry of the Church. When this man of God lay on his deathbed, the rector of a school in that town came to see him. He said to Mr Wodrow—”Do you not think that you have not acted wisely by spending all your money as you did, seeing you are now leaving your wife and children without the means to support them when you are taken from them?” Wodrow turned away his face for a while, and then turned towards the rector and said to him—”I may have acted unwisely in many things, but you have acted in accordance with the wisdom you have just now spoken of. I have to tell you that the Lord will see to it that my wife and family will be provided for after I am gone, and further that your son in penury will be supported by my son.” This came to pass. After Mr Wodrow’s death, the Town Council of Perth gave a sufficient grant annually to the widow to support herself and her family, and the Rector’s son, who became a minister of the Church, was deposed for drunkenness, and became so impoverished that a son of Mr Wodrow gave him a house on his own glebe, and also provided him with food and clothing all his days. It may not be out of place to mention that twenty-two of the direct descendants of Mr Wodrow were worthy ministers of the Church of Scotland. So no man ever lost on doing all in his power for Christ’s truth and cause neither will the worthy widow of John Mackenzie lose on account of his liberality toward it. The Lord never was and never will be a debtor to any one.
The large number of godly men and women who adorned their profession in the world, that have gone to their everlasting rest since 1893 in the F.P. Church of Scotland, cause joy and sorrow in the hearts of those who are still left of them in the world. Joy, in believing that they are now following the Lamb on Mount Zion above, and have left behind for evermore the tribulations, tears, and sorrows of this sinful world. Sorrow, in seeing the desolations, spiritually, of the places of which they were the light and the salt, and how few are raised to fill their now empty places in this backsliding and very sinful generation. There is no cry more suitable for us than that of the Psalmist—”Lift thy feet unto the perpetual desolations; even all that the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary. Thine enemies roar in the midst of thy congregations; they set up their ‘ensigns’ for signs.”
The writer desires to express again his deepest sympathy with Mrs Mackenzie and each member of her family, and also with all who mourn our loss which was his everlasting gain. “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.”
N. C.