“THE ‘MEN’ OF SKYE.” By RODERICK MAGCOWAN
Glasgow: John M’Neilage.
THE inner history of religion in Scotland will probably never be written. We are fallen on evil days. The days when true godliness flourished to any great extent in our country are fading into a shadow, and any attempt now made to catch the features of this shadow must fall very far short of a successful picture of the great days that our land has known. In the ordinary histories of the Church attention is devoted mainly to the outward concerns of the visible kingdom of Christ, and when reference is made to the working of the leaven in the measures of meal, the reference is but wide and general. Perhaps this could not be well avoided, in view of the plan on which such works are generally executed. But all the same an opportunity has been lost—lost beyond hope of satisfactory recall—an opportunity of transmitting to future ages the features of the religious life of past days.
There are certain books in particular in which one might naturally expect a warm spiritual breath owing to the subject they deal with, and in which the reader is doomed to be disappointed if he would have something more than the formal and the outward. The history, for instance, of the Secession, if it was written by a man of the warm Evangelical spirit that animated the founders of that body might in small compass, and yet with great effect, have handed down to degenerate days a living record of the piety that acted as a preserving salt in many parts of the country during the blight of the Moderate ascendancy. John Newton suggested an idea with regard to Church history that was taken up and carried out by the others Milner (Isaac and Joseph)—the idea of tracing a succession through the ages, not of bishops or of popes, not of doctors nor of systems, but of true and hearty spiritual Christianity. Some such idea might have served as the peg on which a very instructive account of what was best in Scotland since the Reformation might be hung.
It is true that there are many biographies, collections of anecdotes, diaries, and letters that still survive, and give one ground to go upon in endeavouring to realize what the Gospel once wrought in our land, but what is needed is a gathering together of the scattered rays to one focus, so that the light may shine in all its clearness. It goes without saying that high qualities alike of heart, taste, and judgment are required for the satisfactory appreciation of the materials that yet survive for the marshalling of these into order, and for their exhibition in a proportion that would do justice to the subject in hand.
While these remarks bear on a general account of the triumph of truth, we do not mean to assert, or even to insinuate, that parts of the subject have not been handled in a satisfactory, and even in a final way. Such performances, for instance, as Moody Stuart’s “Reminiscences of John Duncan,” or Kennedy’s sketch of the minister of Killearnan, are possessions for the ages, so long as the memory of Scottish piety shall last. Other workers, too, there have been in this field whose work is worthy of grateful remembrance, and now in the book we have under review an addition is made to the works that occupy themselves with these inner facts of the Kingdom of God.
The awakening of the Highlands affords an interesting chapter in the progress of the Gospel throughout Scotland. It was later by a long interval of time than that of many parts of the Lowlands. In the Highland clergy of Stuart times, arbitrary civil power usually had its most obedient tools within the pale of the Church, and with the case standing thus, it was not to be expected that the people, fed by ignorant and ungodly shepherds, should differ materially from their guides. There were, however, exceptions, and civil tyranny, that sore vexed the Church of Scotland, sometimes overreached itself, and was made the instrument of defeating its own ends in after days. That Bruce of Kinnaird, Dickson of Irvine, or Rutherford of Anwoth should be sent out of the way to the northern parts was not, we may well believe, altogether without fruit. Hog of Kiltearn, MacGilligan, and Fraser of Brea, with their contemporaries that suffered more or less during the great persecution, linked the martyred south-west with the hitherto unresponsive north-east. It is interesting in looking over a list of the Bass prisoners for religion to see what a proportion there is of northern names. If the north, however, was adorned with a witnessing remnant, it was also disgraced by such men as Mackenzie of Rosehaugh and the Highland host that plundered the districts where there was a most faithful adherence to the principles of better days. In the succeeding generation, just when a great decay overtook the places where formerly the Gospel was most prosperous, the light began to burn brightly on both sides of the Moray Firth, alike in Moray and Nairn on the south and in Ross-shire and Sutherland on the north. This flourishing period in some of these districts lasted down to the end of the eighteenth century, in others down to a comparatively late date in the nineteenth. The western seaboard of the Highlands was not yet illuminated. It is true that the Whig ministers, as they were called, who were settled in the Jacobite district of Western Ross-shire were some of them eminent men of God, whose labours were crowned for the ingathering of souls to Immanuel; and in Loch Carron, before the end of the eighteenth century, Lachlan Mackenzie was a bright and shining light. Still, it is not a hundred years since the light of the Gospel irradiated with power the islands of the Western Sea. The Days of the Fathers in Ross-shire were drawing to a close when the time to favour these islands—even the set time—came.
In the darkest days of Moderatism the Church of Scotland lacked not an Evangelical remnant throughout the south country, and shortly after their strength seemed to be quite gone, and the Church, as a Church, ceased to protest against the grievance of patronage, that was responsible for so many of its evils, there were signs of reviving to be seen. Just when the Secession was departure from its original steadfastness, and the influence of party spirit in politics showed itself in their incipient Voluntaryism, these tokens of reviving were given.
The last decade of the eighteenth century gave birth to the modern missionary societies. The founding of the Baptist Missionary Society was followed by the journeys to Scotland of Andrew Fuller and others like-minded. The founding soon after it of the London Missionary Society, as it was undenominational, occasioned the coming together of live coals from many Churches, and along with this there was an impetus given to aggressive work among the home heathen. The founding of these societies was a symptom of life in springtime coming through the dead earth. When they were founded attention was excited and directed to the end they had in view, and they were the occasion of a general stirring up. Every true revival comes from above, and wherever it is there will be found a plain setting forth of those things that are foolishness to the natural man. So it was at this time. Men at one with regard to the cardinal verities of Scripture co-operated cordially in the furtherance of the Redeemer’s kingdom, and, as the budding of that plant of renown, that forced its way through a stubborn soil after the long winter of neglect, we find that efforts were made to disseminate not only useful tracts and books, but also, and especially, the Scriptures themselves. The founding of the Bible Society was one of the links in the chain of events that brings us down to the prevalence of Evangelical truth in the islands of our North-Western Sea.
About a hundred years ago the Gaelic translation of the Scriptures was executed, and through the exertions of the noble S.P.C.K. and of the Bible Society, in a few years large editions of the Gaelic Bible and Testament were printed. The S.P.C.K., by its schools, its catechists, and missionaries, had done much before these days, and we should never forget the debt our country is under to its high Christian aims and to the character and influence of many of its agents. Now, however, the Scriptures, alike of the Old and of the New Testaments, were translated into Gaelic and published, but that they might be of extensive use, it was requisite that the people of the Highlands should be taught to read in their own language. There were parish schools and S.P.C.K. schools in many parts, but unfortunately, as a rule, Gaelic reading was not taught in them. They were attended by comparatively few of the children, and so the reading community in the Highlands was far from being numerous. That the Scriptures, now rendered into their own tongue, might profit them, the people must learn to read, and this necessarily called into existence the Gaelic Schools’ Society, and led the S.P.C.K. to introduce into some at least of their schools the teaching of Gaelic reading.
The Society for Gaelic Schools did noble work in its day. Its founders were Christopher Anderson, a Baptist minister in Edinburgh; James A. Haldane, the famous evangelist; and Thomas Macrie, the biographer of Knox. It was undenominational; but, founded by men of God, it endeavoured to secure as its agents men full of the Holy Ghost, who should be fit teachers of their fellows. The “Day” will declare what the fruits of their labours were; but we may safely say that this was one of the most powerful and blessed evangelising agencies employed by the Lord for His work in our Western Highlands.
It was about the time that the Scriptures were published in Gaelic, and the Gaelic schools set on foot, that the awakening in Skye began. God’s ways are in the sea and His paths in the mighty waters. When the slumber of death was to be broken in Skye it was no prominent man in the religious world that was employed as the Lord’s messenger. It was a blind catechist that was called to this work. The story of Donald Munro is very interesting. What he was and what he came to be cast light, the one on a chapter of the history of Skye that was closing, the other on a chapter that was opening. His call by grace is one incident of the movement among the dry bones that characterised the closing years of the eighteenth century.
The brothers Haldane were raised up by God for a noble work, and the appreciative and interesting life of these worthies, written by Alexander Haldane (James’ son—the editor of the evangelical Church of England Record, and the yokefellow in many a noble enterprise with the great Lord Shaftesbury) gives us glimpses of what the Highlands, and many parts of the Lowlands, were in those days. Sometimes there are errors of detail in describing the districts through which first James Haldane and Aikman passed, and then James Haldane and John Campbell (whose acquaintance we were making last month in his letter to John Newton). When they passed through Gaelic districts where there was little English, their information as to the state of religion was at fault, though through no blame of theirs. In the life of John Campbell there are notices of the brotherly intercourse he had with worthies in the North that had both Gaelic and English—such as William Fraser of Tomnahurich, Inverness, who, when George Cowie of Huntly came to Inverness, took him to Glenurquhart and other Gaelic districts, and acted as his interpreter. In cases where the evangelists could get information from such sources their recorded impressions were of value; but in their journey through Ross-shire and Sutherland into Caithness they were to a great extent unaware of the influence exercised by such men as Calder of Ferintosh, Bayne of Kiltarlity, Macadam of Nigg, and many of their brethren in Ross-shire. We were saying that the Life of the Haldanes gives many glimpses of the state of North and South in their days, and among the most interesting of these is the notice taken of the labours of Mr. Farquharson, one of Robert Haldane’s agents. Along Loch Tay this devoted man’s labours were very much blessed, and there was a gracious work begun that was continued under the ministry of one of his converts, Mr. Kennedy of Aberfeldy, afterwards Congregational minister at Inverness. This Mr. Farquharson went to America, but on his way thither he “must needs” wait in Skye, and under his preaching blind Donald Munro, the godless catechist, was converted and became as a little child.
We do not go further in the way of tracing the awakening of Skye, but refer our readers to Mr. MacCowan’s pages for an account of some of the most noted worthies that were raised up in his native island. We have read his work with great interest, and feel indebted to him for much information with regard to men of whom the world was not worthy. A distinct service has been done to the memory of the Fathers of Skye. Of course, a great part of the accounts of the earlier men is from tradition. But the tradition is recent, and the remembrance of these men has been kept up in many places beyond the coasts of Skye, and the existence of collateral lines of tradition bearing practically identical witness to the life and sayings of these worthies is confirmatory of the general accuracy of Mr. MacCowan’s sketches.
If access were possible to the old reports of the S.P.C.K. and the Society for Gaelic Schools, no doubt much valuable information might be unearthed to cast light on the transformation that came over not only Skye but many other places where the agents of these societies laboured. We have left ourselves no space to illustrate by specimens the character of this book. Let our readers make themselves acquainted with it. Skyemen in particular, wherever they are, will naturally feel interest in what bears on so notable a phase of their past history. In assessing the value of any performance men may have regard not only to what has been done, but also to what might have but has not been done. In an author’s first work immaturity of thought and defective execution may be well expected; but though traces of both are to be found in this volume, it is pleasing to find that there is so little of either. At times there are references to questions of mainly local and private interest in which the writer is inclined to state very positively his own sentiments; and in the translation of some verses that occur in the course of the narrative there is much to be desired. In this latter fault Mr. MacCowan is not alone, as in few attempted translations of Gaelic poetry that we have come across can we say that anything like justice has been done to the original. These, along with the insertion of some of the verses in the appendix, are the chief blemishes of the volume before us. With these small deductions we must give our author the credit of having done what he could to embalm worthily the memory of some of the excellent of the earth.
J. M.