THE following is the substance of Mr. Mackay’s interesting address, delivered at the meeting of Synod :— MODERATOR AND BRETHERN,—When I was asked by the Synod this time last year to become the ministerial deputy to our Mission in Canada for this year, I had a keen feeling of unfitness for the work. I sought, however, to cast myself upon the Lord, and accepted the responsibility. Mr. Alexander Maclean, one of my elders, was pleased to accompany me. We sailed from Greenock on Saturday the 16th of May, on the Anchor Line s.s. “Columbia,” with (counting passengers and crew) about 1,200 souls on board. The weather was for the first few days cold, and a bit rough, but afterwards it proved warm and calm and pleasant. Doubtless there were some uncomfortable circumstances in our lot as passengers, but our privileges were many, and surpassing. Besides the use of a spacious berth for ourselves two, we had also the use of the lower saloon from 9 to 10 p.m. for family worship for the benefit of such of the passengers and crew as might wish to avail themselves of it, which a goodly number did. I had also the privilege of preaching on the two Sabbaths we were on the sea. We arrived in New York on the evening of our second Sabbath at sea, just a little too late for our being put ashore on that day; which was but one of the many kind Providences that followed us in this journey- I had a desire not to return from America without seeing Princeton, but my purpose was not to go there until after I had accomplished my mission to Canada. I learned, however, by the way, that if I were not to visit Princeton until August I should at that time find the place quite deserted, whereas, by visiting it in May, I might find the theological classes still in session. As soon, therefore, as we could get landed on Monday morning, I took train for Princeton, leaving Mr. Maclean in New York to attend to some necessary business arrangements there. Princeton, somewhat like our own St. Andrews, is a comparatively small University town, in the State of New Jersey, and is about 44 miles south of New York. Its college is with Harvard and Yale reckoned one of the first three universities in the United States, and has had the honour of having had Jonathan Edwards as one of its presidents. The Theological Seminary is a younger institution, and is associated in our minds with the name of Hodge. Not even in Dr. Charles Hodge’s time could we have reckoned Princeton as a pattern in the important matter of purity of public worship. On the other hand, in the defence of the integrity and divine authorship of the scriptures, and in the defence of the Calvinistic system of doctrine, Princeton has long held a conspicuous and honourable place among the theological schools of Christendom. I am pleased to think that Princeton is now as true on those fundamental questions as at any time in its history. I found that the theological classes had dispersed about a week before my arrival, but it was my privilege to have met and conversed for several hours with Professor Warfield, and for a shorter period with Professors De Witt, Paxton, and Caspar Hodge. Scarcely could my brethren of the Free Presbyterian Synod have accorded me a warmer welcome than that which your unworthy representative received at the hands of those learned defenders of the faith in Princeton. They manifested the greatest interest in the history and well being of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, and not least in our efforts to give aspirants to the ministry a theological training. They wished that our divinity students might pass a winter in Princeton, and were kind enough to assure me that if they were to come, there bursaries would be provided for them. It is a kindness of which we may possibly never avail ourselves, but of which, I think, generous recognition should be made.
After passing what was to me an exceptionally interesting day in Princeton, I returned to New York in the evening. This is the second city in the world, and an impression of being in a foreign land is strikingly brought home to one by the number of coloured people one meets with here. It is calculated that there are now 11,000,000 coloured, that is negro, people in the United States. They proved the problem of the States before, and are not unlikely to do so ere long again.
On Tuesday morning we set out from New York for our destination in Canada. The noble Hudson is followed in a due northerly direction for over 140 miles. We then turn due west for about 300 miles, traversing for a long way the beautiful Mohawk valley, and passing, Troy, Syracuse and Rome—new world cities—we arrive in the evening in Buffalo, which is the last town in the United States as one proceeds from New York to Ontario, and is disagreeably associated in one’s mind with the assassination of President Mackinley. In that town we passed Tuesday night. Next morning we left Buffalo, and were glad to find ourselves after a few minutes’ travel once more under the British flag. Proceeding by Brantford and Stratford we arrived about 1 p.m. on Wednesday at Seaforth. It was of no little interest to us to learn that at Brantford we were on the confines of one of the Canadian Red Indian settlements, and we had for some time a fine-looking Red Indian as one of our fellow-passengers. Seaforth was our terminus by train. There we were met by our kind friends, Messrs. George Forrest and Daniel Clark. With Mr. Forrest readers of the F.P. Magazine are acquainted through his kind, sensible, and altogether valuable letters. He is now over 80 years of age, and I shall forbear saying more about him here than that on account of his superior intelligence and consistent Christian character during a period of more than half a century he is a man looked up to, not only by those who are associated with him in church fellowship, but even by such as herein differ from him. Mr. Clark is also past the three score and ten, and is the much-esteemed missionary layman of the five stations which constitute our mission in Canada. Mr. Clark is a native of Tongue, Sutherlandshire, and is a fine example of a class of pious people who, I am sorry to think, were more numerous in Tongue when he left it in his boyhood than they are now. Mr. Clark’s house is in the neighbourhood of Seaforth, and Mr. Forrest’s at Brucefield is scarcely seven miles westward. On the evening of Wednesday we came to Mr. Forrest’s kind home in Brucefield. His house was the centre of our movements, and more than any other our home while we stayed in this Dominion.
Our deputies of last year were for the first two Sabbaths in Brucefield, the third Sabbath they were in Lochalsh, fourth North Line of Kincardine, the fifth Lochalsh, the sixth and seventh Sabbaths in East Williams, and their last Sabbath in Canada was in Newton, that is Mornington. Our programme was slightly different. It was as follows:—Our first Sabbath was in Brucefield, our second and third in East Williams, our fourth and fifth in Kincardine, our sixth and seventh in Lochalsh, our eighth Sabbath was again in Brucefield, and we finished by giving two Sabbaths in Newton. All these stations are near the east coast of Lake Huron in the counties of Bruce, Huron, Middlesex and Perth. Kincardine, Lochalsh, Brucefield, and East Williams are almost in a line running from north to south for, roughly speaking, over 80 miles, and Newton is in County Perth, which on its part has County Huron between it and the Lake. Our mission in Canada covers but a very small part of that great Dominion; but it is for several reasons a most interesting one.
The Church history of this mission of ours was given in Mr. Cameron’s report last year, which appeared in the Magazine for December, so that I need not now repeat it in detail. I may simply mention that the events which occasioned this mission of ours in Canada were principally the Unions of 1861 and 1875. The Canadian Union of 1861 was analogous to the Union of the Free Church and the United Presbyterians among ourselves. The analogue of the Canadian Union of 1875 would be the Union of the United Free and the Established Churches in Scotland. Those unions did not take place without an abandonment of Scriptural principles, but there were not wanting a few in Ontario whose hearts were, at both of those periods, touched with a resolve to maintain the truth against great odds. In these crises the friends in Middlesex had the valuable counsel of Rev. Mr. Macpherson. In the North it fell principally to pious laymen to unfurl the banner. The resolution to hold a separate position for the defence of the truth was not gone about lightly. I believe an example of the way in which this resolution was gone about and carried through may be found in the case of the late pious John Mackenzie of the North Line. Concerning him an intimate friend has told me that after he had (acting according to his best judgment) resolved not to enter the Union of 1861, he was sorely put to with the temptation that almost every one in the Dominion approved of the Union and that it was an unlikely thing that he and the few who co-operated with him should alone be in the right. When thus distressed that portion of God’s Word—”What is that to thee? follow thou me”—was brought home to him with such demonstration and with such an assurance of its being God’s mind revealed to him in that particular providence that from henceforth the singularity of himself and his friends in this controversy molested him no more. Nor were there awanting among them spiritually minded and deeply exercised souls who confidently hoped that the cause they espoused would never die out, and hitherto they have not been put to shame. To begin with they were comforted in the services of the late Rev. Lachlan Macpherson and of Rev. John Ross, and after the death of those worthy men Rev. Robert Dowie Mackay, a native of Thurso, who lived to a patriarchal age in Canada, and was in thorough sympathy with Messrs. Macpherson and Ross, by his spiritual services comforted many of what are now our people in those parts. And now that the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland has espoused their cause the hope that they should not ultimately be utterly put to shame is greatly strengthened. And in that connection I feel it my duty to refer to the impression which our deputies of last year made upon the mind of our people there. I am stating a simple fact when I say that it was an impression not only exceedingly favourable but even profound.
Canada, let me remind you, is a fastly-developing Dominion. Its area is about that of Europe, while its population is little more than that of London. When one views its capabilities for expansion, and the present trend of humanity in its direction, one need not be surprised if within twenty years its present population should be trebled or even quadrupled. What a pity then that a body faithful to the Scriptures in doctrine, government, and worship should not have a strong organisation among so fastly-developing a people, and that the whole field should not be left to what I fear are, to a large extent, faithless Churches! I am not to bring a railing accusation against individual ministers whose acquaintance I have had no means of forming, but I consider for one thing that the way in which the suggestion of a union between the Arminianising Methodists and the Canada Presbyterians has been received by the latter is itself a proof that the Canada Presbyterian Church is not heartily Calvinistic. And, as touching the greater number of the Canada Presbyterian clergy whose actions I had opportunities to observe, they impressed me as being more anxious to give their people a lead in what are called innocent amusements than in a holy and God-fearing life.
But to return to our humble efforts to serve the several stations of our Mission in Ontario. Our first Sabbath was spent in Brucefield. The congregation there is the smallest of the five stations, but in it are, I believe, a fair proportion of the salt of the earth. We had two English services, and the number present would approach forty. They have now no meeting place of their own, but on this occasion we had the use of the Methodist chapel. Usually our people worship in Mr. Forrest’s house. From Brucefield, after a visit to Goderich, we proceeded south to East Williams, erstwhile the charge of Rev. Lachlan Macpherson. Here we remained two Sabbaths, administering the Lord’s Supper on the second Sabbath, and holding the usual services as in the Highlands of Scotland in connection with the Communion. This is a very interesting charge. There would be, I reckon, on the Sabbaths a congregation approaching 200, and the fact that on the Communion Sabbath there the Communion was held in a neighbouring Canada Presbyterian Church is enough to show that it was not for curiosity to hear a stranger the people were gathered. This congregation have a great privilege in the precious, because spiritual, exercises and services of Mr. MacLeish, one of the four elders who have now the charge of that congregation. Mr. MacLeish’s hands are, I must add, dutifully supported by Messrs. Menzies, MacKenzie, and Scott, his brother elders, the last two of whom were ordained only this year. Our kind host in East Williams was Mr. MacMillan, a native of Kirkhill. The Communion services over at East Williams, we proceeded north, and after a refreshing stay at Brucefield, arrived on the Thursday after the third Sabbath in the North Line. Here we were hospitably entertained for a fortnight by Mr. John Cameron; and had also the privilege of staying for some days with our dear friend Mr. John Morrison, As the North Line is little more than ten or twelve miles from Lochalsh, we did not deem it expedient to have the Communion in the North Line. Our congregations here were not quite, but nearly, as large as those in East Williams, and were to a considerable extent from the Lochalsh district. The North Line station was to me by no means the least interesting one, for I met with several there devotedly attached to the Cause. But they are very scattered, and, although possessing a comfortable place of worship in a central position, they have public services only as often as Mr. Clark is able to visit them. From the North Line we came to Lochalsh, where we spent another fortnight under the hospitable roof of Mr. William Matheson. From this place we paid another visit to Goderich, and preached a Gaelic sermon in the house of one Mrs. Morrison, a native of Ness, Lewis. The audience were mostly people who hailed from Lewis. The services at Lochalsh were very much alike to those conducted at East Williams, and the number gathered very similar also. This congregation has had to mourn the removal by death of their senior elder, Donald Roderick Mackenzie. This took place while we were there. Suitable reference has been made to this worthy in the October Magazine, so that I need not say more here. The men who were ordained as elders there last year—I mean, Messrs. Alexander Mackenzie and William Matheson—are men highly respected in that district, but neither of them is in robust health, and I fear our people will not have regular services as in Mr. D. R. Mackenzie’s days, which is all the more pity as our congregation there is neither small nor scattered, and several among them appear to have a thirst for the truth. The Communion services over at Lochalsh, we proceeded first to East Williams to ordain elders as already alluded to there, and from thence came to Brucefield to hold Communion services in that place. It was encouraging to us as well as to the dear friends at Brucefield to see so many representative people gathered at Brucefield from East Williams, Lochalsh, and Newton. I hope it was a profitable and solemn season.
We now began to feel that we were at the beginning of the end, for, in paying a final visit to Newton, our return was by Seaforth. Mr. Clark, who had been with us on every Sabbath, and Mr. Forrest, who had been with us on almost every Sabbath since we came to Canada, accompanied us to Newton. Here our friends had erected a new church capable of holding about 200 people, and our congregation, especially on the first Sabbath, was an overflowing one. We stayed here two Sabbaths, but did not administer the Communion. The services of the Lord’s house have as a rule fallen to be conducted in Newton by Mr. Phineas Macdonald, a sincere friend of the cause, and one of the few members in full communion adhering to us in those parts. We here enjoyed the kind hospitality of Messrs. Hugh and Donald Jack, relatives of the late well-known and worthy Hector Jack, Strathconon. Here also we had a kind visit from Rev. Mr. MacNeil, Chesley, of the Associate Presbytery, a body, as you know, corresponding with our Synod. I believe Mr. MacNeil is a man thoroughly in sympathy with the Free Presbyterian Church in doctrine, government and worship. Thus was our mission to those parts brought to a close.
I may add, as it may interest friends at home, that while a few adhering to our mission in Ontario are lowland Scotch, the greater number hail from the Highlands of Scotland. The places chiefly represented are Eddrachillis and Assynt, Lochalsh and Kintail, the districts lying between Tain and Inverness, including the Black Isle, and a few from the counties of Argyll and Perth. As a consequence Gaelic as well as English services are required in Kincardine, Lochalsh, and East Williams.
This mission, I may truly say, I entered upon with fear, and closed with a sense of shame. yet my conscience bears me witness that in the measure of my understanding of the mystery of the Gospel I shunned not to declare the whole counsel of God, and we were encouraged not only by the earnest attention given everywhere to the word spoken, but also by what, I hope, were intimations that He who promised to be with His heralds always unto the end of the world had not suffered us to go so far without Him.
In bringing this report to a close, I would in a word refer to some features of our mission in Ontario, which are pleasing and encouraging. To begin with they are as a whole a people who are at least as anxious as the Church at home to maintain a testimony for the Word of God and for the crown rights of the Redeemer. Then, again, their deep interest in the wellbeing of the Free Presbyterian Church is evinced, as by other things, so in the reception which the Free Presbyterian Magazine finds among them. Month by month it is looked forward to with avidity, and nowhere are its contents more seriously pondered than there. The devotion, too, felt towards last year’s representatives to them from this church was very pleasing and encouraging to witness. They appeared to us as a people who should never forget their obligations, especially to Mr. Cameron. Nor would I pass unnoticed a form of kindness from the Head of Church which has been experienced by us at home, and which has followed us even into Canada. Our Lord promised to such as would leave houses and friends, etc., for His sake that they would receive a hundredfold more in this world with persecution and in the world to come life everlasting. How this promise in respect of homes has been fulfilled to us in Scotland is a form of kindness in Providence to which I believe none of us has been blind. But we could not fail to admire the way in which we were followed up with this fulfilling of the promise among our people in Ontario. As I have said Mr. Forrest’s was the centre of our movements, but it mattered not whether our lot was in East Williams, North Line, Lochalsh, or Newton, the same kindness encompassed us.
At Stratford, on the Monday after our tenth Sabbath in Canada we parted with our much esteemed and trusty friends, Messrs Forrest and Clark, together with another true friend of the cause in Stratford, Mr. Robertson, a Perthshire man. Our return journey was by Toronto, Niagara, Buffalo, and New York. The voyage from New York to Greenock was most favourable. Being the only clergyman on board, I had the privilege of preaching to large audiences in the saloon of the s.s. Furnessia on two Lord’s Days, and among the audience was a considerable number of well-to-do Roman Catholics, an opportunity for usefulness not granted one every day. We arrived in Greenock on the Tuesday after the 3rd Sabbath of August, thankful, yet not so thankful as we ought to have been, for the almost innumerable kindnesses which, in the bountiful providence of God, had encompassed us throughout this most interesting journey.
As expenses we received from our friends in Canada £81 18s. 9d., and after paying our own travelling expenses and the expense of supplying the Inverness congregation in my absence, there remained a balance of 4s. 4d., which is placed to the credit of the Sustentation Fund.