BY GEORGE FORREST.
I HAVE been requested to write something to the Free Presbyterian Magazine about the late Mr. Alexander Mackenzie, of Lucknow, Ontario, who died at that place on the 7th of April, 1904. But although it is to me a kind of melancholy pleasure to do something to help to keep up the remembrance of so worthy a man, and especially as he was a very dear and confidential friend of my own, yet what I have to say about him must be at best but very fragmentary, as I never met with him until some years after the union of the Presbyterian churches in Canada in the year 1875. But it was not until 1884 or 1885 that, when we were at Brucefield during a Communion season, an intimate friendship began, which was only broken by death, of which we often said to each other—we hope it will be renewed in that world where death never enters.
Mr. M’Kenzie was born in Lochalsh, Ross shire, Scotland, in the year 1824, and came to Canada in 1847. Some years later he settled on a bush lot in the township of Ashfield, in the county of Huron, Ontario, and by industry soon made a comfortable home for himself in what was until then a “howling wilderness.” Mr. M’Kenzie was one of a number that could not conscientiously go into the union of the Free Church with the United Presbyterian Church in 1861. and he has often told me of the difficulty that he had in deciding what was his duty in that case, for a pamphlet had been published by some of the United Presbyterians in which they referred to the objection of Dr. John Baine, of Galt, to entering that union, viz.—“Because of unsound views regarding Christ’s kingship over the nations and the powers and duty of the civil magistrate.” This pamphlet fell into the hands of Mr. M’Kenzie and caused him great trouble; for thought he—“If this pamphlet be true, what I have been hearing all my life is untrue.” This he said in reference to the ministers he was wont to hear in Scotland, such as Dr. Kennedy, of Dingwall, and his own uncle, Rev. John M’Rae, at one time Free Church minister in Greenock, and others of the same stamp. He could not believe that THESE MEN preached anything that was not the TRUTH, so he could not think of uniting with the publishers of that pamphlet. But in the time of his trouble in this respect these words came with great power into his mind—“Who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.” (Heb. i. 3.) He reasoned in this way—If this is a fair specimen of the teaching of the U.P. Church on this important doctrine, it is very different from, if not contrary to, what is taught in this passage of the word of God, and I for one will not go into union with them, and he did not. He cast in his lot with a little company who for conscience’s sake remained outside the union, and who met on Sabbath days for worship in a school-house in the neighbourhood, where they continued to meet for over fourteen years. But although Mr. M’Kenzie was at this time much concerned for the honour of Christ’s name and cause, he did not think that he had accepted Christ as his personal Saviour. In his youth he had been accustomed to hear the Word preached with such faithfulness and discrimination that he had a very good idea of what the marks and character of a true Christian was. Failing to find these in himself, he concluded that he had not yet undergone a saving change. But the time came when this all-important question pressed on his conscience, and had to be considered, and could not be put off. One night, being at a friend’s house, at a distance from home, and being in great trouble of mind, he went out and knelt by the side of a straw stack, and there poured out in strong crying and tears the troubles of his soul to Him who came to seek and to save the lost. and he was heard. (But as I am writing from memory, I cannot tell the Scripture that was borne in on his mind.) But it brought with it such an inflow of the love of Christ into his soul that he described his condition at that time to be as if he were in an ocean of love. And such was the gracious revelation of Jesus Christ to him that, as he expressed it himself, “If I had a thousand souls I could have put them all into His hand.” Mr. M’Kenzie continued in this state of mind for some weeks, and then he felt that his peace and joy was declining. He went to the meeting on the Sabbath day, when his brother Donald, who was conducting the meeting, spoke with much liberty from the words that had brought light and peace to him at first, and the result was a return of the same joy and peace. He often had times of darkness since, but in such times he said he had just to go back where he cast his anchor at first.
Mr. M’Kenzie was a man of prayer. Many times while we slept in the same room, and sometimes in the same bed, I heard him pray in the night; but as he spoke the Gaelic I could not understand him, only I knew what that word “O Thighearna” meant, and I often heard it. But it was seldom indeed that he could be persuaded upon to pray in public. This was disappointing to those who by private intercourse knew something of his experience and ability. He was a wise and prudent counsellor and a warm friend, also a liberal supporter of everything that he considered would advance Christ’s cause in the world. He was ordained an elder in the Free Presbyterian Church in Lochalsh in the month of September, 1902, by Rev. N. Cameron; but on account of the distance between Lucknow and that place of worship, and his failing health, he was not able to attend with much regularity their meetings. We said that Mr. Mackenzie was a man of prayer, and he was also a careful and constant reader of the word of God, and in all his times of trouble it was the comfort and delight of his soul; it was also his counsellor in all his perplexities. The Word of God and the Confession of Faith with Catechisms, which he believed to be founded on and agreeable to the word of God, were the only authorities he would acknowledge in doctrine or in worship. He had no sympathy with “Higher Critics” who would falsify the Word of God, nor had he any sympathy with those who to make worship more attractive introduced their own inventions as a supplement to or substitute for God’s own appointments. Mr. M’Kenzie was naturally of a strong and robust constitution, but a few years ago his health began to fail, and during the last six months he suffered greatly from some inward trouble. His wife, to whom he was greatly attached, was also greatly afflicted, which was a sore trial to him, but he bore it all with fortitude and resignation to the will of God, who he believed doeth all things well.
“The troubles that afflict the just in number many be,
But yet at length out of them all the Lord doth set him free.”
But the time came for his deliverance. He died about 4 p.m., and his wife died about 11 p.m. the same night. It may truly be said of them—”They were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in death they were not divided,” for they were buried side by side in one grave, to wait there until the resurrection morn. Thus have passed away these excellent of the earth, and we miss them. But we do not mourn as them that have no hope. “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, them also that sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him.”
G. F.