WE regret that no notice has been taken before now in the pages of our Magazine of Peter Macaskill, who died at Kyles Scalpay, Harris, on the 4th February, 1905. He was, perhaps, one of the most wonderful trophies of grace in the present age, and we are conscious that the brief sketch which we are about to offer will give a very inadequate idea of the living man.
Peter Macaskill was born at Bernera, Harris, in the year 1828. His parents were worthy persons. His father was evidently a man that feared the Lord, and was marked by a very mild disposition, a contrast, as we shall see, to the natural temperament of his son. Shortly after Peter was born, the family removed to Kyles Scalpay, and here in early life he gave ample proof that he was a branch of the fallen stock of Adam, which had sucked deeply of its poisonous sap. As he advanced in years, he grew in extraordinary bodily strength, and what he greatly deplored afterwards, grew strong in the service of Satan. There were exemplified in him in a striking degree the things which the Apostle declares to the Ephesians as true of them and others by nature. He “walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind.”
The subject of our sketch was very much addicted to strong drink and pugilism. He had an extraordinary desire for fighting, and like the horse, he could smell “the battle afar off.” On one occasion he walked 35 miles to fight a powerful man of whom he had heard. So much disposed to this habit was he, that, according to his own narrative, when he happened to be away at the East Coast fishing, if he saw a strong-looking man walking the street, he would get one of his weaker companions to challenge him to fight, and then he would rush himself into the fray. Amid all this service of the flesh, it would seem that there were times when he had inward awakenings of conscience, and it is related as a strange circumstance of him that he would never enter his house, even when much under the influence of drink, without praying (in a natural sense, at least) behind a certain dyke near his home.
But the time appointed by Him “who stilleth the noise of the seas, the noise of their waves,” came at last, and “the lion” began to “eat straw like the ox.” We are inclined to think, from what a member of his own family has told us, that the late eminent Rev. Roderick Macleod of Snizort, was the instrument, in the hand of the Spirit, of casting the first arrow into his heart. Another account we have received, gives this honour to the Rev. Roderick Mackenzie, Maryburgh, but he himself spoke of both as being useful to him in his distress. The passage of Scripture which impressed him first was Jer. xvii. chap. 9th verse. How long it pleased the Lord to leave him under conviction of sin, we are unable to say, but when in this state of mind, he was brought very low, and for some time was on the very brink of despair. He often spoke of the Lord’s wonderful providential care over him at that time in preventing him from committing an awful crime. The time of his deliverance, however, came, and he was enabled, through grace, to cast himself as a ruined helpless sinner at the feet of the “Friend of publicans and sinners.”
During his after life he gave ample proof both in walk and conversation that the change which took place then was genuine. If he was a faithful servant of the father of lies in the days of his ignorance, he was now a zealous follower of the Lamb. He would seldom pass anyone without speaking to him or her about the interests of their immortal souls.
He was frequently in doubts about his saving interest in Christ, and passed through some severe temptations. On one occasion he considered himself seriously ill, which confined him to bed for several weeks, and thought that the time of his departure had come, but one day he rose and acknowledged that he had no bodily trouble but a strong temptation.
He had a fine physique, tall and erect, with a head of snow-white bushy hair, and when he rose to speak to the “question” all eyes were fixed on him as one from whom they expected to hear something weighty. He always spoke with power and unction, and seldom concluded without strongly appealing to the careless, and especially the young, to seek to make sure for eternity.
Peter was pained at the declensions of the Free Church, and it was a relief to him when the Rev. Messrs. Macfarlane and MacDonald separated from a backsliding majority, and formed the Free Presbyterian Church. With this body he gladly cast in his lot, and continued one of its most loyal members until death. He was an elder of the Free Presbyterian Congregation at Tarbert, and for about thirteen years conducted, with much acceptance, the prayer meeting at Kyles Scalpay. His removal has caused a great breach in that community, where he will be sadly missed.
He was confined to bed for about a year with a painful disease, cancer in the throat, which made it difficult for him to speak. Two days, however, before he died his throat got much better, and it was easier for him to converse with his friends. His whole theme then was God’s goodness to him during his life. He expressed shortly before he died that he never had in his lifetime, when absent from home, a stronger desire to return to his wife and family than that which he now had “to depart and be with Christ which was far better.”
Asked by a friend if he had any particular passage of Scripture which comforted him at that time, he answered the 17th chapter of John’s Gospel, and the words, “Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am.” He spent his last day on earth praying for the cause, and especially for the Free Presbyterian Church and for the township in which he lived. When approaching his end, he wished those present to sing two verses of the 45th Psalm. He died on the 4th day of February, 1905, aged 77 years. We extend our sympathies to his sorrowing widow and family, and pray that the Lord in His mercy may raise up the children instead of the father. N. M.