(IN TWO CHAPTERS.)
BY THE REV. J. R. MACKAY, M.A., INVERNESS.
(Continued from page 299.)
CHAPTER II.
IN Chapter I. of this narrative, it was related how the Northern Missionary Society came into being, and also how it was officered. I should like now to describe how it went about its business, and with what success. The direct object of the Society was the spread abroad of the Gospel among the heathen, and among other unenlightened nations, and, in order to that, the awakening of a prayerful and practical interest among the Highland people in the heathen, nominal and real. What means were used for this end?
- Those who were responsible for the conduct of the Society felt that to begin with it was necessary to establish the understanding and conscience of the people in the urgency, Scriptural warrantableness, and hopefulness of the work to which they were addressing themselves with heart and hand. Accordingly from the year 1800 to 1823 four sermons were under the Society’s auspices preached annually, two in Inverness and two in Tain, in order to promote the end which the Society had in view; and from 1824 to 1843 the number of annual sermons was increased to six, the additional two being preached in Dingwall. I am inclined to think that at no other time had Christ, in the Highlands of Scotland, within so short a period, so many eminent heralds of the Gospel of salvation as He had during the period that the Northern Missionary Society was active, and all of them were men who took the profoundest interest in this Society with its schemes. I shall on this account give here a list of the best known among them, with the text from which they preached for the Society. Thus:
(1) Dr. Alexander Fraser, Kirkhill, preached, as we already saw, in Tain on the 27th August, 1800, on “The liberal devising liberal things” (Isaiah xxxii. 8).
(2) Dr. Angus MacIntosh, Tain, preached, as we also already saw, in Tain on the above date, his subject being, “The voice in the wilderness” (Isaiah xl. 3, 5). Dr. MacIntosh preached in Inverness on the 14th June, 1809, on “Christ’s name enduring for ever” (Psalms lxxii. 17), and in Inverness on the 14th June, 1809, on “Christ the propitiation for the sins of the whole world” (1 John ii. 2); in Tain on 28th August, 1811, on “None other name” (Acts iv. 12); in Inverness on the 8th June, 1814, on “The good tidings of great joy” (Luke ii. 10, 11); in Inverness on the 10th June, 1818, on “None other name” (Acts iv. 12); in Inverness on 13th June, 1821, on “Going unto all nations” (Mark xvi. 15); in Inverness on 9th June, 1824, on “All nations
being blessed in the seed of Abraham” (Genesis xxii. 18); and in Inverness on 14th June, 1826, on “The son of man
coming to seek and to save the lost” (Luke xix. 10).
(3) Rev. Alexander MacAdam, Nigg, preached in Inverness on the 10th June, 1801, on “The good tidings of great joy” (Luke ii. 10, 11); in Inverness on 11th June, 1806, on “The upper room furnished and prepared” (Mark xvi. 15); in Tain on 27th August, 1808, on “The Son, the Saviour of the world” (1 John iv. 14); and in Tain on 30th August, 1809, on “The good tidings of great joy” (Luke ii. 10, 11).
(4) Rev. John Matheson, Kilmuir Easter, preached in Tain on 26th August, 1801, on “The coming of the kingdom” (Matthew vi. 10).
(5) Rev. Hugh MacKay, Moy, preached in Tain on 26th August, 1801, on “Go thou and do likewise” (Luke x. 37).
(6) Dr. Ronald Bayne, Inverness and Kiltarlity, preached in Inverness on 9th June, 1802, on “Abundance of corn in the earth” (Psalm lxxii. 16); in Inverness on 10th June, 1807, on “Doing what she could” (Mark xiv. 8); and in Inverness on 12th June, 1811, on “The shaking of all nations” (Haggai vii. 2).
(7) Rev. William Forbes, Tarbat, preached in Tain on 25th August, 1802, on the “Harvest plenteous, but the labourers few” (Matthew ix. 37, 38); in Tain on 26th August, 1807, on “Being debtors to Greeks and to Barbarians” (Romans i. 14); in Inverness on 8th June, 1808, on “A day of good tidings” (2 Kings vii. 9); in Tain on 25th August, 1813, on 2 Kings vii. 9; in Inverness on 12th June, 1816, on “They presented to the child Jesus, gifts” (Matthew ii. 11); in Tain on 27th August, 1817, on “All people praising Christ for ever” (Psalms lxxv. 17); and in Inverness on 14th June, 1820, on “There being no end of Christ’s government” (Isaiah ix. 7).
The Rev. Charles Calder, Ferintosh, although one of the Directors of the Society, does not appear to have preached in connection with the Society; nor yet the Rev. Lachlan MacKenzie, Lochcarron, although the latter was appointed one of the preachers for 1804 (or 1803), but there is no record of his having actually carried out the arrangement. Travelling over considerable distances was not the easy thing in those days that we find it in our day.
(8) Dr. Alexander Stewart, Moulin and Dingwall, preached in Inverness on 16th June, 1804, on “Other sheep” (John x. 16); in Inverness on 11th June, 1806, on “God gathering the outcasts” (Isaiah lvi. 8); in Tain on 27th August, 1806, on “God whose I am and whom I serve” (Acts xxvii. 23); in Inverness on the 8th June, 1808, giving an address, without a text; in Tain on 31st August, 1808, on “Fields already white for the harvest” (John iv. 35); in Tain on 29th August, 1810, on “The Lord’s people being all one” (John xvii. 21); and in Inverness on 9th June, 1813, on “The king on the holy hill of Zion” (Psalms ii. 6).
(9) Rev. William Mackenzie, Tongue, preached in Tain on 28th August, 1804, on “God as no respecter of persons” (Acts x. 34, 35).
(10) Rev. Donald Fraser, Kirkhill, preached in Inverness on 10th June, 1807, on “The chosen generation” (1 Peter ii. 9); in Tain on 28th August, 1811, on “The Lord reigning” (Psalms xcvi. 1); in Inverness on 9th June, 1813, on “Abounding in love” (1 Thessalonians iii. 12); in Tain on 30th August, 1815, on “God’s word not bound” (2 Timothy ii. 9); in Tain on 27th August, 1817, on “Glory to God in the highest” (Luke ii. 14, 15); in Inverness on 9th June, 1819, on “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. viii. 9); in Tain on 25th August, 1819, on “Beholding the Lord’s glory as in a glass” (2 Cor. iii. 18); in Tain on 27th August, 1823, on “Neglecting the great salvation” (Hebrews ii. 3); in Dingwall on 19th April, 1827, on “Tribulation and anger upon all doing evil” (Romans ii. 9); and in Inverness on 13th June, 1827, on “Declaring God’s glory among the heathen” (Psalms xcvii. 2, 3).
(11) Rev. John Robertson, Kingussie, preached in Inverness on the 10th June, 1812, on “The Lord making a feast for all people” (Isaiah xxv. 6, 7).
(12) Dr. John MacDonald, Ferintosh, laboured as a preacher for the Society more than any other. He was but a student when the Society was formed in 1800, but when, after a short ministry in the Gaelic Chapel, Edinburgh, he came north in 1813 to succeed the Rev. Charles Calder of Ferintosh, he at once took a leading place among the notable ministers of Ross-shire. Very interesting it is to find his distinguished son, Rev. John MacDonald, missionary, Calcutta, put his finger on what appeared to a person so judicious as he to be the most noteworthy features of the preaching of these three great heralds of the Gospel, Dr. Angus MacIntosh, Dr. Alexander Fraser, and Dr. John MacDonald. Writing from Calcutta, Mr. MacDonald put it: “So many sweet associations, so many rich recollections have I to feast upon that it seems to me I hear Dr. MacIntosh pouring forth all the riches of the Gospel, its loveliness, its enticement; Dr. Fraser of Kirkhill, perhaps not less gifted and gracious, exhibiting its exalted character, its rationality and strict consistency; and my father, displaying its close connection, its admirable adaptation, with all its sweet promises and awful threatenings. Methinks, I see these three together showing forth, in one radiant blaze, the whole moral character of God, now reasoning, now threatening, now enticing sinners to come and see this great thing” (Life, page 40). Dr. MacDonald’s first sermon on behalf of the Society was preached in Inverness on the 8th June, 1814, his subject being, “The leaves of the tree, which are for the healing of the nations” (Revelation xxii. 2). The other texts on which he preached for the Society in Inverness, Dingwall, or Tain were:—Revelation vii. 9, 10; Psalms lxxxix. 15; Acts xvi. 9; 1 Timothy i. 11; Revelation xiv.
6; Isaiah ix. 6; Luke x. 37; Zechariah iv. 10; 1 Cor. xv. 20; 1 John ii. 2; Proverbs xxiv. 11, 12; Psalms ii. 8; Matthew ix. 13; Daniel xi. 32; 1 John iv. 8; Philippians i. 12; Isaiah liii. 11; Habakkuk iii. 11; Isaiah li. 5; Psalms xxxvi. 9; 1 Timothy ii. 4; Isaiah ix. 7; Romans i. 14; Romans v. 15; Jonah i. 6; Canticles viii. 8; 1 John iv. 14; John x. 16; Psalms xxxvi. 7. Dr. MacDonald thus preached in all on thirty occasions for the Society.
(13) Rev. Neil Kennedy, Logie, preached in Tain on 31st August, 1814, on “An innumerable multitude” (Revelation vii. 9, 10); in Inverness on 12th June, 1822, on “All ends of the earth seeing the salvation of God” (Isaiah lii. 10); and in Dingwall on the 19th April, 1827, on “Thy kingdom come” (Luke xi. 2).
(14) Rev. John Kennedy, Redcastle (brother of the foregoing), preached in Inverness on 14th June, 1815, on “Ethiopia stretching out her hands” (Psalms lxviii. 31); in Tain on 28th August, 1816, on Psalms lxviii. 31; in Tain on 26th August, 1818, on “The desire of all nations” (Haggai ii. 7); in Tain on 25th August, 1819, on “Going into all the world” (Mark xvi. 15); in Tain on 29th August, 1821, on “The root of Jesse, the ensign of the people” (Isaiah xi. 10); in Dingwall on 22nd April, 1824, on “The watchmen upon the walls” (Isaiah lxii. 6, 7); in Tain on 30th August, 1826, on “Going unto all the world” (Mark xvi. 15); in Inverness on 11th June, 1828, on “Prayer for Israel” (Romans x. 1); in Tain on 26th August, 1829, on “Christ’s kingdom not of this world” (John xviii. 36); in Inverness on 8th June, 1831, on “The kingdom of this world becoming kingdom of Christ” (Revelation xi. 15); in Tain on 21st November, 1832, on “The gathering of the people unto Messiah” (Genesis xlix. 10); in Dingwall on 24th July, 1833, on “All power given to Christ” (Matthew xxviii. 18); in Tain on 20th August, 1835, on “O Lord, revive thy work” (Habakkuk iii. 2); and in Tain on 28th August, 1839, on Revelation xi. 15.
(15) Rev. Donald Sage, Resolis, preached in Inverness on 11th August (?), 1823, on “Handfuls of corn” (Psalms lxxii. 16); in Inverness on 8th June, 1825, on “Building the walls of Jerusalem” (Psalms li. 18); in Inverness on 13th June, 1827, on “All ends of the earth seeing God’s salvation” (Isaiah lii. 10); in Dingwall on 29th April, 1829, on “The root of Jesse” (Isaiah xi. 10); in Tain on 31st September, 1831, on “The kingdom which shall never be destroyed” (Daniel ii. 44); in Tain on 27th August, 1834, on “The angel of the Lord” (Exodus iii. 2, 3); and in Tain on 26th August, 1840, on “The desire of all nations” (Haggai ii. 7).
(16) Rev. John MacDonald, London (son of Dr. John MacDonald), preached in Dingwall on 24th July, 1833, on Psalm lxvii.—The Missionary Psalm; in Dingwall on 26th July, 1837, on “The man of Macedonia” (Acts xvi. 9).
(17) Rev. Archibald Cook, Inverness, preached in Dingwall on 30th July, 1834, on “Come over and help us” (Acts xvi. 9); in Dingwall on 29th July, 1835, on “The word having free course” (2 Thessalonians iii. 1); in Dingwall on 27th July, 1836, on “Deliver them drawn unto death” (Proverbs xxiv. 11, 12); and in Dingwall on 31st July, 1839, on “The earth full of the knowledge” (Isaiah xi. 9).
(18) Rev. Alexander Stewart, Cromarty, preached in Tain on 30th August, 1826, on “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. viii. 9); in Tain on 29th August, 1827, on “Pray for Jerusalem” (Psalm cxxii. 6); in Dingwall on 28th April, 1830, on “The throne of grace” (Hebrews iv. 16); in Tain on 21st November, 1832, on “Look, be saved” (Isaiah xl. 22); and in Tain on 31st August, 1842, on “The everlasting gospel” (Revelation xiv. 6).
(19) Dr. Charles C. MacIntosh, Tain, preached in Inverness on 11th June, 1834, on “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. viii. 9) in Dingwall on 29th July, 1835, on “Curse ye Meroz” (Judges v. 23); in Tain on 20th August, 1835, on “Joy in the presence of the angels” (Luke xv. 10); in Dingwall on 27th July, 1836, on “The vain coming down” (Isaiah lv. 10, 11); in Dingwall on 25th July, 1838, on “The lovers of Jerusalem prospering” (Psalms cxxii. 6); in Inverness on 12th June, 1839, on “The glorious gospel” (1 Timothy i. 14); and in Inverness on 8th June, 1842, on “The preaching of the cross” (1 Cor. i. 18).
(20) Rev. John Macrae, Knockbain, preached in Tain on 25th August, 1841, on “The heavens praising God” (Psalm lxxxix. 5).
Several other worthy ministers of the Gospel also preached on occasions for the Society, such as Rev. James MacPhail, Daviot, son of the very distinguished Rev. Hector MacPhail of Resolis; Rev. Alexander Flyter, Alness; Rev. James MacDonald, Urray; Rev. C. R. Matheson, Kilmuir Easter; Rev. Hector Allan, Kincardine; Rev. D. Gordon, Edderton; Rev. David Campbell, Inverness and Tarbat; Rev. Duncan Campbell, Kiltearn; Rev. Alexander Fraser, Kirkhill.
The first Mondays of May, August, November, and February were in those days set apart by the members of the Northern Missionary Society, as days of solemn prayer for the revival of religion at home and for the propagation of the Gospel abroad. The occasions on which the Society sermons were preached at either Inverness, Dingwall, or Tain, were also times of earnest prayer on behalf of Missions with those great wrestlers with God.
After sermon the members of the Society were wont to meet to arrange the business of the Society. Collections on behalf of Missions were taken up at such great occasions, and the liberality of the people at a time when money did not circulate so freely as in these times, may be gathered from such an item of information as has come down to us respecting a meeting in Tain in 1819 when the collection amounted to £127. I do not suppose it was by any means an exceptional case.
- But the preaching of sermons was not the only way adopted to stir up the people to an interest in Missions. The Society aimed at forming in every parish, where the labours of Missionaries were sympathised with, auxiliary institutions. These auxiliary institutions were meetings for prayer, where also it was expected that means would be taken to keep the members informed of the progress and success of missionary work throughout the world. These parochial auxiliaries met, some once a week, others once a month, others it might be once a quarter. It was a common thing in the case of those that met as often as once a week that the members contributed each a penny per week, and the sum total was given in to the general treasurer at the annual nearest meeting of the Society, whether that was in Inverness, Dingwall, or Tain. There is reason to think that in this way the Lord’s people were stirred up in many a parish to great wrestlings for the spread of the Gospel to the ends of the earth, and the issues of those wrestlings are incalculable. For example, a trustworthy friend of my own, who gave the best of his life to Mission work (Dr. Grant), has left a record of what he saw and heard in the parish of Creich, when as a young boy he, with his pious grandfather, attended what may be regarded as a continuation of one of those parochial gatherings. “The meeting,” wrote he, “was conducted in the house of Gustavus Munro, ‘Havie.’ The house was full, there being probably about thirty people present. Four elders, two laymen . . . took part in the meeting, each of them making some remark after the reading of the Scripture. Then an old pensioner, who was always present at the meeting, asked if there was any news from the Mission field. Havie’s wife [being probably the best reader there] read a letter from Dr. Duff, and also notes bearing on the work in China, making mention of William Burns. After this several engaged in prayer, and to this day I never heard more earnest or more intelligent prayer for the spread of the Gospel. Some named the different countries for which they prayed. Havie prayed for the different races, distinguishing them by their colours—the white people, black in heart; the black people; the red people; and the yellow people—that they might all be made white in the blood of the Redeemer.” What is thus described took place about 1859, that is, a long time after the Society became merged (as we shall see) in the Free Church Missionary Societies, but I have little doubt that in it we have a sample of how the pious people of the north became awakened to a sound and deep interest in Mission affairs, and all as a result of the movement which the Northern Missionary Society was instrumental in setting on foot.
(To be concluded.)
EVERY man thinketh he is rich enough in grace, till he take out his purse, and tell his money; and then he findeth it but poor and light in the day of a heavy trial.—Rutherford.
A Letter from Rev. J. B. Radasi,
MATABELELAND.
THE following interesting letter from Mr. Radasi was recently received by the Rev. Neil Cameron, Glasgow, Convener of the Foreign Mission Committee:—
C/O NATIVE COMMISSIONER, BEMBESI,
MATABELELAND, SOUTH AFRICA, 16th Nov., 1914.
MY DEAR MR. CAMERON,—I got a letter from Principal Henderson, saying that he was now ready to print the first twenty-five Psalms in Kaffir metre. Our people will be very glad to get them, as they are always asking for them. I replied to Mr. Henderson, saying that our people here would be very glad to get the first twenty-five Psalms printed to go on with, and that it was to be hoped that the remainder of the work would be done as quickly as possible.
I was very glad indeed that the Synod accepted Mr. D. Beaton’s proposal that the Church at home should send another missionary to Rhodesia to assist us. It would help our cause here very much, and it would enable us also to open up a mission in Mashonaland. May the Lord in His mercy open up a way so that Mr. Beaton’s suggestion might be carried through. We were sorry that it was not possible for Mr. D. Mackenzie to pass here on his way home, and we quite agree with you that the expense would have been too much for so short a stay. And the suggestion to send one out for five or six weeks’ stay here—as Mr. MacKay did—would be most welcome to us here, if the way is not yet open to send one to remain in this country permanently. That suggestion was made by one of our ministers.
Chief Sigogo, Ngege’s eldest son, and his wife are still as regular as ever in their attendance on the means of grace. They are present every Sabbath, although their kraal is about four miles distant from our mission. We have also opened another preaching place at Chief Mhlahlo’s place—who is living on a farm about five miles from here—with the consent of the farmer, who had all this time been opposed to a mission on his farm. The name of the farm is Gravesend Farm. The owner of the farm does not live on the farm; he visits it occasionally. We are building a large square hut for a church. The Chief has meanwhile lent us a hut of his own to hold the services in, until we have built our church. But we found it too small to contain all the people who came to the services.
This chief has a large kraal. A young brother of his, named Kiwa Mhlahlo, is being educated at our mission here, and is staying with us. He has now been with us for two years and six months, and can now read the native language fairly well, and has already been given a Bible. He is now at No. II. English Reader. I am glad to say he has also lately been converted, and is very fond of his Bible. You will find him always reading it.
—Yours sincerely, J. B. RADASI.