“John Brown, of Haddington,” by Robert MacKenzie, M.A. Hodder & Stoughton. 1918. Price, 12/ net.
BY THE REV. D. BEATON, WICK.
(Continued from vol. xxiv., page 205.)
AFTER being licensed to preach the Gospel, John Brown was long in receiving a call. Two congregations invited him to be their minister—Haddington and Stow on Gala Water. He made choice of the former, although it was a smaller and less attractive sphere. It was with no light heart that he undertook the responsibilities of the solemn duties of his life work. In his “Reflections of a Candidate for the Ministerial Office” he writes: “Say, then, my conscience, as thou shalt answer at the judgment-seat of Christ, am I taking this honour of myself, or am I called of God as was Aaron? Is Christ sending me, and laying a necessity upon me to preach the Gospel? While He determines me to follow Providence, and to take no irregular step toward thrusting myself into the office, is He breathing on my soul, and causing me to receive the Holy Ghost? Is He endowing me with tender compassion for the souls of men, and with a deep sense of my own unfitness, and earnest desire to be sanctified and be made meet for the Master’s use? In the progress of my education am I going bound in the Spirit, with the love of Christ burning in my heart, and constraining me, rendering me willing cheerfully to suffer poverty, contempt, and hatred of all men, for His name’s sake; willing, if possible, to risk my own salvation in winning others to Christ?”
It is recorded that, while the candidates for the vacancy were being heard, an old lady of deep Christian experience, on being asked as to her choice of the preachers, singled out Brown, giving as her reason, “There’s a sweet savour of Christ about him.” Brown entered on his work as one consecrated to the Master’s service, and did not shirk the heavy duties that lay before him. He tells us: “There is a lecture, a sermon, and an evening exercise on Sabbath in the months of November, December, January, and February; and public worship begins at eleven o’clock forenoon. During the other eight months there is a lecture, two sermons, and an evening exercise; and public worship begins at ten o’clock. Only in the east country is there ordinarily no exercise on Sabbath evening. The congregation is visited once, and examined twice every year.” The pastoral visitation in itself was no small task, when it is borne in mind that his congregation was drawn from the parishes of Spott, Whittinghame, Dunbar, and Pencaitland, places seven to ten miles apart. Mr. Brown was possessed of a ready wit which helped him at times to overcome opposition. One interesting story is told of his masterly diplomacy in turning an opponent into a staunch friend. The opponent in question had utterly refused to sign Brown’s call, and on the occasion of the minister’s first visit to the man’s house, he gave as his reason the youth of the minister—being “owre young and inexperienced for the work.” “That is just what I think myself, David,” was the unexpected reply, “but, since all the rest think different, we had better not say much, since it would never dae for the like o’ you and me to go in the face of the whole congregation.”
As a preacher John Brown occupied a foremost place among the great preachers of Scotland. Even David Hume, the infidel, felt the genuine ring in his message, when he described Brown preaching as “if he were conscious that the Son of God stood at his elbow.” Brown’s own estimate of his work as a preacher is worth recording. “The morning,” he says, “before I was licensed, that awful Scripture, Isaiah vi. 9, 10, was much impressed on my spirit; and it hath since been, I know not how often, heavy to my heart to think how much it was fulfilled in my ministry. I know not how often I have had an anxious desire to be removed by death from being a plague to my poor congregation. But I have often taken myself, and considered this as my folly, and begged of Him that, if it was not for His glory to remove me by death, He would make me successful in His work; for as to transportations, I had not a good opinion of most of them, and I looked on it as so far my mercy that my congregation was so small. After all, I dare not but confess Christ to be the best Master ever I served. Often in preaching, and otherwise, I have found His words the joy and rejoicing of my heart. He hath often laid matter before me in my studies, and enabled me with pleasure to deliver it. God in our nature, and doing all for us, and being all to us; free grace reigning through His imputed righteousness; God’s free grant of Christ and His salvation, and of Himself in Christ, and the believing appropriation founded on that grant, and the comfort and holiness of heart flowing from that, have been my most delightful themes. And though I sometimes touched on the public evils of the day, yet my soul never so entered into these points. No sermons I ever preached were, I think, sweeter to my own soul than those on Psalm cxlii. 7 (first clause); Isaiah xlv. 5 (first clause); Isaiah xlvi. 4; lx. 20 (last clause); 1 Tim. i. 15, 16; Rev. iii. 21; and John xi. 28. The little knowledge which I had of my own uncommonly wicked heart, and of the Lord’s dealings with my own soul, helped me much in my sermons. And I observed that I was apt to deliver that which I had extracted thence in a more feeling and earnest manner than other matters.”
John Brown was a voluminous writer, and, though his works are not much read nowadays, they deserve a better fate. His Dictionary of the Bible, which first saw the light in 1769, had been on the stocks for over ten years. Brown was well equipped for the work; his knowledge of oriental languages, classics, history, divinity and natural science was beyond anything possessed by his contemporaries. To this must be added his extraordinary knowledge of Scripture. There were three editions called for in the author’s lifetime, and down to 1868 few years elapsed when a publisher did not announce a new edition. His biographer has well said of it: “While it revealed Brown’s extraordinary powers, it proved of immense service to biblical study, and was treasured as being a source of information on Bible themes, and acknowledged by not a few as being, in addition, a means of spiritual quickening.”
In 1767 John Brown was appointed Theological Professor of the Burgher Secession Church, and his work among his students made a lasting impression upon some of them. There was a faithful, direct dealing, which, though at times disconcerting to the student, showed the fatherly interest of the teacher. “I know the vanity of your heart,” he says, in writing to one of his students, “and that you will feel mortified that your congregation is very small in comparison with those of your brethren around you; but assure yourself, on the word of an old man, that when you come to give an account, you will think you have had enough.” Among his most famous students may be mentioned the name of Dr. Lawson, Selkirk, whose biography by Dr. Macfarlane is one of the classics of Scottish ecclesiastical biography.
It was not only to his students that John Brown wrote letters of wise counsel, and admonition, perfumed with the sweet fragrance of gracious piety, but to the sorrowful and distressed, whose burdens were heavy, and whose hearts were sore distressed. He carried on a correspondence with the Countess of Huntingdon on the doctrine of justification by faith, and in one of his letters, as seraphic as one of Samuel Rutherford’s, he says: “Truly, noble Lady, let your life have Christ for its all and in all (Phil. i. 21). Let it be a looking to Christ, a coming to Christ, a receiving out of Christ’s fulness, a resting on, and rejoicing in Christ; and, in fine, a worshipping and serving of the Lord Christ. Amidst all the temptations of a high life, let your meditation on Him be sweet. When you awake, may you still be with Him! What are all the dignities, the glories of creation, in respect of Him, the brightness of His Father’s glory, the King, the God of glory? O! sweet to us, the man, God’s fellow! the Word made flesh! God bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh! Our Brother born for adversity! Our Friend that sticketh closer than a brother! Immanuel, God with us! Our Mediator between God and us! Thrice blessed, thrice wondrous, and effectual means of reconciliation! Blessed surety of the better testament, that undertook and paid our infinite debt, till God could take no more! Powerful Redeemer, that takes us as a prey from the mighty, and delivers us, the lawful captives! Blessed Prophet, to whom God hath given the tongue of the learned to speak words in season to our weary souls, and whose words are spirit and life, and, like new wine that goes down sweetly, they cause our dull and dumb hearts to sing! Great High Priest of things to come, that loved us and gave Himself for us! All-prevailing Advocate with the Father, that welcomes us, with all our perplexed cases, and desperate-like cases! Our Prince of Peace, to command deliverance for us, subdue our mighty lusts, defend and support us against every foe!”
(To be continued.)
The late Mrs. Mackinnon, BREASCLETE, LEWIS.
WE regret to record the death of Mrs. Mackinnon, the wife of Mr. Angus Mackinnon, missionary, Breasclete, which took place, after a very short illness, on 15th May, at the comparatively early age of forty-six years. In her young days she was brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord by her parents, who were both consistent, professing people. About the age of twenty-three she came to Stornoway to serve with Mr. Donald Mackenzie, merchant, and it was while in his service that she came under religious concern, and became convinced of her lost condition as a sinner. So much was she impressed with her awful state that one day in church she fell into unconsciousness, but the Lord, who will not allow his own to be tried above what they are able to bear, by the power and comfort of His Word brought her out of the “horrible pit and miry clay,” and put her foot on the Rock, and a new song in her mouth. She was very reticent in her disposition, and only when in the company of intimate friends would speak of her experiences. Her hospitality was well known, as also her discreet and wise manner, especially among her own family. During her short illness she was much composed in her mind, and expressed that everything in this world was nothing to her in comparison with Christ.
Mrs. Mackinnon left a family of six, the youngest being only a few years, to mourn the loss of a loving mother. We extend to her husband our deepest sympathies in his sad and sore bereavement. May the God of all comfort and consolation give him grace and strength in view of the difficult and trying position in which he is placed, and watch over the young motherless children, and bless this dispensation to them all!
N. M’I.
A Letter from Rev. J. B. Radasi, F.P. MISSIONARY, MATABELELAND.
THE following letter has been received by the Rev. Neil Cameron, Convener of the Foreign Mission Committee:—
F.P. MISSION, BEMBESI, MATABELELAND, SOUTH AFRICA, 6th July, 1920.
MY DEAR MR. CAMERON,—I received your letter some time ago, together with the enclosed £1, sent by a friend. Many thanks for the same. You will remember that during the War I made a request that one of our ministers should visit us out here, and it was said by the Synod that my request would be considered after the War. I sincerely regret that I forgot to renew my request at the sitting of the May Synod. We would very much like one of our ministers to visit our church here this year—either at the end of August or September—or next year, during the spring. I am sure all our people would be very glad, and they would highly appreciate the visit. It would be a great help to our cause here. It is now a very long time since a delegate was sent to visit our Mission here. I have asked the minister to be sent during spring, as it is not so hot as in summer. Please send me £5 for the renewal of the lease for another five years—from 1920 to 1925. The lease for the Mission is renewed after every five years. I must now conclude.—With kindest regards to you, yours sincerely, J. B. RADASI.
AN error by continuance of time can never become a truth, but only the more inveterate error.