NEIL MACKINNON was born at Gedintailor, Braes. His father belonged to the parish of Strath. His mother’s people lived in Camustinivaig, to which township his mother returned after the death of her husband. At the time of his father’s death, Neil was but a child. In fact, he was not much out of childhood when the Spirit of God began to move him.
The instrument in the hand of the Holy Spirit that drew the heart of Neil Mackinnon to Jesus Christ, as often related to us by himself, was the godly conversation of an old crofter, who feared the Lord, of the name of Donald Matheson, better known in Camustinivaig as Domhnull MacIan Mhic Dhomhnnull. This worthy was on a certain night drying his oats before sending them to the mill at Portree. A number of boys gathered to the kiln to get some of the dried corn, of which they were exceedingly fond. The worthy man called the boys to him in order that he might tell them a story, knowing human nature. He first began to tell them of a giant who took men away. Then he told how Jesus came, in order that He might save people. The very mention of the name of the blessed deliverer seems to have attracted Neil’s heart, and he pressed nearer and nearer the herald who brought him such glad tidings, and although the rest were getting listless, Neil was hungering to hear more, and wished to stop all night with the man, who was warming his heart with his doctrine. And when he had to leave, it was to begin what he was ignorant of before, even to go to Jesus who was crucified, in order that he might get his young heart warmed anew by Him. His age at that time would be between nine and ten. The Lord continued this happy frame to him for some time, and as it began to fade away from his feelings, he longed to know more and more about Him who said, “Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not.”
In those days there were no schools in the district where English was taught, but he happened to get a Gaelic book, called “The Blue Book” (A Leabhar Gorm). In this book Psalm cxix. was included among other lessons, and when Neil was able to read, he would weep over what he saw there, and his young heart longed to know more of Him whom the royal songster loved so well. This made him act like the woman at the well of Jacob, who went to call her townsmen to see a Man who told her all that ever she did. Neil now began to ask his playmates to seek Christ along with him, yet what drew Neil was wanting in their case, and they soon got tired of that which was to him the joy and the rejoicing of his heart. He saw others going to the house of God, and longed to join their company, for he now understood that there they heard of Jesus who was to him the altogether lovely One, but his mother, having to provide for four, was not able to provide him with a garment suitable. Yet little Neil had access to the ear which hears the ravens young that cry. That ear heard his desire, and sent him what he so much desired. He had an uncle, a brother of his mother, who served as a gamekeeper in the employment of MacLeod of MacLeod, with whom sportsmen were wont to leave garments at the end of the season. These the uncle used to send to his sister to fit for her boys. In a bundle Neil found a grey coat, in which he desired to appear the first Sabbath in church, and he would not wait for any other alteration but to cut the tail off, as the body would be long enough for him. Thus arrayed, with a joyful heart he joined the worshippers next Lord’s Day, which proved to him a day to be remembered, as it made him long for the courts of God’s own house. Thus he thought he was to have heaven on earth. He was on his honeymoon; it was the time of his espousals; he knew not yet the plague of his own heart. It was the summer time with him, when fields and woods clapped hands, and everything breathing resounded with joy. The Lord, who adopted him into His family, was now to be his teacher, and the lesson troubled Neil, for his eyes were stirring up his heart. The Apostle of the Gentiles had to say, “When the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.” Neil became like one dead; he lost his joy, and concluded that all was deception from the beginning. The house was not the same to him; he heard of Christ, but could not find Him; he feared that He would cast him off. Shame covered him now. “I heard Ephraim bemoaning himself.” Neil, like him, now bemoaned himself, yet the Lord would now and again send him a portion that would enable him to hope in His mercy, although he felt himself, like the Shulamite, a company of two armies. He was at that time growing up, and it was deemed that it was time to send him to some trade. Consequently he engaged with a country blacksmith in Strath, near Broadford. The conversation in the smithy is not as a rule favourable to grace. So did Neil find it, to his bitter cost. Being young and lively, other young ones gathered to make friends with the apprentice. They proposed that, as they had a dancing-master in the place, he should join them. Being taken unawares he joined them, but before long he found himself like shorn Samson. The Lord was departed from him, and his folly cost him many a tear before he got the peace which he used to enjoy.
The writer remembers his appeals to the young of Braes, when they wanted to indulge in dancing. Neil, at the close of the service, would, with tearful eyes, call (Dannsa mo bhron), “The dancing of my sorrow; it almost cost me my soul.” I would like all the young of our Church to have heard him, and if his words made the impression on them which they used to have on my poor soul, they would never engage in it. To his last, his experience in connection with it was as vivid to him as the day the Lord showed him his guilt. I must state here that the young men of his native place seldom refused to obey him; to the most of them his word was law. The Lord bless to them the many solemn appeals he made to them!
From Broadford, after learning his trade, he removed to Glasgow, and got work in the Caledonian Railway Works at St. Rollox. In that place there were at that time many who feared the Lord. With them Neil was like Jacob when he got near his son, Joseph, in the best of the land—he got near his beloved. A very worthy man kept the gate, and had a small office, where, at the dinner hour, those who feared the Lord gathered, and spent the time at their disposal, each giving his own view on a portion of the Word of God. Hence the office became known as “John Campbell’s College,” and they all felt, although Neil was about the youngest of those who frequented that Bethel, that he was deeply taught of God. And old John Campbell would say to one of our worthy elders who is yet alive, “Allan, Neil is wise for this world itself, as well as for eternal things.” In Glasgow Neil had the privilege of hearing the greatest preachers of the then Free Church. Dr. Kennedy, late of Dingwall, he dearly loved in the Lord.
All his days he firmly stuck to the party known then as the “Constitutional Party” in the Free Church. The writer remembers that, when Neil visited his native place, he and our father always talked together about the agitation that was then in the Church about the Union question. Many a sigh the declensions in the Free Church drew from his noble soul. That party, who crushed the Lord’s people in the Free Church, may think little of it, yet the Lord will visit their actions on them, either in time or in eternity. At the time the Free Church passed the ever-to-be-loathed Declaratory Act, Neil felt bound in conscience not to help such a body again. The writer remembers over and over again hearing him state that he would rather sit in his house with his Bible than listen again to any of them who went in with that Act. At that time he was returned from Glasgow, and had settled in Portree as a merchant. The Rev. Donald Macfarlane, then of Raasay, now of Dingwall, and Rev. Donald Macdonald, late of Shieldaig, stuck to the principles and practices of the Church of Scotland Free, and were evicted out of their churches and manses for doing so. Neil Mackinnon received them as men who were moved of God to raise up a standard against the flood of errors which appeared to carry the people of Scotland to destruction. He was one of the two elders who formed the first Presbytery in the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, and he began at once to tell the people of his native isle God’s call to them to stick to the Word of God, and to the creed of the reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland. He was mocked for it, but his noble, erect body stood all the abuse unashamed. It is not too much to state that he was one of the finest-looking specimens of the fallen race as to his body, standing about six feet high, with a curly, well-thatched head of hair, rosy cheeks, and a beaming countenance. All who came in contact with him had to understand that they had in him a man, a Christian, and a gentleman.
The Spirit of the Lord began to move him mightily, so he began to hold meetings in all parts of the parish of Portree and in other parts of Skye. It was evident that the Spirit of the Lord spoke through him, and his message was blessed to many. He kept meetings in every township, and the people locked their doors and gathered to hear the Word of God. Many will remember his discourses on the words, “Adam, where art thou?” and “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” and also on the words, “Wilt thou go with this man? And she said, I will go.” And as a Gaelic speaker at that period we never heard his equal. Some will remember, as long as they are in this world, how he sang in his own house at family worship the words in Psalm xlv. (tenth verse), “Oh, daughter, hearken and regard, and do thine ear incline,” etc. The effect which that singing had on them cannot be put in words. Some might think that he was always in the sunshine at that time. Ah! it was far from it. Full well the writer remembers how low he would be in his mind after returning from some meetings in which he appeared to get a Pisgah view of the heavenly Canaan.
Then he would begin to doubt his own conversion, and his right to be addressing his fellow-creatures. “The Presbytery must examine me,” he would say; “I fear I am not a real Christian.” Yet although his weeping might endure for a night, joy would come to him in the morning, when the Lord would come to his garden. And if ever the Lord raised a nurse for His children, He raised one in Neil Mackinnon, and if some of us will ever get to heaven—as we at times hope we will—apart from the blessed Saviour, we would wish to meet Neil as much as any that are there. No pastor could spend, and he spent, for his people more than Neil for the Free Presbyterians of the parish of Portree. He tramped it late and early, from Portree to Penechorran, exhorting and teaching his fellow-men, and when they got a minister, Neil helped to the best of his ability. And as his heart was opened to receive Christ, Neil opened his house to the Lord’s people, and at Communion seasons his house would be packed and he in his element supplying their wants.
All in the Highlands know how soon the heart of their first minister was drawn away, not to more people, or to a more Christian Church, but to a surer earthly endowment, and when he left, Neil stepped into the breach as before, and the Lord’s people in the district felt themselves like David, when bringing home the Ark of the Lord, glad at heart. In a short time they got another minister, and Neil assisted him to all in his power. He was much troubled when a few of the ministers of the Church began to seek union with the Free Church of our day, not because he was against Union, but because that Church showed that they had more regard for churches and other property than for a sound creed and constitution. When they remained in the Free Church in 1893, after her creed was changed, how could they be against Union when it was the changed creed of the Free Church that became the basis of Union with the U.P. Church? He loved unity, when unity could be had on a sound basis, but he loved purity more than unity, because “without holiness no man shall see the Lord.” When three of the ministers of the Church to which he belonged moved for a conference with the Free Church, Neil, to begin with, thought that they only wanted such a conference “to remove obstacles that stood in the way.” But when he saw the answer the Free Church sent to the Free Presbyterian Church, also the pamphlet written by one of the then ministers who was so keen for the conference, as he himself would state, “I saw at once it was the flesh,” and he at once revealed his mind to his own minister, who was one of them, and also to the writer of the pamphlet. So when they went where they lusted for, Neil again took charge of the congregation of Portree, and although his natural force was somewhat abated, yet the Lord stood by him, and helped him. He was often cast down so low that he felt himself on the border of despair. Once in this condition the words in the 44th chapter of Isaiah, verse 22, came to him with power from the Lord, and delivered him out of his distress, and such words as were helpful to himself, he delighted to speak from to others. Another text he loved to speak from was Song ii. 14.
But time would fail me to write all the places in the glorious pastures of God’s holy Word that he delighted to feed in. He is now where sorrow and sighing shall never be known. He has gone to the mountains of myrrh and to the hills of frankincense, where the Lamb in the midst of the throne feeds him with all the redeemed host, leading them to fountains of living waters. He many times cried in the vale below, “Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee.” Grace in him stuck fast to Christ, and love in Christ drew Neil more and more to Himself, and before He called him home He made his face shine with what he enjoyed in his soul. To the very last he went about doing good, and the day the Lord called him home he visited the sick who belonged to other Churches as well as his own Church. He served his Maker and Saviour long, and he served his Church well without ever taking a penny for his service.
About ten weeks before he died, he spent some days with us in Inverness, and when word came that he had departed this life, the youngest child in the house deploringly cried, “Ah, well, I am sorry; he was nice.” The only change we could see on him was that, when any steep place met him, he became very slow. The seat of his trouble was the heart. He carried on as he was wont to do to the end out among the people, for he had no mind for the things of the world, and his brothers-in-law gave him all the liberty he desired. The only earthly object that seemed to be a concern to him was his wife, who was in delicate health for years. After conducting family worship and retiring to bed, he left the lamp burning, and lay down beside his wife, saying, “We will leave it for a little,” as if the Lord had informed him that that was the last time he would see the natural lamp burning. He lay on his back looking at the lamp, then turned round to extinguish it, and, in the act of putting out the lamp, he was called to the place where his sun shall no more go down, where the Lord is His everlasting light, and the days of mourning are forever gone. The doctor was called, but Neil Mackinnon’s spirit had departed to be with Jesus, leaving nothing behind him but his mortal body, to be placed in the grave which his dear Jesus had perfumed for him, and for all the heirs of promise, till the heavens be no more.
Thus lived, and thus died Neil Mackinnon. After having served his generation well, “he fell on sleep.” His funeral was a sight to see. Many gathered from all parts of Skye, and some, who thought him too narrow in his views when he was in life, were among the first to acknowledge that, in his death, they had lost a man of his word and a true Christian. May the Lord comfort his dear widow, who valued his services, and fed on the Word through him! She has the promise, “the stay of the widow.” We desire to express our deepest sympathy with all the household, who showed that they respected him as a true servant of the Lord. And to the people of the parish we would say, “Seek that Neil Mackinnon may not be a witness against you at the great white throne.” “Help, Lord.”
E. M’Q.
AN APPRECIATION BY REV. D. M. MACDONALD, PORTREE.
As perhaps no one was so intimately acquainted with the details of the late Mr. Mackinnon’s life from his youth upwards as the Rev. Mr. Macqueen, I suggested that he should write an account of his career, and this he has kindly done. While I can add nothing of material importance to what he has said, I would like, by way of personal appreciation, to say a little concerning him as a Christian and an elder of our Congregation.
One noticeable feature in Mr. Mackinnon’s character was his humility. He was always ready to take the lowest place, and never put himself forward. On one occasion, when at a Communion in a certain place, he was shown his bedroom, and apology was expressed for its smallness. To this he at once replied: “If you have any still smaller, I shall be glad to occupy it.” This showed the humble disposition of the man. Next to his gracious Master, the Lord’s people and cause had the chief place in his heart. He loved the assemblies of God’s people, and was in his element when entertaining them.
As an elder, Mr. Mackinnon was eminently exemplary. He fulfilled the duties of his office in an admirable manner. He never spared himself in seeking to advance the cause of Christ. It may be said that the Congregation of Portree never missed a minister when he was in charge. Being well read in Puritan theology, he could give weighty and lucid expositions of Scripture, which were instructive and edifying to his hearers. He was a frequent and welcome visitor in the homes of the sick and afflicted. His chief interest, indeed, among the affairs of this life lay in the Congregation of Portree, and he looked after everything pertaining to its welfare, from the least detail to the most important matter, and never considered it a burden to do so.
No minister could have a better helper, a wiser counsellor, or a more faithful friend. His fine presence and willing help will be missed for many a day in the Congregation, of which he was a most worthy elder. May his mantle fall upon some others here! And may the Lord, in His great mercy, raise up like-minded men throughout our Church and nation! To Mrs. Mackinnon and his relatives we would again tender our heartfelt sympathy in their great loss.
If we be content with that which Christ gives us, we shall want nothing. It is a mercy to feel our want of grace, and a greater to know the worth of grace. It is a great matter to have true grace, and a greater to have assurance of it, and no less to use that assurance aright.—John Brown.