Dr Duncan R MacSween
Duncan Robertson MacSween was born in Glasgow on 24 December 1922. He was baptised by Rev Neil Cameron, the first Free Presbyterian minister in the city. Both his mother and father were highly regarded by the godly. There is no doubt that he had the inestimable privilege of witnessing true godliness in his parental home. Dr MacSween’s remarkable knowledge of Scripture (considerable portions of which he had committed to memory) must in some measure be attributed to the fact that from a child he was taught and knew the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make one wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus (2 Tim 3:15). Dr MacSween spoke with great feeling about the sad loss of his sister Isa when she was only four. It would seem that this left a deep impression on his mind of the uncertainty of time and the inescapable reality that “it is appointed unto men once to die”.
Having completed his university education, Dr MacSween went to London, where he was employed in research in connection with the war then raging. At that time there was a constant danger in our capital city because of the German bombing campaign. One evening he experienced a most remarkable sparing providence when, on arriving at his lodgings, he found that his bedroom window had been blown in with a blast from a German bomb. A piece of glass was embedded in his pillow. Had he been in his bed, he believed, he would almost certainly have been killed.
But Dr MacSween would be the first to say that the most wonderful deliverance he ever had was that of his soul from everlasting death. When the Spirit of God, by means of the light of the Word of God, effectually calls a sinner, He powerfully convicts the conscience of the hatefulness of sin. He convinces the sinner that it is an evil and a bitter thing to sin against God.
Dr MacSween sometimes spoke with great feeling of the solemn manner in which Rev Roderick Mackenzie (Mr Cameron’s successor in Glasgow) addressed those who continued in a course of sin. On more than one occasion he repeated the solemn impression made on his mind by the way in which Mr Mackenzie explained 1 Corinthians 16:22. It made an indelible impression on his conscience; he could not shake it off. He spoke of it with such a grave tone that the writer made a note of the words one evening after being in his company: “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed – that is, accursed of God, cursed with a grievous and bitter curse until He come”. He spoke of the effect that the words had on his life thereafter: although it was some years before he was converted, the deep impression made by this solemn warning kept him from many sins he might otherwise have committed.
Blessed be the God of all comfort, who is the Father of mercies, that there is more to the experience of true religion than a sense of sin. The Holy Spirit the Comforter does not leave the objects of His love without hope. He powerfully illuminates the soul so that it understands the suitability of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as the Saviour for sinners. By revealing the truth in its real nature to the elect sinner, He puts it out of the power of that sinner to refuse any longer so great, so generous and able a Saviour as Christ. Dr MacSween’s life declared plainly that a time came when he was overcome by divine grace, that he was conquered by the love of God in Christ and that he had been made willing in a day of God’s power to venture all on the Lord Jesus Christ for justification and sanctification, for time and for eternity.
The solid evangelical foundation of his hope might be judged by his oft-repeated assertion that the best definition of faith is: “None perish that Him trust”. Those who knew him best have noted how often he spoke of Psalm 18 and especially verse 16. “And from above the Lord sent down, and took me from below; / From many waters He me drew, which would me overflow” (metrical version). It was clear to those who knew him that Dr MacSween was motivated by the same principle as the Apostle: “The love of Christ constraineth us”. We can mention two incidents to illustrate this principle in Dr MacSween’s life, one from his youth and one from his last days.
While walking in Hyde Park one day, he saw a large crowd of people gathered around a man who turned out to be a militant atheist. Many, even of those who profess the Christian religion, think that atheism has the intellectual upper hand on Christian doctrine and faith. Christianity, it is thought, is good at values but is a bit embarrassed when it tackles rigorous questions, and that it is useful only for comforting the troubled and consoling the weak. Dr MacSween was of another spiritual mettle. He believed that the Truth could never be found false. As faith in its divine Author and trust in His infallible Word are great practical supports to the afflicted and tried believer, so when its tenets are exposed to the most rigorous intellectual examination, they can never be proved false or unreasonable.
The myth of the intellectual advantage of atheism was not something Dr MacSween subscribed to; much the other way. He was well equipped, both spiritually and intellectually, to demonstrate that error was no match for truth at any level. Despite his quiet disposition Dr MacSween was compelled to answer a challenge, of an apologetical nature, posed by the atheist. By the force of the truth on the lips of the tall young Scot, the crowd discerned that the atheist’s pontification was flawed. Having been rebutted, the atheist retired and his audience insisted that the young man would take the stand; whereupon he delivered a demonstration of the integrity “of those things which are most surely believed amongst us”. It is a mark of his amiable character as well as the strength of his convictions that his explicitly-Christian teaching was cordially received by an audience which had gathered to hear an atheist.
A second illustration of this governing principle is from the end of his life. In his last conversation with one of his friends shortly before he died, Dr MacSween said that there is a “because” in the experience of Lord’s people and quoted 1 John 4:19 “We love him, because He first loved us”.
Dr MacSween attended the ministry of Rev Roderick Mackenzie and the meetings at Renfrew Street until this minister died. He had a profound regard for Mr MacKenzie as a Christian man, an able scholar, a sympathetic pastor, but most especially as a preacher who was, in Duncan MacSween’s esteem, without peer. He spoke to the writer about him often, and always with the deepest affection. Some time after Mr Mackenzie died, Dr MacSween cast in his lot with the Free Presbyterian Church, the denomination whose testimony, according to Dr MacSween, his late minister loved till the end of his life. There he attended the ministry of Rev Donald MacLean, who was not only his esteemed minister but a close friend.
Dr MacSween was first married to Margaret MacDowell, by whom he had two children. Tragically Margaret died at the early age of 50. This was a great blow to one so tender and affectionate in his disposition. After this Dr MacSween found much consolation and happiness in his marriage to the like-minded Alice MacPhee. They were wed in July 1984. Their home in Glasgow was one which received the Lord’s people cordially.
Dr MacSween had a love for the Truth and for the testimony of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. He took seriously the honour bestowed upon him when he was ordained a ruling elder in the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland in Glasgow in 1978. In church courts, his contributions to any discussion were both courteous and weighty. As an elder, Dr MacSween served his Master, the Lord Jesus Christ, with constancy and diligence. The loss the members of his Kirk Session and Deacons’ Court have sustained through his absence is great. What the writer misses especially is his wisdom and orderliness.
He was a valuable member of the Synod and its standing committees. He served as clerk on some of these committees. His contributions to the Religion and Morals reports over the years gave evidence of his incisive understanding of contemporary issues. He belonged to a class of men which is fast being removed from our ranks, who were like those “children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do” (1 Chr 12:32). He took a great interest in the Bookroom in Glasgow. Until his last illness the stock in the Bookroom passed through his hands for review. His vast knowledge of Christian literature made him most suited to this work. It was a common sight to see him leave the building with a pile of books in his arms to be reviewed in his own home. He took a very serious view of the religious quality of the stock.
Despite the gifts he possessed as a man and his accomplishments as an academic – he was latterly a senior lecturer in Chemistry in what was then Paisley College of Technology – Dr MacSween was a humble, retiring and unassuming Christian gentleman. As one indication of this, he insisted on not being addressed as Dr MacSween when he was asked to engage in any religious duty in public, but as Duncan MacSween. His explanation was that he was no better qualified in that assembly than any of his brethren. He was quite reluctant to undertake any public duties when there were others who could do so. However, when he understood that there was a need, he was always willing to help.
Dr MacSween believed that preaching was the work of those called to that work by God. However, for many years he supported the Cause of Christ by conducting services in his own congregation and in vacant congregations, addressing the assemblies in a way that was most warmly received by those who value the truth. When he spoke at fellowship meetings he showed his sense of the solemnity of the exercise of self-examination and of the importance of speaking from one’s own experience in a way that would be helpful to others. He understood the difference between the exegetical part of the exercise (opening the question) and the experimental part (speaking to the question). As a result, his addresses on such occasions were orderly, and what he had to say greatly helped those who had an experimental knowledge of the life of faith in Jesus Christ, who pursued that holiness without which no man shall see the Lord and who are broken in their hearts and grieved in their minds for sin, yet rejoice in Christ Jesus.
Dr MacSween served as an Assessor Elder in several congregations, where he came to be highly respected and greatly loved, as he was in his own congregation and among his brethren throughout the Free Presbyterian Church and beyond. He was one of the precentors in St Jude’s. His repertoire of tunes was large. For several decades he led the praise of God and was able to do so even in the year in which he died. Sadly his voice is now silent here. Our memories still hold an echo of this grave and sweet singer in Israel and we are glad for him who is now, we believe, in the land of praises.
Perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of Dr MacSween’s character was one which was the most hidden from view: he was a man much given to prayer. Sadly for us, the prayers of this David are ended, but we trust that they are in God’s bottle awaiting an answer in peace. After a period of about 18 months during which his health declined, he passed away at his own home, his beloved wife by his side, on Thursday, 14 January 2010.
While Dr MacSween was intolerant of folly, he had the affectionate generosity of a father in his dealings with his younger brethren. He had a large-hearted Christian love which drew out a corresponding affection in all who knew him. Our memory of our esteemed friend is of one who had a right to say, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing” (2 Tim 4:7,8).
(Rev) Roderick MacLeod