The sermons contained in this volume2 will give, to such readers as had not the privilege of hearing him, a faithful impression of what Mr Cook was as a preacher. That the discourses have been faithfully reported is, I should say, self-evident. It is not given to every preacher, not to say reporter, to utter words which, when reduced to cold print, live as these discourses do. Almost all, if not absolutely all, these sermons were preached when Mr Cook was over 70. They corroborate the truth of what Alexander Auld said when he met him at Dunnet in 1861 and 1862. “His eye had not waxed dim, nor his natural force abated”. These sermons have, besides, a value of their own, as they embody Mr Cook’s maturer judgement concerning matters that are of the deepest interest, touching doctrine, experience and preaching.
Most of these discourses treat only some of the divisions announced at the outset and, to that extent, have a fragmentary appearance. As the cast of the preacher’s mind was intuitive rather than logical and he was determined to set the way of life before his hearers every time he preached, one misses but little even from these. Other sermons, however, exhibit Cook’s treatment of his subjects in a more complete, and on that account more satisfactory, form.
In explanation of the form in which most of the English discourses appear, it may be added that at Daviot, where most of these sermons were preached, the principal services of the day were in Gaelic. At that time there were comparatively few people in Daviot to whom Gaelic was not the more acceptable language. On that account, the order of the Sabbath Day’s services was: (1) Gaelic from 12 to 2 or 2.30, (2) English for about an hour, (3) a short concluding Gaelic service. The same text was almost invariably the subject of consideration in both languages. The English part was, however, by no means a repetition of what had already been said in Gaelic; as a rule, a division of the subject not already treated was then taken up.
1This is a further part of the biographical introduction to a volume entitled, Sermons (Gaelic and English) “by the late Rev Archibald Cook, Daviot”; it was published in 1907. Mr Mackay was then the Free Presbyterian minister in Inverness. The introduction is included in the forthcoming volume of sermons by Cook being produced by Free Presbyterian Publications; this volume is a translation of a later volume of Gaelic sermons, also edited by Mr Mackay and first published in 1916. As reprinted here, the introduction has been edited. The second article, last month, began with Cook as missionary-minister of Berriedale and Bruan, in Caithness, and followed him through his later ministries in Inverness and Daviot. This article concludes the series.
2The volume of Cook’s sermons published in 1907.
These discourses will sustain Mr Cook’s reputation as a preacher of the gospel, and that is saying a great deal. Among the many able preachers of the gospel who laboured in the North of Scotland at the period during which these sermons were preached, he was generally held, especially by the more seriously minded, to be one of the very first, one of David’s three mightiest.
Mr Cook paid little regard to the composition of his sentences. His only care in that regard was to speak so that he might appeal to the conscience of those who heard him. Nor was he eloquent in the sense of having the gift of a lofty and fertile imagination, and an uncommonly rich vocabulary. Yet few orators were so impressive. His memorable utterances took the form of pithy statements. They were the expressions of a mind and heart in which were combined great moral earnestness, deep spiritual insight into the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, ardent desires after the salvation of those who heard him, as well as marked intellectual strength. Yet he had not been the preacher he was if he had not habitually stood as in the Lord’s presence, and been anointed in delivering his message with the unction which is from the Holy One.
His theology was just that of the Westminster standards. He was pronouncedly infralapsarian3, and although having quite a passion for a perfect scheme of divine truth, he was ever practical rather than theoretical. We are not in a position to say to what extent he studied the standard Scottish and English Puritan divines. What is evident is that he was a most accurate theologian, and in touching on the deeper questions of theology he was in striking harmony with what had been thought on the same subjects by the most evangelical Calvinists. This remark, did not space forbid, might be illustrated by a reference to his treatment of such doctrines as that of God’s love to Christ, the day of grace, the ground of a sinner’s warrant to lay hold upon Christ, assurance of salvation and, not to mention more, the nature of saving faith. But intelligent readers will note for themselves these and other similar questions of doctrinal interest.
It has been remarked that Cook’s preaching was experimental rather than doctrinal. If by this is meant that, in his preaching, he described the process of the individual’s salvation with minuteness and insight, the observation holds good. A purely objective presentation of doctrine found no favour with him. But it is not the case that, on this account, he dwelt more on Christ’s work, by His Word and Spirit, in the saved sinner than upon Christ’s work, in His estate of humiliation and exaltation, for the sinner. One may justly say, if a slight variation of John Duncan’s remark about Jonathan Edwards is allowed, that his experience was all doctrine, and his doctrine was all experience.
3Infralapsarianism is the more common way of thinking about the order of God’s decrees.
Cook was pre-eminently a comforter of mourners. Into the sorrows of the broken-hearted he could throw himself most wonderfully. He thought of them mainly as a people who had realised that they had placed themselves in a wrong relation to the law of God. No intelligent account could be given of the way in which they had come into their pitiable condition without at the same time so preaching the law of God – which is surely doctrine – as to set before the careless their danger, and in this way to cause them uneasiness.
But Cook did not rest when he had given expression to what caused all the trouble from which the gospel delivers us; although he was constantly in the habit of giving such an excellent account of the causes of a Spirit-taught sinner’s trouble that the explanation was itself bound to bring no little relief with it. As an instance: in referring to the complaint of the impotent man at the pool of Bethesda, “While I am coming, another steppeth down before me,” he remarks, “Perhaps it is an old sin, the recollection of which, on every occasion on which you are about to commit yourself to the mercy of God in Christ Jesus, hinders you, as if there might be hope but for that sin.”
Still the explanation of what causes anguish is not itself the remedy. And for Cook the remedy was always, in one word, Christ. He was wont to dwell on the infinite, intrinsic worth of the blood of Immanuel. And up to the very end he so preached law and gospel as to give impression that there were no more solemn issues at stake for any of his hearers than for himself. The fulness with which he personally entered into the process of conversion was an important factor in the power which he wielded. It revealed itself even in a kind of movement in the pulpit which led the careless to speak of him as “the dancing minister”. In truth it was the intensity and fire of his thoughts concerning the way of salvation, thrilling every fibre of his body as well as every faculty of his soul, which thus found expression.
Fault was found with him in his lifetime, and possibly some of those reading these discourses now may similarly find fault with him for the pre-eminence which he gave to the doctrine of endless punishment in his teaching. He preached at all times as one who had the profoundest conviction that for himself and for his hearers the only alternative was: either the lake of fire or Christ.
At the same time it is a mistake to suppose that the destruction of the wicked was a subject upon which, for its own sake, his mind liked to dwell. He distinctly refers to the subject in these discourses as one on which his mind did not like to dwell. Nor could anyone be at a further remove than he from using either a coarse or an unfeeling expression touching a matter so truly awful. And further, he was most careful lest his preaching should tend to drive his hearers to despair. “I like the Holy Ghost to convince me of sin”, he used to say, “for He never magnifies it above the mercy of God”, and he aimed in his preaching to imitate that highest example.
This leads us to remark on his view of the gospel. As we have said, the gospel to him was, in one word, Christ. But he regarded the free offer of eternal life through Christ Jesus as an essential feature of gospel preaching. On this account, at the same time that he, more than most, emphasised the particularism of saving grace, he dwelt much on the infinite, intrinsic efficacy of the blood of Christ and emphasised the preciousness of a day of grace, a day in which pardon is offered to every gospel hearer, if only they choose to have life in Jesus Christ. The importance of this view of the truth appears to have impressed itself more and more upon him as he advanced in years.
The following instance, which we have on unimpeachable authority, illustrates this. Preaching on one occasion during the latter part of his ministry, he turned aside to remark that he feared that he had not been offering Christ and eternal life through Him to sinners so fully and freely as ought to have been the case. But he was determined that he should not have to accuse himself of that from henceforth. He therefore with all the more earnestness declared that he was, with divine warrant, offering Christ there and then to whoever would receive Him; yea, that he would now wait to see if there was anyone there willing to accept Him.
After a pause he said, “I hear one say that he is willing to accept Him, and I shall tell Him of it”. Now the striking circumstance is that there was a young man in the congregation who at that moment was just on the verge of rising in his seat to declare his willingness to receive Christ, and if the preacher had waited another moment, he would, he constantly thought, have risen to make this declaration. That young man became an eminent Christian in his generation, and is now, we believe, with Cook himself among the spirits of just men made perfect.
Of course, incessant labours such as Cook endured, were bound to tell in the long run on the healthiest physical constitution – and our author was indeed gifted with such a constitution. It may not, however, be amiss to state that, some time before the end came, he had a presentiment that he should have a while of forced silence among his people. It came about in this way. Being overnight in the house of a friend in Strathdearn, he went out for some time after he rose in the morning, and when he came back he told how very terrifying were the words which were borne in upon him since going out. They were the Lord’s words to Ezekiel: “I will make thy tongue cleave to the roof of thy mouth, that thou shalt be dumb, and shalt not be to them a reprover.” In whatever way this experience is to be explained, it is the fact that, for nearly two years before the end actually came, he was forced to maintain comparative silence, though on occasions, until near the very end, he made efforts to engage in a work which was dearer to him than life.
Before repeated strokes of paralysis, the first of which appears to have visited him early in 1863, his strong, although not large, frame gradually gave way. But only gradually. Several sore bereavements, which were the experience of his old age may have helped, with overwork, to draw these on. First of all, in December 1851, he was called upon to mourn the death of his amiable wife. In a letter to a nephew, he says, “She has left us mourning after her. All the people are exceedingly sorrowful for her, especially the people of God. I am now a poor, lonely person and will be so all my days.” At this juncture he recalled with special comfort the time when someone, whom he believed had great nearness to the Lord, said to him shortly after his marriage that Mrs Cook, although considerably younger than he, would be in heaven before him. She gave evidence of being a truly pious woman.
Another bereavement which he felt very much was the death of his brother Finlay, on 12 June 1858. The death of his son-in-law and nephew, Rev Alex Cook, Stratherrick, which took place on 2 October 1861 after a ministry of only 11 years, crowned all. Alex Cook was a man of saintly character and of scholarly attainments, but never, it seems, enjoyed robust health. His wife, who was, as everyone who knew her believed, an heir together with her husband of the grace of life, survived her husband for many years.
How beautifully Mr Cook himself finished his course will be best told in the words of a near relative: “After the fourth stroke he recovered some strength, so as to be able to walk a little through the room, but we could not leave him night nor day. He was so resigned and cheerful that it was quite a pleasure to wait on him. He always prayed at family worship and, though his speech was much affected, we could understand a few precious words. The day before he had the last stroke he went, with our assistance, outside for a little and seemed much delighted, taking a look all around. In the evening at worship he joined in the singing and prayed so loudly and distinctly that he seemed quite enraptured. Next morning he experienced another attack, from which he never rallied but became unconscious, remaining so till he peacefully breathed his last on the evening of 6 May 1865.”
In . . . the conduct of the Israelites from first to last, we see a most lively picture of human nature . . . God’s hatred of sin and their love of it, God’s patience and their impatience, God’s wisdom and their folly, God’s power and their weakness, God’s right to command and their obligation to obey, and the great evil of sin – all these are set in the strongest light.
Christ is the bread of life, and if He is not fed upon, life cannot be preserved; the power of godliness will decay.
Thomas Charles