Rev J S Sinclair
Reprinted, with editing, from The Free Presbyterian Magazine, vol 14.
Andrew Mackay was a native of the little village of Inver, near Tain, Ross-shire, where he was born on 25 November 1870. He was thus only 38 when he died. He came to Glasgow to work about 15 years ago, and during this time he married Margaret J Gibson, but she died after a short period of married life, leaving him with a little girl who is now over five. Owing to the difficulty of finding employment, Andrew went to Canada in 1907 and eventually settled in a good position in the flourishing city of Winnipeg.
It appears that he was under religious impressions from his early years. Even as a boy he was given to meditating on divine things. These impressions and convictions continued with him to manhood, and when he came to Glasgow, those who knew him well regarded him as one who feared the Most High. He was circumspect in his life, and scrupulous to a degree in all his dealings with others. He had a very keen mind and was able to take a comprehensive grasp of any subject that he had thought about.
From conversations with him, however, the writer gathered that he was almost constantly in doubt as to his spiritual standing in the sight of God. He sometimes felt raised up in his soul and very happy in meditating on some portion of God’s Word, but at other times – and these were many – he walked in darkness and had no light, and felt as if he should question altogether whether he ever possessed a spark of grace. It troubled him much that he could not recall any marked transition in his experience from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. His concern, however, was not that of Pliable, and so he continued to attend the means of grace regularly with his face towards the Celestial City.
In this dark and doubtful frame of mind, he left his native country for Canada and, strange to say, the deliverance he did not get at home he obtained in a distant land amid fewer outward advantages. In November 1908, the writer had a letter from him; he stated that one day, while much cast down in mind, as if the Lord was never to remember him, these words came to him: “For the needy shall not alway be forgotten” (Ps 9:18). He derived sweet comfort from them for a few minutes, but the thought quickly came that these were the Lord’s needy, and what evidences did he have that he was one of them? This plunged him into darkness again.
A second letter, received in April, 1909, gives a brief account of how he obtained the clear deliverance he had so long desired and prayed for. It seems that on Saturday, March 20, “being wretched” – as he might say he had always been – he “purposed to devote the following week to seeking the Lord in prayer, reading the Word and other books” that would be helpful. He carried out this resolution, and he observed the Thursday of that week as a fast day from early morning to evening. It proved to be “the greatest day of my life”.
He began with prayer, and afterwards read the second chapter of Habakkuk. The third and fourth verses specially arrested his attention, and the fourth became “the battle ground”: “Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith”. And the struggle was “to get on the ground where the just lives” – faith on the Son, Jesus Christ. About nine in the evening he threw himself down on the bed in despair but, after a minute or two, he said to himself: “I cannot rest here, and where I shall go or what I shall do, I know not”. It was then suggested to him that the Lord could give faith. He answered, “Yes, but He is sovereign”. Then it was said, “Ask and it shall be given you.” And with this, hope revived, and he betook himself anew to pleading in such words as these: “I have come to seek Thee these days, and what have I found? I have discovered that I was a devil. Thou mayest let me sink into perdition and have the glory of the justice. But Thou delightest in mercy, and I throw myself into Thy hands and shall wait there.”
The Lord did not appear at once, and the tempter suggested that all was over now, this being his last chance. But Andrew was enabled to silence him with the words, “Abraham’s only Isaac was called for, yet he hoped against hope, and so shall I hope against hope”. Andrew went to bed for the night in hope, and the Lord graciously manifested Himself about three the following morning – he does not relate in what manner or words – and several times during the following day. He asks forgiveness at the end of his letter for devoting so much space to his own matters
More than five months later, Andrew Mackay was called unexpectedly to enter eternity. It was Saturday evening, 4 September 1909, and he and a close young friend were walking from his lodgings to the lodgings of the other. When they came to this house, Andrew took out his watch and said, “It is only half-past nine, and as our conversation is not unprofitable; you better come for a little walk yet”. “So”, his companion recalls, “we went for that little walk which meant so much.” Andrew was telling his friend some of his spiritual experiences and how, “lately, I have never seen so clearly that Christ needed to be divine, so that sinners might be saved, though many in our day despise such a doctrine. But he complained that, “the last few weeks, I seem to feel worldly, not that I am anxious to make money,” or anything of that sort.
“It was just when he had finished saying this”, his companion proceeds, “and we were crossing Broadway, the next thing I knew was myself lying on the ground, and an automobile at my side”. The friend got up and saw Andrew lying unconscious and blood streaming from his nose. Both of them were thrown a considerable distance, but Andrew’s companion escaped, in God’s mercy, with only a few scratches. Andrew never regained consciousness. He was taken to a city hospital in the car, but in a quarter of an hour a doctor came to say that he was gone – gone, we believe, to be with Christ, which is far better! It would appear that those experiences which might seem to us to be fitting him for usefulness in this present life were designed to prepare him for the enjoyment and service of God in heaven.
He was a loyal supporter of the little cause of truth in Winnipeg, and his removal is much lamented there. Truly the voice is very loud, solemn, and affecting. “The Lord’s voice crieth unto the city.” “Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.” “Watch, therefore; for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh” (Mt 25:13).