This biography of John Mackay, one of the leading Free Church ministers of the last decades of the nineteenth century, was published in 1921, three years after his death. He was prominent in causing many congregations in the Highlands not to follow the ministers who formed the Free Presbyterian Church in 1893 and the ministers who maintained the Free Church in 1900 when the vast majority left and formed the United Free Church by joing with the United Presbyterian Church. A person with such influence deserves consideration even by those who disagree with his actions.
Mackay was born on 14th February, 1846, in Inverness. His father, a farm manager, died suddenly when Mackay was about seven and young John went to live with relatives in Kirkhill. He was converted as a young teenager during the 1859-60 revival; he used to walk regularly the dozen or so miles to Inverness to attend special meetings and it was at one of those meetings that he received assurance of salvation and also sensed a call to the ministry.
Eventually he proceeded to Glasgow University. In addition to his studies, he also taught in a school in the afternoons and developed a commendable prayer life. A common practice in those days was for students to engage in teaching in country schools during the months they were not at university, and Mackay chose to teach in a school in Skye, where he was under the supervision of Rev. Alexander MacColl, a highly-regarded preacher. The years that he taught there was the period in which the first Union controversy in the Free Church over possible union with the United Presbyterians was at the forefront of church issues. The Free Church ministers in Skye, especially MacColl, were against the proposed union apart from the well-known Roderick Macleod of Snizort. Mackay highly regarded MacColl as a preacher but did not share his views on the union; instead he adopted the opinions of Roderick Macleod.
During his time at university, Mackay won several prizes and his academic ability was there for all to see. On finishing university he went to Glasgow Free Church College to study theology. He also engaged in mission work in the city, having been appointed to this role by Maryhill Free Church, with his main evangelism target group being the many Highlanders who flocked to the city for work. During those years he met and fell in love with Marion Macdonald, and it was Marion who overcame his scruples at the methods used by Moody and Sankey when they came to Glasgow in 1874.
Mackay’s first charge was in Glen Lyon in Perthshire, but he was only there for about a year before he received a call to Oban Free Church in 1875. Since he had only been in Glen Lyon a short time, he did not accept the call; but Oban took their case to the Synod and it told Mackay to accept the call. He had arrived in Glen Lyon a bachelor, but he left it a married man.
Oban at that time was not the tourist centre it later became. Nevertheless it was an important town in Argyll and the Free Church there was quite large. Mackay was to stay there for eight years: during that time he saw numerical growth in the congregation and began several initiatives such as a conference on the spiritual life. His middle of the road attitude in the church can be seen in the men he invited to preach in Oban: on the one hand, there were conservative Calvinists like John Kennedy of Dingwall and Andrew Bonar of Glasgow; on the other hand, there were liberal evangelicals such as Alexander Whyte of Edinburgh and James Candlish of Glasgow. Sadly, in 1880, his wife died, leaving him with two children. In 1882, he remarried, this time to Agnes MacFie, the daughter of Robert MacFie of Airds, one of the wealthy supporters of the Free Church.
In 1883, Mackay was called to the Free Church of Cromarty in the Black Isle, north of Inverness. This location allowed him to preach at many communion occasions in the Highlands and he became one of the best-loved preachers at such events. His ministry in Cromarty also knew numerical growth. During his time in Cromarty, conflict over doctrinal changes was taking place in the Free Church. These changes climaxed in a Declaratory Act of 1892, and Mackay approved of them.
After eleven years in Cromarty, Mackay contacted the General Assembly, offering to become an evangelist in the Highlands. The catalyst for his decision was the response by the Free Church to the controversy linked to the Declaratory Act. Several experienced ministers, including Mackay, were set apart to operate as roving preachers who visited congregations and endeavoured to get them to focus more on evangelism. During this period of visitations, Mackay concluded that he should offer his services as an evangelist, and in 1895 he was appointed to this role. He left Cromarty and went to live in Inverness.
For the next twenty-three years Mackay’s evangelistic work took him all over the Highlands. Mackay’s method was to spend two weeks in each place: the first week was used in creating interest and the second week was for getting results (conversions). His annual reports reveal that there was usually considerable interest in most places he visited. There can be no doubt that he had many souls for his hire, including the souls of many who perished in the First World War.
Mackay published two books. One was a set of Cromarty sermons on Jonathan, the friend of David (1896); the other was his Chalmers Lectures called The Church in the Highlands (1914), and this volume is still prized by those who can find a copy.
Mackenzie does not say much about Mackay’s closing days. For a few months prior to his death he endured physical weakness until he passed away on March 13, 1918. He had been involved in the founding of the Crown Church in Inverness and there is a tribute from its then minister. The funeral sermon is given in some detail.
The biography is typical of many volumes of lives of ministers. No mention is made of character flaws or ecclesiastical mistakes. While it is possible to go too far and turn every wrong attitude or action into a huge defect, it would be interesting to see how Mackay responded to them. But the author is silent on such matters.
There is no doubt that Mackay was an accomplished preacher. Six of his sermons are included in the book and they reveal that he had a simple style, an orthodox outlook, a pastoral heart, and an evangelistic bent. His preaching was understandable by children as well as appreciated by adults.
The author endorses the response of Mackay to the liberal theologians of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Mackay was willing to tolerate them in the church, only wishing that they would be more careful in voicing their speculations. In this he was a follower of Robert Rainy and Alexander Whyte. Like them, he did not grasp that theological error eventually leads to spiritual decline, no matter how evangelistic and prayerful a denomination or congregations may be.
Mackay approved of using evangelism as a response to church squabbles. Both in the periods after 1893 and 1900, the remedy suggested by denominational committees was for quarelling congregations to engage in regular evangelism. This activity did bring about immediate numerical success and the disagreements were overshadowed for a while, but it did not provide long-term stability and eventually the gospel disappeared from most of these congregations. The obvious deduction is that orthodox doctrine, and not evangelism and other spiritual activities, must be the basis of church life. A church that only has orthodox doctrine will not survive, but neither will a congregation that only has evangelism and spiritual activities. The lesson from Mackay’s situation is that we need both.
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