One of Heavens Jewels (3)

Chapter 3 concerns Caithness during Cook’s ministry there. Cook went to the Bruan and Berriedale mission in the parish of Latheron in 1822 (one of his predecessors was John Macdonald, later called the Apostle of the North) and he would remain there until 1837.

For most of the period between the Reformation and the beginning of the nineteenth century, Caithness had not shown much sympathy for Calvinism. While evangelical ministries were found here and there, it was the arrival of the Haldanes and their preaching tours in the 1790s which gave a stimulus to the formation of congregations sympathetic to Calvinism (which, of course, shows that Calvinism in itself is not a barrier to church growth).

Peculiar features of Highland piety soon appeared. They included objecting to Christians mixing the secular and the spiritual (such as buying goods when in a town for a communion season), an attitude which bordered on legalism because it made a person’s own rules of Christian living the standard for others. Another was the tendency to speak in riddles and allegories when describing the Christian life.

Cook arrived in Caithness when the use of English was spreading. Fortunately he was able to preach in both Gaelic and English. His preaching focussed on the spiritual life and he could describe the experiences of his listeners with accurate discernment. Sometimes his analysis included predictions about future circumstances.

Although he was loved by the people of Berriedale, Cook in the mid-1820s was opposed by the landlord who owned it (the landlord was willing to provide sites for the church and manse, which the people had been authorised to have, but he did not like Cook). The outcome was that Cook lived in Bruan (its landowner did not oppose him). This situation of landlord interference in the desires of a congregation is an example of why the Free Church of Scotland appeared in 1843.

Cook was instrumental in the commencement of evangelistic services in Wick for the thousands of fishermen who came there each July as they followed the herring. These fishermen came from other parts of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland and it is inevitable that religious ideas from different communities would be discussed and adapted.

As elsewhere in Scotland at that time, communion seasons were a highlight for many in Caithness and large crowds would gather for the occasions. The communion in Latheron was such an occasion, and descriptions of it during Cook’s time in the parish indicate he was a regular preacher at it. Expensive and gaudy clothes seemed to be a target of Cook, although no reason is given for his motives (perhaps he thought they were a waste of money as well as indications of pride).

Numbers of communicants remained relatively low, not because there was a lack of true believers, but because many of them had a fear of taking part. It is a bit surprising that Cook’s ability to analyse spiritual feelings was not able to counteract this tendency. Yet perhaps he contributed to the problem because his analyse at times was too demanding and many Christians concluded from his comments that that they were not fit to participate in the Lord’s Supper.

One of Heaven’s Jewels (2)

Chapter 2 of this book gives a biographical profile of John Love (1757-1815), at one time an important evangelical leader in London and Glasgow, as well as a promoter of foreign missions, but who is almost forgotten today. During his years in Glasgow University Cook attended Love’s church and inevitably was influenced by him. Love’s ministry in Glasgow was also attended by converted Highlanders who had moved to the city as well as those from southern Argyll who attended his communion seasons. Love also preached in Arran during its periods of spiritual revival in the early nineteenth century.

Love was influential in the formation of the London Missionary Society and the Glasgow Missionary Society, and his contribution to missionary activity was recognised by those who named a mission station in South Africa after him (Lovedale). In addition to promoting foreign missions, Love also reminded Christians (in a sermon preached in 1794) of the necessity of evangelising the Scottish Highlands, of which many districts were beginning to hear the gospel in power around that time.

At that time, the inhabitants of the Highlands mainly spoke Gaelic. In addition to urging individuals to evangelise the Highlands, Love also realised the importance of suitable Christian literature being available in Gaelic. He endorsed the proposal that Thomas Boston’s Human Nature in its Fourfold State should be published in the Gaelic language (which is interesting given that it is unlikely that such a comprehensive book of theology would be the choice of today’s missionary strategists for use in work among new converts). Several men linked with Love’s ministry in Glasgow became ministers or Christian workers in areas of the Highlands, and it is inevitable therefore that Love played an important role in the evangelising of the Highlands, with features of his ministry style and his doctrinal emphases being passed on by these men.

One of Heaven’s Jewels (1)

I began reading One of Heaven’s Jewels by Norman Campbell. The book is about Rev. Archibald Cook, a Scottish Highland minister of the nineteenth century. At this precise moment I am in New Orleans, which is a city as far away from the outlook of Cook as can be imagined. It is rather strange to read about Highland Christianity, accompanied by a band that has been playing very loudly outside my hotel for over two hours, and to note that a strain of Highland Christianity, including Cook, did not like music.

In his first chapter, the author gives background details to Cook, providing information about the development of evangelicalism in the island of Arran in the early nineteenth century, where Cook was born. Three historical aspects are stressed, and perhaps they even combined in its growth: the popular party in the Church of Scotland which opposed the Moderates, the influence of a couple of revivals in Arran, and a range of splinter ecclesiastical groupings including Independents, Baptists, Presbyterians and others. Further aspects are noted, including the spread of family worship and personal prayer, with some use being made of features mentioned in some spiritual poems. After 1843, the Free Church was the dominant group in the island. Most ministers that served Free Church congregations came from Arran itself, which could suggest that these new congregations wanted a particular spirituality they already enjoyed, although it is possible that peculiarities in their dialect of Gaelic caused them to call local ministers.

A poem about the life of Alexander Cook, a cousin of Archibald’s, highlights important features of a form of Highland spirituality that once was found, but has largely disappeared today. Alexander was a catechist in Arran (which is a reminder that such persons were not limited to the north of Scotland) and later given charge of a fairly large Gaelic congregation in Saltcoats in Ayrshire. Alexander’s soul ‘often swam in the gentle streams of the river of God’ and he ‘had feasts of love with his holy blessed Saviour’. A man of much prayer, his preaching often gave foretastes of heaven to his hearers, and in dealing with the weak of the flock he ‘would put a bandage on their wounds with loving kindness and with care’.

From Ferintosh Manse to Keswick Preacher (6)

George Macgregor died suddenly in May 1900 after a fortnight’s illness brought on by meningitis. His biographer paints an almost idyllic deathbed scene with George passing away in full assurance of faith. The news of his illness had led to much prayer for his recovery, and for a while it looked as if he would recover. But it was not to be.

His funeral service in London was led by leading evangelicals of the day, including F. B. Meyer (who gave the address) and Campbell Morgan (just recovered from a serious illness). Next day, another service was held in his old church in Aberdeen, after which he was buried in Allenvale Cemetary in that city, in a layer chosen by him when he was minister there.

From one perspective his life was like a meteor, shining brightly for a short time before disappearing from the scene. From another perspective, his life was sad because it was cut off so soon. Inevitably his early death led to comparisons with McCheyne (which the author does several times in the biography). He also links Macgregor with Andrew Bonar and Alexander Moody Stuart, which seems to me to be an attempt to link Macgregor with their party in the Free Church. There may have been a few similarities in the way they preached, but neither of these men would have understood Macgregor’s willingness to accept higher critical notions.

If a reader was unaware of church life during the years of Macgregor’s ministry, he might assume that his ministerial career was unique and that he was more successful than others in revitilising churches and having a widespread preaching and conference circuit. Yet these features were quite common during the decades preceding and following 1900. Many preachers could be classified as Reformed in doctrine, evangelistic in practice, and approving of higher critical treatment of the Bible. Their churches were full of listeners and it seemed as if their kind of church life would enjoy great success in the twentieth century. Of course, looking back we know this did not happen. The church life that was prominent was unable to cope with the trauma created by world wars, great human suffering, and the existence of other religions.

We can compare their legacy (very few have  heard of them today) with those of other Christian periods such as the Puritans (whose writings help many Christians today). Will future generations of Christians turn to the men of Macgregor’s circle for spiritual help? I doubt it.

Of course, our journey began at the Ferintosh manse, which was a few miles away from the manse of John Kennedy in Dingwall, the leader of  the Reformed Church in the Highlands. Kennedy spent much effort defending the inerrancy of the Bible. I wonder did he realise that even from within his own geographical sphere of influence, there were those who did not follow his example, even from the manse which once was the home of the man he much admired, John Macdonald of Ferintosh.

From Ferintosh Manse to Keswick Preacher (5)

Inevitably, since his star was rising, George MacGregor was approached by large congregations looking for a pastor, including churches in London and Melbourne. A church in Toronto and the church in Chicago associated with D. L. Moody (he was personally invited to come by Moody and later written to by R. A. Torrey) expressed great interest in him. The church that was successful in calling him was Trinity Presbyterian Church in Notting Hill, London; its first minister had been the well-known Jewish convert, Adolph Saphir, who had been called there thirty years before. Saphir had been unable to build a strong congregation and he resigned after a few years. Decline continued under Saphir’s successor, so by the time MacGregor was called, the church only numbered about 200. He took several months to make up his mind, but eventually he accepted the call to London.

The reasons George gives for accepting the call are interesting. First, he said that he only wanted to be where he could use the abilities God had given him in the place God had chosen for him. Second, the pastoral demands of the Aberdeen church had become too great for him. Third, demands of the work in Aberdeen had prevented him from developing his reading and he was afraid that this would weaken his work as a preacher. Fourth, he had delivered the special message that God had sent him to deliver to the Aberdeen congregation. Fifth, he was attracted by the difficulties of the London situation because London for years had weighed heavily on his heart.

George began his ministry there in May, 1894. He saw growth, but not on the scale he had seen in Aberdeen. His biographer suggests that George’s work lay not only in enlarging, but deepening. His conference work also continued, and his biographer notes that George ‘respected his audience; he took care to have something to say.’ One very positive outcome was an increased interest in his congregation in world mission and several of his congregation became foreign missionaries. His congregation had two monthly prayer meetings for missions. George also participated in the congregation’s open-air outreach because it gave him the opportunity of ‘carrying to the audience outside the church the message he had presented to the congregation within’. He also was involved in the work of the YMCA because it attempted to win the young men of London for Christ.

Inevitably, the many demands made of him limited his time for pastoral work in his congregation. He compensated for this by being available for personal conversation after each service and spoke with many by this means. He also engaged in an extensive writing ministry with members of his congregation, sending them notes of encouragement.

While he persisted in denying the verbal inspiration of the Bible, George continued to accept doctrines that others found difficult. Divine election was defended by him; he stated that ‘it is an awful blasphemy to think that men will be worse off when their fate depends on the Will of God than when it depends on anything in themselves.’ Regarding eternal punishment he wrote that ‘If we saw sin as God sees it, we would not wonder at what is said of the punishment due to it.’

One of MacGregor’ favourite authors was John Owen. In 1893 James Stalker advised him to read the works of Owen and Thomas Goodwin on the Holy Spirit (Stalker was concerned about some suggestions of perfectionism that appeared in George’s sermons). The advice was taken, and he wrote a book called Praying in the Holy Ghost, which he said was based on Owen.

Yet despite his defence of difficult doctrines and his preferences in theological reading, George was adamant that the conclusions of higher criticism were valid. His biographer hits the nail on the head when he says that George ‘remained all his days Professor Davidson’s pupil’. The light caused by George MacGregor’s many fine attainments and activities was permanently clouded by the influence of one unorthodox professor. The question is not, ‘What did MacGregor attain through Davidson’s influence?’ but ‘What did MacGregor, a man with great talents and notable successes, also fail to achieve through Davidson’s influence?’ Because it is impossible to build something lasting in the Christian church and in one’s Christian life if it is not built on an inerrant Bible.

From Ferintosh Manse to Keswick Preacher (4)

In February 1888, George MacGregor was asked to preach in Aberdeen East Free Church and made such an impression that a congregational meeting was immediately arranged and a decision made to call him as the colleague of the current minister who was in declining health. Among his predecessors as minister was James S. Candlish (son of Robert) who had been appointed Professor of Divinity in the Free Church College, Glasgow, in 1872. William Robertson Smith had been one of its elders, and one of the elders who welcomed George was William Alexander, the editor of Aberdeen Free Press. The involvement of James Candlish and Robertson Smith indicates the outlook of the congregation, and explains why it had no difficulty calling a person who did not belief in the verbal inspiration of the Bible.

The days between Monday April 30 and Friday May 4 were very significant for George. On the Monday his father died, on the Tuesday he was licensed by the Edinburgh Presbytery, on the Thursday his father was buried, and on the Friday Aberdeen Free East elected him as their choice of minister. He was ordained on Thursday 28 June, but had another sore bereavement before then when his brother died at the age of 26. George himself was 24.

The congregation had been declining in numbers for several years, although it is a reminder of how church attendance in Scotland has changed when it is realised that the congregation numbered about 500. MacGregor set about recovering the church and engaged in earnest evangelistic preaching. Soon numbers increased: over 120 joined in his first year and by the time he left in 1894 the membership had doubled. George delighted in evangelistic work and was a strong supporter of the missions of D. L. Moody who came to Aberdeen during that period.

George married the daughter of one of his elders in 1891. Two other details are highlighted by his biographer as of importance and they indicate the outlook of MacGregor. The first was his initial attendance at the Keswick Convention in 1889 and the other was the death of William Robertson Smith in 1894. A tribute to Smith by George indicates that he accepted Smith’s higher critical ideas. Returning to 1889, George longed for fresh experience of the power of the Holy Spirit and taking the advice of several ministerial colleagues he went to the Keswick Convention. His visit to the Convention was a turning point in his life as he understood in a new way the place of faith in sanctification, the significance of union with Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit. The biggest change in his character as a result of what happened to him was the suppression of a bad temper, a feature of his character from childhood. Apparently, it seldom revealed itself after this convention experience.

MacGregor became a conference speaker during his Aberdeen ministry. His next visit to Keswick was in 1892, but he went back as a speaker and did so each year until 1900. In 1892 he published So Great Salvation, which had a preface by fellow Keswick speaker, Handley Moule, and which went through three editions.

George MacGregor has come a long way from the Ferintosh manse. Still denying the verbal inspiration of the Bible and commending the life of one of those who introduced such notions into the nineteenth-century Free Church (Robertson Smith), George has become an effective evangelist, a revitaliser (to use a modern concept) of a moribund church, an author, and a regular speaker at one of the biggest annual conferences in  worldwide evangelicalism. This has all happened before he was thirty. It is not surprising that vacant congregations elsewhere are interested in calling him out of Aberdeen.

But what is happening in his denomination during his years in Aberdeen from 1888 to 1894? Conservative ministers and elders are trying to prevent doctrinal decline, and among them are the ministers of Ferintosh (Angus Galbraith who was there from 1890 to 1893 and Donald Munro who was inducted in 1894). I wonder what they thought of the journey taken by the son of their predecessor in the Ferintosh manse?

From Ferintosh Manse to Keswick Preacher (3)

What were the developments that helped shape George’s spiritual attitudes as he prepared for the ministry? No doubt he was affected by the religious life of his family and community of his childhood and he stated that he was helped by Dr. Black, a Free Church minister in Inverness during his years of education.

The ministers whose churches he attended in Edinburgh were those of Alexander Whyte and James Hood Wilson. They would not have been the ministers one would have expected a minister’s son from Ross-shire to attend in Edinburgh. But it is possible to trace how strongly they influenced MacGregor.

Alexander Whyte seems to have been the minister George listened to during the period when he had his intellectual crisis over the verbal inspiration of the Bible. Whyte was well-known for a type of preaching that stressed human sin and engaged in probing analysis of it. At the same time, he was tolerant of higher critics and defended their investigations. How did George get relief from his problem concerning verbal inspiration? It came initially through realising that the Bible dealt with sin, and then by appreciating that God was involved in the compositions by its various authors. George’s opinion now was ‘that the inspiration of the Bible did not lie in its being a miraculously accurate book, as in its being a book written from God’s point of view.’ While George does not state that it was Whyte’s teaching that helped him, it is noticeable that he had similar emphases to Whyte regarding (1) inner sinfulness and (2) the opinions of higher critics.

A second influence was opportunities to preach, firstly in Edinburgh during his university years, and then during the year he spent at home in Ferintosh before moving on to theological studies in New College. Despite his rejection of verbal inspiration, his preaching was accepted by all who heard him, even in the theologically conservative Black Isle. The year that he spent at home was one in which claimed to have experienced deep personal revival. Further his involvement with young people through his Bible Class was effective as he explained to them the Christian life, with one of his text books being Pilgrim’s Progress by Bunyan (the use of Bunyan’s classic may indicate another influence of Whyte on George). And he preached a message which was very evangelistic. During one college break, he went to a small community in Nova Scotia for four months as pulpit supply. While there, his preaching was so influential that church attendance tripled, and it is not surprising to note that the congregation wanted to call him once he finished his studies.

George also had an interest in foreign mission, which had been stimulated by the missionary emphasis that was predominant in Wilson’s church. Indeed, Macgregor was approached by the relevant church committee to replace Ion Keith-Falconer, who had died at a young age while serving Christ in Aden. (his story is told in the volume They Were Pilgrims by Marcus Loane). George was willing to go, he had his father’s blessing, but a medical examination indicated his health would not allow him. So he would have to find a place in Britain.

MacGregor was an ardent reader of the Bible. For example, during a period of illness in 1886 he wrote: ‘My illness broke off my other studies and sent me to my Bible, and there I have had many a rare feast. I have read and marked very carefully Matthew, Luke, Romans, Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians, 2 Timothy, 1 Peter, 1 John and 1 Corinthians. Some of them are glorious.’ I suppose he could say to me, ‘Do you as an upholder of verbal inspiration spend as much time reading the Bible and enjoying it as I did?’

There are also hints that he was being influenced by ideas similar to the Keswick message. He writes in his diary in February 1825: ‘How often we strive and struggle after holiness, say after likeness to Christ, as if it were a thing to be given as a reward for our striving. I don’t think it is so. Salvation, by faith, I believe, means not only justification by faith, but sanctification by faith too. Oh, to what might we not attain, if we were to surrender ourselves entirely to Christ, and trust him by his Spirit to work out his likeness in us!’

What is striking about MacGregor is the type of spiritual character and level of service that he attained while, at the same time, denying verbal inspiration of the Bible. Of course, it is well-known that this type of Christian living was common in the second half of the nineteenth century as various denominations responded to the advance of higher criticism. What is not so well-known is that it could be lived out in the Highlands, that an articulate and passionate exponent of this outlook could preach undetected by orthodox office-bearers and listeners in very conservative congregations. I suppose his earnestness of character and orthodoxy in other doctrines prevented his view of inspiration being noticed.

From Ferintosh Manse to Keswick Preacher (2)

Having an upbringing in the Ferintosh manse enabled George to participate in the large communion gathering that amassed there each summer. It was unusual for young people to profess faith publicly at that time in the Highlands, but George’s father did not prevent members of his family from doing so and apparently they would be the only young people at the Lord’s Table in Ferintosh. While the author correctly points out that the lack of young communicants was a defect found in Highland Protestantism at that time, he also observes that ‘nowhere have the majesty and glory of God, the completeness of Christ’s substitutionary work, and the dignity and grandeur of life in the Spirit, been more powerfully set forth than in the Highlands.’ It is not known when George first believed he had an interest in Christ, but it was probably during his years as a schoolboy in Inverness.

George attended the local Free Church school for four years (5 to 9), then went to the Academy in Inverness for five years. He entered Edinburgh University in 1878 when he was fourteen and there his favourite subject was mathematics. Yet his intellectual abilities struggled at times with what he was taught and he lost belief in the verbal inspiration of the Bible. When he completed his degree in 1883, he won prizes in most of his classes. Yet he knew what to do with his degree, as revealed in his diary entry of April 20: ‘The degree sought for has been obtained with not one slip. Oh, how thankful I should be to God for His great goodness! The degree sits lightly upon me. I hope I have already laid it at the Master’s feet; it will do little good if not given to Him.’

George had resolved to be a minister. Instead of going immediately to one of the Free Church’s Theological Colleges, he went home for a year. This year was spent tutoring the sons of a nearby laird, furthering his own reading, and preaching at various churches and other meetings in the area. His father was approaching sixty and not well in health, so no doubt was glad of his son’s help. It soon became obvious that George’s preaching was attractive and a weekly Bible class he started soon had over 100 young people. Yet at least two unusual features are seen here: one was connected to the church practice of that time which did not allow a prospective student to preach until he had been licensed by a presbytery at the end of his theological training (George had not even started his); the other was that an individual with doubts about the verbal inspiration of the Bible was given access to several pulpits in the area (of course, he may have kept these doubts to himself).

In 1884, George went to New College in Edinburgh and was there until 1888. His mathematical bent helped him in his Hebrew studies and such was his ability in that language that he functioned as assistant lecturer in Hebrew during his final year. Given his interest in Hebrew, perhaps it is not surprising that he was an enthusiastic appreciator of A. B. Davidson (the professor of Old Testament), and regarded him as a seeker for the truth contained in God’s revelation in the Old Testament (despite Davidson’s acceptance of higher critical theories). Davidson, according to George, had strengthened his belief in the inspiration of the Bible ten-fold, although it was not belief in the verbal inspiration of the Bible which he had been taught in his youth. Nevertheless he left New College ‘deeply versed in the Bible. He had read the Old Testament through in Hebrew. The Greek New Testament he knew intimately, and great portions of the English Bible he could literally repeat by heart.’ His biographer observes of such attainment, that ‘For a minister there is no learning equal in value to this.’

From Ferintosh manse to Keswick preacher (1)

I was surprised to discover that one of the best-known and much appreciated of the early Keswick speakers was born in the Free Church manse in Ferintosh in  1864.  I started reading the biography of George Macgregor today.

His father was Malcolm MacGregor and he succeeded as minister of Ferintosh Free Church the famous Apostle of the North, Dr. John MacDonald. Malcolm was minister there from 1850 to 1888 (the year in which he died). He was born in Lochtayside in 1820.

His younger brother Duncan (1824-91) was better-known: he was a minister in Stornoway, Glasgow and Dundee, as well as being the author of several books. Like his brother Malcolm, Duncan was also the minister of a church with a famous predecessor — he was minister in St Peter’s Dundee (1864-1876), the church of Robert Murray McCheyne. Indeed Duncan went there in the same year that his nephew George was born.

The author of the biography was Duncan’s son, also called Duncan. He was two years older than his cousin George, but like him he was a Free Church minister (in Elie) who moved to a London Presbyterian congregation (Wimbledon). This means that the biography is also a family portrait.

No doubt the biography can be approached from many angles. What interests me at the moment is how a son of a conservative Highland manse made the journey from there to his involvement in the deeper life spirituality connected to the early Keswick conferences.

In subsequent blogs, I will provide some biographical snippets of his life and also look for clues as to why he went along the path he did.

Fellowship with God

Gustavus Munro was an elder in Creich during the nineteenth century. In his last illness he testified that he had attended the means of grace for more than fifty years, and had received a token for good from the Lord on each occasion. He also said that ‘he had on several occasions enjoyed so much of the Lord’s gracious presence that he felt constrained to put up the petition, “Lord, stay Thy hand: the clay vessel cannot endure more.” How rare an experience this is! His worthy wife told this same friend that he was afterwards led to see, instead of asking the Lord to stay His hand, he ought to have asked for grace and strength to endure whatever He was pleased to send.’
Taken from Men of Sutherland by George Macdonald, Lairg.