Among the many names of Highland ministers who were once prominent and famous but who are now virtually forgotten is the name of Murdoch Macaskill. In the closing decades of the nineteenth century he was a leader of the conservative (or Constitutional) party in the Free Church and was regarded as the successor to John Kennedy as its spokesman in the Highlands (the fact that he succeeded Kennedy as the minister of Dingwall Free Church only added to this widespread perception).
Macaskill was born in Bayble in the Point district of the Isle of Lewis in 1838 to pious parents who brought him up in a Christian manner. On attending school it was soon evident that he delighted to study and when he was seventeen he was regarded as capable of substituting for the teacher in the island of Scalpay for a year. His spiritual interests were obvious as well, and his pupils often noticed him going to quiet places for prayer.
Macaskill completed his Glasgow University course in 1863, where he showed a special ability in Hebrew. He then went to the Glasgow Free Church College in 1864, where one of the professors was the well-known Patrick Fairburn. Alongside his divinity course, he took charge of city missions connected to Partick Free Church (its minister was Harry Anderson). One of the missions was begun in 1865 to cater for Highlanders moving to the city and within three years Macaskill had built a congregation of 300, with its own church building.
In 1868, he accepted a call to Glen Lyon in Perthshire where he remained for five years. It was during his time there that he married Jessie Cameron, a daughter of a Free Church elder from Portree, and they were to have ten children, three being born in Glen Lyon. In Glen Lyon, he continued to develop his considerable preaching abilities, with the source of his theology mainly being Puritan writings. During his years there, the Free Church was disturbed by attempts to bring union with the United Presbyterian Church, and Macaskill made clear his opposition to the proposed union.
In 1873, he moved to the Gaelic Church in Greenock and he was to serve in this large church for eleven years. His predecessors included John MacRae (Big Macrae) and John Kennedy (a cousin of Kennedy of Dingwall). The work of a pastor in a city was different from a rural setting, with much more home visitation taking place, but he had the natural strength to climb stairs without difficulty. It was during this period that attempts began to introduce hymns and instrumental music into Free Church services, and Macaskill led the opposition in his Presbytery to such changes. Inevitably he came in close contact with leaders of the conservative group in the Free Church and he developed lasting friendships with James Begg of Edinburgh and John Kennedy of Dingwall.
In 1884, he received a call from Dingwall Free Church to succeed Dr. Kennedy (who had died in April, 1884). This prospect weighed down Macaskill and he could not decide what to do. His Presbytery, however, insisted that he should go. During his initial years in Dingwall he had evidences of spiritual success, especially in the numbers of young men professing to know Christ. Yet all was not easy for him, mainly due to the reactions of many in his congregation to those who thought differently from them in matters of church polity, and they requested that he should limit pulpit supply to those ministers who agreed with their viewpoints. Macaskill did not approve of their outlook (in Greenock he had not limited his pulpit to those who agreed with him in every detail), but in order to maintain peace in the congregation he agreed to ask to preach in Dingwall only those ministers who were acceptable to his people.
Of course, Macaskill himself was above suspicion and he quickly became a regular preacher at the large open-air communions then taking place in many places throughout the Highlands. Yet at times he found that the travelling, the number of services, and preaching in unfavourable weather conditions affected his health, especially his voice and made him susceptible to illnesses connected to bronchial problems.
During the years of his ministry in Dingwall, the Free Church faced serious problems related to the developing influence of higher critical theories. The influence had begun with Robertson Smith and although he had been removed from his position as a professor, other professors continued to teach these ideas. In 1889, Macaskill published a critique of a sermon by Marcus Dods and he became a prominent voice in the criticism of the writings of both Dods and A. B. Bruce. For Macaskill, the verbal inspiration of the Bible was a basic pillar of the Christian faith and he could not understand those in the Church who did not accept it as essential.
This controversy was followed by an even more intense one connected to a proposed Declaratory Act designed to soften some statements in the Westminster Confession of Faith. The Act was passed by a large majority of in the 1892 Free Church General Assembly, but only after considerable opposition to it, especially in the Highlands. Some of the Constitutional party left the Free Church and formed the Free Presbyterian Church. The majority, and Macaskill was among them, chose to remain and attempt to reverse the Act.
Yet the passing of the Declaratory Act led to a change of outlook in Macaskill; it seems that he decided that ongoing opposition to changes was not the way to proceed. His son, in a biographical piece accompanying a selection of Macaskill’s sermons, says that his father noticed that spiritual blessing continued to be experienced in many places despite the presence of higher criticism and changed views of doctrine.
This change of outlook is clearly seen in the manner in which Macaskill contributed to the renewed attempts to unite with the United Presbyterian Church which began in 1896. He accepted an invitation from Principal Rainy to become a member of the Free Church committee that would handle the negotiations. The union took place in 1900 and Macaskill joined the United Free Church. Despite considerable efforts to explain the situation he was unable to carry all his own congregation with him and a sizeable number of office-bearers and members remained in the Free Church. Many of his former colleagues were disappointed by his decision, but not surprised as the signs of his change of heart had been visible for several years.
His involvement in the negotiations committee and the subsequent division in the Highlands contributed to a breakdown in his health, which not even an extended holiday in Italy could recover. He had a seizure in January 1903 and while he improved to a degree health-wise it was obvious that he would not return to the pastorate. In May of that year he asked the General Assembly for a colleague and successor. Several months later, in November, he suffered serious symptoms indicating the end was near, and he died on the 11th of that month. He was buried in Dingwall.
Murdo Mackenzie, the minister of the Free North Church in Inverness and who had refused to go into the United Free Church, went to Dingwall on the following Sunday and made this tribute to his friend: ‘Mr Macaskill was an experimental preacher. He felt the power of what he was preaching to others. He early came under the power of the truth, and from his own experience of the saving power of the blessed Saviour he could commend Him to others. He was an earnest preacher. He did not flatter sinners, but he earnestly pleaded with them to betake themselves to the Saviour. It was his delight to set forth the glory of Christ as the Redeemer and the efficacy of His work and blood for the salvation of the vilest and filthiest. He was an impressive preacher. He made a deep impression on the people, often with tears trickling down his cheeks…. He was an accomplished preacher. He was a student all his days, and he brought the result of his extensive reading to bear upon his preaching, so that he was always fresh… He was a scriptural preacher; he was eloquent and mighty in the Scriptures.’
Macaskill had several other qualities worth mentioning. Although a man of strong opinions he found it easy to be friends with those who disagreed with him. He loved his congregation and was often in their homes; one of them said of him, ‘There was none that understood us as he did.’ He had a passion for foreign missions (he served on the Foreign Mission Committee of the Church for a long time), opened his pulpit to missionaries on furlough, and was delighted when one of his daughters volunteered for missionary work in India. He was happiest when in the pulpit ’pleading affectionately with immortal souls’.
Yet despite these commendable features, it is his failure to follow through with his own convictions that stands out. It is hard to understand why a Calvinist who held strongly to the verbal inspiration of the Bible would want to remain in the United Free Church. Perhaps he had thought that there would be no ministers and members willing to maintain the doctrines and practices of the Free Church and had therefore decided to join the new denomination. But when he saw that there were some willing to maintain a church committed to the same doctrines and practices which he claimed to believe, he should have joined it rather than staying in a denomination that approved of everything he had fought against since he became a minister.
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