John Mackenzie, South African missionary and statesman

Front matter

^yjitxC

;-ftvi pK.'.-rr

JW!

Preface

Many dangers confront the son who writes the biography of his father. It is easy to err in every direction, now by withholding what the reader ought to know if the biography is to be written at all, and again, by touching on aspects of character and life which the sensitive stranger shrinks from gazing upon too closely. In the following pages I have tried to be natural ; neither to hide nor to obtrude admiration for my father's character ; neither to suppress nor to defend sympathy with most of his political doctrines. Nor has it been thought best to avoid all reference to those tender and sacred sides of his personality, which it may be hard to describe fittingly, but without which no life, and therefore no life's record, can either have or convey any real grace and inspiration.

The task of compression has been found perplexing. Since the manuscript was completed many incidents and documents continue to thrust themselves forward, reproachfully asking why they were omitted. And no good reason can be given, except the general one, which appeases no particular complainant, that it had been resolved to make the biography brief at all costs. It would have been much easier to make it much longer.

A word or two must be said on the political side of vi PREFACE

my father's lifework. He was drawn into it gradually, irresistibly, for the sake of his mission work. His was the kind of nature which cannot think of religion and religious work, except in relation to the whole round of human interests and activities. For such men, it is hard, nay impossible, to see the Kingdom of God suffering from the very forces which it ought to control, without loud protest and active resistance. It has been no pleasant task to study closely the records of my father's efforts to persuade the British Government, between the years 1882 and 1891, to adopt a South African policy which would have prevented the horrors of this great war. He failed, not for lack of earnest and powerful supporters of his policy throughout the country, but because the Government was persuaded to adopt a form of Imperialism which may not, for long years to come, be applicable in South Africa — however excellent its results may have been in Canada and Australasia.

The Confederation of South Africa is a dream which Lord Carnarvon tried to hurry in one direction, with disaster to Sir Bartle Frere. It is a dream which the Africander Bond has tried to hurry in another direction, with disaster to the two Republics. The difficulty of confederation in South Africa lies ultimately, not in the mere rivalry of the two European races, but in the existence of the great and ever growing native population. I believe that the deepest and wisest words on that difficulty and on the way to meet it are to be found in my father's writings ; and

PREFACE vii

I trust that readers of the biography may obtain enough light upon it to wish for more. Unhappy the Government that tries to solve the permanently portentous problem of South Africa, while treating the native aspect of that problem, incidentally or superficially ! It has always been and is very close to the heart of the whole matter, a responsibility that has already worked its own terrific revenges, a challenge to the nobleness of Great Britain that no mockery can ever silence.

It remains to record my gratitude to various kind helpers in this undertaking. My father's dear and long tried friends the Rev. James Ross of Glasgow, Mr Charles G. Oates of Meanwoodside, Leeds, and Mr Henry Beard of Cape Town, furnished me with letters from my father, and with valuable memoranda of their own. Principal A. W. W. Dale, of University College, Liverpool, sent a bundle of letters addressed to his father, the late Dr R. W. Dale of Birmingham, and Mr W. T. Stead let me have a number of equally important letters addressed to himself. The Right Honourable Lord Knutsford sent several letters of the year 1891, with an explanatory note of his own ; and Mr Arthur H. Loring who, with Mr H. O. Arnold Forster, worked most faithfully for the South African Committee, when that Committee laboured to promote my father's views, gave me useful information and some documents. Lieut. -General Sir Charles Warren, K.C.M.G., took much interest in the proposed memorial of his old friend and fellow-worker, but was prevented viii PREFACE

by his appointment to active service from carrying out his intention of rendering further aid. I have also to thank the Rev. R. Wardlaw Thompson, Foreign Secretary of the London Missionary Society, and the Directors, for permission to search the files of their South African Correspondence.

It is perhaps right to add that the appearance of this book has been delayed by two illnesses, which overtook the author at periods when he had expected comparative freedom from other duties.

Much and special gratitude is due to the Rev. James Ross of Glasgow, for undertaking the task of reading the proof sheets. W. D. M.

CHAPTER I FROM KNOCKANDO TO BEDFORD (l 83 5-I 85 5)

In the remote valley of Knockando, in Morayshire, a certain family of Mackenzies was to be found far from the true home of their clan in Ross-shire. Their presence there seems to have been accounted for by supposing that an unknown ancestor had found it necessary to flee into hiding after one of the several futile rebellions of the 1 8th century. Knockando is a bleak district lying behind a low range of hills on the left bank of the river Spey ; which used to be described in the school geographies as " the swiftest river in Scotland."

Throughout life this " solemn rolling Spey," as he called it, was ever mentioned by Mackenzie with a certain tenderness of personal affection. The scenery of the river valley for some miles up and down is peculiarly beautiful, and at several points, as at Craigellachie, it even reaches a certain grandeur. It is easy to see how the music of the rushing waters, the broad and deep pools where it flows in silent stretches under the gloom of overhanging crags, must have left indelible and romantic impressions upon the mind of a sensitive young Celt. Long years afterwards he wrote out of the desert heart of South Africa to his eldest son, who was about to spend a holiday season in Morayshire : " Tell me if you heard again the noise of the Spey ; the one solemn sound in the still and lovely summer evening. It is worth hearing ; and you will never need to try to remember it."

The soil of Knockando indeed is bare and ungenerous ; but its scattered little farms have been the homes of warm hearts. In one of these humble homes John Mackenzie, the youngest of six children, was born on August 30th, 1835 ; and there he lived till he was nine years of age.

The only record of his earliest years which he has preserved is brief and reads thus : —

" The first verse and prayer which my mother taught me was as follows : —

" This nicht whan I lie down tae sleep I gie my soul tae Christ tae keep.

An' wauk' I noo, an' wauk' I never I gie my soul tae Christ forever."

His parents were unable to give him more than the primary education of the parish school ; but circumstances made it possible for the little lad to be received into the Anderson Institution in the beautiful and ancient city of Elgin. Thither he went in his tenth year, making the whole journey of sixteen miles, which he was to repeat so often in the next few years, on foot. The Anderson Institution was founded and endowed by a General Anderson, whose life-story had been from beginning to end of strangely mingled pathos and brilliance. The purpose of the Institution was said to be " the support of old age and the education of youth." When John Mackenzie entered the school its head master was one John Eddie, a licentiate of the Church of Scotland, a man of some learning and a most kind heart ; of great patience and carefulness as a teacher. Intelligent pupils received a very thorough foundation under his tuition. His school did not aim at keeping children beyond the age, about thirteen or fourteen years, when they could become apprenticed to some trade ; but it followed them right through their apprenticeship with substantial aid and almost parental interest. For Mr Eddie, Mackenzie felt a life-long gratitude and affection, named his second son after him, and sought in various ways to maintain a friendly connection with him until he died in the year 1887, at the age of eighty-seven. And Mackenzie appears, on the other hand, to have excited the special interest of his master, who followed his career, even in the days of his apprenticeship, with an attentive sympathy.

On October 23rd, 1848, the young boy left the school which had become almost a home to him, and was apprenticed to Mr Alexander Russell, the proprietor and printer, editor and publisher of the local newspaper named The Elgin Courant. The " indenture " bound him to serve this master faithfully and diligently for seven long years, during which the master was bound " to teach him or cause him to be taught " every branch of the printing trade. The hours were irregular but seem to have averaged ten hours a day, and at times late work had to be done on the newspaper. Leisure could be therefore found for reading and study only by those who had strong inclinations in that direction.

Although so young, John Mackenzie had to live in lodgings, virtually master of his own time and habits at fourteen years of age ! How significant and pathetic are the words which he wrote in his diary at a certain crisis when he was almost twenty years of age : " It is now ten years since I have asked parental advice. During that period, when not under the eye of a teacher or of an employer, I have been entirely my own adviser, and my own master. Instead of giving, both parents ask advice from me, so that I am not acting in any way undutifully towards my parents, but simply in that way which circumstances at first produced, which after events continued, which our different dispositions and feelings fostered, and which is now acted as duty by me, and expected by them." At first he appears to have lived the happy life of a boy, without great or strenuous self-exertion. He was not particularly fond of reading, as yet, but threw himself heartily into boyish fun and games. He used to recall in later years the fact that he played cricket on Elgin Green, the game which he liked most. One remembers a scene in South Central Africa when some English travellers met at a mission station and a game at cricket was improvised out of primitive materials, and Mackenzie was one of the most eager and happy players.

For several years, as he afterwards stated at his ordination,' he found himself surrounded by the thoughtless, the foolish, and the vicious, and his religious feelings were stifled. He gave up going to church, never opened his Bible, and only read " silly or sinful publications." His intellectual life was suddenly and effectually awakened by an incident which he owed to the influence of his younger fellow apprentice, James Ross (now the Rev. James Ross of Eglinton Street Congregational Church, Glasgow), the dear friend with whom he maintained affectionate correspondence for the rest of his life. This friend had been led to join the Bishopmill Literary Association, which met in a hired room in the village of Bishopmill, across the river Lossie. Mackenzie was amazed to see young men and younger lads, most of whom he knew, discussing a matter of intellectual interest with intense earnestness and freedom. It was a new and fascinating world. He himself became quickly absorbed in the subject of debate and in the arguments offered on each side ; so absorbed indeed that before the meeting closed he had found himself on his own feet and delivered his first public speech !

The rousing of the intellectual life led gradually to that religious quickening from which his whole character ever after drew its most distinctive qualities. Although brought up as a son of the Church of Scot-

I land, Mackenzie was led, mainly by his intimacy with James Ross, to attend what was called the Independent Chapel, to which Ross's family belonged. The aged minister, Rev. Niel M'Niel, was now unequal to pulpit work, but took much interest in several branches of pastoral duty. There came to preach one summer, 1853, a student from the Theological Academy of the Congregational Churches of Scotland, by name Alexander Williamson, afterwards so widely known as a missionary in China. This young man, tall and powerful of build, forceful in manner and speech, was aflame with religious zeal and, above all, with enthusiasm for that missionary career to which he had dedicated his life. He exercised upon Mackenzie an influence of peculiar strength. In his personal jottings in June, 1854, the latter says, "I could not tell the exact time either of my conversion or of my first desiring to become a minister." But he also says that both events had happened, the one about a year and the other more than a year before. This would indicate that it was under the summer ministry of Alexander Williamson that the full light broke upon his young soul, and then that he made the inward resolution, from which there was henceforth no swerving, to become a preacher of the gospel in the heathen world.

Somewhere in this early period of his spiritual history Mackenzie began to write a diary. The earliest portion which has been preserved is not the first. It is dated "1854, May 19, Friday." The heading is, "Jottings of My Life — Continued." With some intermissions, this habit of writing almost daily memoranda and meditations was maintained until the first voyage to Cape Town was ended. These jottings were entered almost always on little boardless booklets, evidently made by the writer himself from sheets of unruled paper, folded and stitched together. In them the young man pours out his soul day by day with the utmost simplicity and with an earnestness amounting sometimes to real passion. If it be remembered that the extracts which are given from that diary were begun by a young lad yet in his 'teens, who had left school at thirteen to fight his life's battles without the shelter and comfort of home life, they will most probably strike every reader as indicating the possession of unusual powers, as well as of a full measure of that divine grace which we sometimes call religious genius. On June 5th, 1854, .he sat down for the first " communion season." It was the custom at Elgin, as, happily, in many Congregational Churches in Scotland, to celebrate the Lord's Supper every Sunday morning, at the close of the ordinary public service. Thus did he express the feelings which that solemn event stirred in his heart : —

June 4, 1854 — Morning, — How sweet is the Sabbath morn, how calm, how placid, how solemn ! To the believer the Sabbath is a day of delight and holy pleasure. It is the Lord's day — that day on which Jesus burst the gates of the tomb and rose triumphant. It is the day on which the apostles and first believers came together to " break bread " — to do so in rememibrance of Jesus. Oh, how pleasing the day and its associations and duties ! I look forward this day that I shall, by God's great mercy and grace, be enabled to observe this Lord's day as did the Christians of old. At the table of the Lord I, by His grace, will be a guest ; and, oh ! grant. Lord, that I may go there with, and while I am there may I feel, true love to Jesus ; and may the remembrance of His atonement. His death for me and for sinners everywhere, come to my soul at that table with peculiar force ! Oh, how sweet a thing is Christianity, with its trust in Jesus, its love to Him and to our fellow-Christians ! The world knoweth it not, and yet this happiness is but imperfect here, although it shall be perfect yonder !

Afternooji. — By the grace of God, I have been a guest at His table, and have done according to His commands and in remembrance of Him, and I don't think I ever felt so happy on earth. Oh, the nearness of such a place to God !

How solemn it therefore is ! God is near us always, but in the associations and circumstances of this holy ordinance our weak faith is made sufficient to perceive and to discern Him with greater vividness and clearness. I will always, I think, remember the peculiar feeling I possessed. It was one of rest, repose, and peace created by sweet leaning on Jesus. Satan was busy, however, as he always is, to prevent me from either enjoying or realising my position ; but grace prevailed, and I was enabled to overcome, to a certain extent, at any rate.

It is characteristic of Mackenzie's life-long interest in organisation, in the way of doing things, that on this very day he makes the following remarks upon the conduct of a business meeting of the members of the Church, which he that day attended for the first time.

Both resolutions, after deliberation, were agreed to, and the meeting was a harmonious one. But I think I could suggest improvements in the management of this Church, instead of being so much benefited by surveying its working. The Church has no secretary or clerk, and I am told their business meetings are sometimes without a preses or chairman. It was not so, however, in the meeting to-day. I have unshaken belief in the simplicity and the divinity of the system, although its working here, as far as I have seen and heard of it, has not gone altogether to foster this notion.

The daily " jottings " are at this earlier period much occupied with the obstacles which seemed to lie between him and the mission field. The chief difficulty arose from the determination which he had formed to go at once to some school of training for the ministry. In order to do that he must obtain permission from Alexander Russell, " my master " as he always calls him, to break his apprenticeship. And there lay the occasion of many troubled days. Further, his friends were divided in their counsel as to whether he should apply at once to the London Missionary Society and attend their training school at Bedford, or first go through the course of the " Glasgow Theological

Academy " (later known as the Congregational Theological Hall). Now, any form of advice which seemed to hasten his arrival on the mission field was for that very reason preferred by Mackenzie. The motto which he at this period chose for himself is referred to in a most interesting letter written to James Ross after he had begun his studies at Bedford.

For many months previous to my leaving the Courant office, my daily, almost hourly^ breathing to God was, " Make my feet like hinds' feet : make me to walk in mine high places."^ The burden of this is, compress, as it were, mine experience : teach me 7nuch in a short time : and deliver me from, yea make me triumph over mine enemies.

It was in this spirit of intense eagerness that he entered into correspondence with the London Missionary Society, believing that if the Directors were to accept his application all other difficulties would speedily disappear. At the same time he went on with his studies in his leisure hours, though he confesses several times that his correspondence and anxieties occasionally made Latin rudiments uncongenial and close study impossible. Throughout the uncertainties of those months he kept his own counsel, pouring out his fullest confidences and the reflection of his daily thoughts and various emotions, in the pages of his diary — and, as those pages abundantly prove, in frequent and prolonged prayer. Once a week he met several other young men at the house of a companion named James Mackintosh, who died two or three years later, for prayer : and his diary frequently refers gratefully to this intimate communion of friends. Once a week also he had a special season of private prayer for the spread of the kingdom of God, in which his daily pleadings were elaborated.

It was in June, 1854, that after considerable hesitation, caused by the divergent opinions of the friends

^ Ilabakkuk iii. 19, whom he consulted, Mackenzie applied directly to the London Missionary Society for appointment as one of its agents in the foreign field. Of course, it was understood that if they accepted him he would have to spend some time in preparative study. Unfortunately for his peace of mind no answer to his application was received until October 6th, and then it was declined. The reasons given by the Society's Directors was that he was too young, alike in years and as a member of the Christian Church : it was also felt that he must carry his education further ere he could be accepted. At the same time he was encouraged to renew his application nine or twelve months later. The disappointment was met with courage and unabated hope.

About this time Mackenzie, who had a good singing voice, received, after the usual public competition, the appointment of precentor at the Parish Church of New Spynie, on a salary of ;^5 per annum. From Dr Kyd, the minister, he received much kindness and encouragement. Long years after he used to recall with intense amusement the dread day of his trial singing, and how the friend who coached him got him into a field behind a hedge on their way to church for one more rehearsal. The following paragraph occurs in a letter to his boys written more than twenty years afterwards :• —

The five pounds per annum which I earned as precentor of New Spynie Parish Church were of very great service to me at that particular time of my life. My income was on one occasion almost too much for me; I shall explain how. Dr Kyd and I had always a grand counting of the pennies and bawbees which were put into the brod^ and out of which my salary was paid, whenever the happy day came round for me to receive my money. This was scene the first. The second is a moving one, in which you behold the youthful precentor toiling along through the beautiful fir-wood, and through Bishopmill too, and up the Lossie Wynd, sadly oppressed lo JOHN MACKENZIE

with his burden of bawbees and pennies, which the laddie carried in a handkerchief twisted at the corners. Frequently changing hands he reached Winchester, the grocer's, where he very readily got " small change" for his copper. But on one occasion the second scene was not the last. He had rounded the corner into High Street, had descended the one step into Winchester's shop, when the material of the handkerchief could hold out, or rather hold in, no longer, and away w^ent the offerings of the decent people of New Spynie all over the grocer's shop floor ! It was inside and not outside the shop — which made a great difference in Elgin, and no doubt would do so anywhere.

The following extracts from his Diary for the month of September, 1854, while he was waiting for the answer of the Directors, will probably do much to reveal the spirit of this young man, as he tried to walk with God.

Sept. 6. — O that I were removed from my present secular and, in my circumstances, useless employment, and employed busily in the preparations necessary to my carrying the Gospel far, far away to those who have never heard it.

Sept. 7. — But let me wait — yes, wait^ for God will surely help me as I need ! How cheering the thought ! How faithless my heart !

Sept. 9. — I promised to Mr Kyd last Sabbath to drink tea with him this afternoon in Quarrywood. I hope to enjoy, at all events, much pleasure from the natural scenes with which I will be surrounded on this lovely afternoon.

I would here note my present state of mind. The war is going on incessantly ; only God is gracious and aids me and upholds me. I have an increasing desire to work for God, and I am only happy at present in the office from the prospect of my soon leaving it. My faith in God is sometimes such as to give me joy even when surrounded by difficulties ; but I distrust Him much — I confess I do — although nothing is more ungrateful. I am, I humbly trust, advancing heavenward ; following on to know the Lord ; although I am not at all what I ought to be. Oh, no ! I have not attained to anything at which I can sit down and content myself. Perfection — that is the goal ; eternity is its

FROM KNOCKANDO TO BEDFORD ii

period of enjoyment ; life is the period of trial — of struggles. But the goal, the goal is at the end ; and by God's help I am confident I shall reach it.

Sept, 1 1. — I got confused a little when visiting a prominent citizen on business ; I cannot meet such a one. What must I do to get more brass in my face ?

Sept. II, Monday. — I am more and more convinced that pride is a scrambling weed within me and that God is wisely chastising me by inaiining me in my love of applause and distinction. O that I may be enabled to pray very earnestly against this most heinous of sins !

Sept, 12. — O that I may grow in every Christian grace. I am now convinced that I am very vain and proud ; and I want with God's help to crucify these remaining weeds. I pray for lowliness of heart, to be made, in short, like my blessed Saviour. O, who was ever like Him !

Sept. 13. — I continue to pray in an especial manner for humility ; and I indeed find that I have very much need. How deceitful is my own heart ! I have just lighted, as it were, on a nook containing contraband goods — which had no right to be there, but which I in my blindness overlooked. The heart is indeed deceitful above all things. O may the Holy Spirit aid and help me to continue to carry on a successful warfare with everything that defileth the heart — every evil which may be lurking unperceived. How silly and vain is this feeling which is so strong within me. Sometimes I am tempted thus by Satan : " Now look at so and so. He is a Christian like you and yet every one knows he is prouder and vainer than you are. You are good enough. Take it easy. See what a fearful amount of labour you will have before you overcome these propensities. Be contented with your position. You are better than many and as good as a great number of Christians. Don't bestir yourself. Just look at that high difficult mountain. When would you reach its summit ? You are best where you are." So whispers the Devil ; but God be glorified and praised, I can say, " Get thee behind me, Satan." I am not striving to be like other men. Man is not the model or pattern which I am striving to imitate — guilty fallen man. No; I look to a perfect model. I take a pattern from perfection. I must therefore reach forward and not look on what I may have attained, but daily strive to become more and more like Jesus. I trust I shall continue more and more to perceive and realize the true beauty and blessedness of that character which Jesus possessed, and still possesses.

Sept. 1 6. — Passed the afternoon with my father, and afterwards began to read the report of the L. M. S., which really gave delight to my heart. Think of sixty native young men in one of the South Sea Islands, in course of being trained as ministers of the Gospel. Glory be to God ! O the future ! the future ! when the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord.

Held my weekly prayer in the midst of a clump of trees to-night in darkness and solitude. I had some freedom and some sense of the presence of God.

Sept. 1 7, Sunday. — At the communion table to-day I felt more overcome than ever before. What a glorious feeling ! Dear Jesus ! He was not there hidden as He often is to my darkened mind. Heaven seemed very near, life very short; and to spend my life as a missionary of the Gospel appeared a glorious work indeed. O, I felt eager to engage in it ! Surely God, when He thinks proper, will open a door for me.