THE LATE REV. JOHN MACKY, M.A.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8482, 5 February 1891, Page 6

THE LATE REV. JOHN MACKY, M.A.

The Rev. R. McKinney was asked to preach a sermon on Sunday last on the death of the Rev. John Macky, M.A.,in the Presbyterian Church of Otahuhu. Mr. McKinney chose as his text I. Thessalonian3, iv. 14, " Them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him." The following is the part of his sermon having special reference to Mr. Macky: As to whether or not,' in regard to those whom in the wisdom of His providence God removes from*us,, that house of God not made with hands eternal in the heavens is their's, wo are not, in my opinion, in most cases wise in dogmatising. It has not been my custom, at all events, to do so when I have had to speak on occasions of this kind. I may say this, however, that the longer I live, and the more I try. to understand what must be the nature of my Heavenly Father, the less am I inclined to look upon Him as some of the old divines did, and as some fossilised modern divines still do— less, I say, am I inclined to look upon Him as an Almighty ogre who delights in the destruction of His own children. These fossilised divines address their congregations as if the great bulk of them were going to hell, and as if only a mere handful of them were on the road to heaven. If they reflected upon it— but these kind of men don't reflect— they would see that this makes the devil greater than God; for this must be so if the devil is to win in the battle, and he is to have the great majority of the human family. However, I believe this, that there are no divines, however narrow and however antiquated, but would admit that the gates of heaven are wide enough to have admitted into them the soul of your beloved minister. His trust was firmly placed in his blessed Saviour; and he lived a good life; and now, without any presumption in dogmatising, we may say that we feel perfectly assured that, being " absent from the body, he is present with the Lord." To-day he is with the Master whom he served so faithfully and so well; "to-day he is with Him in paradise." Your beloved minister suffered much in his last illness; but his siitTerings are all now terminated. He went down into the dark valley and the shadow of death leaning upon Jesus, and His rod and staff comforted him ; and he is now in that place, in that blessed place, where sin enters not, whore sickness and sorrow are known no more; but where there is in God's presence fulness of joy, and at God's right hand pleasures that last for evermore. It is an old rule regarding the dead that we are to speak nil nisi bonum. It is a good rule, which it is well to follow. But on this occasion I have to follow this rule, not because it is wise and judicious to do so, but because no other course, even if I desired it, would be open to me. No Devil's advocate could sneak an ill word of the Rev. John Macky. Neither, perhaps, is it for me, standing in this pulpit, where for so many years he preached to you " the glorious gospel of the blessed God,"- to tell you of his many excellencies. It would be a work of supererbgagation for me to attempt to do this here. For 36 years he went in and out among you; his voice was familiar to you, as publicly and privately he "broke among you the bread of life," and his kindly presence was endeared to you, as, with a regularity and a faithfulness that few could rival, he visited you in your own homes. You are sorrowing this day because in this world you shall see his face no more, but as St. Paul said to the Thessalonians, in the epistle from which our text is taken, " Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly, and unblameably he behaved himself among you." Mr. Froude, in referring to a great man in New Zealand, whom God has been pleased to bring back from the gates of death, speaks of him as, while knowing well ail that is going on in the speculative and critical world, remaining still true to the old Evangelical principles. So it might be said of your beloved minister. While he knew well also what was going on in the world, and while he had a broad, liberal, and catholic spirit as regarded other people's opinions and all denominations of Christians, he remained true —loyally trueto the old Evangelical doctrines of the venerable Confession of our Church.. Our Church will miss him. The students of our Church will miss him. He was ever ready to render them help from his accumulated stores' of literary and theological knowledge; and to encourage them with kindly sympathy. The Courts of the church will miss him. He attended their meetings with unrivalled regularity, and he was ever ready to guide them with "wise and weighty counsels. His brethren in the ministry Will miss him. His .brotherly affection for .them and his liberal hospitality; towards them were never wanting. You, Ins old parishioners, will miss him. You know how good a man he was, how faithful a .pastor he was, and with what "sweetness and light" he spoke to you of the blessed Master. His own family and his owy relations will miss him most of all. They well knew him to be an affectionate friend, and a kind and indulgent father. I said at the outset of this discourse that we are too apt to regard death with feelings of sadness, but after all, while we rejoice that our beloved brother is " token away from the evil to come," we cannot but be sad when we think that " a Prince has fallen in Israel," whose removal has left in so many ways blanks that, God knows, it is now-a-days very hard to fill. To his sorrowing family the blank will never be filled till this corruptible with them also shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality. The general assembly of our church meets next week, but we shall hear Ins voice in that assembly no more. He has now joined the general assembly and Church of the first born in heaven. He is now in that assembly whore fellowship such as earth had not for him awaited him— fellowship of his blessed Redeemer, present and visible, and the fellowship again of that partner of his joys and sorrows, who ran so long and so lovingly with him the race of life. But your minister, my brethren, being dead yet speakcth to you. His removal is as a voice addressed to you from the grave, and saying, "Be ye also ready" ; " Work the work of God while it is day; the night cometh." God has been giving to you of late repeated solemn admonitions in this way. Let these admonitions not pass unheeded. You know not, in relation to life or death, what a day may bring forth. You may, like him who has passed away from us, go down to "the grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in his season"; or you may be called away in the morning of life, at a time when ye little expect it, in a moment when ye think not. Look up to God then to enable you to live so as that when the end comes in your case you may die the death of the righteous, and your last end may be like his. Strive, in depejidance upon Divine aid, to live so as that at whatever time the Lord comes, " if He come in the second watch, or come in the third watch," He may find you prepared. Strive to live so by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and by obedience to His blessed and holy will, as that at whatever time He comes to summon you hence you may be prepared to say, "Even so, come Lord Jesus. ' f May God, my brethren, enable you, and me, and all of us, to " fight the good fight, to finish our course, and to keep the faith," so as that when we have entered the house appointed for all living it may not be inappropriate to say regarding each of us as I now say regarding your minister :— " Brother, thou art gone before, and thy sainted soul is flown

Whore tears are wiped from every eye, and sorrow is unknown; From the burden of the flesh, and from care and fear reloas'd, Where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest. Sin can never taint thee now, nor doubt thy faith assail, Nor thy meok trust in Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit fail ; And there thou'rt sure to meet tho good whom on earth thou lovedst best, Where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest. And when the Lord shall summon us, whom thou hast loft behind, May we, untainted by the world, as sure a welcome And! May each, like thee, depart in peace, to be a glorious guest Where the wicked cease from troubling;, and the weary are at rest."