This was a really helpful biographical sketch of the great Presbyterian preacher of the Scottish Highlands, Lachlan Mackenzie (1754-1819). Below that are a collection of his sermons. Listen to some of his material I’ve recorded in audio here. And visit my entire audio library here.
Archive for the ‘Highlands & Islands’ Category
Lachlan Mackenzie of Locharron (1754-1819)
Posted in Audio Resources, Church of Scotland, Highlands & Islands on January 20, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Not just any haircut
Posted in Articles, Christian Life & Experience, Church of Scotland, Experimental Religion & the Cure of Souls, Free Church of Scotland, Highlands & Islands, Ministerial Fidelity, Pastoral Theology, Practice of Piety, Preaching, Sabbatarianism & the Church Calendar, The Lord's Supper, The Sacred Ministry, The Social Status of the Church, Visitation Evangelism, Vital Godliness on September 9, 2020| Leave a Comment »
There we were in the manse on Saturday night, in that sleepy little Canadian town. The minister’s wife was giving him a haircut before his Sabbath labors the next day. He was, well, idiosyncratic. The thin-framed parson had quite the shock of unmanageable white hair, much like Doc Brown. He sat there with some smock-like cloth draped around him, his helpmate-hairdresser poised with bowl of water and comb. Soon she set to taming the wild mane with the moistened comb. Water applied, it seemed as though his head had shrunk by half.
As she went to work with her clippers, the old minister told me about The Days of the Fathers in Ross-Shire, an old classic of the glory days of 18th and 19th century Highlands-Islands Presbyterianism. His eyes beamed, and he cackled with boyish delight as he retold his favorite story about Samsonesque Aeneas Sage and his rather unconventional missionary exploits. There was something about this all that strongly impressed me. There was something of greatness, a romance and even a mystique about that legacy that lingered about the place. The old Scots-Irish town, its church, manse, and, of course, this amusing old minister still retained something of the glow of the “years of the right hand of the Most High.”
Suffice it to say, this green goyim just had to find and read the book. And I did, again and again. And having been ‘bit,’ I’ve retold the story of Rev. Sage over and over to anyone who would listen. My children can probably repeat it verbatim … with a few eye rolls thrown in for good measure! And as an old bookish minister friend of mine would sometimes say, “And if it isn’t true, it should be!”
Just finished reading and recording it. You can access it here. I also post a wide variety of classical Reformed, Puritan, and Scottish Presbyterian sermons, articles, and books. I aim to fill gaps with relatively quality audio recordings, especially for the benefit of pastors and elders who work with thinner margins of time.
All things to all men: a lesson from a Samsonesque Presbyterian
Posted in Church of Scotland, Experimental Religion & the Cure of Souls, Gospel Tactics, Highlands & Islands, Parish Theory & Practice, Parochial Strategy, Preaching, The Romance of Locality, Theology of Community on May 13, 2016| 1 Comment »
One of my personal heroes is Scottish Presbyterian minster, Aeneas Sage (1694-1774). I’m not quite sure if everything written about him is totally accurate; I get a whiff of the hagiographic if not the legendary in some of the stories. Yet, something in my gut tells me it is too good and so must be true! (Like a historian friend of mine quipped, ‘If it ain’t true, it should be!’) Whatever the case, Aeneas Sage captivates me, for as a pastor he knew how to captivate an audience – in more ways that one.
A ‘diet of catechizing’ in the rough & tumble Highlands
Posted in Catechesis, Diets of Catechizing, Evangelistic Catechesis, Experimental Religion & the Cure of Souls, Gospel Tactics, Highlands & Islands, Vignettes from the Old Parish Way on July 23, 2010| 1 Comment »
If you’re Reformed, passionate about evangelism, and not such a ‘frozen chosen’ that you can indulge in a good laugh, then you really need to read about Aeneas Sage. Sage was a Presbyterian minister in the 18th century Scottish Highlands, then a very rough and Roman Catholic region. Sage was a Samsonesque figure, somewhat larger than life. The following is a delightful vignette from his heroic ministry, taken from The Scot of the eighteenth century: his religion and his life, by John Watson (1907). I’m not sure if it is apocryphal – but it sure is enjoyable!
West Port Experiment 