Alexander MacKay, missionary, died 8th February 1890.

February 7, 2010

What happened on the 8th of February?
Our thanks to the Church of Scotland website – a  mine of useful information – for reminding us that on February 8th 1890 Alexander Mackay died. You might well ask, who was Alexander Mackay? He was born in Rhynie on October 13th 1849, the son of a Free Church Minister. His early interests seemed to lie in engineering but he had a strong Christian call. Inspired by an article written in 1875 by Stanley (of Dr Livingstone fame) describing the need of a Christian missionary in the land of King M'Tesa of Uganda, he applied and was soon on his way to the southern end of Lake Victoria. To say that King M'Tesa was a cruel tyrant would be a significant understatement; he slaughtered his own people for no other reason than pleasure and was wont to sell them into slavery. (We like to condemn ourselves for the slave trade, rather than for ending a practice which had existed for centuries before William Wilberforce's Bill) Mackay bravely protested on an occasion when King M'Tesa was negotiating with an Arab slave trader and succeeded in halting the transaction. There isn't space here to do justice to Alexander MacKay but it is timely to remind ourselves what one brave man can do with faith.

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