MACRAE, John Farquhar, Rev. (1852-1914)
Assembly memorial minute 1914
“The Assembly have received with very deep regret and keen sorrow news of the death of the Rev. John Farquhar Macrae, the minister of Toorak.
A little while ago Mr. Macrae had got some months’ leave of absence, and, accompanied by Mrs. Macrae, had gone on a voyage to China and Japan, partly for the rest and recruitment that would come from change, but chiefly that he might visit Korea, where his son, the Rev. F. Macrae, is one of the Church’s missionaries. He took a chill on the voyage, and after a time of great suffering he died in a private hospital at Shanghai on 27th April last.
By the death of Mr. Macrae a very wide circle is thrown into mourning, for he was a man whose friendly nature made for him many friends, and the Presbyterian Church and the Church of Christ at large is the poorer for the lack of the services of one of the most 'devoted and efficient ministers of the Church.
Mr. Macrae was the son of a Disruption minister, the Rev. Donald Macrae, and was born in 1852 at Kilmory, in the Island of Arran. He got his earliest education under the supervision of his father. His special training for the ministry he got at the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, the New College, Edinburgh, and the University of Erlangen. Germany. After taking license he was assistant to the Rev. Dr. Laird, Cupar Fife. His first charge was the Free Church, Cockpen, where he was ordained in 1877. He went, seven years after, to the Martyrs' Free Church, St. Andrew’s, where he remained other seven years.
Having gained for himself an honourable name by his faithful work in these diverse spheres, he was called in 1891 to the congregation of Toorak in the Presbytery of Melbourne South, and accepting that call he faced a serious undertaking. He succeeded the Rev. J.F. Ewing, whose ministry, from a variety of causes, had been almost phenomenally successful, and it required courage to take up the burden of success that he had laid down.
The years as they passed carried off, one by one, many of the men who had founded and gave support to the congregation. This heavy task Mr. Macrae faced with an energy that never flagged and a hopefulness that never gave way. And he had his reward in the devoted affection of those whom he so loyally served, in whose hearts he made for himself a home that always welcomed him, and to whom his death is an individual and personal bereavement.
For the work of the ministry Mr. Macrae had many and various gifts. He was a preacher of rare charm and power, with a message to deliver, which, whatever form it took, was always the Evangel of Jesus Christ, and which was delivered with an appeal that carried it to the heart with a divine behest. But, great as was the influence he exercised in the pulpit, perhaps his influence in the homes of his people, where he could lay his hand on the individual with a personal touch, was greater still. When men and women wanted comfort in sorrow and quieting in suffering and guidance in perplexity and reinforcement in weakness and the assurance of God’s forgiveness for failure and sin, they got what they wanted from one who ministered to them as God’s priest in the sympathy of Jesus Christ.
It was his congregation that Mr. Macrae had in his heart, and for them he specially lived and worked. But he had aptitude also for the wider work of the Church, and he took bis share in that as the demand came or the occasion served. He had a special interest in Home Missions and Foreign Missions. When Convener of the H.M.C., he put a stamp on the H.M. work of the Church which is there to this day. One of the greatest joys of his life came to him when one of his sons gave himself to the foreign field, and it was a great delight to him to prepare and further his son in every way in this work of his choice. He was on his way to help this work by his personal presence when his call came to rest.
The Assembly place on record this appreciation of Mr. Macrae’s worth and work, and their sense of loss in his removal, and they express their sympathy with Mrs. Macrae and her family, and with the Session and congregation of Toorak in their bereavement. "
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