RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
MacLean M'NeiU
all that was of the essence of his early faith had become doubly precious, he had gained increased catholicity of sentiment, along with knowledge of the world " (Memoir, vol. i., p. 49).
Macleod's first charge, to which he was ordained in 1838, was Loudoun, in Ayrshire, a parish partly agricultural, but with a considerable weaving population. There he gave himself with all the ardor of his nature and the enthusiasm of youth to his parochial duties, especially among the working classes. His Cracks about the Kirk for Kintra Folk, published in 1843 shortly before the
Ministry, disruption, had a large circulation and exerted considerable influence. In Dec, 1843, he was translated to Dalkeith. During his ministry there he became one of the founders of the Evangelical Alliance in 1847, and also editor of the Edinburgh Christian Magazine. In 1851 he was appointed to the large and important parish of the Barony, Glasgow, embracing at that time 87,000 souls, and here he showed preeminently his gifts as a parish minister, above all his powers of organization, his large-hearted sympathy with all classes of his parishioners, and his eloquence as a preacher. One of his special aims in the Barony was to reclaim the non-churchgoing population; for which purpose, among other schemes, he introduced with success Sunday services open exclusively to working people in their working clothes. He also founded the first congregational penny savings-bank in Glasgow, and established places of resort for working men, to counteract the temptations of the publichouse. In 1857 he was appointed one of her majesty's chaplains, and he enjoyed in an eminent degree the royal favor and confidence (cf. Journal of our Life in the Highlands by Queen Victoria, London, 1868, pp. 147, sqq.).
Dr. Macleod took an active part in the general work of the Church. In 1845 he was one of a deputation to visit the Scottish churches in Canada. In 1864 he became chairman of the Foreign Mission Committee of his church, and in this capacity paid a visit to India as a deputy from the church in 1867. His last great public effort was a memorable speech in the General Assembly of 1872, when he resigned this position. In 1865 he became involved in a controversy regarding the Sabbath; while strenuously upholding the religious observance of the Lord's day, he refused to base that observance on the perpetual obligation of the Fourth Commandment. In 1869 he was elected moderator of the General Assembly. Two memorial windows were placed by Queen Victoria in Crathie Church, Aberdeenshire, where he had often conducted service; in one of these he is described as " a man eminent in the Church, honored in the State, and in many lands greatly beloved." He married Catherine Ann Mackintosh Aug. 11, 1851.
In 1860 Dr. Macleod undertook the editorship of
Good Words, one of the ablest and most successful
of the religious magazines of the day. Some of the
more popular of his contributions to
Writings, general literature were written about the same time, many of them originally appearing in Good Words. They include: The Earnest Student (Edinburgh, 1854), a memoir of
his wife's brother, John Mackintosh of Geddes; The Gold Thread (1861); The Old Lieutenant and his Son (1862); Wee Davie (London, 1864); Eastward (London, 1866); Simple Truth Spoken to Working People (1867); The Starling (2 vols., 1867); Peeps at the Far East (1871); Character Sketches (1872); The Temptation of our Lord (1873).
W LEEf, revised by Henry Cowan. Bibliography: Donald Macleod (his brother), Memoir of Norman Macleod, London, 1876; A. Strahan, Norman Macleod, ib. 1872; Stanley, in Good Words, 1872; Jean L. Watson, Life of Norman Macleod, ib. 1881; R. Flint, in Scottish Divines (St. Giles Lectures), London, 1883; A. H. Japp, Good Men and True, ib. 1890; J. Wellwood, Norman Macleod, Edinburgh, 1897; John N. Macleod, Memorials of Rev. Norman Macleod, ib. 1898; DNB, xxxv. 217-218.
MACMILLAN, HUGH: United Free Church of Scotland; b. at Aberfeldy (22 m. n.w. of Perth) Sept. 17, 1833; d. in Edinburgh May 24, 1903. He was educated at the University of Edinburgh and was minister at Kirkmichael (1859-64), Glasgow (1864-78), and Greenock (1878-98). He made his reputation by his first two books, Footnotes from the Page of Nature, or First Forms of Vegetation (Cambridge, 1861), and Bible Teachings in Nature (London, 1866), of which 30,000 copies had been sold in Great Britain up to 1907, and which had been translated into French, German, Italian, Danish, and Norwegian, and reprinted and widely sold in America. In these two books he first revealed his ability to interest persons in his favorite theme, the intimate relations between the natural and the spiritual. This was the theme of many subsequent volumes, some of which were travels and many of which were collections of sermons and essays. Of these may be mentioned: Holidays in High Lands, or Rambles and Incidents in Search of Alpine Plants (1869); The Sabbath of the Fields (1876); Two Worlds are Ours (1880); Roman Mosaics (1888); Gleanings in Holy Fields (1899); his book of verse, The Christmas Rose (1901); his two volumes of collected addresses to children, The Gate Beautiful (1891), and The Corn of Heaven (1901); posthumous were Rothiemurchus (1907), and The Isles and the Gospel (1907, with a prefatory memoir by George A. Macmillan).
M'NEILL, JOHN: Mission Preacher; b. at Houston (11 m. w. of Glasgow), Renfrewshire, July 7, 1854. He received his early education in the Free Church schools at Houston and Inverkip, after which he was in the railway service from 1869 to 1877. In the latter year he resolved to prepare for the ministry, and studied successively at Edinburgh University (1877-80), Glasgow University (1880-81), and Free Church Divinity Hall, Glasgow (1881-85). In 1886 he was ordained to the ministry and became pastor of M'Crie-Roxburgh Free Church, Edinburgh, where he remained until 1889, when he went to London as minister of Regent Square Presbyterian Church. In 1892 he left the regular ministry to become a mission preacher, and in this capacity traveled throughout Great Britain, in addition to visiting India, South Africa, Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, the United States, and Canada. In 1908 he became pastor of Christ Church (Congregational), London. He has written: Sermons (3
Macon
Madagascar, Missions in