Who Was John R. Macduff? The Scottish Pastor of Devotional Classics
John Ross Macduff was a Scottish minister and devotional writer who lived from 1818 to 1895. He served three parishes of the Church of Scotland, the last a new church in Glasgow, and then gave his later years entirely to writing. His small books of prayers and readings, such as The Morning and Night Watches, The Faithful Promiser and The Words of Jesus, went into many editions in Britain and America. He also wrote devotional lives of Elijah, Peter and Paul, and meditations on the places of the Gospels, like Memories of Bethany and Memories of Gennesaret. His aim in nearly all of them was the same: to bring comfort from Christ to people in sorrow, sickness and daily care.
Here's a fuller look at his life, his writing, and which of his books to start with.
Early years
Macduff was born on May 23, 1818, at Bonhard, his father's estate near Perth in Scotland. He was the second of six sons of Captain Alexander Macduff and Margaret Ross. He went to school at the High School of Edinburgh and then studied at the University of Edinburgh, where he prepared for the ministry of the Church of Scotland.
A parish minister
In 1843 he was ordained minister of Kettins, a country parish in Forfarshire, north of Dundee. The next year he married Anne Joan Seton, but she died in 1846, after barely two years of marriage. In 1849 he moved to the parish of St. Madoes in Perthshire, on the River Tay, and that year he married Louisa Stephen, who was his wife for nearly forty years.
Those quiet country years were when he began to write. In 1853 he published The Morning and Night Watches: a written prayer for every morning of the month and a meditation for every night. It found readers far beyond his parish, and it stayed his best-known book. One of its morning prayers puts the spirit of the whole book in one line:
I am another day nearer death — oh, may I be a day nearer Thee!
The Morning and Night Watches, For a Pilgrim Spirit
More little books followed in the same pattern: The Words of Jesus, The Faithful Promiser, Evening Incense and The Mind of Jesus, each with one short reading or prayer for every day of the month.
Glasgow
In 1855 Macduff took charge of a new church at Sandyford in Glasgow, in the growing West End of the city. He preached there for fifteen years. Two years after he came, the General Assembly put him on the committee preparing a hymnbook for the Church of Scotland. He wrote hymns himself; his "Christ is coming! let creation" is still in the Church of Scotland's hymnbook.
The Glasgow years held deep sorrow too. His young son Alexander died in 1857. Macduff wrote a great deal for the grieving, and readers have felt that he knew what he was writing about. In Memories of Bethany, which follows the death and raising of Lazarus step by step, he speaks to mourners with great tenderness:
Prayer brings the soul near to Jesus, and fetches Jesus near to the soul.
Memories of Bethany, The Messenger
His books are full of places, and he described them with care. Memories of Gennesaret walks around the Sea of Galilee. Sunsets on the Hebrew Mountains pictures the deaths of Bible saints as sunsets on the hills where they lived. The Prophet of Fire tells the life of Elijah. The universities of Glasgow and New York both gave him the degree of Doctor of Divinity.
Writing years in Kent
In 1870 Macduff left the pastorate and moved south to Chislehurst in Kent, near London, to give himself wholly to writing. He kept writing for another twenty-five years: more devotional books, more Bible lives such as The Footsteps of St. Peter, books of verse, and little books for children. His wife Louisa died in 1888. He died at his home in Chislehurst on April 30, 1895, at seventy-six. His daughter, Anne, later edited his reminiscences.
What he wrote and taught
Macduff was not a controversialist or a systematic theologian. He was a pastor writing for the soul. His books share a few marks.
He wrote for people in trouble. Again and again he turns to the sick, the bereaved and the anxious. His counsel is gentle and practical, like this line from The Faithful Promiser:
God does not give grace till the hour of trial comes.
The Faithful Promiser, 2d Day
He kept Christ at the center. He wrote whole books on the words of Jesus and on the character of Jesus, and he wanted his readers to grow like their Lord:
Jesus never spake one unnecessarily harsh or severe word.
The Mind of Jesus, Fidelity in Rebuke
He prayed in Scripture. His written prayers are woven from Bible phrases and were meant for private devotion and for family worship.
He loved the stories of the Bible. He took the reader to the place where a story happened and then drew out a plain lesson for the heart. He did the same with church history: his early tale The Exiles of Lucerna tells of the persecuted Waldensian Christians of the Alps.
Why he's still read
Macduff's books are small, but they've lasted. You can read one of his daily readings in a few minutes, and many people have done just that, morning and evening, for years. His Victorian style is fuller than ours, with plenty of "thee" and "thy," but his words are simple, his feeling is real, and he always points the hurting to Jesus.
Where to start
TheWay Library has twenty-four of his books, all free to read. Start with The Morning Watches, and Night Watches, the book that made his name. If you want something very short, try The Faithful Promiser, which takes about an hour to read through. If you're grieving, read Memories of Bethany. For a Bible life, read The Prophet of Fire.
Our guide to John R. Macduff's books explains how all of them fit together, and our collection of John R. Macduff quotes gathers his best lines. You'll find all his books on the John R. Macduff author page.