The Manchester Minister – Alexander McLaren
Fifty years of ministry to one congregation is a rare accomplishment for any pastor. But to enjoy fifty years of spiritual harmony, consistent spiritual and numerical growth, and successfully complete numerous building programs is even rarer. Such was the ministry of Alexander McLaren of Union Chapel at Oxford Road in Manchester, England. A most delightful and stimulating record of his life and ministry was written by his cousin and sister-in-law E. T. McLaren entitled, Dr. McLaren of Manchester: A Sketch. Published in 1911 by Hodder and Stoughton, it is still available through the used book market.
McLaren arrived at Union Chapel on the first Sunday of July in 1858 and labored for forty-five years as senior minister. He resigned his active ministry on the last Sunday of June in 1903 but maintained an official connection with Union Chapel until 1908. On the Sunday marking his fiftieth year of ministry, he spoke of the unusual bond between minister and congregation for almost half a century.
“There are but one or two left of the present congregation who can go back with me to the day when I began my ministry in Manchester, but I am thankful that I can be sure of the affection and the sympathy of you all. The retrospect of those fifty years humbles me when I think of my own shortcomings, and they seem all stained with imperfections and marred by many a failure and fault; but I thank God that when I look back on my relations with the congregation I see nothing but a long stretch of mutual confidence and affection. For all the fifty years there has never been the faintest film of cloud in the sky, and never a trace of discord or alienation. Sunday after Sunday I found as I stood before the congregation that every face was the face of a friend and to that assurance was largely owing any power that my hearers found in my words; my hearers preached to me while I was preaching to them.”
Born on February 11, 1826, McLaren was the youngest of six children. His father, David, was a devout Christian business man who used his position as a means for advancing the gospel. When a business venture in Australia required a four year absence from his family, David spent his free time establishing a church in the newly founded city of Adelaide that still existed in 1911 when this biography written. While his father was away, young Alexander attended a bible class in Glasgow taught by Rev. David Russell, and under his teaching, came to salvation. He was baptized shortly after on May 17th, 1840. He was 14 years old. From the start he felt called to the ministry and began preparation at the University of Glasgow. However, when his family moved to London, he enrolled at the Baptist College at Stepney. Here he developed a life long affection and ministry connection with the Baptists.
In November of 1845, young Alexander was dispatched by the college leadership to supply the pulpit at Portland Chapel in Southampton. The Chapel had lost a favored minister who resigned rather than face the rigors of a building program. His successor was a rascal who resigned after two years disgracing the chapel and ruining its reputation in the community. Upon hearing McLaren the small congregation compelled him to agree to a three month trial after which he became their permanent minister in June of 1846 at twenty years of age. In a letter to his father, he observed “If the worst comes to the worst I shall at all events not have to reflect that I have killed a flourishing plant but only assisted at the funeral of a withered one.” Twelve years later, McLaren would leave a thriving parish and a healthy church behind when he went to serve at Union Chapel in Manchester.
McLaren married his cousin, Marion in 1855 and together they had two daughters and a son. His intense passion for private life leave little record of home life but from all accounts he was a devoted husband and a good father. His passions were family and preaching and he devoted his life to both.
In 1858, McLaren accepted the call to pastor “the Nonconformist Cathedral of Lancashire,” Union Chapel. He would spend the rest of his ministry there in Manchester. An avid lover of nature, McLaren delighted in travel and often illustrations from recent trips found their way into his sermons. He had a passion for punctuality and for his personal privacy. Interviews were rarely granted, even in his later years and personal references in his sermons were all but non-existent. In 1884, his beloved Marion died unexpectedly and he bore the impact of her death for the rest of his life. During the dark years that immediately followed, he agreed to participate as a contributing author to the Sunday School Times and he would submit a lesson per week for the rest of his ministry. It was largely through these lessons that he was introduced to American believers.
McLaren enjoyed great popularity as an expositor in England. He twice served as president of the Baptist Union and served on the board of Rylands Library and Victoria University. As President of the Baptist Union it fell his lot to bring an introductory address upon the accession of King Edward VII.
Universally, those who were fortunate to ever hear McLaren, even in the later years, commented on the power and fire of his preaching. One particular quotation is worth repeating.
“The preacher – for he was a preacher – this morning lifted us into the region o f the spiritual, into the presence of Jesus Christ. There are few who will ever forget the vision of this aged, but buoyant prophet of God, or forget the words by which he emphasized the greatness of the preacher’s work in the threefold character of evangelist, teacher, prophet.”
McLaren continued to write and do limited speaking after his retirement until he went home to be with the Lord on May 5th 1910. Perhaps the words expressed by his loving congregation on the occasion of 50 years at Union Chapel sums up his entire ministry, “The strength of his more than fourscore years is manifested in abundant labor for the kingdom of the Savior.” May we like him, labor abundantly until our end or His arrival!
