Robert Murray M’Cheyne – Mark Rowcroft
Robert Murray M’Cheyne
(Mark Rowcroft, 1st November, 2005)
When we mention the name “Robert Murray M’Cheyne” we immediately think of a man of unusual godliness. This was true in his own day as well as in ours. Alexander Moody Stewart said of him, “I cannot understand M’Cheyne; grace seems to be natural to him.” 1 There is much for us to learn as Christians and as ministers from this man who was born in Edinburgh on 21st May 1813 and who died in Dundee on 25th March 1843, two months before his thirtieth birthday.
We will think about M’Cheyne as a man, and then we will think about M’Cheyne as a minister. I know that this is an artificial distinction to draw. We cannot separate what we are as men from what we are as ministers and no one was more aware of this than M’Cheyne. He once said, “The greatest need of my people is my own holiness.” 2 For this very reason however, this may be a helpful way for us to approach the subject. M’Cheyne shows us what a Christian is before he shows us what a minister is and, if we are to be better ministers, we must first of all be better Christians. So we will look at the man before focusing upon the minister.
M’Cheyne: the man
1) The times in which he lived.
The nineteenth century was the century of the industrial revolution. Many parts of Scotland were impacted by the revolution. Dundee, where M’Cheyne ministered for the last seven years of his life, underwent great change. The population of the city grew rapidly in the first half of the century until it reached around 60,000 in the days of M’Cheyne’s ministry, with many people working long hours in the mills. There was much poverty, little sanitation amongst the poor and disease was rife.
While the industrial revolution was transforming the cities and towns of Scotland, there were stirrings of a spiritual nature taking place. In the eighteenth century Moderatism had grown in influence in the pulpits and churches of Scotland. In the pulpits of the land the great doctrines of Scripture gave way to ethics and morals. Leen Van Valen, describing the moderate movement, says this; “The gospel was obscured by the moral qualifications which were imposed upon the hearers. More and more the emphasis of the preaching gravitated toward the marks of a holy life. The offer of grace was watered down and made to be contingent upon being penitent and fit. In the course of time these marks were transformed into a description if virtuousness; consequently, Christ was preached more as an example rather than a substitute…Due to these developments, the majority of ministers were no longer interested in the fundamental truths of the Bible. Human talents were worshipped, and virtuous and civilized conduct were glorified.” 3 It was such a church that the M’Cheyne family attended during his childhood. (His parents would later move to an evangelical church).
However, things were beginning to change. In 1803 Thomas Chalmers entered the ministry. In 1811 Chalmers was converted. Van Valen says that his conversion, “signified a turning-point in the history of the Church of Scotland.” 4 In 1828 Chalmers was appointed professor of theology in the University of Edinburgh. Chalmers had a massive influence upon a whole generation of gospel ministers. “It is almost impossible to exaggerate the importance of Chalmers to M’Cheyne and his future ministry. In this M’Cheyne was not alone. Chalmers had the ability to inspire and change. The impact of Chalmers on his students is evidenced by the fact that 90 per cent of them ‘came out’ at the Disruption” 5 M’Cheyne grew up, was converted, studied theology and entered the ministry at a time when the Lord was beginning to do a great work.
2) Birth and childhood.
Robert was the youngest of five children. There were three boys and two girls, though one of his sisters died in infancy and Robert never knew her. His father, Adam, worked in the legal profession and the family lived in a prosperous area of the New Town in Edinburgh. They were a close and a well to do family. Robert was a pleasant child and was clever, though not outstanding as his eldest brother and sister were. In November 1827, aged 14, he entered Edinburgh University. As a child and a teenager he was fond of drawing and of gymnastics. He was orderly and neat and people remembered him for his tartan trousers! He was very popular. Van Valen says that as a student he “was the centre of attention among his friends…capable of fascinating his audience with his humour and antics.” 6
What was his spiritual condition as he grew up? As we have already mentioned, his parents attended a Moderate church and their religion was typical of the upper middle class in Edinburgh. He would later describe his condition when growing up as one of “lifeless morality”. He loved reading and studying Greek arts and classics and in January 1829 wrote in an essay, “Heaven sees nothing more illustrious, on earth nothing more glorious, than the man who has the power of commanding his passions.” 7 Looking back upon this point in his life he would later write:
“I once was a stranger to grace and to God,
I knew not my danger, and felt not my load;
Though friends spoke in rapture of Christ on the tree,
Jehovah Tsidkenu was nothing to me.” 8
3) Conversion.
In 1831 the M’Cheyne family experienced great sadness. First of all William, the middle son, left Scotland for India where he would work as a doctor in the Bengal Medical Service. The family felt his absence keenly. They soon endured another loss that was far more painful. David, the eldest son, was a godly young man. He was eight or nine years older than Robert and was everything that Robert could have wished for in an elder brother. They enjoyed a close relationship. David had a deep concern for the spiritual well being of the rest of his family and he prayed for and urged Robert to consider the things of God. David, however, was unwell. He had been suffering for a while with what appears to have been depression. In an attempt to deal with this he visited the Lake District. While walking in the mountains he caught a chill and, as he was already weak in body, he was unable to shake off the chill. When he returned to Edinburgh his health deteriorated and he died on 8th July 1831.
Robert, aged 18, was devastated at his brother’s death. He wrote moving poems that expressed his sorrow at such a loss. Yet God used this tragedy to begin to stir Robert’s conscience. He could not forget his brother’s concern for his soul. His father later wrote that, “The holy example and the happy death of his brother David seem by the blessing of God to have given a new impulse to his mind in the right direction.” 9 In a letter that written to one of his church members in 1842 Robert said, “This day eleven years ago, I lost my loved and loving brother, and began to seek a brother who cannot die.” 10
Over the coming months he sought the Lord but felt that he had nobody to talk to. David would have been the one he would naturally have turned to. He did not feel that he could approach a minister to talk about his concerns and when he entered the ministry he was keen to encourage troubled souls to come and speak with him. He turned to Christian books and was especially helped by reading “The Sum of Saving Knowledge”, often added as a supplement to the Westminster Confession of Faith. He described it as “the work which I think first of all wrought a saving change in me.” 11
4) Growth in grace.
It seems that M’Cheyne was conscious of God’s call to the ministry as soon as he was converted. In November 1831 he began his studies at the Divinity Hall in the university where he studied under Chalmers. On 1st July, 1835 he was licensed to preach by Presbytery of Annan. He received his license there rather than in Edinburgh because Edinburgh was a large, busy Presbytery and these things could take considerable time. The process was much quicker in a smaller Presbytery like Annan and this was a common procedure. He was ordained to the ministry on 7th November, 1835. He began working at Larbert & Dunipace, near Stirling, as assistant to John Bonar. In August, 1836, aged 23, he was called to be the Pastor of St Peter’s Church in Dundee. He would minister in Dundee until his death.
From the time of his conversion until his death, his growth in grace was observable to all who knew him. We cannot understand his ministry apart from this. M’Cheyne knew something of his own heart. In his “Personal Reformation”, written towards the end of his life, he said, “I am tempted to think that there are some sins for which I have no natural taste, such as strong drink, profane language, &c., so that I need not fear temptation to such sins. This is a lie – a proud presumptuous lie. The seeds of all sins are in my heart, and perhaps all the more dangerously that I do not see them.” 12 He often bemoaned his pride and spoke of his need to be humbled. He constantly struggled with poor health and on one occasion when his poor health forced him to take a break form the ministry he wrote, “I have been too anxious to do great things. The lust of praise has ever been my besetting sin; and what more befitting school could be found for me than that of suffering alone, away from the eye and ear of man?” 13 Yet, while M’Cheyne bemoaned his pride, those who knew him were struck again and again by his humility. When St Peter’s was seeking a Pastor, at the same time as considering M’Cheyne, they were considering his two closest friends, Andrew Bonar and Alexander Somerville. He wrote to his parents, “If the people have any sense, they will choose Andrew Bonar.” 14
His humility was seen in a lovely way when revival came to Dundee. In 1839 he went to Israel on a “mission of discovery”. The Church of Scotland wanted to know more about the condition of the Jewish people at that time. M’Cheyne was one of five men who went. This was due to his interest in the evangelisation of the Jews and also for the benefit of his health. He would be away for a number of months and, before going, he arranged for William Chalmers Burns to minister in Dundee in his absence. He wrote to Burns, “I hope you may be a thousand times more blessed among them than ever I was.” 15 While he was away, the Lord sent times of great blessing to Dundee and other parts of Scotland. Bonar says, “He had no envy at another instrument having been so honoured in the place where he himself had laboured with many tears and temptations. In true Christian magnanimity, he rejoiced that the work of the Lord was done, by whatever hand.” 16
Knowing his own heart, M’Cheyne knew how important it was that he guarded and nurtured his soul. Andrew Bonar says that, “the commencement of all labour invariably consisted in the preparation of his own soul.” 17 Again Bonar says, “the real secret of his soul’s prosperity lay in the daily engagement of his heart in fellowship with his God.” 18 M’Cheyne never outgrew the need for daily Bible reading and prayer. This was what his life and his ministry was built upon. When I was a student the minister of the church I attended was once asked what he found to be the hardest thing in the ministry. He thought for a moment and said, “reading the Bible and praying every day”. M’Cheyne is a great example to us in how we have to make this a priority.
M’Cheyne knew many trials throughout his Christian life. His body was always weak and, at times he had to take time away from the ministry. He knew opposition. Bonar writes that, “He was the object of supercilious contempt to formal, cold-hearted ministers, and the bitter hatred to many of the ungodly…Very deep was the enmity borne to him by some – all the deeper, because the only cause of it was his likeness to his Master.” 19 He knew discouragement. In a letter to William Chalmers Burns he speaks of some who had left the church “having followed after an enthusiastic kind of man.” 20 Even through such trials his growth in grace was evident. We could spend the rest of our time thinking about the way that he nurtured his soul and cultivated a godly life. It would be of great profit for us to do so, but we must move on.
5) Death.
M’Cheyne was always physically weak and in 1843 he seemed to sense that death was near. He preached a number of times with great power upon the subjects of death and judgment. Early that year there was a typhoid epidemic in part of Dundee, but he continued to visit his flock. He did not escape the epidemic. He was very ill for a period of almost a fortnight before he died at 9:30am on 25th March 1843. Six days before his death a friend had spoken to him of how he hoped he would hear him preach again. M’Cheyne replied, “I am preaching the sermon that God would have me to do.” 21 On the day of his death Andrew Bonar wrote in his diary, “This afternoon about five o’clock, a message has just come to tell me of Robert M’Cheyne’s death. Never, never yet in all my life have I felt anything like this. It is a blow to myself, to his people, to the Church of Christ in Scotland. O Lord, work, for Thine own glory’s sake. Arise, O Lord, the godly ceaseth and the faithful fail. My heart is sore…Life has lost half its joys, were it not the hope of saving souls. There was no friend whom I loved like him.” 22
M’Cheyne: the minister
1) His view of the ministry.
On 16th December 1840, M’Cheyne preached at the ordination service of his friend Patrick Miller. 23 He preached on 2 Timothy 4:1&2, “In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage – with great patience and careful instruction.” In this message we see how M’Cheyne viewed the work of the Christian ministry. He begins by expounding the text, and then he gives a charge to the Minister followed by a charge to the congregation. As he expounds the text he begins by impressing upon us that we stand before God and Christ and we preach with the judgment ever before us. He concludes this section by saying, “Oh! believers, it is the duty of ministers to preach with this solemn day in their eye. We should stand, like Abraham, looking down on the smoke of Sodom; like John, listening to the new song and golden harps of the New Jerusalem. Would not this take away the fear of man? Would not this make us urgent in our preaching? You must either get these souls into Christ, or you will yet see them lying down in everlasting burnings. Oh! brethren, did I not say truly that the place where a minister stands is the most solemn spot in all this world?” He then moves on to talk about “the grand business of the faithful minister”. He says, “The grand work of the minister, in which he is to lay out his strength of body and mind, is preaching…Oh! brethren, this is our great work. It is well to visit the sick, and well to educate children and clothe the naked. It is well to attend presbyteries. It is well to write books or read them. But here is the main thing – preach the Word.” He urges us to focus upon the great doctrines of Scripture in our preaching, “Preach the Word – the most essential parts especially. If you were with a dying man, and knew he had but half an hour to live, what would you tell him? Would you open up some of the curiosities of the Word, or enforce some of the moral commands of the Word? Would you not tell him his undone condition by nature and by wicked works? Would you not tell him of the love and dying of the Lord Jesus? Would you not tell him of the power of the Holy Spirit? These are the essential things which a man must receive or perish. These are the great subject matters of preaching.” (It is interesting that John J Murray in drawing applications from M’Cheyne’s ministry says that he “was much in the main things”. 24 This is one of the things that always strikes me about the sermons of Dr Lloyd-Jones). Commenting on the words, “Reprove, rebuke, exhort” he speaks of how we must preach the law of God so that people will be convicted of sin and we then exhort them to turn to the saviour. He goes on to say that we must preach with great patience, that our sermons must clearly teach Christian doctrine and that we must be urgent and tireless in the work.
After expounding and applying the text, he gives the charge to the minister. There are five parts to it. 1) Thank God for putting you into the ministry. 2) Seek the anointing of the Holy Spirit. “You know that a heated iron, though blunt, can pierce its way even where a much sharper instrument, if cold, could not enter. Pray that you may be filled with the fire of the Spirit, that you may pierce into the hard hearts of unconverted sinners.” 3) Do not rest without success in your ministry. He speaks here of success amongst the Lord’s people, that they grow and also success amongst the lost, that they be saved. 4) Lead a holy life. “Study universal holiness of life. Your whole usefulness depends on this. Your sermon on Sabbath lasts but an hour or two, your life preaches all the week. Remember, ministers are standard – bearers. Satan aims his fiery darts at them. If he can only make you a covetous minister, or a lover of pleasure, or a lover of praise, or a lover of good eating, then he has ruined your ministry forever.” 5) Be a man of prayer. “Get your texts from God, your thoughts, your words, from God. Carry the names of the little flock upon your breast, like the High Priest; wrestle for the unconverted.”
The message concludes with a charge to the congregation. There are four parts to this. 1) Love your Pastor. “Esteem him very highly in love for his work’s sake. You little know the anxieties, temptations, pains, and wrestlings, he will be called to bear for you. Few people know the deep wells of anxiety in the bosom of a faithful pastor. Love and reverence him much. Do not make an idol of Him; that will destroy his usefulness.” 2) Make use of your pastor. a) Wait patiently on his ministry. b) Welcome him into your houses. c) Do not trouble him about worldly matters. d) Go freely to him about your souls. e) “Be brief. Tell your case. Hear his word and be gone. Remember his body is weak, and his time precious. You are stealing his time from others or from God.” 3) God’s children, pray for him. 4) Unconverted souls, prize this opportunity.
That was how M’Cheyne viewed the work that he had been called to.
2) His preaching.
It is clear from what we have just heard that M’Cheyne placed great emphasis upon the importance of preaching. What sort of preacher was he? What can we learn from his preaching? Depending upon where you turn to read his sermons you will either read his own notes, some of which are fuller than others, or the notes made by his hearers. Either way, there are many things that strike us as we read them.
He was a clear and simple preacher. For the most part he preached on individual texts, rather than consecutively through passages. He would usually put the text into its context and would proceed to explain the main teaching of the text and apply it, often giving particular applications for those who were saved and for those who were not. In fact, he often applied the message to a third group; the awakened, those who knew conviction of sin and concern for their souls but had not turned to the saviour. His applications were very searching and direct. He divided his message up with simple headings, usually coming naturally out of the text. For instance, his three points in a sermon on John 14:6 were, 1) Christ is the Way, 2) Christ is the Truth, 3) Christ is the Life. He used clear and helpful illustrations. This clarity in preaching was something that he believed we should work at. He once wrote to Andrew Bonar, “Study to express yourself clearly.” 25
How then did he prepare his sermons? He tried to have his outlines ready on Friday. On Saturday he would spend much time looking over and praying over his notes. He would often visit some of the dying on a Saturday to help prepare him for preaching to dying men the next day. He made sure that his preparation was complete on Saturday as he considered sermon preparation on a Sunday to be a breach of the Sabbath. When he first began preaching he took his notes with him into the pulpit. However once, when preaching at Larbert, he dropped them while travelling there on his horse. He found that he could preach without them and, from then on, rarely took notes into the pulpit.
He was not, by all accounts, a great orator, but the warmth of his character shone through in his preaching. A member of his congregation wrote in his diary, “How beautifully affectionate were M‘Cheyne’s addresses! He draws you to Christ.” 26 He was aware of the need to preach with warmth. Van Valen writes, “He discovered that he was sometimes too harsh and bold in his preaching, Even though the gospel is not the sort of message desired by men, yet it remains ‘a gentle message, that should be spoken with angelic tenderness’.” 27 On one occasion Andrew Bonar told him that he had been preaching on the subject of Hell. M’Cheyne asked, “Where you able to preach it with tenderness?” 28 M’Cheyne was always a young preacher and, perhaps, this is a particular danger for young preachers. In our desire to ensure that nobody despises our youth it is possible to preach in a harsh manner.
I have been struck over the past couple of years by the number of articles there have been in the BOT magazine on the free offer of the gospel. It would appear that the men responsible for the magazine believe that there is a deficiency in true gospel preaching amongst preachers of a reformed persuasion. One antidote to this is to read the sermons of M’Cheyne. He was a convinced Calvinist, yet had no hesitation in offering the gospel to all men. Van Valen summarises M’Chenyne’s position in the following paragraph. “He thought that it was useless to reason over the tension which existed between election and human responsibility. He stood in awe of the counsel of God, but never reduced his sovereignty to a subject of speculation. At one time, he called out: ‘Oh, most mysterious electing love!’ Bonar observes: ‘He saw no inconsistency in preaching an electing God who “calleth whom he will”, and a salvation free to “whosoever will”; nor in declaring the absolute sovereignty of God, and yet the unimpaired responsibility of man’.” 29 In this connection, he said the following at Patrick Miller’s ordination service, “And here I would observe what appears to me a fault in the preaching of our beloved Scotland. Most ministers are accustomed to set Christ before the people. They lay down the gospel clearly and beautifully, but they do not urge men to enter in. Now God says, Exhort – beseech men – persuade men; not only point to the open door, but compel them to come in.” 30
M’Cheyne was not a perfect man, nor was he a perfect minister. One criticism that come across in the biographies is that he maybe preached away too often. There were, from time to time, grumblings amongst his congregation at the number of times he preached away. Andrew Bonar says, “Many of us thought that he…erred, in the abundant frequency of his evangelistic labours at a time when he was still bound to a particular flock.” 31
You may not realise this but, according to M’Cheyne, preaching also has some medical value! His mother once wrote to him concerned about his health. She advised him to take some gruel and white wine. He answered that he knew of no better remedy than to preach frequently because “it is the best cure for all slight colds.” 32
M’Cheyne’s preaching was greatly used of God. People were saved upon hearing his very first sermon as minister of St Peter’s and many others were saved in the years that followed. While we know that God alone gives the increase and that we are all different men with different personalities, there is much that we can learn for the way that M’Cheyne sowed the seed. A month before he died he wrote to a fellow minister, “Never forget that the end of a sermon is the salvation of the people.” 33
3) His pastoral work.
M’Cheyne had a deep love for the people he pastored. This was evident during his year at Larbert & Dunipace and then during his seven years at Dundee. Early in 1839, when he was away from Dundee with poor health and then visiting Israel, he wrote a series of pastoral letters to his congregation. They overflow with love and compassion. As we have already mentioned, Dundee was an industrial town with all the problems that this brought, yet he once said, “My sweet parish is a little paradise.” 34 He was where God had placed him, with the people God had entrusted to his care.
From the beginning at Larbert & Dunipace and at Dundee he was tireless in pastoral visitation. He worked on the principle of parish visitation rather than congregational. He would sometimes visit up to twenty families a day and would often arrange for those families to gather together in the evening and he would preach to them. He kept a record of all his visits. These records included who was present, their spiritual condition, what he spoke about with them and the passage of Scripture he read. There were many demands upon his time and he had to make some rather unusual visits as this amusing letter to his sister makes clear; “I was home before six, and was just sitting down to my meal of meat and tea, when in came a well-dressed gentleman, and insisted on my setting off with him to marry his daughter. The company had all been waiting in anxious expectation, no minister appearing. There had been a mistake, and they had forgotten to send me notice, two having undertaken it. The bride was Widow Crockat, a nice-looking woman – you will remember her, Eliza; Mr Taylor was the bridegroom. Famished, fatigued, bamboozled, I yet got through the ceremony quite safely, binding them hard and fast with all due solemnity. There were some tears shed according to form, and then after congratulations and wine. I was presented by the bridesmaid with a pair of long silk stockings, as large and massy as would serve a bishop.” 35
He was very thorough and honest in dealing with people, always seeking their spiritual good. His own experience of “lifeless morality” caused him to be very cautious when dealing with others. He said this of one lady who came to see him, “Very staid, intelligent person, with a steady kind of anxiety, but I fear, no feeling of helplessness. Thought that sorrow and prayer would obtain forgiveness. Told her plainly what I thought of her case.” 36 When people applied to come to the Lord’s table he was very careful and sometimes refused to allow people to partake. He compiled a number of questions for young people who requested admittance to the Lord’s table. They included “Is it to please you father or mother, or any one on earth that you think of coming to the Lord’s table?”. Another was, “Should those come who have deep concern about their soul, but are not come to Christ?”. A further question was, “Do you think you have been awakened by the Holy Spirit? Brought to Christ? Born again? What makes you think so?” 37 During the time of revival that was to come, such questions were particularly important when, as always, there was the false mixed with the true.
When he first entered the ministry he thought little of church discipline. Looking back he said that he was “exceedingly ignorant of the vast importance of church discipline.” 38 As time went by he understood the importance of church discipline and knew the wholehearted support of his fellow elders.
A servant girl in a house where M’Cheyne once stayed observed him and said that he was “Deein’ to hae folk converted.” 39 All his pastoral work was aimed at the conversion of souls and their subsequent growth in grace.
4) Missionary work.
M’Cheyne’s concern for the cause of the gospel extended beyond Scotland. He read much of Jonathan Edwards and was, doubtless, stirred by Edwards’ missionary vision. In reading the works of Edwards he read the life of David Brainerd and what he read had a great impact upon him. He wrote in his diary on June 27th 1832, when a student at the Divinity Hall, “Life of David Brainerd. Most wonderful man! What conflicts, what depressions, desertions, strength, advancement, victories, within they torn bosom! I cannot express what I think when I think of thee. Tonight, more set upon missionary enterprise than ever.” 40 This desire always remained with him. As well as Brainerd, he was moved by the biography of Henry Martyn. In 1829 Alexander Duff was inducted as the first missionary of the Church of Scotland and went to India. A few years later Duff visited Scotland and M’Cheyne heard him speaking of his work. He wrote of what he heard; “He spoke with greater warmth and energy than ever. He kindles as he goes. Felt almost constrained to go the whole length of his system with him…I am now made willing, if God shall open the way, to go to India. Here am I; send me!” 41 This was not to be. His poor health and short life prevented him for embarking upon such a work.
M’Cheyne did however, as has already been mentioned, have the opportunity of travelling to Israel, sent by the Church of Scotland, in order to discover the spiritual state of the Jewish people at that time. He had a great concern for the Jewish people. It is interesting to read about M’Cheyne’s views of prophecy. The thinking of Edward Irving undoubtedly influenced him, though it seems not to the same extent as it influenced the Bonar brothers. Certainly, he expected a large-scale return of the Jews to Israel and believed that their blessing would bring blessing to the world. Though he was very ill and almost died during his trip, his heart was touched by the lost condition of the Jews and the condition of people in the countries he travelled through. Upon his return he worked hard to raise concern in Scotland and in Ireland for the cause of the Jews.
Whatever our views of prophecy may be, there is much to inspire us in M’Cheyne’s heartfelt desire to hear of the gospel spreading throughout the nations. He would read missionary news at the prayer meeting and he encouraged his congregation to pray for the spread of the gospel. In regard to his willingness and desire to serve overseas, Andrew Bonar asks the question, “Must there not be somewhat of this missionary tendency in all true ministers? Is any one truly the Lord’s messenger who is not quite willing to go when and where the Lord calls.” 42
5) Revival.
M’Cheyne had a great longing that God would revive his work.. He often read accounts of revival and read from such accounts at the prayer meeting. In the “Memoir and Remains” there is a message entitled “Why is God a stranger in the Land?” based on Jeremiah 14:8&9, “O Hope of Israel, its Saviour in times of distress, why are you like a stranger in the land, like a traveller who stays only a night? Why are you like a man taken by surprise, like a warrior powerless to save? You are among us, O LORD, and we bear your name; do not forsake us!” 43 In the message he gives reasons why God was a stranger in the land and urges the people to pray that text; to pray that God would no longer be a stranger. David Robertson says that, in 1837, M’Cheyne delivered several sermons on that text. 44
While he was away on the mission of discovery, in fact, at a time when he lay close to death in Smyrna, the Lord began a great work in Dundee and further afield. During his time at Dundee, William Chalmers Burns went to Kilsyth to assist his father at the Lord’s table. While preaching there the Holy Spirit empowered his ministry, with great effect upon the people. This blessing followed him when he returned to St. Peter’s. As soon as M’Cheyne heard of this he was eager to know more. When he returned he was overjoyed by what he saw. The first sermon he preached upon his return was on 2 Chronicles 5:13&14, “The trumpeters and singers joined in unison, as with one voice, to give praise and thanks to the LORD. Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals and other instruments, they raised their voices in praise to the LORD and sang: He is good; his love endures for ever. Then the temple of the LORD was filled with a cloud, and the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the temple of God.” This time of special blessing continued for a number of months after M’Cheyne’s return.
In a report of the revival that he sent to the Presbytery of Aberdeen 45 he said, “The parish is situated in the suburb of a city containing 60,000 inhabitants. The work extended to individuals residing in all quarters of the town, and belonging to all ranks and denominations of the people. Many hundreds, under deep concern for their souls, have come, from first to last, to converse with the ministers; so that I am deeply persuaded, the number of those who have received saving benefit is greater than any one will know till the judgment day.”
Speaking of the effects upon the wider community he said, “the effects that have been produced upon the community are very marked. It seems now to be allowed, even by the most ungodly, that there is such a thing as conversion. Men cannot any longer deny it. The Sabbath is now observed with greater reverence than it used to be; and there seems to be far more of a solemn awe upon the minds of men than formerly. I feel that I can now stop sinners in the midst of their open sin and wickedness, and command their reverent attention, in a way that I could not have done before.”
He said this of the human instruments that God had used: “No other meetings have taken place here, but such as were held for the preaching and teaching of the gospel, and for prayer.” And, “I do not know of anything in the ministrations of those who have occupied my pulpit that may with propriety be called peculiar, or that is different from what I conceive ought to characterize the services of all true ministers of Christ. They have preached, so far as I can judge, nothing but the pure gospel of the grace of God. They have done this fully, clearly, solemnly; with discrimination, urgency, and affection…They are, I believe, in general, peculiarly given to secret prayer; and they have also been accustomed to have much united prayer when together, and especially before and after engaging in public worship.”
There was opposition to the revival, both from the secular press and from the Lord’s people in certain quarters. There were people who, with time, proved to be false disciples, but M’Cheyne was convinced that it was a true sovereign work of God.
In thinking about the revival we learn much from M’Cheyne’s example. We learn from his example in the way that he prayed for God to come and work in a powerful way. We learn from his great humility in rejoicing even though God sent the blessing while he was away and did it through the ministry of another. We learn from the way that he cared for the souls that had been affected long after the height of the blessing had passed away. We learn from the way that he tested the revival. Andrew Bonar says, “Never, perhaps, was there one placed in better circumstances for testing the Revival impartially, and seldom has any Revival been more fully tested…he returned home to go out and in among them, and to be a close observer of all that had taken place; and, after a faithful and prayerful examination, he did most unhesitatingly say, that the Lord had wrought great things, whereof he was glad.” 46
6) Controversy.
Throughout the years of M’Cheyne’s ministry what has become known as the Ten Years Conflict was raging in Scotland and in the Church of Scotland. Two months after M’Cheyne’s death the Disruption of the Church of Scotland took place when 470 ministers left the Church of Scotland to form the Free Church. M’Cheyne loved the Lord Jesus Christ. He loved the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. He loved Scotland. For these reasons he fully played his part in a controversy that was concerned with the glory and rights of Jesus Christ. He was part of the “evangelical party” in the Church of Scotland and was always opposed to the Moderatism that had grown in influence in the pulpits and churches of Scotland. He once wrote of Moderatism, “It is a plant our Heavenly Father never planted and I trust it is now being rooted up.” 47 The issue that brought things to a head and led to the Disruption was the issue of patronage. The evangelicals believed that congregations should choose their own ministers, while the moderates believed that where there was a patron he should have that right. M’Cheyne, along with many others, believed and stated that the independence of the church and the authority of Jesus Christ was at stake. When the issue was taken to the House of Commons he wrote, “Eventful night this in the British Parliament! Once more King Jesus stands at an earthly tribunal and they know Him not.” 48 M’Cheyne took part in various debates and prayer meetings that were held over this issue. There is no doubt that, had he lived, he would have been amongst those who left the Church of Scotland, as 993 members of St Peters and 14 elders did. 49 I simply mention this so that we don’t go away with a view of a man who was deeply pietistic and, somehow, lived in his own devotional world cut off from the important issues of the day. He was not like that at all. He was aware of what was going on around him and he was deeply concerned for the glory of Jesus Christ at a personal level, at local church level and at national church level.
It is also important to note that M’Cheyne was ecumenical in the true and in the best sense of the word. When he visited Israel he delighted in meeting with Christians from a different background to his own. In December 1839 he spoke at a meeting of the Dundee Wesleyan Missionary Society. He was attacked for this, partly because it involved singing accompanied by an organ. In 1799 an Act had been passed that prevented preachers from other denominations preaching in the Church of Scotland. This Act was repealed in 1842 and M’Cheyne was one of the first ministers to invite preachers from other denominations into the pulpit. He was heavily criticised for this and, in response wrote a letter to the “Dundee Warder”. 50 In this letter he expresses the unity that there is between all true Christians and the unity there is between gospel ministers.
Conclusion
When we think about a man like Robert Murray M’Cheyne we are humbled and realise how little we have achieved and how far we have to go. Yet in this regard it is helpful to close with one final quote. On March 20th 1832, M’Cheyne wrote these words in his diary: “Read part of the life of Jonathan Edwards. How feeble does my spark of Christianity appear beside such a sun! But even his was a borrowed light, and the same source is still open to enlighten me.” 51
Mark Rowcroft
Darlington
