Born in May, 1813 in Edinburgh, Scotland, Robert Murray McCheyne was the son of a prosperous lawyer and the youngest of five children. While a university student he turned to a life of debauchery. At his 18th birthday was brought to conviction by the death of his older brother.
And in his own diary wrote these words: “March 11, 1834 – read The Sum of Saving Knowledge, and believe there has been a saving change in me.”
After completing his theological studies, McCheyne was called at the age of 25 to St. Peter’s Free Church (Presbyterian) in Dundee, Scotland. A city given to idolatry and hardness of heart. There was one pub for every 80 people! When McCheyne went there he wrote in his diary: “The Lord has set me in the midst of a people who are not pleased with the Gospel. But, if the Gospel pleased carnal men it would not be the Gospel.”
The Westminster Confession of Faith – was his constant text book. “Oh for the grace of the Westminster divines,” he writes, “to be poured out upon this generation of lesser men.” Ruin by the fall, righteousness by Christ, and regeneration by the Spirit was the substance of his preaching. His preaching was simple, fearless, and boldly Calvinistic. Of all his sermons that remain, the most common occurring theme is that of God’s electing work!
McCheyne was well-known for his convicting preaching. After his death a fellow minister wrote, “Laziness and unfaithfulness are besetting sins of mine, and his living presence was a rebuke to me; for I never knew one so faithful, in season and out of season, one so impressed with eternal and invisible realities and so faithful in reproving sin and witnessing for Christ.”
When McCheyne was bedridden due to absolute exhaustion from work, and had heart-problems as well, and could not preach, he penned a series of pastoral letters to his congregation that are models of pressing home the obligations of the Christian Life (contained in Memoirs and Remains). Listen to this snippet:
If you lack holiness, you will never see the Lord. A real desire after complete holiness is the truest mark of being born again. Jesus is a holy Saviour. He first covers the soul with His white raiment, then makes the soul glorious within – restores the lost image of God, and fills the soul with pure, heavenly holiness. Unregenerate men among you cannot bear this.”
M’Cheyne warned his fellow ministers:
Brethren, our people will not thank us in eternity for speaking smooth things, and crying “Peace, peace, when there is no peace.” No, they may praise us now, but they will curse our flattery in eternity.
But it was McCheyne’s personal piety that is worth our study and imitation. He also wrote this to a fellow minister:
Above all things, cultivate your own spirit. Your own soul is your first and greatest care. Seek advance of personal holiness. It is not great talents God blesses so much as great likeness to Jesus. A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hand of God. A word spoken by you when your conscience is clear, and your heart full of God’s Spirit, is worth ten thousand words spoken in unbelief and sin.
From his diary we gather his own private observations:
“I ought to spend the best hours of the day in communion with God. It is my noblest and most fruitful employment…The morning hours, from six to eight, are the most uninterrupted… After tea is my best hour, and that should be solemnly dedicated to God, if possible.”
On Sundays, he spent SIX HOURS in prayer and devotional reading! On Mondays he met the ministers of the presbytery for a 90 minute prayer meeting. One day a month he reserved for a day of prayer and fasting. McCheyne’s prayer life was, to put it mildly, INTENSE.
McCheyne was incredibly disciplined in his prayer life, just as he was in his Bible reading (see McCheyne’s Bible reading plan). He was constantly rethinking and sharpening and he rigorously followed a pattern of specific confession of sin, thanksgiving, adoration, and specific intercessory prayer. He prayed daily for missions with a map on his lap. Below is an excerpt from his intercessory prayer diary:
1.People
- Relatives
- Friends
- Elders
- Church Members
- The sick and dying
- For God to raise up Elders, SS teachers and prayer meeting leaders
- For the power of the preached Word on the Sabbath
- For fellow ministers
- Against Popery
- The persecuted Church
2.Subjects
- For the power of the Holy Spirit
- For the unity and purity of the Church of Jesus
- For the Queen and all civil rulers
- For the Lord to raise up-in great numbers-ministers to serve the church
- For the Word of God to be more reverenced in our land
- For the success of missionary efforts in heathen lands
- For the Jews to come to Christ
- For a blessing upon the General Assembly
It was McCheyne’s aim to avoid any hurry which prevents “the calm working of the Spirit on the heart. The dew comes down when all nature is at rest – when every leaf is still. A calm hour with God is worth a whole lifetime with man …”
During his illness he wrote: “To me that grace is not now given to preach to you…still the Lord allows me to give myself unto prayer…my soul does not rest in silence. I am permitted to go in secret to God and I can make mention of you all in my prayers and give thanks for the little flock.”
The cook in the manse said of McCheyne’s prayer life, “Oh to hear Mr McCheyne at prayers in the morning. It was as if he would never stop, he had so much to ask.”
Even on his deathbed, McCheyne continued to intercede for His people. His last words, spoken while under a raging fever, he lifted his hands and cried out, “Lord, save this church and these people!”
McCheyne died at the age of 29 in an epidemic of Typhus.
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- The Civil Government Has Asked Us to Pray - November 16, 2016
