Robert Murray M’Cheyne

Robert Murray M’Cheyne
Presbyterian minister and missionary
Born May 21, 1813 (1813-05-21)
Edinburgh, Scotland
Died March 25, 1843 (1843-03-26)
Dundee, Scotland

Robert Murray M’Cheyne (pronounced, and occasionally spelled as “McCheyne”; 21 May 1813 – 25 March 1843) was a minister in the Church of Scotland from 1835 to 1843. He was born at Edinburgh, was educated at the University of Edinburgh and at the Divinity Hall of his native city, where he was taught by Thomas Chalmers. He first served as an assistant to John Bonar in the parish of Larbert and Dunipace, near Falkirk, from 1835 to 1838. Thereafter he became forever associated with St. Peter’s Church (in Dundee), where he served as minister until his early death at the age of 29 during an epidemic of typhus.

Not long after his death, his friend Andrew Alexander Bonar edited his biography which was published with some of his manuscripts as The Memoir and Remains of the Rev. Robert Murray M’Cheyne. The book went into many editions. It has had a lasting influence on Evangelical Christianity worldwide.

In 1839, M’Cheyne and Bonar, together with two older ministers, Dr. Alexander Black and Dr. Alexander Keith, were sent to Palestine on a mission of inquiry to the condition of the Jews. Upon their return, their official report for the Board of Mission of the Church of Scotland was published as Narrative of a Visit to the Holy Land and Mission of Inquiry to the Jews. This led subsequently to the establishment of missions to the Jews by the Church of Scotland and by the Free Church of Scotland. During M’Cheyne’s absence, his place was filled by the appointment of William Chalmers Burns to preach at St. Peter’s as his assistant.

M’Cheyne was a preacher, a pastor, a poet, and wrote many letters. He was also a man of deep piety and a man of prayer. He never married.

M’Cheyne died exactly two months before the Disruption of 1843. This being so, his name was subsequently held in high honour by all the various branches of Scottish Presbyterianism, though he himself held a strong opinion against the Erastianism which led to the Disruption. Bonar records, “And when, on the 7th March of the following year (i.e. 1843), the cause of the Church was finally to be pleaded at the bar of the House of Commons, I find him writing: ‘Eventful night this in the British Parliament! Once more King Jesus stands at an earthly tribunal, and they know Him not!’” (Memoir {1892 ed.}, p. 147).

M’Cheyne designed a widely used system for reading through the Bible in one year. The plan entails reading the New Testament and the Psalms through twice a year, and the Old Testament through once. This program was included (in a slightly modified form) in For the Love of God by D. A. Carson (ISBN 0851115896) and is recommended by several Bible publishers, such as the English Standard Version[1] and the New English Translation.[2]

Works

* Mission of Discovery Christian Focus Publications, ISBN 978-1857922585

OTHER SOURCE

Robert Murray McCheyne: Scottish Preacher

Robert Murray McCheyne (mak-sh?n): Church of Scotland; born at Edinburgh May 21, 1813; death at Dundee March 25, 1843. He studied at the University of Edinburgh, where he distinguished himself by his poetical talent, being awarded a prize by Professor John Wilson (“Christopher North”) for a poem on The Covenanters. In 1831 he took up the study of theology at the Divinity Hall of the university under Thomas Chalmers and David Welsh, and on November 7, 1835, he began his ministerial labors at Larbert, near Falkirk, as assistant to John Bonar. On November 24, 1836, he was ordained to the pastorate of St. Peter’s Church, Dundee, which he held till his death.

In 1839 he was a member of the committee sent to Palestine by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland to collect information respecting the Jews. On his return he entered upon a successful evangelistic campaign, first at Dundee, then at other places in Scotland and northern England. In the controversy that finally led to the disruption of the Scottish Church he took very decided ground on the non-intrusion side. McCheyne was a fine example of the true Gospel preacher. Long after his death he was constantly referred to as ” the saintly McCheyne.” His principal works are, Narrative of a Mission of Inquiry to the Jews … in 1889 (in collaboration with A. A. Bonar; Edinburgh, 1842); Expositions of the Epistles to the Seven Churches of Asia (Dundee, 1843); The Eternal Inheritance … two Discourses (1843); Memoirs and Remains (ed . A. A. Bonar, Edinburgh, 1843, and often; new ed., 1897); and Additional Remains, Sermons, and Lectures (1844). The Remains, which have done much to perpetuate McCheyne’s memory, consist of sermons, fugitive pieces, and hymns, including the popular “When this passing world is done.”

Bibliography: The principal work is the Memoir and Remains by A. A. Bonar, ut sup., abridged ed., Edinburgh, 1865. Consult further the short Life by J. L. Watson, London, 1881; DNB, xxxv. 3.

Copied by Stephen Ross for WholesomeWords.org from The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge… New York: Funk and Wagnalls Company, 1910.

On this day…

• 2 Thessalonians 3 – 2025
• 2 Thessalonians 2 – 2025
• Acts 7 – 2024
• Acts 6 – 2024
• Erastianism – 2011
• Thomas Erastus – 2011
• The Sum of Saving Knowledge – 2011
• Conversion of Robert Murray McCheyne – 2011
• Daily Bread, being a calendar for reading through the Word of God in a year – 2011
• Isaiah 45:11-13 – 2011