(An edited transcript to facilitate reading.)

Good morning, everyone.

Well, having heard of the life of Robert Murray M'Cheyne, one of the first things that struck me was just how ordinary this man's life was. He was somebody who was converted in his teenage years. He went on to study theology, he became an assistant pastor. And then he went on to be a pastor of a large city church for six years. He wrote a good many letters, he wrote a diary, he co-authored only one book, and he wasn't a martyr for his faith. So the question is, why on earth? Do we know anything about this man? And more than that, as we dig a little deeper, we discover that this man has had a huge impact on so many people's lives. In fact, a name that many of us are familiar with Spurgeon. He  said that every minister should read the biography of Robert Murray M'Cheyne and not just once, but often.

So what was it about Robert Murray M'Cheyne, what was it about his life? So we're going to take a look together.

To do this, we're going to travel to 1813, to Edinburgh, in Scotland. This was where Robert Murray M'Cheyne was born. And this was a time in Scotland, where everybody was culturally Christian, you know, everybody would say that they were Christian. But also at this time in Scotland, there was a rise of what was known as Moderatism. Now, Moderatism was a church movement, which looked at Christianity as a lifestyle, as a series of ethical choices, good moral principles on which to base your life. But it tried to dampen down any sort of offensive material about sin, the cross, and justification, things like that.  

Well, actually, Robert Murray M'Cheyne's family grew up in a moderate church. He was the youngest of five children. And his father was an eminent lawyer, so very well off. And so he grew up with this sort of church background teaching of good moral principles. And he had an excellent education, which was also something the moderates really looked into.

Now from a very young age, he loved learning, and he certainly had an aptitude for it. On one occasion, when he was quite sick, and he was just lying in bed, he learnt the whole Greek alphabet, or the letters, he could write them all by the end of his short illness. And he was four years old at the time. He also had a love for writing and poetry, and he went to high school aged eight, and then went on to university at the age of 14.

So in these teenage years, he was known as a live and energetic young man with a quick mind a fun temperament. He spent his summers hiking in the southern, so in the north, the Southern Highlands, the Scottish Highlands. And on the outside, when you looked at him, you would see a good Christian boy, one that had a lot of the outward traits of Christian living. But even at this point in his life, Robert understood that in private, he was not like that. He really relished the entertainment and the highlight of the day, which, of course, was things like dancing and parties and playing cards and such like, at university, he really immersed himself into the classics, the arts, poetry, writing, sketching, music, that type of thing.

When he was 18, and this is in 1831, he moved to Divinity Hall, which is where he would study theology. He studied under a renowned theologian at that time, a man by the name of Dr. Thomas Chalmers. This man was a genuine believer who had a huge impact in Scotland. He also came from the moderate movement, the moderate church, and he had come out of that, realizing that this wasn't the way.

You might ask why Robert would choose a life of ministry before he became a Christian. But you see, this was a respectable job at the time. It was something seen as sort of a high status to be sort of a minister or pastor or a theologian, these things were looked up to. But also you can see that the Lord had a hand in this, because it was this move that also led him in some way to the gospel.

Now, his studies did start to make a small impression on him and certainly his mentor, Dr. Thomas Charmers, had a big impact on him as well.

Well, but the real blow came in his personal life. Now his family was quite ideal. They had a very close relationship. He was close with all his siblings and his parents. And so it was a big shock when one of his older brothers decided to take a job with the Bengal medical service. This would mean he'd have to move away and move to India. And of course, in those days, moving to India was like moving to the moon. And so this had a huge impact on the family unit.

But then, Robert's oldest brother, David, was suffering from an illness. He was eight years his senior and someone that Robert really looked up to. And he was suffering from melancholy or deep depression, as they put it in those days. But during this period, he also had come to know Jesus. And David changed dramatically. And for Robert, this was quite startling someone so close to him, someone he really looked up to, was now so different. He said, the whole family thought themselves to be Christian. But then he was somebody, the oldest brother, who was really changed. And David prayed earnestly for his younger brother. And he also really could see that Robert was very much caught up in the world. And he prayed desperately that Robert would see the light and be saved.

While David's illness took such a toll on him, that he died, aged 26. Robert was 18, at the time, and he had just started his study in the first year of Divinity Hall. This death in the family of a brother that he really looked up to, was such a blow on him. And he came away from this so, so much sobered, but he was not yet saved.

Now, his friends clearly noticed a difference in this young man, Robert had become a lot more serious, a lot more focused. And he really started seeking God, because he'd seen something in his brother, something was very different. And he knew that his brother had prayed for whatever he had to be shared with Robert. And so he tried to seek God more by attending meetings and reading the Bible. He also immersed himself in lots of good Christian books.

So over time, the emotional impact of the death of his brother, combined with his mind that was now so open to the Gospel. Both these things together, led him to Christ. We don't have a full account of the process of his conversion, but we do have a poem that he wrote, and he wrote this poem to express the change that had happened in him.

The title of this poem is called Jehovah Tsidkenu, which is Hebrew, for the Lord, our righteousness, taken from Jeremiah 23:6. He wrote,

Once a stranger to grace and to God, and 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.

When free grace awoke me by light from on high, 
 then legal fears shook me and I trembled to die. 
 No refuge, no safety in self could I see. 
 Jehovah Tsidkenu my Saviour, must be.

My tears have vanished before the sweet name, 
 my guilty fears banished with boldness I came,
  To drink at the fountain life giving and free, 
 Jehovah Tsidkenu is all things to me.

He wrote in his diary on the first anniversary of his brother David's death: "On this morning, last year, came the first overwhelming blow to my worldliness. How blessed to me, Thou, O God, only knowest, who has remembered and made it so."  On every anniversary of his brother's death, he would remember his brother in grief, but also in thankfulness, because he recognized that his brother led him to Christ.

For Robert, the change was quite gradual. You know, he had to overcome a lot of old worldly habits, and His conscience was being gradually sharpened. Now, it wasn't easy for him, and he wrote once in his diary, "Absented myself from the dance, a breaking ill to bear, but I must try and bear the cross."

But around this time, one of his companions a friend, and at the Divinity Hall college, also became a follower of Christ. And now he had someone else to keep him accountable. Alexander Somerville and he used to meet together and they would pray and read the Scripture together. And they were soon joined by another young man, Andrew Bonar, and the three of them were close friends for the rest of their lives.

While in these early years, beyond the study of Greek and Hebrew and church history, his diary gives us insight into a lot of the daily struggles and victories that he had, as he learnt to live out this Christian life. After being out for an evening of fun, he wrote, "My heart must break off from all these things. What right have i to steal and abuse my Master's time? Redeem it, He is crying to me." He could also see times when he was completely depending on his own strength, his own will power. And as he politically put it, "leaning on a staff of my own devising, it betrayed me and broke under me. It was not Thy staff."

He read the works of Jonathan Edwards, and was very much inspired by his writing. He said, "How feeble does my spark of Christianity appear besides such a sun, but even his was a borrowed light, and the same source is still open to enlighten me."

But he did struggle with his sin, and his unworthiness. He knew his unbelief, and he fell into old habits. Sometimes he felt so miserable. He talked about himself as a mass of corruption or a worm. But in his reflection, he wrote, "Perhaps my old sins are too fearful and my unbelief too glaring, Nay, I come to Christ, not although I'm a sinner, but just because I am a sinner, even the chief." He would cry out to God in his diary, "Can these dry bones live? O Lord, Thou knowest. Lord, perfect that which Thou has begun."  Well the Lord did hear his prayer.

In addition to all the academic studies, Dr. Thomas Chalmers had a big burden to show his young students that it was not just about their theological study, but they were to apply it practically in word and in deed. And so he would bring them to the slums of Edinburgh, and he got them to minister amongst the poor there. Visiting these slums was a great shock to M'Cheyne. He had lived in relative ease all his life, and he had passed by these areas and walked by these very doors without ever wondering what was behind, what was going on. And to walk into these homes and to see the suffering of the people and their lives, struck him hard. And he wrote, "Why should I give hours and days any longer to this vain world, when there is such a world of misery at my very door?"

He was resolved at this point to bring the Gospel to everyone, and particularly to these people. He had a very much a deeper sense of his ministry. He saw his studies in a completely different light. He saw it as his responsibility to learn as much as he could, to visit, to minister to these people. And he saw this time at university as a way of forming his character, of getting rid of any slovenly habits, to do everything with all his heart. And he prayed for wisdom in all his study.

Well, by the end of his time, at Divinity Hall, he was able to read Hebrew and Greek as easily as English. And the Lord was transforming him.

In 1835, while he was still studying, he was asked to be an Assistant Minister at a place in Larbert which was a smaller town in Scotland. He much preferred these rural areas to the big cities. And here is an Assistant Minister, he learned a lot of lessons.

He was still developing his preaching style, and he'd seen other people preaching. He had seen people who memorized everything word for word, and then stood up in the pulpit and recited their whole sermon, and then there were other people who just read it, read it very clearly and slowly from the pulpit. One day, he was riding rapidly from one town to another, and on the way he dropped all his sermon notes. By the time he arrived there, it was far too late to do anything about it and he had no time to write any notes again. He just had to get up into the pulpit with no notes whatsoever. But on that occasion, he preached so freely, and he felt so composed, in fact, so free to be led by the Spirit. And he realized that he was given this gift of speaking. Language came to him very easily. Now, this didn't mean that he prepared less. In fact, he prepared more, because he always wanted to be led by the Spirit in his preaching. And he didn't want to depend on himself and his own satisfactory preparation. He wanted to depend on the Lord only. He also wrote a lot less poetry during this period. Perhaps we see that he was putting his poetic gifts into his speaking instead.

During his time at Larbert he also learned to visit people. But, being the 1800's, and being a small town, he was often at the bedside of people who were dying. This was also a huge time of learning for him. Accidents, childhood sicknesses, chills, fevers, infections, all of this could take you to an early grave, and so it was so frequently that he was called into a home of someone who was sick, and he would be there as that person died. He remember standing by a lady who had died and he had closed her eyes. And he wrote when he got home, "O Lord, give me strength for living to Thee, and also strength for the dying hour."

As a young man with so much energy and vigour and many ideas, his health was really bad. He had contracted tuberculosis as a teenager, and his lungs had never quite recovered. So there were times when he was laid up with an attack of some sort of chill or fever or something like that. And he just had to lie there in bed. And in these periods, he had to learn patience, and he struggled. He wrote, "Set by once more for a season, to feel my unprofitableness and cure my pride. Lord, I will run, I will visit, I will wrestle, I said. 'No, thou shalt lie in bed and suffer', said the Lord." That's how he felt. At first, he used to think that these periods of sickness were a terrible thing, a missed opportunity. He could be out there on the streets, speaking the gospel to people, preaching, but no, he was lying in bed, sick, unable to move. But then he realized that God is sovereign. It taught him that in essence, in these periods, because God is sovereign, the Lord had shut his mouth at that point, and he was to rest in that fact, that he was living under the hand of God. So he learned so much humility, and he realized that he must preach Christ for Christ's sake. It was not about him. It was all about His words, His abilities, and he was never to attract people to himself.  So all these lessons, were good training for the next chapter of his life.

Now, there was a new church being built in the city of Dundee and this new church, of course, needed a pastor to attend there and M'Cheyne's name was put forward and he was unanimously selected after they heard him preach. So he was to leave his ministry in Larbert after about 10 or 11 months. And the investment that he put into this place made that really difficult, and he was so anxious that there would be someone to take his place, someone who would love the people. He was so glad that his good friend Alexander Somerville, was going to replace him.

So he was ordained as the pastor of St. Peter's in Dundee, in November of 1836, at the ripe old age of 23.

To his great delight, Andrew Bonar, his good friend, was placed in Collace, which was just a few miles down the road, just a bit over a year later, and so these three friends were in good distance of each other.

Now, the city of Dundee was very, very different to where he was. Firstly, it was industrial town, full of textile mills that had attracted many people from the rural areas. It was high density living with many slums. And the parish that he was responsible for had about 4000 people in it, and perhaps about 1000 were active members of the parish of St. Peter's. But this was a particularly hard-hearted town, as he put it, in fact, only 60% of the people went to church, which was quite low for those days, and that number had fallen. And so, with the noise of the factories and the smog in the air, this was a hard place to be. Not only that, but when he arrived, the city was plagued with influenza and cholera, and he was thrown straight into visiting people. Sometimes he would end a long day and come home and then be called out immediately to go and sit by someone who was dying.

He remembered going to see a young boy and speaking to him about Jesus. And then when he finished, the boy just gasped and died. This, again, kept him so aware of the brevity of life on earth. And he just, like in Larbert, had to learn to have strength for the dying hour.

But also, there's really intense moments meant that he was in households, he was amongst families, at their most vulnerable time. There he was, as they were losing a mother or father or a child. And he was there in the midst of them. Sometimes neighbours and friends were there, and he was able to minister to people at that very, very intense moment. Soon he became well known across all the town, not just to his own congregation, but also to the town of Dundee in general.

Now, M'Cheyne's preaching was also very appealing, and people flocked to hear him. When asked why the worst sinners of Dundee were willing to come and hear him, he said, "Well, the reason is because my heart exhibits so much likeness to theirs."

M'Cheyne always sought to preach Christ, and not just doctrine. But more than that, he wanted to live by this maxim, that "My people's greatest need is my own personal holiness." He also wrote, "A holy minister is an awful [that is, a powerful] weapon in the hands of God." This characterized his life and his ministry. 

He was very clear that it was God's work that saved souls, not his interpretation or his exposition or the way he presented God's word, it was God's work alone. But in his increasing popularity amongst the people of the town, he was always on his guard. He knew that pride was lurking around the corner and he was so careful to be clothed in humility. He wrote to a fellow pastor about that passage in Exodus where Moses had come down from the mountain when His face shone after being in the presence of God. And he said, "Oh for closer communion with God till soul and body, head, face and heart shine with divine brilliancy. But oh, for holy ignorance of our shining. Pray for this, for you need it as well as I." And although he was often grieved by his own sinfulness, he understood that this too could lead to unhelpful introspection. He wrote to a friend, "Do not take up your time so much with studying your own heart, as with studying Christ's heart. For one look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ."

Perhaps his poor health really did help him to keep humble because he was often forced to step away with debilitating fevers and sicknesses and he now saw this not as an inconvenience and a problem but as training. He said, "Every wise workman takes his tools away from work from time to time, that they may be grounded and sharpened. So does the only wise Jehovah take His ministers oftentimes away into darkness and loneliness and trouble, that He may sharpen and prepare them for hard work in his service."

But his punishing schedule, the endless travel between towns and living in a neglected part of the city full of epidemics and noisy mechanics, as he put it, meant that many people, including his own family, urged him to move away, to move to another parish, for the sake of his health. And he was offered another parish in the country with far higher wages, a much smaller congregation of a few hundred and a far easier lifestyle overall. But he felt that the Master, His master, had placed him there in Dundee, and so he would only go if he felt sure that it was from God. So he asked the Lord for a sign. He asked the Lord to awaken some of his congregation so that they would see their need for a Saviour.

Well, the very next morning, two people came to look for him. And they were in great distress, and they pleaded with him to help them because they didn't know the destiny of their souls. And so, M'Cheyne felt that this was a clear word from the Lord, to stay put.

So he continued on day after day, visiting, preaching, teaching. And thankfully for us, he did keep a diary, so we have some idea of the things that he did. In addition to preaching twice on a Sunday, he started a Thursday prayer meeting. And this, within a few years, swelled to the attendance of about 800 people. He also taught a Sunday school on Sundays and also a Bible class on Tuesdays for youth that 250 youth used to attend. He really loved the youth - he was, I guess, pretty youthful himself - he was only in his early 20's all this time. Sometimes on Saturdays, he would open his home for people to come and ask questions, and people used to do that quite often. He would visit people in their homes during the week, sometimes up to 20 families a day. And in between times, he would study and prepare for the regular ministry, and writing letters to people.

Now, in those days, in Scotland, it was customary to Break Bread only once or maybe twice a year. M'Cheyne wanted to change that. So he did something quite radical. He doubled that to four times a year, which did raise a few eyebrows at the time. 

These periods of time for communion work were not what we would think of as the Breaking Bread. They were called Communion Seasons. This was a time when people would travel. They would come and spend a few days, and the Communion, the Breaking of Bread, would take maybe the whole day. People would be prepared for this - sometimes they would fast the day before, and do things like that. So these were really solemn and very important times and he made good use of these times to reach people and to spread the gospel. Many people who travelled to hear M'Cheyne preach during this season, returned to their villages and some of them described it as "their hearts were burning within them" as they went home.

But the real impact that M'Cheyne had, was not just through his speaking. It was by his life that he lived so openly among these people. People saw in him, and this is what people commented, a peculiar man of God, someone who was not particularly superior, who was hugely approachable, someone who was clearly saved by grace, who knew their temptations and exhorted them, often in tears. He truly loved these people of Dundee and they to knew it. A woman who has not yet a believer, commented after hearing M'Cheyne preach, "It was not his matter, nor his manner either that struck me. It was just the living epistle of Christ."

Throughout his life, M'Cheyne had a real love for evangelism and missionary work. He was inspired by the diary of David Brainerd, and he looked for opportunities all the time for evangelism in his own town, but also in the villages and towns around Dundee. He also had a deep sense that his life would be a short one. Perhaps this was because of the frequent illnesses or perhaps because he saw death all the time. So when this rare opportunity came about, he was one of the first to say, "Here I am, send me."

Now, due to his talent as a Hebrew scholar, M'Cheyne was selected to join an expedition to Palestine, modern day Israel. This was an expedition to go as a missionary to the Jewish people, but also to see what life was like out there. Now, four ordained ministers were selected for this, and Andrew Bonar was another one. And they were to go and to report on what they saw, to come back with a full account of what it was like in Palestine, but also what the situation of the Jews were, not only in Palestine, but also in Eastern Europe through which they would also be traveling.

Now, ironically, M'Cheyne's health was really bad at this time. He was in such a state that he had moved back with his family in Edinburgh on doctor's orders. His doctor said that if he kept up his schedule, then he would die, so he was taking some time out with his family to try to recover his strength. He was recovering slowly when this opportunity came about, and his doctor heard about it and thought it would be a great idea. He said, "You know, a journey into a hot desert climate, that would do wonders for your respiratory system." Such was medicine in those days.

The journey that he was going to embark upon would take several months and he would be away at least eight months from Dundee, and so another man had to be chosen to take his place. There was a pastor at that time by the name of William Burns, and he was asked to take M'Cheyne's place for those eight months. M'Cheyne wrote to him, "I hope you may be a thousand times more blessed among these people than I ever was."

Now, M'Cheyne really relished this idea of going to Palestine, because he strongly believed that the Jews were God's special and chosen people. And he, like Paul, had the desire that all Israel be saved, and truly believed that the gospel went to the Jew first, and then to the Gentiles. He was doing this because of his strong belief that the Jews needed to hear the gospel first.

We won't go into all his adventures as he went to Palestine - a whole book was written by him and Andrew Bonar on this journey. It has the mouthful of a title, "A Narrative of a Mission of Inquiry to the Jews from the Church of Scotland in 1839." But despite this, perhaps uninventive title, this book became a best seller as people wanted to know what life was like in the Middle East.

So after arduous travel by sea, and then across land by camel, being led by Bedouins over the wilderness through Egypt, they arrived at Jerusalem. M'Cheyne and Andrew Bonar were so moved by walking through the streets, and seeing the sights where Jesus Himself had walked. He wrote in a letter back home, "If there is one place on Earth, where physical scenery can help us discover divine things, I think it's Mount Olivet. Gethsemane at your feet leads your soul to meditate on Christ's love and His determination to undergo divine wrath for us. Turning the other way, and looking to the southeast, you see Bethany, reminding you of His love to his own, and that those who are in their graves, shall one day come forth at His command. And then a little further down, and you'll see the Dead Sea stretching far among the mountains, and that makes you go away saying, 'How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?'"

Well, even here, so far from home and so immersed in a completely different world and culture, these Scotsmen were just as much a tourist attraction as what they were seeing. People never travelled this far in those days, so this was most unusual. To see these Scottish people walking through the wilderness would have been a sight for anybody.

But even here, he was always thinking about his people in Dundee. When in Beirut, in Lebanon, he heard that there was a Scotsman, somebody from Glasgow, who was there, perhaps as a missionary. But at that time this man from Glasgow was very feverish and in a very weak state, but M'Cheyne couldn't help wanting to go and visit him. He was a fellow Scotsman in this foreign land, and so he went to encourage him. It was probably that visit that caused him to catch a fever, and soon he too, was very unwell. 

But they still had to travel on and were heading towards Smyrna, which is in Turkey. Travel, in those days was very difficult at the best of times, let alone when you were extremely ill. He was so sick that he was delirious, and he lost his memory for a few hours. But there was no medical aid to be had and so his friends just had to watch on helplessly. They went on a ship, and then once they got to land, they had to keep going to try and find medical help. And so they got him on a mule and they got to the village of Smyrna. There they were to stay with a missionary couple and finally he was able to get the help he needed.

Well he was so weakened by this illness that he couldn't even read or write anything, and he could hardly even speak. So all he could do was lie there and pray. And that was all he did. He prayed fervently for God's blessing to come upon his people, and he believed at the time that he was going to die. But he pleaded with the Lord, that if He willed it, He would give him another opportunity to see his people.

Well, at that very time that M'Cheyne was lying sick, stretched out on a bed in Smyrna, William Burns was preaching in Dundee, and after a Thursday prayer meeting, Burns could see that the people weren't going away. He asked if anybody wanted to stay back to receive salvation, and about 100 people remained behind and so he addressed them. It was like God's presence came down onto that place and many people were in tears and by the end of that night, people were thanking God for their salvation. And this happened the next day, and the next day, and soon hundreds of people were being saved. It was like the time of Acts when people were being added to the church daily. 

Now, M’Cheyne knew nothing about what was going on, of course, for some time. But a letter finally reached him when he was on the very last leg of his journey. He was in England, and he was amazed to hear what God had done in his absence. And it's perhaps a measure of the Lord's work in him, that there was no sense of hurt pride, or jealousy, or envy. Not even in his private diaries. He had laboured so much for these people of Dundee. He had put his life on the line for them day after day, and the minute he left, that's when God worked. Well, M'Cheyne could say, with all sincerity, "I have no desire, but the salvation of my people, by whatever instrument." And later he said, "I sometimes think that a great blessing may come to my people in my absence. For often God does not bless us in the midst of our labours, lest we shall say my hand or eloquence have done it."

He truly was in awe of what God had done. He wrote to his friend Andrew, "There's a boy who's 15 years old, and it was a girl of 11. They came to know their sin and came to Christ so clearly, and they've so changed. There was the man in the town that was known for his drunkenness and his really hard heart is completely changed. Even some elderly people who were so set in their ways. They were now so shaken, clinging to the Saviour." He really, truly was in awe of what had happened in his absence. So M'Cheyne continued to labour amongst these people and to bring in this huge harvest. William Burns, meanwhile, went on to be a missionary in China. And when he was there, he mentored a young man by the name of Hudson Taylor.

After the initial excitement, things did return to a more normal routine. And M'Cheyne did see people backsliding. Though there were many people who had a great conviction of their sin, they actually never came to Jesus. He saw people awaken from their sin, but they just returned to the old habits and bad company. They never took that final step to receive the Lord. He wrote a letter to a young woman who was in a similar situation. She was seeking the Lord but she herself had not yet received Him. He wrote, "Your right views of the gospel will not justify you. You must be covered with a spotless righteousness. Your change of heart and life will not justify you. It cannot cover past sins, neither is it perfect." He urged her to come to Jesus now, and not to wait. "Do you receive Christ with open arms? Do you cry, My Lord and my God, my surety, my all? Dear friend, do not tarry, eternity may be near. Now is your best time, perhaps your only time, of closing with Christ."  There were many people who heard and understood the gospel, but did not turn to Christ.

Revival had spread to many of the other towns, and soon, M'Cheyne was being invited to preach in other places as well., and he couldn't resist the opportunity to preach the gospel elsewhere. He was starting to speak in the open air now. He spoke to crowds of thousands under a clear sky with the moon rising in the stars, and there he spoke on Revelation 20, and the great white throne, and he set before them life and death. He also spoke to another huge crowd in Dundee in a marketplace. And, again, he spoke on Revelation 20 and the rain started to pour down, drenching everybody. But no one moved until he said his last word.

All of this travel and sleet and snow and rain and sometimes preaching multiple times a day took a lot out of him. He would say he felt as strong as a giant when in church, but like a willow wand when it was all over? And there was no amplification in those days. But he was very eager to travel, not just for the thousands - he would even go for small congregation or to individuals, remembering that Jesus went out of His way to meet the woman at the well.

There were many people who remembered some of the things that he said to them. A little girl recalled him saying, "When your heart becomes hard and careless, then fear lest Christ may have given his last knock."

But he was always for his people. There was one occasion where he was walking through a field. And the thought struck him with overwhelming force, "Every one of my flock must soon be either in heaven, or hell." And this real sense of urgency spurred him on to work harder to ensure that every single person in that parish, in that city of Dundee, heard the gospel. 

But he was also still very fearful that his own life, his own pride, his own words, would impact God's work. He read about Whitfield preaching in London and how the Holy Spirit had really worked amongst the people there and he concluded, "The same Jesus reigns, the same Spirit is able, but why is He restrained? Is the sin ours? Are we bottle stoppers of these heavenly dews?"

M'Cheyne lived in the reality that the greatest need of his people, was his own personal holiness and in his diaries, we see him reflect on things he needed to learn, things he needed to work on in his own walk. So here are a few of the thoughts that he has written, and many of them are very relatable, and perhaps, useful for us too.

He often felt that when he had sinned, he had an immediate reluctance to go to Christ. He thought to himself, "Is this out of shame? Is it because, deep down, I don't think it will do any good? Or perhaps I think it's too presumptuous." But he realized that John, in his letter, argues in such a different way and says, "If anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father."

He realized, too, that he was tempted sometimes to think there were some sins that he wasn't drawn by. For him, it was alcohol and swearing - he was never really tempted by these things, and so he didn't need to fear these sins. Well, he wrote, "This is a proud and presumptuous lie. The seeds of all sin are in my heart, and perhaps all the more dangerously, that I do not see them."

He wrote about the need to pray, and to pray before seeing anyone. And there were times when he slept in, there were times we had to get up very early to travel, and as a result, his time of prayer was forgotten or pushed to much later in the day. He wrote, "The conscience feels guilty, the soul unfed, the lamp not trimmed, the soul is often out of tune." He wrote about times when he was going from one thing to another, so busy. And he said, "I did this without asking God's blessing, which alone can make this visit of any use." So he determined that he needed to pray every day, before he saw anybody else. "I feel it is far better, to begin with God, to see His face first, to get my soul near Him before it is near another." Even if it was just going to be for a minute, before he had to leave or travel early somewhere, he determined always to see God first.

As for reading the Bible, he decided the best way was to read at least three chapters a day. And he decided that it was best to read in three different places. The Old, the New Testament, and perhaps the Psalms. He even made a reading plan for his congregation which he called Daily Bread and this was published. The idea was so you could read the Bible through in one year, and all the congregation would be able to read in the same place at the same time. Well, the M'Cheyne Bible Reading Plan is still very much in use today.

M'Cheyne’s battles with his health continued. And although he'd always felt not long for this earth, he particularly felt it now. He wrote in his letters, "I do not expect to live long. I expect a sudden call someday, perhaps very soon, and therefore, I speak very plainly." He urged his friends, "Live for eternity. A few days more and our journey has done."

Despite his weak immunity and health, he still continued on, traveling around, visiting people. And he wanted to make one last tour, a tour up to Aberdeen in the northern part of Scotland. This would be the last time he travelled. Many people tried to dissuade him, including his own people in Dundee. They were concerned for his health, and they also were concerned about him leaving again. But he remarked, "The oil of the lamp in the temple burnt away in giving light. So should we."

Well, this trip was not without difficulty. At that time in Scotland, things were changing. There was a little bit of anger towards the evangelists who were traveling around, and so people tried to disrupt meetings. They threw stones at them, he had mud poured on him as he walked through the streets. But he returned to his congregation in great spirits. The Lord had really worked up in the towns in the north of Scotland, but he was also quite exhausted.

But he continued on with the meetings, meeting with people visiting in people's homes. But this was particularly challenging at that time because when he returned, typhus fever was going through the city. But he continued going into people's homes.

One day he preached on the sovereignty of God, and then later on Isaiah 60, "Arise, shine for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you." Those were the last sermons he would preach to his people. A note was sent to him after this sermon, it went thus, "I hope you will pardon a stranger for addressing you. I heard you preach last Sabbath evening. It was not so much what you said, as your manner of speaking that struck me. I saw in you a beauty and holiness that I never saw before."

Within the next few days, he was chilled and feverish, clearly unwell. He called for a doctor, and that little note arrived, and lay on opened on his table. That night, he went to bed feeling sore and broken, unable to sleep, tossing and turning with a terrible fever. He said to his companions, "Well, shall we receive good at the hands of Lord and not receive evil also?" He organized some people to take over from him because he knew that he was going to be sick for a while.

He never rose again from that bed. He slipped into delirium. His sister attended to him, reading Scripture to him and also lines from William Cowper's hymns. Then at one point, in this delirium he spoke just audibly. The verse from 1 Corinthians 15:58, "Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord..." and then with as much strength as he could muster he said, "...for as much as you know, that your labour is not in vain in the Lord." After this, he had only moments and bits of speaking. And it seemed that he was praying for His people, "This parish, Lord, this people, this whole place...". And later, "Do it for Thyself, Lord, for Thy weak servant."

On Saturday, the 25th of March at 9:30 in the morning, his suffering came to an end. And Robert Murray M’Cheyne breached his last. The Lord took him. He was 29 years old.

Andrew Bonar received the message at 5pm on the same day, the message that his good friend had died. He dropped everything and rushed to Dundee. He wrote later, "Life has lost half its joys, were it not for the hope of saving souls. There was no friend whom I loved so well."

Well, when Andrew travelled through the streets of Dundee, he realized his sorrow was shared. People everywhere had come out into the streets with the news that their pastor had died. Hundreds of people from all walks of life were lining the streets. The church was full to the brim. People not only in Dundee, but in other parts of Scotland had heard the news and people were so grieved. 

Andrew Bonar spoke at his funeral, and 6000 people came to that funeral. The whole part of the West End of Dundee came to a complete standstill, as the people lined the streets to remember their pastor who had served them with every ounce of his small strength.

That poem that he wrote when he was at university with the Hebrew title, Jehovah Tsidkenu has a very apt final stanza.

Even treading the valley the shadow of death, 
 this watchword shall rally my faltering breath. 
 For while from life's fever, my God sets me free, 
 Jehovah Tsidkenu my death song shall be.

Andrew Bonar writes in his memoir of M'Cheyne, "In Robert Murray M'Cheyne we have been taught how much one man may do, who will only press father into the presence of God. There is so much richness in Robert Murray M'Cheyne's very short and simple life of obedience. And in his life, we can see that impact is not the sum of one's years, but it's in the daily obedience, the repentance, the learning, the walking before God."

And so, we will end here and we will give the final word to Robert Murray M'Cheyne, this faithful servant who has gone before us.

"Oh brethren, be wise. Why stand all the day idle? In a little moment, it will be all over, a little while and the day of grace will be over. Preaching, praying will be done. A little while and we shall stand before the Great White Throne. A little while and the wicked shall not be. We shall see them going into everlasting punishment. A little while and the work of eternity shall be begun. We shall be like Him. We shall see Him day and night in His temple, and we shall sing the new song without sin and without weariness, forever and ever.