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Writings of Robert Murray McCheyne (1813-1843)
The glory of the Christian Dispensation

Robert Murray McCheyne was destined to be recognized as one of God’s greatest gifts to His Church in many generations, and to be known long after his death as “the saintly McCheyne.” He was born in Edinburgh on May 21, 1813, at a time when the first evidences of a spiritual awakening in Scotland were beginning to appear. He was a person of immense intellect which was later to make him an accomplished Hebrew and Greek scholar. He matriculated at Edinburgh University, at the age of fourteen, in November, 1827.
In 1831 he commenced a four-year course in the Divinity Hall. Together with Edward Irving, Andrew and Horatius Bonar, McCheyne met frequently for prayer, Bible study and exercises in the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures. He studied both the Old and New Testaments regularly, determined to “examine the most barren chapters to collect the good for which they were intended.” He had a deep respect for the exact language of the written Word of God.
McCheyne had a deep compassion for the lost; his single desire was to awaken those who were dead in trespasses and sins. His diary contains the cry, “Oh, when will I plead, with my tears and inward yearnings, over sinners?” He wrote with great passion, “I see a man cannot be a faithful minister, until he preaches Christ for Christ’s sake—until he gives up striving to attract people to himself, and seeks only to, attract them to Christ. Lord, give me this!”
McCheyne was called to become pastor of St. Peters, a church in Dundee with a congregation of about 1100. He was ordained on 24 November 1836. One of the most notable characteristics of McCheyne, frequently remarked upon by his contemporaries, was the holy consistency of his daily walk. Very early into his ministry, he developed a heart condition that would eventually lead to his death before his 30th birthday.
At the end of 1838 he suffered severe heart palpitations, and needed to rest. He was asked to consider a mission for the Jewish cause and joined a delegation from the Church of Scotland to the Jews of Europe and Asia. Although he suffered greatly from his illness during his journeys in Palestine, he continued to pray faithfully for his congregation back home. It was on one of those days when he was praying for his flock that God brought about a remarkable revival in Dundee.
Robert Murray McCheyne returned from his mission to Israel at the end of 1839. In 1843, after returning from an evangelical mission to London and Aberdeenshire, he was seized with a sudden illness. In visiting some people sick of the fever, he had caught the infection. He died on March 24, 1843. (Adapted from a biography by S. Maxwell Coder)

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