'A Life Of Fellowship With God'

John Tobler

Lives of the Saints • Sermon • Submitted 5 months ago • Presented 5 months ago

John 17:3

1 Corinthians 11:1

Robert Murray McCheyne (Scottish Minister)

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A short biography and evaluation of the life of Robert Murray M'Cheyne

Notes

Transcript

Robert Murray M’Cheyne

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Heb 12:1–2.

This great cloud of witnesses is what we want to consider this afternoon. The reference to the witnesses is to the previous chapter what some have called the hall of faith. What do these witnesses testify to. They are a testimony first to God’s faithfulness, second, they are an example of enduring faith in the midst of trials, and third, they are a testimony and example of what it looks like to have our hope set on a life and city beyond this world. Ultimately, the exemplary one is the Lord Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. Which is where we are to set our eyes. But it is at the same time in the lives of these witnesses that we see again and again, God’s faithfulness in Christ to His people. We see that Jesus has been perfecting the faith of the saints for nearly two thousand years. This cloud of witnesses has grown. And one of those witnesses that we’ll consider is Robert Murray M’Cheyne. I hope that it will stir thanksgiving in us as we think about the way God has raised up so many faithful teachers, preachers, and godly examples to us throughout the history of Him building His church.

What I would like to do is give an overview of his life and ministry, and then open up the way in which his communion and fellowship with the triune God shaped and effected every aspect of his life, and how he can be an example and encouragement to us.

I need to mention that a lot of the material here is borrowed from David P. Beaty’s wonderful book titled: ‘An All-Surpassing Fellowship: Learning From Robert Murray M’Cheyne’s Communion With God’ published by RHB. I heartily commend this book to all of you.

I. Birth and Early Life

Born May 21, 1813 in Edinburgh, Scotland into a somewhat wealthy family. Youngest of 5 siblings. His sister Isabella died in 1811 at 9 mo old.

His father, Adam, worked for the highest judicial body in Scotland. Known as a strict disciplinarian, yet loved by his children. His mother, Lockhart was known for her tender and sweet disposition. Both parents saw to it that the children were brought up in the fear and admonition of the Lord. They learned both Bible and catechism an early age, and were regularly at church.

Learning and education were also very important in the M’Cheyne home. Robert learned the greek alphabet at the early age of 4, and entering into school a year later was quickly recognized as standing out in terms of his skills of recitation, singing, and by the age thirteen poetry.

At 14 he would go on to college and complete his arts degree in 4 yrs. Tragedy struck around the time of his graduation when his older brother David died from a prolonged illness.

David had a profound impact on Robert. David was a godly man, spending time often in his Bible and prayer closet and encouraging Robert to do the same. “He bought Robert a Bible and persuaded him to read it”. Robert remembers David spending time in prayer and Bible reading while he was getting dressed up for some dance of folly.

Though M’Cheyne, along with the rest of his family were shaken by David’s death. For Robert, “his brothers death would be a pathway toward life”(Beaty). Bonar in his memoir of M’Cheyne says that if this year wasn’t the year of Roberts new birth, it was the first streaks of dawn appearing in his soul.

Psalm 116:15 “Precious in the sight of Yahweh Is the death of His holy ones.”

Indeed it was precious. As M’Cheyne would call this date to mind even eleven years later:

He always remembered the significance of the date of David's death. On July 8, 1832, he wrote in his diary,

“On this morning last year came the first overwhelming blow to my worldliness; how blessed to me, Thou, O God, only knowest, who hast made it so." In a letter to a friend dated July 8, 1842, M'Cheyne wrote, "This day eleven years ago I lost my loved and loving brother, and began to seek a Brother who cannot die." ~Beaty

Though Robert was brought up in a home where Bible, catechism, and church attendance were very important, the influence of enlightenment thinking had impressed the M’Cheyne family. Sin was viewed as “merely a mistake, rather than constituting one guilty before God.” ~Van Valen. His fathers account is very telling of the kind of thinking that was prevelant to average church goers:

"I never found him guilty of a lie, or of any mean or unworthy action; and he had a great contempt for such things in others. I hardly recollect an instance of my having to inflict personal chastisement upon him.”

The death of his brother drove him to the reality of His self-righteousness and the need for God’s righteousness. As the Spirit continued to work in him, the beauty of the righteousness of Christ grew and the deception of human self-righteousness became more clear to him as well. This growing sense of both would mark and influence his preaching ministry for the rest of His life.

His coming to understand and embrace the gospel in this way is most clearly seen in a poem he wrote on November 18, 1834 titled, ‘Jehovah Tsidkenu’(The Lord our Righteousness). I will read it in it’s entirety:

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.

I oft read with pleasure, to soothe or engage,

Isaiah's wild measure and John's simple page;

But e’en when they pictured the blood-sprinkled tree

Jehovah Tsidkenu seemed nothing to me.

Like tears from the daughters of Zion that roll,

I wept when the waters went over His soul;

Yet thought not that my sins had nailed to the tree

Jehovah Tsidkenu-'twas nothing to me.

When free grace awoke me, by light from on high,

Then legal fears shook me, I trembled to die;

No refuge, no safety in self could I see-

Jehovah Tsidkenu my Saviour must be.

My terrors all 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.

Jehovah Tsidkenu! my treasure and boast,

Jehovah Tsidkenu! I ne'er can be lost;

In thee I shall conquer by flood and by field

My cable, my anchor, my breastplate and shield!

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.

II. Prep for Ministry

Three months after his brothers death he would enroll as a student at Divinity Hall of Edinburgh University. M’Cheyne said that his reading of ‘The Sum of Saving Knowledge’ by David Dickson and James Durham, brought about a saving change in him. He was so delighted in the change brought about and how thoroughly he had come to grab hold of the gospel that he said he would read it over again if it would bring him unto perfection. He excelled in the Biblical languages, especially Hebrew “which would be directly connected to his love for the Jews and desire to see them embrace the Messiah.”~Beaty

His time at Divinity School made him very sensitive to his use of time, and especially his desire to be idle. Reading about the lives of Edwards and Brainerd especially convicted him of this, but were also means of encouraging Him. Calvin and Edwards would help to establish him theologically. Samuel Rutherford further showed to him the loveliness of Christ. His most influential professor was Thomas Chalmers. Iain Murray has four key things Chalmers impressed upon his students. I summarize as follows: 1) seeking approval of God as first principal 2) Never be satisfied with growth in holiness 3) Giving themselves wholly to their true work 4) a direct dealing with men concerning their salvation

With this we turn to pastoral ministry.

III. Pastoral Ministry

We’ll start by setting the religious context a bit further. Moderatism was an establishment of clerics who had adopted enlightenment principals and brought them into church polity, preaching, and pastoral ministry. From my understanding, they also took away the rights of the people to appoint it’s own minsters to needed parishes. This is the flavor and influence of Clerics and Lay folks in the 1830’s to which M’Cheyne entered. Here is a description from Bruce McLennan in his book ‘McCheyne’s Dundee’:

“….under the Moderate ministers a decline in the evangelical spirit set in, and "there appeared to be a recoil from evangelical doctrine, and a disposition to modify the message of grace.” Moderates were critical of preaching that emphasized man's total depravity and utter dependence on God's grace for salvation. They laid stress on themes such as order, rationality, and social progress, emphasizing works as much as faith. They read their sermons as refined compositions, from which the roughness of the old evangelical preaching had been removed. There was a marked decline in those years in the spiritual life of the nation and indifference to spiritual things among many. Pastoral visitation was also neglected greatly. The revival of 1839 took place, therefore, against the backdrop of the climax of a struggle for the spiritual independence of the church.”

Further speaking of the spiritual decline one wrote:

“There was, however, no religious fervour among the people. The ministers as a body, although sincere, lacked enthusiasm. They cultivated the art of literature, and their preaching was of a philosophical and theological nature, the Puritanical earnestness which had hitherto predominated having been substituted by a larger, broader doctrine of Christianity. The term Moderates was applied to them. Besides, in the administration of the Church, there was no energy. Church extension proceeded slowly, and far behind the face of the growth of the population, and of missionary enterprise abroad the Church had none.”

The First reason M’Cheyne would give as to why God was a stranger in the land, was due to unfaithful preaching. And this has been a them throughout Church History.

10 His watchmen are blind,

They are all ignorant;

They are all dumb dogs,

They cannot bark;

Sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. ~ Is 56:10.

“2......Woe to the shepherds ....4 The weak you have not strengthened, nor have you healed those who were sick, nor bound up the broken, nor brought back what was driven away, nor sought what was lost; but with force and cruelty you have ruled them. 5 So they were scattered because there was no shepherd; and they became food for all the beasts of the field when they were scattered. 6 My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and on every high hill; yes, My flock was scattered over the whole face of the earth, and no one was seeking or searching for them.” ~Eze 34:4–6.

Back to his entrance into Pastoral ministry. M’Cheyne is exuberant with joy at receiving his official license to preach, but he is immediately reminded of the humility he must continually cultivate.

In his first minstry experience, he is placed in a parish of over six thousand with which he was regularly to condict home visitations. He is very candid in his journaling about the spiritual state of those he visited, whether moderate interest, or spritual destitution. Not only would this be a good opportunity for preparing him for ministry, but it also grew in him a shepherds heart, and a heart for the lost.

His early preaching very much focused on law and gospel, and particularly on the exaltation of Christ. He wanted attention away form himself and on to our Savior Christ.

We turn now to his call to Dundee in November, 1836.

IV. Dundee

The Industrial Revolution had put the city in a very rough condition. Working conditions, hours, and pay were all detrimental to those who worked in factories. Housing and living conditions as well as cost were disadvantageous for them as well. The lower working class were segregated and subject to ill-health as a result of working and living conditions. The greatest evil was the social divide it created between the upper-class and lower working class. There was a disdain for each other on both sides to such an extent that the upper class removed themselves to rural areas. And rather than help the poor and destitute and the difficulty brought about by the industrial revoltution and depression that followed, they wrote it off as a moral issue. The lower class needed to make moral reforms and once that is done it will take care of itself. Additionally, they would pay for seats. The wealthy would get the best and only seats because of how crowded it was.

“1 My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. 2 For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, 3 and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, “You sit here in a good place,” and say to the poor man, “You stand there,” or, “Sit here at my footstool,” 4 have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? ~ Jas 2:1–4.

It was into this situation that M’Cheyne would come to as a minister in 1836. M’Cheyne would preach against such injustice on several occasions where he would address the wealthy amongst his own parish. The majority of his parishioners were of the lower working class and so much of his time in pastoral visitation was spent amongst them. He sought to altogether banish the purchasing of seats or at least make them affordable for all.

Despite the difficulty and spiritual decline, there would be great fruit and revival bore through M’Cheyne’s ministry there. Sunday’s were described as heavenly under Roberts ministry there. The seating at St. Peters was around 1,100 and folks would cram the seating and stand in the hallways to hear this young passionate minister. He began a Thursday night prayer meeting that was attended by over 800. He taught an evening Bible and Catechism class and put special emphasis on creating a catechism for young godly communicants or godly youth preparing communion.

Here are a few example questions:

1. Is it to please your father or mother, or any one on earth, that you think of coming to the Lord's table?

9. Do you think you have been awakened by the Holy Spirit? brought to Christ? born again? What makes you think so?

10. What is the meaning of the broken bread and poured-out wine?

He also wrote tracts that were specific for communicating the gospel to children two of which are contained in Bonar’s memoirs of M’Cheyne.

His pastoral duties were similar to before. There were some four thousand in that local parish, which he tirelessly worked to visit and evangelize( because many had never been to church). Bonar would say it was these efforts that lead to his health issues and early death.

V. Preaching and Theology

His preaching was described this way by William Blaikie:

“M'Cheyne brought into the pulpit all the reverence for Scripture of the Reformation period; all the honour for the headship of Christ of the Covenanter struggle; all the freeness of the Gospel offer of the Marrow theology; all the bright imagery of Samuel Rutherfurd, all the delight of the Erskines in the fulness of Christ. In MCheyne the effect of a cultured taste was apparent in the chastened beauty and simplicity of his style, if you can call it a style-in a sense he had no style, or rather it was the perfection of style, for it was transparent as glass.”

Beaty says that his preaching showed remarkable depth and spiritual maturity for a 23 year old. As well as a breadth of knowledge of the Old and New Testaments. He preached on a great number of subjects; from the terror of the judgement of God, and eternal future punishment, to the love of Christ, and Christ’s love to the church. Iain Murray says “ruin by the fall, righteousness by Christ, and regeneration by the Spirit were the subject of his preaching.”

As a theologian, he fell in line with the reformed tradition. David Haslam describes his theology here:

“An experiential Calvinism, just another term for a truly Biblical Christianity. His preaching was rooted and grounded in the Word of God, and took for its great themes the doctrines of the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Westminster Catechisms, the historic standards of Presbyterianism. The theology that united M'Cheyne and his companions was both Calvinistic and experiential. There was no false division between theory and practice in their lives.”

M’Cheyne, preaching on “Electing Love” shows us how God’s sovereignty and human responsibility go together:

"the natural ear is so deaf that it cannot hear; the natural eye is so blind that it cannot see Christ. It is true in one sense, that every disciple chooses Christ; but it is when God opens the eye to see him—it is when God gives strength to the withered arm to embrace him.”

From the same sermon

“Whether you are elected or not, I know not, but this I know—if you believe on Christ you will be saved.”

We move now to revival in Dundee and his last days.

VI. Revival and Final Days

M’Cheyne had a heart for Missionary Evangelsim, especially to the Jews. He would take a missionary trip there to investigate the situation and see what future missions to he Jews would look like. It is during this mission trip while W.C. Burns had supplied the pulpit for M’Cheyne that great revival breaks out in Dundee. Hundreds are converted. Moved to tears at the preaching and staying after services for hours seeking further counsel for their newly converted souls.

Whats remarkable is M’Cheyne’s response to this. Where we might think that human jealousy would so easily rear it’s head, it’s the exact opposite. M’Cheyne rejoices and writes warm letters to Burns encouraging him. Burns is expresses this surprise of M’Cheynes response in a letter to a friend.

While it seems remarkeable it really shouldn’t be. This was his prayer all along and this was how he had taught the people to pray. He had every reason therefore to be filled with praise and thanks rather than jealousy.

Even in the midst of this great revival, the people were glad to recieve M’Cheyne back.

With M’Chyene back to full time ministry revival would continue in Dundee, though not to the extant it had under Burns. And the most encouraging thing was that there was lasting fruit, which is a sign that it was genuine revival.

Many say that M’Cheyne had a sense that his time here would be short. In letters and sermons especially he would speak of life's brevity, and that we are to be spending every moment for eternity. Either that, or he was one who constantly lived life with an eternal perspective.

It would only be a few short years after the mission trip that M’Cheyne would preach his last sermon on March 12, 1843. The next two weeks he would battle a severe fever until on March 25, 1843 he would breath his last. Records say that those last couple weeks he could be heard praying for the welfare of his congregation and even preaching in his delirium.

Here is a comment from his lifelong friend andrew Bonar upon the news of his death:

“Never, never 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.... Life has lost half its joys, were it not for the hope of saving souls. There was no friend whom I have loved like him.”

Here is part of a note he had received from someone after the last sermon he preached:

"I heard you preach last Sabbath evening, and it pleased God to bless that sermon to my soul. It was not so much what you said, as your manner of speaking that struck me. I saw in you a beauty of holiness that I never saw before.”

VII. A Life of Communion With God

The remainder of our time will be spent looking at the way M’Cheyne’s fellowship with the triune God deeply influenced every aspect of His life as a Christian, Minister, and one with a heart for missionary endeavors(especially to the Jewish people).

Communing with God by His Word

M’Cheyne’s communion with God in His Word was a way to spend time with God. Though both good things, M’Cheyne’s time in God’s Word was neither a means of getting more biblical knowledge, nor of seeking peace for the day ahead. It was his love for God in Christ that compelled him to fellowship with God in His Word. Listen to this journal entry followed by a comment from Beaty:

"Rose early to seek God, and found Him whom my soul loveth. Who would not rise early to meet such company?" When love for God motivates our prayer, study, and worship, a sense of duty will be replaced by a sense of delight.

Beaty continues:

“M'Cheyne, a tireless worker despite his poor health, gave his first and best hours of the day to fellowship with the Lord. Biographer Alexander Smellie writes:

His first concern was the nurture of his soul. Every morning he saw to it before he turned to anything else. He rose early that he might have time to spend with God. Probably he had gone to bed at a late hour of the night, jaded in body and mind after a day of duty.... He would sing a Psalm, to tune his spirit into harmony with heavenly things. Then he sat down to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest the living Word of his Lord, often studying three chapters in succession. Then he gave himself to prayer, the effectual prayer which avails much. And he was more refreshed than if he had prolonged the hours of sleep; he was furnished and prepared for every good work.”

I’m sure we’re all familiar with M’Cheyne’s Bible reading plan. How often do we just read the chapters and check off our list like it’s merely a duty and go about the day. Now I understand that sometimes that’s all we have time for. My purpose is not to shame any of us, but to challenge us a bit and see what our time with the Lord would like if we begun to use the above description as a template for our devotional time.

He loved the Sabbath as a result his love for fellowship with God. It was a day where he could especially set apart time to be in God’s Word.

His heart posture toward God and the Sabbath is very clear in this interaction between he and a friend. Quoting from Beaty:

Even though M’Cheyne rose early and stayed up late in order to have additional time alone with God on Sabbath days, his was not a legalistic motivation. A friend wrote to him with the unusual question as to whether it was sinful to spend time registering meteorological observations on the Sabbath (evidently a pleasurable hobby for some in 1842). M'Cheyne's reply tells us much about his delight in the Sabbath day:

I love the Lord's Day too well to be marking down the height of the thermometer and barometer every hour. I have other work to do, higher and better, and more like that of angels above. The more entirely I can give my Sabbaths to God, and half forget that I am not before the throne of the Lamb, with my harp of gold, the happier I am, and I feel it my duty to be as happy as I can be, and as God intended me to be. The joy of the Lord is my strength.... This is the noblest science, to know how to live in hourly communion with God in Christ?

How do we use the Sabbath. Do we see it as a day to get caught up on all sorts of things that we’re behind on? A day to spend on our own pleasures and entertainment? I think M’Cheyne and many others have seen what is promised to us in Isaiah. Turn with me to Is 58:13,14

13 “If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath,

From doing your pleasure on My holy day,

And call the Sabbath a delight,

The holy day of the Lord honorable,

And shall honor Him, not doing your own ways,

Nor finding your own pleasure,

Nor speaking your own words,

14 Then you shall delight yourself in the Lord;

And I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth,

And feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father.

The mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

I don’t know how many times I’ve heard other Christians accuse those who desire to uphold the Sabbath as being legalistic. Now, there are those out there who do behave in such a way, and there is always the danger that we might slip into that kind of thinking. But that’s not the sense of the text before us. It is viewed as a delight, as a market day for our souls. A day where God certainly brings special grace and blessing to those who come by faith.

Lastly, as a minister of the gospel he saw this personal time with God in his Word as priority. Even amongst his intense preaching duties and visiting amongst more than four thousand parishiner’s, he felt that prayer, and meditating on God’s Word were of utmost importance. He said: “I ought to spend the best hours of the day in communion with God. It is my noblest and most fruitful employment, and is not to be thrust into any corner.”

Even in His last year of life, as an accomplished preacher with hundreds of sermons preached, he was still memorizing Scripture and desired to grow in his ability to prphet from the Word as he writes in a letter to Horatius Bonar asking for help in studying more successfully.

But even as we’ve mentioned, M’cheyne’s communion with God was more than study, more than a devotional to get Him through the day, it was His life, as John puts it it is eternal life here and now “to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent.”

You’ve probably heard stories of a married man or a woman who pored over the letters of they recieved from their spouse while they were dating or engaged. They savor every word, probably read it over again and again. Well what if God wrote a letter to His church, to his bride, to you dear Christian? What would you do with it? What would that look like?

2. Communing with God through prayer

As with reading his Bible, so with prayer. M’Cheyne saw prayer as more than a means of obtaining help or submitting requests. Though he saw it as that, above all, prayer is a communing with the triune God, who loves to commune with His people and desires that they would have a desire and affection for communion with Him. Coming to God in prayer is more than a duty and a means of obtaining some request, it is a privilege and delight for the Christian. Quoting Beaty:

“In prayer, a believer not only seeks God's provision but also His person. Prayer does not merely link us to God's resources; it allows us to experience His presence.”

In considering prayer as a communion with all three memebers of the Trinity, M’Cheyne called prayer “a sweet well of delight”.

M’Cheyne understood the power of prayer. Prayer was actually more powerful than preaching, for preaching has no power apart from prayer. Prayer is the great instrument by which God makes preaching effective to minds and hearts.

Listen to this from M’Cheyne’s sermon notes:

"O believing brethren, what an instrument is this which God hath put into your hands! Prayer moves him that moves the universe."

He saw pattern in prayer to be important. To have some set time and place for prayer. A set pattern similar to the disciples prayer as to the content. Very much like reading the Word, He was of the conviction that getting alone with God before you meet with anyone else was immensely important for your daily engagements.

As for the role of the Word and Spirit in prayer, both were necessary. He had this to say about the Spirit:

“So, brethren, this is another mark of the Holy Spirit's friendship, that he not only dwells in the soul, but he teaches the soul to say, "Abba" —he teaches the soul to "pray in the Holy Ghost." It is true friendship to teach one another to pray. It is a believing mother's part to teach her little children to pray. But the Holy Spirit's love is greater than this, he not only puts the words in our mouth, but he puts the desire in our heart. It is great friendship to pray together; but oh! It is greatest friendship to pray in one, and this is the friendship of the Spirit of God.”

And as for the Word, our prayers should be shaped by Scripture according to M’Cheyne. It is our familiarity with the Bible that makes our prayers to be more Scriptural. He though one should make a habit of praying Scripture, of praying with our Bibles open.

He believed that intercessory prayer and corporate were major aspects of his personal prayer life and that of the congregation. During the Thursday night prayer meetings he taught the people about the great revivals God had done and taught them to pray for such amongst themselves. These prayers would be the seeds of what would be a later reality. Personally he was frequent and fervent in his prayers. Such that one biographer noted that he “prayed without ceasing for two hours for his congregation, especially interceding for those not yet converted.”

3. Delighting in Holiness

M’Cheyne’s delight in holiness is directly connected to his communion with God and with his understanding of the gospel. His grasp of how rich and free God’s grace in Christ made a life consecrated to God the only reasonable response. He could do no other, and it was his delight to do so!

His pursuit of holiness was not done in the flesh but in step with and reliance upon the Holy Spirit. Listen to his words from his sermon titled ‘Greive Not The Holy Spirit’:

When you do not take all your holiness from him. This is the great work of the Spirit in you, to make you holy.... Now, when temptations and trials, and lusts come crowding in, if we do not lean upon the Spirit, we grieve him. Or, if we lean upon another, if you lean upon your education, your good resolutions, your past experiences. Or, suppose you run into temptation, and say, I was well brought up, I am able to resist it. In these ways you grieve the Spirit.

M’Cheyne never thought he had gotten mastery over himself. He knew as soon as one thought that way, they were in temptations arms. He always had a sense of His dependance on God for holiness, and always wanted to be mindful of the ways sin would try to creep in. Like Owen, he understood that sin needed to be recognized and mortified upon conception.

He knew that the means of sanctification was to be found in the Word. “sanctify them by the truth, your Word is truth.”

And he found great joy in holiness. Listen to this amazing thought form his sermon on Personal Reformation:

"I am persuaded that God's happiness is inseparably linked in with His holiness. Holiness and happiness are like light and heat.... The redeemed, through all eternity, will never taste one of the pleasures of sin; yet their happiness is complete. It would be my greatest happiness to be from this moment entirely like them. Every sin is something away from my greatest enjoyment.”

M’Cheyne summarized his view of holiness in a simple statement found in one of his letters to a friend: "There is no joy like that of holiness." ~Beaty

Lastly, M’Cheyne’s holiness was observable. He wore it like a garment. Here are two accounts of the effect his holy living had on others. The first a letter to M’Cheyne’s father from James Hamilton:

“I never knew one so instant in season and out of season, so impressed with the invisible realities, and so faithful in reproving sin and witnessing for Christ.... Love to Christ was the great secret of all his devotion and consistency....His continual communion with God gave wonderful sacredness to his character; and during the week that he spent with us last November, it seemed as if there were a sanctity diffused through our dwelling.”

Next is concerning three of his cousins:

On one occasion, M'Cheyne visited family and friends in Dumfriesshire, among whom were three of his cousins. The three young women were described as "destitute of vital godliness and hostile to evangelical religion," and they dubbed M'Cheyne "Perfection." But in a short time, the women were won over by his gracious personality. In him, they saw that faith in Christ was not an enslaving yoke but a life-giving relationship. During family worship one evening, one of the girls began sobbing aloud, and the others soon followed. All three became devoted Christians and recalled it was their cousin's holy influence that "struck them down."

I want to conclude our time this evening on this consideration of holiness, especially as we see it in M’Cheyne.

Beaty speaking of M’Cheyne says:

“In M’Cheyne, we see the reality that close communion with God makes us more aware of our own need. A clearer view of His holiness gives a clearer view of our sinfulness. The closer we grow to Christ, the more we see our need of Christ. This awareness of our need gives us a greater gratitude for the gift of righteousness through Jesus.”

Here’s what I think is going on here; A shallow understanding of God and of God’s grace will lead to a shallow or superficial holiness. The depths of which one knows God and the grace God has bestowed on Him in the gospel will correspond to the depths of ones holiness.

I think that’s what we see with Robert Murray M’Cheyne. The depths of who God is for him in Christ had so penetrated into His soul that he couldn’t help but give himself over to holy service and holy consecration to God. He was compelled by the love of Christ and for Christ. And some would even say too much as it maybe led to his early death. Whatever the case, may he serve as an example for us in a day and age where right and Biblical holy living unto God is so desperately needed.