ROBERT MURRAY McCHEYNE
1813 - 1843
Robert Murray McCheyne was
the youngest child of Adam (1781-1854) and
Lockhart (1772-1854). He was born on 21st
May 1813 at 14 Dublin Street Edinburgh. Educated
at the High School in Edinburgh McCheyne showed
an early aptitude for the arts, especially
music and poetry. He was keen on sports –
particularly gymnastics. The latter hobby
was one that he was to retain into his adult
ministry and which resulted in at least one
accident which may have been a contributing
factor to his early death.
The religion of the family
was fairly typical of the Edinburgh middle
class at the time – respectable and moral
with little evidence of evangelical ‘enthusiasm’.
When McCheyne entered Edinburgh University
in 1827 it was his brother David who was the
most earnest evangelical in the family. David’s
death on the 8th of July 1831 was to have
a profound effect on his younger brother,
who regarded his own conversion as stemming
from that day.
On 28th September 1831 McCheyne
presented himself to the Presbytery of Edinburgh
and was accepted to study Divinity at the
University of Edinburgh. It was here that
he met his mentor, Thomas Chalmers, Professor
of Divinity. Chalmers was to become his pattern
for thought, life, and ministry. Under Chalmer’s
influence McCheyne joined the Missionary Association
and engaged in visitation of the poor in the
needier Edinburgh districts. He developed
an interest in overseas missions, meeting
several times with Alexander Duff, the first
Church of Scotland missionary.
After a short assistantship
in Larbert near Falkirk, McCheyne was inducted
to the new charge of St Peter’s, Dundee
in November 1836. St Peter’s was built
as part of the Church of Scotland extension
programme initiated by Chalmers, and was situated
in a rapidly expanding industrial area of
Dundee. At one level McCheyne did not appear
to be suited for such work. He was from a
prosperous middle class background with little
experience of the industrial working class,
his health was not great, and in many ways
he seemed more suited to a rural parish. And
yet his training under Chalmers and his experience
in Edinburgh and in Larbert had prepared him
for his new charge.
McCheyne’s ministry
in St Peter’s was innovative and radical.
Starting with a clean slate he was able to
build around himself a group of leaders and
initiate new work which was largely unhindered
by a more traditional perspective. He saw
the prime need of the area as evangelism and
he acted accordingly. He was concerned that
the services should be as attractive as possible
and did his utmost to ensure that the singing
was melodious and enthusiastic. He started
psalmody classes and sometimes even led the
singing himself.
His preaching was simple. He sought deliberately
to keep his speech plain and to use plenty
of word pictures. Sermons varied in length
from 20 minutes to one and half-hours. He
preached with authority and had a great deal
of application and winsomeness. McCheyne was
keen on preaching from the Old Testament,
especially the Song of Solomon, although the
majority of his extant sermons are from the
New Testament.
He also engaged in an assiduous programme
of pastoral and evangelistic visitation. Notes
were kept of all his pastoral visits –
with dates, descriptions and a record of the
passage of Scripture read. As well as making
full use of his elders and deacons he instituted
a group of tract distributors and established
a system of deaconesses whose job was to help
with the visitation.
Under McCheyne, St Peter’s
became an active Church with a large programme.
As well as the usual Sunday services there
was a Bible study on Thursday evening. This
was a less formal meeting which was held in
an often full Church (St Peter’s was
able to seat 1,100 people). Smaller classes
were taught by both the elders and McCheyne
throughout the week. A Church library was
started to encourage reading and learning.
McCheyne’s success is often attributed
to his devotional life. He made prayer, meditation
and self-discipline key aspects of his work
throughout his life. His usual daily pattern
was to rise at 6:30 am and spend two hours
in private prayer and meditation (including
an hour devoted to the Jews). From 8:30-10
am he had breakfast and family prayers. On
Sundays his practice was to spend six hours
in prayer and devotional reading. McCheyne
felt so strongly about private and family
worship that he devised a yearly calendar
for his people to enable them to read the
Old Testament once and the New Testament and
Psalms twice. This calendar is still available
and widely used today.
McCheyne had a particular
missionary interest in the Jews. Consequently
after the 1838 General Assembly decided to
appoint a committee to examine the state of
the Jews and what could be done, McCheyne
was appointed as one of its members. It was
decided to send a deputation to Israel to
investigate the condition of the Jews there
and throughout Europe. Dr Alexander Black
(Professor of Divinity in Aberdeen), Dr Alexander
Keith (minister of St Cyrus) and Andrew Bonar
were McCheyne’s companions. On March
27th 1839 they sailed for London. During the
course of their six month journey their letters
home were published in the national and foreign
press. The account of their journey, written
by Bonar and McCheyne, was a best seller.
Whilst he was in Israel, revival broke out
in St Peter’s under the ministry of William
Chalmers Burns. This revival was to continue
through the remaining years of McCheyne's
life.
McCheyne was not a writer.
His devotion was expressed in his fifty plus
poems and hymns of which Jehovah Tsidkenu
and I am a Debtor became the most famous.
His only published book was a joint effort
with Andrew Bonar – The Narrative of
a Mission of Inquiry to the Jews.
In 1843 McCheyne was appointed
to be a commissioner to the General Assembly
which was to result in the Disruption and
the establishment of the Free Church of Scotland.
However in March he contracted typhus whilst
visiting in the Hawkhill area of his parish.
After two weeks illness and despite the Church
being full every night of people praying,
he died on 25 March. Over six thousand people
attended the funeral. Immediately after McCheyne’s
death, Andrew Bonar, a close friend and colleague,
wrote ‘ The Memoir and Remains of Robert
Murray McCheyne’. This book, widely regarded
as a devotional and spiritual classic, has
sold hundreds of thousands of copies, is still
in print and has resulted in McCheyne remaining
a household name in evangelical circles throughout
the Western and English speaking world.
McCheyne was the right man
in the right place. His spirituality, training,
poetic and musical gifts, his youth and his
experience in the poorer areas of Edinburgh
and Larbert made him an ideal minister for
St Peter’s. There he was able to put
into practice the principles and methods of
his mentor, Thomas Chalmers. Whilst the full
extent of his ministry upon Dundee has yet
to be assessed it is already clear that the
combination of McCheyne and St Peter’s
was a powerful and potent one, the effect
of which was felt far beyond the boundaries
of the parish.
