Born in 1813, Robert Murray McCheyne entered the ministry in 1836, at the age of 23. He died during a typhus epidemic, March 25, 1843, age 29, after just six years and four months in the ministry.1 At his death, he left notes to some 300 sermons, admonishing others as to his method for preparing sermons:
Get your texts from God – your thoughts, your words, from God. . . It is not great talents God blesses so much as great likeness to Jesus. A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hand of God. A word spoken by you when your conscience is clear, and your heart full of God’s Spirit, is worth ten thousand words spoken in unbelief and sin.2
This quotation gives a good summary of the bases for McCheyne’s many sermons. He took his inspiration from the Bible, and relied very heavily on Biblical material in all of his sermons, and believed emphatically in a world full of unbelief and sin. Rather typical among his sermons is “Another Lily Gathered,” a sermon eulogizing James Laing, a boy who died at age 14.3 In this sermon, McCheyne quotes conversations involving the boy, prayers used in holy services, hymns, and the Bible. The title of the sermon is taken from a verse from the Song of Solomon: “My beloved is gone down into His garden to gather lilies.”4 Throughout this sermon, McCheyne makes clear his view that the present world is but a sad foretaste of the world yet to
come.
The record of many a saved soul is on high, and many in their heavenly walk amid a polluted world are living monuments of what a God of grace can do. . . . Of the living members of the family I do not mean to speak; they have not yet finished their course, but are still in the valley of tears, and trials, and temptations.5
This is one of the key themes which McCheyne used throughout his sermons, that a life without the redeeming power of Christ was chaos and tragedy.
The whole Bible, and the whole of experience, bear witness that by nature we are ignorant of the truth. No doubt there are many truths which an unconverted man does know. He may know the truths of mathematics and arithmetic – he may know many of the common everyday truths; but still it cannot be said that an unconverted man knows the truth, for Christ is the truth. Christ may be called the key-stone of the arch of truth. Take away the key-stone of an arch, and the whole becomes a heap of rubbish. The very same stones may be there, but they are all fallen, smothered, and confused – without order – without end. Just so – take Christ away, and the whole arch of truth may be there; but they are all fallen – without coherence – without order – without end. Christ may be called the sum of the system of truth. Take away the sun out of our system, and every planet would rush into confusion. The very same planets would be there; but their conflicting forces would draw them hither and thither, orb dashing against orb in endless perplexity. Just so – take Christ away, and the whole system of truth rushes into confusion.6
Iniquity abounds, and the love of many waxes cold. Believers lose their close and tender walking with God. They lose their close and near communion with God. They go out of the holiest, and pray at a distance with a curtain between. They lose their fervency, sweetness, and fullness in secret prayer. They do not pour out their hearts to God.
They have lost their clear discovery of Christ. They see Him but dimly. They have lost the sight of His beauty — the savor of His good ointment — the hold of His garment. They seek Him, but find Him not. They cannot stir up the heart to lay hold on Christ.
The Spirit dwells scantily in their soul. The living water seems almost dried up within them. The soul is dry and barren. Corruptions are strong: grace is very weak.7
In many places throughout his sermons, McCheyne makes his theological position very clear: man cannot make his way to God unaided. Only through the heart-felt acceptance of Jesus Christ’s mercy can man escape from sin and the damnation of Hell. “If God had come to us without a Mediator, it would have been to destroy.”8 To McCheyne, this was not injustice at all. He envisioned God as a truly omnipotent being, so that mortal man could not approach him without the aid of a mediator. “In His unchangeable nature He is holy, sin-repelling, and sin-consuming. This is the glory of God, His moral image, without which He could not be Jehovah.”9 It is inherent in the very being of God that sinful man would only be destroyed merely by entering the presence of God if he did not have the reconciliation that God offered through Jesus Christ.
McCheyne was also quite explicit in demanding much more than a token repentance. In his sermon, “Do This in Remembrance of Me,” he made this point explicit, announcing his fear that the re-enactment of the Lord’s Supper was being profaned by those who continued to live in sin while trying to partake of the holy meal of the body and blood of Christ. For such people, the Lord would surely withdraw the saving power of communion. “Unworthy communicating is a fearful sin; on account of it God is greatly provoked to withdraw His Spirit from you, to visit you with frowns of providence, and to seal you to the day of perdition.”10
McCheyne believed firmly in predestination, that God has chosen those who will be saved, and those who would be damned. In his sermon, “Chosen to Salvation,”11 McCheyne explicitly relies on Second Thessalonians, 2:13: “But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth.” From this, McCheyne contends that God cast Lucifer and the rebellious angels into the infernal darkness to await the Judgment Day, sending no redeemer to them, but sent that redeemer to man, even though man was far less than the angels. But not all nations have been equally blessed by God’s election. “All nations are equally lost, and vile in the sight of God. . . . And yet how differently has He dealt with different peoples.”12
McCheyne had no hesitation about one subject which modern preachers sometimes avoid. He believed emphatically that there was a Hell, and that many souls would be condemned to spend all of eternity writhing in its flames. His final sermon, delivered on March 12, 1843, just thirteen days before his passing on March 25, shows this belief very plainly. The sermon is entitled, “The Vessels of Wrath Fitted to Destruction,” and is presaged with a passage from Romans:
What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory?13
God had created Hell and would maintain it eternally not because he loved human pain, and not because He was subject to passion as humans are, but “because the righteous Lord loveth righteousness.”14 Indeed, it was precisely because of God’s love of righteousness that Hell would endure forever. Had it been created out of a love of pain, that might be sated. Had it been created out of passion, the passion might abate. But the love of righteousness endures forever. Men were condemned. McCheyne preached, for three reasons: First, that God is willing to show his wrath, His complete revulsion with sin. He cited four examples that he contended explicitly showed God’s wrath: the casting down of th wicked angels; the sending of the deluge to flood the world; the destruction of Sodom; and the sending of Christ to the cross even though he was without sin.15 Second, it was so that God could show his power. Of God’s power, McCheyne cited five examples: the creation; His constant providence; His restraining and bridling of the wicked; His conversion of the souls of the saved; and in His destruction of the wicked.16 The third reason that the damned were left in Hell for eternity was to show the glory of God.17 In support of this, McCheyne quoted the continuation of Romans 9:23: “And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory.”
From these passages, McCheyne reached a series of conclusions. First, not everyone would be saved. He was very explicit in believing that even some in his congregation were not chosen for salvation. “Some of you, I think, are going to hell, and some, I trust, are going to heaven; and doubtless it is best it should be so, though I cannot explain the reason of it.”18 Even the casting of sinners into Hell would be to the glory of God. “If you come to Christ, you will show forth his glory in saving you; but if you do not, God will show forth his power in destroying a vessel of his wrath.”19 From this, his third conclusion followed: that the chief end of God in the world was to manifest his glory.20 Fourth, God is long-suffering with those He will eventually condemn, giving them infinite opportunities to turn to him.21 Finally, McCheyne contended that at the day of judgment, when the vessels of wrath were cast forever into Hell, this would cause no sorrow for those who were saved. “The redeemed will have no tears to shed; and here is the reason – the very destruction of the wicked makes known the riches of divine grace.”22 This would be so, even though “it will be an awful day when we shall not weep to see them perish”23
As this sermon shows, McCheyne believed in a God of wrath. He also believed that this God had singled out Scotland as one of His chosen nations, to the exclusion of others. In this regard, McCheyne shows not merely a bias in favor of Scotland, but a specifically anti-Catholic prejudice. He opens his sermon “Chosen to Salvation” with a comment that specifically denies that Catholics have earned God’s grace.
When travelling [sic] through popish countries, where the people bow down to images of wood and stone, and where God’s Word is forbidden, the mind of a believer turns to the fearful words in the preceding verses with a feeling of unutterable sadness; and, again, when the mind wanders from these desolate regions to the little flock of dear believers in happy Scotland, . . . 24
He returned to this idea later in this sermon with a rhetorical question:
Why has the fair face of Europe been almost given over to the delusions of the man of sin; and why has our own bleak island been chosen to be so long the brightest repository of the truth in all the world? Are we better than they?25
It was a question which he answered for himself in the affirmative, stating: “I can look back to my election before the world was; and forward to my salvation when the world shall be passed away.”26
Robert McCheyne was unquestionably a man of considerable learning. A distinguished student at University of Edinburgh,27 he was doubtlessly exposed to a range of sources. In his sermons, however, he limits himself to the Bible, hymns, prayers used in holy services, and very occasionally the writings of other divines with views similar to his own. In like manner, he looked with considerable disdain upon the worldly living that even many of his beloved Scots indulged in. He is quoted as saying,
The extent to which novel-reading, dancing parties, private theatricals, card-playing, luxurious feasting and dressing, loose, frivolous, and profane song-singing, with other exhibitions of utter worldliness, prevail even in professedly Christian families, with the sanction and under the eye of office-bearers in the Church, would hardly be believed. Can we wonder at so many of the children of apparently good men turning out ill, when we know that ‘Love not the world’ was no maxim in their training?28
There is a coldness to McCheyne’s attitude. He is a puritan, to a degree that rather bears out H. L. Mencken’s contemptuous comment: “Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.”29 In the biographical sketches of McCheyne, he is often referred to as a saint.30 These are works by ministers, Scottish, and closely aligned with McCheyne’s harsh theology. The sermons give a feel of someone withdrawn from this world, of someone so certain of his election to a divine state that in many ways he had already ceased to live in this world.
This is borne out by his concentration on strictly Presbyterian sources in his sermons. He quotes the Bible, but makes no allusions to the classics. Indeed, given his attitude that Europe was lost to popish worship of images, it is hardly surprising that he did not refer to the classics. In this regard, he falls prey to the schism of the Reformation. Doubtlessly the Roman Catholic Church needed serious reform when Protestants first broke away from it. However, it seems at best curious that a loving God would entrust His message to a totally lost Church for over fourteen hundred years, before having the truth emerge in Protestantism.
McCheyne’s sermons stand as a remarkable intellectual edifice. There is a remarkable clarity and force to his sermons, a clarity that sounds across the decades since his death, showing why his sermons are still studied and quoted. However, their concentration on spiritual matters, to the exclusion of much of the world leaves many issues untouched. By McCheyne’s day, the Industrial Revolution was well advanced, and it was causing severe dislocations even in Scotland.31 McCheyne seemed unaware of the severe social changes that were occurring around him. At a minimum, he never addressed the social issues involved with the exploitation of factory workers as machinery took over the traditional cottage industries that had long been followed in Scotland. Could McCheyne have been unaware of this? This seems hard to imagine in a man with his intellectual gifts. Yet one searches in vain for a sermon on the sufferings of the power and the downtrodden, for some comment on the long hours imposed on working people, or on the disruption of traditional life cause by the advent of industry. It appears rather than he made a conscientious decision that the social situation around him did not matter. He would concentrate on the saving of souls, confident that what happened to the body during its passage through the earthly life would eventually not matter.
Part of the failure of the Church in the modern world lies in this failure to address social problems. Eventually, one of the Church’s own spoke eloquently to this problem. In 1963, the Reverend Martin Luther King penned his “Letter for Birmingham Jail.” It is an eloquent piece of Christian thought, although altogether different from McCheyne’s sermons. King refers to Aquinas and Augustine, drawing on a much broader range of sources than McCheyne would, although firmly grounding himself in scripture. He stresses the prayerful rigor with which he prepare himself and his followers for the actions that they undertook, insisting that their path be one of non-violence, even if it was one of assertive social action. King aimed some of his most critical comments at two groups whom he felt had failed to heed the pressing call for justice: white moderate, and white churches. To Dr. King, a church which concentrated solely on salvation and life in the world hereafter, while ignoring the sufferings and injustice around it was failing in its Christian duty.32
Reading the other-worldly sermons of Robert Murray McCheyne, we can only wonder how he would respond to such criticism.
WORKS CITED:
Hudson, J. Harrison. “The Impact of Robert Murray McCheyne.” Available from <http://web.ukonline.co.uk/d.haslam/McCheyne/hudson/Impact_of_McCheyne.htm>. Internet; accessed February 1, 2007.
King, Martin L. “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” Nobel Prize Archives. Available from <http://almaz.com/nobel/peace/MLK-jail.html> . Internet; accessed January 30, 2007.
McCheyne, Robert Murray. “Chosen to Salvation.” Books, Articles, and Sermons from a Revised and Puritan Perspective. Available from <http://www.eternallifeministries.org/rm_chosen.htm>. Internet; accessed February 1, 2007.
McCheyne, Robert Murray. “Do This in Remembrance of Me.” Scottish Preachers. Available from <http://members.aol.com/RSICHURCH/remember.html>. Interent; accessed January 31, 2007.
McCheyne, Robert Murray. “Christ the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” Scottish Preachers. Available from <http://members.aol.com/RSISBELL/way.html>. Internet; accessed February 1, 2007.
McCheyne, Robert Murray. “God in Christ Reconciling the World.” Scottish Preachers. Available from <http://members.aol.com/RSISBELL/world.html>. Internet; accessed January 31, 2007.
McCheyne, Robert Murray. “The Cry for Revival: Part I.” Scottish Preachers. Available from <http://members.aol.com/RSICHURCH/revive1.html>. Internet; accessed February 1, 2007.
Mencken, H. L. A Mencken Chrestomathy. New York, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1949.
Murray, Iain H. “Robert Murray M’cheyne: Minister of St. Peter’s, Dundee, 1836 – 1843.” Published in David Haslam, The Hall of Church History. Available from <http://web.ukonline.co.uk/d.haslam/mccheyne/ihmurray.htm>. Internet; accessed Janaury 31,
2007.
Reynolds, Peter. “Nothing new under the sun.” Blog entry for October 19, 2006. Available from <http://reynoldsbooks.blog.com/2006/10/19/>. Internet; accessed February 1, 2007.
Richardson, Sean. “Robert Murray M’Cheyne.” Scottish Preachers. Available from <http://bpc.org/resources/sermons/rmmccheyne_01.html>. Internet; accessed February 1, 2007.
“Robert Murray McCheyne: Scottish Preacher,” Christian Biography Resources. Available from <http://www.wholesomewords.org/biography/bmcheyne2.html>. Internet; accessed February 1, 2007.
“The Industrial Revolution,” Scottish History/BBC.CO.UK.. Available from <http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/scottishhistory/enlightenment/features_enlightenment_industry.shtml>. Internet; accessed February 1, 2007.
1J. Harrison Hudson, “The Impact of Robert Murray McCheyne.” Available from <http://web.ukonline.co.uk/d.haslam/McCheyne/hudson/Impact_of_McCheyne.htm>. Internet;
accessed February 1, 2007.
2Taken from back cover of Sermons of Robert Murray M’Cheyne, published by The Banner of Truth Trust, Edinburgh, 1991, quoted in Sean Richardson, “Robert Murray M’Cheyne,” Scottish Preachers. Available from <http://bpc.org/resources/sermons/rmmccheyne_01.html>. Internet; accessed February 1, 2007.
3Robert Murray McCheyne,. “Another Lily Gathered,.” Bible Presbyterian Church Online. Available from <http://bpc.org/resources/sermons/rmmccheyne_01.html>. Internet; accessed February 1, 2007.
4Song of Solomon, vi:2.
5McCheyne, “Another Lily Gathered.”
6Robert Murray McCheyne, “Christ the Way, the Truth, and the Life,” Scottish Preachers. Available from <http://members.aol.com/RSISBELL/way.html>. Internet; accessed February 1, 2007.
7Robert Murray McCheyne, “The Cry for Revival: Part I,” Scottish Preachers. Available from <http://members.aol.com/RSICHURCH/revive1.html>. Internet; accessed February 1, 2007.
8Robert Murray McCheyne, “God in Christ Reconciling the World,” Scottish Preachers. Available from <http://members.aol.com/RSISBELL/world.html>. Internet; accessed January 31, 2007.
9McCheyne, ibid.
10Robert Murray McCheyne, “Do This in Remembrance of Me,” Scottish Preachers. Available from <http://members.aol.com/RSICHURCH/remember.html>. Internet; accessed January 31, 2007.
11Robert Murray McCheyne, “Chosen to Salvation.” Books, Articles, and Sermons from a Revised and Puritan Perspective. Available from <http://www.eternallifeministries.org/rm_chosen.htm>. Internet; accessed February 1, 2007.
12McCheyne, ibid.
13Romans, 9:22, 23.
14McCheyne, ibid.
15McCheyne, ibid.
16McCheyne, ibid.
17McCheyne, ibid.
18McCheyne, ibid.
19McCheyne, ibid.
20McCheyne, ibid.
21McCheyne, ibid.
22McCheyne, ibid.
23McCheyne, ibid.
24McCheyne, “Chosen to Salvation.”
25McCheyne, ibid.
26McCheyne, ibid.
27“Robert Murray McCheyne: Scottish Preacher,” Christian Biography Resources. Available from <http://www.wholesomewords.org/biography/bmcheyne2.html>. Internet; accessed February 1,2007.
28Quoted in Peter Reynolds, “Nothing new under the sun,” Blog entry for October 19, 2006. Available from <http://reynoldsbooks.blog.com/2006/10/19/>. Internet; accessed February. 1, 2007.
29H. L. Mencken, A Mencken Chrestomathy. (New York, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1949) ch. 30.
30See, e.g., Hudson; Iain H. Murray, “Robert Murray M’cheyne: Minister of St. Peter’s, Dundee, 1836 – 1843.” Published in David Haslam, The Hall of Church History. Available from <http://web.ukonline.co.uk/d.haslam/mccheyne/ihmurray.htm>. Internet; accessed January 31, 2007.
31See “The Industrial Revolution,” Scottish History/BBC.CO.UK.. Available from <http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/scottishhistory/enlightenment/features_enlightenment_industry.shtml>. Internet; accessed February 1, 2007.
32Martin L. King, “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” Nobel Prize Archives. Available from <http://almaz.com/nobel/peace/MLK-jail.html> . Internet; accessed January 30, 2007.
