Read: Ephesians 6:13-24
Over the next few weeks and months I want to do something completely different at the prayer meeting. We are going to briefly survey the lives of some of the greatest Scottish Christians of history. We’re going to do this not just so that we gain a deeper appreciation of our spiritual forefathers (and foremothers), but more particularly so that we can glean from each one just a couple of things which they discovered and excelled at in their prayer lives. Hopefully, as our studies go on, we will begin to get a wider and fuller picture of the historical and Biblical practice of prayer. We may also pick up one or two hints which may help us in our own private and public prayers. The great Scottish figures I want to look at over the next while are: Thomas Chalmers, Samuel Rutherford, Andrew Bonar, John G Paton, James O Fraser, Thomas Boston, Mary Slessor, and tonight, by way of a dramatic introduction, Robert Murray McCheyne - the minister of St. Peter’s Church in Dundee from 1836 until his early death in 1843. But who really was McCheyne and what can he teach us about prayer?
I should say that with each study I am going to recommend to you at least one book from which I have drawn my analysis. On the subject of Robert Murray McCheyne, I would recommend two books: first, Andrew Bonar’s famous ‘Memoirs and Remains of Rev. Robert Murray McCheyne’, and secondly, David Robertson’s fascinating book, ‘Awakenings’. Together, these books shed a fascinating and realistic light on this brightest of Scottish Christian stars. We will first look at McCheyne’s life-story, and then we will draw a couple of applications regarding his prayer life.
[A] Life Story
Robert Murray McCheyne was born in Edinburgh in 1813, the youngest son of Adam and Lockhart McCheyne. His mother had strong Dumfrieshire connections – a note which will come up in many of our Christian heroes. Adam McCheyne was a privileged Edinburgh lawyer and was able to send Robert to a good school and then onto University. McCheyne was an above average student – but excelled in Latin, Classics and Poetry. His older brother David was converted in the 1820’s but died of fever in 1831 after a period of depression. David’s death, coinciding with his own variable health, caused McCheyne to ‘number his days’, as we would say, and seek after the Lord. After his conversion, he went to New College where he became firm friends with Alexander Somerville (the soon to be minister in Anderston) and the Bonar brothers Andrew and Horatius. His teacher was Thomas Chalmers of whom McCheyne rapidly became a devotee.
Having completed his theological training in Edinburgh, McCheyne was called to be the assistant in the charge of Larbert and Dunipace – a parish which was heavily industrialised. McCheyne was a tireless worker, especially among the young. But in 1836, the newly sanctioned charge of St. Peter’s in West Dundee called him to be their first minister. At the time, Dundee had become heavily industrialised and was therefore rather polluted. It was also full of immigrants from Ireland and from the Highlands.
McCheyne never had great physical (or mental) strength, and so he was often excused duty on health grounds. However, over the course of two years, he set up a congregational prayer meeting, youth groups and different organisations designed to reach the poor of Dundee. His preaching was direct, and his pastoral visitation designed to bring people to Christ. In 1839, McCheyne was called by the Church to go on a mission of discovery through Europe and to Palestine to ascertain the population of Jews. During the next year, a certain William Chalmers Burns conducted the services in St. Peters. Burns was instrumental in the Kilsyth revival, and before long, the reviving power of God which had been so evident in Kilsyth, began to move in St. Peter’s too. McCheyne returned to a congregation with 35 weekly prayer meetings (many among children) and an average Sunday morning attendance of 1,200. He ministered tirelessly, ecumenically and nationally. He became fascinated with mission and church extension. He wrote many hymns, some of which you may know, “A debtor to grace and to God”, “Jehovah Tsidkenu” and “By the waters of Siloam”. He was also very active in the pre-planning of the Disruption in 1843 when over 400 ministers left the established church over the issue of church-state relations – or whether the state has the right to tell the church what to do.
In early 1843, McCheyne had been visiting one of his parishioners who had contracted Typhus. It wasn’t long before McCheyne himself was suffering fevers and hallucinations. 10 days later, McCheyne died – aged 29 years old. During his short life, his achievements were remarkable and he will long be remembered for the revival in St. Peter’s in 1839/40.
[B] Applications for our Prayer Lives:
McCheyne was a prayer warrior in every sense of the word. In public prayer he was passionate, in private prayer no less so. Indeed, it may be, eternity will tell, that the revival in Dundee started in McCheyne’s own prayer time with him being brought to a fresh awareness of Christ. There are two applications from Robert Murray McCheyne’s prayer life I want to bring to your attention:
1. Discipline – Robert Murray McCheyne was a man of real discipline and determination.
a. A Time for Prayer – in his school and college years, McCheyne had written a number of articles on the virtues of getting up early in the morning. When he was converted and then in the ministry, he was disciplined in giving the Lord the best part of the day. He rose at 6:30 every morning and spent two hours in private prayer and meditation. From 8:30 to 10:00am he had breakfast and family prayers. He wrote, “I ought to pray before seeing anyone … 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.” His master Jesus was the same – it is written of Him in Mark 1:35, “very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.” McCheyne was a busy man – he never found time to pray – rather, he made time to pray. He would pray for up to 6 hours on a Sunday and spend Saturday mornings and evenings in prayer also. He was a man of considerable prayer. David Robertson writes, “Giving God what we have left of a busy day is not the best spiritual discipline … McCheyne is a great example of how to use the ordinary means of grace in such a way that your life becomes extra-ordinary.” Do not find time to pray, make time to pray, but we say, “I can’t pray because my life is so busy”; maybe we should say rather, “Because my life is so busy, I must pray.”
b. A Method of Prayer – McCheyne was extremely ordered in his prayer life. He followed a set pattern of confession, self-examination, thanksgiving, adoration and specific intercessory prayers. He was passionate about others and about overseas mission. He often prayed with a map on the table in front of him. His prayer diaries are filled with hundreds of specific items he systematically prayed for, ranging from family to friends, from the preaching of the Word to specific people in his congregation, from Queen Victoria to the General Assembly. Half of his morning private prayer was given over to praying for the Jews. Here was a man devoted to specific, systematic prayer – asking, seeking and knocking. One servant heard him at prayer and remarked, “Oh, to hear Mr McCheyne at prayers in the morning! It was as if he could never gi’e ower, he had sae muckle to ask.” In Ephesians 6:18 and 19 Paul speaks of “keep on praying for all the saints. Pray also for me”. Paul wanted the Ephesians to pray specifically. Shall we not listen to the counsel of Paul and shall we not imitate the pattern of McCheyne and be systematic and specific in our prayers?
2. Opportunity – Robert Murray McCheyne was never a strong man. It is thought that at least one of the romances he enjoyed with a girl was broken off by her father on the grounds that McCheyne was too sickly for his daughter! His lungs were never strong and were made worse by the polluted atmosphere in which he worked. It is also thought that he may also have suffered from some form of depression or melancholy. However, these physical and mental illnesses did not drive him away from Christ, but towards Him. Who can tell, perhaps the most powerful periods in his ministry were those where he wasn’t physically well enough to discharge the duties of the ministry! He wrote of such periods to John Bonar, his senior minister at Larbert and Dunipace, “I feel distinctly that the whole of my labour during this season of sickness and pain, should be in the way of prayer and intercession.” It may not always be possible to lucidly pray during times of either physical or mental illness, but there will be opportunities to use these times to draw closer to the Lord. Our bodies may be weak, but our souls can be strong in prayer. Our minds may be frail, but our spirits can be solid in interceding for others. It reminds me a great deal of the spirit of the Psalmist who, often cast down by his own fears or physical affliction can still say, “I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.” In our weakness, God can make us strong through prayer.
Robert Murray McCheyne was no more of a saint than you or me. He would hate to be eulogised and would rebuke us if he thought we were making an idol of him. However, the Apostle Paul, speaking of Epaphroditus in Philippians 2:29 writes, “honour men like him, because he almost died for the work of Christ.” If we would but imitate one of his prayer secrets (although they really are no secrets), and find ourselves closer to Christ as a result, then on the day we meet Robert Murray McCheyne in glory, standing together before the throne of Christ with him, he’ll say that it was all worth it.
