Lord, make me as holy as a pardoned sinner can be.

“Lord, make me as holy as a pardoned sinner can be.”

This was one of the prayers uttered by Robert Murray M’Cheyne. He was a young Scottish pastor, whose life and ministry is a great example to all children of God who desire to dwell closer to God, advance in holiness and be gainfully employed as an instrument in God’s service.

His personal diaries recorded his desire for communion with the Lord above all - “O for closest communion with God, till soul and body shine with divine brilliancy”; as well as his strivings for holiness and wrestling against besetting sin.

His letters to fellow ministers and members of his congregation revealed his compassionate heart for his flock and for the lost. It also showed wise counsel provided on a host of issues including guidance from God, work and study, fellowship, and difficulties in prayer.

The biography starts from his birth in May 21 1813, Edinburgh, as the youngest of his family; to his conversion in the days of youth, sparked by the death of his eldest brother David in 1831 when M’Cheyne began to ‘seek a Brother who cannot die’. It touches on his early labours in the vineyard at Larbert and Dunipace, his ordination as a minister in St.Peter’s, Dundee; his mission to the Palestine and the Jews for 6 months in 1839; the Scottish revival in his absence, and the latter days of his ministry before his death on 25th March, 1843.

His mission to the Jews was motivated by a belief in the importance of the Jews in the eyes of God, as having a peculiar love to them. Along with Andrew Bonar, his close friend, brother and fellow minister of the Word, he ventured to key areas in Judea, Samaria, Galilee.

Walking the ground where the Lord Jesus walked, he was especially moved at Gethsemane, where he meditated on Christ’s love and determination to undergo divine wrath for us. With his Hebrew Bible in hand, he sought to leave at least a few words of Scripture with the Jews he met, no matter how short the time. He remembered the faces of the Jews he witnessed to before the Judgement-seat of Christ.

He was deeply convinced that God can make the simplest statement of the gospel, if it was the true gospel, the good tidings, the message that God so loved the world, effectual to save souls. His heart was stirred with grief at the sight of cities engulfed in idoltry and superstition, “veiling the glorious Object of faith”. He was truly “not ashamed of the gospel of Christ”, and yearned very much that there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David” (Zech 13.1).

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of M’Cheyne’s mission to the Jews was what occurred in his home congregation at St. Peter’s Dundee and Kilsyth, Scotland, while he was away.

In all his years of ministry, M’Cheyne laboured fervently for his flock in prayer, feeling very much the need of an outpouring of the Spirit to convert them. Mr William C. Burns, who was supplying the pulpit in M’Cheyne’s absence, had a sense of the deeper attention and real anxiety in those who were previously careless.

As he preached and pressed upon the congregation the need for acceptance of Christ, there was much melting of heart, and intense desire after God. The Word of God grew mightily and prevailed.

Far from being envious, M'Cheyne praised the Lord that another instrument had been honoured in the place where he himself had laboured with many tears and temptations. Lest he would say, “My own hand and eloquence had done this”, he rejoiced that souls were led to the Saviour, and if he were to be given a crown, he would cast it at the feet of Christ.

He did not complete more than 29 years of life before God took him – even before the age at which a priest in Israel would have started on his course. Perhaps that was the Lord’s way of impressing upon our remembrance M’Cheyne’s character and example more than ever.

In Bonar’s words – “He dwelt at the Mercy-seat as if it were his home – preached the uncertainties of eternal life with an undoubting mind – and spent his nights and days in ceaseless breathings after holiness, and the salvation of sinners.” Perhaps, never was the death of one, whose sole occupation had been preaching the everlasting gospel, more felt by all the saints of God in Scotland.

Come and learn from his example, by the Spirit’s help, to be drawn to greater heights of communion with the Lord, and usefulness for His name.