Robert Murray M'Cheyne

McCheyne, though wielding remarkable influence in his lifetime, was still more powerful afterwards, through his Memoirs and Remains, edited by Andrew Bonar, which ran into far over a hundred English editions. Some of his hymns became well known and his Bible reading plan is still in common use.

• Type — minister • Honorific Prefix — The Reverend • Name — Robert Murray McCheyne • Elected — elected in August 1836 • Other Post — assistant at Larbert and Dunipace; licen. by Presbytery of Annan 1 July 1835 • Ordination — 24 November 1836 • Born — 21 May 1813 • Birthplace — Edinburgh, Scotland • Died — 25 March 1843 • Place of death — Dundee, Scotland • Education — High School of Edinburgh • Alma Mater — University of Edinburgh

Robert Murray McCheyne was born at 14 Dublin Street in Edinburgh on 21 May 1813, the son of Adam McCheyne W.S. (d. 1854), and Lockhart Murray, daughter of David Dickson of Locherwoods, Dumfriesshire. At the age of four he knew the characters of the Greek alphabet, and was able to sing and recite fluently. He entered the high school in his eighth year, and matriculated in November 1827 at University of Edinburgh, where he showed very versatile powers, and distinguished himself especially in poetical exercises, being awarded a special prize by Professor Wilson for a poem on ‘The Covenanters.’ In the winter of 1831 he commenced his studies in the Divinity Hall, under Thomas Chalmers and David Welsh; and he was licensed as a preacher by the Annan presbytery on 1 July 1835. He first served as an assistant to John Bonar in the parish of Larbert and Dunipace, near Falkirk, from 1835 to 1836. On 24 November 1836 he was ordained to the pastorate of St. Peter's Church, Dundee, which had been erected into a quoad sacra parish in the preceding May. The congregation numbered eleven hundred hearers, and McCheyne addressed himself to the work of the ministry with so much ardour that his health again gave way, and in December 1838 he was compelled to desist from all public duty. He went to Edinburgh to rest and recuperate. During his absence his pulpit was supplied by William Chalmers Burns, afterwards the celebrated missionary to China.

• Illustration — Robert Murray McCheyne from "The Sea of Galilee Mission of the Free Church of Scotland" In 1839, McCheyne and Bonar, together with two older ministers, Alexander Black and Alexander Keith, were sent to Palestine on a mission of inquiry to the condition of the Jews. Upon their return, their official report for the Board of Mission of the Church of Scotland was published as Narrative of a Visit to the Holy Land and Mission of Inquiry to the Jews. This led subsequently to the establishment of missions to the Jews by the Church of Scotland and by the Free Church of Scotland. Islay Burns, brother and biographer of William Chalmers Burns succeeded McCheyne as minister of St. Peter's.

McCheyne was away from 12 April to 6 November 1839. On his return he resumed his work at Dundee with renewed energy. In the autumn of 1842 he visited the north of England on an evangelical mission, and made similar journeys to London and Aberdeenshire. He preached in the morning and afternoon of 12 March to his own people in Dundee, and in the evening preached at Broughty Ferry. Two days afterwards was seized with typhus fever, which he had contracted in the course of visitation, and died 25 March 1843.

He died of typhus in Dundee following a short illness on 25 March 1843. His parents agreed to the wish of his congregation that McCheyne be buried in the graveyard beside St Peter's Church in Dundee, rather than in the family's own burial-ground in Edinburgh. He was buried on Thursday 30 March 1843, with an estimated 7000 people attending the funeral. An imposing monument marks his grave.

The proper typography for his surname is with a left single quotation mark, i.e. M‘Cheyne. The use of an ordinary apostrophe is so common, that no attempt is made here to standardise how it is written. Likewise, for the alternative common use of McCheyne.

• Illustration — Robert Murray McCheyne • Why is God a Stranger in the Land? (Edinburgh, 1838) • Reasons why Children should fly to Christ without Delay (Edinburgh, 1839) • To the Lambs of the Flock (Edinburgh, 1840) • Testimony against the running of Railway Trains on Sabbath (Dundee, 1841) • Love the Lord's Day (Dundee, 1841) • Daily Bread (Edinburgh, 1842) • Another Lily Gathered (Edinburgh, 1842) • Narrative of a Mission of Inquiry to the Jews from the Church of Scotland in 1839 [jointly with Andrew A. Bonar](Edinburgh, 1842) • The Eternal Inheritance, the Believer's Portion, and The Vessels of Wrath fitted to Destruction, two discourses (Dundee, 1843) • Expositions of the Epistles to the Seven Churches of Asia (Dundee, 1843) • Songs of Zion to cheer and guide Pilgrims on their way to the New Jerusalem (Dundee, 1843) • Memoir and Remains (portrait) by Andrew A. Bonar (Edinburgh, 1844; numerous editions, and Gaelic translation by Allan Sinclair, 1895) • Additional Remains consisting of various Sermons and Lectures (Edinburgh, 1846) • Basket of Fragments, the Substance of Sermons (Aberdeen, 1848) • Revival Truth, being Sermons hitherto unpublished (London, 1860) • Mission of Discovery Christian Focus Publications, He wrote these hymns — • When this Passing World is done • I once was a Stranger to Grace and to God • Beneath Moriah's Rocky Side [written at the foot of Carmel, June 1839] • Like Mist on the Mountains • Ten Virgins clothed in White