a sabre clean and sharp …
Robert Murray M'Cheyne (1813 - 43) is renowned as a saintly Church of Scotland minister, who served at St. Peter’s Kilsyth in Dundee. He died tragically of typhus aged only 29, which he contracted through visiting sufferers during an epidemic raging in his parish.
We might naturally expect his biographer and great friend Andrew Bonar to indulge in a little rosy hagiography, in recounting a ministerial life struck down so very young.
Nonetheless M'Cheyne does seem to have been at the heart of a very well attested revival, which deepened the longing for holiness in his generation.
His life-story fits the bill concerning St. Paul’s scary advice to the Philippians (which I quoted in a recent post) : “Brethren, join in imitating me, and mark those who so live as you have an example in us”
I say “scary”, because this signifies that church leaders are actually meant to lead … & by personal lifestyle especially!
Indeed Paul doesn’t seem in the least squeamish about such a high calling :
“Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” he urges his readers, with no hint of awkwardness or false humility (1 Corinthians 11 v.1).
One of my Lee Abbey talks refers to the similar dictum of Robert Murray M'Cheyne in which he asserts, as a pastor and for the same reason, that “the greatest need of my people is my personal holiness”
In a “sabbatical farewell” sermon with my Horsham congregation this morning, I was therefore relieved to report that M'Cheyne (like St. Paul himself) did also dig into the “Yes, But How” of living up to such a daunting & challenging vocation … because at this point, I know I for one badly need some help from somewhere!
My favourite example is a letter he wrote, containing holy wisdom that I have treasured all my ordained ministry. It was addressed to Revd. Dan Edwards, a missionary friend about to travel to Germany, in the year 1840 (just as my vicarage was being built, as it happens, where now I sit & copy out these words) :
“My dear friend, I trust you will have a pleasant and profitable time in Germany. I know you will apply hard to German; but do not forget the culture of the inner man - I mean of the heart. How diligently the cavalry officer keeps his sabre clean and sharp; every stain he rubs off with the greatest care. Remember you are God’s sword - His instrument - I trust a chosen vessel unto Him to bear His name. In great measure, according to the purity and perfections of the instrument will be the success. 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.”
It is not great talents God blesses so much as great likeness to Jesus.
For 30 years that phrase has been a lodestar for me, and I strongly commend it to you.
M'Cheyne’s advice is important for all Christians to heed, but what follows does seems especially appropriate for a vicar beginning his sabbatical. Indeed every word here deserves careful pondering :
“Study universal holiness of life. Your whole usefulness depends on this, for your sermons last but an hour or two; your life preaches all the week. If Satan can only make a covetous minister a lover of praise, of pleasure, of good eating, he has ruined your ministry.
Take heed to thyself. Your own soul is your first and greatest care … Keep up close communion with God. Study likeness to Him in all things. Read the Bible for your own growth first, then for your people. Expound much; it is through the truth that souls are to be sanctified, not through essays upon the truth” (from a letter to Revd. W.C. Burns)
Four months after receiving that letter it was in fact Burns (a young man of 24) who was preaching in M'Cheyne’s pulpit at St. Peter’s, when the great Kilsyth Revival broke out.
As a result we are told “All Scotland heard the glad news that the sky was no longer brass. The Spirit in mighty power began to work from that day forward in many places of the land”
Instead of the dreaded typhus plague, Bonar describes a Holiness Revival that now proceeded to rage across the Parish of Kilsyth : “tears were streaming from the eyes of many, and some fell on the ground groaning, and weeping, and crying for mercy”
Services were held every night for many weeks, often lasting late into the night, as the fear of God fell upon the town. Bonar tells of a deep awareness of eternal realities that possessed the vast congregation, and how in worship “the people felt that they were praising a present God”
It was in effect a prolonged experience of the kind of overwhelming that I have described in my earlier comments - a corporate experience of the potential of contemplative prayer and worship, in opening us up to God’s holy and transforming Presence.
M'Cheyne’s response to such religious awakening and exciting physical manifestation was highly significant, I think. As a wise pastor he knew well the need for spiritual discipline always to accompany spiritual experience, if it is to yield a godliness that abides :
“It is a holy-making Gospel,” he declared. “Without holy fruit all evidences are vain. Dear friends, you have awakenings, enlightenings, experiences, a full heart in prayer, and many due signs ; but if you want holiness, you will never see the Lord. A real desire after complete holiness is the truest mark of being born again. Jesus is a holy Saviour. He first covers the soul with His white raiment, then makes the soul glorious within - restores the lost image of God, and fills the soul with pure, heavenly holiness. Unregenerate men among you cannot bear this.”
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
Lord teach me holiness, again in this generation - just as you taught M'Cheyne, Tozer and your other disciples we will meet on this journey together - and may your Kingdom Glory come, on earth as it is in heaven …