Pastoral Letters of McCheyne - Introduction

Robert Murray McCheyne was ill. For two years he had been the minister of St. Peter’s Church in Dundee, Scotland. But a problem had developed with his heart, and his medical advisors recommended a period of complete rest  in order to stop the condition spreading to his lungs. Accordingly he went to stay at the home of his parents in Edinburgh, thinking that he would be able to return to his beloved flock at St. Peter’s within two weeks.

He was mistaken. His condition didn’t improve, and he was obliged to remain in retirement for much longer than he had first anticipated. The twenty-five year old minister found it a great trial to be thus separated from his sphere of labor; for though he was so young, yet God’s Spirit had wrought a deep work in his heart at conversion, and he was filled to an astonishing degree with the constraining love of Christ toward sinners. The fatherly love that he displayed toward his parishioners was also quite remarkable; and it was this concern for their welfare that  led him, during this period of illness and attempted recuperation, to write the ten “pastoral letters” which make up this little book.

The letters thus written reveal a true pastor’s heart. Though he could not be with his people in bodily presence, yet his heart yearned over them with a tender affection born of the love of God. His letters are full of exhortations to Christlikeness of spirit and holiness of heart and life. They reverberate with warnings to those still unconverted to flee to the Redeemer before it was too late. They were obviously written with the purpose of impressing upon the members of his congregation that although they were out of sight, they were still very much on his mind and in his heart. He didn’t use the letters as an occasion to speak of himself, except to remind them that he was constantly praying for their spiritual welfare.

As the time of his illness lengthened out beyond his first expectations, the young minister began to see that God had specific reasons for withdrawing him from his congregation. In a letter dated January 18th, 1839, he expresses himself thus: “I sometimes think that a great blessing may come to my people in my absence. Often God does not bless us when we are in the midst of our labors, lest we shall say, ‘My hand and my eloquence have done it.’ He removes us into silence, and then pours ‘down a blessing so that there is no room to receive it’; so that all that see it cry out, ‘It is the Lord!’”

In this matter McCheyne proved to be right, for  by the time he returned to take up his post later that year, God had wonderfully moved in revival blessing through the faithful ministry of another young minister by the name of William C. Burns. The godly McCheyne proved the genuineness of his love for souls and for the Kingdom of Christ by rejoicing in the blessings thus bestowed upon his congregation, even though it was through a channel other than himself. “I have no desire but the salvation of my people, by whatever instrument,” was his comment.

Another reason he saw for God’s temporarily removing him from his flock was so that his parishioners wouldn’t make an idol out of him, and so that they would learn not to depend on him—their pastor—but on the Saviour Himself. Addressing this very issue, he wrote to one of his flock at Dundee: “A minister will make a poor saviour in the day of wrath. It is not knowing a minister, or loving one, or hearing one, or having a name to live, that will save. You need to have your hand on the head of the Lamb for yourselves (Lev. 1:4). You need to have your eye on the brazen serpent for yourselves (John 3:14-15). I fear I will need to be a swift witness against many of my people in the day of the Lord, that they looked to me, and not to Christ, when I preached to them.”

In the providence of God, it was during this time of temporary retirement from his daily ministrations that the Church of Scotland decided upon a Mission of Inquiry into the state of the Jews. Four men were deputed to travel to the Holy Land and see what could be done in the interests of bringing the Gospel to the Jews, and Mr. McCheyne was included in the number, as his medical advisors agreed that such a trip would in all likelihood be beneficial to his health. But even amidst the excitement, distractions and toil of foreign travel, his congregation at Dundee were not forgotten. And so it was that the last two pastoral letters which appear in the pages that follow were written while he was on this trip.

Robert Murray McCheyne died in his twenty-ninth year. His life was short, but its fragrance and influence lives on. “Live so as to be missed,” was his advice to others, and in this he practised what he preached. Let his biographer and bosom friend, Andrew Bonar, tell us the secret of his spiritual success: “During the last years of his short life, [he] walked calmly in almost unbroken fellowship with the Father and the Son.”

“He being dead yet speaketh.”

[Those desiring to read the full biography of this unusual saint of God, as well as a collection of his letters, sermons and sacred songs, should obtain a copy of the Memoir and Remains of Robert Murray McCheyne, which is published by the Banner of Truth Trust.]