Robert Murray M'Cheyne

This guy was amazing. You might have heard of him mentioned in sermons, or something quoted by him. He always intrigued me a bit, and I found a biography of him in my dad's cave of wonders (aka study).. by Andrew Bonar.

R.M.M. was a scottish pastor who died when he was only 29 in 1843, but he hadn't wasted his life. Here are a couple of extracts/ poems I have read so far. (I've not yet finished and the chapters are so long it takes me a couple of hours just to get through one of them!)

"At this time, hearing, concerning a friend of the family, that she had said, "that she was determined to keep by the world," he penned the following lines on her melancholy decision :-

She has chosen the world,
And it's paltry crowd, -
She has chosen the world,
And an endless shroud!
She has chosen the world,
With it's misnamed pleasures:
She has chosen the world,
Before Heaven's own treasures.

She hath launched her boat
On life's giddy sea,
And her all is afloat
For eternity.
But Bethlehem's star
Is not in her view;
And her aim is far
From the harbour true.

When the storm descends
From an angry sky,
Ah! Where from the winds
Shall the vessel fly?
When stars are concealed,
And rudder gone,
And heaven is sealed
To the wandering one!

The whirlpool opes
For the gallant prize;
And, with all her hopes,
To the deep she hies!
But who may tell
Of the place of woe,
Where the wicked dwell -
Where the worldlings go?

For the human heart
Can ne'er conceive
What joys are the part
Of them who believe;
Nor can justly think
Of the cup of death
Which all must drunk
Who despise the faith.

Away, then - oh, fly
From the joys of the earth!
Her smile is a lie -
There's a sting in her mirth.
Come, leave the dreams
Of this transient night,
And bask in the beams
Of an endless light."


"July 8 - Since Tuesday have been laid up with illness. Set by once more for a season to feel my unprofitableness and cure my pride. When shall this self-choosing temper be healed? 'Lord, I will preach, run, visit, wrestle,' said I. 'No, thou shalt lie in thy bed and suffer,' said the Lord. To-day missed some fine opportunities of speaking a word for Christ. The Lord saw I would have sp[oken as much for my own honour as his, and, therefore, shut my mouth. I see a man cannot be a faithful minister, until he preaches Christ for Christ's sake - Until he gives up striving to attract people to himself, and seeks only to attract them to Christ. Lord, give me this!"