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Robert Murray McCheyne: Holiness in the Morning of Life | John Piper · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to the deep dive. This deep dive is called
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Reformed Thinking. Today we're looking at a set of
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sources asking, well, how do lives keep shaping others,
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especially lives that ended, you know, quite early.
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We've got notes here from a piece looking into the life of
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Robert Murray McShane, a Scottish pastor.
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Our goal is to really pull out the key insights on how his
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short life still resonates, and maybe what principles made his
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influence stick around. Yeah, it's really something when
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you think about it. Someone who lives such a brief
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time maybe didn't have huge outward events happen, but
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centuries later people are still talking about him, still finding
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something valuable there. And these sources, they offer a
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pretty clear framework for thinking about that kind of
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lasting effect. OK, so according to what we've
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read, what are the crucial things?
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What gives a life influence long after it's over?
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Well, the sources point to two things.
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Two distinct elements that seem necessary.
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It's not just one factor. All right, lay them out for us.
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What's #1. The first element, and it's
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presented as the most significant, is the person's
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life itself. It has to be a life with what
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the source calls great force or being really potent.
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The ultimate example given is Jesus Christ.
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Naturally he didn't write books right?
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His influence was direct from his person, his spoken words and
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his actions. The source puts it beautifully.
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The sheer truth and beauty of the God man saying his presence
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was just inescapable and unendingly powerful.
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OK, so it has to start with the actual lived reality.
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The substance of the person makes sense.
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What's the second part? The second thing needed is how
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that potent life gets portrayed specifically in writing by other
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people. The source is very direct and
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there must be a second is that Matthew, mark, Luke, John, Paul,
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Peter, James and Jude portrayed his person and work in writing.
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It's these writings that let us access the reality of who he
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was. Even today, I.
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See, so life could be amazing, but without that written record,
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it's reach is sort of limited to write then and there.
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They depend on each other. Exactly.
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They rely on each other, the sources say.
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If there had been no person, there would have been no books
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and there been no books. We would not know the person and
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we would be lost. It's presented as a pattern God
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set up. God established this pattern.
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How do the sources unpack that? They explained that God arranged
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for himself to be known in history through the Incarnate
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Word, Jesus Christ, and through the written word of the
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Incarnate Word, the Bible. And the idea is that this
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pattern will it continues throughout church history.
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You have a life of real substance.
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It gets captured in writing and that it's preserved so others
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can benefit. And they give other examples,
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right? Especially people whose lives
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were cut. Short yes, several.
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Jim Elliott died at 28. His ongoing influence is heavily
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tied to Elizabeth Elliott's books about him.
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David Brainard pass at 29. Known mainly through Jonathan
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Edwards biography The life of David Brainard and Henry Martin
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died at 31. His story kept alive by John
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Sergeant's memoir The Common Thread is these relatively short
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but impactful lives whose legacies were really carried
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forward because someone wrote about them.
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The writing part seems absolutely critical, then, but
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is there a biblical basis for even doing this?
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For looking at other people's lives, knowing everyone's
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flawed. That's a fair question.
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The sources go straight to scripture for that.
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They point to Philippians 3.1 AD Paul tells the Philippians to
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keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you
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have in US. The Greek word there scope 8.
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It means something like fix your gaze on them.
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Look closely. Fix your gaze.
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That sounds pretty deliberate. It really does like careful,
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intentional observation. So the sources connect this to
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studying lives like machines, acknowledging yeah, they had
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flaws, but they can still provide patterns or examples
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worth learning from. OK, let's do that.
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Then. Let's fix our gaze on Robert
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Murray machine. Tell us a bit more about him.
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All right. Robert Murray Machine He was a
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Scottish pastor born in Edinburgh back in 1813 and
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tragically he died really young, just 29.
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Typhus fever took him. He was only a pastor in Dundee
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for about 6 years, but even with that short time the sources
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describe his life as having this unusual force.
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And that brings us to this key idea the sources use for him.
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He kissed the Rose and felt the thorn.
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What did that mean originally for him?
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Yeah, that phrase actually comes from McShane describing his own
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life before he was converted. When he wrote I Kissed the Rose
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nor Thought about the Thorn, he basically meant he was all about
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worldly pleasures, worldly delights, not really thinking
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about suffering or, you know, death.
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But that meaning changed completely after his conversion.
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Completely. The sources explain how it got
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reinterpreted. The Rose now stood for the
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incredible preciousness of Christ himself.
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You know the Rose of Sharon from Scripture and the thorn.
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Well, that became the painful stuff.
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His sickness, knowing his life might be short.
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The reality of eternity being close.
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OK, this is where it gets really interesting.
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How did holding both of those the Rose and the thorn, how did
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that actually shape his life and ministry?
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Well, the sources argue pretty convincingly that this awareness
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of death, of suffering, it wasn't a negative thing for his
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ministry. It didn't hold him back.
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It actually seemed to intensify his appreciation for Christ and
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strengthen his usefulness. The source says His
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effectiveness was not frustrated by this fact, but empowered by
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it. It's like feeling the sharpness
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of the thorn made the sweetness of the Rose Christ even more
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profound. The source calls this the double
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sided key to Mcshanes impact, the preciousness of Christ and
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the painful shortness of life or the nearness of eternity.
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Machine himself warned. People said not your heart on
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the flowers prized the Rose of Sharon more than all.
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That's quite a perspective shift, not just despite the
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thorn, but almost because of it. So what shaped him?
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What experiences led him to grasp this?
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What was his early life like? He grew up in Edinburgh.
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His family was linked to the Moderate Party in the Church of
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Scotland, which at that time was seen as a bit more liberal,
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maybe less fervent, than the evangelical.
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He went to university very young, just 14, studied
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classics, seem pretty into poetry, the social life.
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Thomas Chalmers, who later became his mentor, actually
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described him then as a fine specimen of the natural man.
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So pretty wrapped up in the world's rose.
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Not much thought for any thorn. What happened?
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What was the turning point? The big catalyst seems to have
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been his older brother David's death.
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That was in July 1831. The source calls it the first
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overwhelming blow to Robert's worldliness.
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Apparently seeing David's clear peace, his faith in Jesus.
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Right at the end it just stabbed McShane through the heart.
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Thorn hit home. It really did.
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Suddenly that worldly rose he'd been chasing, it just lost its
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appeal. And by God's grace, in the face
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of death, he started to see another rose, the beauty, the
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security found in Christ, a beauty that death didn't
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diminish, but maybe even highlighted.
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He wrote that he began to seek a brother who cannot die.
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And there was another key moment a bit later.
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Yes, March 1832 he was reading a book The Sum of Saving
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Knowledge. He felt something decisive shift
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while reading it. He later said that book was the
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work which I think first of all rot as saving change in me.
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So it sounds like his conversion was this mix, a really personal
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emotional blow with his brother, but then also engaging
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intellectually with solid reform teaching.
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Yeah, that blend of heart and head is noted and you see it
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come out in his poem Jehovah Sikkunu.
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But in a couple of years later, November 1834, the poem is all
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about justification through Christ, Jehovah Sikkunu, the
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Lord, our righteousness, which as the source points out, was
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huge for the reformers. A key line is Jehovah Tsidkunu,
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my savior must be. They also mentioned the last
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verse seems almost prophetic about how he eventually died
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from a fever. He started studying theology
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pretty soon after his brother died.
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Who were the big influences on him then?
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Thomas Chalmers really stands out.
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He was a professor in Edinburgh, a major figure described as the
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main human force in the revitalizing of the Scottish
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church. Chalmers represented this warm
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hearted devotional evangelistic Calvinism.
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He famously warned students about two main dangers, the
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white devil spiritual pride and the black devil sins of the
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flesh. And under Chalmers machine
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really developed that focus on holiness and evangelism.
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Absolutely. For holiness, Chalmers advised
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against getting too bogged down and navel gazing, telling them
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to look outwardly to Christ. That's where Mcshane's famous
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line comes from. For every look at yourself, take
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10 looks at Christ. And the sources are clear.
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When McShane said the greatest need of my people is my own
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holiness, he meant that holiness comes from constant personal
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communion with Christ. And evangelism.
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How did that spark? Chalmers had started this thing
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called a visiting society to reach the poorer parts of
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Edinburgh, but Shane got involved.
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It exposed him to poverty and suffering you probably hadn't
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seen much before, and it just awakened in him a sense of
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urgency for those cut off from the gospel.
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He uses really intense Scottish phrase saying he was DNA folk
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converted, like dying to see people converted.
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You feel the intensity. It's interesting, though, that
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even with all that passion and knowing his health wasn't great,
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he actually finished his theological studies.
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He didn't just rush out. Did the sources say that time
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was well spent? Yes, they argue strongly that it
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was. Even with that burning desire
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and only having six years of pastoral ministry ahead, he
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finished the course, got good with Greek and Hebrew.
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The point made is that this thorough training really
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contributed to his fruitfulness, later suggesting those few years
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of ministry were maybe worth 7 decades in terms of impact.
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As the source says, fruitfulness in this life is not qualifiable
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in years. That's a useful thought for
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anyone, isn't it? That preparation, even when time
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feels short, can actually multiply the results.
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Yeah, a challenge is that idea that faster is always better.
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Sometimes the solid groundwork is where the real lasting
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strength comes from. And friendships were a big deal
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for him, too. Oh Vital, especially his close
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bonds with Andrew Bonar and Alexander Somerville.
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The description is supercharged camaraderie, like an intense
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mutual encouragement that had an exponential effect on their
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spiritual eyes and their work. And Andrew Bonar's friendship
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becomes absolutely key for Mcshane's legacy reaching us.
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Mutterly essential, the source puts it bluntly.
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Without this friendship with Bonar, the memoir would never
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have been written and we would probably never have heard of
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Robert Murray McShane. Bonar was the one who gathered
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everything and published the memoir and remains of Robert
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Murray McShane just two years after his friend died.
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That's what preserved his life and especially his words.
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So when you look at his life, what was really driving it all?
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What was the engine behind His Holiness and his preaching that
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people felt? The sources pin it down to
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constant communion with Christ through God's Word 3 prayer.
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It was foundational. They quote someone saying the
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man himself was the sermon, like people since he'd been with God,
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that his face still shone with the glory of Christ, maybe like
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Moses. How did he cultivate that
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connection? Through Scripture for instance.
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It wasn't just a quick quiet time for him.
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He aimed for constant communion. He'd get up early to see God, he
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said, who would not rise really to meet such company.
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And this other quote is quite striking.
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I cannot begin my work, for I have not seen the face of God.
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He really felt he encountered God in the Word, called it His
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sweetest nourishment. He even made specific Bible
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reading plans, one for the whole year, another more intense one
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for reading it all in a month, because he felt that focus time
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was essential for staying connected.
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He saw the Bible like a window to gaze on Christ, to see the
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beauties of the Rose. And prayer.
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What was his approach there? He saw prayer as even more
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potent than preaching. He's quoted saying it is prayer
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that gives preaching all its potency.
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And he was really watchful about anything that got in the way of
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prayer or Bible reading, saw it as a danger sign, a sign of
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being too attached to the world. His personal notes on
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Reformation and secret prayer show real discipline.
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Pray before you see anyone. Use the best hours.
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Even pray if you wake up at night.
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And again, like with the Rose, did the suffering, the thorn
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push him closer in this communion too.
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Yes, that seems to be the case. The thorn, the sickness, the
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awareness of a short life. It seems it drove him closer to
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Christ. The sources quote him Sufferings
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and shortness of life were all for His Holiness.
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And he also said the thorn in the flesh makes us panned after
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God. So yeah, hardship fueled his
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desire for God, spurred that communion.
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So we have this significant life fueled by this deep walk with
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Christ, sharpened by suffering. But the sources make a really
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crucial point about how we feel that influence today, right?
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Yes, they really stressed this. His continuing influence comes
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mainly from his words. Powerful, often picturesque
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words that were carefully preserved by Bonar in the
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memoir, the source says. He is still influencing us
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because of the words that came out of his mouth, not the events
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of his life. So his life gave the passion,
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the context, but the words were the vehicle.
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That's how it traveled through time to us.
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That's the idea, the source notes.
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All that passion would be formless and ineffective today
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without his words, his preaching, his writing.
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Used language described as provocative and awakening and
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pleasing and potent, it had impact.
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OK, so bringing this all together, these two keys for
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lasting influence, the Rosenborn idea, his experiences that focus
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on communion, the significance of the preserved words.
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What's the main take away here? Well, it seems the core idea is
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that enduring influence isn't always about living a long life.
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It often comes from a life intensely focused on Christ,
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pursued diligently in holiness through the Word and prayer, and
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then crucially captured in writing.
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Shane's life is like a case study.
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It shows how facing hardship can actually deepen devotion, how
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solid teaching shaped his passion for holiness and
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evangelism, and how that dedicated time with God plus
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those strong friendships really fueled his impact and his
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striking words. Saves by his friend.
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They keep offering guidance. Yeah, looking at his life
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through this lens, it definitely makes you think about what
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really lasts, what allows a short life to have such a ripple
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effect. There's a bit of advice from
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McShane and the sources that really stands out.
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Live much in the smiles of God. Bask in his beams.
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Just consider that phrase live much in the smiles of God,
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basket his beams, thinking about everything.
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We've just discussed the Jane's communion with Christ, the Rose,
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the thorn. What might that simple sentence
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prompt you to reflect on for your own life today?