Robert Murray M'Cheyne - Bonar - III - Chapter 2

Required reading
Robert Murray M'Cheyne by Andrew Bonar (Available from Amazon or free here) - Read Chapter 2 (His labours in the vineyard before ordination).

My summary
Now we read of M'Cheyne's early endeavours as a minister.

Once again, Bonar gives us a good summary of the period: 'During these ten months the Lord had done much for him, but it was chiefly in the way of discipline for a future ministry. He had been taught a minister's heart; he had been tried in the furnace; he had tasted deep personal sorrow, little of which has been recorded; he had felt the fiery darts of temptation; he had been exercised in self-examination and in much prayer; he had proved how flinty is the rock, and had learned that in lifting the rod by which it was to be smitten, success lay in Him alone who enabled him to lift it up. And thus prepared of God for the peculiar work that awaited him, he had turned his face towards Dundee, and took up his abode in the spot where the Lord was so marvelously to visit him in his ministry.'

What grabbed me
Enjoyed his counsel in a letter to a young man leaving home, particularly concerning prayer: 'Turn the Bible into prayer. Thus, if you were reading the 1st Psalm, spread the Bible on the chair before you, and kneel, and pray, 'O Lord, give me the blessedness of the man,' etc. 'Let me not stand in the counsel of the ungodly,' etc. This is the best way of knowing the meaning of the Bible, and of learning to pray. In prayer confess your sins by name--going over those of the past day, one by one. Pray for your friends by name--father, mother, etc. etc. If you love them, surely you will pray for their souls. I know well that there are prayers constantly ascending for you from your own house; and will you not pray for them back again? Do this regularly. If you pray sincerely for others, it will make you pray for yourself.'

One of the greatest pieces of advice I have known is to turn the Bible into a prayer book.

Next week's reading
Commence Chapter 3 (First years of labour in Dundee) by reading up to the paragraph beginning 'In the close of the same year 1837, he agreed to become Secretary to the Association for Church Extension in the county of Forfar.'

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.