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Review: The Believer’s Joy by R. M. McCheyne

August 9, 2024

Robert Murray McCheyne once said, "The Lord's children rejoice in Him... The purest joy in the world is joy in Christ Jesus." He said it in one of the sermons collected in this very short book, The Believer's Joy, the first McCheyne book in our series A Summer of Scots.

About McCheyne

Robert Murray McCheyne was born in 1813 and died in 1843. His life was very short, about 30 years, yet it was one of the most influential in the history of the Scottish church. He was a man of great piety and love for Christ and his people. After his education at the University of Edinburgh, he became assistant minister to John Bonar, who, strangely enough, was Andrew and Horatius Bonar's grandfather. (We've reviewed several of their books on the channel.) He then preached at St Peter's Church in Dundee from 1836 until his death. His lasting impact can be seen in his writings, his hymns and his Bible reading plan, all still read, sung and used today. He was a pastor, author, poet and theologian, and though he never married or had children, his heritage lasts to this day in books like this one.

The book

It's only 86 pages: a recent compilation of sermons McCheyne preached at Dundee. As Sinclair Ferguson notes in his introduction, they bear all the hallmarks of his preaching: simplicity, clarity, directness, earnestness, Christ-centeredness, and a poetic beauty, and they reveal a young man in his mid-twenties who had grown rapidly in the grace and knowledge of Christ. I found it a great introduction to McCheyne: what he believed, how he cared for his congregation, and how he delivered the message to his people. It's so full of passion for Christ in a way you rarely see, and only when the Holy Spirit has touched a man's heart.

Ferguson also gives advice on how to read it: read the sermons out loud, to yourself or someone else. They're sermons, not essays, written to be preached, not read silently, and you'll better feel the power of the sermons and the poetry in McCheyne's soul. I've noticed that the 19th-century pastors were all steeped in poetry and literature, and their writing is simple and easy to read, yet so profound. So read it aloud and enjoy the beauty of the English language.

There are eight chapters but nine sermons, because chapter six is two communion addresses: The Believer's Prayer for Divine Teaching; The Believer's Joy in God; Laodicea, or the Lukewarm Professor; The Song to Jesus; John's Vision of Jesus in Glory; Two Communion Addresses; The Cry for Revival; and Excerpts from a Preacher's Heart.

A few things I marked

• "It is not once in a hundred sermons that we speak rightly of Christ... The best of books are but sparks from the Bible, mingled with human darkness" (p. 15). As we go to church and read books, even this one, we're so far from perfectly understanding who Christ is and what He did.
• "Ah, brethren, I tremble for you. Unsanctified knowledge will be like a millstone to sink your soul" (p. 34). We need to pray that God would sanctify our knowledge. It does us no good if it's only in our heads. We need it in our hearts, made holy.
• "Sin is an infinite evil; it leaves a mark on the soul that nothing human can wipe away. Oh, pray for a discovery of the loathsomeness of sin" (p. 43). This goes back to what we saw earlier in the Summer of Scots: these men constantly pleaded with people to pray, and they were great men of prayer themselves. I think the lack of godly, manly leadership today is a lack of prayer.
• "Oh, it is sweet to have nothing our own, but to give up all to Christ, to be entirely His forever and ever" (p. 49). Amen.
• "My friends, the very use of being joined to Christ is to be made holy" (p. 60). So simple, yet so profound.

In one of the communion addresses (pp. 62–63), McCheyne lists what he prays will be sanctified in his hearers. It's so simple to pray, "Lord, make me holy," but in what? He gives four things:

1. Your affections. "Take heed what you love. Love what Jesus loves."
2. Your understanding. "A sanctified understanding is worth all the godless wisdom of earth and hell."
3. Your habits. Live in secret prayer: if you would enter God's presence every morning, "how your face would shine throughout the day," and how sweet to work all day in His favor and lie down at night under His smile. Live in family prayer. He goes so far as to say, "You are not Christians if you have no family prayer." When I read that I sat back and thought, "Whoa, that's brutal." But there's something behind it. If you aren't leading your family in devotions, praying with them, why not? Christ died so that we could enter boldly into the throne of grace. The veil is torn in two. Enter with your family. And read the Bible: "If you be led by the Spirit, you will love the Bible."
4. Your body. If you're joined to Christ, your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. May your eyes, once full of lust, shine only with looks of faith; your feet, once carrying you to godless pleasure, be shod with the gospel of peace; your hands, once handling unlawful things, minister to the poor, the widow and the orphan. "You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils."

And it all ties back to the central point of the book (p. 76): "The purest joy in the world is joy in Christ Jesus."

Soli Deo Gloria!

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