Christian Living, Religion & Spirituality 

The biography of Robert Murray McCheyne has become a classic of devotional literature. McCheyne would have been pleased, but embarrassed, that a biography would be written about his life and works. That his very life would be food for devotion would never have occurred to him, overwhelmed by a sense of all conquering grace as he was. He became a member of the so-called Non-Intrusion movement that ultimately led to the "Disruption," the withdrawal of 474 ministers from the Church of Scotland to form the Free Church of Scotland in 1843. The cause for the split was over purity of doctrine, church polity, and state interference in church affairs. McCheyne became interested in missions, especially the mission to the Jews in 1839, and made a trip to Europe and Palestine. His reflections are recorded in Bonar's biography, where McCheyne lamented the worldliness and paganism of the great cities he visited. McCheyne died in 1843 at 30 years of age, to the great sorrow of his friends. He would have vigorously disclaimed any second guessing of God's providence. Bonar, McCheyne's biographer, was himself a man of no mean accomplishment. He, like McCheyne, was an ordained Church of Scotland minister, a member of the Non-Intrusion movement, took part in the Disruption, traveled to Palestine as a member of the "Mission of Inquiry" with McCheyne, and lived out his days as a Free Church minister in Finnieston, Glasgow.