Robert Murray M'Cheyne & James Hudson Taylor

Two well known 19^th century ministers share the same birthday, May 21: Robert Murray M’Cheyne and James Hudson Taylor. Both were from what is now the UK and both live on through their legacies. One ministered mostly in his own country; the other went to China. One died young; the other lived to old age. One lives on through his life story and his printed sermons; the other lives on through his life story and the missions agency he founded.

Robert Murray M’Cheyne was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on this date in 1813. At a young age he was known for his bright intellect and upright behavior. However, he referred to this time as “days of ungodliness—days wherein he cherished a pure morality, but lived in heart a Pharisee” (Andrew A. Bonar, Memoir and Remains of Robert Murray M’Cheyne, Banner of Truth, p. 4). As he grew he turned to worldly pursuits, but the Spirit of God was convicting him of his inward corruptions. In May 1832, already studying for the ministry under Thomas Chalmers, M’Cheyne trusted himself to Jesus Christ. He writes in his journal on May 6, “Why should I doubt? Not that God is unwilling, not that He is unable—of both I am assured. But perhaps my old sins are too fearful, and my unbelief too glaring? Nay; I come to Christ, not although I am a sinner, but just because I am a sinner, even the chief” (Bonar, p. 17).

M’Cheyne became pastor of St. Peter’s, Dundee in 1836. He became well known for his godliness, his fervent love for the Lord, and his eloquent preaching. He also was a member of the Exegetical Society, which resolved in 1838 to study the Scriptures in the original languages. In 1839 he traveled to Europe and Palestine on a mission trip to reach Jewish people. This was the beginning of a Church of Scotland work in that region that could count among its fruits the conversion of the family of Adolph Saphir. Saphir was a Jewish Christian author who wrote, among other things, a commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews.

M’Cheyne was frequently in ill health. In March 1843 he took a fever from which he never recovered. He continued praising the Lord and ministering to people from his sickbed until he became delirious. On the morning of March 25 “he lifted up his hands as if in the attitude of pronouncing the blessing, and then sank down. Not a groan or a sigh, but only a quiver of the lip, and his soul was at rest” (Bonar, p. 164).

M’Cheyne is best remembered today because of the Memoir written by his close friend in the ministry Andrew Bonar. Bonar published the Memoir and Remains in 1844, and it was so well received that in 1846 another volume was published, Additional Remains of the Rev. Robert Murray M’Cheyne, another collection of his sermons and lectures. This book went out of print for well over a hundred years, but in 1993 and 2001 Christian Focus Publications reprinted this work under the title, From the Preacher’s Heart. M’Cheyne is remembered also for contributing several wonderful hymns and a very useful Bible reading schedule (purchase a copy here).

Memoir and Remains of Robert Murray M’Cheyne by Andrew A. Bonar (Banner of Truth, nd) [CBD - WTS ]

Robert Murray M'Cheyne, by Andrew Bonar [CBD - WTS ]

From the Preacher's Heart by Robert Murray Murray M'Cheyne (CFP, 1995) [CBD]

Other Biographies:

Robert Murray McCheyne by Alexander Smellie (CFP, 1995) Paperback. [CBD]

Robert Murray McCheyne by Basil Miller (Christian Life Books, 2003) Paperback. [CBD]

Robert Murray M'Cheyne: A Good Minister of Jesus Christ by J. C. Smith (Ambassador-Emerald, Intl.,1998) Paperback. [CBD]

J. Hudson Taylor was born in 1832 in Barnsley, Yorkshire, England to godly parents who wanted their son to serve the Lord. He was saved at age seventeen after his mother felt a special burden to pray for her son. She had left him at home while she visited a friend far away. At her friend’s house she went to a room by herself and prayed until she believed he had submitted to the Lord. Young Hudson, who was bored, had found a tract to read just to pass the time with a good story. However, the Lord used the gospel message in the tract to draw him to Christ.

Taylor’s whole life is a testament to the power of believing prayer. While training in medicine he felt the call to go to China and began preparing himself. Taylor worked for a doctor who sometimes forgot to pay him as scheduled. Instead of reminding the doctor, Taylor would pray for the Lord to meet his needs. He reasoned that he would not be able to trust God completely on the foreign field unless he had first learned to trust Him at home. The stories from this time in his life make for thrilling reading. His biographers, Dr. and Mrs. Howard Taylor, devote the first volume of the two-volume biography to this formative time and titled the volume, Hudson Taylor in Early Years: the Growth of a Soul. Volume Two is Hudson Taylor and the China Inland Mission: the Growth of a Work of God.

Taylor first went to China in September 1853 with the Chinese Evangelization Society. He had an independent nature, preferring methods different from those used by many other missionaries and preferring to remain free to follow God’s leadership rather than man’s. He didn’t raise money the way others did, and he shocked other missionaries by dressing and wearing his hair like the Chinese among whom he lived. In 1858 Taylor married Maria Dyer, and in 1865 he founded the China Inland Mission. The CIM missionaries went to the field without stipulated support, trusting God to supply. Not only did Taylor have to trust God to meet his financial needs, he also had to trust God to send workers willing to go without a guaranteed salary. He continued applying the principles he had learned while a student in England. With the 1949 Communist takeover of China, the CIM had to change its focus of ministry and became the Overseas Missionary Fellowship (OMF).

The principles Taylor lived by are the basis of the book, Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret, by Dr. and Mrs. Howard Taylor. Hudson wrote his own memoir, a short book called A Retrospect, published now under the title, Looking Back. A quote from this book shows, in his own words, Taylor living out his faith as he forms the China Inland Mission:

On Sunday, June 25, 1865, unable to bear the sight of a congregation of a thousand or more Christian people rejoicing in their own security, while millions were perishing for lack of knowledge, I wandered out on the sands alone, in great spiritual agony; and there the Lord conquered my unbelief, and I surrendered myself to God for this service. I told Him that all the responsibility as to issues and consequences must rest with Him; that as His servant it was mine to obey and follow Him—His, to direct, to care for, and to guide me and those who might labor with me. Need I say that peace at once flowed into my burdened heart? … I returned home with a heart enjoying rest such as it had been a stranger to for months, and with an assurance that the Lord would bless His own work and that I should share in the blessing. (A Retrospect, pp. 145-146)

Hudson Taylor Biography, 2 Volumes by Dr. & Mrs. Howard Taylor (Overseas Missionary Fellowship, 2007) paperback [CBD]

Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret by Dr. & Mrs. Howard Taylor (Moody, 1987) paperback [CBD]

Recommended Sermon: Hudson Taylor: Songs on His Pilgrimage (Jason Janz, 4/27/2007) (posted by JB)

Robert Murray M'Cheyne & James Hudson Taylor