File Submitter: superaben
File Submitted: 14 Jul 2012
File Updated: 14 Jul 2012
File Category: Reference Books (topx)
Author: Robert Murray M'Cheyne
e-Sword Version: 9.x - 10.x
Robert Murray M’Cheyne would choose to be remembered today as a sinner used by God’s grace alone as a tool for the glory of Jesus Christ. He was a young pastor in Scotland who passionately pleaded with the lost. Although his ministry lasted for only a few years, the Lord saw fit to use His tool to preach the gospel in a way seldom repeated. M’Cheyne’s sermons contain the best examples of loving concern mixed with stern warnings, a necessity of effective evangelism. Heroically, M’Cheyne gave his life to preach and fight for Christ’s Kingdom, dying at age 29 in 1843.
Along with his later biographer, Rev. Andrew A. Bonar, M’Cheyne traveled to Israel and the surrounding areas ministering to the Jews. While in that historic land, M’Cheyne personally visited most of the important sites known in his time as mentioned in the Bible. M’Cheyne talked especially about visiting Bethany, and the traditional house of Martha and Mary.
Perhaps that memory is what inspired M’Cheyne to return home to Scotland and produce one of his sweetest, loveliest, and Godliest books. “Bethany” was written as an exposition of John 11, but M’Cheyne’s pastor’s heart is at its most compassionate and loving. He searchingly uses the Scriptures to convict us of ingratitude and rebellion towards the LORD.
“Bethany” is for you who are hurting due to the loss of someone dear. “Bethany” is for you who yourselves are sick, and wondering why. “Bethany” is for you who have yet to see the compassion and love of Jesus Christ.
Personally, this book has had a huge impact on me. May God bless “Bethany” as it enters reborn into the digital world.
From the First Chapter:
“’Man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward.’ Sickness goes round — it spares no family, rich or poor. Sometimes the young, sometimes the old, sometimes those in the strength of their days, are laid down on the bed of sickness. ‘Remember those that suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.’
“The reasons why God sends sickness are very various:
“1. In some it is sent for the conversion of the soul. Sometimes in health the word does not touch the heart. The world is all. Its gayeties, its pleasures, its admiration, captivate your mind. God sometimes.draws you aside into a sick-bed, and shows you the sin of your heart, the vanity of worldly pleasures, and drives the soul to seek a sure resting-place for eternity in Christ. O happy sickness, that draws the soul to Jesus! Job 33:1-11, Psalm 147:1-14.
“2. Sometimes it is for the conversion of friends. When the Covenanters went out to battle, they kneeled down on the field and prayed; and this was one of their prayers: ‘Lord, take the ripe, and spare the green.’ God sometimes does this in families. He cuts down the praying child, the child that was half ridiculed, half wondered at, that the rest may think, and turn, and pray.
“3. Sometimes it is a frown of judgment. When worldly people go long on in a course of sin, against the light of the Bible and the warnings of ministers, God sometimes frowns upon them, and they wither suddenly. ‘He, that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.’ Proverbs 29:1. ‘For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.’ 1 Corinthians 11:30
“4. Another case is now before us—that of a child of God sick, that Christ might be glorified in him.”
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