What different characters were these! Both wonderful men of God, both raised to do a special work, Knox—a powerful personality, who did not know what fear was, the centre of storm and stress; McCheyne—gentle, earnest, consumed with passion for the souls of men.
John Knox’s life centred round Edinburgh, and the time of Mary, Queen of Scotland. Robert Murray McCheyne was a minister at St. Peter’s Church, Dundee in the early days of Queen Victoria.
An old Scotsman was talking to a friend. As he talked he leaned against the statue erected to the memory of Knox, opposite the United Free Church Assembly Hall entrance in Edinburgh. He told the story how Robert Murray McCheyne would lean over his pulpit in the deep emotion of the moment and cry, “I cannot go on,” his voice broken and faltering. Then he would weep like a child, finally lifting his eye, and crying to God with intense emotion, “O God, take this people Thyself, and tell them what I cannot tell them, and fill them with Thyself.”
The Scotsman, as he leaned against John Knox’s monument, said, “Do you know, friend, this man, Knox, did great things for Scotland, but young McCheyne’s prayer touched a chord in Scotland and in Scottish hearts, that even this great man never touched with all his power. To think that when he was only thirty God called him away, but he brought down the power of God upon Scotland and it is with us still.
Devotedness was the distinguishing feature of McCheyne’s life, coupled with earnest importunate prayer. Would that we could catch a bit of his spirit! Better still the spirit of his Master! How blessed that would be!