Daily Bread: Mc'Cheyne's Reading Calendar

by Robert Murray M'Cheyne

Includes full Bible passages to be read each day sequentially organized to follow the Mc'Cheyne reading program (Includes the whole Bible text in ASV). Reading through this program you will read the Old Testament once, and the New Testament and Psalms twice a year.From the Foreword by Mack Murray M'Cheyne (1813-1843) is know among Christians worldwide as a holy man of God and a faithful preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He was a native of Edinburgh, Scotland and studied under the legendary Thomas Chalmers at the University of Edinburgh. He then went on to serve as a minister in the Church of Scotland from 1835 until his death in 1843.M'Cheyne's first ministry appointment at age twenty-two was to serve as the assistant pastor under John Bonar at Larbert and Dunipace, near Falkirk. M'Cheyne was close friends with both John and Andrew Bonar, the well-known Scottish evangelical leaders. After serving at Larbert and Dunipace, M'Cheyne was called to served as the minister at St. Peter's Church in Dundee until his death at age twenty-nine.M'Cheyne is known to contemporary Christians, not only for his personal godliness and prayerfulness, but also through the influence of his famous Bible Reading Calendar, which was compiled by the young Scottish pastor for the people of his church, as a reading calendar designed for reading through the Bible once every year. The plan entails reading the New Testament and the Psalms through twice each year and the Old Testament through once. This calendar, though slightly modified, is included in D. A. Carson's excellent two-volumes, For the Love of God, which makes a marvelous companion devotional read daily along with the calendar, as one follows M'Cheyne's calendar through the Bible.It is one thing to read the Bible; it is another thing to read it somewhat consistently. But it is altogether a different thing to read the Bible through every year. The benefit that comes from this is only known to those who experience it. No Christian can grow properly who does not soak in the whole counsel of God in Scripture regularly. If you or a family member do not have a systematic method for reading through the Bible each year, I heartily recommend M'Cheyne's calendar to you. It will benefit any Christian who will obtain it and use it faithfully.

4040 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 19, 2011

About the author

Robert Murray M'Cheyne a minister in the Church of Scotland from 1835 to 1843. He was born at Edinburgh, was educated at the University of Edinburgh and at the Divinity Hall of his native city, where he was taught by Thomas Chalmers. He first served as an assistant to John Bonar in the parish of Larbert and Dunipace, near Falkirk, from 1835 to 1838. After this he served as minister of St. Peter's Church (in Dundee) until his early death at the age of 29 during an epidemic of typhus.

Not long after his death, his friend Andrew Alexander Bonar edited his biography which was published with some of his manuscripts as The Memoir and Remains of the Rev. Robert Murray M'Cheyne. The book went into many editions. It has had a lasting influence on Evangelical Christianity worldwide.

In 1839, M'Cheyne and Bonar, together with two older ministers, Dr. Alexander Black and Dr. Alexander Keith, were sent to Palestine on a mission of inquiry to the condition of the Jews. Upon their return, their official report for the Board of Mission of the Church of Scotland was published as Narrative of a Visit to the Holy Land and Mission of Inquiry to the Jews. This led subsequently to the establishment of missions to the Jews by the Church of Scotland and by the Free Church of Scotland. During M'Cheyne's absence, his place was filled by the appointment of William Chalmers Burns to preach at St. Peter's as his assistant.

M'Cheyne was a preacher, a pastor, a poet, and wrote many letters. He was also a man of deep piety and a man of prayer. He never married, but he did have a fiancée at the time of his death, Jessie Thain, who died heartbroken.

M'Cheyne died exactly two months before the Disruption of 1843. This being so, his name was subsequently held in high honour by all the various branches of Scottish Presbyterianism, though he himself held a strong opinion against the Erastianism which led to the Disruption.

M'Cheyne designed a widely used system for reading through the Bible in one year. The plan entails reading the New Testament and the Psalms through twice a year, and the Old Testament through once.