Quotable Quote

In September 1840 Robert Murray M’Cheyne, wrote a letter to William Chalmers Burns. It contained the following sentiments:

I am deepened in my conviction, that if we are to be instruments in a true revival we must be purified from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit.

Oh, cry for personal holiness, constant nearness to God by the blood of the Lamb!

Bask in His beams, lie back in the arms of love, be filled with the Spirit, or all success in the ministry will only be to your own everlasting confusion.

The complete letter, including others written to William Chalmers Burns by Robert Murray M’Cheyne, can be found in The Memoir & Remains of Robert Murray M’Cheyne.

The Watchword of the Reformers - Jehovah Tsidkenu, The Lord our Righteousness

This is one of Robert Murray McCheyne well known hymns. In McCheyne's writings it is entitled "The Watchword of the Reformers".  The word "watchword" appears in the last verse and was placed in quotation marks in McCheyne's writings.

There are two more verse in the original poem that McCheyne penned than appears in the Free Presbyterian hymnal, see verse two and verse six. In his writings this poem was dated November 18 1834.

1. I once was a stranger to grace and to God,
I knew not my danger, and felt not my load;
Though friends spoke in rapture of Christ on the tree,
Jehovah Tsidkenu was nothing to me.

2. I oft read with pleasure, to sooth or engage,
Isaiah’s wild measure and John’s simple page;
But e’en when they pictured the blood-sprinkled tree
Jehovah Tsidkenu seem'd nothing to me.