LETTER TO MR. GEORGE SHAW, BELFAST - Robert Murray Mcchene

Prophecies concerning Israel—Revival—Conduct of Studies

DUNDEE, September 16, 1840.

MY DEAR FRIEND, —It gives me great joy to be able to answer your kind letter, although I fear you have almost despaired of me. In writing your esteemed pastor, I mentioned to him my intention of writing you very soon; but I have since then been laid down upon a sick bed by a severe feverish illness, from which I am now only recovering. Like you, my dear friend, God has seen it meet to train me often by the rod, and I have always found that He doeth all things well. Indeed, who would have his own health in his own guidance? Ah! how much better to be in his allwise all-powerful hand, who has redeemed us, and is making us vessels to hold his praise, now and in eternal ages! I have been only twice in the open air and cannot yet manage the pen with facility; but I cannot delay writing to you any longer. You cannot tell how much real joy your letter gave me when you tell me of the dear brethren who meet along with you on Monday mornings, to read and pray concerning Israel. This is indeed a delightful fruit of my short visit among you, for which I give humble and hearty thanks to Him who has stirred up your hearts in what I have felt, by experience, to be his own blessed cause. I feel deeply persuaded from prophecy, that it will always be difficult to stir up and maintain a warm and holy interest in outcast Israel. The lovers and pleaders of Zion’s cause will, I believe, be always few. Do you not think this is hinted at in Jer. 30:13: “There is none to plead thy cause, that thou mayest be bound up?” And again, ver. 14: “All thy lovers have forgotten thee; they seek thee not.” And is not this one of the very reasons why God will at last take up their cause? See ver. 17: “I will restore health unto thee, because they called thee an outcast, saying, this is Zion, whom no man seek eth after.” It is a sweet encouragement also to learn, that though the friends of Zion will probably be few, so that it may almost be said, no one seek eth after her, yet there always will be some who will keep watch over the dust of Jerusalem and plead the cause of Israel with God and with man. See Isa. 62:6, 7. If any of your company know the Hebrew, you will see at once the true rendering: “I have set watchmen over thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace Day nor night. Ye that are the Lord’s remembrancers, keep not silence, and give Him no rest till He establish, and till He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.” Oh, my dear brethren, into whose hearts I trust God is pouring a scriptural love for Israel, what an honor is it for us, worms of the dust, to be made watchmen by God over the ruined walls of Jerusalem, and to be made the Lord’s remembrancers, to call his own promises to his mind, that He would fulfil them, and make Jerusalem a blessing to the whole world! Verse 1st is supposed to be the language of our Lord himself—our glorious Advocate with the Father. Oh, what an example does He set us of unwearied intercession! Verse 2d showed the great effect which the conversion of Israel will have on the Gentile world. Verse 3d shows how converted Israel will be a glorious diadem in God’s hand, held out to show forth his 247 praises. Verse 4th shows that it is literal Israel that is spoken of, for there is a sweet promise to their land.

I think you must take these two verses, 6, 7, as the motto of your praying society, not in boasting, but in all humility of mind, and with much self-upbraiding for the neglect of the past. Indeed, you will find it a difficult matter to keep your heart in tune really to desire the salvation of Israel, and the widely extended glory of the Lord Jesus. You must keep in close union to Jesus, and much in the love of God, and be much filled with the infinite, almighty Spirit of God. He will help your infirmities. It is when you feel the sweetness of the kingdom of God within you, that you will truly fall down on your knees, and pray, “Thy kingdom come.” The possession of grace fills us with very different feelings from the possession of anything else. A man who has much money is not very anxious that all the world should be rich; one who has much learning does not long that all the world were learned; but if you have tasted the grace of the gospel, the irresistible longing of your hearts will be, oh that all the world might taste its regenerating waters! And if it be true, as I think it is, that God’s method of bringing in the kingdom is to be by the salvation of Israel, how can an enlightened, gracious soul but pray, “Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion?”

As to the mode of studying prophecy, dear friend, I am far from being a capable adviser. My advice, however, is that you begin with the simple and more unquestioned parts, and then advance to the more difficult ground. Begin with fulfilled prophecy: you will thus gain an intimate acquaintance with the language and manner of the prophetic writings. Then advance to the marks of unfulfilled prophecy, and cautiously and prayerfully to those parts that are obviously unfulfilled. This would be a most interesting course, and, if humbly followed out, cannot but give you great light and interest in the cause of Israel, and the world’s conversion. For fulfilled prophecy, you might follow the guidance of Keith on Fulfilled Prophecy, or Bishop Newton, or both.

I am delighted to hear of the thank offering you mention. It is sweet when thankfulness does not end in mere words, but in gifts to God and devotedness of our all to Him. I am happy to say that the Lord’s cause seems still to advance in Scotland. On the very day I arrived from Ireland we had very sweet tokens of the presence of the Spirit of God in the congregation, and many Thursday evenings since.

I have been in Strat bogie also and seen some of the Lord’s wonders there. He that hath the key of David has opened a door there, for the salvation of many souls. I am still as anxious as ever that God’s work should be pure, and unmixed with error and satanic delusions; and, therefore, when I pray for the revival of God’s work, I always add that it may be pure and permanent. I have seen two awakened since I came home, with the use of hardly any means. If they shall turn out real conversions, I think I shall never despair of any.

I trust that your own studies get on well, dear friend. Learn much of your own heart; and when you have learned all you can, remember you have seen but a few yards into a pit that is unfathomable. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Jer. 17:9. Learn much of the Lord Jesus. For every look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ. He is altogether lovely. Such infinite majesty, and yet such meekness and grace, and all for sinners, even the chief! Live much in the smiles of God. Bask in his beams. Feel his all-seeing eye settled on you in love, and repose in his almighty arms. Cry after divine knowledge and lift up your voice for understanding. Seek her as silver, and search for her as for hid treasure, according to the word in Prov. 2:4. See that ver. 10 be fulfilled in you. Let wisdom enter into your hearts, and knowledge be pleasant to thy soul; so, you will be delivered from the snares mentioned in the following verses. Let your soul be filled with a heart-ravishing sense of the sweetness and excellency of Christ and all that is in Him. Let the Holy Spirit fill every chamber of your heart; and so there will be no room for folly, or the world, or Satan, or the flesh. I must now commend you all to God and the word of his grace. My dear people are just assembled for worship. Alas! I cannot preach to them to-night. I can only carry them and you on my heart to the throne of grace. Write me soon. —Ever yours, etc.