Notes
Key to Notes:
| MRRMM | Andrew Bonar, | Memoir and Remains of Robert Murray M'Cheyne, |
| Edinburgh: Oliphant Anderson & Ferrier, 1844. | ||
| Bonar | Andrew Bonar, | Andrew A. Bonar: Diary & Life, ed. Marjory Bonar |
| Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1984 reprint. | ||
| Burns | Islay Burns, | Memoir of Wm. C. Burns |
| London: James Nesbit & Co., 1870. | ||
1. In this paper the focus is largely upon the lives of R. M. M'Cheyne, Andrew Bonar, and W. C. Burns. For a more extensive study on this topic, added primary research would be required in the biographies of Alexander Somerville, John Milne, and Alexander Moody-Stuart ( these were unavailable for this present study). According to David Haslam, curator of the Robert Murray M'Cheyne Website, no major thesis has been done on the spiritual aspects of the friendship between M'Cheyne and his companions. In fact, Haslam noted that only one major Ph.D. thesis has been done on the life of M'Cheyne using unpublished source material from the archives of New College library in Edinburgh; that being Yeaworth's in 1956 (from personal email correspondence with the present researcher, Nov. 11. 1998).
Secondary research has included numerous articles from Internet sources and periodicals. See
David Haslam's Robert Murray M'Cheyne Website located at http://web.ukonline.co.uk/d.haslam/m-cheyne.htm
Containing: Banner of Truth articles by Ian Murray, Keith Walker, and a helpful overview of M'Cheyne's friends.The Free Church of Scotland's Website located at http://www.freechurch.org
Heath Christian Bookshop Website located at http://www.christian-bookshop.co.uk link updated
The Evangelical Library Annual Lecture, 1993. J.J. Murray --- Robert Murray M'Cheyne: The Making of a Man of God.
2. See William M. Mackay's helpful essay on Thomas Chalmers located on the Free Church of Scotland's webpage (www.freechurch.org). Mackay outlines some of the remarkably progressive ideas put forth by Chalmers in the wake of the Disruption. Chalmers had insights on church extension (i.e. church-planting), missionary enterprise, and fundraising for building programs, which were ahead of his time. Many of these insights would apply pertinently to church planting efforts in our day.
4. pg.40 MRRMM Other members included: John Thomson, Robert K. Hamilton, John Burne, Patrick Borrowman, Walter Wood, Henry Moncrieff, James Cochrane, John Miller, G. Smeaton, Robert Kinnear, W. B. Clarke,William Laughton, Thomas Brown, William Wilson. Later on, all the Exegetical's alumni (except one) would follow the Disruption to the Free Church of Scotland.
10. See David Haslam's Robert Murray M'Cheyne Website, and his section on M'Cheyne's Friends.
28. John J. Murray, "Introduction", Diary and Life of Andrew Bonar. Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, pg. xii.
33. pg. 84 MRRMM. Bonar tells of M'Cheyne, "He saw no inconsistency in preaching an electing God, who 'calleth whom He will,' and a salvation free to 'whosoever will'; nor in declaring the absolute sovereignty of God, and yet the unimpaired responsibility of man".
34. pp.26 MRRMM M'Cheyne refers to Edwards saying, "how feeble does my spark of Christianity appear beside such a sun! But even his was a borrowed light, and the same source is still open to enlighten me."
38. pp.240 MRRMM. To W.C. Burns, M'Cheyne writes, "Remember Edwards' magnificent resolution: 'Resolved to improve afflictions to the uttermost'. Spread the sail when the breeze of adversity blows and let it drive your vessel onwards on its course."
39. pg. 526 MRRMM. M'Cheyne records "How often Brainerd mentions in his journal: 'Numbers wept affectionately and to appearance unfeignedly, so that the Spirit of God seemed to be moving on the face of the assembly;' and again, 'They seemed willing to have their ears bored to the doorposts of God's house and to be his servants forever!' How little is there of this divine presence and holy impression in our assemblies!"
42. pg.17 Norman L. Walker, Thomas Chalmers: His Life and Lessons. London: T. Nelson & Sons., 1880.
See also The Correspondence of Thomas Chalmers, ed. William Hanna. (New York: Harper Brothers Publishers: 1853). Interestingly, as Jonathan Edwards figures highly in Chalmers' thought, so also was the New England divine influential in the thought of William Carey, Andrew Fuller, John Ryland, et al. These English Baptists would in turn profoundly stimulate the ideals of the missionary enterprise and church extension in Chalmers. As Edwards linked Chalmers to Carey, Fuller, etc. so too were the successive generations of Scottish pupils influenced by these divines in one way or another.
44. Alexander Duff, John Urquhart, John Adams, Robert Nesbit, William Sinclair Mackay and John Ewart, were a group of 'knit hearts' under the influence of Thomas Chalmers, who heightened the awareness of the missionary enterprise among the Church of Scotland in the generation before M'Cheyne and his comrades. See The St. Andrews Seven, for a biography of their lives (S. Piggin and J. Roxborough, Banner of Truth, Edinburgh: 1985)