in the manner of our old divines.
This done, he divided his subject; and herein he was eminently
skilful. "The heads of his sermons," said a friend, "were not the
mile-stones that tell you how near you are to your journey's end, but
they were nails which fixed and fastened all he said. Divisions are
often dry; but not so _his_ divisions,--they were so textual and so
feeling, and they brought out the spirit of a passage so
surprisingly."

It was his wish to arrive nearer at the primitive mode of expounding
Scripture in his sermons. Hence when one asked him, If he was never
afraid of running short of sermons some day? he replied, "No; I am
just an interpreter of Scripture in my sermons; and when the Bible
runs dry, then I shall." And in the same spirit he carefully avoided
the too common mode of accommodating texts,--fastening a doctrine on
the words, not drawing it from the obvious connection of the passage.
He endeavored at all times to _preach the mind of the Spirit in a
passage_; for he feared that to do otherwise would be to grieve the
Spirit who had written it. Interpretation was thus a solemn matter to
him. And yet, adhering scrupulously to this sure principle, he felt
himself in no way restrained from using, for every day's necessities,
all parts of the Old Testament as much as the New. His manner was
first to ascertain the primary sense and application, and so proceed
to handle it for present use. Thus, on Isaiah 26:16-19, he began:
"This passage, I believe, refers _literally_ to the conversion of
God's ancient people." He regarded the _prophecies_ as _history yet to
be_, and drew lessons from them accordingly as he would have done from
the past. Every spiritual gift being in the hands of Jesus, if he
found Moses or Paul in the possession of precious things, he forthwith
was led to follow them into the presence of that same Lord who gave
them all their grace.

There is a wide difference between preaching _doctrine_ and preaching
_Christ_. Mr. M'Cheyne preached all the doctrines of Scripture as
understood by our Confession of Faith, dwelling upon ruin by the Fall,
and recovery by the Mediator. "The things of the human heart, and the
things of the Divine Mind," were in substance his constant theme. From
personal experience of deep temptation, he could lay open the secrets
of the heart, so that he once said, "He supposed the reason why some
of the worst sinners in Dundee had come to hear him was, because his
hear