About the M'Cheyne Bible reading plan
Robert Murray M'Cheyne (also known as McCheyne) was an early 19th century pastor and preacher in Scotland. Amongst his legacy is a well-known scheme for daily Bible reading. In its original formulation it takes the reader through the the Old Testament once and the New Testament and Psalms twice per year. This means reading about four chapters a day, taken from different parts of the Bible.
Don Carson has tidied up the original scheme a little by changing the reading boundaries in five places and published it in two volumes called For the Love of God, along with his excellent daily meditations on the readings. (Available from The Book Depository with free delivery worldwide.) The daily meditations are also available online.
Carson suggests that the reader proceeds at half the rate of the M'Cheyne version: he takes just two of the four M'Cheyne readings each day, which is somewhat more manageable. So it takes the reader through the New Testament and Psalms every year, and the Old Testament every two years. I usually follow this scheme.
There are lots of ways to access the daily readings over the web from this site or in print form. See my Access page for all the info.
External M'Cheyne links:
- Reading with M'Cheyne — a thoughtful blog by David Reimer commenting (from time to time) on one or another of the daily readings.
- Lots of Robert Murray M'Cheyne resources.
- The calendar on a single web page giving the daily readings, and M'Cheyne's own introduction to them.
For reference, here is the complete list of differences between the "Classic" and "Carson" schemes:
| Date | Classic | Carson |
|---|---|---|
| 28 February | Exodus 11:1-12:21 | Exodus 11:1-12:20 |
| 1 March | Exodus 12:22-51 | Exodus 12:21-51 |
| 24 May | Psalms 78:1-37 | Psalms 78:1-39 |
| 25 May | Psalms 78:38-72 | Psalms 78:40-72 |
| 3 July | Joshua 5:1-6:5 | Joshua 5 |
| 4 July | Joshua 6:6-27 | Joshua 6 |
| 27 July | Judges 10:1-11:11 | Judges 10 |
| 28 July | Judges 11:12-40 | Judges 11 |
| 26 September | Psalms 78:1-37 | Psalms 78:1-39 |
| 27 September | Psalms 78:38-72 | Psalms 78:40-72 |
| 29 October | 2 Kings 10 | 2 Kings 10-11 |
| 30 Octobber | 2 Kings 11-12 | 2 Kings 12 |
Ben Edgington, 2009