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Who Was Andrew Murray? South African Pastor and Writer on Prayer

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Andrew Murray was a South African pastor in the Dutch Reformed Church who lived from 1828 to 1917. He served congregations in the Cape and the interior for more than fifty years, saw revival break out in 1860, helped found schools for training teachers and missionaries, and wrote well over two hundred books and tracts. Christians around the world know him best for his books on prayer and the inner life, above all With Christ in the School of Prayer, Humility and Abide in Christ.

Many of his books are free to read in TheWay Library on the Andrew Murray author page.

Early life: Graaff-Reinet to Scotland and Holland

Murray was born on May 9, 1828, in Graaff-Reinet, a town in the Cape Colony. His father, also named Andrew Murray, was a Scottish minister who had come to South Africa to serve the Dutch Reformed Church. His mother came from a family with French Huguenot and German roots. He was one of a large family, raised in a devout minister's home.

As a boy of about ten, Andrew was sent with his older brother John to Scotland for schooling. The brothers studied in Aberdeen and earned their master's degrees there in 1845. They then went to Holland to study theology at Utrecht. In those student years Murray came to a settled personal faith in Christ. In 1848 the two brothers were ordained, and they sailed home to serve the church of their birth.

Bloemfontein: a young pastor with a huge parish

Murray's first charge was Bloemfontein, north of the Orange River, where he became the first regular minister. He was barely into his twenties. His parish stretched across a vast area of farms and scattered settlements, and much of his work meant long trips to preach and visit families far from town.

In 1856 he married Emma Rutherfoord of Cape Town. They raised a large family together.

Worcester and the revival of 1860

In 1860 Murray accepted a call to Worcester in the Cape. That same year a revival spread through many Dutch Reformed congregations in South Africa. Prayer meetings multiplied, and people were moved to repentance and a new seriousness about holiness.

One well-known account comes from a meeting held in Worcester around that time. While a group of young people were praying, a young girl prayed and the whole room broke into prayer together. Murray, coming in from another meeting, at first tried to restore order. A visitor who had seen revival in America is said to have warned him to be careful, because the Spirit of God was at work. Murray came to see the revival as a true work of God, and it shaped the rest of his ministry. His later books return again and again to prayer, the Holy Spirit and wholehearted surrender.

Cape Town and Wellington

From 1864 to 1871 Murray served in Cape Town. In 1871 he moved to Wellington, a town not far from Cape Town, and he stayed there for the rest of his life. He served as its minister until he retired in 1906.

Wellington became the center of his wider work. He helped found the Huguenot Seminary in 1874, a school for training young women as teachers, modeled on Mount Holyoke in the United States. A few years later he helped start a training institute for missionaries. He was chosen moderator of the Dutch Reformed Church's synod several times and was a strong voice against the liberal theology spreading in his day.

Murray also became a speaker in demand far beyond South Africa. He was linked with the holiness conventions of his time, attended the Keswick Convention in England, and later spoke at gatherings in Britain and America.

A writer on prayer and the inner life

Murray wrote in both Dutch and English, and his books were soon translated into many languages. Most are short devotional studies, often arranged as daily readings. With Christ in the School of Prayer first appeared in English in 1885. It walks through Christ's teaching on prayer in 31 lessons, and the book closes with a long note on George Müller as a living proof that God hears prayer.

In its preface Murray explains what he hoped readers would learn:

If there is one thing I think the Church needs to learn, it is that God means prayer to have an answer

With Christ in the School of Prayer, Preface

For a walk through all 31 lessons, see the With Christ in the School of Prayer summary. For his most memorable lines, see With Christ in the School of Prayer quotes.

Andrew Murray's best-known books

These Murray titles are all in TheWay Library to read free:

Last years

Murray kept writing into old age. He died at Wellington on January 18, 1917, at 88. By then his books were read across the English-speaking world and beyond, and they have stayed in print ever since.

What to read first

If you are new to Murray, start where he put his heart: prayer. Read With Christ in the School of Prayer free, one lesson a day. To see how he handles one of the book's central themes, read What does it mean to pray in Jesus' name? Then try Humility or Abide in Christ, the two short books that sit closest to it.

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