Biographical Sketch of Andrew Murray
The name of Andrew Murray has been for many years well known throughout South Africa, and later, through his books, there are few names more familiar in the English-speaking world than that of the author of “Abide in Christ.”
The father of Andrew Murray came out from Scotland nearly seventy years ago, and became an honored minister of the Dutch Reformed Church at Graaff-Reinet. His work was richly blessed, but his great legacy to South Africa was his family, five of his sons becoming devoted ministers of the Dutch Reformed Church, and four of his daughters ministers’ wives, while another daughter is the principal of a large school for girls.
The second son, Andrew, bearing his father’s name, was born at Graaff-Reinet May 9, 1828, and it is this Scotch Africander with whom we are now concerned.
When his eldest brother was sent home to Aberdeen to complete his classical studies, Andrew, then only nine years of age, accompanied him. Roth brothers became in time students and graduates of Marischal College. Here both the lads drank deeply of the missionary and evangelistic spirit they had already received from their revered father. Here they frequently heard William Burns, afterwards the noble missionary to China, and they caught not a little of his heroic spirit.
After graduation they went to Holland to complete their theological education at the University of Utrecht. Here they were soon the centre of a circle of earnest disciples, and both took an active part in the formation of a Students’ Missionary Society.
When the curriculum of Utrecht was finished, they returned to South Africa, the elder brother ultimately becoming a Professor in the Dutch Theological Seminary at Stellenbosch, while the younger, Andrew, was appointed the ministei over what is now the Orange Free State. Mr. Murray was only twenty years of age when he was ordained to this work, and for a long period he was the only minister in this wide territory, but he was not dismayed. Fixing his headquarters at Bloemfontein, he entered upon his labors with untiring energy.
The farmers were not well pleased with the youthful appearance of their pastor, but when they heard his first sermon they found there was one before them whose youth was not to be despised. And when they witnessed the amount of riding, preaching, catechising, and family visitation done by the young minister, not only in the Free State, but beyond their borders in the Transvaal, their surprise gave way to esteem.
The people gladly gathered in large numbers to worship with him, generally in the open air, sometimes under sails stretched as a protection from the burning sun. The influence of this activity is still felt in the whole district. In travelling through the Free State and Transvaal one is continually meeting those whom he has joined in marriage, or those whom he has baptized; and many a one speaks of him as a spiritual father, and has some loving remembrance of his visits. “While thus engaged in the Free State, Mr. Murray found a helpmeet for himself in the person of Miss Emma Kutherfoord, the daughter of the Hon. H. E. Rutherfoord, well known as a stanch friend and generous supporter of the Lord’s work in the whole country. It may be readily believed that it was to no paradisaic locality that the bride was taken, but for the sake of her husband and the Gospel of his Master, she bravely faced and started all the hardships of life on the frontier. That these were often severe enough appears in the fact that after some years Mr. Murray was prostrated by fever and was long in recovering from the results of the ordeal. His physicians declared that he would never be a strong man again. But, as it proved, this was simply a turning point in what was to be a yet more extended service. For the young minister shortly afterwards, in 1660, received a call to Worcester, an important inland town of Cape Colony, about eighty miles from Capetown. He accepted it, and once again found cause to praise God, who followed him in his new sphere with fresh triumphs of His Grace. It was at this time that the great wave of revival which, beginning with America and Ireland, and sweeping over the Eastern World, rolled in gladness also over South Africa. There was at Worcester a very marvelous manifestation of the convincing and converting power of the Spirit of Christ. A multitude of souls were gathered into the Kingdom, and the hands of the Lord’s servants were full of work. Those who knew Mr. Murray intimately speak in the warmest terms of the wise and gracious influence he exercised at that time in the way of endeavoring to seize and turn to the best account the spiritual earnestness of the time, and yet prevent it from falling into confusion and fanaticism.
It was while pastor at Worcester that Mr. Murray began to present some of his utterances in literary form. Amongst the first of his books was a little volume entitled “Waarom gelooft gij niet? “(“Why do you not believe?”), and another named “Het nieuw Leven” (“The New Life a series of counsels to young Christians who have lately entered the narrow way. Both of these, and especially the latter, have been much blessed to many, and are still widely circulated at the Cape and in Holland. As we have indicated, they were first written in Dutch. So also were two other volumes which he published at this period, “Abide in Christ” and “The Children for Christ.” After remaining at Worcester for four years, Mr. Murray accepted a call to Capetown, where he remained about the same length of time. The work here was felt by him to be encompassed by many difficulties. There were three Dutch churches in the city, in which, according to the method still pursued in Holland, three ministers preached in turn. The arrangement prevented the growth of that strong pastoral sympathy which Mr. Murray had hitherto found a most valuable element in his work. He asked that he might have a church and a portion of the people as his own congregation. This being declined, he felt free to wait for a door of the Word in another quarter. This at last came through a call to Wellington, a pleasant town about forty-five miles from Capetown, on the part of a congregation largely composed of descendants of French Huguenot families, who had fled thither in the days of their tribulation and become associated with the Dutch Reformed Church. It is in this sphere that Mr. Murray still lives and works with great joy and success. The people have plainly inherited the blessing promised to thousands of them that love the Lord and keep His commandments. And this is seen in the fact that again and again there have been most blessed times of refreshing and large harvests of souls for the Kingdom of the Lord. This, under God, is largely due to the single-hearted resolve of the pastor to know nothing among the people but Christ and Him crucified, and to seek above all things yhe salvation of souls. There are very few ministers of our day who have a keener insight into sacred truth. It would be a mistake, however, to suppose that, successful as Mr. Murray is as a pastor, he is a pastor and nothing more. He has also done a grand work as a Christian educationalist. Even in his first charge he spared no pains to get good teachers for his people. And he has pursued the same aim ever since. This desire has been fulfilled with remarkable success in Wellington.
Shortly after his removal thither he became acquainted with the life and work of Mary Lyon, of Mount Holyoke Seminary, in America, and became fired with the resolve to have a similar institution in South Africa, where the conversion and Christian education of girls might be made the chief aim “This is what I have always wanted,” said he. “In sending for teachers to England or Scotland, I have no security that they will understand this aim, or enter fully into it. I shall send to America for teachers.” He did so; and being fortunate enough to secure the services of Misses Ferguson and Bliss, of Holyoke, he founded in 1874 the Huguenot Seminary at Wellington, over which these ladies still preside. There are about two hundred young ladies from all parts of South Africa being educated on the methods of Mount Holyoke, and in the same spirit. A minister of the Dutch Be formed Church at Capetown tells us; “It is difficult to say in a few words what blessings this institution has conferred on South Africa, not only by the education in a Christian spirit of many hundreds of young ladies, but also by a large number of them having become teachers imbued with the spirit of the Huguenot Seminary.” “The story of the conversions and revivals at this institution,” writes another, “is quite wonderful; and now there are several schools throughout the country which look to the Huguenot Seminary as their mother, and work on the same principles.” The most prominent feature in the whole education is the paramount importance attached to Christian missions.
While maintaining this oversight of his flock and the Christian schools of the province, Mr. Murray is as much as ever bent on the carrying forward of evangelization. In this direction he has had marvelous blessing. After his work at “Wellington became known, no one was in greater request for taking part in special services in other congregations throughout the country. Often he has found many souls just waiting to be brought into the Kingdom, and has given the message that led them to Christ. With such plain indications of the finger of God before him, it is little to be wondered at that Mr. Murray should have been led to think that he ought to have the work of an evangelist occupying a larger portion of his time. The way for this was not at first plain. A prolonged illness in 1879, for one thing, interrupted this service. But after granting him a remarkable recovery from it, the Lord was pleased also to show his congregation that this line of effort was to bulk very largely in his future work He came in great power and Messing to the people. There was an ingathering of 30uls such as they had never experienced before; and then the Church was made willing and ready to allow their pastor to devote at least half his time to evangelistic work. In the prosecution of this service during the last six years Mr. Murray has found the Lord making manifest the savor of His knowledge by him in almost every place he has visited. His tours on special missions have of late extended not only to the Eastern Province of the Colony, but also to the Free State, Transvaal, and Natal. And we are informed that there are hardly any congregations in those different States where there are not found those who now look up to him as their spiritual father, and who have been helped by his preaching on their way Zionward.
Mr. Murray has also established at Wellington a training seminary for missionaries to the Kafirs and other tribes. Here a much simpler course of study is required than for ordinary pastors. The students are ordained simply as missionaries, but they do a work which could not be carried on by any other agency. Amongst Mr. Murray’s own relations also the missionary spirit is still being deeply cherished. It is but recently that one of his nephews, Rev. Andrew C. Murray, has gone to Lake Nyassa as a missionary of the Dutch Church, and is co-operating with the other Scotch brethren already there.
In connection with his work as an evangelist Mr. Murray has been led to take a deep interest in the movement now everywhere making such progress towards lifting up professing Christians to a higher plane of spiritual life and service. In this work also the Lord has caused His servant to prosper greatly. Singleness of eye for the glory of Christ in souls is the secret of his success. No attempt is made to dazzle by words of wisdom, or by the over-straining of Biblical questions. Everything that might attract the hearer to the speaker himself is laid aside.
And hence some have said about his preaching what we have noticed some critics saying of his books, that there is a want of zest and brilliance in his style. But as one of our correspondents says, “I think all will admit that they never hear him without being stirred up from the very foundation, and made to feel as if they were only beginning the Christian life, and had yet to learn what full trust and consecration mean.” It is with this same power that his last four works — “Like Christ,” “With Christ,” “Holy in Christ,” and “The Spirit of Christ” — are fraught. All of them were written at Wellington, and only after the topics they deal with had been studied and meditated on and spoken about at Christian conferences on subjects akin to them.
So lives and works, then, this faithful servant of Christ. He has a remarkable power of winning the confidence of men, and we learn without surprise that even in earlier years he was twice appointed a deputy on important missions to England in connection with civil questions in this country. But the Church is his chosen field of work. Moderator of Synod for no less than three times, he is honored and loved by all his ministerial brethren.
We consider the Cape General Mission a true answer to his many prayers, and his valuable advice as our President has been greatly blessed.
ABIDE IN CHRIST. Thoughts on the Blessed Life of Fellowship with the Son of God. LIKE CHRIST. Thoughts on the Blessed Life of Conformity to the Son of God. A Sequel to “Abide in Christ.” By the Rev. Andrew Murray. Forty-fourth Thousand. Two volumes in one, 16mo, cloth, silver top and stamping, in slip case, $1.00.
“The stamp of experimental knowledge is clearly seen from the beginning to the end of the book. It cannot fail to stimulate, to cheer, and to qualify for higher service.” — Rev. 0. H. Spurgeon.
“The author has done his work in a devout and admirable way. Read with an inquiring and docile spirit it will confirm the faith, brighten the hopes, and increase the joys of the Christian by leading to a more complete realization of the closeness of the union, the intimacy of the fellowship, and the oneness of life and interest which are the exalted privileges of those who obey this injunction and abide in Christ.” — Interior.
“A rich and reverent volume, with a short chapter for each day of a month, the prayerful reading of which will help to hallow the month.” — Congregationalist.
THE CHILDREN FOR CHRIST. By Rev. Andrew
Murray. 16mo, cloth, $1.25.
“Fifty-two short sermons on the duty of parents to their
baptized children Twenty years ago the original of the
present work was published in Dutch, in meditations for a month, each containing a shcrt summary of some sermon. Since that time many new subjects have been treated, and the author has been led to prepare a series of fifty-two sermons — one for each week. He has done this 4 in the hope that pome Christian parent?, who feel the need of such help, may be led once a week to read and meditate and pray together over some of the precious words of God with regard to their calling.’ Each sermon concludes with a short prayer appropriate to itself. The work is admirable in, and well adapted to, its holy purpose.” — Observer.
“The author seems to have had a divine vocation in writing this book, and thousands of parent* ought to derive blessings from it for their children.” — Evangelist.
THE NEW LIFE. Words of God for Young Disciples of Christ. 16mo, cloth, $1.00.” This little work is more elementary than the other writings of the author, because it is specially designed for young disciples. Some of the subjects treated are ‘Faith, ’ 4 The Power of God’s Word,’ ‘The Confession of Sin,’ ‘Holiness,’ ‘Humility,” Personal Work,’ ‘Prayer,’ ‘Obedience,’ etc.
THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST. Thoughts on the Indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the Believer and the Church. 16mo, cloth, $1.25.
“In this volume are contained thirty brief essays upon various aspects of the work of the Holy Ghost. The aim of the author is to comfort, console, strengthen, inspire, and lift up the believer by showing: the all-sufficiency of the Holy Spirit to guide the souf in righteousness. The cultivation of practical piety is the object sought.” — The Christian Union.
WITH CHRIST in the School of Prayer. Thoughts on our Training for the Ministry of Intercession. HOLY IX CHRIST. Thoughts on the Calling of God’s Children to be Holy as He is Holy. By the Ret. Andrew Murray. Fourteenth Thousand. 16mo, cloth, silver top and stamping, $1.00.
“It is under the impression that the place and power of prayer in the Christian life is too little understood that this book has been written. I feel sure that as long as we look on prayer chiefly as the means of maintaining our own Christian life, we shalt not know fully what it is meant to be. But when we learn to regard it as the highest part of the work intrusted to us, the root and strength of all othtr work, we shall see that there is nothing that we so need to study and practice as the
art of praying aright Christ teaches us to pray, not only
by example, by instruction, by command, by promises, but by showing us Himself, the everlasting Intercessor, as our Life” — Extract from the Preface.
BE PERFECT. A Message from the Father in Heaven to His Children on Earth. 16mo, cloth, 75 cents.
HAVE MERCY UPOX ME. The Prayer of the Penitent in the Fifty-first Psalm explained and applied. 16mo, cloth, $1.00.
THE HOLIEST OF ALL. An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews. Small 8vo, cloth, $2.00 net.
In this exposition the author seeks to answer the common questions: u What is the want in our religion, that, in so many cases, it gives no power to stand, to advance, to press on unto perfection? And what is the teaching that is reeded to give that health and vigor to the Christian life that, through all adverse circumstances, may be able to hold fast the beginning firm to the end?”
HUMILITY. The Beauty of Holiness. 24mo, cloth, 50 cents.
LET ITS DRAW NIGH! The Way to a Life Abiding Continually in the Secret of God’s Presence. 16mo, cloth, 50 cents.
WHY DO YOU NOT BELIEVE? Words of Instruction and Encouragement for all who are seeking the Lord. 16mo, cloth, 75 cents.
WHOLLY FOR GOD. The True Christian Life. A Series of Extracts from the Writings of William Law, selected and with an introduction by the Ret Andrew Murray. 12mo, buckram cloth, $1.75.
Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process.
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide
Treatment Date: June 2005
PreservationTechnologies
A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION
1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive
Cranberry Township. PA 16066
(724) 779-2111