Last week I got to visit with Shaun Tabatt and share about my new book on the life of Andrew Murray. Listen to our interview below.
-Download the MP3: http://ow.ly/SMDUz
-Read the show notes: http://ShaunTabatt.com/028
-Subscribe to The Shaun Tabatt Show on iTunes: http://ow.ly/Pxz1x
To find out more about Andrew Murray: Christ’s Anointed Minister to South Africa, visit the Andrew Murray book page on my website.
Why is it worthwhile to read an account of the life and ministry of Andrew Murray (1828-1917), the distinguished pastor-devotional writer from South Africa? Here’s a brief rundown of my top ten reasons:
Both during his lifetime and to this day Murray’s books have been widely read and appreciated by Christians throughout the world. His books are thoroughly spiritual, devotional and practical in nature. But because Murray’s books contain virtually no autobiographical material, many people who have greatly appreciated and profited from his writings know very little about his life and ministry. However, they can get to know the man behind the pen by reading a biography about him.
I hope you’ll read my recently-published Andrew Murray: Christ’s Anointed Minister to South Africa. Murray’s is an inspiring and instructive example well worth considering.
Copyright 2015 by Vance E. Christie
The massive amount of ministry Andrew Murray carried out all through his long ministerial career was truly impressive. Equally or perhaps even more impressive was the steady, sanctified spirit with which he carried out his many ministry demands, despite the considerable pressures he bore in doing so.
In 1864, at the age of 36, Murray became one of three co-pastors of Cape Town’s Dutch Reformed Church, with its constituency of 5,000 people. He served in that capacity for nearly seven years. Every Sunday Murray preached (usually more than once) at one of the two large churches in that metropolitan parish, normally to thousands of people, including many of the city’s leading citizens. He held two weeknight services for fishermen and other poor individuals, and frequently spoke at one of the weekly services held at Cape Town’s three Dutch Reformed schools. Murray faithfully carried out pastoral visitation in the poorer districts of town. He also promoted ministry to young men by helping establish and serving as first president of a Cape Town chapter of the Young Men’s Christian Association.
In addition, during those years Murray was Moderator of his denomination in Cape Colony. At that time stringent battles were being waged to resist the encroachment of theological liberalism. More than once Murray needed to be the primary representative of his denomination in court cases that came out of that period of marked controversy.
Besides their own eight children, Andrew and Emma Murray had other young people living in their home during those years. Those youths resided with the Murrays while pursuing their education in Cape Town. One of the young people, Frederick Kolbe, later bore this glowing testimony of his experience as part of the Murrays’ household:
“I hope that Mr. and Mrs. Murray knew by instinct how I loved them, but I never could tell them. … That was the time I saw Andrew Murray at the closest possible quarters. I may have been shy, but I certainly was observant. He was a very highly strung man. His preaching was so enthusiastic, his gesticulation so unrestrained, that he was wearing himself out, and the doctor ordered him to sit while preaching. So he had a special stool made for [the] great pulpit in order to obey the doctor without letting everybody know.
“Now, such an output of nervous energy (and he was a frequent preacher) might well mean some reaction at home – some irritation with his wife, some unevenness towards his children, some caprice towards the stranger within his gates. But no, I never saw him thrown off balance. His harmony with Mrs. Murray was perhaps easy; she was such a gracious, wifely, motherly person, that not to be in harmony with her would itself be self-condemnation. But he never did condemn himself. He was solid gold all through.”
Kolbe’s testimony of Murray’s pleasantness even in the privacy of his own home is all the more impressive given the enormous ministerial pressures and problems Murray faced throughout those years. “Why how is it you never get angry?” Murray was once asked. “It takes too much trouble to recover your good temper,” was his sage reply.
May God help each of us to grow in the ability not only to bear up under significant pressures and problems in life, but to do so with an even, pleasant Christlike spirit. We can do that as the Holy Spirit increasingly conforms us to the image of Christ.
For much more on Andrew Murray’s remarkable ministry career and his commendable Christian spirit see my newly-released biography, Andrew Murray: Christ’s Anointed Minister to South Africa.
Copyright 2015 by Vance E. Christie
The mighty prayer meeting revival movement that swept across the United States in 1857-1858, next ignited powerful revivals in Ireland and Wales in 1859, then brought widespread spiritual awakening to South Africa in 1860-1861. After the revival’s dramatic beginning in Montagu, South Africa (see my July 25, 2015, Perspective), it next spread to Worcester, where Rev. Andrew Murray, Jr., had recently been called as pastor.
The awakening there actually began on the farm of David Naude in the rural Breede River ward of the Worcester parish. Three individuals— Naude’s son Jan, Jan’s cousin Miss Van Blerk and an old native farmhand named Saul Pieterse—had been faithfully meeting weekly for several months to pray for revival. Miss Van Blerk taught the servants on the farm and was particularly distressed over their spiritually needy condition. She became so burdened for them that she prayed almost continuously for a week. Then one evening shortly thereafter, God’s Spirit moved suddenly and mightily on a meeting she was holding for them. Within a week nearly everyone on the farm was converted.
As news of these developments quickly spread, people from neighboring farms—“young and old, parents and children, white and colored”—promptly began streaming to the previously-neglected prayer meeting. Members from other parts of the parish and even from other congregations arrived at the Naude farm in carts and wagons. For three months the Naudes needed to suspend their farming activities to assist the many people coming to seek salvation.
Not long after the initial awakening at the Naude farm, the revival spread to Worcester itself. God’s Spirit so moved on a Sunday evening youth meeting that all sixty young people in attendance suddenly started praying simultaneously. The sense of God’s presence was so powerful that some of the youth felt compelled to kneel down to pray.
J. C. de Vries, a young man who witnessed the Worcester revival, later related: “After that the prayer meetings were held every evening. At the commencement there was generally great silence, but after the second or third prayer the whole hall was moved as before, and every one fell to praying. Sometimes the gathering continued till three in the morning. And even then many wished to remain longer, or returning homewards, went singing through the streets. The little hall was soon quite too small, and we were compelled to move to the school building, which also was presently full to overflowing, as scores and hundreds of country folk streamed into the village.”
On the first Saturday evening in the larger meetinghouse, Murray led the prayer meeting. After reading a passage of Scripture and making a few observations on it, he prayed. When he invited others to pray, everyone again began praying aloud all at the same time. Murray thought such praying disorderly, so descended from the platform and moved among the people, trying to quiet them.
That evening a stranger had been standing at the door from the beginning of the meeting. That unknown individual quietly approached Murray, gently touched him and said: “I think you are the minister of the congregation. Be careful what you do, for it is the Spirit of God that is at work here. I have just come from America, and this is precisely what I witnessed there.”
Throughout the remainder of that year and continuing into 1861 revival continued to spread across South Africa. In all, nearly three dozen parishes experienced dramatic spiritual awakening. The church leaders at Wellington reported that their parish had made greater moral and spiritual progress in recent weeks than throughout its entire previous history of nearly two decades. The Stellenbosch leaders enthused of revived spiritual conditions in their community, “The whole of society has been changed, yes, turned literally upside down!”
God is still able to work in these dramatic ways today. Are we willing to diligently seek such transformative blessings from Him in fervent prayer?
* * *
A full account of South Africa’s 1860 revival is recorded in chapters 11 and 12 of my forthcoming biography, Andrew Murray: Christ’s Anointed Minister to South Africa. That volume is to be released in the U.S. this August.
Copyright 2015 by Vance E. Christie
I’m delighted that my most recent biography, Andrew Murray: Christ’s Anointed Minister to South Africa, is to be released in the United Kingdom next month then in the United States in August. I thought you might enjoy reading part of “the story behind the book” in this Perspective:
I recall as a boy seeing two or three of Andrew Murray’s devotional books in my dad’s pastoral library. Then in college I read with great benefit Murray’s devotional classic With Christ in the School of Prayer. I was somewhat acquainted with his books but not with his life. I have come to learn that the same is the case for many Christians with regard to Murray.
When Christian Focus Publications graciously asked me if I might have interest in writing a biography on Andrew Murray, I ordered a couple of the earlier accounts of his life and took those along on a week of family vacation. As I read those works in the following weeks I was impressed and inspired by many features of Murray’s life and ministry – including, among others:
I quickly concluded that it would be a great privilege to write a fresh account of Murray’s fascinating and inspiring life in order to help acquaint the contemporary generation with this remarkable Christian minister of the past.
Early in the process of composing this work I casually asked a Christian bookstore owner if he was familiar with Andrew Murray, but did not reveal that I was writing his biography. “Oh certainly,” the man immediately responded. “We carry and sell a number of Murray’s titles.” Shortly after that a member of the church I pastor asked if I was currently working on a writing project. When I indicated I was writing Murray’s biography, she became very excited and exclaimed, “Andrew Murray! He’s one of my favorite authors. We’ve read several of his books in our family devotions.”
It took me nearly two years (on a very part-time basis, while carrying out my full-time pastoral responsibilities) to write the Murray biography. My original rough-draft manuscript was 131,000 words in length, the second draft was trimmed to 117,000 words, while the final manuscript I actually submitted to Christian Focus Publications was slimmed down even further to 106,000 words. CFP was once again most patient in waiting for the completed manuscript and most kind in agreeing to publish my final proposed manuscript in its entirety.
* * *
For other Perspective articles on this outstanding servant of Christ, just type “Andrew Murray” in the search box.
I’m delighted to share that Christian Focus Publications has announced the publication date of my forthcoming biography, Andrew Murray: Christ’s Anointed Minister to South Africa. The book will be released in the United Kingdom in July then in the United States in August.
In the coming weeks both Christian Focus Publications and my own website’s Andrew Murray book page will post additional information about the volume and where to order it. But here’s some initial information:
Book Description:
In an era that saw many gifted and diligent ministers, missionaries and evangelists being used by God to powerfully advance Christ’s Kingdom work in South Africa, Andrew Murray (1828-1917) emerged as that country’s premier preacher, devotional writer and Church leader. Andrew Murray’s writings and influence are still felt today and Vance Christie skillfully and faithfully brings his story to life for a new generation. (Christian Focus Publications)
Endorsements For Andrew Murray: Christ’s Anointed Minister to South Africa:
“Vance Christie has done an excellent job on Murray’s life… This is a fine, relatively brief volume on a huge subject, and I find it accurate and edifying. I shall recommend it to my classes, and to some of the conferences where I speak.”
-Douglas F. Kelly, Richard Jordan Professor of Theology, Reformed Theological Seminary, Charlotte, North Carolina
“Andrew Murray, though dead, still speaks to us in this charming volume. Walk with this great evangelist through the years of preparation, great success in ministry, and struggles with sickness. May this book introduce a new generation to the life of this man of God, and stimulate faith that the God of Murray is also our God and can lead us also to faithful and fruitful service.”
-Adrian Warnock, Author of Raised with Christ and Hope Reborn and prolific Blogger at adrianwarnock.com
“… an edifying book on a model Protestant saint. May God use it to revive His church today.”
-Douglas A. Sweeney, Chair, Church History & History of Christian Thought Department, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Illinois
Book Information:
Pre-Order Today:
In a few months my newest biography, Andrew Murray of South Africa, is to be published by Christian Focus Publications. Murray was blessed with a devout ancestry and upbringing. He reminds us (1) how blessed we are if we have had those same benefits and (2) what a great blessing we can be to our descendants by providing them with those spiritual advantages.
Andrew Murray’s parents, grandparents and great-grandparents were all deeply committed Christians. Andrew’s father, after whom he was named, emigrated from Scotland to South Africa as a young man. Murray, Sr., devoted his entire ministerial career of over forty years to pastoring the Dutch Reformed Church in Graaff-Reinet, located some 500 miles northeast of Cape Town. In addition to shepherding his own congregation, Murray established eight other Dutch Reformed Churches in that part of Cape Colony.
Murray, Sr., married Maria Stegmann. They had sixteen children, eleven of whom lived to adulthood. One of their children testified of their home: “The chief characteristic of the household was reverence. We reverenced God’s name and God’s day and God’s Word. The wife reverenced her husband; the children reverenced their parents; the servants reverenced their master and mistress. The children were trained in the ways of the Lord. They were taught to render obedience in such a way that they never seemed to know it.”
Murray was deeply concerned about the spiritual welfare of his children and that they would come to have a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. On a Sunday evening, following family worship when a child came for a goodnight kiss, he would ask, ‘Well, dearie, have you given your heart to Christ yet?’ or ‘Will you not, before you go to bed tonight, give yourself to Jesus?’ On a child’s birthday he would say, ‘This is your birthday. Are you born again?’
Murray impressed spiritual truths upon his children through other means as well. A daughter related: “Many sweet words out of God’s Word became engraven in the hearts of his children by hearing their father repeat them with such feeling and emphasis. The word of Christ did indeed dwell in him richly, and he taught and admonished us in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in his heart unto the Lord [Col. 3:16]. Many a sweet verse has been imprinted on our minds and memories from hearing him repeat it half aloud to himself, as he walked up and down the large dining room after supper.”
Maria Murray also played a crucial role in the spiritual development and general education of her children. She taught them to read before they were old enough to attend school, and the hymns and Bible verses they learned at her knee remained in their memory throughout life. When her husband was away from home on ministry responsibilities, she listened to her sons rehearse their daily lessons before they went to school.
Peace and restfulness of spirit, even in the midst of work, marked Maria’s life. A regular habit of personal communion with God was the secret to her trust and tranquility. She always took time for her private devotions, and her children and servants knew that when her bedroom door was closed she was not to be disturbed unless absolutely necessary.
The Lord’s Day was strictly observed by the Murrays. There were almost always three Sunday church services, in addition to Sunday School, and the older Murray children were expected to attend them all. In addition, Mrs. Murray taught her children the Shorter Catechism on Sunday afternoon, and toward evening the family enjoyed a time of singing together. One of their children later wrote: “On looking back upon it all, it does seem almost wonderful that the children did not weary of the long services. For the morning service lasted two hours, and on Communion Sundays three, and we remained to the end. It is perhaps to be ascribed to habit, or still more to the fact that the parents delighted in the worship of God, so the children learned to delight in it too.”
All of Andrew and Maria’s children and nearly all of their grandchildren and great-grandchildren came to faith in Christ and faithfully served Him, in various capacities, with their lives. In 1922 ‘a remarkable centenary gathering’ was held in Graaff-Reinet to commemorate the arrival of Andrew Murray, Sr., in South Africa. 220 of his 486 descendants gathered for the special reunion. With humble gratitude to God it was duly noted: “During the hundred years now ending, over fifty ministers have been connected with the family by birth or marriage, and about the same number of men and women have given the whole or part of their lives to work in the foreign mission field. Some of the young men are now attending the Theological Seminary and others are expecting to enter it in due time, some are studying medicine in the hope of becoming medical missionaries. … Looking over the past one could only adore the goodness of the covenant-keeping God and entrust to the same God the keeping of the future generations.”
A few years before his death in 1917, Andrew Murray, Jr., doubtless thinking of the blessed influence of his own parents and grandparents, wrote in a memorandum addressed to the entire Murray family circle: ‘A godly parentage is a priceless boon. Its blessing rests not only upon the children of the first generation, but has often been traced in many successive generations.’
Copyright 2015 by Vance E. Christie
Several weeks ago I was delighted to submit to Christian Focus Publications the completed manuscript of my newest biography, Andrew Murray of South Africa. In the coming months running up to the book’s publication I’d like to share some of the many valuable lessons to be learned through Murray’s remarkable life. I begin with the tremendous model he was of combining a high degree of both action and contemplation in his Christian life and service.
Andrew Murray (1828-1917) was a man of tireless action. He served for fifty-seven years as an active minister of the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa, pastoring four separate congregations, including his final pastorate of three and a half decades. Murray was chosen by his ministerial colleagues to serve six terms (totaling some twenty-five years) as Moderator of Cape Colony’s Dutch Reformed Synod. He traveled and ministered more extensively throughout all of South Africa than any other minister of any denomination in S.A. in his day.
Murray played a key role in the founding of several educational institutions. He personally carried out a number of major evangelistic tours of different parts of the country, pointing large numbers of people to salvation in Christ. He took the lead in establishing and promoting the work of various foreign missionary societies to carry the Gospel to unreached people groups outside the bounds of the Colony. Murray sponsored and was featured at numerous conferences aimed at calling believers to a higher plain of Christian living and service. He actively supported a number of student ministry organizations as well as home mission works that ministered to military personnel, the poor and moral outcasts. He also carried out prominent preaching ministries in Europe and America.
While being a man of seemingly-constant action, Murray was also a contemplative individual. His mind constantly probed new avenues and depths of biblical, spiritual truth. His thinking and teaching were thoroughly devotional in nature. He lived with a profound awareness of the presence of God and a preoccupation with matters spiritual. He was deeply devoted to prayer. He had an appreciation for the writings of certain Christian mystics and has sometimes been classified as being a sane, sanctified mystic himself.
Through his prolific writing ministry, which saw nearly 240 works (including over seventy books) published, Murray shared his fervent spiritual perspectives on numerous subjects. His writings reveal the breadth and the depth of his spiritual reflections. Both his preaching and writing ministries clearly set forth the great importance he placed on active, consecrated service on the one hand and the cultivation of deep personal piety and devotional practices on the other hand.
Many Christians tend to incline more toward one or the other – active service or reflective contemplation – in their Christian lives. Andrew Murray’s example (to say nothing of such biblical models as King David and the Apostle Paul) reminds us that both service and contemplation are vitally important in our living for the Lord. We ought to actively cultivate and seek to maintain a healthy balance between both emphases. As we do, by God’s grace we’ll be well-equipped and useful servants of Christ.
Copyright 2015 by Vance E. Christie
Andrew Murray (1828-1917) was a Dutch Reformed pastor who ministered in South Africa for over sixty years. He is best remembered as the author of numerous devotional classics, many of which are still read today. His ministry was characterized not only by ceaseless activity for the Lord but also by marked Christlikeness. His winsome, Christlike spirit in dealing with friends and foes alike was a key to his tremendous spiritual fruitfulness.
When Murray was forty-three years old he was called to pastor the Dutch Reformed Church of Wellington, about forty-five miles northeast of Cape Town. While Murray’s main emphases were on leading people to the Savior and helping Christians grow deeper in their faith, he was also a teetotaler who actively promoted temperance. The Wellington church had a number of wine farmers in it.
As the congregation was unacquainted with temperance principles, Murray introduced them by stating: “When a farmer trains a young horse it will often shy at a stone or something else. The wise farmer will quietly lead the horse to the unfamiliar object and let him look at it and smell it till all fear passes, and it will not shy any more. So I will not force temperance upon you, but we will speak and preach about it till you are familiar with it and approve of it.”
Not long after his arrival in Wellington, Murray began a movement to have some of the many “public houses” or “canteens” (bars, taverns) in town closed. “Mr. Murray,” a provoked wine farmer asserted, “the congregation will be torn asunder by your temperance sentiments.”
“Never,” Murray replied. “We will, if necessary, take the scissors of love and cut it in two, having one section for temperance and the other not, but we will live together in love.”
Murray’s temperance efforts were so successful that for many years there came to be only four saloons in Wellington. By contrast, during the same period there were forty taverns in the neighboring village.
Not surprisingly, Murray encountered some strong opposition. One of his daughters recollected of their early years in Wellington: “When father came to Wellington there were seven canteens in Church Street alone, but he soon got four of them closed, and also in other streets he got the canteens closed. These people were very angry with him, and sought to burn down the parsonage. We had to be on the watch constantly, for rags soaked in paraffin were thrown in at the window near the lace curtains, so as to cause them to burn. God, in His mercy, graciously protected us, but we exercised great care and watchfulness at this time.”
When Wellington’s jubilee was to be celebrated in 1890, there was a difference of opinion over how the church, which was central to the community, should mark the special occasion. Murray and a number of others in his congregation desired to do so by promoting a generous special offering in support of a missionary cause. But another party within the congregation wished to have a church tower built with the special funds.
Everyone was greatly surprised when a pledge list for the church tower was circulated, as it was headed by a generous donation from Murray. When one of his earnest Christian friends protested, Murray responded, “Let us draw them into the Church by love.” That proved to be the case. The tower came to be spoken of as “the tower of love,” and many of Murray’s former opponents became his lasting friends.
Murray went on to serve as Wellington’s minister for thirty-four years until his retirement from active pastoral ministry at the age of seventy-seven. He then continued to live in the town till the end of his life eleven years later.
Murray exemplifies the type of spirit Christians are encouraged to manifest in Scripture passages such as Ephesians 4:2-3: “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”
* * *
I am currently writing a biography on Andrew Murray’s remarkable life and ministry. While the book’s completion and publication dates are not yet known, I’ll seek to update you periodically on the work’s progress. And I’ll share other highlights occasionally from the example of this commendable, Christlike servant.
Copyright 2014 by Vance E. Christie