The Life of Andrew Murray of South Africa Chapter XX. Andrew Murray as a Spiritual Force
It is useful to have
spiritual teachers; and if they be wise, it is wise to learn reverently
from them ; but their lessons have not been successful until the learner
has gained an eye for seeing the truth, and believes no longer because
of his teacher’s word, but because he has an anointing from the Holy
One, and knoweth all things.—F. W. Newman.
TO estimate the spiritual influence which Andrew Murray exercised upon
his day and generation is not only a difficult but an impossible task.
The influences which radiate from us, attracting some and repelling
others, but always moulding their characters and shaping their
destinies, are so subtle and mysterious as to defy our analysis. This is
supremely true of spiritual influences, which proceed from that Divine
Spirit of whom it was spoken: “The Spirit breatheth where it listeth,
and thou hearest the voice thereof, but knowest not whence it cometh and
whither it goeth.” There are no human scales in which the character and
work of Andrew Murray can be weighed and estimated.: they are in their
nature imponderable. He was not a voice alone, but a force ; he created
not merely an influence, but an atmosphere. In the land of his birth he
impressed himself upon all who had intercourse with him, and there were
but few who did not at some time or other either meet him or hear him
preach. Upon his colleagues in the ministry his personality made the
deepest possible impression. Young ministers and students of divinity
found in his evangelistic labours, in which they were frequently
permitted to share, a training in practical and pastoral theology which
no college professor could bestow. In all religious gatherings he was
the acknowledged leader. His advice was sought, his wishes respected,
and his opinions deferred to1 by men of all ages and of every degree of
social standing. The secret of his influence lay in his lofty Christian
character and in the irresistible power which revealed itself in all he
said and did. For he was, above everything, the man of prayer. He held
constant communion with the Unseen. His spiritual life was fed and
nourished from the springs which are invisible and eternal.
The ninth decade of last century was the most prolific in evangelistic
toil of Mr. Murray’s whole career. Dining the twelve years from 1879 to
1891, he engaged in no less than seven evangelistic campaigns in all
parts of South Africa. ‘Some of these lasted but a few weeks, but many
extended over several successive months. The consistory and congregation
of Wellington, recognizing the urgent need of the Church and the special
gifts of their beloved pastor, readily granted him leave of absence for
these revival services. The arrangements for the meetings were the
subject of careful thought. Mr. Murray was accustomed to insist strongly
on the previous preparation of the soil. He instructed the minister of
the congregation he was about to visit how best to kindle large
expectations, and so to provide an audience that was both
psychologically and spiritually ripe for the reception of Divine Truth.
Christians were urged to continuous and believing prayer for an
individual and a general blessing. The Church at large was invited to
join in fervent supplication that it might please God to grant a rich
harvest of souls. Nor were the prosaic details of travel, the stages of
the journey, the number and the length of the meetings, beneath his
notice. He had much of the saneness and tact, combined with a thorough
grasp of detail, which characterized the late Mr. D. L. Moody.
Wherever he journeyed
there were prejudices to be removed, difficulties to be smoothed away,
ignorance to be dispelled, and coldness and diffidence to be overcome.
He had to do frequently with ministers who were not averse to "special
services,” but feared that the “after-meetings" formed an undesirable
feature. "I tell them," wrote Mr. Murray, "that it would be breaking off
the point of the arrow. Imagine a Salvation Army meeting without a
penitent form! ” In spite, however, of superficial differences, his
fellow-ministers, in almost every case, received him gladly and accorded
him the heartiest sympathy and co-operation ; while the audiences, if
sometimes unenlightened, listened always with the most respectful and
earnest attention.
In a previous chapter1 some account has been given of Mr. Murray’s
earliest evangelistic tour. The following extracts from letters to his
wife, written during one of his later campaigns, will convey to the
reader a clear impression of the nature of his journeyings, the thoughts
and prayers which engrossed his attention, the measure of success which
attended his efforts, and the alert mind which he maintained towards the
thousand and one interests centring in himself :—
From Somerset East during the Ministers’ Conference {April, 1891)
I thank God for your time at the seaside with Mary, and trust it will be
a real blessing to her. And what you long for for yourself He will give
and is giving. I think you will find the last part of The Quiet in the
Land very helpful. It has a very great attraction for me. I can read
Tersteegen over and over again. It is as if it was just what was needed
as the application of the Epistle to the Hebrews—the Holy Place to which
we have access, the place in which we are already, is the innermost
sanctuary of the Presence and the Heart and the Love of God.
Our Conference began well—twenty-two ministers, some very earnest. This
morning we had the second chapter [of Hebrews] : He calls us brethren.
The place and weather are very beautiful. I have not much time to write
to-day.
Now as to business: 1. In the second shelf from above of my bookcase,
right-hand side, there is a German book bound in black linen, Oetinger,
Hebrder-brief. Please send it to me by post addressed to Cradock. 2. Say
to Kitty it is all right about the cheque deposited, but the second
halves of the bills for Europe must be kept and not sent on. 3. The
letter from Mr. Howell was about my ticket and must be sent on here. 4.
Send on the British Weekly to me every week by post. 5. I am afraid
there was something wrong about the post at Tarkastad, so I asked Kitty
if she addressed any letters there. Was there nothing from England? 6.
Send to Mr. R. L. Webb, Somerset East, 20 Zijtmij genadig, 20 Waarom
gelooft gij niet? 20 Blijf in Jezus,1 in one strong parcel, care of
Mitchell’s postcart, Cookhouse Station. ,
My love to the children. Kind remembrances to all. The blessed presence
of our God, opened to us in Jesus Christ, be your and my portion.
Written during tour in the Eastern Districts (May, 1891).
Dordrecht, 2nd May.—We left Cradock on Thursday morning, and were here
on Friday at 5 p.m., after a rattling drive of twenty hours. Our first
meeting last night was very good, and both P.D.R.'s and I feel a great
difference between Tarkastad and this. The shaking there has been very
real, but at first we felt like speaking against a dead wall. Here there
appears much more openness. We are expecting large blessing.
The climate here is delicious, reminding me of the Free State. I was
wrong : it was not Oetinger but Steinhofer on Hebrews in German that I
want—a small octavo volume in black cloth cover, in the second shelf
from the top of the right-hand side of my large bookcase.
I pray the Lord to give you the healing you need for the body, and
further, grace to help in every time of need. Oh! that we may know our
great High Priest aright—His tenderness, His heavenly presence with us,
and the power of the endless life in which He ministers.
My love to all, Kitty and Annie, John and Charles. We purpose leaving
this on Tuesday morning, and going through in one day to Barkly East.
May our God supply all your need according to His riches in glory by
Christ Jesus.
Dordrecht, 4th May.—Please send to Rev. W. Alheit, Dordrecht, 20 Zijt
mij genadig, 20 Waarom gelooft gij niet ? Immediately on receipt of
this, please, so as to reach here on Friday, in time for his nachtmaal
on the 17th. Post early on Monday, well done up.
10 p.m.—Your note of 27th April just received. I enclose Mr. Hazenberg’s
post order signed. I am glad about the ministers recalling their letter.
God bless Mr. Walton. I had meant to write to Mr. Roux, but have had no
time. Gerard is well and bright. My kind regards to him and all friends.
Thank du Plessis for his note: an elder of his was here. There is some
chance of our going down to Elliot for services on Tuesday next. '
Our services here are over. Deep feeling with many, and open confession
with some. We praise God. At the Conference at Somerset East I had hard
work, doing most of the talking, but the change here has so set me up
that I hardly feel tired. He gives strength. Your extract from
Tersteegen is very beautiful. There is in his words and in those of the
Friends of God a wonderful depth and power. I feel one needs time to get
more of God into our life and work. The Lord teach us.
We are off to-morrow for Barkly, where we hope to be in the evening. It
is raining, and this may detain us. Much love to the children and
yourself.
Barkly East, 13th May.—Give the enclosed note to Miss Ferguson, and see
if she has a teacher for Mrs. van Schalkwijk. Send to Rev. H. Muller,
Barkly East, xo Zijt mij genadig, 10 Waarorn gelooft gij niet? and to
Kerkeraad, Venterstad, 20 Zijt mij genadig and 20 Waarom gelooft gij
niet?
Lady Grey, 15th May.—Came on here yesterday. But such roads— truly like
the Transvaal! This morning, on awakening, I for the first time felt
tired. But it is all right now. What a sad sight, the home here! The
father left with ten children, ten motherless children, the youngest
only three. The eldest daughter is now better, but still weak in health.
The second daughter is the only mother, caring for all. Miss Piton, our
graduate, is in the home, and acts as auntie—a great comfort to them.
Services began this afternoon in pouring rain. I am humbly asking the
Father to command it to cease. That letter from America is interesting,
but very solemn to myself. I am trusting for the full revelation of
Christ in the heart, in a peace and rest never for a moment disturbed.
The high-priesthood of Hebrews and the power of an endless life are very
precious. I have begun writing a Dutch book on Hebrews, which I look to
God to bless very much.
Maraisburg, 28th May.—Our Monday morning meeting [at Molteno] was
something very beautiful. Testimonies in abundance, and very clear, of
blessing received by people who had long feared the Lord, but had not
known what salvation by faith was. And some twenty confessions of
conversion.
Monday afternoon to Sterkstroom, for that evening and Tuesday. Had some
clear cases of entrance into light and joy. Returned to Molteno
yesterday : a number of people came up again. Mrs. Marais very warm—a
young girls’ prayer-meeting started, a boys’ prayer-meeting too. A
parting service at 6 p.m. in the church, and at 7.30 a large English
service in the Wesleyan chapel.
Danie Marchand came yesterday to accompany me here. Along the road, much
proof of God’s blessing on the services, and so many testimonies to the
effect: “I thought I must be, or get, or do something, and now I see it
was all wrong. I now trust the living Jesus.” The joy is great in many
hearts. I meet many who are the fruit of former special services. To-day
three. First, a man: “Oh! I saw you at Colesberg, where I got the
light.” Then a woman: “Do you remember speaking to my daughter in the
vestry at Cradock, and giving her the text I am with you alway? She died
so brightly three years afterwards.” Then a young woman: “Do you
remember at Steynsburg asking the people in a prayer to give themselves
wholly to God? I was a child, and did it.” So the Lord proves the work
is not in vain. To His name be the praise.
Mr. Murray’s broad Christian charity revealed itself in many ways, and
was especially noticeable in the generous welcome which he extended to
other evangelists who from time to time visited these shores. One of the
earliest of these visitors from overseas was Henry Varley, who in 1886
conducted a series of remarkable meetings in the chief towns of South
Africa. Upon Mr. Varley followed at short intervals a number of
missioners, among whom may be mentioned George C. Grubb, Spencer Walton,
John McNeill, Mark Guy Pearse, Gelson Gregson, Charles Inwood, Gipsy
Smith, Donald Fraser, John R. Mott, and F. B. Meyer. When these men
landed in Table Bay, Mr. Murray was among the first to bid them welcome,
and to lend the weight of his influence and authority to their
undertaking. Many of them might have found the doors of the Dutch
Reformed Churches closed against them— for the South African Dutch as a
people and as a Church are averse from nieuwigheden (novelties)—were it
not that the Moderator had given them his countenance and benediction.
In the case of all these devoted men there can be no doubt that the
sympathy, the constant interest, and the fervent prayers of Mr. Murray
formed, under God, a large element in any success which may have
attended their mission. Dr. F. B. Meyer, one of the most recent of these
visitors, makes the following acknowledgment in A Winter in South Africa
(1908) :—
From the first the ministers of the Dutch Reformed Church showed me much
Christian courtesy. . . . All were prepared to accept the lead given by
the venerable Dr. Andrew Murray, who came from Wellington on purpose to
attend the meetings [in Cape Town], and took part in prayer and
benediction. I can never forget or repay his kindness. On a future page
I hope to allude at length to the influence of this saintly man upon his
Church. It is enough to say here that, notwithstanding his eighty years,
his intellect is as bright and his natural force almost as vigorous as
when he visited England fifteen yeats ago. He is honoured and loved
throughout the Church of which he is the recognized father and leader,
and beyond. It was of untold help, therefore, that my earliest meetings
should receive his endorsement and his blessing.
During the great revival of i860, which has been described in a former
chapter, an earnest-minded minister of the D. R. Church, the Rev. van
der Lingen of Paarl, proposed that in future the ten days between
Ascension and Pentecost should be observed in the same manner as the
first disciples did, namely by “continuing steadfastly in prayer” for
the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The suggestion was readily adopted,
and the number of congregations and prayer-circles taking part in the
movement grew slowly greater. In 1867, Mr. Murray published in the
Kerkbode a series of ten brief meditations for the Whitsuntide
gatherings. This was the precursor of many similar subject-outlines,
which were prepared annually, and of which several were expanded into
devotional manuals and issued in the Dutch and English languages. The
custom, which Mr. Murray thus encouraged and aided, of holding meetings
for prayer from Ascension Day to Whit-Sunday, has been of inestimable
blessing to the D. R. Church. Year after year reports appear in the
columns of the denominational paper, from ministers and congregations in
all parts of South Africa, describing the blessing which has attended
the observance of the ten days of prayer in the quickening of believers
and the regeneration of the unconverted. It is surely not the least of
the spiritual benefits which Andrew Murray conferred upon his Church,
that he assisted her in establishing and continuing a usage to which she
owes so much of her religious vitality and missionary fervour.
Beyond South Africa Mr. Murray’s influence has been, probably, greater
than that of any other contemporary devotional writer. Of his first
essay in English authorship we have already spoken,1 while fuller
reference to the many books which flowed from his pen is reserved for a
future chapter.2 Abide in Christ, his first English venture, appeared in
1882, and in 1888 were published Holy in Christ and The Spirit of
Christ, which (together with The Holiest of All) represent the
high-water mark of his literary and theological achievements. Between
the above-mentioned dates he had found his audience, for when The Spirit
of Christ was issued his first work had already reached its fifty-third
thousand. His readers, counted by tens of thousands, were scattered all
over the globe. Evangelical circles in England and America recognized in
him a Christian teacher who spoke with authority, and not as one of the
common scribes. His growing spiritual influence led to his being
invited, in 1895, to visit. v England for the purpose of delivering
addresses at the Reswick and other conventions. Mr. Murray was suitably
introduced to the Christian public of Great Britain in a paper by the
Rev. H. V. Taylor, which appeared, together with a portrait, in the
British Weekly of 6th December, 1894, and from which we take over the
following paragraphs :—
Andrew Murray, if any man, may justly claim the title of catholic, for
his sympathies are unfailingly given to each one who loves the Lord
Jesus in sincerity and truth. “We are Christians first and Dutch
Reformed afterwards,” he said with vehemence when addressing the
delegates from other Churches who came to the opening of the recent
Synod. And this saying gives the note of his life. He desires to be
known as a Christian, as a follower of Jesus simply, and he seems to
examine every one he meets for the Christian element in him. That is the
impression left on the mind when one is in conversation with him. His
keen, yearning look appears to scan the face of his interlocutor for the
witness of the Christ-life there, and to plead above all things for
loyalty to the one Master. You cannot help saying to yourself, “ This
man wants me to belong to Jesus Christ.” No one who has talked with him,
even on casual themes, can forget that wistful glance.
He is, I suppose, well known to most readers of religious literature by
his devotional books, notably Abide in Christ. His nature is profoundly
devotional; he carries with him the atmosphere of prayer. He seems
always wrapped about with a mantle of adoration. When preaching or
conducting a service, his whole being is thrown into the task, and he
glows with a fervency of spirit which it seems impossible for human
flesh to sustain. At times he startles and overwhelms the listeners.
Earnestness and power of the electric sort stream from him, and affect
alike the large audience or the quiet circle gathered round him. In his
slight, spent frame, of middle height, he carries in repose a volcanic
energy which, when he is roused, bursts its barriers and sweeps all
before it. Then his form quivers and dilates, the lips tremble, the
features work, the eyes spasmodically open and close, as from the
white-hot furnace of his spirit he pours the molten torrent of his
unstudied eloquence. The thin face and almost emaciated body are
transfigured and illumined. The staid, venerable minister of the
nineteenth century, with the sober, clerical garb and stiff white tie,
which is de rigueur among the Dutch clergy, disappears, and an old
Hebrew prophet stands before us—another Isaiah with his glowing imagery,
a second Hosea with his plaintive, yearning appeals. Audiences bend
before the sweeping rain of his words like willows before a gale. The
heart within the hearer is bowed, and the intellect awed. Andrew
Murray’s oratory is of that kind for which men willingly go into
captivity.
His disposition is mystical, with, as in the best of mystics, the
religious thought clothing a strong and fearless nature. No man can
study his face without being struck by the inwardness of the deep-set
grey eyes. Even when one gets to hand-grips with him in closeness of
intercourse, one is conscious of the great part that remains
unexpressed, the spiritual Hinterland which extends far beyond the
visible shore. There is ever and anon the suggestion of great strength
held in reserve. A student of character cannot help the conviction that
if the old days of persecution were to return, Andrew Murray would go to
the stake as cheerfully as he steps up to the Moderator’s chair.
Mr. Murray left for Europe, accompanied by Mrs. Murray, by the steamship
Norman on the 8th of May, 1895. Only the chief incidents of this
journey, which comprised England, America, Holland, and Scotland, can be
chronicled. At Exeter Hall, on his arrival, he was welcomed at a public
breakfast, when he seized the occasion to impress upon the friends who
had invited him the necessity of expecting all from God alone. In
connexion with the Guildford Convention, shortly afterwards, he
delivered four addresses and preached twice on the Sunday. At the
Mildmay Conference he spoke thrice and administered the Lord’s Supper to
a great gathering of fourteen hundred communicants. In the month of July
he visited Keswick, where he was one of the principal speakers. Of the
memorable and indelible impression which he produced, the Rev. Evan H.
Hopkins, editor of the Life of Faith, speaks in these terms :—
The main feature of this [twenty-first] Convention has been the presence
of our beloved brother, the Rev. Andrew Murray of South Africa, whose
addresses have come home to so many with peculiar power. . . . As
message after message was enforced by one who has evidently been the
marked minister of God this time, it seemed as if none could escape, as
if none could choose but let Christ Himself, in the power of His living
Spirit, be the One to live, although the cost was our taking the place
of death. ... As this was dwelt on more and more deeply as the days went
on, especially at the solemn evening meetings, there came over some of
us a memory of Keswick in-1879, when an awe of God fell upon the whole
assembly in a way the writer has never seen equalled. . . .
That was in the days when Keswick was looked on askance, and darkly ;
when those who gathered had to let their reputation die by daring to
attend. Oh, that God may grant that in these days when no such slur
attaches to the thought of coming, there may be not less deep work done.
Surely we may hope that God means it so, when in the stillness and
isolation (as to Christian intercourse such as we have) of a South
African sphere, He so prepares and fits a servant of His, that when He
calls him to join a group of those who have been living for years in the
fullness and richness of constant brotherly communion and intercourse,
spiritual and intellectual, they should find not only a oneness of heart
and a unity of teaching, but one who can so teach that they willingly
and gratefully gather round to listen.
One address stands out beyond all others. It was on The Way to the
Higher Life, as shown in the petition of the two sons of Zebedee, “
Grant us that we may sit, one on Thy right hand, and the other on Thy
left hand, in Thy glory.” What they asked was a good thing, a glorious
thing. Their petition summed up three things which are the longing of
the heart that craves to be lifted from the lower level of Christian
life to a higher, for it asked nearness to Jesus, likeness to Jesus,
power for Jesus. There was nothing wrong in the request: what was wrong
was the spirit, and what was wanting was the understanding of what it
involved. And He met it by asking them: “Are ye able to drink of the cup
that I shall drink of?” The answer to it means death. Are ye able? And
they said, We are able. Will you say it? We are able : we want that
higher level—that life which abides in the will of Jesus, which ignores
the self-life? And His answer was, Ye shall indeed.
From England Mr. and Mrs. Murray, at the urgent invitation of Mr. D. L.
Moody, crossed over to America. The chief overseas visitors at the
Northfield Conference on this occasion were the Revs. Webb-Peploe and
Andrew Murray. For a full fortnight Mr. Murray conducted the morning
sessions, speaking solely on the one subject in which he was then
absorbed—the feeble and sickly religious life of the Churches. Not less
than four hundred ministers attended this gathering, and large numbers,
including Mr. Moody himself, testified to having derived great benefit
and blessing from the message delivered. From Northfield his itinerary
led him to Chicago, where he spoke twice daily at a five-day convention.
The Murrays then recrossed the Atlantic, and in the month of October a
remarkable succession of gatherings took place in Holland. We may
imagine the feelings with which Mr. Murray addressed a huge concourse of
two thousand people in the Cathedral at Utrecht, when he stood on the
very pulpit before which, at his confirmation fifty years previously, he
had made public profession of his faith in Christ. Not only at Utrecht,
but at Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Haarlem, The Hague, Groningen, and other
cities, multitudes flocked to his services, and a time of deep
earnestness and real spiritual awakening was experienced. Before his
departure a pressing request, to which he found it impossible to accede,
was laid before him by the missionary authorities, to visit the mission
fields of the Dutch Churches in India and the East. After a brief visit
to Scotland, and successful gatherings at Aberdeen and elsewhere, Mr.
Murray journeyed to London, where the closing meetings of the
evangelistic tour were held. Of this last series of meetings, which
stood in connexion with the Presbyterian Church of England, we have the
following contemporaneous account, drawn from the columns of the British
Weekly (28th November, 1895) :—
The Convention “for the promotion and strengthening of spiritual life”
which met in Regent Square Church and Exeter Hall on Wednesday,
Thursday, and Friday of last week, was in every respect a success. The
Rev. Andrew Murray was the principal speaker at all the meetings. The
Moderator of Synod, the Rev. S. R. Macphail, M.A., of Liverpool, and the
Rev. G. H. C. Macgregor, M.A., of Notting Hill, also gave addresses. The
opening meeting of the series and the day meetings were held in Regent
Square Church. The evening meetings on Thursday and Friday took place in
Exeter Hall. Ministers and office-bearers of the Church were present in
large numbers on each occasion.
It is no slight undertaking to make seven speeches, each of about an
hour in length, within three days. This was Mr. Murray’s task. He has
been addressing numerous meetings of the same character within the last
few weeks, and everywhere the people liave gathered in crowds to hear
him. His discourses are delivered without the use of manuscript or
notes. The aim of the Convention was a limited and specific one, and Mr.
Murray’s power lies in the proclamation of a specific message— " how
sooner and more completely,” to quote the Rev. S. R. Macphail, " we can
not only believe in, but have a full realization of our completeness in
Christ Jesus.” Perhaps the most striking and profoundly spiritual of Mr.
Murray’s addresses was that delivered on Friday morning from the words,
“Kept by the power of God through faith.” "The keeping of God,” he said
in the course of his sermon, “is an omnipotent keeping. I want to get
linked with the Omnipotent One. Why is it that we, the children of
Pentecost, know so little of what it is to walk step by step with
Almighty God? I can experience the power and goodness of God only so far
as I am in fellowship with Him. Omnipotence was needed to create the
smallest thing, and Omnipotence is needed to keep the smallest thing.
You must learn to know and trust Omnipotence. A godly life is a life
full of God. This keeping is continuous and unbroken. All life is an
unbroken continuity, and the life of God is His Almighty power working
in us. Let us make God’s Omnipotence the measure of our expectation."
The words in italics are a prominent and characteristic part of Mr.
Murray’s teaching.
"We must take God at His word and return to the rapture and fire of the
first Apostleship”—this sentence expresses the spirit and quintessence
of Mr. Murray’s teaching. He seeks to restore to their original fulness
of meaning the precepts and sayings of the early Apostles. “The object
of the Convention," he said, "is to ask the question, Are we living up
to the privileges of our high calling?” In one of his addresses Mr.
Murray said, " God will put no difference between the Church of the
first days and us. The power that is working in you is the same power
that raised Christ from the dead.”
Dr. Newman Hall, the Rev. F. B. Meyer, and the Rev. Thomas Spurgeon were
present, and took some part at the meetings of the Convention. The two
great meetings at Exeter Hall, at which more than two thousand people
were present, were the most successful of the series. They were
announced to begin at seven, but after half-past six it was difficult to
get a seat. The interval of waiting was spent in the singing of hymns.
The only speakers besides Mr. Murray who addressed these gatherings
were, as has been said, the Rev. S. R. Macphail and the Rev. G. H. C.
Macgregor. Both were brief, and both made a good impression. Mr. Murray,
who has now brought to a close his series of services in this country,
will shortly return to Africa.
At Keswick, in response to a request on the part of Christian friends,
Mr. Murray gave some account of his spiritual growth, from which we
venture to extract the essential portion. In this connexion reference
should be made to what has been related as to his experiences in the
Transvaal in 1862,1 and the passionate desire and longing, to which he
gave utterance, for a life wholly filled and controlled by the Spirit of
God. At Keswick he said in substance :—
Some of you have heard how I have pressed upon you the two stages in the
Christian life, and the step from the one to the other. The first ten
years of my spiritual life were manifestly spent on the lower stage. I
was a minister, I may say, as zealous and as earnest and as happy in my
work as anyone, as far as love of the work was concerned. Yet, all the
time, there was burning in my heart a dissatisfaction and restlessness
inexpressible. What was the reason? I had never learnt with all my
theology that obedience was possible. My justification was as clear as
noonday. I knew the hour in which I received from God the joy of pardon.
I remember in my little room at Bloemfontein how I used to sit and
think, What is the matter? Here I am, knowing that God has justified me
in the blood of Christ, but I have no power for service. My thoughts, my
words, my actions, my unfaithfulness—everything troubled me. Though all
around thought me one of the most earnest of men, my life was one of
deep dissatisfaction. I struggled and prayed as best I could.
One day I was talking with a ifiissionary. I do not think that he knew
much of the power of sanctification himself—he would have admitted it.
When we were talking and he saw my earnestness he said, “Brother,
remember that when God puts a desire into your heart, He will fulfil
it.” That helped me; I thought of it a hundred times. I want to say the
same to you, who are plunging about and struggling in the quagmire of
helplessness and doubt. The desire that God puts into your heart He will
fulfil.
I was greatly helped about this time by reading a book called Parables
from Nature. One of these parables represents that after the creation of
the earth, on a certain day, a number of crickets met. One of them
began, saying, “Oh, I feel so happy. For a time I was creeping about
looking for a place where to stay, but I could not find the place that
suited me. At last I got in behind the bark of an old tree, and it
seemed as though the place were just fitted for me, I felt so
comfortable there.” Another said, “I was there for a time, but it would
not fit me”—that was a grass cricket. “But at last I got on to a high
stalk of grass, and as I clung there and swung there, in the wind and
the air, I felt that that was the place made for me.” Then a third
cricket said, “Well, I have tried the bark of the old tree, and I have
tried the grass, but God has made no place for me, and I feel unhappy.”
Then the old mother-cricket said, “My child, do not speak that way. Your
Creator never made anyone without preparing a place for him. Wait, and
you will find it in due time.” Some time after these same crickets met
together again and got to talking. The old mother said, "Now, my child,
what say you?” The cricket replied, "Yes, what you said is true. You
know those strange people who have come here. They built a house, and in
their house they had a fire ; and, you know, when I got into the corner
of the hearth near the fire I felt so warm, that I knew that was the
place God made for me.”
That little parable helped me wonderfully, and I pass it on to you. If
any are saying that God has not got a place for them, let them trust
God, and wait, and He will help you, and show you what is your place. So
the Lord led me till in His great mercy I had been eleven or twelve
years in Bloemfontein. Then He brought me to another congregation in
Worcester, about the time when God’s Holy Spirit was being poured out in
America, Scotland, and Ireland. In i860, when I had been six months in
the congregation, God poured out His Spirit there in connexion with my
preaching, especially as I was moving about in the country, and a very
unspeakable blessing came to me. The first Dutch edition of my book
Abide in Christ was written at that time. I would like you to understand
that a minister or a Christian author may often be led to say more than
he has experienced. I had not then experienced all that I wrote of ; I
cannot say that I experience it all perfectly even now.
Well, God helped me, and for seven or eight years I went on, always
enquiring and seeking, and always getting. Then came, about 1870, the
great Holiness Movement. The letters that appeared in The Revival [now
The Christian] touched my heart; and I was in close fellowship with what
took place at Oxford and Brighton, and it all helped me. Perhaps if I
were to talk of consecration I might tell you of an evening there in my
own study in Cape Town. Yet I cannot say that that was my deliverance,
for I was still struggling. Later on, my mind became much exercised
about the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and I gave myself to God as
perfectly as I could to receive the baptism of the Spirit. Yet there was
failure ; God forgive it. It was somehow as if I could not get what I
wanted. Through all these stumblings God led me, without any very
special experience that I can point to ; but as I look back I do believe
now that He was giving me more and more of His blessed Spirit, had I but
known it better.
I can help you more, perhaps, by speaking, not of any marked experience,
but by telling very simply what I think God has given me now, in
contrast to the first ten years of my Christian life. In the first
place,
I have learnt to place myself before God every day, as a vessel to be
filled with His Holy Spirit. He has filled me with the blessed assurance
that He, as the everlasting God, has guaranteed His own work in me.
If there is one lesson that I am learning day by day, it is this : that
it is God who worketh all in all. Oh, that I could help any brother or
sister to realize this! I was once preaching, and a lady came to talk
with me. She was a very pious woman, and I asked her, “How are you going
on?” Her answer was, "Oh, just the way it always is, sometimes light and
sometimes dark." " My dear sister, where is that in the Bible?” She
said, "We have day and night in nature, and just so it is in our souls.”
“No, no; in the Bible we read, Your sun shall no more go down." Let me
believe that I am God's child, and that the Father in Christ, through
the Holy Ghost, has set His love upon me, and that I may abide in His
presence, not frequently, but unceasingly.
You will ask me. Are you satisfied? Have you got all you want? God
forbid. With the deepest feeling of my soul I can say that I am
satisfied with Jesus now ; but there is also the consciousness of how
much fuller the revelation can be of the exceeding abundance of His
grace. Let us never hesitate to say, This is only the beginning. When we
are brought into the holiest of all, we are only beginning to take our
right position with the Father.
Shortly before his visit to England in 1895, Mr. Murray had fallen under
the potent spell of William Law, the famous non-juror and mystic of the
eighteenth century. Law was in every sense a remarkable man. He was a
powerful controversialist, and in one of his treatises against the
Deists he anticipated to a large extent the famous argument elaborated
by Bishop Butler in his Analogy of Religion to the Constitution and
Course of Nature. He was the author of many books of practical divinity,
the most famous of which, A Serious Call to a devout and holy Life
(1728), not only exercised a profound and lasting influence on the men
of the Evangelical Revival—the Wesleys, Whitefield, Venn, Adam, and
others— but by its serious style evoked the enthusiasm of men of such
different temperaments as Samuel Johnson and Edward Gibbon. In his later
years he became a follower of the German mystic, Jacob Bohme, whom he
calls “ that heavenly illuminated and blessed man, Jacob Behmen,” and to
the study and exposition of whose works he gave the remaining years of
his life. Those years were spent at a little village in Northamptonshire,
where he dwelt with two like-minded ladies, devoting all his time to
devotion, study, and the exercise of Christian charity. The united
incomes of his two companions amounted, it is said, to £3,000 per annum,
and almost the whole of this sum was spent in the establishment and
upkeep of schools, almshouses, and charitable foundations.
The works written by William Law during the latter portion of this
life—especially The Spirit of Prayer, The Spirit of Love, and An
affectionate Address to the Clergy—give him an unchallenged place as the
chief of the English mystics; and it is the mystical element in his
teaching which has proved to be such an irresistible attraction to minds
like those of Andrew Murray. To define mysticism is not an easy matter.
The English language has but one word mysticism to express two different
conceptions, which we find represented in German and Dutch by the words
Mystizismus, mysticisme and Mystik, mystiek. The former expression
denotes the cult of the hidden and mysterious in religion, and under it
we include pursuits like theosophy and spiritualism. The latter is
mysticism in the true and Christian sense of the word, and stands for
the immediate experience of and intercourse with the Divine. All vital
religion is at bottom mysticism, which, as its etymology implies, has to
do with that which is mysterious, incomprehensible, and incommunicable.
Religion is rooted in personal experience, and man's deepest
experiences, like the heart’s hidden grief and joy, are something with
which a stranger intermeddleth not. St. John has been called the mystic
par excellence of the New Testament, but it is equally true to say that
the apostles Paul and Peter, or the Psalmists of the old dispensation,
were mystics. Utterances like the following are expressions of the
mystical spirit: “I live, and yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me,
and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith
which is in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me"; "Whom
not having seen ye love, on whom, though now ye see Him not, yet
believing, ye rejoice greatly with joy unspeakable and full of glory”;
“The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him”; “Nevertheless I am
continually with Thee,—whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none
upon earth that I desire beside Thee; God is the strength of my heart,
and my portion for ever.” Mysticism in its religious and practical, as
distinguished from its philosophical and speculative aspect, may be
defined as the endeavour of the human spirit to rise to the blessedness
of immediate and uninterrupted communion with God.
The history of Christian mysticism has been a strange and chequered one.
In its practical form4 it derives from the Middle Ages. It was
essentially a reaction from the formal and dogmatical theology of the
scholastics. One of the earliest theologians who was also a writer on
mysticism was Bernard of Clairvaux—a favourite historical character with
Andrew Murray, who called his home at Wellington after the famous abbey
which Bernard founded in the plains of Champagne. In common with the
mystics of an earlier date, St. Bernard dwells on the three stages
through which the soul must pass before it reaches the ecstatic vision
of God— purification, illumination, contemplation. In order to attain to
this ecstatic vision it is necessary for the seeker to lose himself in
God, and merge his own individuality in that of the Eternal One. “As air
filled with sunlight is transformed into the same brightness, so that it
does not so much appear to be illuminated as to be light itself—so must
all feeling towards the Holy One be self-dissolved in unspeakable wise,
and wholly transfused into the will of God. For how shall God be all in
all if anything of man remains in man ? ” The practical result of the
teaching and example of men like Bernard of Clairvaux was to give a
mighty stimulus to asceticism. If God was to be found only through the
contemplative life and the ecstatic vision, it followed that those who
sought after the mystic union with Him must resolutely withdraw from the
world, and give themselves to prayer and fasting and rigid austerity.
The mystics of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries have been called
the forerunners of the Reformation. And such in a sense they were. They
represent a revolt from the worldliness of the Church, and a protest
against the licentious and scandalous lives of the mass of the clergy.
The chief mystics of that period were Germans. Germany, indeed has
always afforded a fertile soil for mystical teaching. The contemplative
life, the introspective gaze, the absorption in supra-sensual and
eternal things, seem to have exercised at all times a peculiar
fascination over the speculative Teutonic intellect. Meister Eckhart of
Cologne is a typical German mystic. He reverted to the philosophical
mysticism of the early Christian centmees, and sought to give a
profounder and more spiritual signification to the doctrines of the
Church ; but the issue of his teaching was, in effect, to minimise the
historical truths of the Christian revelation, and to substitute
speculative for Scriptural doctrine.
A much nobler type of mystic is found in the Friends of God—an
association of earnest men who banded themselves together for the
promotion of a closer intercourse with God. These men lived truly holy
and devoted lives, though they too indulged sometimes in those
extravagances which seem to have been inseparable from the religion of
that age. Johanp Tauler, a famous Strassburg preacher, instead of
delivering on one occasion the expected sermon, broke out in a storm of
sighs and prayers while in the pulpit, and had to be debarred from
preaching by the brethren of his order. Nicolas of Basle left his bride
in tears at the altar, and declared that he could not marry her, since
he was already and irrevocably espoused to Christ. Henry Suso and
Merswin the wealthy banker enfeebled their bodies and shortened their
lives by the severe austerities which they practised. Yet these Friends
of God exercised a widespread and most wholesome influence on the
religious life of their day. That famous book Theologia Germanica, which
together with Tauler’s sermons contributed so powerfully towards
Luther’s emancipation from the bondage of scholasticism, proceeded from
this circle of Friends.
Among Protestant mystics the greatest beyond all doubt is Jacob Bfihme.
He was wholly unlearned in the theology of the schools, a shoemaker by
trade, a thinker and a genius by nature. Most unfortunately Bohme
imbibed in large draughts the astrological and theosophical speculations
of Paracelsus—alchemist, physician, philosopher, charlatan— and
consequently the terminology in which he presents his thoughts is
obscure and even repellent. Such expressions as “solution, purification
and re-fixation,” “ens of the Fire-source and ens of the Light-source,”
“bi-une being and magical propagation,” may have all the attraction of
obscurity for some minds, but fill the reader who is in search of
edification with despair. Stated in briefest possible compass, Bohme’s
system is the following : the invisible and eternal universe, which lies
behind the temporal and visible is composed of two root-principles,
darkness and light. God is the light-principle, and Lucifer, the Fallen
Spirit, is the principle of darkness. These two principles are present
in every man, and his destiny is determined by his choice of principle.
The light-principle, or love principle, has its fullest revelation in
the incarnation and death of Christ. Salvation is not the adhesion to
any creed, nor the performance of any good works or heavy penances. Nor
does it consist in membership in any visible Church, but only in the
inward heart-union with the eternal love-principle, God. Salvation is
the life of God brought to a personal, conscious expression in the
individual men. And through the power of this new and divine life we
can—to use Bohme’s terminology—put the self-will into the hiddenness
[i.e. the subconscious self], and live in the meekness in which Christ
habitually lived.
Enough has been said to show the general trend and teaching of
mysticism. So long as it remains an attitude of mind and heart—the
silent waiting upon God—it cannot be too highly esteemed as the greatest
desideratum and the best corrective of our feverish age. But as
systematized and expounded by its foremost representatives, Bohme and
Law, mysticism lies open to the gravest objections. These objections may
be summed up under the following counts: mysticism depreciates the value
of Scripture, denies the imputation theory of the atonement, minimizes
the worth of the Church as a visible divine institution, rejects the
doctrine of the Divine Sovereignty in election and predestination, and
reveals a marked pantheistic tendency.
As to its doctrine of Scripture we need only refer to the emphasis which
George Fox and the Quakers generally attach to the "inner light,” which
is placed on an equality with, if not actually exalted above, the Word
of God. And even Law, the most scriptural of the mystics, maintains that
“the Scriptures can go no further than to be a true history; they cannot
give to the reader of them the possession, the sensibility and enjoyment
of that which they relate.” Furthermore, Law repudiates the ordinary
doctrine of the atonement, what he calls the "debtor and creditor
scheme,” and teaches that atonement consists in the restoration within
us of a harmony that has been disturbed, and not in the imputation to us
of the merit of Another. No less decided is his repudiation of current
ecclesiological doctrine: "Away with the tedious volumes on Church
unity, Church power and Church salvation. Ask neither a Council of
Trent, nor a Synod of Dort, nor an Assembly of Divines, for a definition
of the Church. The true Church is nowhere but in the new creature, that
henceforth sinneth not, nor is any longer a servant to sin.” So too Law
rejects the doctrine of God’s predestinating Sovereignty. There is,
indeed, no room in the mystical creed for conceptions such as election
and reprobation. “ Consider the Deity to be'the greatest love, the
greatest meekness, the greatest sweetness, the eternal unchanging will
to be a good and a blessing to every creature ; and that all the misery,
darkness and death of fallen angels and fallen men consist in their
having lost their likeness to this divine nature.” Finally,—the
pantheistic trend of mystical thought is far more definite in Bohme than
in Law : indeed, the former is known as " the Christian pantheist,” and
his speculations form the basis, to some extent, of the systems of
modern pantheistic philosophers like Schelling and Hegel. Law is less
speculative than Bohme, and adheres more closely to Scripture, but his
denial of an objective salvation, grounded solely in God’s eternal
counsel and sovereign will, leads him to statements like the following:
“Therefore the righteous and holy law, that is so because it never
changes its goodwill and work towards man, can truly say of itself these
two contrary things, I create good and I create evil, without the least
contradiction. In the like truth, and from the same ground, it must be
said that happiness and misery, tenderness and hardness of heart, life
and death, are from God, or because God is that which He is, in and to
the birth and the life of man.”
It need hardly be said that Andrew Murray, while laying stress on the
supreme message of mysticism—the necessity for union with the
Divine—avoided the errors to which it is prone. His training in
evangelical and reformed theology was so thorough, and his study of
Scripture was so close and continuous, as to prevent him from being led
astray into the byways of mystical speculation. The most that can be
laid to his charge is that he occasionally imitates Law in what
Professor James Denney called “a pragmatical positiveness of arguing, in
matters in which the reader is indifferent to logic, because he disputes
the author’s premises.” Sane and balanced as were all Andrew Murray’s
judgments in the affairs of practical life, he was frequently betrayed,
owing to the clearness with which he saw and the intensity with which he
felt things spiritual, into the use of language which, as Bishop Moule
so courteously expressed it in another connexion, "invites the
recollection of other sides of truth.”
That he was well aware of and dissociated himself from Law s
unorthodoxy, is clear from the prefaces to his volumes of extracts,
Wholly for God and The Power of the Spirit. In his Introduction to the
latter, he says:—
In publishing a new volume of Law’s works, I owe a word of explanation
to the Christian public, and all the more because some with whom I feel
closely united have expressed their doubt of the wisdom of giving
greater currency to the writings of an author who differs markedly in
some points from what we hold to be fundamental doctrines of the
evangelical faith. ... It is because I believe his teaching to supply
what many are looking for, that I venture to recommend it. I do so in
the confidence that no one will think that I have done so because I
consider the truths he denies matters of minor importance, or have any
sympathy with his views.
Perhaps it may be well that I state the point of view from which I
regard the matter. In all our thoughts of God we look at Him in a
twofold light: either as dwelling above us and without us, Creator,
Lawgiver, and Judge, or as dwelling and working within us by His Spirit.
In redemption the two aspects find their expression in the two great
doctrines of justification and regeneration. In the former, God is
regarded as Judge, as separate from us, as much against us in law and
occupying very much the same relation as any judge on earth towards the
accused he sentences. In justification, grace forgives and accepts. In
regeneration, the work of redemption is regarded from an entirely
different point of view. Sin is death, the loss of the divine life ;
grace is seen as the new life implanted by the Holy Spirit, and by Him
maintained in the soul.
It is seldom given to any human mind to hold two sides of truth with
equal clearness ; and it has often happened that where one side of truth
has laid powerful hold, another aspect has been neglected or denied.
This was very markedly the case with William Law. The truth of God’s
inworking in regeneration, not only as the act of grace by which the
divine life is imparted, but in the unceasing maintenance of that life
by the working of the indwelling Spirit, so filled his whole soul, that
for other truths which did not appear to harmonize with this he had no
eye or heart.
Law's obsession with the mystical aspect of the Divine redemption was
the ground of the dispute which, in 1738 arose between him and Wesley.
The difference between them was largely one of temperament. Law was the
studious philosopher, Wesley the practical divine ; Law was the recluse,
Wesley the man of tireless activity; Law was naturally pessimistic,
Wesley was “never in low spirits for a quarter of an hour.” Law was a
quietist, who daily “prostrated himself body and soul, in abysmal
silence, before the interior central throne of the divine revelation.”
Wesley, on the other hand, was “the most elastic, wiry and invulnerable
of men,” and to his sunny and active disposition mysticism seemed simple
folly. But though he rejected Law’s mysticism, Wesley was keenly
responsive to his moral teaching.
There was much in Law’s earlier writings that stamped itself indelibly
upon Wesley’s mind and life, so that, towards the end of his life, he
speaks of the Serious Call as "a treatise which will hardly be excelled,
if it be equalled, in the English tongue, either for beauty of
expression or for justice and depth of thought.”
Wesley had been an earnest preacher of the Gospel for thirteen years
before he passed through that memorable experience at the Aldersgate
Street meeting, whem his heart was "strangely warmed,” and he was led to
trust in Christ, and Christ alone, for full salvation. A few days before
this momentous event he wrote a severe letter to Law, reproaching him
for never having set before him the way of salvation in all its
simplicity. “Under the heavy yoke of the law,” he says, "I might have
groaned till death, had not a holy man, to whom God lately directed me,
upon my complaining thereof, answered at once, Believe, and thou shalt
be saved. Now sir, suffer me to ask, How will you answer it to our
common Lord that you never gave me this advice? Why did I scarce ever
hear you name the Name of Christ ? never so as to ground anything upon
faith in His blood ? Who is this who is laying another foundation ? ”
There is no doubt that Wesley was right, and that Law does not give us,
and from the nature of his system cannot give us, a dear objective
presentation of the atonement wrought by Christ, such as is expressed in
the words :—
Bearing shame and scoffing rude In my place condemned He stood, Sealed
my pardon with His blood : Hallelujah !
Had Andrew Murray lived in the first half of the eighteenth century
instead of the second half of the nineteenth, he might have reconciled
Wesley and Law. For he partook of the temperament of both. He resembled
Wesley in his practical bent, unwearied activity and ceaseless
evangelistic journey-ings. Like Wesley he delighted in preaching, like
him he preached the simple Gospel of repentance and faith, and like him
he believed in a present, immediate salvation. The fact that he had to
do, like Wesley, with simple folk, furnished with very little book
learning, to whom the way of salvation must be made exceedingly plain,
kept Andrew Murray in close contact with the fundamental truths of the
Christian redemption. And, on the other hand, he was a spirit akin to
Law. Without possessing or claiming the intellectual range and moral
force which are so strikingly manifest in all that Law writes, he
reveals the same spiritual intensity, the same ability to pass beyond
outward appearances and grapple with the invisible reality, the same
concentrated gaze upon the things that lie behind the veil, and a far
more burning desire to have others share in the beatific vision of the
Unseen One, and in the glorious experience of union with Him in His
eternal love and goodness. “Happy man!” cries Dr. Alexander Whyte in a
letter to Andrew Murray, "happy man! you have been chosen and ordained
of God to go to the heart of things.”
The mention of Dr. Whyte’s name recalls the fact that he was intensely
anxious that Mr. Murray should give to the world an autobiography of his
spiritual experiences, and especially of his experiences as a man of
prayer. It was the one piece of literature, so Dr. Whyte said, that he
wished to read before he passed away. In such a volume all the influence
of Mr. Murray's writings could be gathered up, and many persons who had
not yet been introduced to his works on prayer would by it be attracted
to this great subject, while those who already knew and loved his works
would turn to them with fresh delight and inspiration after reading the
story of his inner life. Dr. Whyte reverted to this matter again and
again, and even sent his publisher a characteristic suggestion for a
suitable announcement of the hoped-for book, as follows :—
GRACE ABOUNDING AGAIN:
THE SPIRITUAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ANDREW MURRAY.
In Preparation
The question of writing an autobiography was more than once broached to
Mr. Murray, but he always declined to listen to the suggestion, on the
plea that his spiritual experiences were not sufficiently clear-cut. On
one occasion his daughter returned to the subject while he was selecting
quotations from Law for his booklet The Secret of Inspiration. “Well,”
he said, “if I could pass through Law’s experiences, I might be
persuaded to set down something, but not otherwise.” When it was
suggested to him that his experiences may have been equally deep and
vivid, though not along the same lines as Law’s, he shook his head and
said, "No, my child, God has been very gracious to me; but in this
matter I must have something more to go upon before I can venture to
write.” In this attitude of humble self-depreciation he persevered to
the end.
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