My Spirit that is upon thee, and my words
Which I have put in thy mouth
Shall not depart out of thy mouth
Nor out of the mouth of thy seed
Nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed
Saith the Lord.
This is my covenant with them that turn from
transgression
Isaiah 59:20-21, adapted
As one stands in the midst of Andrew Murray’s life through biographies, you know immediately that you are standing in a wealthy place. We see such a beautiful, manifold fountain of grace poured out on this vessel. The name Andrew Murray is literally a household name among Christians around the world. His influence cannot be measured this side of eternity. He was a faithful husband and a godly father of eight children. Missionary, pastor, administrator, revivalist, writer, and missionary statesman are only a few of the ways in which he served the Lord and his people during his lifetime of 88 years. Through his writings (240 books and pamphlets), Andrew lives on and on, though his body lies buried in a cemetery in South Africa. Surely this is a testimony of the eternal life which abided in him while he walked upon this earth.
The Home History of Andrew Murray is one that I have looked forward to for some time. He is one of my heroes. I knew that I would be in for a rich time of study as I prepared for the writing of this article. I was not disappointed, but in fact found much more treasure than I anticipated. This holy man was not the beginning of a godly heritage as some of our studies have been. Rather, as we stand in the time of Andrew Murray’s life and look in both directions, we see a godly heritage bursting forth from men and women who believed the promises of God concerning their families.
Andrew Murray traces his roots back to Scotland. His name, Andrew, was passed down from four generations of Andrew Murray’s, and as near as I can tell, there is an Andrew Murray in every following generation to this day. His great-grandfather, grandfather, and father, all carried the name Andrew from the generations before them. All of these men were godly men who set their hearts to love and serve the living God. Each of them chose a godly mate when it was time to marry and start a family. Through the rest of this article I will refer to Andrew as, Andrew junior, and his father as Andrew senior.
Andrew Murray Senior
This dear man and his wife Susanna are the unsung heroes in the Murray clan. The words of our Lord Jesus come to mind here where He said, “there is nothing hidden that shall not be revealed.” Because God gave Andrew junior such a prominent place to stand among his people, we have missed the hidden influence of Andrew and Susanna Murray. When judgment day comes, this couple’s righteousness “shall shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” We want to mine some gold out of this godly home.
Andrew Murray senior lost his pious father when he was but two years old. His father passed on into eternity fervently calling upon God for his children’s spiritual welfare. The four children and their mother, Isobel, were left in poverty to trust in the living God for their needs. But God heard the crying heart of the dying man and blessed his household after him. The two sons, John and Andrew, both became preachers of the Gospel, and one of the daughters married a minister. Let us take courage and believe God for our present situations. Here again, a mother is left to raise a family without the support of a man. Relatives gave help, the older brother, John, helped to direct the younger Andrew senior, and of course, the living God of heaven came to their side and built a house of God-fearing children. If we sit in despair and unbelief because our case seems hopeless, how can God reach down and help us?
Young Andrew Murray senior had a longing in his heart to preach the gospel to the heathen in distant lands. He was twenty-six at the time. When an invitation was extended to go to South Africa, his heart rose to the challenge. He would pastor an established Dutch Reformed Church and reach out to the heathen in the regions beyond. So it was that this young pioneer missionary left Scotland, full of dreams and visions of serving the God of his fathers in a distant land. The year was 1822, and South Africa was indeed an undeveloped wilderness. It took Andrew senior ten rigorous days by wagon to get to the town that would be his home till death. After two years he met Susanna Stegmann, who soon became his wife, and together they began to raise a family to the glory of God.
We want to take a few sanctified glimpses into this home, because its influence raised up many servants in the kingdom of God. These beautiful results do not happen simply by accident or solely by God’s providence. Specific principles were followed in the fear of God, and God gave an abundant increase. Of Andrew and Susanna’s eleven children, nine were involved in the ministry. Five of their sons were ordained preachers, and four of their daughters married preachers. Let us also consider the grandchildren, because they are the true test of a man’s home. Of their grandchildren, thirty-two of them were engaged in ministry. Seventeen of the grandsons were ministers, twelve of the granddaughters married ministers, and three more became missionaries to the unreached. The godly genealogy goes on and on from here. There were many servants of Christ down through the generations of this one family, and today their descendants number several thousand in eight generations. Please remember also, the two godly generations that preceded Andrew Murray senior. That makes ten generations. Do I have your attention? Now let us look at several areas of powerful lasting influence.
Father’s Example
Andrew Murray senior was a godly man. This will be easy to see as we gaze into his home. However, he was also a preacher, a very zealous servant of God. Like begets like, and this principle was clearly true in the case of the Murray children. Their father was full of the zeal and love of his God. A man full of the energy of the Spirit of God. He would often be preaching several times in one week’s time. He threw himself into the work of establishing churches, and in his labors of forty years, he founded eight churches. He was a man of tireless dedication to the flocks that he started. The children watched his zeal for the Lord, and all of them said, “I am the Lord’s.” They saw father joyfully serving the Lord, and I’m sure this had much to do with their choices to enter into the work. When father and mother love to love the Lord, and love to love the people of the Lord, this becomes a powerful, continuous magnet to draw the children into God’s service.
Reverence
If there were one word to describe the prevailing spirit of the Murray home, ‘reverence’ would be the word. This was the 1828 kind of reverence, not the watered down kind we have today. Webster’s 1828 dictionary defines the word as follows: “Fear mingled with respect, esteem, and kind affections.” “Reverence for God’s name, reverence for God’s day, and reverence for God’s word were clearly sensed in the home. The wife reverenced her husband, the children reverenced their parents, and all reverenced their God.” What a beautiful atmosphere this must have created in the household. “The children were taught to render obedience in such a way that it was natural and normal to them. Father’s word was law; from his godly decision there was no appeal. His wisdom was never questioned.” These words were written with endearment by one of Andrew senior’s daughters, in a small book entitled Unto Children’s Children. This atmosphere was obtained in three ways: 1) by the spirit of father and mother, 2) by a lovely flow of love between parents and children, and 3) by a proper use of the rod when it was needed to correct a child for future blessings. This submissive, respectful attitude was witnessed many times, long after the children had left the home and were out on their own.
Missionaries
Here lies a hidden secret in the Murray home that could easily be overlooked. The Murray home was five hundred miles in toward the interior of Africa. It was located on the trail that led further out into the bush and jungles of Africa. Many missionaries traveled by the household and were invited by Andrew senior to spend the night. They were English, French, Scotch, and German, which provided many interesting language learning opportunities. This was no little undertaking, as they traveled more like a wagon train with many animals and workers. But this sacrifice was no matter to the head of the house, for he loved missionaries, and he loved foreign missions. The whole family was involved in showing hospitality to these many weary missionaries. The home was large, the grounds also, with gardens and fruit trees. This provided space for relaxation, and fruit that delighted many a missionary child, who ate the fruit like candy.
So, where is the blessing in all this, besides the fact that the servant opportunities were many for the Murray children? The blessings lie in the influence that the missionaries had on everyone in the home. Missionaries are dedicated people. Their love for the Lord is often exemplary. The real life stories they tell of their faith in God are very inspiring. The Murray children grew up on the many evenings spent sitting around listening to soldiers of Christ tell of the battles they fought. Mr. Moffat and Dr. Livingstone were in the number of missionaries who frequented Andrew Murray senior’s home. The children were often gathered together to listen as father or mother would read the latest letter from one of these men. Most of us don’t live on a missionary path, but we do have many biographies and other creative alternatives. The important part is to keep the lives of the saints, both dead ones and living ones, before our families. Let us do what we have to do in order to make this happen.
Revival
In the year of 1860, a gracious visitation of God’s spirit began in Andrew Murray junior’s church. There was a sound from heaven of a mighty rushing wind, which prevailed upon a group of youth who were having a prayer meeting. God visited this church and many others as revival fires began to spread. This is a wonderful thing to happen to a young minister of thirty-two, who had been praying for such a visitation for many years. It was from here that Andrew Murray junior was led into a beautiful spirit-filled life for which he is so loved and known. But where did it all begin?
Andrew senior had a holy exercise that he placed upon himself every Friday night for nearly forty years. On Friday evenings he would go into his study and spend the evening reading accounts of revival history and then praying for revival in his land. The children remembered well the many times they heard their father weeping and groaning in prayer for revival in the church. Here is where the seeds were planted in the hearts of the children. Here is where their own appetites were stimulated with a longing for God to come and move among His people again. Father would often come briskly out of his study, with excitement, and read to the family an account of God’s visitation somewhere in the world. This burden was passed on to the children, and they began to pray as they grew older. This dear old man saw the answer to his prayers as the Holy Spirit was poured out in South Africa near the end of his life. His sons picked up the mantle, as well as did other men, and revival fires burned brightly. Do we grasp what is happening here? Hudson Taylor heard his father pray fervently for China, and Hudson blanketed China with churches. John Patton heard his father groaning in his closet for the heathen, and John Patton went to the heathen and won them in multitudes. Now Andrew Murray hears his fathers groaning for revival, and God raises the son up to carry the burden all across the Christian world for 150 yr. What are we longing for? What is it that our children see and sense that we are living for? They will pick it up and carry it beyond our fondest dreams and visions.
Andrew’s Mother
She was simply called Mama. This was a name of endearment to all of the children. Though Andrew senior was a very active father, it is quite clear that this dear lady had much to do with the molding of the family. Her husband was a busy minister, and there were times when he was away from home for days at a time. Did everything stop when he was away? We know the answer to this question. Mother stepped in to fill the vacancy. On Sundays when Andrew was away, she always taught the children out of the Shorter Catechism in the evening. The Lord’s Day was strictly observed, and only a walk in the garden with the family was allowed. No games, running, or tree climbing on this day, and all must be in church to hear the word of God preached. One of the daughters writes, “She taught us to read before we were old enough to go to school, and the hymns and Bible verses which we learned at her knee have remained in the memory for a lifetime.” In the earlier days when schools were hard to find, she schooled the children at home. Young Andrew was schooled at home for the first few years of his life. Oh, the beauty of the proper balance of father and mother working together to raise up a godly seed upon the earth. How can its influence be measured? It seems to me that Susanna was truly a helpmeet to her husband, and he was the head and leader of his home. Lord give the church many more of these in the days to come.
Family Altar
There was a regular discipline of family devotions in the Murray home. It seems they followed the pattern of many of the old Puritans. Morning and evening, morning and evening, times of worship were never missed. We mentioned already how Susanna kept the flow of this regular worship in the absence of her husband. There were long seasons of singing as the family used several different hymnbooks in Dutch and English. Father was a man of the Word and spent much time teaching and admonishing the children from the Bible. This was done as they rose up in the morning, while they sat in the house, while they were going on the way, and when they were going to lay down at night. The children well remembered their father striding back and forth in the dining room after supper, as he expounded and repeated a verse of scripture with unction and meaning. Many verses were hidden in the hearts of the children by this method. He would say the verses again and again with fervor and intensity, his face expressing the deepest emotions. As I picture this holy man, so excited about the Bible that he cannot stay sitting, my heart thrills at the thought of it. May the Lord raise up us fathers to be so full of zeal and conviction that we can’t help but jump to our feet at times as we expound the word to our families.
Precious Memories
As I study more and more of the families of the past, it becomes evident to me that each one of these examples had fun together. The picture of a home that is always sober and never laughs is not a godly picture. The joy of the Lord is a strength to a home, and a merry heart does do good like a medicine. Andrew Murray’s home was no exception to this. They had many good times together. It is true that they lived days away from civilization; however, you don’t need the nicest things to have good times with the family. The children had memories of rides in the wagon when father would talk to them and share interesting things about science and geography. There is real wisdom in having relaxed family times like this, when conversations flow naturally. The children were allowed to play hide-and-seek in the lower parts of the house, and many were the times when the squeals of happy children could be heard sounding through the halls.
Once every five years the whole Murray family loaded up the old horse wagon and made the ten-day trip to Cape Town. I suppose we would call it the family vacation. This trip was anticipated for many weeks and the thrill of finally leaving could hardly be contained by the children. Does that sound familiar to anyone reading this? The excitement of the children before the trip is almost as much fun as the trip itself. Much preparation was needed before a trip of ten days could be made, and this only heightened the anticipation. Finally the great day arrived, everyone took their seats, “crack” went the whip, round went the wheels, and up went the shouts of joy from the children as they pulled out onto the road. From an adult’s perspective, the trip was quite rigorous, but from a child’s perspective, it was simply camping out and having picnics for ten days. The children loved it and held the fond memories of these trips all their lives. Family singing and family talking commenced throughout the day, and the worship times were never missed.
Oh the simple joys of spending time together as a family. What makes them so meaningful? They had no water slides or go-carts to race. There were no amusement parks in those days. Somehow I think we Americans have missed the most important parts and settled for the lesser things in our family vacations. The times spent together walking, talking, sharing hearts, and remembering—these are the things that make memories. It is not the thrill of some exciting ride, or the screams of family members doing something that causes the screams. We need to choose our times with our families wisely. Then ask ourselves this question, “Will this give me an opportunity to draw closer to my children’s hearts?” Let us redeem the time and use it wisely, for the days are evil.
Conclusion
This is the home that produced many servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. Andrew Murray is one of them. Andrew senior and Susanna laid the foundation of many godly generations. We do not know who is living in our homes. Is there another Andrew Murray, or Hudson Taylor, or John Wesley? It is not for us to know. Our responsibility is to be faithful and to live out Bible principles like these and others. If we turn our hearts to God and to our children, it will have a sanctifying effect on every one of them. Sadly, there are so few homes that are an example like this one we have studied. God is no respecter of persons. We all know this in our heads, but not in our hearts. What would happen if a whole generation of fathers and mothers would rise up in faith and confidence, obeying the Lord, and following His ways? Maybe that sounds a bit dreamy to you or idealistic. I can’t help but think that God would be longing for the same.
Oh that my people had hearkened unto me,
And Israel had walked in My ways.
I should soon have subdued their enemies,
And turned My hand against their adversaries.
I should have fed them also with the finest of
wheat:
And with honey out of the rock should I have
satisfied thee.
Psalm 81:13,14,16
