Andrew Murray

Christ's Anointed Minister to South Africa

Vance Christie

• Publisher: Christian Focus Publication
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9781781916001

1

‘A Godly Parentage is a Priceless Boon’
1828–1838

Though born in South Africa, Andrew Murray’s influential paternal ancestry traces back to Aberdeenshire, Scotland. There most of his ancestors were farmers and conservative ‘Old Light’ Presbyterians. Andrew Murray was named after his father, grandfather and great-grandfather, all of whom bore the same appellation.¹ The great-grandfather occupied the sheep farm of Lofthills, near Aberdeen, a farm that had been in the family for several generations.

Andrew Murray, the grandfather, being one of several sons, left Lofthills to operate the mill at Clatt, a village not quite thirty miles northwest of Aberdeen. Scotland was facing arduous economic times at the end of the eighteenth century, and the hardworking miller’s family was reduced to painful straits. Flour had to be carefully collected from the mill floor in order to provide bread for Murray’s hungry children. Murray was married to Isobel Milne, a woman of great beauty and sweetness of character. Their four children were Anne, John, Elizabeth and Andrew.

Grandfather Murray was a pious individual who died at a relatively young age in 1796. Though he left his wife and children in sadly reduced circumstances, he cherished the confident hope that God would provide for their needs and that his sons and daughters would grow up to lead honorable and useful Christian lives. Isobel survived her husband by twenty-six years and lived to see his cherished expectations for their children fulfilled.

As Murray lay upon his deathbed he was overheard praying in the silence of the night for each of his children by name. This so impressed the oldest son, John, then twelve years of age, that he decided that very night to devote himself to the work of the Christian ministry. By patient endeavor and with the kind aid of an unmarried uncle, John graduated with an M.A. degree from Marischal College, Aberdeen, at age twenty-two. During the subsequent decade he completed the divinity course at the University of Edinburgh, served as an assistant minister in Dundee and was called to pastor Trinity Chapel-of-Ease (later Trinity United Free Church) in Aberdeen.

John encouraged and assisted his brother Andrew, ten years his junior, in completing his education at King’s College, Aberdeen. After receiving his M.A. degree, Andrew strongly desired to become a missionary. But his mother was reluctant to part with her youngest and favorite son, being unreasonably convinced that if he became a missionary he would inevitably be eaten by cannibals! In deference to her wishes, he declined an opportunity to serve in St John’s, Newfoundland.

Late in 1820 or early in 1821, however, twenty-six-year-old Andrew learned of an appeal from South Africa which he felt compelled to accept. There were not enough pastors and teachers available from Holland to serve Cape Colony’s Dutch churches and schools. Scottish clergy and teachers were thought suitable to help fill those positions since the doctrine and practices of the Church of Scotland and the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) were so similar. Six ministers, Andrew Murray among them, and an equal number of teachers were successfully recruited to serve in the Colony. Of Murray’s response to this opportunity, it has been noted:

[T]he need of that Colony seemed to be so urgent that he could not find it in his heart to dismiss the appeal, while the possibility of doing something on behalf of the natives, and thus taking a small share in the missionary enterprise, was an additional motive to consider this as a divine call.²

After being ordained by the Presbytery of Aberdeen, Murray went to Holland to study Dutch for ten months. Dutch was the primary language he would be using in South Africa as the vast majority of the Colony’s residents and virtually all its congregations were Dutch-speaking. Murray sailed from London on 27 February, 1822, and arrived at Cape Town on 1 July. A few days later he received his formal appointment as minister of the Dutch Reformed Church at Graaff-Reinet and proceeded there immediately.

Graaff-Reinet was located some 500 miles northeast of Cape Town on an enormous, arid, elevated plain called the Great Karroo. (The Hottentot word ‘karroo’ meant ‘dry’.) Voortrekkers (Dutch pioneers) had established a settlement at Graaff-Reinet in 1786 due to the availability of water there. The town was surrounded by an amphitheatre of steep rugged peaks called the Snow Mountains. The deep channel of the Sunday River nearly encircled the community. In time Graaff-Reinet became known as the ‘Gem of the Desert’. When Murray first arrived there the town’s population stood around 1,800. While predominantly a Dutch community, other ethnic groups were represented there as well. Several months after Murray’s settlement there, a traveler provided an attractive description of the town:

It contains now about three hundred houses, almost all of which are neat and commodious brick edifices – many are elegant. The streets are wide, laid out at right angles, and planted with rows of lemon and orange trees, which thrive here luxuriantly, and give to the place a fresh and pleasing appearance. Each house has a large allotment of ground behind it, extending in some instances to several acres, which is richly cultivated, divided by quince, lemon or pomegranate hedges, and laid out in orchards, gardens and vineyards. These are all watered by a canal from the Sunday River, which branches out into a number of small channels, and each inhabitant receives his due portion at a regular hour.³

The church in Graaff-Reinet had been founded in 1790. Five ministers served the congregation during the thirty-two years before Murray’s arrival. A new church building was erected in Graaff-Reinet the year Murray settled there. He developed a special bond with his adopted people that led him to devote his entire pastoral career of over forty years to ministering to that beloved congregation and parish. One of his future children, Maria, later related:

He cast in his lot so whole-heartedly with his people that his children cannot remember ever hearing him express the wish to visit his native land. How happy he was among his people only his children, who grew up in the presence of that loving intercourse, can testify. Earnest, affectionate and sincere in all his relations, he never forfeited the respect and esteem accorded him by all. How often we have heard him say, ‘The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; I have a goodly heritage’ [Ps. 16:6].⁴

In 1824, two years after settling at Graaff-Reinet, Murray returned to Cape Town to attend the Synod of the Colony’s DRC. During that visit to Cape Town he also first met Miss Maria Susanna Stegmann, the young lady who would later become his wife. She was the oldest daughter of widower Johan Stegmann. Her mother, Jacomina (Hoppe) Stegmann, had died three years earlier at thirty-five years of age. Both Maria’s grandfathers had emigrated from Germany to South Africa. Grandfather Stegmann, a tailor by trade, married Sara Susanna Roux, who was of French Huguenot descent and said to be ‘a very pious woman, beloved by all who knew her’. Grandpapa Hoppe, who started a hat factory then a tannery, was a devout Christian and an ardent supporter of missions. His wife, Magdalena Greeff, was of Dutch and German descent.⁵ When Johan Stegmann married Jacomina Hoppe in 1807 he succeeded to the tannery business of his father-in-law.

Murray and Maria were married in Cape Town in 1825, one year after their first meeting. At the time Maria was barely half Murray’s age, he being thirty-one and she only sixteen. Despite the significant difference in their ages, their union proved to be a happy one that lasted forty-one years until Murray’s death in 1866. Their first child, a son, was born on 15 September, 1826. The boy was named John, after his father’s brother and his mother’s father. The Murrays’ second son, the subject of this biography, was born on 9 May, 1828. He was named Andrew after his father as well as his paternal grandfather and great-grandfather. Over the next decade Mrs Murray gave birth to six more children: William (1829); Maria, the mother’s namesake (1831); Charles (1833); Jemima (1836); Isabella (1837); George (likely 1838).⁶

The Murrays’ roomy parsonage was said to be Graaff-Reinet’s finest residence, far nicer even than the official dwelling of the town magistrate. The manse stood on a side street, some distance from the church. It boasted a spacious yard, outbuildings and a garden. A wide set of stone steps led up from the street to the broad ‘stoep’ (porch) that ran along the entire front of the house. Eight sets of large, latticed glass windows, all protected by sturdy wooden shutters, looked out from the whitewashed brick front of the home. The front door opened into a sizeable lobby which in turn led to a spacious dining hall. A drawing room, Rev. Murray’s study, a smaller dining room, bedrooms and various other rooms filled out the main floor of the home. Murray’s daughter Maria describes other features of the house, its yard and garden:

The front stoep, and also the back stoep, were supported by arches, and underneath the whole house ran a series of rooms corresponding with those above. Some of these were often used as bedrooms when the house was full of visitors. They included the cellar below the big dining-room, the wood room, lime room, chaff room and wagon house. But these arches, with passages beyond, seemed made on purpose for playing hide-and-seek, and often resounded with the voices of the merry, happy children.

From the back stoep, by two circular flights of steps, you went down to the garden. First, the flower garden, then an avenue of orange trees, with tall lilac bushes in between. At the side of the walk was the vineyard, and at the further end of the garden were fruit trees of all kinds, laden in summer time with such fruit as we have never tasted since, and to which the dear children were allowed to help themselves without stint, and regale also their companions who came to play with them. The other half of the garden was sown with oats for the minister’s horses, and there was a large plot of lucerne for the cow. On the further side of the lucerne was a row of choice fig trees, and beyond was the boundary wall.⁷

Andrew and Maria Murray raised their children in an atmosphere of earnest piety. According to their daughter Maria:

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.⁸

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:

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. Indeed, he has left them to us as a most precious legacy. 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.⁹

The consecrated mother 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.

In addition to caring for her children and keeping her house, Mrs Murray did nearly all the sewing for her family. Sewing machines had not yet been invented, so often she stitched from morning to night. Peace and restfulness of spirit, even in the midst of work, marked her 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. All Sunday food preparations such as cooking meat, boiling potatoes or rice, baking a tart or gathering fruit were done on Saturday. A walk in the garden was allowed on Sunday, when ‘here or there a fruit might be gathered’. But tree-climbing and more significant fruit-picking were not permitted that day.

There were almost always three Sunday church services, in addition to Sunday School, and the older Murray children were normally expected to attend them all. One exception was that the older children took turns staying at home to show their younger siblings ‘Sunday pictures’ during the afternoon and evening services. In addition, Mrs Murray taught her children the Shorter Catechism on Sunday afternoon, and toward evening the family enjoyed a time of singing together. The oldest Murray daughter would later testify:

It is sweet to recall those Sundays. Such Sunday keeping has gone out of fashion. Children now would perhaps think it a weariness, yet we cannot remember that we as children ever did. … 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.¹⁰

Rev. Murray’s ministry vision and efforts stretched far beyond Graaff-Reinet. Over the course of his ministerial career he established eight new congregations. He commonly selected the site for a new town, inducted elders and deacons, planned the building of the church and carried out other ministerial duties until a permanent pastor could be called. Against his expressed wish, one of those towns was named Murraysburg in his honor.

His parish covered some hundreds of square miles. He established many new congregations … Until these townships were supplied with their own minister – and that was not easily done then – he remained their preacher and pastor. He had to take long journeys to these places, sometimes being from home for a fortnight at a time for this purpose. At every farmhouse along the road where the minister stopped for the night, he had scarcely dismounted from the large, springless horse-wagon, when the Bible would be produced and he was asked to conduct a service. He always insisted on all the servants and shepherds being called in. And, weary though he was, he rejoiced at being able to break the bread of life to hungry souls. After the death of the Rev. John Evans, the large district of Cradock was also vacant for several years, and our father had to go there every quarter to administer the sacrament, holding three day’s services – ‘Preparation’ on Saturday, ‘Communion’ on Sunday (six tables to be addressed), and ‘Thanksgiving’ on Monday. Added to this was the work of catechizing, holding church meetings, attending to cases of discipline, marrying, baptizing, etc. …

… One service on Saturday, three on Sunday and one on Monday morning might seem arduous enough, but a very important part of the work still had to be done. This was … family visitation on Sunday afternoon and Monday morning. This was not, as the name seems to imply, going to the houses; that was out of the question, as the people lived on farms, far apart from each other. The families were admitted in turn to the minister’s bedroom, which had to answer the purpose of his study or vestry, and there they were seriously and affectionately exhorted, advised, encouraged or rebuked as the case demanded.¹¹

Murray was also able to fulfill his desire of actively supporting the cause of missions through his ministry career. Graaff-Reinet was located about 125 miles northwest of the coastal town of Port Elizabeth, along a main travel route leading to the inland regions above South Africa where missionaries were seeking to reach various tribal groups.

English, Scotch, French and German missionaries found it not only convenient but most refreshing to rest themselves and their wearied oxen on the long journey between Port Elizabeth and the interior (or on their way back on a visit to Europe) at the Graaff-Reinet parsonage. Men and animals found room in the spacious house and yard, the outrooms affording lodging for a whole host of Bechuana or Basuto drivers and leaders of oxen. The abundance of fruit made it like an oasis in the desert to the missionary children. From the Paris Missionary Society a handsome timepiece was received, in acknowledgement of kindness shown to their missionaries.¹²

Over the years the Murray children met many missionaries in this way, including Scotland’s two most prominent missionaries to Africa, Robert Moffat and his even more famous son-in-law, David Livingstone.¹³ The children were especially fascinated to hear the ‘sprightly’ wives of the French missionaries talk so rapidly in an unfamiliar language.

Once every week or two Mrs Murray would pay an afternoon social call to one of her friends in town. After Maria’s daughters got home from school around four o’clock, they would put on their Sunday dresses and bonnets and join their mother at the house where she was visiting. The Murray sons also went, if the family being visited had boys their same age, and the boys would romp together in the large garden.

On some holidays or other rare occasions father, mother and children would go for a walk and spend an afternoon in the grassy veldt with its scattered bushes and trees. Along the way they would sit down to enjoy the ‘sixpennyworth of cakes’ they had brought along as a special treat. Sometimes in the summer the entire family went to spend a week or a fortnight with their good frie...

Table of contents

• Testimonials
• Title
• Indicia
• Contents
• Map of South Africa in 1852
• Dedication
• Introduction
• 1. ‘A Godly Parentage is a Priceless Boon’
• 2. Education in Scotland
• 3. Theological Training in Holland
• 4. Frontier Minister
• 5. First Transvaal Ministry
• 6. ‘Are We to Be Always Pastorless?’
• 7. In Service of Church and Country
• 8. Emma
• 9. Newly-wed Life and Ministry
• 10. Final Years at Bloemfontein
• 11. Prelude to Spiritual Awakening
• 12. Revival!
• 13. Challenging Synod Responsibility
• 14. Cape Town Pastorate
• 15. The Triumph of Conservativism
• 16. Wellington and the Huguenot Seminary
• 17. Promoting Education and Evangelism
• 18. The Higher Life Movement
• 19. Seeking Divine Healing
• 20. Restored to Active Ministry and Leadership
• 21. Blossoming Ministry Opportunities
• 22. Addressing Spiritual and Social Needs
• 23. Notable Overseas Ministries
• 24. Student Ministries and Ministry Milestones
• 25. Prelude to War
• 26. ‘The Horrors of War Are Too Terrible’
• 27. Showing Forth God’s Power
• 28. Fruitful Sunset Years
• 29. ‘A Voice on the Verge of Eternity’
• 30. Death and Ongoing Influence
• Further Reading
• Christian Focus