This volume contains eight essays from Andrew Murray pleading for the earnest and effective surrender of our wills to God’s, a surrendering that can be found in Christ’s school of obedience.
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Nothing could exceed the whole-hearted self-renunciation Dr. Murray counsels, and it would be hard to find the reasons that make this attitude a mark of the true Christian more devoutly or cogently stated.
—The Churchman
Andrew Murray (1828–1917) was born in Graaff Reinet, South Africa, to Dutch missionary parents. Educated at King’s College, Aberdeen, he then studied theology at the University of Utrecht. Andrew and his older brother John were ordained in the Dutch Reformed Church in 1848. Murray pastored South African churches in Bloemfontein, Worcester, Cape Town, and Wellington. A champion of missionary work, he founded the South African General Mission in 1889. That ministry continued to grow, and today it is part of the SIM (Serving in Mission) organization.
A prolific author and lecturer, Murray authored over 200 books during his lifetime, and he was invited to speak at churches and conferences all over the world. Married for over 60 years and the father of eight children, Murray passed away in January 1917.
“We begin with Paradise. In Gen. 2:16, we read: ‘And the Lord God commanded the man, saying.’ And later (3:11), ‘Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?’ Note how obedience to the command is the one virtue of Paradise, the one condition of man’s abiding there, the one thing his Creator asks of him. Nothing is said of faith, or humility, or love: obedience includes all. As supreme as is the claim and authority of God is the demand for obedience as the one thing that is to decide his destiny. In the life of man, to obey is the one thing needful.” (Pages 13–14)
“Do beware of praying only for a blessing. Let us care for the obedience, God will care for the blessing. Let my one thought as a Christian be, how I can obey and please my God perfectly.” (Page 18)
“THE secret of true obedience—let me say at once what I believe it to be—the clear and close personal relationship to God. All our attempts after full obedience will be failures, until we get access to His abiding fellowship. It is God’s holy presence, consciously abiding with us, that keeps us from disobeying Him. Defective obedience is always the result of a defective life.” (Page 41)
“With us as with Him, the life of continual obedience is impossible without continual fellowship and continual teaching. It is only when God comes into our lives, in a degree and a power which many never consider possible, when His presence as the Eternal and Ever-present One is believed and received, even as the Son believed and received it, that there can be any hope of a life in which every thought is brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” (Pages 44–45)