Jesus Himself

It is Andrew Murray's short, warm study of the presence of Jesus himself as the secret of the Christian life. Drawing especially on the Emmaus road, where 'Jesus himself drew near,' and on his parting promise of his presence, Murray presses one truth: that what the believer needs above every gift and blessing is the living presence of the Lord himself.

A South African pastor and one of the most beloved devotional writers of the deeper Christian life, author of many short books on prayer and abiding in Christ. Jesus Himself, published in 1893, belongs to that same stream — a brief meditation on the personal presence of Jesus as the heart of everything.

That it is not merely Christ's gifts, help, or teaching the believer needs, but Jesus himself — his living, personal presence. Murray argues that many Christians rest in blessings or experiences and miss the Lord who gives them; the secret of joy, strength, and rest is to have Jesus himself, drawing near and abiding.

Because there, in Luke 24, the two disciples' hearts burned as 'Jesus himself drew near and went with them,' though at first they did not know him. Murray takes the scene as a picture of the Christian who is sad and struggling because he does not recognize that Jesus himself is near — and of the joy that comes when the Lord makes himself known.

He traces their movement from doubt and sadness to burning-hearted faith when they knew the Lord, and he presses the reader to overcome the unbelief that keeps Jesus at a distance. The obstacle, in Murray's telling, is often not that Jesus is absent but that we fail to reckon on his presence; faith is what opens the eyes to him.

Closely — it is another facet of the same jewel. Where books like Abide in Christ and The True Vine press remaining in Christ, Jesus Himself presses the reality of his personal presence with us. Both turn the believer away from self and from mere blessings toward the living Christ himself as the whole secret of the Christian life.

Any Christian who feels their faith has become a matter of duties and doctrines rather than a living fellowship, and who longs for the sense of Christ's nearness. Murray writes tenderly for such readers, holding out not a new effort but a person — Jesus himself — as the answer to their need.

At the beginning; the book is very short — often just two addresses — and best read slowly and prayerfully. Murray means it not to inform but to draw the reader to reckon on and welcome the presence of Jesus himself, so it is a book to be met with quietly rather than merely finished.