A Reader’s Guide to Andrew Murray

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 2 TIMOTHY 2:15

Murray is easy to read and easy to find. He wrote for ordinary believers, in short chapters that usually end in prayer, and nearly all of it is now in the public domain. The difficulty is quantity. He wrote something like two hundred and forty books and tracts, many of them first in Dutch, and he repeats himself freely. The guide below is arranged to save the reader time.

Begin here

With Christ in the School of Prayer (1885). His best-known book and the best single entry point: thirty-one short lessons on the sayings of Jesus about prayer, one for each day of a month. In the Ochorus library, as is Lord, Teach Us To Pray, which gathers its opening lessons.

Humility. Twelve brief chapters, and perhaps the most searching thing he wrote. Read it slowly and not all at once. In the Ochorus library.

Abide in Christ. His first famous book, thirty-one short readings for young believers on the life of abiding. Not yet in the Ochorus library, but widely available.

On the deeper life

The True Vine. Short daily meditations on John 15:1–16, and the basis, with Abide in Christ, of chapter three of this volume. In the Ochorus library.

Absolute Surrender. Addresses given on his travels in the 1890s, including the title address, The Fruit of the Spirit is Love, and Impossible with Man, Possible with God. In the Ochorus library.

The Master’s Indwelling. Addresses on the carnal and spiritual life, the self-life, and Christ as our life. Read chapter eight of this volume alongside it. In the Ochorus library.

Holy in Christ. Thirty-one meditations tracing holiness through Scripture. Slower going, and rewarding. In the Ochorus library.

Jesus Himself. Two short addresses on knowing the risen Christ and His abiding presence. In the Ochorus library.

On prayer and waiting

Waiting on God. Daily readings for a month on the word wait in Scripture; the gentlest of his books and one of the most useful. In the Ochorus library.

The Inner Chamber. Readings on the morning hour, secret prayer and Bible study, published in 1905. In the Ochorus library.

The Ministry of Intercession. A plea for more prayer, addressed chiefly to ministers and workers, and the source of chapters seventeen and eighteen of this volume. In the Ochorus library.

The Prayer Life. A late and searching book on prayerlessness as sin, written after his retirement. Not yet in the Ochorus library.

Other works worth knowing

The Spirit of Christ, his fullest treatment of the Holy Spirit; The Two Covenants, on the old and new covenants; The Power of the Blood of Jesus; The Holiest of All, a large devotional exposition of Hebrews; and The Key to the Missionary Problem, on prayer and missions. None of these is yet in the Ochorus library.

Approach with care

Divine Healing. The fullest statement of the teaching treated in chapter thirteen of this book, and the one that most needs the cautions set out there. It gives thanks for doctors, but it treats healing without medical means as the higher way and discourages praying if it be Thy will. Read it alongside 2 Corinthians 12:7–10, 2 Timothy 4:20 and Matthew 26:39, and do not follow it in setting aside medical care. In the Ochorus library.

Murray admired William Law, and quotes him in the notes to Humility and Waiting on God. Law’s later writings drew on mystical sources many evangelicals would not share; take what is helpful.

About Murray

J. du Plessis, The Life of Andrew Murray of South Africa (1919), is the standard life, written soon after his death by a younger colleague in the Dutch Reformed Church. It is long, detailed and admiring. W. M. Douglas, Andrew Murray and His Message, is a shorter and more popular account. Both were written by people who loved him, and it shows in what they leave out. The Ochorus author page carries a shorter biography.

Three counsels for reading him

Read him with the Bible open. Murray claimed no authority of his own; his method was to take a text and press it. Check the texts.

Read him for the heart rather than the scheme. Where he presses a framework beyond what Scripture states — two classes of Christians, a crisis that settles everything, healing without means — take the pastoral burden and leave the scaffolding.

And read him on your knees. Nearly every chapter he wrote ends in a prayer. Pray it, or pray your own, before you turn the page. A chapter prayed will do more than a shelf admired.

Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. 1 THESSALONIANS 5:21