THE CHRISTIAN AFRIKANERS - The Works of F. N. Lee

the Reformed Church in South Africa was not allowed to convene in Presbyteries or in GeneralAssemblies -- without the permission of the British Governor and State Officials at the Cape. Well,Andrew Murray was used in the hand of Almighty God -- to liberate the Church from this degree ofErastian oversight by the State.It is told that Andrew Murray was still a humble man even while moderating the GeneralAssembly. Dr. Andrew Murray normally when his own father (himself a Preacher) rose up to givean address, Dr. Murray (though Moderator) stood up -- out of respect for his own father in terms ofthe Fifth commandment.According to Andrew Murray, the three greatest characteristics that should mark the life of anyChristian, should be: humility, humility and humility. He was a godly man. He usually preachedwith closed eyes -- prayingly. Indeed, he prayed throughout his sermon -- so that every word heuttered might be expressed with compassion, with exactness and with efficacy.He successively ministered in Bloemfontein, Worcester and Cape Town. Then he became Ministerin the great church at Wellington in the Western Cape -- a church to which my wife's sister laterbelonged, and a church which to this very day is permeated with a spirit of godliness andprayerfulness. It is as if Andrew Murray many decades ago left his permanent stamp on it. Indeed,his influence still moves powerfully throughout the denomination.It was a time of great revivals throughout the world -- in Switzerland, in the United States, inScotland and in South Africa. There Andrew Murray, perhaps the foremost South Africaninstrument in the hand of God, promoted this real movement of God's Spirit. Dr. Murray would getup on the pulpit and preach prayerfully, with his eyes closed, to quiet congregations where youcould hear a pin drop. There would be no emotion shown from the pew throughout the service.Then people would get up without a word, and leave the church and go to their homes.But the Spirit was working! About Tuesday or Wednesday during the week after the sermon, aspeople were working in their fields or tending their horses or cutting down wheat, they were still inthe grip of the words they had heard in the pulpit from the praying man with the closed eyes. Thenthe Spirit of God would sweep through their souls and convict them of sin -- some three or fourdays after hearing the preached word! They would sink to their knees all alone in the fields and inthe barns, and call out to God for mercy.Well, that is real revival, in my opinion. And it left a permanent imprint on the whole character ofthe format of conversion in the South African experience.So great revivals swept the land. Andrew Murray became the pioneer of one of the most blessedchurch institutions of which I know. In South Africa, that institution is known as the PentecostPrayer Meetings.This has got nothing to do with claiming to speak in tongues. Tongues-speaking phenomena weretotally absent here. Yet it seemed to Dr. Murray, as he read his Bible in Acts chapter one, that theLord Jesus ascended into heaven in order to sit upon the throne of the universe. Thence He wouldexercise His dominion and extend His control over all men here on earth, until the earth becamefull of the glory of Jehovah as the waters covered the sea.It seemed significant to Dr. Andrew Murray that between Ascension Day and Whitsunday (alias theDay of Pentecost ten days later), the Early Church met each day for sustained Bible study andprayer. So he instituted this practice in his church each year. Following the church calendar afterAscension Day and before the day of Pentecost, during those ten days he asked his congregation to