Andrew Murray And The 1860 Revival (from Banner Of Truth)

 [Editor’s note: Andrew Murray (1828-1917) was one of South Africa’s greatest spiritual
writers and teachers. But at first he almost blocked the revival!]


In May, 1860 a conference was held at Worcester, South Africa with 374 visitors and 20 congregations represented. Pastor Andrew Murray prayed fervently at the beginning of the meeting and the Spirit of God began to move powerfully in the meeting. In another part of the building, another group of people were gathered in prayer. A fifteen year old girl asked if she could pray. As she prayed, spontaneously the whole room erupted into prayer. Murray, whose experience with revival had only been Scotland where the people were more subdued, had come from the other meeting. As he entered the room he saw what was happening, and tried to silence the people, saying that their meeting was out of accord, that God is a God of order. The people did not hear him and they continued praying. Finally an observer said to Murray, ‘Be careful what you do, for it is the Spirit of God that is at work here. I have just come from America, and this is precisely what I witnessed there.’ Revival fires began to burn brilliantly and powerfully all over South Africa.

Pastor Servaas Hofmeyr, who experienced the revival, observed: “Before the days of revival the situation of our congregation was lamentable. Love of the world and sin; no earnestness or heartfelt desire for salvation; sinning and idleness that was the order of the day for most . . . when the Lord started to move among us how intense were the prayers for revival and the cries for mercy. ‘I am lost,’ cries one here. ‘Lord, help me,’ cries another . . . And none of this was expected by anyone, nor prepared by anyone, nor worked up, or preached by anyone. It was all the Spirit of God, and not for a few hours or days, but months long”.

One of the side benefits of the revival was the establishment of Afrikaans as an official language of South Africa. So much of what was said in the revival was in that language and the British authorities had no other recourse but to embrace the language.

How can we experience that revival power? We need to believe in the Holy Spirit. I know you already say you believe in the Holy Spirit. After all, you are probably a Christian and thus Trinitarian. You ascribe to one God in three persons – the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There can be no doubt that by the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry, His disciples, with the exception of Judas, were true believers. Yet Jesus told them repeatedly in his Upper Room discourse – ‘I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper . . . He will abide with you and be in you’ (John 14:16, 17); ‘the Holy Spirit . . . will teach you all things’ (John 14:26); ‘When the Helper comes . . . He will testify about Me’ (John 15:26); ‘it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you’ (John 16:7); ‘But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth’ (John 16:13). Our problem, it seems to me, is that we do not comprehend the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit. He is the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9), Christ in you, the hope of glory (Col. 1:27). The disciples needed something more than simply being Christians. So did Andrew Murray and his fellow believers in South Africa.

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