Andrew Murray
For some years, Rev. Andrew Murray, Sr., longed and
prayed for revival in South Africa. Every Friday night he
spent several hours in prayer. The revivals of 1858 in the
United States and 1859 in Northern Ireland were reported in
the Dutch Reformed journals. A little book on "The Power of
Prayer" was published. Individuals and prayer groups in
various places across South Africa began to pray
specifically for revival.
In April 1860, a conference attended by 374 was convened at
Worcester, South Africa. Representatives of twenty
congregations-sixteen Dutch Reformed, plus Methodist and
Presbyterian gathered. The main topic was revival. Andrew
Murray, Sr., was moved to tears and. had to stop speaking.
His son, Andrew Murray, Jr., prayed with such power that
some say the conference marked the beginning of the revival.
Fifty days after the Worcester conference, revival fires
began to burn. In Montague, near Worcester, a prayer revival
began in the Methodist church. Prayer meetings were held
every night and on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings,
sometimes as early as 3:00 A.M. People who had never prayed
before began to pray. One evening God anointed a young girl
to pray. Young and old began to cry to God for mercy and
continued until midnight. As Dutch Reformed people left
their prayer meetings, they crowded into the Methodist
church.
For weeks, the village of Montague experienced great
conviction of sin. Strongmen cried to God in anguish. Six
prayer meetings were going on throughout the village. The
report reached Worcester, and prayer meetings began there as
well. Whole families, both European and native African, were
humbled before God.
THUNDER FROM HEAVEN
One Sunday evening, during the youth fellowship meeting, an
African servant girl arose and asked permission to sing a
verse and pray. The Holy Spirit fell upon the group and she
prayed. In the distance, there came a sound like approaching
thunder. It surrounded the hall, and the building began to
shake. Instantly everyone burst into prayer. The assistant
minister knelt at the table.
Andrew Murray had been speaking in the main sanctuary to the
service there. He was notified and came running. Murray
called in aloud voice, "I am your minister, sent from God.
Silence!"' No one noticed as all continued calling out
loudly to God for forgiveness. Murray asked his assistant to
sing a hymn, but the praying continued undiminished.
All week long, the prayer meetings were held. Each service
began with profound silence. "But as soon as several prayers
had arisen the place was shaken as before and the whole
company of people engaged in simultaneous petition to the
throne of grace." The meetings often continued until 3:00
A.M., and as the people reluctantly dispersed, they went
singing their way down the streets.
Services were moved to a larger building because of the
crowds. On Saturday, Andrew Murray led the prayer meeting,
preaching from the Bible. He prayed and then invited others
to do so. Again, the mysterious sound of thunder approached
from a distance, coming nearer until it enveloped the
building. Everyone broke out in simultaneous prayer.
Murray walked up and down the aisle trying to quiet the
people, but a stranger in the service tiptoed up to him and
whispered, "Be careful what you do, for it is the Spirit of
God that is at work here." Murray learned to accept the
revival praying. As many as twenty found the Lord in one
service. Mrs. Murray wrote, "We do feel and realize the
power and presence of God so mightily. His Spirit is indeed
poured out on us.”
The South African revival then scattered like buckshot and
spread to other areas. One pastor reported something of “the
glory of the church in the first century”. Prayer meetings
multiplied. Many Christians met each week in prayer groups
of three to four. Some churches could not hold all who came
to worship. Spiritual awakening came to places up to two
hundred miles away.
With permission from Job Anbalagan gloryofhiscross@yahoo.co.in