The Life of Andrew Murray (South Africa)
By J Du Plessis

PREFACE

SOME years before his death Dr. Andrew Murray is understood to have indicated the Rev. Professor Marais, of the Stellenbosch Theological Seminary, and the present writer, as persons to whom the preparation of his biography might be entrusted. After his decease, early in 1917, his executors definitely requested these gentlemen to undertake the duty. Professor Marais, however, while continuing to display the greatest interest in the progress of the biography, found his physical strength unequal to the task of collaboration; and it was left to the undersigned to carry through the work. That he has been able to complete it, in both the English and Dutch languages, is a matter for which he desires to give abundant thanks to God.

At the same time he is gravely conscious of many shortcomings. To portray the life and character of such an one as Andrew Murray, who lived uninterruptedly in a region so remote from our common unspiritual life, is a task which might well appal. And yet the trust could not well be declined ; and the writer has therefore endeavoured, though with many qualms and misgivings, to fulfil it to the best of his small ability. It has seemed to him that he could do no better than let Andrew Murray speak himself ; and a large portion of this volume will be found to consist of unpublished letters, or of articles that have been retrieved from the pages of religious journals and fugitive tracts.

Sincere acknowledgments for invaluable assistance are due to the Misses Murray, daughters of the subject of this Life, and especially to Miss Annie Murray, for placing at the author's disposal a mass of correspondence and other material, without which this Biography must have been very much more imperfect than it is. Similar acknowledgments must be made to Miss Charlotte Murray and Miss Ella Neethling, nieces of Dr. Murray, for the loan of letters and photographs in the possession of the families of the late Professor John Murray and the late Rev. J. H. Neethling respectively. And finally, heartfelt thanks are tendered to Mr. Charles Murray, M.A., late acting Superintendent-General of Education, Cape Province, for kindly reading through the bulk of the manuscript, and serving the author with most valuable criticisms and suggestions ; and to the Rev. D. S. B. Joubert, B.D., Secretary of the British and Foreign Bible Society, Cape Town, for the very elaborate Bibliography which enriches this work.

May the blessing of God Almighty attend the perusal of this Life, and may it send thousands to a fresh study of Andrew Murray’s writings, where they may learn the open secret of that faith-life in which God is all in all.

J. DU PLESSIS.
Stellenbosch,
25th July, 1919.

The Life of Andrew Murray (South Africa)

Introduction

CENTRAL South Africa forms an immense plateau, covering nearly a million square miles, and situated at an average height of four thousand feet above the sea-level. Nature has provided access to this great table-land from the southern shores of the continent by three mighty steps—the coast-land, the Little Karroo, and the Great Karroo. The coastal region, lying under mountain ranges which intercept and condense the moisture arising from the ocean, rejoices in an abundant and regular rainfall. The Little Karroo is a very much drier area, but it can at least boast of rivers which even in the height of summer are never wholly destitute of running water. But the Great Karroo forms another and quite different feature in the geography and hydrography of South Africa. The Hottentot word karroo signifies dry, hard, barren, and this precisely is the nature of the forbidding plains which form the Great Karroo. These plains have been described as a country of mountains without summits, rivers without water, trees without shade, and herbage without verdure. They have exercised a marked influencei upon the history of South Africa and the character of its inhabitants. We shall strive in vain to understand the general movement of Cape history, the slow expansion northward and eastward, and the spirit of sturdy independence which animated the pioneer as he roamed ever further afield in the search for pasture, unless we picture clearly to ourselves these burning plains, bounded by distant blue mountains, shimmering in the hot sunshine, and covered with deceptive mirage. The Great Karroo was for generations the limit of habitable South Africa. To the colonist it was a boundary, a horizon and a challenge. It was the region of privation and thirst, of danger and disease, of wild beasts and wilder Bushmen. Beyond it lay a grass-covered country, with a rich soil and a plentiful water supply, eminently adapted to agricultural and pastoral pursuits. But as yet no white man had crossed the dreaded Karroo and looked upon that land of promise. More than a century elapsed after the first settlement of the Cape before an enterprising expedition, travelling along the west coast, reached the Great River, now known as the Orange, and yet another fifty years passed before the middle Orange was crossed, and the fertile regions of Central South Africa became known to Europeans.

It is important to remember that the Cape was for a century and a half a Dutch possession. When in 1652 Jan van Riebeek founded the earliest European settlement at the foot of Table Mountain, Holland was at the flood-tide of its political influence and commercial prosperity. The eighty years’ conflict with Spain had resulted in the complete triumph of the Dutch arms. Dutch admirals disputed with English the control of the English Channel, and a few years subsequent to van Riebeek’s arrival at the Cape a Dutch fleet sailed up the Thames and destroyed British men-of-war anchored in the Medway. The Dutch East India Company had acquired a practical monopoly of the sea-borne traffic with India and the East. And it was in order to provide a port of call for the outgoing and returning vessels of this Company that a township was established and a castle built at the Cape of Good Hope, under the name and title of “ the frontier fortress of India.”

It was only under the stress of circumstances and in consequence of the independent spirit of the colonists that the settlement was slowly extended beyond the narrow limits of the Cape peninsula. The East India Company itself had no desire or intention to colonise the country. All it wanted was a haven at which its fleets could recuperate for a week or two, and lay in fresh supplies of water, meat and vegetables.

But the class of men who found their way to the shores of South Africa had been nurtured amid the industrious life and the free institutions of Holland. They were ill content to toil for the Company upon the hard terms which the latter offered, and claimed the rights of free burghers. They crossed the downs by which the Cape peninsula is shut in, and moving ever further eastwards built up new communities at Stellenbosch and Drakenstein, Zwartland and Tulbagh, Swellendam and Graaff-Reinet. In 1688 the ranks of these free burghers were powerfully reinforced by the arrival of a number of Huguenot refugees, who, driven forth from their own fair France by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, sought a new home in these southern climes. The French emigrds soon lost the use of their own language, which the Company forbade them to employ, and within two or three generations were completely merged in the colonists of Dutch or German descent. It has been calculated that towards the close of the eighteenth century the population of South Africa was composed, roughly speaking, of about one-half of Dutch blood, one-sixth of French, one-sixth of German, and the remainder of other nationalities. All these spoke a form of simplified Dutch known as Cape Dutch, which has lost almost all the inflectional endings of the Dutch of Holland, and in vocabulary exhibits many affinities with the Dutch of the seventeenth century.

During the wars which convulsed Europe at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century Holland and England were ranged on opposite sides. The days of the Dutch East India Company were already numbered, and the British Government, intent upon the control of the trade route to India, landed a body of troops at the Cape, and with very little difficulty secured the capitulation of the Dutch garrison and the surrender of the country to the English crown (1795). The first British occupation of the Cape lasted for eight years. Hostilities in Europe were then temporarily suspended by the Treaty of Amiens, which also provided that the Cape should be restored to the Netherlands, or, as it was then called, the Batavian Republic. Thus for three years South Africa fell again under Dutch rule, but in 1806 it was captured for the second time by an English force, and passed finally under the dominion of Great Britain. The claim of the latter to the rightful possession of the country rests partly upon conquest and partly upon purchase. By a convention signed in London in 1814 the British Sovereign agreed to return to the Prince of the Netherlands all colonies and settlements which had been wrested from Holland during the Napoleonic wars, excepting only the Cape of Good Hope and Demerara in South America, for which latter possessions the Prince of the Netherlands agreed to accept an indemnity of six million pounds sterling. The Cape colonists were not consulted when their destinies were disposed of, but, though they regretted the withdrawal of the friendly Batavian rule, they were for the most part indifferent to the form of government under which they lived, provided only their liberty of action remained unimpeded and no obnoxious taxes were imposed.

When the Cape of Good Hope passed into the hands of the British, the colonists were almost to a man a Dutch-speaking community. Out of the twenty-five thousand individuals who composed the population in 1805 there were not more than seventy or eighty British subjects. The earliest administrators under the English regime, by retaining the use of the Dutch language in Church and State, and reinstating as civil officials a number of men who had been in the service of the Batavian Republic, did much to reconcile the burghers to the change of government. Twenty years subsequently, however, a later Governor, Lord Charles Henry Somerset, decreed that the English language alone should be legal for all public documents and judicial proceedings—a measure which soon became a fertile cause of misunderstanding and resentment. There was apparently some reason for the change. Up to 1820 the only individuals of British descent resident in the Colony were the chief personages on the civil establishment, the naval staff at Simon’s Town, some Cape Town merchants, a certain number of missionaries, chiefly of the London Missionary Society, and a few hundred mechanics and labourers. But in that year immigration on an extensive scale was undertaken. The British Government voted a considerable sum of money for the settlement of suitable families in South Africa, and nearly five thousand emigrants of British birth were conveyed to the Cape, and received grants of land on the eastern border of the Colony. For these the use of the English language was indispensable ; but the old Dutch population, who still outnumbered the new-comers in the proportion of eight to one, counted it a serious grievance that they could no longer approach the Government through the medium of a language which had prevailed in the country for nigh on two centuries.

But though the language had been suppressed in the State, it still held its own in the Church. The forty thousand colonists who in 1820 retained the use of the Dutch language were without exception members of the Dutch Reformed Church. This Church occupied, during practically the whole of the nineteenth century, a unique and influential position in South Africa. For a long period it was in receipt of State support, its ministers being wholly or partially salaried from the public funds. As the Church of the Dutch-speaking colonists, the repository of their ancient traditions, the guardian of their cherished language, and the expression of the national strivings of a people to whom a share in the political life of the country was denied, it wielded a wide-spread and on the whole a salutary influence. We shall do well to grasp firmly these three important factors in the situation when Andrew Murray entered upon his life-task—a predominantly Dutch-speaking population, the Dutch language banished from Government offices and law courts, and the Dutch Reformed Church as the guardian of the language, and the outward and visible bond of union between the scattered elements of the Dutch population.

We find then, settled upon the soil of South Africa for good or ill, two white races, sprung originally from the same racial stock, animated by the same love of liberty, professing the same form of religion, but distinct in temperament and training, in political aims and national ideals, and separated above all by the insuperable barrier of language, which made their complete fusion an apparent impossibility. In the veins of Andrew Murray flowed the blood of both these races, and he was in a real sense the embddiment of the highest ideals both of the older Dutch and the newer British strains. It was his constant endeavour to promote a better understanding and a heartier good will between the two classes of colonists. For this he possessed special gifts. He spoke both languages with equal ease. He moved among both peoples with equal familiarity. He was large-hearted enough to sympathize with both sections in their attempts to live their own lives and shape their own destinies. He was broad-minded enough to recognize what was noble and praiseworthy in the aims and objects of either race. And he had discernment enough to see that the national ambitions of English and Dutch were not at bottom incompatible, and could be harmonized by the exercise of patience, forbearance and mutual regard.

Andrew Murray’s ministerial career, as the following pages will show, was cast in the most stirring and by far the most important period in the history of South Africa. His public life covered two-thirds of a century, when English and Dutch were feeling after their true position and part in the scheme of things South African, and consciously or unconsciously endeavouring to adjust their relations to each other. During these years the contest between the two racial ideals continued without intermission, sometimes in the form of mere passive suspicion and antagonism, but also rising sometimes to angry disputes and actual hostilities. When Andrew Murray was a boy of eight, a wide-spread emigration into Central South Africa commenced on the part of those Dutch colonists who were determined to throw off their allegiance to the British Crown. This remarkable movement, which is known as the Great Trek, led to the founding of the Boer republics north of the Orange and the Vaal rivers. A series of important events followed during the second half of the century. Representative institutions and responsible government were introduced into British South Africa. The discovery of diamonds on the borders of the Orange Free State and of gold in the Transvaal brought about an economic revolution in South Africa, and profoundly modified the course of its future history. The Transvaal in 1877 was surreptitiously annexed to Great Britain, but the stout burghers, rising in protest, won back their independence after a few short and sharp encounters with the British forces. The British South Africa Company (better known as the Chartered Company) was founded in 1889, and a vast territory to the north of the Transvaal, stretching right across the Zambesi as far as the Great Lakes of Central Africa, was secured to Great Britain by the foresight and enterprise of Cecil John Rhodes. Soon afterwards the inevitable and tragic conflict between Briton and Boer came to a climax. Envy of the wealth which had come to the Transvaal through its gold mines precipitated first the Jameson Raid,1 and then the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902, which issued in the extinction of the republics. But when the union of the States of South Africa under the British flag was consummated in 1910, the Boer rose again to power, like the phoenix from its ashes, and obtained political control of the destinies of South Africa. And thus at present matters stand, the British being the possessors and nominal lords of the country, and the Boers its real masters.

It must not be assumed that Andrew Murray had a direct share in all the events and movements outlined above. He was first and foremost a servant of Jesus Christ, devoting himself heart and soul to spiritual labours for the welfare of the flock committed to his care. But it was impossible, for one who sympathized so deeply with the people among whom he lived and laboured, to remain indifferent to their social and national development. During the first years of his career, when he was the sole minister of a population scattered over an area considerably larger than that of Great Britain and Ireland, circumstances compelled him to take an active interest in civil affairs. There were at that time hardly any men of education and ability who were conversant with both the Dutch and English languages, and Andrew Murray, by virtue of his intellectual qualifications and high Christian character, wielded great influence with both sections of the community. In this manner he was forced, almost against his will, to enter the political arena, and once at least to engage in a political mission to England.1 But in later years and under altered conditions he stood more and more resolutely aloof from political life, and only on rare occasions, when some great national crisis seemed to call for a word of warning or appeal, did he venture to intervene in public affairs.

It but remains to describe in brief fashion the general situation when Andrew Murray’s career commenced. At the close of 1848 there occurred a brief pause in the history of the Cape Colony. The seventh Kaffir War had been concluded; the eighth and most serious was still concealed by the curtain of futurity. The grant of representative institutions was in the air, but the British Government had not as yet passed any definite promise to introduce them. The determined resistance protracted during the whole of 1849, to the scheme of making the Cape a penal settlement, had not yet , begun. Sir Harry Smith, Governor and High Commissioner, who had recently returned from a triumphal tour through South and Central South Africa, during which he had annexed fifty thousand square miles between the Orange and the Vaal to the Queen’s dominions,3 was at the height of his great popularity. The Cape Colony counted at this time some one hundred and twenty-five thousand white inhabitants, at least three-fourths of whom were Dutch-speaking. Across the Orange River, in the newly-annexed Orange River Sovereignty, were found about twelve thousand Dutch farmers, very half-heartedly attached to British rule; and beyond the Vaal River there lived another eight or ten thousand independent Boers, under a by no means stable form of republican government. These twenty thousand emigrants constituted Andrew Murray’s first parish.

The whole country already settled by white people was of vast extent. Between Cape Town, in the extreme west, and Graaff-Reinet, the most considerable town in the east, stretched a distance of five hundred miles; from Graaff-Reinet to Bloemfontein, the centre of Andrew Murray’s great parish, it was another three hundred miles. Three hundred miles further north lay Pretoria, subsequently the capital of the Transvaal Republic, which extended northward for yet another two hundred and fifty miles to the Zoutpansberg range. In all this great territory there was not, in 1848, a single mile of railroad. The immense distances had to be traversed, frequently over very indifferent roads and through flooded rivers, by the uncomfortable Cape cart, the roomier horse-waggon, or the slow-moving, springless ox-waggon. In such a country, trader such circumstances, and amongst primitive farmers, whom Sir Benjamin D’Urban, a former Cape Governor, once described as "a brave, patient, industrious, orderly and religious people,” Andrew Murray commenced his life-work.

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The Life of Andrew Murray (South Africa)

Chapter I

Ancestry, Parentage and Birth

A godly parentage is a costly boon. Its blessing not only rests upon the children of the first family, but has often been traced in many successive generations.—Andrew Murray.

THE paternal ancestors of Andrew Murray were Aberdeenshire fanners. His father, his grandfather and his great-grandfather all bore the name of Andrew Murray. The great-grandfather occupied the sheep-farm of Lofthills in the district of Buchan, which had been held by the family for several generations. These Murrays belonged for the most part to the Old Light Presbyterians (Auld Lichts), a Church which in the eighteenth century counted many godly people in its ranks. Of one of the old farmers of Lofthills, who was exceedingly deaf, it is told that he would wander about the hills of the sheep-farm, praying unconsciously aloud for his family and for his friends, and that almost all for whom this old saint used to intercede became in the end decided Christians. Andrew Murray of Lofthills married a certain Isabella Henderson, known as the “ Maiden of Yokie’s Hill,” whose family claimed descent from the famous seventeenth-century divine and reformer, Alexander Henderson, chief author of the "Solemn League and Covenant.”


Andrew Murray, the grandfather, being one of several sons, removed from Lofthills to the mill of Clatt, thus relinquishing sheep-farming for the humbler occupation of milling. Owing to the distress which was prevalent at the end of the eighteenth century in consequence of the Napoleonic wars, the family was frequently reduced to great straits, and the flour would then be carefully collected from the floor of the mill, in order to provide the hungry mouths of the children with bread. Andrew Murray of Clatt was nevertheless a man of considerable force of character, with an education beyond what was common at the time, and a reputed taste for poetry. Of his piety there was no question. When he lay upon his deathbed, he was overheard praying in the silence of the night for each of his children by name; and this so impressed the eldest son, John, then a lad of twelve, that he there and then decided to give himself to the work of the ministry. The father was a comparatively young man when he died in 1796, and he left his wife and children in sadly reduced circumstances, cherishing nevertheless the confident hope that his and their Gpd would not permit them to suffer want, but that his sons and daughters would yet lead honourable and useful Christian lives. His wife, Isobel Milne, was a woman of great beauty and sweetness of character. She survived her husband for twenty-six years, and saw her children grow to manhood and womanhood to fulfil all the cherished hopes and expectations of their departed father.

Among the children of Andrew Murray of Clatt were Anne, John, Elizabeth and Andrew. John, the eldest son, and uncle of the subject of these memoirs, succeeded by patient endeavour, and through the kindly aid of an unmarried uncle, in realizing his ambition to enter the sacred ministry. After a course of study at Marischal College, Aberdeen, he graduated M.A. in 1806, showing such aptitude for mathematics that he was offered a colonial professorship. He persisted, however, in his aim of becoming a preacher of the Gospel, passed through the divinity course at the university of Edinburgh, was licensed in due time, and then acted as tutor in the family of Sir James Nasmyth. After ordination he laboured for two years as an assistant minister in Dundee, and in 1816 was inducted to the influential charge of Trinity Chapel-of-Ease1 (now Trinity United Free Church) in Aberdeen. Twelve years later he became minister of the North Church in the same city, and this remained the scene of his labours so long as he was connected with the Church of the Establishment. At the Disruption, in 1843, John Murray was one of those who left the Established Church, and the Free North Church, which the seceding congregation erected for itself, was the first of Free Church edifices to arise in Aberdeen. For his distinguished services to the cause of religion and education, and as a testimony to the esteem in which he was held for his lofty Christian character, his Alma Mater conferred on him, in 1856, the degree of doctor of divinity, honoris causa. He died in 1861, and an obituary notice of the Free Church Record summed up his character thus : “ Calm, discriminating, scholarly and undemonstratively heroic, the veteran Murray of Aberdeen has gone to his grave as a shock of corn cometh in its season.”

The uncle who befriended John Murray also took to his home the younger sister, Elizabeth, who remained with her uncle until her marriage with Mr. Robertson, the Congregational minister of Crichie in Aberdeenshire. Mr. Robertson, by his first wife, was the great-grandfather of Professor Robertson Smith, of Aberdeen and Cambridge. Elizabeth Robertson died at an early age in Scotland, and her husband then emigrated with the children to Canada, becoming the ancestor of a large family of Robertsons whose names have become household words in the Colony across the Atlantic. One of the daughters, Margaret Murray Robertson, was the authoress of Christie Redfern’s Troubles and other stories of a religious tendency, which had a great vogue in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Great literary gifts were also developed by one of the grandsons, Charles W. Gordon, better known, under his pen-name of “Ralph Connor,” as the author of The Sky Pilot and many other tales which describe the life of the Great North-West.

The third Andrew Murray, father of the subject of this biography, was ten years younger than his brother John, to whose encouragement and assistance it was largely due that he was able to complete his studies, and to obtain the status of licentiate of the Church of Scotland. Young Andrew was anxious to become a missionary—a desire which was probably stimulated, if not aroused, by the earnest advocacy of his elder brother, who was a powerful pleader for missions at a time when the cause counted but few enthusiastic supporters. But the mother was very loth to part from her younger and favourite son, and professed to be in great fear that, if he became a missionary, he would infallibly be eaten by cannibals. Love for his mother and deference to her wishes led Andrew to refuse an offer to proceed to St. John’s, Newfoundland. But when in 1821 he received an invitation to the Cape, the need of that Colony seemed to be so urgent that he could not find it in his heart to dismiss the appeal, while the possibility of doing something on behalf of the natives, and thus taking a small share in the missionary enterprise, was an additional motive to consider this as a divine call.

The invitation to South Africa came about in the following way. The Rev. Dr. George Thom, Dutch Reformed minister of the congregation of Caledon in South Africa, was in Britain on furlough in 1821, when he was commissioned by the then Governor of the Cape, Lord Charles Somerset, to obtain young ministers to fill the vacant charges, and teachers to instruct the rising generation, in the southern Colony. Dr. Thom, who was fully alive to the needs of the country, lost no time in commencing his quest. One of the first men to offer was Andrew Murray, as Dr. Thom relates in the following letter, dated London, 8th January, 1821—

The Rev. George Thom to Lord Charles Henry Somerset.

My Lord,—I have the pleasure to state, for your Lordship’s information, that the Rev. Prof. MacGill of the University of Glasgow has replied to the letter addressed to him on the selection of some ministers of the Established Church of Scotland, and the Professor states that he will with much delight communicate with several young ministers, who are gentlemen of excellent private character, of good talents, and of known loyal principles. I am looking for a second letter.

In the meantime Prof. Bentley, of the King’s College, Aberdeen, hearing of the necessities of the Dutch colonists, and of the kind intentions of Government to supply their wants, has written me two letters, offering the services of the Rev. Andrew Murray, Master of Arts, a clergyman of about thirty years of age, of established character and of good abilities : the necessary testimonials from the professors of languages and of divinity in the University will be forwarded to me immediately.

I am much rejoiced that there is a prospect of having the wants of the Dutch colonial Churches supplied, and the more, as besides the charges of Somerset and Worcester being vacant, there is every human possibility that several old Churches will soon be left destitute of Christian instruction. By a letter from Cape Town I find that Mr. Fleck has been declared by the physicians unfit ever to preach again. Mr. [von] Manger also has been long afflicted with disease and is advanced in life, and several of the country ministers are aged, and the minister of Paarl was able to preach only a few times during eight or ten months. I have fully stated to the gentlemen everything connected with the Churches agreeable to the colonial Church regulations, and your Lordship’s opinion respecting spending a few months in Holland.

It is a subject of much gratification to me that your Lordship manifests so much paternal care for the advancement of religion in the Colony, and I am sure it will add much to the pleasure which the Colonists will feel on your Lordship’s return to assume again the government of the Colony, that you will be able to announce a speedy supply of good ministers for the Dutch Churches being at hand. . . .

When Andrew Murray received the South African appointment his mother lay upon her deathbed, and in order to spare her the children refrained from telling her of the younger son’s impending departure. When the hour of parting came, John, the elder brother, who was also at his dying mother’s bedside, accompanied Andrew to the highway where the Aberdeen coach passed. Here the brothers knelt in prayer to commend each other and their dear ones to God, and before they parted sang together, “ O God of Bethel, by whose hand Thy people still are fed.” It was a final farewell, for Andrew never revisited his native land.

From Scotland, after ordination by the Presbytery of Aberdeen, the young minister went to Holland, where he remained for ten months in order to acquire the Dutch language. He then returned to London, from where he was to sail for the Cape with Dr. Thom and the teachers which the latter had secured.Dr. Thom’s quest for ministers and teachers was wholly successful. He secured not only Andrew Murray, but also the Rev. Alexander Smith, who 1908 among some papers in the parsonage at Graaff-Reinet unearthed an old diary of Andrew Murray, which had lain undiscovered for more than eighty years. It runs to seventy pages of foolscap and contains a full account of the voyage, lasting from the 27th February to the 1st July, 1822, between London Docks and Table Bay. The narrative, in which Mr. Murray throughout speaks of himself in the third person, is so interesting a human document, that we venture to make the following extracts from it—

Extracts from the Journal of Andrew Murray the Elder.

Early in the year 1821 His Majesty's Government were pleased to appoint the Rev. Dr. Thom to provide some preachers and teachers in connexion with the Church of Scotland to go out to the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope. After considerable trouble. Dr. Thom succeeded in engaging the Rev. Andrew Murray, preacher, of Aberdeen, as a clergyman for the Colony, and Messrs. Brown, Innes, Robertson and Dawson from Aberdeen, Mr. Rattray from Dundee, and Mr. Blair from Glasgow, as schoolmasters. In the beginning of February, 1822, Dr. Thom engaged a passage on board the brig Arethusa for the above-mentioned persons and those connected with them.

The Arethusa, a fine vessel of 180 tons burden, commanded by Captain Anderson, sailed from London Docks on Wednesday, 27th February, 1822,—Mr. and Mrs. Dawson on board. Mrs. Dawson, who had come on board a week previous to the vessel sailing, was safely delivered of a son on Saturday the 23rd. arrived in the Colony in 1823, and was stationed at Uitenhage; the Rev. William Ritchie Thomson, who afterwards became minister of Stockenstrom ; and three students who were still preparing for licence and ordination, namely, Henry Sutherland, Colin Fraser and George Morgan, in after years ministers at Worcester, Beaufort West and Somerset East respectively. Among the teachers engaged by Dr. Thom were James Rose Innes (afterwards Superintendent-General of Education), William Robertson (afterwards the Rev. Dr. Robertson of Swellendam and Cape Town), Archibald Brown, William Dawson, James Rattray and Robert Blair.

On Monday the 4th March it behoved the passengers who were to embark for Africa to bid a farewell to their dear friends in the metropolis. How noble soever the principles may be which actuate the preachers and teachers of Christianity in leaving their native shores, still, when they are called to take leave of their dear friends, and bid adieu to all those interesting scenes which had cheered their youthful years, they must feel much concerned.

On the morning of Monday the following individuals, after a pleasant passage on the steamboat, went on board the Arethusa—viz., Dr. and Mrs. Thom, their two children, Mrs. Dixie and two daughters, Miss Rose, Messrs. Murray, Brown, Innes, Dawson, Rattray, Robertson and Blair; Mrs. Rattray and two children, Mrs. Dawson and child, Mrs. Milne (the wife of a soldier) and a Mr. Bennet, bound for St. Helena —in all, twenty individuals. On the same afternoon the Arethusa sailed down the river for five or six miles, and there remained for the night, the Captain, Dr. Thom, and Mr. Murray being absent, the former being employed in settling some business, and the others taking leave of their dear friends, Mr. and Mrs. Nisbet, whose hearts and house have ever been open to all such as wished to devote themselves to the service of their Redeemer in heathen lands.

On the morning of Tuesday weighed anchor at six o’clock ; during the day enjoyed a favourable gale, and reached the Downs on the evening of the same day. While riding in the Downs on the night between the 5th and the 6th the Arethusa, in common with other vessels, was overtaken by a heavy gale, which lasted till twelve o’clock on Tuesday [Wednesday ?]. Four vessels were torn from their anchors, one of which soon after foundered, but happily the Arethusa remained fast at her moorings. The vessel lost was a brig from St. Thomas. The crew fortunately were all saved, although their safety was effected at the expense of the life of one of the boatmen who came to afford assistance.

“Good God, on what a brittle thread hang everlasting things!”

On the 7th remained in the Downs. A strong gale continuing to blow from the west, arrangements were made among the passengers for occupying their time to best advantage. Every gentleman appeared anxious to umpt such measures as might be thought advantageous for promoting each other’s improvement in those branches of useful knowledge which might be calculated, by the divine blessing, to promote their usefulness.

It was a full month before the Arethusa was clear of the coasts of England. The passage of the Bay of Biscay was, as usual, a stormy one. When near the Cape Verde Islands the brig narrowly escaped disaster, as the following account shows—

Thursday 25th [April] came in sight of Cape Verde Islands. The former night drew up, in order to avoid danger of running foul of them, but Capt. Anderson thought that on this night he might safely continue his course during the night. The afternoon had been spent in contriving what should be bought in St. Jago. Mr. Brown and Mr. Murray laboured for some time to learn some Portuguese words which they expected to need on the following day. In the evening Dr. Thom favoured the party with a history of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope. Worship was conducted as usual, and about half-past nine o'clock Mr. Innes observed that it was time to go to bed. Dr. Thom said he would not in our situation go to bed without going on deck. Accordingly he went, when, a few minutes after, all the passengers were surprised to feel the vessel give a sudden forcible jolt against a rock. Mr. Murray observed that the stroke was certainly given upon a rock or fixed land.

All the passengers, on going on deck, heard the mate (whose attention to our perilous situation had been excited by Dr. Thom) cry out, "Captain Anderson, come! we are on land: the breakers are close to our lee bow.” An indescribable scene of confusion immediately took place, one crying that the breakers were on the bow, another roaring from the rigging that there was land or rock close upon our lee. The common sailors commenced crying—one saying that all was over ; another, we were fast, and could not stand out but a very few minutes ; while the mate cried, “Make no uproar, keep cool: let us prepare for meeting death like Scotchmen!”

Mr. Brown and Mr. Murray were able to go and assist the seamen to draw up or shorten sail; the rest of the gentlemen kept on the quarter deck, Dr. Thom giving orders for getting the boats in readiness. Dr. Thom wished Mr. Murray to go below and see what state the ladies were in. On going below he found them in as composed a state as could in similar circumstances be expected : nevertheless, a state more easily conceived than described. After engaging a few minutes in prayer, to plead the promise of God, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee,” he read part of the 91st Psalm. The Captain and the mate then came into the cabin. The former appeared to be, as it wete, in a state of intoxication (perhaps through surprise), being unable to say where we were, what was the matter, or whither we could turn for safety.

At length the vessel was gotten off the rocks, which were afterwards found to be on a long point of the island of Mayo, where several large East Indiamen had been lost. After some consultation it was agreed that Dr. Thom, Messrs. Innes, Robertson and Brown should remain some hours on deck, as they could not be expected to sleep in such circumstances. Mr. Murray went to bed at one o’clock and slept soundly till four, when he was roused to go on deck, the other gentlemen being about to go to rest. After many a long and anxious look day appeared. Is there anyone in the least conversant with maritime affairs, who can consider the situation of the Arethusa on the evening of the 25th, and not be convinced that nothing less than the special interposition of that God who never slumbers nor sleeps could have preserved either lives or property? Driving with full sail against a brisk wind, and driven thus with great velocity against a range of fixed rocks while neither captain nor mate kept outlook, none but that God we had just before been worshipping in a social capacity could have delivered us ; and He was graciously pleased to interpose in such a manner as to convince the most unthinking mind that He, and He alone, brought us deliverance. . . .

A few further extracts will show that the voyage, like most sea voyages at that time, was subject to all manner of contrary winds and vexatious delays—

Tuesday we were about 12 deg. 26 min. S. latitude and 33 deg. 26 min. W. longitude. Some doubting we might be further west in reality than the Captain had found us to be, it was thought advisable that some one should remain on deck during the greater part of the night, for fear of coming on the American coast. Mr. Murray stopped up till about three o’clock. In the course of the night he had an opportunity to speak to most of the seamen, one by one, on spiritual and eternal subjects. He was happy to find they generally paid more attention to these subjects than could well have been expected.

Wednesday we were glad to find that the wind had become so much more favourable that we could not only steer south, and thereby keep from increasing our western longitude, but could even get a little to the east, and thereby lessen it. At twelve o’clock found the latitude to be 15 deg. 29 min. south, and longitude about 31 deg. west. Most of the passengers began to wish much for a good breeze to hasten our pace and shorten the voyage.

Thursday the wind continued favourable, so that we were able to make a considerable distance of easting. In the evening had some amusement respecting the manners and customs of the Cape farmers. All seemed to enjoy the description Dr. Thom gave of the simplicity of their manners. This description reminded us of those ages when tyrant custom had not shackled man.

Saturday 25th [May] found ourselves in a complete calm ; could make no way. Such delays were calculated to try the patience of those who have been already long detained on a voyage. This day the health of Messrs. Murray and Dawson was drunk in a glass of wine, it being the day before their birthday. Certainly it is most pleasant to see so many harmoniously uniting in good wishes for each other. It is hoped that the above-mentioned individuals were not unconcerned about the misimprovement of their past years and about the better improvement of those which may come.

Friday the 7th [June] had to contend with contrary winds, tacking sometimes east, sometimes west, and so made no progress. The Captain now began to grudge expenses very much, and to speak of shortening our allowance of water.

Friday 14th.—The day was somewhat cloudy, the wind very strong ; went most of the day at the rate of seven or eight miles an hour. Towards the afternoon the wind blew very strong indeed, so that the Captain was obliged to shorten sail considerably, and to put [things] in the best state for the approaching storm. About twelve at night such an immense sea broke over the vessel as made some to think that she could scarcely recover her upright position. At four in the morning such a strong and sudden gust of wind sprung up that made us drift before it, although we had up little or no sail. An apprehension was entertained for a short time that the wind would carry away our masts. On the morning of Saturday were happy to find that no injury had been done. The God who preserves all who confide in Him graciously kept us from all evil, and gave us cause to exclaim, "Oh! that men would praise the Lord for His goodness!"

The arrival in Table Bay is chronicled as follows—

Sabbath 30th [June].—A fine day, a good breeze and great progress. In consequence of coming so near land, it was thought advisable that the gentlemen should take their turn in looking out for land ; consequently Dr. Thom and Mr. Blair sat up till two o’clock on Sabbath morning, when Mr. Murray and Mr. Robertson succeeded till daylight. The weather being good public worship was conducted on deck by Mr. Murray, who preached from 2 Corinthians, v. 21. Immediately after dinner the meeting commenced, when the 116th Psalm was spoken upon by most of the gentlemen, who, it is trusted, experienced feelings similar to the Psalmist when he reflected on the many mercies of God.

Monday, 1st, July 1822.—Messrs. Innes and Dawson had stopped on deck till two o’clock, when Messrs. Brown and Rattray succeeded till day. These informed us that we had gone at the rate of seven or eight knots an hour during the night. Our longitude about 17 deg. east; began to look anxiously for land, it being seventeen weeks to-day since coming on board at Gravesend. Enjoyed a fine, fair wind, but a very heavy sea. In the evening a prayer-meeting for the spread of the Gospel. Between twelve and one o’clock, while Dr. Thom and Mr. Murray were on deck, Mr. Burch ell cried out, "Land! land!” How overjoyed we were to see for certain that we were but a few miles from Table Mountain. Next morning set sail, after stopping for a few hours, and reached Table Bay.

A few days .after their arrival at Cape Town the Government Gazette contained a notice of Mr. Murray’s formal appointment to the charge of Graaff-Reinet, in succession to the Rev. A. Faure, who had been promoted to Cape Town. Mr. Murray seems to have proceeded immediately to his new sphere of work. The township of Graaff-Reinet, which was to be his home until the day of his death, had been established as early as 1786, and was named in honour of Governor van de Graaff and his wife, whose maiden name was Reinet. Many years elapsed before the village, which was situated in surroundings of great aridity, even began to deserve its designation of the “Gem of the Desert.” A few months after Mr. Murray’s settlement it was visited by the traveller George Thompson, who has left us the following impressions of Graaff-Reinet in 1823—

25th May.—This being Sunday, I attended divine service with the Landdrost’s family at the district church, and heard the Rev. Mr. Murray preach in Dutch to a numerous and attentive congregation. Mr. Murray, like all the late-appointed clergymen of the colonial establishment, is of the Church of Scotland, which in doctrine and discipline corresponds almost entirely with the Dutch Reformed communion.

26th to 29th May.—I spent these four days in Graafi-Reinet. The place is wonderfully improved since the days of Barrow, when it consisted merely of a few miserable mud and straw huts. It contains now about three hundred houses, almost all of which are neat and commodious brick edifices—many are elegant. The streets are wide, laid out at right angles, and planted with rows of lemon and orange trees, which thrive here luxuriantly, and give to the place a fresh and pleasing appearance. Each house has a large allotment of ground behind it, extending in some instances to several acres, which is richly cultivated, divided by quince, lemon or pomegranate hedges, and laid out in orchards, gardens and vineyards. These are all watered by a canal from the Sunday River, which branches out into a number of small channels, and each inhabitant receives his due portion at a regular hour. This canal has been greatly improved, or rather constructed anew on a much higher level, by the present Landdrost,2 who, by indefatigable exertion, and entirely at his own risk, has carried it along the front of a rocky precipice, and by these means gained a large addition of arable ground, and a more certain and abundant supply of water. I was not a little surprised to find that this arduous task had been accomplished without even the aid of blowing irons or gunpowder, merely by kindling large fires upon the rocks, and when they were well heated dashing buckets of water upon them.

The population of Graafi-Reinet, of all colours, amounts to about 1,800 souls. The town is built in a sort of basin, almost encircled by the deep channel of the Sunday River, and closely environed by an amphitheatre of steep rugged mountains. This position, and the arid quality of the red Karroo soil, render it oppressively hot in summer. At that season, however, the atmosphere is sometimes agitated and cooled by violent thunderstorms, accompanied by heavy rains. In winter the weather is frequently rather cold, owing to the elevated situation of the country just at the foot of the Snow Mountains ; but while I was there the air was delightfully temperate, and the sky cloudless and serene.

Mr. Murray was the sixth minister of Graaff-Reinet, and he found the congregation supplied with a suitable church in which to worship, and a roomy parsonage for the use of its pastor. The latter was to be his home for forty-five years and the birthplace of all his children, and it, therefore, merits some description. It was in every respect the finest residence in the village—far finer and more commodious than the Drostdij, in which the Landdrost (or Magistrate) officially resided. It stood in a side street at some little distance from the church, and boasted a spacious yard and outbuildings, with a large garden behind. One of the daughters of the manse has given us the following description—

Ascending by the stone steps we come to the front door, and entering, find ourselves in a large lobby or hall, called the Mein voorhuis, because there was a larger one [groot voorhuis) beyond—a spacious dining hall, with doors on all sides, leading into a smaller dining-room, bedrooms, etc. A part of the big hall was later on partitioned off, to give a more comfortable dining-room.

On the left side in front was the drawing-room, and on the right the study and another bedroom. The front stoep, and also the back stoep, were supported by arches, and underneath the whole house ran a series of rooms corresponding with those above. Some of these were often used as bedrooms when the house was full of visitors. They included the cellar, below the big dining-room, the hout-kamer (wood room), kalk-kamer (lime room), kaf-kamer (chaff room) and waggon house. But these arches, with passages beyond, seemed made on purpose for playing hide-and-seek, and often resounded with the voices of the merry, happy children.

From the back stoep, by two circular flights of steps, you went down to the garden. First, the flower garden, then an avenue of orange trees, with tall lilac bushes in between. At the side of the walk was the vineyard, and at the further end of the garden were fruit trees of all kinds, laden in summer time with such fruit as we have never tasted since, and to which the dear children were allowed to help themselves without stint, and regale also their companions who came to play with them. The other half of the garden was sown with oats for the minister’s horses, and there was a large plot of lucerne for the cow. On the further side of the lucerne was a row of choice fig trees, and beyond was the boundary wall.

In 1824, two years after his arrival at Graaff-Reinet, Mr. Murray went up to Cape Town in order to attend the meeting of Synod, and on that occasion first met the young lady who became his wife. She was Miss Maria Susanna Stegmann, eldest child of Johan Gotlob Stegihann and his wife Jacomina Sophia Hoppe, who were both of German descent. The mother of Johan Gotlob Stegmann was Sara Susanna Roux, whose great-grandfather, Paul Roux, was one of the Huguenot refugees, who were driven from France by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and arrived at the Cape in 1688. Jacomina Sophia Hoppe, the maternal grandmother of the subject of these memoirs, was not of pure German descent, since her maternal grandparents bore the thoroughly Dutch names of Pieter Greeff and Jacomina van Deventer. From his mother’s side it is evident that many strains mingled in the blood of Andrew Murray—German, French Huguenot, and Calvinist Dutch, interfused to form a sturdy South African stock.

When Andrew Murray took to wife Maria Stegmann, the latter was but sixteen years of age, and had naturally received but a slight education, and that chiefly in the Dutch language. But her mind was alert, and her husband took delight in instructing her, reading with her such books as Rollin’s Ancient History and Hume’s History of England. The father-in-law, Mr. Stegmann, had apparently the greatest confidence in the piety of his son-in-law and the devotion of his daughter, for when his wife died and he was re-married to a Miss van Reenen, he sent his young son, Georg Wilhelm, to Graaff-Reinet that he might be under the home influence of Andrew and Maria Murray ; and when his second wife presented him with a son, the infant received the name of Johan Andrew, the latter name in honour of the minister of Graaff-Reinet. It is pleasant to be able to state that both these sons became preachers of the Gospel, Georg Wilhelm as minister of the Lutheran Church in Cape Town, and afterwards as pastor of the D. R. Church at Adelaide, and Johan Andrew as minister of Ceres. Georg Wilhelm, the “ Uncle William ” of later years, was a man of great sincerity and heartiness of character, and a famous revival preacher in days when special services and revivals were not much spoken of.

Andrew Murray the Scotsman soon identified himself completely with the land of his adoption. From the little volume of reminiscences, Unto Children’s Children, by one of his daughters, we take over the following lines concerning his life and the nature of his work at Graaff-Reinet—

He cast in his lot so whole-heartedly with his people that his children cannot remember ever hearing him express the wish to visit his native land. How happy he was among his people only his children, who grew up in the presence of that loving intercourse, can testify. Earnest, affectionate and sincere in all his relations, he never forfeited the respect and esteem accorded him by all. How often we have heard him say, "The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places, and I have a goodly heritage.” His love for his people came out touchingly in an incident towards the close of his life. He was suffering from the effects of a, cold ; and on his leaving a certain farm a young man, who had waited on him very tenderly, brought a hot brick and placed it beneath his feet in the cart, whereupon he turned to his travelling companion and said, “Ik woon in het midden mijns volks ” (I dwell in the midst of my people).

His parish covered many hundreds of square miles. He established many new congregations, such as those of Aberdeen, Colesberg, Middel-burg and Murraysburg, and until these parishes were supplied with ministers of their own—and that was not easily done then—he remained their preacher and pastor. He had to undertake long journeys to these places, sometimes being from home for a fortnight at a time for this purpose. At every farmhouse along the road where the minister stopped for the night, he had scarcely dismounted from the large, springless horse-waggon, before the Bible would be produced and he was asked to conduct a service. He always insisted on all the servants and shepherds being brought in ; and, weary though he was, rejoiced at being able to break the bread of life to hungry souls. After the death of the Rev. John Evans, the large congregation of Cradock was also vacant for several years, and our father had to go there every quarter in order to administer the sacrament, holding services for three days—“Preparation" on Saturday, “Communion” on Sunday, with six tables of communicants to be successively addressed, and "Thanksgiving” on Monday. Added to this was the work of catechising, holding church meetings, attending to cases of discipline, celebrating marriages and baptizing infants. . . . Then there was huisbezoek or family visitation on the Sunday afternoon and Monday morning. This was not, as the name seems to imply, going to the houses : that was out of the question, as the people lived on farms, far apart from each other. The families were admitted in turn to the minister’s bedroom, which had to answer the purpose of study or vestry, and there they were seriously and affectionately exhorted, advised, encouraged or rebuked, as the case demanded.

Of the visits of the missionaries how much there is to tell! English, Scotch, French and German missionaries found it not only convenient, but most refreshing, to rest themselves and their wearied oxen on the long journey between Port Elizabeth and the interior (or on their way back on a visit to Europe) at the Graaff-Reinet parsonage. Men and animals found room in the spacious house and yard, the outrooms affording lodging for a whole host of Bechuana or Basuto drivers and leaders of oxen. The abundance of fruit made it like an oasis in the desert to the missionary children. The Paris Missionary Society presented Mr. Murray with a handsome timepiece in acknowledgment of the kindness shown to their missionaries.

How fresh in the minds of some of the children are still to-day the visits of Mr. Moffat and of Dr. Livingstone, who has since become so famous. One of us remembers seeing Dr. Livingstone come hurriedly into the dining-room, late for breakfast, triumphantly exhibiting a large hatchet, just to his mind, which he had purchased at the store of Heugh and Fleming. Some years later the children were called to listen while Papa read aloud letters he had received from the explorer, telling of his early journeys into the far interior, where he found tribes who manufactured rings and bracelets of gold. The children cherish lively recollections, too, of the earlier French missionaries—Pellissier, Holland, Casalis, Lemue, Lauga, Arbousset, Daumas—the first ones unmarried, but the later comers accompanied by their sprightly French wives. We wondered at hearing them talk so fast in an unknown tongue. A friend of missions. Major Malan, said long afterwards that it was the kindness shown to missionaries that had brought so large a blessing upon the minister’s family, adding, "For God pays back in kind.”

The chief characteristic of the household was reverence. We reverenced God’s name and God's day and God’s Word. The wife reverenced her husband ; the children reverenced their parents ; the servants reverenced their master and mistress. The children were trained in the ways of the Lord. They were taught to render obedience in such a way that they never seemed to know it. Their father’s word was law; from his decision there was no appeal; his wisdom was never questioned. It was almost curious to see the reverence with which the young men, after years of study in Europe, and themselves ministers, would bow to their father’s decision in every matter where they had asked his advice.

"Our father's conversations with his children were very instructive.

His sons remember rides with him upon which he told them many interesting things connected with natural history or geography. The occasions on which he spoke to his children about their souls were few but well chosen, and his words never failed to make an impression. It was generally on a Sabbath evening after family worship when the child came for a good-night kiss. “Well, dearie, have you given your heart to Christ yet?" or, “Will you not, before you go to bed to-night, give yourself to Jesus?” Or on a birthday he would say, “This is your birthday: are you born again?” One thing that impressed us particularly was that he expected that the elder children should interest themselves in the soul’s welfare of the younger ones. To a married daughter, visiting her old home, he said, “Have you spoken to the little girls about their souls yet? I wish you would do so." The children were encouraged to correspond freely with their elder brothers on the subject.

Many words of Scripture became engraven on the hearts of the children through hearing their father repeat them with great feeling and emphasis. Indeed, he has left them to us as a most precious legacy. The word of Christ did indeed dwell in him richly, and he taught and admonished us in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in his heart unto the Lord. Many a sweet verse has been imprinted on our minds and memories from hearing him repeat it half aloud to himself, as he walked up and down the great dining-room after supper. We have heard him say at such times, his face and manner betraying the deepest emotion—

“And when I’m to die, Lord, take me! I'll cry,
For Jesus has loved me, I cannot tell why’’—

and stopping in his walk he would say, addressing one of us, “Can you tell why?” and then go on with—

“But this I do find, we two are so joined He’ll not be in glory and leave me behind."

His own conversion had been associated with the hymn When I can read my title clear. He told his eldest daughter that, as a youth, being in great anxiety about his soul, he took that verse and spent a whole day in the woods, determined not to return home till his title was made clear to him.

As sacred as the memories of the Sunday evenings are those of the Friday evenings, which our father regularly devoted to praying for a revival. He would shut himself up in the study, and read accounts of former revivals in Scotland and other countries, and sometimes come out of his study with Gillie's Collection in his hand, to read us the story of the outpouring of the Spirit on the Kirk of Shotts or of the revivals in Kilsyth and Cambuslang. Once he read about a minister who had prayed for a revival for forty years before it came, and then he said, Ay, and that is longer than thirty-six. ’’ His children will never forget standing outside his study door, listening to the loud crying to God and pleading for an outpouring of His Holy Spirit.

He did not pray in vain. Many can still remember how, at the Conference at Worcester in i860, when the wave of blessing which had swept over America, Ireland, Scotland and England had just reached our shores, he quite broke down when he spoke of his great longing for a revival. Within a year of that date the blessing came to his own congregation. Who shall describe the joy of that husbandman who had so long waited patiently for the precious fruit, when his patience of hope was so richly rewarded! “I can imagine Papa’s joy,” wrote one of the children, who was away from home; “I think he must be saying with Simeon, Lord, now lettest Thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.” When this letter was read to him, the tears came into his eyes and he said, "It is just that.”

He had warm sympathy with every good work, by whoever begun and in whatever part of the world. He watched with great interest the progress of the Disruption in Scotland, and his enthusiasm was roused by looking at a facsimile of the signatures to the "Act of Separation and Deed of Demission." In every good cause he took the lead. Long before slavery was abolished he had espoused the cause of the slave. When upon his marriage, as was the custom of the time, a female slave was given to the bride to accompany her to her new home, the bridegroom gave the girl her liberty before she set out with them.

In the course of his ministry he founded no less than eight new congregations, selecting the site of the town, inducting elders and deacons, planning the building of the church, and so forth, until a minister could be called. Two towns, against his expressed wish, were named in honour of him—Murraysburg (after himself) and Aberdeen (after his birthplace). He always had a very strong feeling against remaining too long in the ministry and (as he expressed it) keeping out a younger and stronger man. Increasing ill-health led him to resign his charge at the age of seventy, and he had not long to wait before the Master took him home.

On one of his last journeys he took a chill, which aggravated his disease. During the last few weeks he kept his bed, and suffered much pain, but was always patient and cheerful. -On the last Sabbath of his life, when the elders came in after service to see him, he enquired about the sermon; and then, knowing probably that his end was near, he said solemnly, " I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him until that day, until that day.” As our mother had been up with him all night, she was persuaded to take a little rest in the next room. He followed her to the door with his eyes, and then repeated the verse—

“Jezus! uw verzoenend sterven Blijft het rustpunt van ons hart”

(Jesus! thine atoning dying Still remains my heart's relying.) When the watchers saw that he was soon to leave them, they called our mother; but just as she reached the bedside, he breathed his last.

Some further reminiscences of the mother must find a place in this biography. They are from the pen of the same daughter who has given us so touching a description of the father—

How can a child attempt to describe a mother, and especially such a mother ? To us she never seemed at all like anyone else ; she was just Mama. She taught us to read before we were old enough to be sent to school, and the hymns and verses which we learnt at her knee have remained in the memory for a lifetime. When our father was from home, Mama took upon herself the task of hearing the boys repeat their lessons before going to school. One of her sons still remembers how, when he grumbled at his difficult Latin lesson, Mama learned the lesson with him, and made him take the book while she repeated it, and so encouraged him.

On Sunday she taught us the Kort Begrip (Shorter Catechism). It is sweet to recall those Sundays. Such Sabbath-keeping has gone out of fashion. Children now would perhaps think it a weariness, yet we cannot rememher that we as children ever did. The day was strictly observed. On Saturday afternoon there was the usual cleaning up and sweeping about the house, and the children can all remember being sent down to the cellar to fetch potatoes for boiling, and raisins for the yellow rice that was a regular item in the Sunday dinner. The meat was either cooked on Saturday, or else so prepared that it could be easily warmed ; for on Sunday it was compulsory for every one to go to church, the nurse-girl and the baby only excepted. There was often a cold tart on Sunday. The fruit, that in summer always appeared on table three times a day, had been gathered on Saturday. A walk in the garden was of course allowed, and here and there a fruit might be gathered ; but no tree climbing and no fruit-picking on a large scale was permissible, as on other days.

Once a week or once a fortnight our mother would indulge in a visit to one of her friends. Let us try and describe this visit. Before school one of the daughters takes a message from Mama to Mrs. Elsie Zier-vogel or to Mrs. Berrange: ”If it is quite convenient, Mama asks permission (laat belet vragen) to visit you this afternoon.” If the lady had some engagement for the afternoon, she did not hesitate to say so; if not, the answer would be, "I shall be very happy to see your Mama this afternoon.” Our dinner was at noon, and between two and three Mama would be ready to go, taking her work with her in her reticule. Arrived at the friend’s she was ushered into the large cool parlour, in which the lady of the house sat ready to receive her visitor, with her work beside her. On the side-table stood a well-filled cake-basket, covered with a spotless white serviette, a small tray, holding two glass pots of konfijt (preserve) and a differently shaped glass bowl of clear water, in which were two small silver forks, for the purpose of conveying a portion of preserve to the saucer. At three tea was sent in, and the preserves served with it, and at five coffee and cake. After that the garden would be visited, the lady of the house usually having the care of the vegetables as well as the flowers. When the little daughters of the parsonage came home from school at four o’clock, they found their Sunday frocks and bonnets neatly laid out on the bed in their mother’s room; and dressed in these they set forth to join Mama at the house where she was visiting.

The event in the lives of the family was the visit, once in five years, to Cape Town, the metropolis, where the meeting of Synod was held. Oh ! those months of anticipation, those weeks of preparation ! There were the ten fine horses, the loan of some kind elders or deacons, kept in the stable to be fed up for the journey ; and the horse-waggon, which had long been standing unused in the waggon-house, brought out and cleaned and painted afresh. And when the team had to be tried, and the children obtained a drive through the streets, their enjoyment began. Then came the fitting into the waggon of the katel—a wooden frame filled in with wicker-work of cane, and hung inside, two feet above the floor of the waggon—which had to serve as seats by day and bed by night. Then the plat vaatjes (two flat water kegs) cleaned and filled, the larger with water, and the smaller with wine, which was needed for mixing with the almost stagnant water drawn from pools or halfdry fountains along the way through the Great Karroo. Driver and coachman were hired, whip and harness provided, and—last but not least—the tar-barrel, which we have almost forgotten, must be attached to a hook at the side. A bad look-out if it had been forgotten, and the wheels had caught fire ! It was a source of endless speculation to the children, what the actual danger of such a fatality was. Beneath the waggon was swung the rem-ketting (a large iron chain for locking the wheel in going down-hill): we were ignorant of brakes in those days. Behind hung the trap—a wooden platform designed to hold pots, kettle and gridiron.

All was now ready for the eventful morning of the start, when the finishing touches were given, the trunks skilfully stowed away beneath the katel, the bedding placed upon it, with extra blankets and pillows for the overflow members of the party to sleep on at night underneath the waggon. The kost-mandje (provision-basket)—covered and lined so as to exclude the dust, well stored with good things, and supplied with cutlery, crockery and table requisites—found a place behind. As this basket could not contain enough food for ten or twelve people for ten days, room had to be found for bags full of Boer biscuit, biltong (dried meat) and sausages. The side pockets were carefully fixed and arranged inside the tent of the waggon, and stocked with toilet apparatus, candles and matches, a Bible and hymn-book, some medicines, and ointment and bandages for possible casualties along the road.

Then came the supreme moment of starting, when the horses had been inspanned, and each traveller had taken his appointed seat. " Crack went the whip, round went the wheels, were never folks so glad ! ” The first stage of three hours (18 miles) ended all too soon, but then followed the delights of the first outspan and encampment in the veld, when each child went to gather an armful of sticks to help in lighting the fire and preparing the meal. These outspans were just a series of picnics, brimful of enjoyment for the happy children.

The journey from Graafi-Reinet to Cape Town occupied ten days. It was broken by the Sunday rest at some farm or village. Some nights were spent at hospitable farmhouses ; but in the Karroo the whole family lodged in and around the waggon. The morning start was usually made long before daylight, and just after sunrise we halted for breakfast. Family worship, night and morning, was never omitted. The hour of the first and the last stage was spent in singing. Those were days long before Sankey or Church Praise or even Bateman existed. Yet what a rich store we had, both in English and Dutch hymns ! We possessed the Dutch Psalms and Hymns, the Scotch Paraphrases, the Cottage Hymns and the Olney Hymns ; and, best of all, a little stock stored in the memory of what were called Slaven Gezangen (Slave Hymns), compiled for the use of native congregations, which were so simple and sweet that they were loved the most of all.

Mrs. Murray survived her husband for twenty-three years, and died at Graaff-Reinet in the old parsonage, which had then become the home of her son Charles and his family, in the eighty-first year of her life. During the time of her widowhood, so long as health and strength remained to her, she would travel about the country, sojourning now with this son or daughter and now with the other, but always returning to the Graaff-Reinet home. Her delight in her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren was only equalled by the affection and reverence with which they regarded her.

The first child born to this godly couple, Andrew and Maria Murray, on the 15th September, 1826, was a son, who received the name of John, after his mother’s father and his father’s brother. Andrew, the subj ect of this work, was the second son, born on the 9th May, 1828 ; and he was followed by William born in 1829, and Maria, the eldest daughter, born in 1831. Charles, the fourth son, arrived in 1833, and was followed by a little daughter, Jemima, who was only two years old when the two eldest sons were sent to Scotland for their education in 1838.

Of Andrew’s youth little is known. He and his brother John were always the closest of companions. John was quiet, thoughtful, studious, slow of speech, and gave early signs of the grace that was in him. Andrew was a boy of somewhat exuberant spirits, less quiet and less studious than his elder brother, but active of body, quick in thought and speech, of a retentive memory and able easily to assimilate knowledge. Not less earnest than his brother, and devout from childhood, he professed to date his conversion from a much later period, when he was already a student at the university of Utrecht. The two lads were in many respects a contrast. John was the true son of his father—silent, reserved, and cautious in word and act. Andrew reflected in his features and character the bright and eager disposition of his mother. In spite of this difference of temperament, or perhaps, because of it, the brothers cherished the highest affection and regard for each other. John frankly admired the talents of his younger brother who, though two years his junior, kept beside him through all their ten years of study; and Andrew revered John’s steadiness of character and sobriety of judgment, while he tried to emulate his industry and his methodical habits of work. The ties of affection and esteem which united the brothers endured throughout the years of their ministry, and were only dissolved by the death of John Murray at the age of fifty-six.

For convenience' sake a full family record is here appended:

Children of Andrew and Maria Murray.

1. John, born 1826 ; married in 1850 Maria Anna Ziervogel, born 1830. Issue: eleven children.

2. Andrew, born 1828; married in 1856 Emma Rutherfoord, born 1835. Issue: eight children.

3. William, born 1829 ; married in 1855 Elsabe Antoinette Gie, born 1836. Issue : ten children.

4. Maria, born 1831 ; married in 1852 to Johannes Henoch Neethling, born 1826. Issue : ten children.

5. Charles, born 1833 ; married in 1861 Amelia Jane Bailie, born 1844. Issue : thirteen children.

6. Jemima, born 1836; married in 1855 to Andries Adriaan Louw, born 1827. Issue : nine children.

7. Isabella, born 1839 ; married in 1861 to Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr, born 1835. Issue : twelve children.

8. James, born 1843 (died unmarried).

9. George, born 1845 ; married in 1871 Catharina Johanna Louw, born 1852. Issue: sixteen children.

10. Helen, born 1849 (unmarried).

11. Eliza, born 1855 ; married in 1875 to Hendrik Ludolph Neethling, born 1845. Issue : two children

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The Life of Andrew Murray (South Africa)

Chapter 2

Seven Years in Scotland

There is such a thing as an atmosphere of belief. It is equally true that there is an atmosphere in which young men may best arrive at life decisions, and that atmosphere can best be generated in genuinely Christian homes. Unconsciously, in most cases, the child fulfils the desire of the parent’s heart.—John R. Mott.

IN the fourth decade of the nineteenth century the fortunes of popular education at the Cape were at their lowest ebb. The impetus imparted to the educational enterprise in 1822, when the able teachers secured by Dr. Thom commenced their labours, had died away. The salaries offered were so meagre that the majority of these men soon found spheres of work which provided better emoluments. Mr. Innes was appointed professor of mathematics at the South African College, and subsequently became the first Superintendent-General of Education, Mr. Robertson returned to Europe to qualify for the ministry of the D. R. Church, and some of the rest adopted other occupations. The condition of the public schools of the country sank lower and lower. While the population of the Colony in 1838 totalled about 100,000 whites, there were not more than twenty-three schools in receipt of a Government subsidy. The masters of these schools were paid £40 per annum from the public treasury, with an additional £5 for every ten pupils over the first twenty. On these terms qualified teachers were unprocurable, and those who came forward were able to teach little more than the three R’s. In some of the larger towns, like Graaff-Reinet and Cradock, enterprising parents, whose children required an education beyond that which the village school could supply, clubbed together to obtain a teacher who should instruct five-and-twenty pupils in Latin and mathematics, and all for the munificent salary of £120 per annum.

In Cape Town there were two institutions for higher education. These were the South African College, founded in 1829, and the school known as Tot Nut van’t Algemeen (Pro Bono Publico), the latter being at this time practically a feeder to the former. Among the farmer population of the country districts education was in the saddest condition of all. Sir John Herschel, the famous astronomer, who about this time drew up a memorandum on the state of education at the Cape which marked the dawn of a brighter day, reminded the Governor that schoolmaster was a term of reproach among the Boers. And no wonder ; for they were obliged to content themselves with the services of discharged soldiers, who tramped the country from farm to farm, but who were both intellectually and morally incompetent to impart even the most elementary instruction. Such was the state of affairs in the thirties. The oversight of educational concerns was entrusted to the Bible and School Commission, composed of a number of Cape Town clergymen representing the Dutch Reformed, Lutheran, Anglican and Scotch denominations, with a sprinkling of Government officials. These worthy men had little acquaintance with the real needs of the country, were sadly lacking [in initiative, and conducted their business for the most part on the laissez aller principle.

It was natural that Andrew Murray and his wife should be greatly exercised about the education of their two elder sons. The prospects were far from bright. There seemed to be small chance within the Colony for two lads of talent to secure an education which would fit them to play their parts in life. And so, after much thought and prayer, the parents arrived at the decision to send their sons to Scotland, placing them under the charge of the Rev. John Murray, in Aberdeen. This decision was reached, we may be sure, with heavy hearts, for the voyage from South Africa to Europe in those days was protracted and dangerous, and the severance from their beloved boys must needs be, at the best, for a long period of years.

Mr. and Mrs. Murray accompanied their sons to Port Elizabeth. Here, in July 1838, John and Andrew went on board the sailing vessel which was to convey them across the ocean. They were placed under the charge of the Rev. James Archbell and his wife, Wesleyan missionaries, who were proceeding home on furlough. Asked in after years what he could remember of the voyage to England, Andrew used to reply, “Nothing at all, except that Mrs. Archbell had a baby.” The sea voyage seems to have been moderately prosperous. The only complaint in which the father indulges is that, with the exception of a few lines by Mr. Archbell from St. Helena, he had no word from his absent sons until after the lapse of seven months, to a day, from their departure from Port Elizabeth.

The boys reached Aberdeen one day in the autumn of 1838, and on the very next morning their uncle John, who held strict Scotch views on the sin of idleness, took them over to the old Grammar School. This famous building has now wholly disappeared, and its site is occupied by a statue of General Gordon. The change from sunny South Africa to bleak and wintry Scotland, and the sudden introduction to new scenes, new masters and new companions, must have exercised a depressing influence upon the two lads, who were only ten and twelve years old respectively. Fortunately they were both studious, and the necessity for application -to their studies, coupled with the natural ambition to prove that Colonial lads were not utter savages, left them no time to yield to melancholy humours. The subject to which chief attention was paid was Latin, and though the brothers had enjoyed no other instruction than their father’s, they found that what they had acquired was quite equal to the average attainments of boys of their own age in Aberdeen.

Of the impression which the lads made upon the members of their uncle’s household we know hardly anything, beyond the reminiscences contained in the following lines by their cousin, Miss Isabella Murray, who confesses that she was less than a year old when Andrew became an inmate of their home—

He and his brother, when they arrived after a miserable voyage, were suffering from scurvy . . . and I have always thought with pity of the dear little fellow being entered at the Grammar School the first morning after his arrival. But he was very happy there, and had a great teacher in Dr. Melvin, of whom Professor David Masson has written so graphically. I cannot tell you anything remarkable of his early days with us. He was a bright, lovable boy, extremely obliging, and devoted to his brother John, to whom he owed much. John was studious and thoughtful beyond his years, and seemed weighted with a sense of responsibility, both on his own account and Andrew’s. Strange to say, when both boys sat for the entrance examination at Marischal College, it was the younger boy, then only thirteen, who gained a bursary. One remarkable thing I can tell you which applies to both boys,—with neither of them had their uncle and aunt even once to find fault during their eight years’ stay in our house, and this was due, we believed, to incessant prayer for them in the Graafi-Reinet home. We, the younger members of the family, looked on them as brothers, and were broken-hearted when they left us.

A good many letters, chiefly from the father to his sons, have been preserved from the Aberdeen period, and though they cast little light upon the circumstances under which the youths lived or the progress they made, a few extracts are here presented because of their general interest—

Rev. Andrew Murray to his sons John and Andrew.

Graaff-Reinet, 30th August, 1838.

My dear Boys,—I should have written to you before this time, had it not been that we have been expecting every post to hear something from you from St. Helena. You may both depend on it, though you are out of our sight you are seldom out of mind. We have been as it were following [you] with our fervent prayers that the God of the ocean may have been your Protector and your Guide, and we cherish the strong confidence they shall have been heard and answered. We trust also that you have not forgotten to cry to this God, “Thou art my Father, the Guide of my youth.”

You may sometimes think it hard that whilst so many young people you have known, and yet know, enjoy all the happiness of the paternal circle, you should have been sent so far from it. I trust, however, that you will ever remember that this has taken place for your own good. You know God has appointed me my station and my work here

You know also, had my affection for you so far B^yedw&h keep you here, you could never have seen or known the half of the good you are likely to see and know now. It will, however under the blessing of God, depend much on yourselves whether or not the step we have taken, shall be for your real benefit m this life and that which is to rejoice to think that your Uncle will not fail to put you in mind of these things. You must try to be always open and candid with him. You may think him sometimes rather too strict, but believe me he will always have your real good at heart. Do not then do or even plan anything you would not like him to know of. Whatever school he may see meet to send you to, believe it is for your good. Try to keep as far up in your classes as you possibly can. Prepare your tasks well in the evenings, and trust not too much to the mornings even when the lessons may be pretty easy.

Mr. Frames, whom you may have seen at Port Elizabeth, has been nominated to the Governor by the School Commission for the situation Mr. Blair had. Should he succeed, he knows little of Latin, so that he could not have helped you, had you remained. Mr. Faure and Mr. Robertson have both asked me for William, as they have Latin schools in Town and at Swellendam, but we do not like to part with him yet. Tell your Uncle that I have this day received his letter of the 22nd of May, and that I shall in common with many of my brethren ever feel grateful to him for his exertions in behalf of the interests of our Church in this case of Mr. Shand.

Now, my dear Boys, let us hear from you frequently, as everything about yourselves, your friends, your lodgings and your studies will be sure to prove very interesting to us, and many friends here will be enquiring about you. As it is near post time I must bid you both adieu, commending you daily to the care and keeping of our ever blessed and adorable Father in heaven.

Graaff-Reinet, 5th March, 1840.

My dear Boys,—Your long expected and very agreeable letter of the 7th November gave us all very great pleasure indeed. We were delighted to learn that John had gotten prizes, and that you, Andrew, stood so near to him. What gave me the greatest satisfaction was that you, John, seemed at least to take pleasure in communicating to us Andrew’s respectable appearance in his classes. I trust you will both continue to do your best, as these prizes are valuable as marking a certain standing in the class.

Nothing could afford me greater delight than to hear of those revivals of religion in the West of Scotland to which Andrew has alluded in your letter. It affords me joy to hear of any number of souls brought to Christ anywhere, and it would increase the joy to think, my dear Boys, that you, though young, begin to take some interest in such things.

You will see that one cause I write short this time is because your little brothers and sisters have taken up the space, and communicated some of those