Andrew Murray
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Matthew 11:28-30
This is essentially the only personal trait of the Lord Jesus that He ever draws significant attention to; and what is unfathomably amazing, He opens His heart to us, and invites us in.
South African born Rev Murray early makes the case that “pride, or the loss of this humility, is the root of every sin and evil.” And so, “our one need is to study and know and trust the life that has been revealed in Christ as the life that is now ours, and waits for our consent to gain possession and mastery of our whole being.”
While the local book shop, op-shop, and Christian book shop, are brimming with self-help books that promise that “you are enough just the way you are”, and “you are the person you are looking for”, etc … humility, sanctification, and becoming more Christ-like are not aspects of personal development that are often valued in our prideful and selfish generation. Thankfully though, the Lord has blessed our age with many resources from times past, and we can look back over a century, to find that this book simply and succinctly points us back to the true beauty of humility.
Rev Murray’s challenge still stands:
Is it any wonder that the Christian life is so often feeble and fruitless, when the very root of the Christ life is neglected, is unknown? Is it any wonder that the joy of salvation is so
little felt, when that in which Christ found it and brings it, is so little sought?
“Until a humility which will rest in nothing less than the end and death of self; which gives up all the honour of men as Jesus did, to seek the honour that comes from God alone; which absolutely makes and counts itself nothing, that God may be all, that the Lord alone may be exalted—until such a humility be what we seek in Christ above our chief joy, and welcome at any price, there is very little hope of a religion that will conquer the world.”
This is an incredibly beneficial and easy read (of only 82 pages), though the affordable reprint from Merchant Books is sadly missing the Notes chapter at the back. I have created a pdf of the Notes chapter that you can print as a booklet using Adobe, and tuck into the back of the book.
Alternatively, you can read the whole book online for free thanks to Project Gutenberg.
