Wholly For God
Selections From the Writings of William Law
Edited by Andrew Murray
1893
Reprinted 1976
FOREWORD..by..Norman Grubb
The writings of William Law have been to me the key which unlocked the door into the true treasure chamber of what Paul called “the mystery of godliness,” I had come some distance by grace through faith, both into the initial new birth experience and on into what is sometimes spoken of as “the second work of grace,” “sanctification,” “full salvation,” or “enduement with power,” by which Galatians 2:20 (“not I, but Christ liveth in me”) had become a transforming reality.But, as Paul wrote to the ‘topline’ saints of Ephesus, who already knew Christ in a saved and Spirit-filled relationship, they still needed “the eyes of their understanding to be enlightened,” so William Law was the beginning of that enlightenment to me, carrying me into what I would daringly call the ultimate of understanding. Here at last was, in reality, what it is all about!
It was through extracts from his writings, authored by Andrew Murray, that I came to find William Law. I grew up under Andrew Murray. But here was a discovery. Murray must have felt the need of lifting the veil just a little into his own true sources of depth insights in “the way of God more perfectly.” For William Law’s unfoldings of the truth within the truth go way beyond any of Murray’s published writings; and I think in the wisdom of God, Murray’s commission was to interpret them in more readable and palatable form for the majority of God’s people, who maybe are not meant to pursue to the ultimate.
As soon as a friend handed me Wholly for God, I scented the source of the river. That was about 35 years ago. I found Law difficult. His presentation of ultimate truth was too ultimate for me at first. Its concepts went more deeply into “the nature of things” (one of Law’s favourite terms)—who God is, who Christ is, who man is—than any mere surface understandings I already had, which had not before seemed surface to me.
Then I found that William Law himself was an illumined man only because he had come across the writings of the German cobbler, Jacob Boehme. William Law was a high church legalist, knowing nothing of grace. In his student days at Oxford, together with John Wesley, he belonged to a group called The Holy Club. Law with his writing gift then wrote what is considered an English classic on a level with The Imitation of Christ, which he called A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life. This book offers the reader the hopeless ladder of good works to attain perfection. That was the only William Law that John Wesley knew, so after Wesley had his illumination in grace, he always regarded Law as someone to be avoided as ignorant of grace. He never knew the transformed Law.
Jacob Boehme’s writings opened this whole new world of depth revelation to Law. Law is really the expositor in simpler form of Boehme’s glowing, but sometimes almost unintelligible, outpourings. Jacob Boehme is, of course, acknowledged by all the great investigators of truth—scientists (Sir Isaac Newton owned some of his basic concepts on gravity to Boehme), philosophers, theologians—as one of the greatest “seers” of all time, yet always with the Scriptures as his ultimate source. I must admit I have received more pure light from a few sayings of Boehme that from whole books by other authors. However, he is difficult to understand and much goes beyond me, whereas anyone can read William Law, though there again it took time for me to soak into his glorious presentation of God “the eternal will to all goodness,” to the depth understanding of the Fall, wrath, atonement, and the total meaning of the new birth. You may not find it easy to follow through, even with this Wholly for God, but oh what riches if you do! In William Law, Jacob Boehme, and some others, for me “the winter is passed; the time of the singing of the birds had come.”
I am very thankful that Andrew Murray let us in on his secret springs, and that Bethany Fellowship has undertaken the reprinting of this choice volume.
Norman GrubbInternational Secretary Emeritus of
The Worldwide Evangelization Crusade.
Selections From the Writings of William Law
Edited by Andrew Murray
1893
Reprinted 1976
FOREWORD..by..Norman Grubb
The writings of William Law have been to me the key which unlocked the door into the true treasure chamber of what Paul called “the mystery of godliness,” I had come some distance by grace through faith, both into the initial new birth experience and on into what is sometimes spoken of as “the second work of grace,” “sanctification,” “full salvation,” or “enduement with power,” by which Galatians 2:20 (“not I, but Christ liveth in me”) had become a transforming reality.But, as Paul wrote to the ‘topline’ saints of Ephesus, who already knew Christ in a saved and Spirit-filled relationship, they still needed “the eyes of their understanding to be enlightened,” so William Law was the beginning of that enlightenment to me, carrying me into what I would daringly call the ultimate of understanding. Here at last was, in reality, what it is all about!
It was through extracts from his writings, authored by Andrew Murray, that I came to find William Law. I grew up under Andrew Murray. But here was a discovery. Murray must have felt the need of lifting the veil just a little into his own true sources of depth insights in “the way of God more perfectly.” For William Law’s unfoldings of the truth within the truth go way beyond any of Murray’s published writings; and I think in the wisdom of God, Murray’s commission was to interpret them in more readable and palatable form for the majority of God’s people, who maybe are not meant to pursue to the ultimate.
As soon as a friend handed me Wholly for God, I scented the source of the river. That was about 35 years ago. I found Law difficult. His presentation of ultimate truth was too ultimate for me at first. Its concepts went more deeply into “the nature of things” (one of Law’s favourite terms)—who God is, who Christ is, who man is—than any mere surface understandings I already had, which had not before seemed surface to me.
Then I found that William Law himself was an illumined man only because he had come across the writings of the German cobbler, Jacob Boehme. William Law was a high church legalist, knowing nothing of grace. In his student days at Oxford, together with John Wesley, he belonged to a group called The Holy Club. Law with his writing gift then wrote what is considered an English classic on a level with The Imitation of Christ, which he called A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life. This book offers the reader the hopeless ladder of good works to attain perfection. That was the only William Law that John Wesley knew, so after Wesley had his illumination in grace, he always regarded Law as someone to be avoided as ignorant of grace. He never knew the transformed Law.
Jacob Boehme’s writings opened this whole new world of depth revelation to Law. Law is really the expositor in simpler form of Boehme’s glowing, but sometimes almost unintelligible, outpourings. Jacob Boehme is, of course, acknowledged by all the great investigators of truth—scientists (Sir Isaac Newton owned some of his basic concepts on gravity to Boehme), philosophers, theologians—as one of the greatest “seers” of all time, yet always with the Scriptures as his ultimate source. I must admit I have received more pure light from a few sayings of Boehme that from whole books by other authors. However, he is difficult to understand and much goes beyond me, whereas anyone can read William Law, though there again it took time for me to soak into his glorious presentation of God “the eternal will to all goodness,” to the depth understanding of the Fall, wrath, atonement, and the total meaning of the new birth. You may not find it easy to follow through, even with this Wholly for God, but oh what riches if you do! In William Law, Jacob Boehme, and some others, for me “the winter is passed; the time of the singing of the birds had come.”
I am very thankful that Andrew Murray let us in on his secret springs, and that Bethany Fellowship has undertaken the reprinting of this choice volume.
Norman GrubbInternational Secretary Emeritus of
The Worldwide Evangelization Crusade.