A Teacher
W. John Murray
Affirmative supply consciousness — meet every lack-thought with an instant supply affirmation
The transmission
W. John Murray (born Sheffield, England, July 28, 1865; died 1924) was one of the most prominent New Thought ministers in New York City in the early twentieth century.
A former Roman Catholic, he left that church to study the metaphysical movement, training under Emma Curtis Hopkins and being ordained within the Divine Science lineage associated with Nona Brooks and Malinda Cramer.
In 1906 he founded the Church of the Healing Christ in New York, which grew into the largest New Thought congregation in the city, meeting for years in the ballroom of the Hotel Waldorf-Astoria. In 1917 Murray formally affiliated his work with Divine Science, receiving permission from the Denver organization to also call his church the First Divine Science Church of New York; the same year his twenty-two-part Astor Lectures were published by the Divine Science Publishing Association.
His ministry centred on practical metaphysics — spiritual healing, prayer, and especially the doctrine of divine supply, the conviction that material lack is a false belief to be corrected by affirming the ever-present abundance of God.
He was once arrested (1915) for “practicing medicine without a license” after praying over a person for healing, a reflection of how seriously the movement’s healing claims were taken at the time.
What they gave
Supply consciousness as discipline: Taught that lack is a thought to be met immediately with a counter-affirmation of God as the source of all supply.
- The Astor Lectures (1917): A widely circulated lecture series translating Divine Science metaphysics into practical instruction on healing, prayer, and prosperity.
- Big-tent New Thought ministry: Built and led the largest New Thought church in New York, popularising the movement to mainstream audiences.
- Bridged Christian and metaphysical idiom: Reframed biblical language (the Twenty-third Psalm, “the Lord is my shepherd”) into affirmative prosperity practice.
In their words
There is only one source through which true riches ever come, and that is the Great Source of all Substance, God.
The line they stand in
Influenced by: Emma Curtis Hopkins; the Divine Science founders (Nona Brooks, Malinda Cramer); the broader New Thought and mental-healing stream; Christian metaphysics.
Influenced: Divine Science prosperity teaching; later New Thought “supply” and abundance literature; affirmative-prayer practice for finances.
Revelations they taught
Orders & Societies
Their Practices 1
Essential Works
- The Astor Lectures1917
- Mental Medicine1923