George Müller of Bristol and his witness to a prayer-hearing God;

DIS6ARD

Westmont College

Mr. Milce Mecherikoff

MCHAEL MECIIEPaKOFF

Westir.ont College

955 La Paz Road

Santa Barbara, Calif.

Digitized by the Internet Arciiive
in 2010

littp://www.arcliive.org/details/georgemllerofbOOpier

GEORGE MtJILER OF BRISTOL

AND

HIS WITNESS TO A PRAYER-
HEARING GOD

BY

ARTHUR T. PIERSON

Author of "-The Crisis of Missions." " The Nei" Acts of the Apostles,'

"Many Infallible l^oofs."'' etc. ; editor of " The Missionary

Review of the World,'" etc.

WITH AiN" IJ^TRODUCTIOJf

JAMES WRIGHT

Son-in law and successor in the work of Qeorge Muller

LIBRARY
WESTMONT COLLEGE

955 LA PAZ ROAD
SANTA BARBARA, CALIF. 93103

New York
Fleming H. Revell Company

London and Edinburgh

Twelfth Printing

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

NEW YORK: 158 FIFTH AVENUE

Introduction

Veey soon after the decease of my beloved father-in-lav
I began to receive letters pressing upon me the desirable-
ness of issuing as soon as possible a memoir of him and his
work.

The well-known autobiography, entitled " Narrative of
the Lord's Dealings with George Miiller," had been, and
was still being, so greatly used by God in the edification of
believers and the conversion of unbelievers that I hesitated
to countenance any attempt to supersede or even supple-
ment it. But as, with prayer, I reflected upon the subject,
several considerations impressed me:

1st. The last volume of the Narrative ends with the year
1885, so that there is no record of the last thirteen years
of Mr. Miiller's life excepting what is contained in the
yearly reports of " The Scriptural Knowledge Institution."

2d. The last three volumes of the Narrative, being
mainly a condensation of the yearly reports during the
period embraced in them, contain much unavoidable
repetition.

3d. A book of, say, four hundred and fifty pages, con-
taining the substance of the four volumes of the Narrative,
and carrying on the history to the date of the decease of
the founder of the institution, would meet the desire of a
large class of readers.

4th. Several brief sketches of Mr. Miiller's career had
issued from the press within a few days after the funeral;

30004

^ Introduction

and one (written by Mr. F. Warne and published by W. F.
Mack & Co., Bristol), a very accurate and truly apprecia-
tive sketch, had had a large circulation; but I was con-
vinced by the letters that reached me that a more com-
prehensive memoir was called for, and would be produced,
so I was led especially to pray for guidance that such a
book might be entrusted to the author fitted by God to
undertake it.

While waiting for the answer to this definite petition,
though greatly urged by publishers to proceed, I steadily
declined to take any step until I had clearer light. More-
over, I was, personally, occupied during May and June in
preparing the Annual Report of " The Scriptural Knowl-
edge Institution," and could not give proper attention to
the other matter.

Just then I learned from Dr. Arthur T. Pierson, of
Brooklyn, N. Y., that he had been led to undertake the
production of a memoir of Mr. Miiller for American
readers, and requesting my aid by furnishing him with
some materials needed for the work.

Having complied with this request I was favoured by
Dr. Pierson with a syllabus of the method and contents of
his intended work.

The more I thought upon the subject the more satisfied
I became that no one could be found more fitted to under-
take the work which had been called for on this side of
the Atlantic also than this my well-known and beloved
friend.

He had had exceptional opportunities twenty years ago
in the United States, and in later years when visiting
Great Britain, for becoming intimately acquainted with
Mr. Miiller, with the principles on which the Orphanage
and other branches of " The Scriptural Knowledge Insti-
tution" were carried on, and with many details of their

Introduction 7

working. I knew that Dr. Pierson most thoroughly sym-
pathized with these principles as being according to the
mind of God revealed in His word; and that he could,
therefore, present not merely the history of the external
facts and results of Mr. Miiller's life and labours, but could
and would, by God's help, unfold, with the ardour and
force of conviction, the secret springs of that life and of
those labours.

I therefore intimated to my dear friend that, provided
he would allow me to read the manuscript and have thus
the opportunity of making any suggestions that I felt
necessary, I would, as my beloved father-in-law's executor
and representative, gladly endorse his work as the author-
ized memoir for British as well as American readers.

To this Dr. Pierson readily assented; and now, after
carefully going through the whole, I confidently recom-
mend the book to esteemed readers on both sides of the
Atlantic, with the earnest prayer that the result, in rela-
tion to the subject of this memoir, may be identical with
that produced by the account of the Apostle Paul's " man-
ner of life " upon the churches of Judea which were in
Christ (Gal. i. 24), viz.,

<' They glorified God " in him.

James Wright.
13 Charlotte Street, Park Street,
Bristol, Eng., March, lb99.

A Prefatory Word

Dr. Oliver W. Holmes wittily said that an autobiog-
raphy is what every biography ought to be. The four
volumes of " The Narrative of the Lord's Dealings with
George Mliller/' already issued from the press and written
by his own hand, with a fifth volume covering his mis-
sionary tours, and prepared by his wife, supplemented by
the Annual Eeports since published, constitute essentially
an autobiography — Mr. Miiller's own life-story, stamped
with his own peculiar individuality, and singularly and
minutely complete. To those who wish the simple journal
of his life with the details of his history, these printed
documents make any other sketch of him from other hands
so far unnecessary.

There are, however, two considerations which have
mainly prompted the preparation of this brief memoir:
first, that the facts of this remarkable life might be set
forth not so much with reference to the chronological order
of their occurrence, as events, as for the sake of the lessons
in living which they furnish, illustrating and enforcing
grand spiritual principles and precepts; and secondly, be-
cause no man so humble as he would ever write of himself
what, after his departure, another might properly write of
him that others might glorify God in him.

No one could have undertaken this work of writing Mr.
Miilleris life-story without being deeply impressed with the
opportunity thus afforded for impressing the most vital

lo A Prefatory Word

truths that concern holy living and holy serving; nor could
any one have completed such a work without feeling over-
awed by the argument which this narrative furnishes for a
present, living, prayer-hearing God, and for a possible and
practical daily walk with Him and work with Him. It
has been a great help in the preparation of this book that
the writer has had such frequent converse with Mr. James
Wright, who was so long Mr. Miiller's associate and knew
him so intimately.

So prominent was the word of God as a power in Mr.
Miiller's life that, in an appendix, we have given peculiar
emphasis to the great leading texts of Scripture which in-
spired and guided his faith and conduct, and, so far as
possible, in the order in which such texts became practi-
cally influential in his life; and so many wise and invalu-
able counsels are to be found scattered throughout his
journal that some of the most striking and helpful have
been selected, which may also be found in the appendix.

This volume has, like the life it sketches, but one aim.
It is simply and solely meant to extend, emphasize, and
perpetuate George Miiller's witness to a prayer-hearing
God; to present, as plainly, forcibly, and briefly as is prac-
ticable, the outlines of a human history, and an experience
of the Lord's leadings and dealings, which furnish a suf-
ficient answer to the question:

Wheee is the Loed God of Elijah ?

Table of Contents

FAGH

Introduction by Mr. James Wright 5

A Prefatory Word 9

CHAPTER I.
From His Birth to His New Birth 15

CHAPTER II.
The New Birth and the New Life 27

CHAPTER III.
Making Ready the Chosen Vessel 40

CHAPTER IV.
New Steps and Stages op Preparation 53

CHAPTER V.
The Pulpit and the Pastorate 63

CHAPTER VI.
"The Narrative of the Lord's Dealings" 78

CHAPTER VII.
Led of God into a New Sphere . 93

CHAPTER VIII.

A Tree of God's own Planting , ... 107

SI

12 Table of Contents

CHAPTER IX.

PAQB

The Growth of God's own Plant 121

CHAPTER X.
The Word of God and Prater 137

CHAPTER XI.
Trials op Faith and Helpers to Faith 154

CHAPTER XII.
New Lessons in God's School of Prater 169

CHAPTER XIII.
Following the Pillar of Cloud and Firk 183

CHAPTER XIV.
God's Building: The New Orphan Houses 197

CHAPTER XV.
The Manifold Grace op God 216

CHAPTER XVL
The Shadow op a Great Sorrow 234

CHAPTER XVII.
Thk Period op World-wide Witness 245

CHAPTER XVIII.
Faith and Patience in Serving 264

CHAPTER XIX.
At Evening-time— Light 283

CHAPTER XX.
The Summart of the Life-work 293

Table of Contents 13

CHAPTER XXI.

FAOK

Thb Chukch Life and Growth 307

CHAPTER XXII.
▲ Glance at the Gifts and the Givers ..•.,.. 324

CHAPTER XXIIL
God's Witness to the Work 343

CHAPTER XXIV.
Last Looks. Backward and Forward 860

APPENDIX.

A. Scripture Texts that Moulded George Muller . . 377

B. Apprehension of Truth 386

C. SaPARATION from THE LONDON SOCIETY, ETC 390

D. The Scriptural Knowledge Institution for Home and

Abroad 392

A Reasons which led Mr. Muller to Establish an

Orphan House 395

P. Arguments in Prayer for the Orphan Work . . . 405

G. The Purchase op a Site, etc 407

H. God's Faithfulness in Providing 409

K. Further Recollections of Mr. Muller 411

L. Church Fellowship, Baptism, etc 413

M. Church Conptc?? 418

N. The Wise A^^j^ras of George Mulleb ...... 425

George Mtiller of Bristol

CHAPTEK I

FEOM HIS BIRTH TO HIS NEW BIRTH

A HUMAN life, filled with the presence and power of
God, is one of God's choicest gifts to His church and to
the world.

Things which are unseen and eternal seem, to the carnal
man, distant and indistinct, while what is seen and tem-
poral is vivid and real. Practically, any object in nature
that can be seen or felt is thus more real and actual to
most men than the Living God. Every man who walks
with God, and finds Him a present Help in every time of
need ; who puts His promises to the practical proof and
verifies them in actual experience ; every believer who
with the key of faith unlocks God's mysteries, and with
the key of prayer unlocks God's treasuries, thus furnishes
to the race a demonstration and an illustration of the fact
that " He is, and is a Eewarder of them that diligently
seek Him."

George Miiller was such an argument and example in-
carnated in human flesh. Here was a man of like passions
as we are and tempted in all points like as we are, but who
believed God and was established by believing; who prayed
15

1 6 George Mtiller of Bristol

earnestly that he might live a life and do a work which
should be a convincing proof that God hears prayer and
that it is safe to trust Him at all times; and who has fur-
nished just such a witness as he desired. Like Enoch,
he truly walked with God, and had abundant testimony
borne to him that he pleased God. And when, on the tenth
day of March, 1898, it was told us of George Miiller that
"he was not," we knew that "God had taken him": it
seemed more like a translation than like death.

To those who are familiar with his long life-story, and,
most of all, to those who intimately knew him and felt
the power of personal contact with him, he was one of
God's ripest saints and himself a living proof that a life
of faith is possible; that God may be known, communed
with, found, and may become a conscious companion in the
daily life. George Miiller proved for himself and for all
others who will receive his witness that, to those who are
willing to take God at His word and to yield self to His
will, He is "the same yesterday and to-day and forever":
that the days of divine intervention and deliverance are
past only to those with whom the days of faith and obedi-
ence are past — in a word, that believing prayer works still
the wonders which our fathers told of in the days of old.

The life of this man may best be studied, perhaps, by
dividing it into certain marked periods, into which it
naturally falls, when we look at those leading events and
experiences which are like punctuation-marks or para-
graph divisions, — as, for example:

1. From his birth to his new birth or conversion:
1805-1825.

2. From his conversion to full entrance on his life-work:
1825-35.

3. From this point to the period of his mission tours :
1835-75.

From His Birth to His New Birth 17

4, From the beginning to the close of these tours :
1875-92.

5. From the close of his tours to his death : 1892-98.
Thus the first period would cover twenty years; the

second, ten ; the third, forty ; the fourth, seventeen ; and
the last, six. However thus unequal in length, each forms
a sort of epoch, marked by certain conspicuous and charac-
teristic features which serve to distinguish it and make its
lessons peculiarly important and memorable. For exam-
ple, the first period is that of the lost days of sin, in which
the great lesson taught is the bitterness and wortliless-
ness of a disobedient life. In the second period may be
traced the remarkable steps of preparation for the great
work of his life. The third period embraces the actual
working out of the divine mission committed to him.
Then for seventeen or eighteen years we find him bearing
in all parts of the earth his world-wide witness to God;
and the last six years were used of God in mellowing and
maturing his Christian character. During these years he
was left in peculiar loneliness, yet this only made him
lean more on the divine companionship, and it was notice-
able with those who were brought into most intimate
contact with him that he was more than ever before
heavenly-minded, and the beauty of the Lord his God was
upon him.

The first period may be passed rapidly by, for it covers
only the wasted years of a sinful and profligate youth and
early manhood. It is of interest mainly as illustrating the
sovereignty of that Grace which abounds even to the chief
of sinners. Who can read the story of that score of years
and yet talk of piety as the product of evolution ? In his
case, instead of evolution, there was rather a revolution, as
marked and complete as ever was found, perhaps, in the
annals of salvation. If Lord George Lyttelton could a ccount

1 8 George MuUer of Bristol

for the conversion of Saul of Tarsus only by supernatural
power, what would he have thought of George Miiller's
transformation ! Saul had in his favor a conscience, how-
ever misguided, and a morality, however pharisaic. George
Miiller was a flagrant sinner against common honesty and
decency, and his whole early career was a revolt, not
against God only, but against his own moral sense. If Saul
was a hardened transgressor, how callous must have been
George Miiller !

He was a native of Prussia, born at Kroppenstaedt, near
Halberstadt, September 27, 1805. Less than five years later
his parents removed to Heimersleben, some four miles off,
where his father was made collector of the excise, again
removing about eleven years later to Schoenebeck, near
Magdeburg, where he had obtained another appointment.

George Miiller had no proper parental training. His
father's favoritism toward him was harmful both to him-
self and to his brother, as in the family of Jacob, tending
to jealousy and estrangement. Money was put too freely in-
to the hands of these boys, hoping that they might learn
how to use it and save it; but the result was, rather, careless
and vicious waste, for it became the source of many child-
ish sins of indulgence. Worse still, when called upon to
render any account of their stewardship, sins of lying and
deception were used to cloak wasteful spending. Young
George systematically deceived his father, either by false
entries of what he had received, or by false statements of
what he had spent or had on hand. When his tricks were
found out, the punishment which followed led to no
reformation, the only effect being more ingenious devices
of trickery and fraud. Like the Spartan lad, George
Miiller reckoned it no fault to steal, but only to have his
theft found out.

His own brief account of his boyhood shows a very bad

From His Birth to His New Birth 19

boy and he attempts no disguise. Before he was ten years
old he was a habitual thief and an expert at cheating ;
even government funds, entrusted to his father, were not
safe from his hands. Suspicion led to the laying of a
snare into which he fell: a sum of money was carefully
counted and put where he would find it and have a chance
to steal it. He took it and hid it under his foot in his
shoe, but, he being searched and the money being found, it
became clear to whom the various sums previously miss-
ing might be traced.

His father wished him educated for a clergyman, and
before he was eleven he was sent to the cathedral classical
school at Halberstadt to be fitted for the university. That
such a lad should be deliberately set apart for such a sacred
office and calling, by a father who knew his moral ob-
liquities and offences, seems incredible; but, where a state
church exists, the ministry of the Gospel is apt to be
treated as a human profession rather than as a divine
vocation, and so the standards of fitness often sink to the
low secular level, and the main object in view becomes the
so-called " living," which is, alas, too frequently indepen-
dent of Jioly living.

From this time the lad's studies were mixed up with
novel-reading and various vicious indulgences. Card-
playing and even strong drink got hold of him. The
night when his mother lay dying, her boy of fourteen
was reeling through the streets, drunk ; and even her
death failed to arrest his wicked course or to arouse
his sleeping conscience. And — as must always be the case
when such solemn reminders make one no better — he only
grew worse.

When he came to the age for confirmation he had to
attend the class for preparatory religious teaching ; but
this being to him a mere form, and met in a care'less spirit,

20 George Muller of Bristol

another false step was taken : sacred things were treated
as common, and so conscience became the more callous.
On the very eve of confirmation and of his first approach
to the Lord's Table he was guilty of gross sins; and on the
day previous, when he met the clergyman for the custom-
ary " confession of sin," he planned and practised another
shameless fraud, withholding from him eleven-twelfths of
the confirmation fee entrusted to him by his father !

In such frames of mind and with such habits of life
George Miiller, in the Easter season of 1820, was con-
firmed and became a communicant. Confirmed, indeed !
but in sin, not only immoral and unregenerate, but so
ignorant of the very rudiments of the Gospel of Christ
that he could not have stated to an inquiring soul the
simple terms of the plan of salvation. There was, it is true
about such serious and sacred transactions, a vague solem-
nity which left a transient impression and led to shallow
resolves to live a better life ; but there was no real sense
of sin or of repentance toward God, nor was there any
dependence upon a higher strength: and, without these,
efforts at self-amendment never prove of value or work
lasting results.

The story of this wicked boyhood presents but little
variety, except that of sin and crime. It is one long tale
of evil-doing and of the sorrow which it brings. Once,
when his money was all recklessly wasted, hunger drove
him to steal a bit of coarse bread from a soldier who was
a fellow lodger; and looking back, long afterward, to that
hour of extremity, he exclaimed, " "What a bitter thing is
the service of Satan, even in this world ! "

On his father's removal to Schoenebeck in 1821 he asked
to be sent to the cathedral school at Magdeburg, inwardly
hoping thus to break away from his sinful snares and
vicious companions, and, amid new scenes, find help in

From His Birth to His New Birth 2r

self-reform. He was not, therefore, without at least occa-
sional aspirations after moral improvement ; but again he
made the common and fatal mistake of overlooking the
Source of all true betterment. " God was not in all his
thoughts." He found that to leave one place for another
was not to leave his sin behind, for he took himself along.

His father, with a strange fatuity, left him to superin-
tend sundry alterations in his house at Heimersleben, ar-
ranging for him meanwhile to read classics with the
resident clergyman, Eev. Dr. Nagel. Being thus for a
time his own master, temptation opened wide doors before
him. He was allowed to collect dues from his father's
debtors, and again he resorted to fraud, spending large
sums of this money and concealing the fact that it had
been paid.

In November, 1821, he went to Magdeburg and to
Brunswick, to which latter place he was drawn by his pas-
sion for a young Eoman Catholic girl whom he had met
there soon after confirmation. In this absence from home
he took one step after another in the path of wicked in-
dulgence. First of all, by lying to his tutor he got his
consent to his going; then came a week of sin at Magde-
burg and a wasting of his father's means at a costly hotel
in Brunswick. His money being gone, he went to the
house of an uncle until he was sent away; then, at another
expensive hotel, he ran up bills until, payment being
demanded, he had to leave his best clothes as a security,
barely escaping arrest. Then, at Wolfenbiittel, he tried
the same bold scheme again, until, having nothing for de-
posit, he ran off, but this time was caught and sent to jail.
This boy of sixteen was already a liar and thief, swindler
and drunkard, accomplished only in crime, a companion
of convicted felons and himself in a felon's cell. This cell,
% few days later, a thief shared: and these two held con-

22 George Muller of Bristol

verse as fellow thieves, relating their adventures to one
another, and young Muller, that he might not be outdone,
invented lying tales of villainy to make himself out the
more famous fellow of the two !

Ten or twelve days passed in this wretched fellowship,
until disagreement led to a sullen silence between them.
And so passed away twenty-four dark days, from December
18, 1821, until the 12th of January ensuing, during all of
which George Miiller was shut up in prison and during
part of which he sought as a favour the company of a thief.

His father learned of his disgrace and sent money to
meet his hotel dues and other " costs " and pay for his re-
turn home. Yet such was his persistent wickedness that,
going from a convict's cell to confront his outraged but in-
dulgent parent, he chose as his companion in travel an
avowedly wicked man.

He was severely chastised by his father and felt that he
must make some effort to reinstate himself in his favour.
He therefore studied hard and took pupils in arithmetic
and German, French and Latin. This outward reform so
pleased his father that he shortly forgot as well as forgave
his evil-doing ; but again it was only the outside of the
cup and platter that was made clean: the secret heart was
still desperately wicked and the whole life, as God saw it,
was an abomination.

George Miiller now began to forge what he afterward
called " a whole chain of lies." When his father would
no longer consent to his staying at home, he left, ostensibly
for Halle, the university town, to be examined, but really
for Nordhausen to seek entrance into the g}'mnasium. He
avoided Halle because he dreaded its severe discipline, and
foresaw that restraint would be doubly irksome when con-
stantly meeting young fellows of his acquaintance who,
as students in the university, would have much more free-

From His Birth to His New Birth 23

dom than himself. On returning home he tried to conceal
this fraud from his father; but just before he was to leave
again for Nordhausen the truth became known, which
made needful new links in that chain of lies to account
for his systematic disobedience and deception. His father,
though angry, permitted him to go to Nordhausen, where
he remained from October, 1823, till Easter, 1825.

During these two and a half years he studied classics,
French, history, etc., living with the director of the gym-
nasium. His conduct so improved that he rose in favour
and was pointed to as an example for the other lads, and
permitted to accompany the master in his walks, to con-
verse with him in Latin. At this time he was a hard stu-
dent, rising at four a.m. the year through, and applying
himself to his books till ten at night.

Nevertheless, by his own confession, behind all this
formal propriety there lay secret sin and utter alienation
from God. His vices induced an illness which for thirteen
weeks kept him in his room. He was not without a re-
ligious bent, which led to the reading of such books as
Klopstock's works, but he neither cared for God's word,
nor had he any compunction for trampling upon God's
law. In his library, now numbering about three hundred
books, no Bible was found. Cicero and Horace, Moliere
and Voltaire, he knew and valued, but of the Holy Scrip-
tures he was grossly ignorant, and as indifferent to them as
he was ignorant of them. Twice a year, according to pre-
vailing custom, he went to the Lord's Supper, like others
who had passed the age of confirmation, and he could not
at such seasons quite avoid religious impressions. "When
the consecrated bread and wine touched his lips he would
sometimes take an oath to reform, and for a few days re-
frain from some open sins ; but there was no spiritual
life to act as a force within, and his vows were forgotten

24 George Muller of Bristol

almost as soon as made. The old Satan was too strong for
the young Muller, and, when the mighty passions of his
evil nature were roused, his resolves and endeavours were
as powerless to hold him as were the new cords which
bound Samson, to restrain him, when he awoke from his
slumber.

It is hard to believe that this young man of twenty could
lie without a blush and with the air of perfect candor.
"When dissipation dragged him into the mire of debt, and
his allowance would not help him out, he resorted again
to the most ingenious devices of falsehood. He pretended
that the money wasted in riotous living had been stolen
by violence, and, to carry out the deception he studied the
part of an actor. Forcing the locks of his trunk and
guitar-case, he ran into the director's room half dressed
and feigning fright, declaring that he was the victim of a
robbery, and excited such pity that friends made up a
purse to cover his supposed losses. Suspicion was, how-
ever, awakened that he had been playing a false part, and
he never regained the master's confidence ; and though he
had even then no sense of sin, shame at being detected in
such meanness and hypocrisy made him shrink from ever
again facing the director's wife, who, in his long sickness,
had nursed him like a mother.

Such was the man who was not only admitted to hon-
ourabk standing as a university student, but accepted as a
candidate for holy orders, with permission to preach in
the Lutheran establishment. This student of divinity
knew nothing of God or salvation, and was ignorant even
of the gospel plan of saving grace. He felt the need for
a better life, but no godly motives swayed him. Eeforma-
tion was a matter purely of expediency : to continue in
profligacy would bring final exposure, and no parish would
have him as a pastor. To get a valuable " cure " and a

From His Birth to His New Birth 25

good " living " he must make attainments in divinity, pass
a good examination, and have at least a decent reputation.
Worldly policy urged him to apply himself on the one
hand to his studies and on the other to self-reform.

Again he met defeat, for he had never yet found the one
source and secret of all strength. Scarce had he entered
Halle before his resolves proved frail as a spider's web, un-
able to restrain him from vicious indulgences. He refrained
indeed from street brawls and duelling, because they would
curtail his liberty, but he knew as yet no moral restraints.
His money was soon spent, and he borrowed till he could
find no one to lend, and then pawned his watch and clothes.

He could not but be wretched, for it was plain to what
a goal of poverty and misery, dishonour and disgrace, such
paths lead. Policy loudly urged him to abandon his evil-
doing, but piety had as yet no voice in his life. He went
so far, however, as to choose for a friend a young man and
former schoolmate, named Beta, whose quiet seriousness
might, as he hoped, steady his own course. But he was
leaning on a broken reed, for Beta was himself a back-
slider. Again he was taken ill. God made him to '^ pos-
sess the iniquities of his youth." After some weeks he
was better, and once more his conduct took on the sem-
blance of improvement.

The true mainspring of all well-regulated lives was still
lacking, and sin soon broke out in unholy indulgence.
George Miiller was an adept at the ingenuity of vice.
What he had left he pawned to get money, and with Beta
and two others went on a four days' pleasure-drive, and
then planned a longer tour in the Alps. Barriers were
in the way, for both money and passports were lacking ;
but fertility of invention swept all such barriers away.
Forged letters, purporting to be from their parents,
brought passports for the party, and books, put in pawn,

26 George Muller of Bristol

secured money. Forty-three days were spent in travel,
mostly afoot; and during this tour George Miiller, holding,
like Judas, the common purse, proved, like him, a thief,
for he managed to make his companions pay one third of
his own expenses.

The party were back in Halle before the end of Septem-
ber, and George Miiller went home to spend the rest of
his vacation. To account plausibly to his father for the
use of his allowance a new chain of lies was readily de-
vised. So soon and so sadly were all his good resolves
again broken.

When once more in Halle, he little knew that the time
had come when he was to become a new man in Christ
Jesus. He was to find God, and that discovery was to turn
into a new channel the whole current of his life. The
sin and misery of these twenty years would not have been
reluctantly chronicled but to make the more clear that
his conversion was a supernatural work, inexplicable with-
out God. There was certainly nothing in himself to
^ evolve ' such a result, nor was there anything in his
* environment.' In that university town there were no
natural forces that could bring about a revolution in char-
acter and conduct such as he experienced. Twelve hun-
dred and sixty students were there gathered, and nine
hundred of them were divinity students, yet even of the
latter number, though all were permitted to preach, not
one hundredth part, he says, actually " feared the Lord."
Formalism displaced pure and undefiled religion, and with
many of them immorality and infidelity were cloaked be-
hind a profession of piety. Surely such a man, with such
surroundings, could undergo no radical change of charac-
ter and life without the intervention of some mighty power
from without and from above ! What this force was, and
how it wrought upon him and in him, we are now to see.

CHAPTER II

THE NEW BIETH AND THE NEW LIFE

The lost days of sin, now forever past, the days of
heaven upon earth began to dawn, to grow brighter till
the perfect day.

We enter the second period of this life we are reviewing.
After a score of years of evil-doing George Miiller was con-
verted to God, and the radical nature of the change strik-
ingly proves and displays the sovereignty of Almighty Grace.
He had been kept amid scenes of outrageous and flagrant
sin, and brought through many perils, as well as two seri-
ous illnesses, because divine purposes of mercy were to be
fulfilled in him. No other explanation can adequately ac-
count for the facts.

Let those who would explain such a conversion without
taking God into account remember that it was at a time
when this young sinner was as careless as ever; when he
had not for years read the Bible or had a copy of it in his
possession ; when he had seldom gone to a service of wor-
ship, and had never yet even heard one gospel sermon;
when he had never been told by any believer what it is to
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and to live by God's help
and according to His Word ; when, in fact, he had no
conception of the first principles of the doctrine of Christ,
and knew not the real nature of a holy life, but thought
all others to be as himself, except in the degree of de-
pravity and iniquity. This young man had thus grown to
27

28 George Muller of Bristol

manhood without having learned that rudimental truth
that sinners and saints differ not in degree but in kind;
that if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation; yet the
hard heart of such a man, at such a time and in such con-
ditions, was so wrought upon by the Holy Spirit that he
suddenly found entrance into a new sphere of life, with
new adaptations to its new atmosphere.

The divine Hand in this history is doubly plain when,
as we now look back, we see that this was also the period
of preparation for his life-work — a preparation the more
mysterious because he had as yet no conception or forecast
of that work. During the next ten years we shall watch
the divine Potter, to Whom George Miiller was a chosen
vessel for service, moulding and fitting the vessel for His
use. Every step is one of preparation, but can be under-
stood only in the light which that future casts backward
over the unique ministry to the church and the world,
to which this new convert was all unconsciously separated
by God and was to become so peculiarly consecrated.

One Saturday afternoon about the middle of November,
1825, Beta said to Miiller, as they were returning from a
walk, that he was going that evening to a meeting at a
believer's house, where he was wont to go on Saturdays,
and where a few friends met to sing, to pray, and to read
the word of God and a printed sermon. Such a pro-
gramme held out nothing fitted to draw a man of the
world who sought his daily gratifications at the card-table
and in the wine-cup, the dance and the drama, and whose
companionships were found in dissipated young fellows :
and yet George Miiller felt at once a wish to go to this
meeting, though he could not have told why. There was
no doubt a conscious void within him never yet filled, and
some instinctive inner voice whispered that he might there
find food for his soul-hunger — a satisfying something after

The New Birth and the New Life 29

which he had all his life been unconsciously and blindly
groping. He expressed the desire to go, which his friend
hesitated to encourage lest such a gay and reckless devotee
of vicious pleasures might feel ill at ease in such an as-
sembly. However, he called for young Miiller and took
him to the meeting.

During his wanderings as a backslider. Beta had both
joined and aided George Miiller in his evil courses, but, on
coming back from the Swiss tour, his sense of sin had so
revived as to constrain him to make a full confession to
his father ; and, through a Christian friend, one Dr. Rich-
ter, a former student at Halle, he had been made ac-
quainted with the Mr. Wagner at whose dwelling the
meetings were held. The two young men therefore went
together, and the former backslider was used of God to
" convert a sinner from the error of his way and save a soul
from death and hide a multitude of sins."

That Saturday evening was the turning-point in George
Miiller's history and destiny. He found himself in strange
company, amid novel surroundings, and breathing a new
atmosphere. His awkwardness made him feel so uncer-
tain of his welcome that he made some apology for being
there. But he never forgot brother Wagner's gracious
answer : " Come as often as you please ! house and heart
are open to you." He little knew then what he afterward
learned from blessed experience, what joy fills and thrills
the hearts of prajdng saints when an evil-doer turns his
feet, however timidly, toward a place of prayer !

All present sat down and sang a hymn. Then a brother
— who afterward went to Africa under the London Mis-
sionary Society — fell on his knees and prayed for God's
blessing on the meeting. That TcneeUng before God in
prayer made upon Miiller an impression never lost. He
was in his twenty-first year, and yet he had never before

30 George Muller of Bristol

seen any one on his Tcnees praying, and of course had never
himself knelt before God, — the Prussian habit being to
stand in public prayer.

A chapter was read from the word of God, and — all
meetings where the Scriptures were expounded, unless by
an ordained clergyman, being under the ban as irregular —
a printed sermon was read. Wlien, after another hymn, the
master of the house prayed, George Miiller was inwardly
saying : " I am much more learned than this illiterate
man, but I could not pray as well as he." Strange to say,
a new joy was already springing up in his soul for which
he could have given as little explanation as for his un-
accountable desire to go to that meeting. But so it was;
and on the way home he could not forbear saying to Beta :
" All we saw on our Journey to Switzerland, and all our
former pleasures, are as nothing compared to this eve-
ning."

Whether or not, on reaching his own room, he himself
knelt to pray he could not recall, but he never forgot that
a new and strange peace and rest somehow found him as
he lay in bed that night. Was it God's wings that folded
over him, after all his vain flight away from the true nest
where the divine Eagle flutters over His young ?

How sovereign are God's ways of working ! In such a
sinner as Miiller, theologians would have demanded a great
' law work ' as the necessary doorway to a new life. Yet
there was at this time as little deep conviction of guilt
and condemnation as there was deep knowledge of God
and of divine things, and perhaps it was because there was
so little of the latter that there was so little of the former.

Our rigid theories of conversion all fail in view of such
facts. We have heard of a little child who so simply trusted
Christ for salvation that she could give no account of any
'law work.' And as one of the old examiners, who

The New Birth and the New Life 31

thought there could be no genuine conversion without a
period of deep conviction, asked her, " But, my dear, how
about the Slough of Despond ? " she dropped a courtesy
and said, '^ Please, sir, I didn't come that way!'*

George Miiller's eyes were but half opened, as though he
saw men as trees walking ; but Christ had touched those
eyes. He knew little of the great Healer, but somehow he
had touched the hem of His garment of grace, and virtue
came out of Him who wears that seamless robe, and who
responds even to the faintest contact of the soul that is
groping after salvation. And so we meet here another
proof of the infinite variety of God's working which, like
the fact of that working, is so wonderful. That Saturday
evening in November, 1825, was to this young student of
Halle the parting of the ways. He had tasted that the
Lord is gracious, though he himself could not account for
the new relish for divine things which made it seem too
long to wait a week for another meal ; so that thrice be-
fore the Saturday following he sought the house of brother
Wagner, there, with the help of brethren, to search the
Scriptures.

We should lose one of the main lessons of this life-story
by passing too hastily over such an event as this conver-
sion and the exact manner of it, for here is to be found
the first great step in God's preparation of the workman
for his work.

Nothing is more wonderful in history than the unmis-
takable signs and proofs of preadaptation. Our life-oc-
currences are not disjecta membra — scattered, disconnected,
and accidental fragments. In God's book all these events
were written beforehand, when as yet there was nothing in
existence but the plan in God's mind — to be fashioned in
continuance in actual history — as is perhaps suggested in
Psalm cxxxix. 16 (margin).

32 George Muller of Bristol

We see stones and timbers brought to a building site —
the stones from different quarries and the timbers from
various shops — and different workmen have been busy
upon them at times and places which forbade all conscious
contact or cooperation. The conditionp oppose all precon-
certed action, and yet, without chipping or cutting, stone
fits stone, and timber fits timber — tenons and mortises,
and proportions and dimensions, all corresponding so that
when the building is complete it is as perfectly propor-
tioned and as accurately fitted as though it had been all
prepared in one workshop and put together in advance as
a test. In such circumstances no sane man would doubt
that one presiding mind — one architect and master builder
— had planned that structure, however many were the
quarries and workshops and labourers.

And so it is with this life-story we are writing. The
materials to be built into one structure of service were
from a thousand sources and moulded into form by many
hands, but there was a mutual fitness and a common adap-
tation to the end in view which prove that He whose mind
and plan span the ages had a supreme purpose to which
all human agents were unconsciously tributary. The awe
of this vision of God's workmanship will grow upon us
as we look beneath and behind the mere human occur-
rences to see the divine Hand shaping and building to-
gether all these seemingly disconnected events and
experiences into one life-work.

For example, what have we found to be the initial step
and stage in George Miiller's spiritual history ? In a little
gathering of believers, where for the first time he saw a
child of God pray on his knees, he found his first approach
to a pardoning God. Let us observe : this man was
henceforth to be singularly and peculiarly identified with
simple scriptural assemblies of believers after the most

The New Birth and the New Life 33

primitive and apostolic pattern — meetings for prayer and
praise, reading and expounding of the Word, such as
doubtless were held at the house of Mary the mother of
John Mark — assemblies mainly and primarily for believers,
held wherever a place could be found, with no stress laid
on consecrated buildings and with absolutely no secular
or gesthetic attractions. Such assemblies were to be so
linked with the whole life, work, and witness of George
Miiller as to be inseparable from his name, and it was in
such an assembly that the night before he died he gave
out his last hymn and offered his last prayer.

Not only so, but prayer, on the hnees, both in secret and
in such companionship of helievers, was henceforth to be the
one great central secret of his holy living and holy serving.
Upon this corner-stone of prayer all his life-work was to
be built. Of Sir Henry Lawrence the native soldiers dur-
ing the Lucknow mutiny were wont to say that, " when he
looked twice up to heaven, once down to earth, and then
stroked his beard, he knew what to do." And of George
Miiller it may well be said that he was to be, for more than
seventy years, the man who conspicuously looked up to
heaven to learn what he was to do. Prayer for direct
divine guidance in every crisis, great or small, was to be
the secret of his whole career. Is there any accident in
the exact way in which he was first led to God, and in
the precise character of the scenes which were thus
stamped with such lasting interest and importance ?

The thought of a divine plan which is thus emphasized
at this point we are to see singularly illustrated as we
mark how stone after stone and timber after timber are
brought to the building site, and all so mutually fitted
that no sound of any human tool is to be heard while the
life-work is in building.

Of course a man that had been so profligate and prodigal

34 George Muller of Bristol

must at least begin at conversion to live a changed uit;.
Not that all at once the old sins were abandoned, for such
total transformation demands deeper knowledge of the
word and will of God than George Miiller yet had. But
within him a new separating and sanctifying Power was
at work. There was a distaste for wicked joys and former
companions ; the frequenting of taverns entirely ceased,
and a lying tongue felt new and strange bands about it.
A watch was set at the door of the lips, and every word
that went forth was liable to a challenge, so that old habits
of untamed speech were arrested and corrected.

At this time he was translating into German for the
press a French novel, hoping to use the proceeds of his
work for a visit to Paris, etc. At first the plan for the
pleasure-trip was abandoned, then the question arose
whether the work itself should not be. Whether his con-
victions were not clear or his moral courage not sufficient,
he went on with the novel. It was finished, but never
published. Providential hindrances prevented or delayed
the sale and publication of the manuscript until clearer
spiritual vision showed him that the whole matter was not
of faith and was therefore sin, so that he would neither
sell nor print the novel, but burned it — another signifi-
cant step, for it was his first courageous act of self-denial
in surrender to the voice of the Spirit — and another stone or
timber was thus ready for the coming building.

He now began in different directions a good fight against
evil. Though as yet weak and often vanquished before
temptation, he did not habitually * continue in sin,' nor
offend against God without godly sorrow. Open sins be-
came less frequent and secret sins less ensnaring. He read
the word of God, prayed often, loved fellow disciples,
sought church assemblies from right motives, and boldly

The New Birth and the New Life 35

took his stand on the side of his new Master, at the cost
of reproach and ridicule from his fellow students.

George Miiller's next marked step in his new path was
the discovery of the preciousness of the word of God.

At first he had a mere hint of the deep mines of wealth
which he afterward explored. But his whole life-history so
circles about certain great texts that whenever they come
into this narrative they should appear in capitals to mark
their prominence. And, of them all, that ' little gospel '
in John iii. 16 is the first, for by it he found a full salva-
tion:

" God so loved the world that He gave His only-
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him

SHOULD not perish, BUT HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE."

From these words he got his first glimpse of the philoso-
phy of the plan of salvation — why and how the Lord Jesus
Christ bore our sins in His own body on the tree as our
vicarious Substitute and suffering Surety, and how His suf-
ferings in Gethsemane and Golgotha made it forever need-
less that the penitent believing sinner should bear his own
iniquity and die for it.

Truly to grasp this fact is the beginning of a true and
saving faith — what the Spirit calls " laying hold." He who
believes and knows that God so loved him first, finds him-
self loving God in return, and faith works by love to purify
the heart, transform the life, and overcome the world.

It was so with George Miiller. He found in the word
of God one great fact: the love of God in Christ. Upon
that fact faith, not feeling, laid hold ; and then the feel-
ing came naturally without being waited for or sought
after. The love of God in Christ constrained him to a
love — infinitely unworthy, indeed, of that to which it re-
sponded, yet supplying a new impulse unknown before.
What all his father's injunctions, chastisements, entreaties,

36 George Muller of Bristol

with all the urgent dictates of his own conscience, motives
of expediency, and repeated resolves of amendment, utterly
failed to effect, the love of God both impelled and enabled
him to do — renounce a life of sinful self-indulgence. Thus
early he learned that double truth, which he afterwards
passionately loved to teach others, that in the blood of
God's atoning Lamb is the Fountain of both forgiveness
and cleansing. Whether we seek pardon for sin or power
over sin, the sole source and secret are in Christ's work for
us.

The new year 1826 was indeed a new year to this new-
born soul. He now began to read missionary journals,
which kindled a new flame in his heart. He felt a yearn-
ing— not very intelligent as yet — to be himself a mes-
senger to the nations, and frequent praying deepened and
confirmed the impression. As his knowledge of the world-
field enlarged, new facts as to the destitution and the
desolation of heathen peoples became as fuel to feed this
flame of the mission spirit.

A carnal attachment, however, for a time almost
quenched this fire of God within. He was drawn to a
young woman of like age, a professed believer, whom he
had met at the Saturday-evening meetings; but he had
reason to think that her parents would not give her up to
a missionary life, and he began, half-unconsciously, to
weigh in the balance his yearning for service over against
his passion for a fellow creature. Inclination, alas, out-
weighed duty. Prayer lost its power and for the time was
almost discontinued, with corresponding decline in joy.
His heart was turned from the foreign field, and in fact
from all self-denying service. Six weeks passed in this
state of spiritual declension, when God took a strange way
to reclaim the backslider.

A young brother. Hermann Ball, wealthy, cultured, and

The New Birth and the New Life n

with every promising prospect for this world to attract
him, made a great self-sacrifice. He chose Poland as a
field, and work among the Jews as his mission, refusing to
stay at home to rest in the soft nest of self-indulgent and
luxurious ease. This choice made on young Miiller a deep
impression. He was compelled to contrast with it his oaati
course. For the sake of a passionate love for a young
woman he had given up the work to which he felt drawn
of God, and had become both joyless and prayerless : an-
other young man, with far more to draw him worldward,
had, for the sake of a self-denying service among despised
Polish Jews, resigned all the pleasures and treasures of the
world. Hermann Ball was acting and choosing as Moses
did in the crisis of his history, while he, George Miiller,
was acting and choosing more like that profane person
Esau, when for one morsel of meat he bartered his birth-
right. The result was a new renunciation — he gave up
the girl he loved, and forsook a connection wiiich had been
formed without faith and prayer and had proved a source
of alienation from God.

Here we mark another new and significant step in
preparation for his life-work — a decided step forward,
which became a pattern for his after-life. For the second
time a decision for God had cost him marked self-denial.
Before, he had burned his novel; now, on the same altar,
he gave up to the consuming fire a human passion which
had over him an unhallowed influence. According to the
measure of his light thus far, George Miiller was fully,
unreservedly given up to God, and therefore walking in the
light. He did not have to wait long for the recompense
of the reward, for the smile of God repaid him for the loss
of a human love, and the peace of God was his because the
God of peace was with him.

Every new spring of inward joy demands a channel for

38 George Miiller of Bristol

outflow, and so he felt impelled to bear witness. He wrote
to his father and brother of his own happy experience, beg-
ging them to seek and find a like rest in God, thinking
that they had but to know the path that leads to such joy
to be equally eager to enter it. But an angry response
was all the reply that his letter evoked.

About the same time the famous Dr. Tholuck took the
chair of professor of divinity at Halle, and the advent of
such a godly man to the faculty drew pious students from
other schools of learning, and so enlarged George Miiller's
circle of fellow believers, who helped him much through
grace. Of course the missionary spirit revived, and with
such increased fervor, that he sought his father's permis-
sion to connect himself with some missionary institution
in Germany. His father was not only much displeased, but
greatly disappointed, and dealt in reproaches very hard
to bear. He reminded George of all the money he had
spent on his education in the expectation that he would re-
pay him by getting such a ' living ' as would insure to the
parent a comfortable home and support for his old age;
and in a fit of rage he exclaimed that he would no longer
look on him as a son.

Then, seeing that son unmoved in his quiet steadfast-
ness, he changed tone, and from threats turned to tears of
entreaty that were much harder to resist than reproaches.
The result of the interview was a third significant step in
preparation for his son's life's mission. His resolve was un-
broken to follow the Lord's leading at any cost, but he now
clearly saw that he could be independent of man only hy
being more entirely dependent on God, and that henceforth he
should take no more money from his father. To receive
such support implied obedience to his wishes, for it seemed
plainly wrong to look to him for the cost of his training
when he had no prospect nor intention of meeting his

The New Birth and the New Life 39

known expectations. If he was to live on his father's
money, he was under a tacit obligation to carry out his
plans and seek a good living as a clergyman at home.
Thus early in life George Miiller learned the valuable
lesson that one must preserve his independence if he
would not endanger his integrity.

God was leading His servant in his youth to cast himself
upon Him for temporal supplies. This step was not taken
without cost, for the two years yet to be spent at the uni-
versity would require more outlay than during any time
previous. But thus early also did he find God a faithful
Provider and Friend in need. Shortly after, certain Ameri-
can gentlemen, three of whom were college professors,*
being in Halle and wishing instruction in German, were
by Dr. Tholuck recommended to employ George Miiller as
tutor; and the pay was so ample for the lessons taught
them and the lectures written out for them, that all wants
were more than met. Thus also in his early life was writ-
ten large in the chambers of his memory another golden
text from the word of God :

" 0 feae the loed, ye his saints !
Foe theee is no want to them that feae Him."

(Psalm xxxiv. 9.)

* One of them, the Rev. Charles Hodge, afterward so well known
as professor at Princeton Theological Seminary, etc.

CHAPTEE III

MAKING EEADY THE CHOSEN VESSEL

The workman of God needs to wait on Him to know the
work he is to do and the sphere where he is to serve Him,

Mature disciples at Halle advised George Miiller for the
time thus quietly to wait for divine gnidance, and mean-
while to take no further steps toward the mission field. He
felt unable, however, to dismiss the question, and was so
impatient to settle it that he made the common blunder of
attempting to come to a decision in a carnal way. He re-
sorted to the lot, and not only so, but to the lot as cast in the
lap of the lottery! In other words, he first drew a lot in pri-
vate, and then bought a ticket in a royal lottery, expecting
his steps to be guided in a matter so solemn as the choice
of a field for the service of God, by the turn of the ' wheel
of fortune ' ! Should his ticket draw a prize he would go; if
not, stay at home. Having drawn a small sum, he accord-
ingly accepted this as a ' sign,' and at once applied to the
Berlin Missionary Society, but was not accepted because
his application was not accompanied with his father's con-
sent.

Thus a higher Hand had disposed while man proposed.
God kept out of the mission field, at this juncture, one so
utterly unfit for His work that he had not even learned
that primary lesson that he who would work with God
must first wait on Him and wait for Him, and that all

Making Ready the Chosen Vessel 41

undue haste in such a matter is worse than waste. He
who kept Moses waiting forty years before He sent him to
lead out captive Israel, who withdrew Saul of Tarsus three
years into Arabia before he sent him as an apostle to the
nations, and who left even His own Son thirty vears in ob-
scurity before His manifestation as Messiah — this God is
in no hurry to put other servants at work. He says to all
impatient souls : " My time is not yet full come, but your
time is always ready."

Only twice after this did George Miiller ever resort to
the lot : once at a literal parting of the ways when he was
led by it to take the wrong fork of the road, and afterward
in a far more important matter, but with a like result :
in both cases he found he had been misled, and henceforth
abandoned all such chance methods of determining the
mind of God.

He learned two lessons, which new dealings of God more
and more deeply impressed :

First, that the safe guide in every crisis is believing
prayer in connection with the word of God ;

Secondly, that continued uncertainty as to one's course
is a reason for continued waiting.

These lessons should not be lightly passed over, for they
are too valuable. The flesh is impatient of all delay, both
in decision and action; hence all carnal choices are imma-
ture and premature, and all carnal courses are mistaken
and unspiritual. God is often moved to delay that we may
be led to pray, and even the answers to prayer are deferred
that the natural and carnal spirit may be kept in check
and self-will may bow before the will of God.

In a calm review of his course many years later George
Miiller saw that he " ran hastily to the lot " as a shorter
way of settling a doubtful matter, and that, especially in
the question of God^s call to the mission field, this was

42 George Miiller of Bristol

shockingly improper. He saw also how unfit he had been
at that time for the work he sought : he should rather have
asked himself how one so ignorant and so needing to be
taught could think of teaching others ! Though a chilcj
of God, he could not as yet have given a clear statement
or explanation of the most elementary gospel truths. The
one thing needful was therefore to have sought through
much prayer and Bible study to get first of all a deeper
knowledge and a deeper experience of divine things.
Impatience to settle a matter so important was itself seen
to be a positive disqualification for true service, revealing
unfitness to endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus
Christ. There is a constant strain and drain on patient
waiting which is a necessary feature of missionary trial
and particularly the trial of deferred harvests. One who,
at the outset, could not brook delay in making his first
decision, and wait for God to make known His will in His
own way and time, would not on the field have had long
patience as a husbandman, waiting for the precious fruit
of his toil, or have met with quietness of spirit the thou-
sand perplexing problems of work among the heathen !

Moreover the conviction grew that, could he have fol-
lowed the lot, his choice would have been a life-mistake.
His mind, at that time, was bent upon the East Indies as
a field. Yet all subsequent events clearly showed that
God's choice for him was totally different. His repeated
offers met as repeated refusals, and though on subsequent
occasions he acted most deliberately and solemnly, no
open door was found, but he was in every case kept from
following out his honest purpose. Nor could the lot be
justified as an indication of his ultimate call to the mission
field, for the purpose of it was definite, namely, to ascer-
tain, not whether at some period of Ms life he was to go
forth, but whether at that time he was to go or stay, Thg

Making Ready the Chosen Vessel 43

whole after-life of George Miiller proved that God had
for him an entirely different plan, which He was not ready-
yet to reveal, and which His servant was not yet prepared
to see or follow. If any man's life ever was a plan of God,
surely this life was; and the Lord's distinct, emphatic lead-
ing, when made known, was not in this direction. He
had purposed for George Miiller a larger field than the
Indies, and a wider witness than even the gospel message
to heathen peoples. He was ' not suffered ' to go into
' Bithynia " because "' Macedonia '* was waiting for his min-
istry.

With increasing frequency, earnestness, and minuteness,
was George Miiller led to put before God, in prayer, all
matters that lay upon his mind. This man was to be
peculiarly an example to believers as an intercessor; and so
God gave him from the outset a very simple, cMldliJce dis-
position toward Himself. In many things he was in
knowledge and in strength to outgrow childhood and be-
come a man, for it marks immaturity when we err through
ignorance and are overcome through weakness. But in faith
and in the filial spirit, he always continued to be a little
child. Mr. J. Hudson Taylor well reminds us that while
in nature the normal order of growth is from childhood
to manhood and so to maturity, in grace the true develop-
ment is perpetually backward toward the cradle : we
must become and continue as little children, not losing,
but rather gaining, childlikeness of spirit. The disciple's
maturest manhood is only the perfection of his childhood.
George Miiller was never so really, truly, fully a little
child in all his relations to his Father, as when in the
ninety-third year of his age.

Being thus providentially kept from the Indies, he
began definite work at home, though yet having little real
knowledge of the divine art of coworkino: with God. He

44 George Mliller of Bristol

spoke to others of their soul's welfare, and wrote to former
companions in sin, and circulated tracts and missionary
papers. Nor were his labours without encouragement,
though sometimes his methods were awkward or even gro-
tesque, as when, speaking to a beggar in the fields about his
need of salvation, he tried to overcome apathetic indiffer-
ence by speaking louder and louder, as though mere
bawling in his ears would subdue the hardness of his
heart !

In 1826 he first attempted to preach. An unconverted
schoolmaster some six miles from Halle he was the means
of turning to the Lord; and this schoolmaster asked him to
come and help an aged, infirm clergyman in the parish.
Being a student of divinity he was at liberty to preach, but
conscious ignorance had hitherto restrained him. He
thought, however, that by committing some other man's
sermon to memory he might profit the hearers, and so he
undertook it. It was slavish work to prepare, for it took most
of a week to memorize the sermon, and it was joyless work
to deliver it, for there was none of the living power that
attends a man's God-given message and witness. His con-
science was not yet enlightened enough to see that he was
acting a false part in preaching another's sermon as his
own ; nor had he the spiritual insight to perceive that it
is not God's way to set up a man to preach who knows not
enough of either His word or the life of the Spirit within
him, to prepare his own discourse. How few even among
preachers feel preaching to be a divine vocation and not a
mere human profession; that a ministry of the truth im-
plies the witness of experience, and that to preach another
man's sermon is, at the best, unnatural walking on stilts !

George Mliller ' got through ' his painful effort of Au-
gust 27, 1826, reciting this memoriter sermon at eight a.m.
in the chapel of ease, and three hours later in the parish

Making Ready the Chosen Vessel 45

church. Being asked to preach again in the afternoon,
but having no second sermon committed to memory, he
had to keep silent, or depend on the Lord for help. He
thought he could at least read the fifth chapter of Mat-
thew, and simply expound it. But he had no sooner beguii
the first beatitude than he felt himself greatly assisted.
Not only were his lips opened, but the Scriptures were
opened too, his own soul expanded, and a peace and power,
wholly unknown to his tame, mechanical repetitions of the
morning, accompanied the simpler expositions of the after-
noon, with this added advantage, that he talked on a level
with the people and not over their heads, his colloquial,
earnest speech riveting their attention.

Going back to Halle, he said to himself, ' This is the
true way to preach,' albeit he felt misgivings lest such a
simple style of exposition might not suit so well a cultured
refined city congregation. He had yet to learn how the
enticing words of man's wisdom make the cross of Christ
of none effect, and how the very simplicity that makes
preaching intelligible to the illiterate makes sure that the
most cultivated will also understand it, whereas the reverse
is not true.

Here was another very important step in his preparation
for subsequent service. He was to rank throughout life
among the simplest and most scriptural of preachers. This
first trial of pulpit-work led to frequent sermons, and in
proportion as his speech was in the simplicity that is in
Christ did he find joy in his work and a harvest from it.
The committed sermon of some great preacher might draw
forth human praise, but it was the simple witness of the
Word, and of the believer to the Word, that had praise of
God. His preaching was not then much owned of God
in fruit. Doubtless the Lord saw that he was not ready
for reaping, and scarcely for sowing : there was yet too

46 George Miiller of Bristol

little prayer in preparation and too little unction in de-
livery, and so his labours were comparatively barren of re-
sults.

About this same time he took another step — perhaps
the most significant thus far in its bearing on the precise
form of work so closely linked with his name. For some
two months he availed himself of the free lodgings fur-
nished for poor divinity students in the famous Orphan
Houses built by A. H. Francke. This saintly man, a pro-
fessor of divinity at Halle, who had died a hundred years
before (1727), had been led to found an orphanage in en-
tire dependence upon God. Half unconsciously George
Miiller 's whole life-work at Bristol found both its sugges-
tion and pattern in Francke's orphanage at Halle. The
very building where this young student lodged was to him
an object lesson — a visible, veritable, tangible proof that
the Living God hears prayer, and can, in answer to prayer
alone, build a house for orphan children. That lesson
was never lost, and George Miiller fell into the apostolic
succession of such holy labour! He often records how
much his own faith-work was indebted to that example
of simple trust in prayer exhibited by Francke. Seven
years later he read his life, and was thereby still more
prompted to follow him as he followed Christ.

George MuUer's spiritual life in these early days was
strangely chequered. For instance, he who, as a Lutheran
divinity student, was essaying to preach, hung up in his
room a framed crucifix, hoping thereby to keep in mind
the sufferings of Christ and so less frequently fall into sin.
Such helps, however, availed him little, for while he rested
upon such artificial props, it seemed as though he sinned
the oftener.

He was at this time overworking, writing sometimes
fourteen hours a day, and this induced nervous depression,

Making Ready the Chosen Vessel 47

^hich exposed him to various temptations. He ventured
into a confectioner's shop where wine and beer were sold,
and then suffered reproaches of conscience for conduct so
unbecoming a behever ; and he found himself indulging
ungracious and ungrateful thoughts of God, who, instead
of visiting him with deserved chastisement, multiplied His
tender mercies.

He wrote to a rich, liberal and titled lady, asking a loan,
and received the exact sum asked for, with a letter, not
from her, but from another into whose hands his letter
had fallen by " a peculiar providence," and who signed it
as "An adoring wj^T^shipper of the Saviour Jesus Christ."
While led to send the money asked for, the writer added
wise words of caution and counsel — words so fitted to George
Miiller's exact need that he saw plainly the higher Hand
that had guided the anonymous writer. In that letter he
was urged to " seek by watching and prayer to be de-
livered from all vanity and self-complacency," to make it
his " chief aim to be more and more humble, faithful, and
quiet,*' and not to be of those who " say ' Lord, Lord,' but
have Him not deeply in their hearts." He was also re-
minded that " Christianity consists not in words but in
power, and that there must be life in us."

He was deeply moved by this message from God through
an unknown party, and the more as it had come, with its
enclosure, at the time when he was not only guilty of con-
duct unbecoming a disciple, but indulging hard thoughts
of his heavenly Fathei. He went out to walk alone, and
was so deeply wrought on by God's goodness and his own
ingratitude that he knelt behind a hedge, and, though in
snow a foot deep, he forgot himself for a half-hour in
praise, prayer, and self -surrender.

Yet so deceitful is the human heart that a few weeks
later he was in such a backslidden state that, for a time, he

48 George Muller of Bristol

was again both careless and prayerless, and one day
sought to drown the voice of conscience in the wine-cup.
The merciful Father gave not up his child to folly and
sin. He who once could have gone to great lengths in
dissipation now found a few glasses of wine more than
enough ; his relish for such pleasures was gone, and so
was the power to silence the still small voice of conscience
and of the Spirit of God.

Such vacillations in Christian experience were due in
part to the lack of holy associations and devout companion-
ships. Every disciple needs help in holy living, and this
young believer yearned for that spiritual uplift afforded
by sympathetic fellow believers. In vacation times he had
found at Gnadau, the Moravian settlement some three
miles from his father's residence, such soul refreshment,
but Halle itself supplied little help. He went often to
church, but seldom heard the Gospel, and in that town
of over 30,000, with all its ministers, he found not one
enlightened clergyman. When, therefore, he could hear
such a preacher as Dr. Tholuck, he would walk ten or
fifteen miles to enjoy such a privilege. The meetings
continued at Mr, Wagner's house; and on the Lord's day
evenings some six or more believing students were wont to
gather, and both these assemblies were means of grace.
From Easter, 1827, so long as he remained in Halle, this
latter meeting was held in his own room, and must rank
alongside those little gatherings of the " Holy Club " in
Lincoln College, Oxford, which a hundred years before
had shaped the Wesleys and Whitefield for their great
careers. Before George Muller left Halle the attendance
at this weekly meeting in his room had grown to twenty.

These assemblies were throughout very simple and
primitive. In addition to prayer, singing, and reading of
God^s word, one or more brethren exhorted or read extracts

Making Ready the Chosen Vessel 49

from devout books. Here young Miiller freely opened his
heart to others, and through their counsels and prayers
was delivered from many snares.

One lesson, yet to be learned, was that the one foun-
tain of all wisdom and strength is the Holy Scriptures.
Many disciples practically prefer religious books to the
Book of God. He had indeed found much of the reading
with which too many professed believers occupy their
minds to be but worthless chaff — such as French and Ger-
man novels; but as yet he had not formed the habit of read-
ing the word of God daily and systematically as in later life,
almost to the exclusion of other books. In his ninety-sec-
ond year, he said to the writer, that for every page of
any other reading he was sure he read ten of the Bible.
But, up to that November day in 1825 when he first met
a praying band of disciples, he had never to his recollection
read one chapter in the Book of books ; and for the first
four years of his new life he gave to the works of unin-
spired men practical preference over the Living Oracles.

After a true relish for the Scriptures had been created,
he could not understand how he could ever have treated
God's Book with such neglect. It seemed obvious that
God having condescended to become an AutJior, inspiring
holy men to write the Scriptures, He would in them im-
part the most vital truths; His message would cover all
matters which concern man's welfare, and therefore, un-
der the double impulse of duty and delight, we should in-
stinctively and habitually turn to the Bible. Moreover,
as he read and studied this Book of God, he felt himself
admitted to more and more intimate acquaintance with thb
Author. During the last twenty years of his life he read
it carefully through, four or five times annually, with a
growing sense of his own rapid increase in the knowledge
of God thereby.

50 George Muller of Bristol

Such motives for Bible study it is strange that any true
believer should overlook, Ruskin, in writing " Of the
King's Treasuries," refers to the universal ambition for
* advancement in life/ which means ' getting into good
society.' How many obstacles one finds in securing an
introduction to the great and good of this world, and even
then in getting access to them, in securing an audience
with the kings and queens of human society ! Yet there
is open to us a society of people of the very first rank who
will meet us and converse with us so long as we like, what-
ever our ignorance, poverty, or low estate — namely, the
society of authors; and the key that unlocks their private
audience-chamber is their books.

So writes Ruskin, and all this is beautifully true; but
how few, even among believers, appreciate the privilege of
access to the great Author of the universe through His
word ! Poor and rich, high and low, ignorant and learned,
young and old, all alike are welcomed to the audience-
chamber of the King of kings. The most intimate knowl-
edge of God is possible on one condition — that we search
His Holy Scriptures, prayerfully and habitually, and
translate what we there find, into obedience. Of him who
thus meditates on God's law day and night, who looks
and continues looking into this perfect law of liberty,
the promise is unique, and found in both Testaments :
" Whatsoever he doeth shall prosper " ; " that man shall be
blessed in l^is deed." (Comp. Psalm i. 3 ; Joshua i. 8 ;
James i. 25.)

So soon as George Miiller found this well-spring of de-
light and success, he drank habitually at this fountain of
living waters. In later life he lamented that, owing
to his early neglect of this source of divine wisdom and
strength, he remained so long in spiritual infancy, with its
ignorance and impotence. So long and so far as his growth

Making Ready the Chosen Vessel 51

in knowledge of God was thus arrested his growth in grace
was likewise hindered. His close walk with God began
at the point where he learned that such walk is always
in the light of that inspired word which is divinely de-
clared to be to the obedient soul "a lamp unto the feet
and a light unto the path." He who would keep up in-
timate converse with the Lord must habitually find in
the Scriptures the highway of such companionship.
God's aristocracy, His nobility, the princes of His realm,
are not the wise, mighty, and high-born of earth, but often
the poor, weak, despised of men, who abide in His presence
and devoutly commune with Him through His inspired
word.

Blessed are they who have thus learned to use the key
which gives free access, not only to the King's Treasuries,
but to the King Himself I

CHAPTER IV

WEW STEPS AND STAGES OF PEEPAEATION

Passion for souls is a divine fire, and in the heart of
George Miiller that fire now began to burn more brightly,
»ii4 demanded vent.

in August, 1827, his mind was more definitely than
r^fore turned toward mission work. Hearing that the
Continental Society of Britain sought a minister for
Bucharest, he offered himself through Dr. Tholuck, who,
in behalf of the Society, was on the lookout for a suitable
candidate. To his great surprise his father gave consent,
though Bucharest was more than a thousand miles distant
and as truly missionary ground as any other field. After a
short visit home he came back to Halle, his face steadfastly
set toward his far-off field, and his heart seeking prayerful
preparation for expected self-sacrifice and hardship. But
God had other plans for His servant, and he never went to
Bucharest.

In October following, Hermann Ball, passing through
Halle, and being at the little weekly meeting in
Miiller's room, told him how failing health forbade his
continuing his work among Polish Jews ; and at once
there sprang up in George Miiller's mind a strong desire
to take his place. Such work doubly attracted him, be-
cause it would bring him into close contact with God's
chosen but erring people, Israel; and because it would

New Steps and Stages of Preparation 53

afford opportunity to utilize those Hebrew studies which
so engrossed him.

At this very time, calling upon Dr. Tholuck, he was
asked, to his surprise, whether he had ever felt a desire
to labour among the Jews — Dr. Tholuck then acting as
agent for the London Missionary Society for promoting
missions among them. This question naturally fanned the
flame of his already kindled desire; but, shortly after, Bu-
charest being the seat of the war then raging between the
Russians and Turks, the project of sending a minister
there was for the time abandoned. But a door seemed to
open before him just as another shut behind him.

The committee in London, learning that he was avail-
able as a missionary to the Jews, proposed his coming to
that city for six months as a missionary student to prepare
for the work. To enter thus on a sort of probation was try-
ing to the flesh, but, as it seemed right that there should
be opportunity for mutual acquaintance between commit-
tee and candidate, to insure harmonious cooperation, his
mind was disposed to accede to the proposal.

There was, however, a formidable obstacle. Prussian
male subjects must commonly serve three years in the
army, and classical students who have passed the univer-
sity examinations, at least one year. George Miiller, who
had not served out even this shorter term, could not, with-
out royal exemption, even get a passport out of the coun-
try. Application was made for such exemption, but it
failed. Meanwhile he was taken ill, and after ten weeks
suffered a relapse. While at Leipsic with an American
professor with whom he went to the opera, he unwisely
partook of some refreshments between the acts, which
again brought on illness. He had broken a blood-vessel in
the stomach, and he returned to Halle, never again to enter
a theatre. Subsequently being asked to go to Berlin for a

54 George Miiller of Bristol

few weeks to teach German, he went, hoping at the Prus-
sian capital to find access to the court through persons of
rank and secure the desired exemption. But here again he
failed. There now seemed no way of escaping a soldier's
term, and he submitted himself for examination, but was
pronounced physically unfit for military duty. In God's
providence he fell into kind hands, and, being a second
time examined and found unfit, he was thenceforth com-
pletely exempted for life from all service in the army.

God's lines of purpose mysteriously converged. The
time had come ; the Master spake and it was done : all
things moved in one direction — to set His servant free
from the service of his country, that, under the Cap-
tain of his salvation, he might endure hardness as a good
soldier of Jesus Christ, without entanglement in the affairs
of this life. Aside from this, his stay at the capital had
not been unprofitable, for he had preached five times a
week in the poorhouse and conversed on the Lord's days
with the convicts in the prison.

In February, 1829, he left for London, on the way visit-
ing his father at Heimersleben, where he had returned
after retirement from office ; and he reached the English
metropolis March 19th. His liberty was much curtailed as
a student in this new seminary, but, as no rule conflicted
with his conscience, he submitted. He studied about
twelve hours daily, giving attention mainly to Hebrew
and cognate branches closely connected with his expected
field. Sensible of the risk of that deadness of soul which
often results from undue absorption in mental studies,
he committed to memory much of the Hebrew Old Testa-
ment and pursued his tasks in a prayerful spirit, seeking
God's help in matters, however minute, connected with
daily duty.

Tempted to the continual use of his native tongue by

New Steps and Stages of Preparation 55

living with his German countrymen, he made little
progress in English, which he afterward regretted; and he
was wont, therefore, to counsel those who propose to work
among a foreign people, not only to live among them in
order to learn their language, but to keep aloof as far as
may be from their own countrymen, so as to be compelled
to use the tongue which is to give them access to those
among whom they labour.

In connection with this removal to Britain a seemingly
trivial occurrence left upon him a lasting impress — an-
other proof that there are no little things in life. Upon
a very small hinge a huge door may swing and turn. It
is, in fact, often the apparently trifling events that mould
our history, work, and destiny.

A student incidentally mentioned a dentist in Exeter —
a Mr. Groves — who for the Lord's sake had resigned his
calling with fifteen hundred pounds a year, and with wife
and children offered himself as a misionary to Persia,
simply trusting the Lord for all temporal supplies. This
act of self-denying trust had a strange charm for Mr.
Miiller, and he could not dismiss it from his mind ; in-
deed, he distinctly entered it in his Journal and wrote
about it to friends at home. It was another lesson in faith,
and in the very line of that trust of which for more than
sixty years he was to be so conspicuous an example and
illustration.

In the middle of May, 1829, he was taken ill and felt
himself to be past recovery. Sickness is often attended
with strange self-disclosure. His conviction of sin and
guilt at his conversion was too superficial and shallow to
leave any after-remembrance. But, as is often true in
the history of God's saints, the sense of guilt, which at
first seemed to have no roots in conscience and scarce an
existence, struck deeper into his being and grew stronger

56 George Muller of Bristol

as he knew more of God and grew more like Him. This
common experience of saved souls is susceptible of easy
explanation. Our conceptions of things depend mainly
upon two conditions : first, the clearness of our vision of
truth and duty; and secondly, the standard of measure-
ment and comparison. The more we live in God and unto
God, the more do our eyes become enlightened to see the
enormity and deformity of sin, so that we recognize the
hatefulness of evil more distinctly: and the more clearly do
we recognize the perfection of God's holiness and make it
the pattern and model of our own holy living.

The amateur musician or artist has a false complacency
in his own very imperfect work only so far as his ear or
eye or taste is not yet trained to accurate discrimination ;
but, as he becomes more accomplished in a fine art, and
more appreciative of it, he recognizes every defect or blem-
ish of his previous work, until the musical performance
seems a wretched failure and the painting a mere daub.
The change, however, is wholly in the worhman and not
in the work: both the music and the painting are in them-
selves just what they were, but the man is capable of some-
thing so much better, that his standard of comparison is
raised to a higher level, and his capacity for a true judg-
ment is correspondingly enlarged.

Even so a child of God who, like Elijah, stands before
Him as a waiting, willing, obedient servant, and has both
likeness to God and power with God, may get under the
juniper-tree of despondency, cast down with the sense of
unworthiness and ill desert. As godliness increases the
sense of ungodliness becomes more acute, and so feelings
never accurately gauge real assimilation to God. We shall
seem worst in our own eyes when in His we are best, and
conversely.

A Mohammedan servant ventured publicly to challenge

New Steps and Stages of Preparation 57

a preacher who, in an Indian bazaar^ was asserting the
universal depravity of the race, by affirming that he knew
at least one woman who was immaculate, absolutely with-
out fault, and that woman, his own Christian mistress.
The preacher bethought himself to ask in reply whether he
had any means of knowing whether that was her opinion
of herself, which caused the Mohammedan to confess that
^here lay the mystery : she had been often overheard in
prayer confessing herself the most unworthy of sinners.

To return from this digression, Mr. Miiller, not only
during this illness, but down to life's sudden close, had a
growing sense of sin and guilt which would at times have
been overwhelming, had he not known upon the testimony
of the Word that " whoso covereth his sins shall not pros-
per, but he that confesseth and forsaketh them shall find
mercy." From his own guilt he turned his eyes to the
cross where it was atoned for, and to the mercy-seat where
forgiveness meets the penitent sinner ; and so sorrow for
sin was turned into the joy of the justified.

This confidence of acceptance in the Beloved so stripped
death of its terrors that during this illness he longed
rather to depart and to be with Christ; but after a fort-
night he was pronounced better, and, though still longing
for the heavenly rest, he submitted to the will of God for
a longer sojourn in the land of his pilgrimage, little fore-
seeing what joy he was to find in living for God, or how
much he was to know of the days of heaven upon earth.

During this illness, also, he showed the growing tend-
ency to bring before the Lord in prayer even the minutest
matters which his later life so signally exhibited. He
constantly besought God to guide his physician, and every
new dose of medicine was accompanied by a new petition
that God would use it for his good and enable him with
patience to await His will. As he advanced toward re-

58 George Muller of Bristol

covery he sought rest at Teignmouth, where, shortly after
his arrival, " Ebenezer " chapel was reopened. It was here
also that Mr. Miiller became acquainted with Mr. Henry
Craik, who was for so many years not only his friend, but
fellow labourer.

It was also about this time that, as he records, cer-
tain great truths began to be made clear to him and to
stand out in much prominence. This period of personal
preparation is so important in its bearing on his whole
after-career that the reader should have access to his own
witness.*

On returning to London, prospered in soul-health as
also in bodily vigor, he proposed to fellow students a daily
morning meeting, from 6 to 8, for prayer and Bible study,
when each should give to the others such views of any
passage read as the Lord might give him. These spiritual
exercises proved so helpful and so nourished the appetite
for divine things that, after continuing in prayer late into
the evening hours, he sometimes at midnight sought the
fellowship of some like-minded brother, and thus pro-
longed the prayer season until one or two o'clock in the
morning; and even then sleep was often further postponed
by his overflowing joy in God. Thus, under his great
Teacher, did this pupil, early in his spiritual history, learn
that supreme lesson that to every child of God the word
of God is the bread of life, and the prayer of faith the
breath of life.

Mr. Miiller had been back in London scarcely ten days
before health again declined, and the conviction took
strong hold upon him that he should not spend his little
strength in confining study, but at once get about his
work; and this conviction was confirmed by the remem-

* See Appendix B.

New Steps and Stages of Preparation 59

brance of the added light which God had given him and
the deeper passion he now felt to serve Him more freely
and fully. Under the pressure of this persuasion that
both his physical and spiritual welfare would be promoted
by actual labours for souls, he sought of the Society a
prompt appointment to his field of service; and that they
might with the more confidence commission him, he asked
that some experienced man might be sent out with him
as a fellow counsellor and labourer.

After waiting in vain for six weeks for an answer to
this application, he felt another strong conviction : that
to wait on his fellow men to he sent out to his field and work
was unscriptural and therefore wrong. Barnabas and Saul
were called by name and sent forth by the Holy Spirit,
before the church at Antioch had taken any action ; and
he felt himself so called of the Spirit to his work that he
was prompted to begin at once, without waiting for human
authority, — and why not among the Jews in London ?
Accustomed to act promptly upon conviction, he under-
took to distribute among them tracts bearing his name
and address, so that any who wished personal guidance
could find him. He sought them at their gathering-places,
read the Scriptures at stated times with some fifty Jewish
lads, and taught in a Sunday-school. Thus, instead of
lying like a vessel in dry-dock for repairs, he was launched
into Christian work, though, like other labourers among
the despised Jews, he found himself exposed to petty trials
and persecutions, called to suffer reproach for the name
of Christ.

Before the autumn of 1829 had passed, a further mis-
giving laid hold of him as to whether he could in good
conscience remain longer connected in the usual way with
this London Society, and on December 12th he concluded
to dissolve all such ties except upon certain conditions. To

6o George MQller of Brstol

do full justice both to Mr. Miiller and the Society, his own
words will again be found in the Appendix.*

Early in the following year it was made clear that he
could labour in connection with such a society only as they
would consent to his serving without salary and labouring
when and where the Lord might seem to direct. He so wrote,
eliciting a firm but kind response to the effect that they
felt it " inexpedient to employ those who were unwilling
to submit to their guidance with respect to missionary
operations," etc.

Thus this link with the Society was broken. He felt
that he was acting up to the light God gave, and, while
imputing to the Society no blame, he never afterward
repented this step nor reversed this judgment. To those
who review this long life, so full of the fruits of unusual
service to God and man, it will be quite apparent that
the Lord was gently but persistently thrusting George
Miiller out of the common path into one where he was to
walk very closely with Himself; and the decisions which,
even in lesser matters furthered God^s purpose were wiser
and weightier than could at the time be seen.

One is constantly reminded in reading Mr. Miiller's
journal that he was a man of like frailties as others. On
Christmas morning of this year, after a season of peculiar
joy, he awoke to find himself in the Slough of Despond,
"iv^ithout any sense of enjoyment, prayer seeming as fruit-
less as the vain struggles of a man in the mire. At the
usual morning meeting he was urged by a brother to con-
tinue in prayer, notwithstanding, until he was again
melted before the Lord — a wise counsel for all disciples
when the Lord's presence seems strangely withdrawn.
Steadfast continuance in prayer must never be hindered

* See Appendix C.

New Steps and Stages of Preparation 6i

by the want of sensible enjoyment ; in fact, it is a safe
maxim that the less joy, the more need Cessation of com-
munion with God, for whatever cause, only makes the
more difficult its resumption and the recovery of the
prayer habit and prayer spirit; whereas the persistent out-
pouring of supplication, together with continued activity
in the service of God, soon brings back the lost joy. When-
ever, therefore, one yields to spiritual depression so as to
abandon, or even to suspend, closet communion or Chris-
tian work, the devil triumphs.

So rapid was Mr. Miiller's recovery out of this Satanic
snare, through continuance in prayer, that, on the evening
of that same Christmas day whose dawn had been so over-
cast, he expounded the Word at family worship in the
house where he dined by invitation, and with such help
from God that two servants who were present were deejdy
convicted of sin and sought his counsel.

Here we reach another mile-stone in this life-journey.
George Miiller had now come to the end of the 3'ear 1829,
and he had been led of the Lord in a truly remarkable
path. It was but about four years since he first found the
narrow way and began to walk in it, and he was as yet a
young man, in his twenty-fifth year. Yet already he had
been taught some of the grand secrets of a holy, happy,
and useful life, which became the basis of the whole struc-
ture of his after-service.

Indeed, as we look back over these four years, they seem
crowded with significant and eventful experiences, all of
which forecast his future work, though he as yet saw
not in them the Lord's sign. His conversion in a
primitive assembly of believers where worship and the
word of God were the only attractions, was the starting-
point in a career every step of which seems a stride for-
ward. Think of a young convert, with such an ensnaring

62 George Miiller of Bristol

past to reproach and retard him, within these few years
learning such advanced lessons in renunciation: burning
his manuscript novel, giving up the girl he loved, turning
his back on the seductive prospect of ease and wealth, to
accept self-denial for God, cutting loose from dependence
on his father and then refusing all stated salary lest his
liberty of witness be curtailed, and choosing a simple ex-
pository mode of preaching, instead of catering to popular
taste ! Then mark how he fed on the word of God; how
he cultivated the habits of searching the Scriptures and
praying in secret ; how he threw himself on God, not only
for temporal supplies, but for support in bearing all bur-
dens, however great or small ; and how thus early he
offered himself for the mission field and was impatiently
eager to enter it. Then look at the sovereign love of God,
imparting to him in so eminent a degree the childlike
spirit, teaching him to trust not his own variable moods
of feeling, but the changeless word of His promise ; teach-
ing him to wait patiently on Him for orders, and not to
look to human authority or direction ; and so singularly
releasing him from military service for life, and mysteri-
ously withholding him from the far-off mission field, that
He might train him for his unique mission to the race
and the ages to come !

These are a few of the salient points of this narrative,
thus far, which must, to any candid mind, demonstrate
that a higher Hand was moulding this chosen vessel on
His potter's wheel, and shaping it unmistakably for the
singular service to which it was destined !

CHAPTER V

THE PULPIT AND THE PASTORATE

No work for God surpasses in dignity and responsibility
the Christian ministry. It is at once the consummate
flower of the divine planting, the priceless dower of His
church, and through it works the power of God for salva-
tion.

Though George Miiller had begun his ' candidacy for
holy orders' as an unconverted man, seeking simply a
human calling with a hope of a lucrative living, he had
heard God's summons to a divine vocation, and he was
from time to time preaching the Gospel, but not in any
settled field.

While at Teignmouth, early in 1830, preaching by invi-
tation, he was asked to take the place of the minister who
was about to leave, but he replied that he felt at that
time called of God, not to a stationary charge, but rather
to a sort of itinerant evangelism. During this time he
preached at Shaldon for Henry Craik, thus coming into
closer contact with this brother, to whom his heart became
knit in bonds of love and sympathy which grew stronger
as the acquaintance became more intimate.

Certain hearers at Teignmouth, and among them some

preachers, disliked his sermons, albeit they were owned of

God ; and this caused him to reflect upon the probable

causes of this opposition, and whether it was any indica-

63

€4 George Miiller of Bristol

tion of his duty. He felt that they doubtless looked foi
outward graces of oratory in a preacher, and hence were
not attracted to a foreigner whose speech had no rhetorical
charms and who could not even use English with fluency.
But he felt sure of a deeper cause for their dislike, espe-
cially as he was compelled to notice that, the summer
previous, when he himself was less spiritually minded and
had less insight into the truth, the same parties who now
opposed him were pleased with him. His final conclusion
was that the Lord meant to work through him at Teign-
mouth, but that Satan was acting, as usual, the part of a
binderer, and stirring up brethren themselves to oppose
the truth. And as, notwithstanding the opposers, the wish
that he should minister at the chapel was expressed so of-
ten and by so many, he determined to remain for a time
until he was openly rejected as God's witness, or had some
clear divine leading to another field of labour.

He announced this purpose, at the same time plainly
stating that, should they withhold salary, it would not
affect his decision, inasmuch as he did not preach as a
hireling of man, but as the servant of God, and would
willingly commit to Him the provision for his temporal
needs. At the same time, however, he reminded them
that it was alike their duty and privilege to minister in
carnal things to those who served them in things spiritual,
and that while he did not desire a gift, he did desire fruit
that might abound to their account.

These experiences at Teignmouth were typical: " Some
believed the things which were spoken, and some believed
not ; " some left the chapel, while others stayed ; and
some were led and fed, while others maintained a cold in-
difference, if they did not exhibit an open hostility. Bui
the Lord stood by him and strengthened him, setting His
seal upon his testimony ; and Jehovah Jireh also moved

The Pulpit and the Pastorate 65

two brethren, unasked, to supply all the daily wants of
His servant. After a while the little church of eighteen
members unanimously called the young preacher to the
pastorate, and he consented to abide with them for a sea-
son, without abandoning his original intention of going
from place to place as the Lord might lead. A stipend,
of fifty-five pounds annually, was offered him, which some-
what increased as the church membership grew ; and so
the university student of Halle was settled in his first
pulpit and pastorate.

While at Sidmouth, preaching, in April, 1830, three
believing sisters held in his presence a conversation about
' 'believers' baptism/ which proved the suggestion of an-
other important step in his life, which has a wider bearing
than at first is apparent.

They naturally asked his opinion on the subject about
which they were talking, and he replied that, having been
baptized as a child, he saw no need of being baptized again.
Being further asked if he had ever yet prayerfully searched
the word of God as to its testimony in this matter, he
frankly confessed that he had not.

At once, with unmistakable plainness of speech and with
rare fidelity, one of these sisters in Christ promptly said :
" I entreat you, then, never again to speak any more about
it till you have done so."

Such a reply George Miiller was not the man either to
resent or to resist. He was too honest and conscientious to
dismiss without due reflection any challenge to search the
oracles of God for their witness upon any given question.
Moreover, if, at that very time, his preaching was em-
phatic in any direction, it was in the boldness with which
he insisted that all pulpit teaching and Christian practice
must he subjected to one great test, namely, the touch-
stone of the word of God. Already an Elijah in spirit, hia

6d Georore Miiller of Bristol

great aim was to repair the broken-down altar of the Lord,
to expose and rebuke all that hindered a thoroughly scrip-
tural worship and service, and, if possible, to restore apos-
tolic simplicity of doctrine and life.

As he thought and prayed about this matter, he was
forced to admit to himself that he had never yet earnestly
examined the Scriptures for their teaching as to the posi-
tion and relation of baptism in the believer's life, nor
had he even prayed for light upon it. He had nevertheless
repeatedly spoken against believers' baptism, and so he saw
it to be possible that he might himself have been opposing
the teaching of the Word. He therefore determined to
study the subject until he should reach a final, satisfac-
tory, and scriptural conclusion ; and thenceforth, whether
led to defend infant baptism or believers' baptism, to do
it only on scriptural grounds.

The mode of study which he followed was characteris-
tically simple, thorough, and business-like, and was always
pursued afterward. He first sought from God the Spirit's
teaching that his eyes might be opened to the Word's
witness, and his mind illumined ; then he set about a sys-
tematic examination of the New Testament from begin-
ning to end. So far as possible he sought absolutely to
rid himself of all bias of previous opinion or practice,
prepossession or prejudice; he prayed and endeavoured
to be free from the influence of human tradition, popular
custom, and churchly sanction, or that more subtle hin-
drance, personal pride in his own consistency. He was
humble enough to be willing to retract any erroneous
teaching and renounce any false position, and to espouse
that wise maxim : " Don't be consistent, but simply be
true." Whatever may have been the case with others who
claim to have examined the same question for themselves,
the result in his case was that he came to the conclu-

The Pulpit and the Pastorate 67

sion, and, as he believed, from the word of God and the
Spirit of God, that none but believers are the proper sub-
jects of baptism, and that only immersion is its proper
mode. Two passages of Scripture were very marked in the
prominence which they had in compelling him to these
conclusions, namely: Acts viii. 36-38, and Eomans vi. 3-5.
The case of the Ethiopian eunuch strongly convinced
him that baptism is proper, only as the act of a believer
confessing Christ : and the passage in the Epistle to the
Eomans equally satisfied him that only immersion in water
can express the t}-pical burial with Christ and resurrection
with Him, there and elsewhere made so prominent. He
intended no assault upon brethren who hold other views,
when he thus plainly stated in his journal the honest and
unavoidable convictions to which he came ; but he was
too loyal both to the word of God and to his own con-
science to withhold his views when so carefully and prayer-
fully arrived at through the searching of the Scriptures.
Conviction compelled action, for in him there was no
pirit of compromise ; and he was accordingly promptly
oaptized. Years after, in reviewing his course, he records
the solemn conviction that " of all revealed truths, not
one is more clearly revealed in the Scriptures — ^not even
the doctrine of justification by faith — and that the sub-
ject has only become obscured by men not having been
willing to take the Scriptures alone to decide the point."

He also bears witness incidentally that not one true
friend in the Lord had ever turned his back upon him in
consequence of his baptism, as he supposed some would
have done ; and that almost all such friends had, since
then, been themselves baptized. It is true that in one way
he suffered some pecuniary loss through this step taken in
obedience to conviction, but the Lord did not suffer him
to be ultimately the loser even in this respect, for He

68 George Muller of Bristol

bountifully made up to him any such sacrifice, even in
things that pertain to this life. He concludes this review
of his course by adding that through his example many
others were led both to examine the question of baptism
anew and to submit themselves to the ordinance.

Such experiences as these suggest the honest question
whether there is not imperative need of subjecting all
current religious customs and practices tq_the one test j>f
cQTiformity to the spriptnrp p?^ftprri Our Lord sharply
rebuked the Pharisees of His day for making " the com-
mandment of God of none effect by their tradition,"
and, after giving one instance. He added, " and many
other such like things do ye."* It is very easy for doctrines
and practices to gain acceptance, which are the outgrowth
of ecclesiasticism, and neither have sanction in the word
of God, nor will bear the searching light of its testimony.
Cyprian has forewarned us that even antiquity is not au-
tliority, but may be only vetustas erroris — the old age
of error. What radical reforms would be made in modern
worship, teaching and practice, — in the whole conduct of
disciples and the administration of the church of God, —
if the one final criterion of all judgment were : ' What
do the Scriptures teach ?' And what revolutions in
our own lives as believers might take place, if we
should first put every notion of truth and custom
of life to this one test of scripture authority, and then
with the courage of conviction dare to do according
to that word — counting no cost, but studying to show
ourselves approved of God ! Is it possible that there are
any modem disciples who "reject the commandment of
God that they may keep their own tradition " ?

This step, taken by Mr. Miiller as to baptism, was only

* Matthew xv. 6 f Mark vii 9-13.

The Pulpit and the Pastorate 69

a precursor of many others, all of which, as he believed,
were according to that Word which, as the lamp to the
believer's feet, is to throw light upon his path.

During this same summer of 1830 the further study of
the Word satisfied him that, though there is no direct com-
mand so to do, the scriptural and apostolic practice was to
hreak bread every Lord's day. (Acts xx 7, etc.) Also, that
the Spirit of God should have unhindered liberty to work
through any believer according to the gifts He had be-
stowed, seemed to him plainly taught in Eomans xii. ; 1
Cor. xii. ; Ephes. iv., etc. These concisions likewise this
servant of God sought to translate at once into conduct,
and such conformity brought increasing spiritual prosper-
ity.

Conscientious misgivings, about the same time, ripened
into settled convictions that he could no longer, upon
the same principle of obedience to the word of God,
consent to receive any stated salary as a minister of Christ.
For this latter position, which so influenced his life, he
assigns the following grounds, which are here stated as
showing the basis of his life-long attitude :

1. A stated salary implies a fixed sum, which cannot
well be paid without a fixed income through pew-rentals
or some like source of revenue. This seemed plainly at
war with the teaching of the Spirit of God in James ii.
1-6, since the poor brother cannot afi'ord as good sittings
as the rich, thus introducing into church assemblies in-
vidious distinctions and respect of persons, and so en-
couraging the caste spirit.

2. A fixed pew-rental may at times become, even to the
willing disciple, a burden. He who would gladly con-
tribute to a pastor's support, if allowed to do so according
to his ability and at his own convenience, might be op-
pressed by the demand to pay a stated sum at a stated

70 George Muller of Bristol

time. Circumstances so change that one who has the
same cheerful mind as before may be unable to give as
formerly, and thus be subjected to painful embarrassment
and humiliation if constrained to give a fixed sum.

3. The whole system tends to the bondage of the servant
of Christ. One must be unusually faithful and intrepid
if he feels no temptation to keep back or in some degree
modify his message in order to please men, when he re-
members that the very parties, most open to rebuke and
most liable to offence, are perhaps the main contributors
toward his salary.

Whatever others may think of such reasons as these,
they were so satisfactory to his mind that he frankly and
promptly announced them to his brethren ; and thus, as
early as the autumn of 1830, when just completing his
twenty-fifth year, he took a position from which he never
retreated, that he would thenceforth receive no fixed salary
for any service rendered to Ood's people. While calmly as-
signing scriptural .grounds for such a position he, on the
same grounds, urged voluntary offerings, whether of money
or other means of support, as the proper acknowledgment
of service rendered by God's minister, and as a sacrifice ac-
ceptable, well-pleasing to God. A little later, seeing that,
when such voluntary gifts came direct from the givers
personally, there was a danger that some might feel self-
complacent over the largeness of the amount given by
them, and others equally humbled by the smallness of their
offerings, with consequent damage to both classes of givers,
he took a step further : he had a box put up in the chapel,
over which was written, that whoever had a desire to do
something for his support might put such an offering
therein as ability and disposition might direct. His in-
tention was, that thus the act might be wholly as in God's
sight, without the risk of a sinful pride or false humility.

The Pulpit and the Pastorate 71

He further felt that, to be entirely consistent, he should
asJc no help from man, even in bearing necessary costs of
travel in the Lord's service, nor even state his needs be-
forehand in such a way as indirectly to appeal for aid. All
of these methods he conceived to be forms of trusting in
an arm of flesh, going to man for help instead of going at
once, always and only, to the Lord. And he adds: " To
come to this conclusion before God required more grace than
to give up my salary."

These successive steps are here recorded explicitly and
in their exact order because they lead up directly to the
ultimate goal of his life-work and witness. Such decisions
were vital links connecting this remarkable man and hit.
" Father's business," upon which he was soon more
fully to enter; and they were all necessary to the fulness
of the world-wide witness which he was to bear to a
prayer-hearing God and the absolute safety of trusting
in Him and in Him alone.

On October 7, 1830, George Miiller, in finding a wife,
found a good thing and obtained new favour from the
Lord, Miss Mary Groves, sister of the t>elf-denying dentist
whose surrender of all things for the mission field had so
impressed him years before, was married to this man of
God, and for forty blessed years proved an help meet for
him. It was almost, if not quite, an ideal union, for which
he continually thanked God; and, although her kingdom
was one which came not ' with observation,' the sceptre of
her influence was far wider in its sway than will ever be ap-
preciated by those who were strangers to her personal and
domestic life. She was a rare woman and her price was
above rubies. The heart of her husband safely trusted in
her, and the great family of orphans who were to her as
children rise up even to this day to call her blessed.

Married life has often its period of estrangement, even

72 George Miiller of Bristol

■when temporary alienation yields to a deeper love, as the
parties become more truly wedded by the assimilation of
their inmost being to one another. But to Mr. and Mrs.
Miiller there never came any such experience of even tem-
porary alienation. From the first, love grew, and with it,
mutual confidence and trust. One of the earliest
ties which bound these two in one was the bond of a com-
mon self-denial. Yielding literal obedience to Luke xii.
33, they sold what little they had and gave alms, hence-
forth laying up no treasures on earth (Matthew vi. 19-34:
xix. 21.) The step then taken — accepting, for Christ's
sake, voluntary poverty — was never regretted, but
rather increasingly rejoiced in ; how faithfully it was fol-
lowed in the same path of continued self-sacrifice will
sufficiently appear when it is remembered that, nearly
sixty-eight years afterward, George Muller passed suddenly
into the life beyond, a poor man; his will, when admitted
to probate, showing his entire personal property, under
oath, to be but one hundred and sixty pounds ! And even
that would not have been in his possession had there been
no daily need of requisite comforts for the body and of
tools for his work. Part of t'his amount was in money,
shortly before received and not yet laid out for his Master,
but held at His disposal. Nothing, even to the clothes he
wore, did he treat as his own. He was a consistent
steward.

This final farewell to all earthly posssessions, in 1830,
left this newly married husband and wife to look only
to the Lord. Thenceforth they were to put to ample daily
test both their faith in the Great Provider and the faith-
fulness of the Great Promiser. It may not be improper
here to anticipate, what is yet to, be more fully recorded,
that, from day to day and hour to hour, during more than
threescore years, George Muller was enabled to set to his

The Pulpit and the Pastorate 73

seal that God is true. If few men have ever been per-
mitted so to trace in the smallest matters God's care over
His children, it is partly because few have so completely
abandoned themselves to that care. He dared to trust
Him, with whom the hairs of our head are all numbered,
and who touchingly reminds us that He cares for what
has been quaintly called " the odd sparrow.'' Matthew
records (x. 29) how two sparrows are sold for a farthing,
and Luke (xii. 6) how five are sold for two farthings ; and
so it would appear that, when two farthings were offered,
an odd sparrow was thrown in, as of so little value that it
could be given away with the other four. And yet even
for that one sparrow, not worth taking into account in the
bargain, God cares. Not one of them is forgotten before
God, or falls to the ground without Him. With what force
then comes the assurance : " Fear ye not therefore ; ye
are of more value than many sparrows " !

So George Miiller found it to be. He was permitted
henceforth to know as never before, and as few others
have ever learned, how truly God may be approached as
" Thou that hearest prayer." God can keep His trusting
children not only from falling but from stumbling ; for,
during all those after-years that spanned the lifetime of
two generations, there was no drawing back. Those precious
promises, which in faith and hope were " laid hold " of in
1830, were " held fast " until the end. (Heb. vi. 18, x. 23.)
And the divine faithfulness proved a safe anchorage-
ground in the most prolonged and violent tempests. The
anchor of hope, sure and steadfast, and entering into that
within the veil, was never dragged from its secure hold
on God. In fifty thousand cases, Mr Miiller calculated
that he could trace distinct answers to definite prayers;
and in multitudes of instances in which God's care was
not definitely traced, it was day by day like an encom-

74 George MuUer of Bristol

passing but invisible presence or atmosphere of life and
strength.

On August 9, 1831, Mrs. Miiller gave birth to a still-
born babe, and for six weeks remained seriously ill. Her
husband meanwhile laments that his heart was so cold and
carnal, and his prayers often so hesitating and formal ;
and he detects, even behind his zeal for God, most un-
spiritual frames. He especially chides himself for not
having more seriously thought of the peril of child-bear-
ing, so as to pray more earnestly for his wife ; and he saw
clearly that the prospect of parenthood had not been re-
joiced in as a blessing, but rather as implying a new burden
and hindrance in the Lord's work.

While this man of God lays bare his heart in his journal,
the reader must feel that " as in water face answereth to
face, so the heart of man to man." How many a servant
of God has no more exalted idea of the divine privilege
of a sanctified parenthood ! A wife and a child are most
precious gifts of God when received, in answer to prayer,
from His hand. Not only are they not hindrances, but they
are helps, most useful in fitting a servant of Christ for cer-
tain parts of his work for which no other preparation is so
adequate. They serve to teach him many most valuable
lessons, and to round out his character into a far more
symmetrical beauty and serviceableness. And when it is
remembered how a godly association in holiness and useful-
ness may thus be supplied, and above all a godly succession
through many generations, it will be seen how wicked is
the spirit that treats holy wedlock and its fruits in off-
spring, with lightness and contempt. Nor let us forget
that promise : " If two of you agree on earth as touching
any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of
My Father which is in heaven." (Matt, xviii. 19.) The
Greek word for "agree" is symphonize, and suggests a

The Pulpit and the Pastorate 75

musical harmony where chords are tuned to the same
key and struck by a master hand. Consider what a blessed
preparation for such habitual symphony in prayer is to be
found in the union of a husband and wife in the Lord !
May it not be that to this the Spirit refers when He bids
husband and wife dwell in unity, as " heirs together of
the grace of life," and adds, " tliat your prayers he not
hindered " ? (1 Peter iii. 7.)

God used this severe lesson for permanent blessing to
George Miiller. He showed him how open was his heart
to the subtle power of selfishness and carnality, and how
needful was this chastisement to teach him the sacredness
of marital life and parental responsibility. Henceforth
he judged himself, that he might not be judged of the
Lord." (1 Cor. xi. 31.)

A crisis like his wife's critical illness created a demand
for much extra expense, for which no provision had been
made, not through carelessness and improvidence, but
upon principle. Mr. Miiller held that to lay by in store
is inconsistent with full trust in God, who in such case
would send us to our hoardings before answering prayer
for more supplies. Experience in this emergency justified
his faith; for not only were all unforeseen wants supplied,
but even the delicacies and refreshments needful for the
sick and weak ; and the two medical attendants graciously
declined all remuneration for services which extended
through six weeks. Thus was there given of the Lord
more than could have been laid up against this season of
trial, even had the attempt been made.

The principle of committing future wants to the Lord's
care, thus acted upon at this time, he and his wife con-
sistently followed so long as they lived and worked to-
gether. Experience confirmed them in the conviction
that a life of trust forbids laying up treasures against un-

76 George Miiller of Bristol

foreseen needs, since with God no emergency is unforeseen
and no want unprovided for; and He may be as implicitly
trusted for extraordinary needs as for our common daily
bread.

Yet another law, kindred to this and thoroughly in-
wrought into Mr. Miiller's habit of life, was never to con-
tract debt, whether for personal purposes or the Lord's
M^ork. This matter was settled on scriptural grounds once
for all (Romans xiii. 8), and he and his wife determined
if need be to suffer starvation rather than to buy anything
without paying for it when bought. Thus they always
knew how much they had to buy with, and what they had
left to give to others or use for others' wants.

There was yet another law of life early framed
into Mr. Miiller's personal decalogue. He regarded any
money which was in his hands already designated for, or
appropriated to, a specific use, as not his to use, even tem-
porarily, for any other ends. Thus, though he was often
reduced to the lowest point of temporal supplies, he took
no account of any such funds set apart for other outlays
or due for other purposes. Thousands of times he was
in straits where such diversion of funds for a time seemed
the only and the easy way out, but where this would only
have led him into new embarrassments. This principle,
intelligently adopted, was firmly adhered to, that what
properly belongs to a particular branch of work, or has
been already put aside for a certain use, even though yet
in hand, is not to be reckoned on as available for any other
need, however pressing. Trust in God implies such knowl-
edge on His part of the exact circumstances that He will
not constrain us to any such misappropriation. Mistakes,
most serious and fatal, have come from lack of conscience
as well as of faith in such exigencies — drawing on one
fund to meet the overdraught upon another, hoping after-

The Pulpit and the Pastorate "]*]

ward to replace what is thus withdrawn. A well-known
college president had nearly involved the institution of
which he was the head, in bankruptcy, and himself in worse
moral ruin, all the result of one error — money given for
endowing certain chairs had been used for current ex-
penses until public confidence had been almost hopelessly
impaired.

Thus a life of faitli must be no less a life of co7iscience.
Faith and trust in God, and truth and faithfulness toward
man, walked side by side in this life-journey in unbroken
agreement.

CHAPTER VI

*'the narrative of the lord's dealings''

Things which are sacred forbid even a careless touch.

The record wTitten by George Mliller of the Lord's deal-
ings reads, especially in parts, almost like an inspired
writing, because it is simply the tracing of divine guidance
in a human life — not this man's own working or planning,
suffering or serving, but the Lord's dealings with him and
workings through him.

It reminds us of that conspicuous passage in the Acts
of the Apostles where, within the compass of twenty verses,
God is fifteen times put boldly forward as the one Actor
in all events. Paul and Barnabas rehearsed, in the ears of
the church at Antioch, and afterward at Jerusalem, not
what they had done for the Lord, but all that He had done
with them, and how He had opened the door of faith unto
the Gentiles ; what miracles and wonders God had wrought
among the Gentiles by them. And, in the same spirit,
Peter before the council emphasizes how God had made
choice of his mouth, as that whereby the Gentiles should
hear the word of the Gospel and believe; how He had given
them the Holy Ghost and put no difference between Jew
and Gentile, purifying their hearts by faith ; and how He
who knew all hearts had thus borne them witness. Then
James, in the same strain, refers to the way in which God
had visited the Gentiles to taJce out of them a people for
His name; and concludes by two quotations or adaptations
78

"The Narrative of the Lord's Dealings" 79

from the Old Testament, which fitly sum up the whole
matter :

" The Lord who doeth all these things."

" Known unto God are all His works from the beginning
of the world." (Acts xiv. 27 to xv. 18.)

The meaning of such repeated phraseology cannot be
mistaken. God is here presented as the one agent or actor,
and even the most conspicuous apostles, like Paul and
Peter, as only His instruments. No twenty verses in the
word of God contain more emphatic and repeated lessons
on man's insufficiency and nothingness, and God's all-suffi-
ciency and almightiness. It was God that wrought upon
man through man. It was He who chose Peter to be His
mouthpiece, He whose key unlocked shut doors, He who
visited the nations, who turned sinners into saints, who
was even then taking out a people for His name, purifying
hearts and bearing them witness ; it was He and He alone
who did all these wondrous things, and according to His
knowledge and plan of what He would do, from the be-
ginning. We are not reading so much the Acts of the
Apostles as the acts of God through the apostles. Was it
not this very passage in this inspired book that suggested,
perhaps, the name of this Journal : " The Lord's dealings
with George Midler " f

At this narrative or Journal, as a whole, we can only
rapidly glance. In this shorter account, purposely con-
densed to secure a wider reading even from busy people,
that narrative could not be more fully treated, for in its
original form it covers about three thousand printed pages,
and contains close to one million words. To such as can
and will read that more minute account it is accessible at a
low rate,* and is strongly recommended for careful and

* Five volumes at 16s. Published by Jas. Nisbet & Co., London.
With subsequent Annual Reports at 3d. each.

8o George M tiller of Bristol

leisurely perusal. But for the present purpose the life-
story, as found in these pages, takes both a briefer and a
different form.

The journal is largely composed of, condensed from,
and then supplemented by, annual reports of the work,
and naturally and necessarily includes, not only thousands
of little details, but much inevitable repetition year by
year, because each new report was likely to fall into the
hands of some who had never read reports of the previous
years. The desire and design of this briefer memoir is to
present the salient points of the narrative, to review the
whole life-story as from the great summits or outlooks
found in this remarkable journal ; so that, like the ob-
server who from some high mountain-peak looks toward
the different points of the compass, and thus gets a rapid,
impressive, comparative, and comprehensive view of the
whole landscape, the reader may, as at a glance, take in
those marked features of this godly man's character and ca-
reer which incite to new and advance steps in faith and
holy living. Some few characteristic entries in the journal
will find here a place; others, only in substance; while of
the bulk of them it will be sufficient to give a general sur-
vey, classifying the leading facts, and under each class giv-
ing a few representative examples and illustrations.

Looking at this narrative as a whole, certain prominent
peculiarities must be carefully noted. We have here a
record and revelation of seven conspicuous experiences:

1. An experience of frequent and &t times prolonged
■financial straits.

The money in hand for personal needs, and for the needs
of hundreds and thousands of orphans, and for the various
branches of the work of the Scriptural Knowledge Institu-
tion, was often reduced to a single 'pound, or even penny,
and sometimes to nothing. There was therefore a neces-

" The Narrative of the Lord's Dealings" 8i

sity for constant waiting on God, looking to Him directly
for all supplies. For months, if not years, together, and
at several periods in the work, supplies were furnished
only from month to month, week to week, day to day,
hour to hour! Faith was thus kept in lively exercise and
under perpetual training.

2. An experience of the unchanging faithfulness of the
Father-God.

The straits were long and trying, but never was there
one case of failure to receive help; never a meal-time
without at least a frugal meal, never a want or a crisis
unmet by divine supply and support. Mr. Miiller said to
the writer : '* Not once, or five times, or five hundred
times, but thousands of times in these threescore years,
have we had in hand not enough for one more meal, either
in food or in funds ; but not once has God failed us ; not
once have we or the orphans gone hungry or lacked any
good thing." From 1838 to 1844 was a period of peculiar
and prolonged straits, yet when the time of need actually
came the supply was always given, though often at the last
moment.

3. An experience of the working of God upon the
minds, hearts, and consciences of contributors to the work.

It will amply repay one to plod, step by step, over these
thousands of pages, if only to trace the hand of God
touching the springs of human action all over the world
in ways of His own, and at times of great need, and ad-
Justing the amount and the exact day and hour of the
supply, to the existing want. Literally from the earth's
ends, men, women, and children who had never seen Mr.
Miiller and could have known nothing of the pressure at
the time, have been led at the exact crisis of affairs to send
aid in the very sum or form, most needful. In countless
cases, while he was on his knees asking, the answer

82 George Miiller of Bristol

has come in such close correspondence with the request as
to shut out chance as an explanation, and compel belief in
a prayer-hearing God.

4. An experience of habitual hanging upon the unseen
God and nothing else.

The reports, issued annually to acquaint the public with
the history and progress of the work, and give an account
of stewardship to the many donors who had a right to a
report — these made no direct appeal for aid. At one time,
and that of great need, Mr. Miiller felt led to withhold the
usual annual statement, lest some might construe the ac-
count of work already done as an appeal for aid in work
yet to be done, and thus detract from the glory of the
Great Provider.* The Living God alone was and is the
Patron of these institutions; and not even the wisest and
wealthiest, the noblest and the most influential of human
beings, has ever been looked to as their dependence.

5. An experience of conscientious care in accepting and
using gifts.

Here is a pattern for all who act as stewards for God.
Whenever there was any ground of misgiving as to the
propriety or expediency of receiving what was offered, it
was declined, however pressing the need, unless or until
all such objectionable features no more existed. If the
party contributing was known to dishonour lawful debts,
so that the money was righteously due to others ; if the
gift was encumbered and embarrassed by restrictions that

* For example, Vol. II, 103, records that the report given is for
1846-1848, no report having been issued for 1847; and on page 113,
under date of May 25th, occur these words: "not being nearly
enough to meet the housekeeping expenses," etc. ; and. May 28th
and 30th, such other words as these : "now our poverty," "in this
our great need," " in these days of straitness." Mr. Wright thinks
that on that wry account Mr. Miiller did not publish the report for
1847.

"The Narrative of the Lord's Dealings" 83

hindered its free use for God ; if it was designated for
endowment purposes or as a provision for Mr. Miiller's
old age, or for the future of the institutions ; or if there
was any evidence or suspicion that the donation was given
grudgingly, reluctantly, or for self-glory, it was promptly
declined and returned. In some cases, even where large
amounts were involved, parties were urged to wait until
more prayer and deliberation made clear that they were
acting under divine leading.

6. An experience of extreme caution lest there should
be even a careless betrayal of the fact of pressing need, to
the outside public.

The helpers in the institutions were allowed to come
into such close fellowship and to have such knowledge of
the exact state of the work as aids not only in common
labours, but in common prayers and self-denials. Without
such acquaintance they could not serve, pray, nor sacrifice
intelligently. But these associates were most solemnly
and repeatedly charged never to reveal to those without,
not even in the most serious crises, any want whatsoever
of the work. The one and only resort was ever to be the
God who hears the cry of the needy ; and the greatf ^ the
exigency, the greater the caution lest there should even
seem to be a looking away from divine to human help.

7. An experience of growing boldness of faith in asking
and trusting for great things.

As faith was exercised it was energized, so that it be-
came as easy and natural to ask confidently for a hundred,
a thousand, or ten thousand pounds, as once it had been
for a pound or a penny. After confidence in God had been
strengthened through discipline, and God had been proven
faithful, it required no more venture to cast himself on
God for provision for two thousand children and an annual
outlay of at least twenty-five thousand pounds for them

84 George M tiller of Bristol

than in the earlier periods of the work to look to Him to
care for twenty homeless orphans at a cost of two hundred
and fifty pounds a year. Only by using faith are we kept
from practically losing it, and, on the contrary, to use faith
is to lose the unbelief that hinders God's mighty acts.

This brief resume of the contents of thousands of entries
is the result of a repeated and careful examination of page
after page where have been patiently recorded with scru-
pulous and punctilious exactness the innumerable details
of Mr. Miiller's long experience as a co-worker with God.
He felt himself not only the steward of a celestial Master,
but the trustee of human gifts, and hence he sought to
" provide things honest in the sight of all men." He
might never have published a report or spread these
minute matters before the public eye, and yet have been an
equally faithful steward toward God; but he would not
in such case have been an equally faithful trustee toward
man.

Frequently, in these days, men receive considerable
sums of money from various sources for benevolent work,
and yet give no account of such trusteeship. However
honest such parties may be, they not only act unwisely,
but, by their course, lend sanction to others with whom
such irresponsible action is a cloak for systematic fraud.
Mr. Miiller's whole career is the more without fault be-
cause in this respect his administration of his great trust
challenges the closest investigation.

The brief review of the lessons taught in his journal
may well startle the incredulous and unbelieving spirit
of our skeptical day. Those who doubt the power of
prayer to bring down actual blessing, or who con-
found faith in God with credulity and superstition, may
well wonder and perhaps stumble at such an array of
facts. But, if any reader is still doubtful as to the facts.

"The Narrative of the Lord's Dealings" 85

or thinks they are here arrayed in a deceptive garb or
invested with an imaginative halo, he is hereby invited
to examine for himself the singularly minute records
which George Miiller has been led of God to put before
the world in a printed form which thus admits no
change, and to accompany with a bold and repeated chal-
lenge to any one so inclined, to subject every statement
to the severest scrutiny, and prove, if possible, one item
to be in any respect false, exaggerated, or misleading.
The absence of all enthusiasm in the calm and mathe-
matical precision of the narrative compels the reader to
feel that the writer was almost mechanically exact in the
record, and inspires confidence that it contains the abso-
lute, naked truth.

One caution should, like Habakkuk's gospel message —
" The just shall live by his faith " — be written large and
plain so that even a cursory glance may take it in. Let
no one ascribe to George Miiller such a miraculous gift of
faith as lifted him above common believers and out of
the reach of the temptations and infirmities to which all
fallible souls are exposed. He was constantly liable to
Satanic assaults, and we find him making frequent con-
fession of the same sins as others, and even of unbelief,
and at times overwhelmed with genuine sorrow for his
departures from God. In fact he felt himself rather
more than usually wicked by nature, and utterly helpless
even as a believer : was it not this poverty of spirit and
mourning over sin, this consciousness of entire unworthi-
ness and dependence, that so drove him to the throne of
grace and the all-merciful and all-powerful Father ?
Because he was so weak, he leaned hard on the strong
arm of Him whose strength is not only manifested, but
can only be made perfect, in weakness.*
* 1 Cor. xii. 1-10.

86 George Mliller of Bristol

To those who think that no man can wield such power
in prayer or live such a life of faith who is not an excep-
tion to common mortal frailties, it will be helpful to find
in this very journal that is so lighted up with the records
of God's goodness, the dark shadows of conscious sin and
guilt. Even in the midst of abounding mercies and inter-
positions he suffered from temptations to distrust and dis-
obedience, and sometimes had to mourn their power over
him, as when once he found himself inwardly complaining
of the cold leg of mutton which formed the staple of his
Sunday dinner ! We discover as we read that we are
communing with a man who was not only of like pas-
sions with ourselves, but who felt himself rather more
than most others subject to the sway of evil, and needing
therefore a special keeping power. Scarce had he started
upon his new path of entire dependence on God, when
he confessed himself " so sinful " as for some time to
entertain the thought that " it would be of no use to
trust in the Lord in this way," and fearing that he had
perhaps gone already too far in this direction in having
committed himself to such a course.* True, this tempta-
tion was speedily overcome and Satan confounded ; but
from time to time similar fiery darts were hurled at him
which had to be quenched by the same shield of faith.
Never, to the last hour of life, could he trust himself, or
for one moment relax his hold on God, and neglect the
word of God and prayer, without falling into sin. The
' old man ' of sin always continued too strong for George
Miiller alone, and the longer he lived a ' life of trust '
the less was his trust placed upon himself.

Another fact that grows more conspicuous with the
perusal of every new page in his journal is that in things

* Vol. 1. 7a

"The Narrative of the Lord's Dealings" S7

common and small, as well as uncommon and great, he
took no step without first asking counsel of the oracles
of God and seeking guidance from Him in believing
prayer. It was his life-motto to learn the will of God
before undertaking anything, and to wait till it is clear,
because only so can one either be blessed in his own soul
or prospered in the work of his hands.* Many disciples
who are comparatively bold to seek God's help in great
crises, fail to come to Him with like boldness in matters
that seem too trivial to occupy the thought of God or
invite the interposition of Him who numbers the very
hairs of our heads and suffers not one hair to perish.
The writer of this journal escaped this great snare and
carried even the smallest matter to the Lord.

Again, in his journal he constantly seeks to save from
reproach the good name of Him whom he serves : he
cannot have such a God accounted a hard Master. So
early as July, 1831, a false rumour found circulation that
he and his wife were half-starving and that certain bodily
ailments were the result of a lack of the necessities of
life ; and he is constrained to put on record that, though
often brought so low as not to have one penny left and
to have the last bread on the table, they had never yet
sat down to a meal unprovided with some nourishing
food. This witness was repeated from time to time, and
until just before his departure for the Father's house on
high; and it may therefore be accepted as covering that
whole life of faith which reached over nearly threescore
years and ten.

A kindred word of testimony, first given at this same
time and in like manner reiterated from point to point
in his pilgrimage, concerns the Lord's faithfulness in ae-

* Vol. I. 74

88 Georore Muller of Bristol

'&

companying His word with power, in accordance with
that positive and unequivocal promise in Isaiah Iv. 11 :
" My word shall not return unto Me void ; but it shall
accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in
the thing whereto I sent it." It is very noticeable that
this is not said of man's word, however wise, important,
or sincere, but of God's word. We are therefore justified
in both expecting and claiming that, just so far as our
message is not of human invention or authority, but is
God's message through us, it shall never fail to accom-
plish His pleasure and its divine errand, whatever be its
apparent failure at the time. Mr. Miiller, referring to his
own preaching, bears witness that in almost if not quite
every place where he spoke God's word, whether in larger
chapels or smaller rooms, the Lord gave the seal of His
own testimony. He observed, however, that blessing did
not so obviously or abundantly follow his open-air ser-
vices: only in one instance had it come to his knowledge
that there were marked results, and that was in the case
of an army officer who came to make sport. Mr. Miiller
thought that it might please the Lord not to let him see
the real fruit of his work in open-air meetings, or that
there had not been concerning them enough believing
prayer ; but he concluded that such manner of preaching
was not his present work, since God had not so conspicu-
ously sealed it with blessing.

His journal makes very frequent reference to the
physical weakness and disability from which he suffered.
The struggle against bodily infirmity was almost life-long,
and adds a new lesson to his life-story. The strength of
faith had to triumph over the weakness of the flesh. "We
often find him suffering from bodily ills, and sometimes
so seriously as to be incapacitated for labour.

For example, early in 1832 he broke a blood-vessel in

"The Narrative of the Lord's Dealings" 89

the stomach and lost much blood by the hemorrhage.
The Tery day following was the Lord's day, and four out-
side preaching stations needed to be provided for, from
which his disablement would withdraw one labourer to
take his place at home. After an hour of prayer he felt
that faith was given him to rise, dress, and go to the
chapel; and, though very weak, so that the short walk
wearied him, he was helped to preach as usual. After the
service a medical friend remonstrated against his course
as tending to permanent injury ; but he replied that he
should himself have regarded it presumptuous had not
the Lord given him the faith. He preached both after-
noon and evening, growing stronger rather than weaker
with each effort, and suffering from no reaction afterward.

In reading Mr. Miiller's biography and the record of
such experiences, it is not probable that all will agree as to
the wisdom of his course in every case. Some will com-
mend, while others will, perhaps, condemn. He himself
qualifies this entry in his journal with a wholesome caution
that no reader should in such a matter follow his example,
who has not faith given him; but assuring him that if God
does give faith so to undertake for Him, such trust will
prove like good coin and be honoured when presented. He
himself did not always pursue a like course, because he
had not always a like faith, and this leads him in his
journal to draw a valuable distinction between the gift
of faith and the grace of faith, which deserves careful con-
sideration.

He observed that repeatedly he prayed with the sick
till they were restored, he asking unconditionally for the
Messing of hodily health, a thing which, he says, later on, he
could not have done. Almost always in such cases the
petition was granted, yet in some instances not. Once,
in his own case, as early as 1829, he had been healed

90 George Miiller of Bristol

of a bodily infirmity of long standing, and which never
returned. Yet this same man of God subsequently suf-
fered from disease which was not in like manner healed,
and in more than one case submitted to a costly operation
at the hands of a skilful surgeon.

Some will doubtless say that even this man of faith
lacked the faith necessary for the healing of his own body;
but we must let him speak for himself, and especially as
he gives his own view of the gift and the grace of faith.
He says that the gift of faith is exercised, whenever we
" do or believe a thing where the not doing or not believ-
ing would not be sin "; but the grace of faith, "where we
do or believe what not to do or believe would be sin "; in
one case we have no unequivocal command or promise to
guide us, and in the other we have. The gift of faith is
not always in exercise, but the grace must be, since it has
the definite word of God to rest on, and the absence or
even weakness of faith in such circumstances implies sin.
There were instances, he adds, in which it pleased the
Lord at times to bestow upon him something like the gift
of faith so that he could ask unconditionally and expect
confidently.

This journal we may now dismiss as a whole, having
thus looked at the general features which characterize its
many pages. But let it be repeated that to any reader
who will for himself carefully examine its contents its
perusal will prove a means of grace. To read a little at
a time, and follow it with reflection and self-examina-
tion, will be found most stimulating to faith, though often
most humiliating by reason of the conscious contrast sug-
gested by the reader's unbelief and unfaithfulness. This
man lived peculiarly with God and in God, and his senses
were exercised to discern good and evil. His conscience

"The Narrative of the Lord's Dealings" 91

became increasingly sensitive and his judgment singularly
discriminating, so that he detected fallacies where they
escape the common eye, and foresaw dangers which,
like hidden rocks ahead, risk damage and, perhaps, de-
struction to service if not to character. And, therefore,
so far is the writer of this memoir from desiring to dis-
place that journal, that he rather seeks to incite many
who have not read it to examine it for themselves. It
will to such be found to mark a path of close daily walk
with God, where, step by step, with circumspect vigi-
lance, conduct and even motive are watched and weighed
in God's own balances.

To sum up very briefly the impression made by the
close perusal of this whole narrative with the supple-
mentary annual reports, it is simply this : Confidence
IN God.

In a little sketch of Beate Paulus, the Frau Pastorin
pleads with God in a great crisis not to forsake her,
quaintly adding that she was " willing to be the second
whom He might forsake," but she was " determined not
to be the first" * George Miiller believed that, in all ages,
there had never yet been one true and trusting believer to
whom God had proven false or faithless, and he was per-
fectly sure that He could be safely trusted who, " if we
believe not, yet abideth faithful : He cannot deny Him-
self." t God has not only spoheri, but sworn; His word is
confirmed by His oath : because He could swear by no
greater He sware by Himself. And all this that we might
have a strong consolation ; that we might have boldness
in venturing upon Him, laying hold and holding fast
His promise. Unbelief makes God a liar and, worse still,

* Faith's Miracles, p. 43. f 2 Timothy ii. 13.

92 George Muller of Bristol

a perjurer, for it accounts Him as not only false to His
word, but to His oath. George Miiller believed, and be-
cause he believed, prayed ; and praying, expected ; and ex-
pecting, received. Blessed is he that believes, for there
shall be a performance of those things which are spoken
of the Lord.

CHAPTEE VII

LED OF GOD INTO A NEW SPHEEE

If much hangs and turns upon the choice of the work
we are to do and the field where we are to do it, it must
not be forgotten how much also depends on the time when
it is undertaken, the way in which it is performed, and
the associates in the labour. In all these matters the true
workman will wait for the Master's beck, glance, or signal,
before a step is taken.

"We have come now to a new fork in the road where the
path ahead begins to be more plain. The future and per-
manent centre of his life-work is at this point clearly in-
dicated to God's servant by divine leading.

In March, 1832, his friend Mr. Henry Craik left Shal-
don for four weeks of labour in Bristol, where Mr. Miiller's
strong impression was that the Lord had for Mr. Craik
some more lasting sphere of work, though as yet it had
not dawned upon his mind that he himself was to be a
co-worker in that sphere, and to find in that very city the
place of his permanent abode and the centre of his life's
activities. God again led the blind by a way he knew
not. The conviction, however, had grown upon him that
the Lord was loosing him from Teignmouth, and, without
having in view any other definite field, he felt that his
ministry there was drawing to a close; and he inclined to

94 George Miiller of Bristol

go about again from place to place, seeking especially to
bring believers to a fuller trust in God and a deeper sense
of His faithfulness, and to a more thorough search into
His word. His inclination to such itinerant work was
strengthened by the fact that outside of Teignmouth
his preaching both gave him much more enjoyment and
sense of power, and drew more hearers.

On April 13th a letter from Mr. Craik, inviting Mr.
Miiller to join in his work at Bristol, made such an im-
pression on his mind that he began prayerfully to con-
sider whether it was not God's call, and whether a field
more suited to his gifts was not opening to him. The
following Lord's day, preaching on the Lord's coming,
he referred to the effect of this blessed hope in impelling
God's messenger to bear witness more widely and from
place to place, and reminded the brethren that he had re-
fused to bind himself to abide with them that he might
at any moment be free to follow the divine leading else-
wheie.

On April 20th Mr. Miiller left for Bristol. On the jour-
ney he was dumb, having no liberty in speaking for Christ
or even in giving away tracts, and this led him to reflect.
He saw that the so-called ' work of the Lord ' had tempted
him to substitute action for meditation and communion.
He had neglected that * still hour ' with God which sup-
plies to spiritual life alike its breath and its bread. No
lesson is more important for us to learn, yet how slow are
we to learn it : that for the lack of habitual seasons set
apart for devout meditation upon the word of God and
for prayer, nothing else will compensate.

"We are prone to think, for example, that converse with
Christian brethren, and the general round of Christian
activity, especially when we are much busied with preach-
ing the Word and visits to inquiring or needy souls, make

Led of God into a New Sphere 95

up for the loss of aloneness witii God in the secret place.
We hurry to a public service with but a few minutes of pri-
vate prayer, allowing precious time to be absorbed in social
pleasures, restrained from withdrawing from others by a
false delicacy, when to excuse ourselves for needful com-
munion with God and his word would have been perhaps
the best witness possible to those whose company was
holding us unduly ! How often we rush from one public
engagement to another without any proper interval for
renewing our strength in waiting on the Lord, as though
God cared more for the quantity than the quality of our
service !

Here Mr. Miiller had the grace to detect one of the fore-
most perils of a busy man in this day of insane hurry. He
saw that if we are to feed others we must be fed ; and
that even public and united exercises of praise and prayer
can never supply that food which is dealt out to the be-
liever only in the closet — the shut-in place with its closed
door and open window, where he meets God alone. In a
previous chapter reference has been made to the fact that
three times in the word of God we find a divine prescript
tion for a true prosperity. God says to Joshua, " Thia
book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but
thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou
mayest observe to do according to all that is written
therein : for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and
then thou shalt have good success." (Joshua i. 8.) Five
hundred years later the inspired author of the first Psalm
repeats the promise in unmistakable terms. The Spirit
there says of him whose delight is in the law of the Lord
and who in His law doth meditate day and night, that " he
shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that
bringeth forth his fruit in his season ; his leaf also shall
not wither ; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.'' Here

96 George Miiller of Bristol

the devout meditative student of the hlessed book of God
is likened to an evergreen tree planted beside unfailing
supplies of moisture; his fruit is perennial, and so is his
verdure — and whatsoever he doeth prospers ! More than a
thousand years pass away, and, before the New Testament
is sealed up as complete, once more the Spirit bears essen-
tially the same blessed witness. " Whoso looketh into the
perfect law of liberty and continueth " (i.e. continueth loolc-
ing — meditating on what he there beho'lds, lest he forget
the impression received through the mirror of the Word),
" this man shall be hlessed in his deed." (James i. 25.)

Here then we have a threefold witness to the secret of
true prosperity and unmingled blessing : devout medita-
tion and reflection upon the Scriptures, which are at
once a book of law, a river of life, and a mirror of self —
fitted to convey the will of God, the life of God, and the
transforming power of God. That believer makes a fatal
mistake who for any cause neglects the prayerful study of
the word of God. To read God's holy book, by it search
one's self, and turn it into prayer and so into holy living, is
the one great secret of growth in grace and godliness. The
worker for God must first be a worker with God : he must
have power with God and must prevail with Him in prayer,
if he is to have power with men and prevail with men in
preaching or in any form of witnessing and serving. At
all costs let us make sure of that highest preparation for
our work — the preparation of our own souls; and for this
we must tal-e time to be alone with His word and His
Spirit, that we may truly meet God, and understand His
uiil and the revelation of Himself.

If we seek the secrets of the life George Miiller lived
and the work he did, this is the very key to the whole
mystery, and with that key any believer can unlock the
doors to a prosperous growth in grace and power in service.

Led of God into a New Sphere 97

God's word is His woed — the expression of His thought,
the reveahng of His mind and heart. The supreme end
of life is to know God and make Him known ; and how is
this possible so long as we neglect the very means He hasf
chosen for conveying to us that knowledge ! Even Christ,
the Living Word, is to be found enshrined in the written
word. Our knowledge of Christ is dependent upon our
acquaintance with the Holy Scriptures, which are the re-
flection of His character and glory — the firmament across
the expanse of which He moves as the Sun of righteous-
ness.

On April 22, 1832, George Miiller first stood in the pul-
pit of Gideon Chapel. The fact and the date are to be
carefully marked as the new turning-point in a career of
great usefulness. Henceforth, for almost exactly sixty-six
years, Bristol is to be inseparably associated with his name.
Could he have foreseen, on that Lord's day, what a work
the Lord would do through him in that city; how from
it as a centre his influence would radiate to the earth's
ends, and how, even after his departure, he should con-
tinue to bear witness by the works which should follow
him, how his heart would have swelled and burst with
holy gratitude and praise, — ^while in humility he shrank
back in awe and wonder from a responsibility and an op-
portunity so vast and overwhelming !

In the afternoon of this first Sabbath he preached at
Pithay Chapel a sermon conspicuously owned of God.
Among others converted by it was a young man, a notori-
ous drunkard. And, before the sim had set, Mr. Miiller,
who in the evening heard Mr. Craik preach, was fully
persuaded that the Lord had brought him to Bristol for
a purpose, and that for a while, at least, there he was to
labour. Both he and his brother Craik felt, however, that
Bristol was not the place to reach a clear decision, for the

98 George Muller of Bristol

judgment was liable to be unduly biassed when subject to
the pressure of personal urgency, and so they determined
to return to their respective fields of previous labour, there
to wait quietly upon the Lord for the promised wisdom
from above. They left for Devonshire on the first of
May ; but already a brother had been led to assume the
responsibility for the rent of Bethesda Chapel as a place
for their joint labours, thus securing a second commodious
building for public worship.

Such blessing had rested on these nine days of united
testimony in Bristol that they both gathered that the
Lord had assuredly called them thither. The seal of His
sanction 'had been on all they had undertaken, and the last
service at Gideon Chapel on April 29th had been so
thronged that many went away for lack of room.

Mr. Miiller found opportunity for the exercise of hu-
mility, for he saw that by many his brother's gifts were
much preferred to his own ; yet, as Mr. Craik would come
to Bristol only with him as a yokefellow, God's grace en-
abled him to accept the humiliation of being the less
popular, and comforted him with the thought that two are
better than one, and that each might possibly fill up some
lack in the other, and thus both together prove a greater
benefit and blessing alike to sinners and to saints — as the
result showed. That same grace of God helped Mr. Muller
to rise higher — nay, let us rather say, to sink lower and,
" in honor preferring one another," to rejoice rather than
to be envious ; and, like John the Baptist, to say within
himself : " A man can receive nothing except it be given
him from above." Such a humble spirit has even in this
life oftentimes its recompense of reward. Marked as was
the impress of Mr. Craik upon Bristol, Mr. Miiller's in-
fluence was even deeper and wider. As Henry Craik die^
in 1866, his own wort reached through a much longer

Led of God into a New Sphere 99

period; and as he was permitted to make such extensive
mission tours throughout the world, his witness was fax
more outreaching. The lowly-min'ded man wlio bowed
down to take the lower place, consenting to be the more
obscure, was by God exalted to the higher seat and greater
throne of influence.

Within a few weeks the Lord^s will, as to their new
sphere, became so plain to both these brethren that on May
23d Mr. Miiller left Teignmouth for Bristol, to be followed
next day by Mr. Craik. At the believers' meeting at
Gideon Chapel they stated their terms, which were ac-
ceded to : that they were to be regarded as accepting no
fixed relationship to the congregation, preaching in such
manner and for such a season as should seem to them ac-
cording to the Lord's will ; that they should not be under
bondage to any rules among them; that pew-rents should he
done away with; and that they should, as in Devonshire,
look to the Lord to supply all temporal wants through the
voluntary offerings of those to whom they ministered.

Within a month Bethesda Chapel had been so engaged
for a year as to risk no debt, and on July 6th services began
there as at Gideon. From the very first, the Spirit set His
seal on the joint work of these two brethren. Ten days
after the opening service at Bethesda, an evening being
set for inquirers, the throng of those seeking counsel was
so great that more than four hours were consumed in
ministering to individual souls, and so from time to time
similar meetings were held with like encouragement.

August 13, 1832, was a memorable day. On that eve-
ning at Bethesda Chapel Mr. Miiller, Mr. Craik, one other
brother, and four sisters — only seven in all — sat down to-
gether, uniting in church fellowship " without any rules, —
desiring to act only as the Lord should he pleased to give light
iJirough His word."

lOO George Muller of Bristol

This is a very short and simple entry in Mr. Miiller's
journal, but it has most solemn significance. It records
what was to him separation to the hallowed work of build-
ing up a simple apostolic church, with no manual of guid-
ance but the New Testament; and in fact it introduces us
to the THIRD PERIOD of his life, when he entered fully upon
the work to which God had set him apart. The further
steps now followed in rapid succession. God having pre-
pared the workman and gathered the material, the struc-
ture went on quietly and rapidly until the life-work was
complete.

Cholera was at this time raging in Bristol. This terri-
ble ' scourge of God ' first appeared about the middle of
July and continued for three months, prayer-meetings be-
ing held often, and for a time daily, to plead for the re-
moval of this visitation. Death stalked abroad, the knell
of funeral-bells almost constantly sounding, and much so-
lemnity hanging like a dark pall over the community. Of
course many visits to the sick, dying, and afflicted became
necessary, but it is remarkable that, among all the children
of God among whom Mr. Miiller and Mr. Craik laboured,
but one died of this disease.

In the midst of all this gloom and sorrow of a fatal epi-
demic, a little daughter was bom to Mr. and Mrs. Muller
September 17, 1833. About her name, Lydia, sweet fra-
grance lingers, for she became one of God's purest saints
and the beloved wife of James Wright. How little do we
forecast at the time the future of a new-bom babe who,
like Samuel, may in God's decree be established to be a
prophet of the Lord, or be set apart to some peculiar
sphere of service, as in the case of another Lydia, whose
heart the Lord opened and whom He called to be the
nucleus of the first Christian church in Europe.

Mr. Miiller's unfeigned humility, and the docility that

Led of God into a New Sphere loi

always accompanies that unconscious grace, found new
exercise when the meetings with inquirers revealed the
fact that his colleague's preaching was much more used of
God than his own, in conviction and conversion. This
discovery led to much self-searching, and he concluded
that three reasons lay back of this fact : first, Mr. Craik
was more spiritually minded than himself; second, he was-
more earnest in prayer for converting power; and third, he
oftener spoke directly to the unsaved, in his public
ministrations. Such disclosures of his own comparative
lack did not exhaust themselves in vain self-reproaches,
but led at once to more importunate prayer, more diligent
preparation for addressing the unconverted, and more fre-
quent appeals to this class. From this time on, Mr. Miil-
ler's preaching had the seal of God upon it equally with his
brother's. What a wholesome lesson to learn, that for
every defect in our service there is a cause, and that the one
all-sufficient remedy is the throne of grace, where in every
time of need we may boldly come to find grace and help !
It has been already noted that Mr. ]iliiller did not satisfy
himself with more prayer, but gave new diligence and
study to the preparation of discourses adapted to awaken
careless souls. In the supernatural as well as the natural
sphere, there is a law of cause and effect. Even the Spirit
of God works not without order and method; He has His
chosen channels through which He pours blessing. There
is no accident in the spiritual world. " The Spirit blow-
eth where He listeth." but even the wind has its circuits.
There is a kind of preaching, fitted to bring conviction and
conversion, and there is another kind which is not so
fitted. Even in the faithful use of truth there is room
for discrimination and selection. In the armory of the
word of God are many weapons, and all have their various
uses and adaptations. Blessed is the workman or warrior

I02 George Muller of Bristol

who seeks to know what particular implement or instru-
ment God appoints for each particular work or conflict.
We are to study to keep in such communion with His word
and Spirit as that we shall be true workmen that need
" not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."
(2 Tim. ii. 15.)

This expression, found in Paul's second letter to Tim-
othy, is a very peculiar one {opdoTojuovvra tov Xoyov
t^s aXf^deia?). It seems to be nearly equivalent to the
Latin phrase rede viam secare — to cut a straight road
' — and to hint that the true workman of God is like the
civil engineer to whom it is given to construct a direct road
to a certain point. The hearer's heart and conscience is the
objective point, and the aim of the preacher should be, so
to use God's truth as to reach most directly and effectively
the needs of the hearer. He is to avoid all circuitous routes,
all evasions, all deceptive apologies and by-ways of argu-
ment, and seek by God's help to find the shortest, straight-
est, quickest road to the convictions and resolutions of
those to whom he speaks. And if the road-builder, before
he takes any other step, first carefully surveys his territory
and lays out his route, how much more should the preacher
first study the needs of his hearers and the best ways of
successfully dealing with them, and then with even more
carefulness and prayerfulness study the adaptation of the
word of God and the gospel message to meet those
wants.

Early in the year 1833, letters from missionaries in Bag-
dad urged Messrs. Muller and Craik to join them in labours
in that distant field, accompanying the invitation with
drafts for two hundred pounds for costs of travel. Two
weeks of prayerful inquiry as to the mind of the Lord,
however, led them to a clear decision not to go — a choice
never regretted, and which is here recorded only as part

Led of God into a New Sphere 103

of a complete biography, and as illustrating the manner in
which each new call for service was weighed and decided.

We now reach another stage of Mr. Miiller's entrance
upon his complete life-work. In February, 1832, he had
begun to read the biography of A. H. Francke, the founder
of the Orphan Houses of Halle. As that life and work
were undoubtedly used of God to make him a like instru-
ment in a kindred service, and to mould even the methods
of his philanthropy, a brief sketch of Francke's career may
be helpful.

August H. Francke was Miiller's fellow countryman.
About 1696, at Halle in Prussia, he had commenced the
largest enterprise for poor children then existing in the
world. He trusted in God, and He whom he trusted did
not fail him, but helped him throughout abundantly.

The institutions, which resembled rather a large street
than a building, were erected, and in them about two
thousand orphan children were housed, fed, clad, and
taught. For about thirty years all went on under
Francke's own eyes, until 1727, when it pleased the Master
to call the servant up higher ; and after his departure his
like minded son-in-law became the director. Two hundred
years have passed, and these Orphan Houses are still in
existence, serving their noble purpose.

It is needful only to look at these facts and compare
with Francke's work in Halle George Miiller's monuments
to a prayer-hearing God on Ashley Down, to see that in the
main the latter work so far resembles the former as to be
in not a few respects its counterpart. Mr. Miiller began
his orphan work a little more than one hundred years
after Francke's death ; ultimately housed, fed, clothed,
and taught over two thousand orphans year by year ; per-
sonally supervised the work for over sixty years — twice
as long a period as that of Francke's personal manage-

I04 George Muller of Bristol

ment, — and at his decease likewise left his like minded
son-in-law to be his successor as the sole director of the
work. It need not be added that, beginning his enter-
prise like Francke in dependence on God alone, the
founder of the Bristol Orphan Houses trusted from first to
last only in Him.

It is very noticeable how, when God is preparing a work-
man for a certain definite service. He often leads him out
of the beaten track into a path peculiarly His own by
means of some striking biography, or by contact with some
other living servant who is doing some such work, and
exhibiting the spirit which must guide if there is to be a
true success. Meditation on Francke's life and work nat-
urally led this man who was hungering for a wider useful-
ness to think more of the poor homeless waifs about him,
and to ask whether he also could not plan under God some
way to provide for them ; and as he was musing the fire
burned.

As early as June 12, 1833, when not yet twenty-eight
^ears old, the inward flame began to find vent in a scheme
tt^hich proved the first forward step toward his orphan
work. It occurred to him to gather out of the streets,
at about eight o'clock each morning, the poor children,
give them a bit of bread for breakfast, and then, for about
an hour and a half, teach them to read or read to them
the Holy Scriptures ; and later on to do a like service to
the adult and aged poor. He began at once to feed from
thirty to forty such persons, confident that, as the number
increased, the Lord's provision would increase also. Un-
burdening his heart to Mr. Craik, he was guided to a place
which could hold one hundred and fifty children and
which could be rented for ten shillings yearly ; as also to
an aged brother who would gladly undertake the teaching.

Unexpected obstacles, however, prevented the carrying

Led of God into a New Sphere 105

out of this plan. The work already pressing upon Mr.
Miiller and Mr. Craik, the rapid increase of applicants for
food, and the annoyance to neighbours of having crowds
of idlers congregating in the streets and lying about in
troops — these were some of the reasons why this method
was abandoned. But the central thought and aim were
never lost sight of : God had planted a seed in the soil
of Mr. Miiller's heart, presently to spring up in the orphan
work, and in the Scriptural Knowledge Institution with its
many branches and far-reaching fruits.

From time to time a backward glance over the Lord's
dealings encouraged his heart, as he looked forward to un-
known paths and untried scenes. He records at this
time — the close of the year 1833 — that during the four
years since he first began to trust in the Lord alone for
temporal supplies he had suffered no want. He had re-
ceived during the first year one hundred and thirty
pounds, during the second one hundred and fifty-one,
during the third one hundred and ninety-five, and during
the last two hundred and sixty-seven — all in free-will
offerings and without ever asking any human being for a
penny. He had looked alone to the Lord, yet he had not
only received a supply, but an increasing supply, year by
year. Yet he also noticed that at each yearns close he had
very little, if anything, left, and that much had come
through strange channels, from distances very remote, and
from parties whom he had never seen. He observed also
that in every case, according as the need was greater or
lass, the supply corresponded. He carefully records for
the benefit of others that, when the calls for help were
many, the Great Provider showed Himself able and willing
to send help accordingly.* The ways of divine dealing

* Vol. I. 105.

io6 George Miiller of Bristol

which he had thus found true of the early years of his
life of trust were marked and magnijfied in all his after-
experience, and the lessons learned in these first four years
prepared him for others taught in the same school of God
and under the same Teacher.

Thus God had brought His servant by a way which he
knew not to the very place and sphere of his life's widest
and most enduring work. He had moulded and shaped
His chosen vessel, and we are now to see to what purposes
of world-wide usefulness that earthen vessel was to be put,
and how conspicuously the excellency of the power was to
be of God and not of man.

CHAPTER VIII

A TREE OF god's OWN PLANTING

The time was now fully come when the divine Hus-
bandman was to glorify Himself by a product of His own
husbandry in the soil of Bristol.

On Febraary 20, 1834, George Miiller was led of God
to sow the seed of what ultimately developed into a great
means of good, known as " The Scriptural Knowledge In-
stitution, for Home and Abroad." As in all other steps
of his life, this was the result of much prayer, meditation
on the Word, searching of his own heart, and patient
waiting to know the mind of God,

A brief statement of the reasons for founding such an
institution, and the principles on which it was based, will
be helpful at this point. Motives of conscience controlled
Mr. Miiller and Mr. Craik in starting a new work rather
than in uniting with existing societies already established
for missionary purposes, Bible and tract distribution, and
for the promotion of Christian schools. As they had sought
to conform personal life and church conduct wholly to
the scriptural pattern, they felt that all work for God
ehould be carefully carried on in exact accordance with
His known will, in order to have His fullest blessing.
Many features of the existing societies seemed to them
6a:/ra-scriptural, if not decidedly anti-scriptural, and these
they felt constrained to avoid.

For example, they felt that the end proposed by such
107

io8 George Miiller of Bristol

organizations, namely, tlie conversion of the world in this
dispensation, was not Justified by the Word, which every-
where represents this as the age of the outgathering of the
church from the world, and not the ingathering of the world
into the church. To set such an end before themselves
as the world's conversion would therefore not only be un-
warranted by Scripture, but delusive and disappointing,
disheartening God's servants by the failure to realize the
result, and dishonoring to God Himself by making Him
to appear unfaithful.

Again, these existing societies seemed to Mr. Miiller and
Mr. Craik to sustain a wrong relation to the world — mixed
up with it, instead of separate from it. Any one by pay-
ing a certain fixed sum of money might become a member
or even a director, having a voice or vote in the conduct
of affairs and becoming eligible to office. Unscriptural
means were commonly used to raise money, such as appeal-
ing for aid to unconverted persons, asking for donations
simply for money's sake and without regard to the charac-
ter of the donors or the manner in which the money was
obtained. The custom of seeTcing patronage from men of
the world and asking such to preside at public meetings,
and the habit of contracting debts, — these and some other
methods of management seemed so unscriptural and un-
epiritual that the founders of this new institution could
not with a good conscience give them sanction. Hence
they hoped that by basing their work upon thoroughly
biblical principles they might secure many blessed results.

First of all, they confidently believed that the work of
the Lord could be best and most successfully carried on
within the landmarks and limits set up in His word; that
the fact of thus carrying it on would give boldness in
prayer and confidence in labour. But they also desired the
work itself to be a witness to the living God, and a testi-

A Tree of God's Own Planting 109

mony to believers, by calling attention to the objectionable
methods already in use and encouraging all God's true ser-
vants in adhering to the principles and practices which
He has sanctioned.

On March 5th at a public meeting a formal announce-
ment of the intention to found such an institution was
accompanied by a full statement of its purposes and prin-
ciples,* in substance as follows :

1. Every believer's duty and privilege is to help on the
cause and work of Christ.

2. The patronage of the world is not to be sought after,
depended upon, or countenanced.

3. Pecuniary aid, or help in managing or carrying on its
affairs, is not to be asked for or sought from those who are
not believers.

4. Debts are not to be contracted or allowed for any
cause in the work of the Lord.

5. The standard of success is not to be a numerical or
financial standard.

6. All compromise of the truth or any measures that
impair testimony to God are to be avoided.

Thus the word of God was accepted as counsellor, and
all dependence was on God's blessing in answer to prayer.

The objects of the institution were likewise announced
as follows :

1. To establish or aid day-schools, Sunday-schools, and
adult-schools, taught and conducted only by believers and
on thoroughly scriptural principles.

2. To circulate the Holy Scriptures, wholly or in por-
tions, over the widest possible territory.

3. To aid missionary efforts and assist labourers, in the
Lord's vineyard anywhere, who are working upon a bib-
lical basis and looking only to the Lord for support.

"* Appendix D. Journal I. 107-113.

no George Miiller of Bristol

To project such a work, on such a scale, and at such a
time, was doubly an act of faith ; for not only was the
work already in hand enough to tax all available time
and strength, but at this very time this record appears in
Mr. Miiller's journal : " We have only one shilling left."
Surely no advance step would have been taken, had not the
eyes been turned, not on the empty purse, but on the full
and exhaustless treasury of a rich and bountiful Lord !

It was plainly God's purpose that, out of such abundance
of poverty, the riches of His liberality should be mani-
fested. It pleased Him, from whom and by whom are all
things, that the work should be begun when His servants
were poorest and weakest, that its growth to such giant
proportions might the more prove it to be a plant of His
own right hand's planting, and that His word might be
fulfilled in its whole history :

" I the Lord do keep it :
I will water it every moment :
Lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day :*

(Isa. Yxvii. 3.)

Whatever may be thought as to the need of such a new
organization, or as to such scruples as moved its founders
to insist even in minor matters upon the closest adherence
to scripture teaching, this at least is plain, that for more
than half a century it has stood upon its original founda-
tion, and its increase and usefulness have surpassed the
most enthusiastic dreams of its founders ; nor have the
principles first avowed ever been abandoned. With the
Living God as its sole patron, and prayer as its only appeal,
it has attained vast proportions, and its world-wide work
has been signally owned and blessed.

On March 19th Mrs. Miiller gave birth to a son, to the
great joy of his parents ; and, after much prayer, they gave
him the name Elijah — " My God is Jah " — the name it-

A Tree of God's Own Planting 1 1 1

self being one of George Miiller's life-mottoes. Up to
this time the families of Mr. Miiller and Mr. Craik had
dwelt under one roof, but henceforth it was thought wise
that they should have separate lodgings.

When, at the close of 1834, the usual backward glance
was cast over the Lord's leadings and dealings, Mr. Miiller
gratefully recognized the divine goodness which had thus
helped him to start upon its career the work \nth. its sev-
eral departments. Looking to the Lord alone for light and
help, he had laid the corner-stone of this " little insti-
tution " ; and in October, after only seven months' exist-
ence, it had already begun to be established. In the
Sunday-school there were one hundred and twenty chil-
dren ; in the adult classes, forty ; in the four day-schools,
two hundred and nine boys and girls ; four hundred and
eighty-two Bibles and five hundred and twenty Testaments
had been put into circulation, and fifty-seven pounds had
been spent in aid of missionary operations. During these
seven months the Lord had sent, in answer to prayer, over
one hundred and sixty-seven pounds in money, and much
blessing upon the work itself. The brothers and sisters
who were in charge had likewise been given by the same
prayer-hearing God, in direct response to the cry of need
and the supplication of faith.

Meanwhile another object was coming into greater prom-
inence before the mind and heart of Mr. Miiller: it was the
thought of mahing some -permanent 'provision for fatherless
and motherless children.

An orphan boy who had been in the school had been
taken to the poorhouse, no longer able to attend on ac-
count of extreme poverty ; and this little incident set Mr.
Miiller thinking and praying about orphans. Could not
something be done to meet the temporal and spiritual
wants of this class of very poor children ? Unconsciously

112 George Miiller of Bristol

to himself, God had set a seed in his soul, and was -watch-
ing and watering it. The idea of a definite orphan work
had taken root within him, and, like anj other living germ,
it was springing up and growing, he knew not how. As
yet it was only in the blade, but in time there would come
the ear and the full-grown corn in the ear, the new seed of
a larger harvest.

Meanwhile the church was growing. In these two and
a half years over two hundred had been added, making
the total membership two hundred and fifty-seven ; but the
enlargement of the work generally neither caused the
church life to be neglected nor any one department of duty
to suffer declension — a very noticeable fact in this
history.

The point to which we have now come is one of double
interest and importance, as at once a point of arrival and
of departure. The work of God's chosen servant may be
considered as fairly if not fully inaugurated in all its main
forms of service. He himself is in his thirtieth year, the
age when his divine Master began to be fully manifest to
the world and to go about doing good. Through the
preparatory steps and stages leading up to his complete
mission and ministry to the church and the world, Christ's
humble disciple has likewise been brought, and his fuller
career of usefulness now begins, with the various agencies
in operation whereby for more than threescore years he
was to show both proof and example of what God can do
through one man who is willing to be simply the instru-
ment for Him to work with. Nothing is more marked in
George Miiller, to the very day of his death, than this, that
he so looked to God and leaned on God that he felt himself
to be nothing, and God everything. He sought to be always
and in all things surrendered as a passive tool to the will
and hand of the Master Workman.

A Tree of God's Own Planting 113

This point of arrival and of departure is also a point of
prospect. Here, halting and looking backward, we may take
in at a glance the various successive steps and stages of
preparation whereby the Lord had made His servant ready
for the sphere of service to which He called, and for which
He fitted him. One has only, from this height, to look over
the ten years that were past, to see beyond dispute or
doubt the divine design that lay back of George Miiller's
life, and to feel an awe of the God who thus chooses and
shapes, and then uses. His vessels of service.

It will be well, even if it involves some repetition, to
pass in review the more important steps in the process by
which the divine Potter had shaped His vessel for His
purpose, educating and preparing George Miiller for His
work.

1. First of all, his conversion. In the most unforeseen
manner and at the most unexpected time God led him to
turn from the error of his way, and brought him to a
saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

2. Next, his missionary spirit. That consuming flame
was kindled within him which, when it is fanned by the
Spirit and fed by the fuel of facts, inclines to unselfish
service and makes one willing to go wherever, and to do
whatever, the Lord will.

3. Next, his renunciation of self. In more than one
instance he was enabled to give up for Christ's sake an
earthly attachment that was idolatrous, because it was a
hindrance to his f i:ll obedience and single-eyed loyalty to
his heavenly Master.

4. Then his taking counsel of God. Early in his Chris-
tian life he formed the habit, in things great and small,
of ascertaining the will of the Lord before taking action,
asking guidance in every matter, through the Word and
the Spirit.

114 George Miiller of Bristol

5. His humble and cliildlike temper. The Father drew
His child to Himself, imparting to him the simple mind
that asks believingly and trusts confidently, and the filial
spirit that submits to fatherly counsel and guidance.

6. His method of preaching. Under this same divine
tuition he early learned how to preach the Word, in simple
dependence on the Spirit of God, studying the Scriptures
in the original and expounding them without wisdom of
words.

7. His cutting loose from man. Step by step, all de-
pendence on man or appeals to man for pecuniary support
were abandoned, together with all borrowing, running into
debt, stated salary, etc. His eyes were turned to God alone
as the Provider.

8. His satisfaction in the Word. As knowledge of the
Scriptures grew, love for the divine oracles increased, until
all other books, even of a religious sort, lost their charms
in comparison with God's own text-book, as explained and
illumined by the divine Interpreter.

9. His thorough Bible study. Few young men have ever
been led to such a systematic search into the treasures of
God's truth. He read the Book of God through and
through, fixing its teachings on his mind by meditation
and translating them into practice.

10. His freedom from human control. He felt the need
of independence of man in order to complete dependence
on God, and boldly broke all fetters that hindered his
liberty in preaching, in teaching, or in following the
heavenly Guide and serving the heavenly Master.

11. His use of opportunity. He felt the value of souls,
and he formed habits of approaching others as to matters
of salvation, even in public conveyances. By a word of
witness, a tract, a humble example, he sought constantly
to lead some one to Christ.

A Tree of God's Own Planting 115

12. His release from civil obligations. This was purely
providential. In a strange way God set him free from all
liability to military service, and left him free to pursue his
heavenly calling as His soldier, without entanglement in
the affairs of this life.

13. His companions in service. Two most efficient co-
workers were divinely provided : first his brother Craik
so like-minded with himself, and secondly, his wife, so
peculiarly God's gift, both of them proving great aids in
working and in bearing burdens of responsibility.

14. His view of the Lord's coming. He thanked God for
unveiling to him that great truth, considered by him as
second to no other in its influence upon his piety and use-
fulness ; and in the light of it he saw clearly the purpose
of this gospel age, to be not to convert the world but to call
out from it a believing church as Christ's bride.

15. His waiting on God for a message. For every new
occasion he asked of Him a word in season ; then a mode
of treatment, and unction in delivery ; and, in godly sim-
plicity and sincerity, with the demonstration of the Spirit,
he aimed to reach the hearers.

16. His submission to the authority of the Word. In the
fight of the holy oracles he reviewed all customs, however
ancient, and all traditions of men, however popular, sub-
mitted all opinions and practices to the test of Scripture,
and then, regardless of consequences, walked according to
any new li^ht God gave him.

17. His pattern of church life. From his first entrance
upon pastoral work, he sought to lead others only by
himself following the Shepherd and Bishop of Souls.
He urged the assembly of believers to conform in all
things to New Testament models so far as they could be
clearly found in the Word, and thus reform all existing
abuses.

ii6 George Muller of Bristol

18. His stress upon voluntary offerings. While he cour-
ageously gave up all fixed salary for himself, he taught
that all the work of God should be maintained by the free-
will gifts of believers, and that pew-rents promote invid-
ious distinctions among saints.

19. His surrender of all earthly possessions. Both him-
self and his wife literally sold all they had and gave alms,
henceforth to live by the day, hoarding no money even
against a time of future need, sickness, old age, or any
other possible crisis of want.

20. His habit of secret prayer. He learned so to prize
closet communion with God that he came to regard it as
his highest duty and privilege. To him nothing could
compensate for the lack or loss of that fellowship with God
and meditation on His word which are the support of all
spiritual life.

21. His jealousy of his testimony. In taking oversight of
a congregation he took care to guard himself from all
possible interference with fulness and freedom of utter-
ance and of service. He could not brook any restraints
upon his speech or action that might compromise his al-
legiance to the Lord or his fidelity to man.

22. His organizing of worJc. God led him to project a
plan embracing several departments of holy activity, such
as the spreading of the knowledge of the word of God
everywhere, and the encouraging of world-wide evangel-
ization and the Christian education of the young ; and to
guard the new Institution from all dependence on worldly
patronage, methods, or appeals.

23. His sympathy ivith orphans. His loving heart had
been drawn out toward poverty and misery everywhere,
but especially in the case of destitute children bereft of
both parents ; and familiarity with Francke's work at
•^alle suggested similar work at Bristol.

A Tree of God's Own Planting 1 1 7

24. Beside all these steps of preparation, he had been
guided by the Lord from his birthplace in Prussia to
London, Teignmouth, and Bristol in Britain, and thus
the chosen vessel, shaped for its great use, had by the same
divine Hand been borne to the very place where it was
to be of such signal service in testimony to the Living
God.

Surely no candid observer can survey this course of
divine discipline and preparation, and remember how brief
was the period of time it covers, being less than ten years,
and mark the many distinct steps by which this education
for a life of service was made singularly complete, witliout
a feeling of wonder and awe. Every prominent feature,
afterward to appear conspicuous in the career of this ser-
vant of God, was anticipated in the training whereby he
■was fitted for his work and introduced to it. We have had
a vivid vision of the divine Potter sitting at His wheel, tak-
ing the clay in His hands, softening its hardness, subduing
it to His own will ; then gradually and skilfully shaping
from it the earthen vessel ; then baking it in His oven of
discipline till it attained the requisite solidity and firm-
ness, then filling it with the rich treasures of His word and
Spirit, and finally setting it down where He would have it
serve His special uses in convepng to others the excellency
of His power !

To lose sight of this sovereign shaping Hand is to miss
one of the main lessons God means to teach us by George
Miiller's whole career. He himself saw and felt that he
was only an earthen vessel ; that God had both chosen and
filled him for the work he was to do ; and, wliile this con-
viction made him happy in his work, it made him humble,
and the older he grew the humbler he became. He felt
more and more his own utter insuffieiency. It grieved
him that human eyes should ever turn away from the

ii8 George Muller of Bristol

Master to the servant, and he perpetually sought to avert
their gaze from himself to God alone. " For of Him, and
through Him, and to Him are all things — to Whom be
glory for ever and ever. Amen."

There are several important episodes in Mr. Miiller's
history which may be lightly passed by, because not so
characteristic of him as that they might not have been
common to many others, and therefore not constituting
features so distinguishing this life from others as to make
it a special lesson to believers.

For example, early in 1835 he made a visit to Germany
upon a particular errand. He went to aid Mr. Groves, who
had come from the East Indies to get missionary recruits,
and who asked help of him, as of one knowing the language
of the country, in setting the claims of India before Ger-
man brethren, and pleading for its unsaved millions.

When Mr. Muller went to the alien office in London
to get a passport, he found that, through ignorance, he
had broken the law which required every alien semi-
annually to renew his certificate of residence, under
penalty of fifty pounds fine or imprisonment. He con-
fessed to the officer his non-compliance, excusing himself
only on the ground of ignorance, and trusted all conse-
quences with God, who graciously inclined the officer to
pass over his non-compliance with the law. Another
hindrance which still interfered with obtaining his pass-
port, was also removed in answer to prayer ; so that at
the outset he was much impressed with the Lord's sanction
of his undertaking.

His sojourn abroad continued for nearly two months,
during which time he was at Paris, Strasburg, Basle,
Tubingen, Wiirtemberg, Schaffhausen, Stuttgart, Halle,
Sandersleben, Aschersleben, Heimersleben, Halberstadt,
and Hamburg. At Halle, calling on Dr. Tholuck after

A Tree of God's Own Planting i ig

seven years of separation, he was warmly welcomed and
constrained to lodge at his house. From Dr. Tholuck
he heard many delightful incidents as to former fellow
students who had been turned to the Lord from impious
paths, or had been strengthened in their Christian faith
and devotion. He also visited Francke's orphan houses,
spending an evening in the very room where God's work
of grace had begun in his heart, and meeting again several
of the same little company of believers that in those days
had prayed together.

He likewise gave everywhere faithful witness to the
Lord. "While at his father's house the way was opened
for him to bear testimony indirectly to his father and
brother. He had found that a direct approach to his
father upon the subject of his soul's salvation only aroused
his anger, and he therefore judged that it was wiser to
refrain from a course which would only repel one whom
he desired to win. An unconverted friend of his father
was visiting him at this time, before whom he put the
truth very frankly and fully, in the presence of both his
father and brother, and thus quite as effectively gave wit-
ness to them also. But he was especially moved to pray
that he might by his wJiole life bear witness at his home,
manifesting his love for his kindred and his own joy in
God, his satisfaction in Christ, and his utter indifference
to all former fascinations of a worldly and sinful life,
through the supreme attraction he found in Him ; for this,
he felt sure, would have far more influence than any mere
words : our walk counts for more than our talk, always.

The effect was most happy. God so helped the son to
live before the father that, just before his leaving for
England, he said to him : " My son, may God help me to
follow your example, and to act according to what you
have said to me ! "

I20 George Miiller of Bristol

On June 22, 1835, Mr. Miiller's father-in-law, Mr.
Groves, died ; and both of his own children were very ill,
and four days later little Elijah was taken. Both parents
had been singularly prepared for these bereavements, and
were divinely upheld. They had felt no liberty in prayer
for the child's recovery, dear as he was ; and grandfather
and grandson were laid in one grave. Henceforth Mr.
and Mrs. Miiller were to have no son, and Lydia was to
remain their one and only child.

About the middle of the following month, Mr. Miiller
was quite disabled from work by weakness of the chest,
which made necessary rest and change. The Lord ten-
derly provided for his need through those whose hearts He
touched, leading them to offer him and his wife hospitali-
ties in the Isle of Wig'ht, while at the same time money
was sent him which was designated for ' a change of air.'
On his thirtieth birthday, in connection with specially
refreshing communion with God, and for the first time
since his illness, there was given him a spirit of believing
prayer for his own recovery ; and his strength so rapidly
grew that by the middle of October he was back in Bristol.

It was just before this, on the ninth of the same month,
that the reading of John Newton's Life stirred him up to
hear a similar witness to the Lord's dealings with himself.
Truly there are no little things in our life, since what
seems to be trivial may be the means of bringing about
results of great consequence. This is the second time that
a chance reading of a book had proved a turning-point
with George Miiller. Franke's life stirred his heart to begin
an orphan work, and Newton's life suggested the narra-
tive of the Lord's dealings. To what is called an accident
are owing, under God, those pages of his life-journal which
read like new chapters in the Acts of the Apostles, and
will yet be so widely read, and so largely used of God.

CHAPTEE IX

THE GROWTH OF GOD's OWN PLANT

The last great step of full entrance upon Mr. Miiller's
life-service was the founding of the orphan worTc, a step so
important and so prominent that even the lesser particulars
leading to it have a strange significance and fascination.

In the year 1835, on November 20th, in taking tea at
the house of a Christian sister, he again saw a copy of
Francke's life. For no little time he had thought of like
labours, though on no such scale, nor in mere imitation of
Francke, but under a sense of similar divine leading.
This impression had grown into a conviction, and the con-
viction had blossomed into a resolution which now rapidly
ripened into corresponding action. He was emboldened to
take this forward step in sole reliance on God, by the fact
that at that very time, in answer to prayer, ten pounds
more had been sent him than he had asked for other
existing work, as though God gave him a token of both
willingness and readiness to supply all needs.

Nothing is more worthy of imitation, perhaps, than the
uniformly deliberate, self-searching, and prayerful way
in which he set about any work which he felt led to under-
take. It was preeminently so in attempting this new
form of service, the future growth of which was not then
even in his thought. In daily prayer he sought as in his

122 George Miiller of Bristol

Master's presence to sift from the pure grain of a godly
purpose to glorify Him, all the chaff of selfish and carnal
motives, to get rid of every taint of worldly self-seeking or
lust of applause, and to bring every thought into captivity
to the Lord. He constantly probed his own heart to dis-
cover the secret and subtle impulses which are unworthy
of a true servant of God; and, believing that a spiritually
minded brother often helps one to an insight into his
own heart, he spoke often to his brother Craik about his
plans, praying God to use him as a means of exposing any
unworthy motive, or of suggesting any scriptural objec-
tions to his project. His honest aim being to please God,
he yearned to know his own heart, and welcomed any light
which revealed his real self and prevented a mistake.

Mr. Craik so decidedly encouraged him, and further
prayer so confirmed previous impressions of God's guid-
ance, that on December 2, 1835, the first formal step was
taken in ordering printed bills announcing a public meet-
ing for the week following, when the proposal to open
an orphan house was to be laid before brethren, and
further light to be sought unitedly as to the mind of the
Lord.

Three days later, in reading the Psalms, he was struck
with these nine words :

" Open thy mouth wide.
And I WILL FILL IT." (Psalm Ixxxi. 10.)
From that moment this text formed one of his great life-
mottoes, and this promise became a power in moulding
all his work. Hitherto he had not prayed for the supply
of money or of helpers, but he was now led to apply this
scripture confidently to this new plan, and at once boldly
to ask for premises, and for one thousand pounds in money,
and for suitable helpers to take charge of the children. Two
days after, he received, in furtherance of his work, the first

The Growth of God's Own Plant 123

gift of money — one sJiilling — and within two days more
the first donation in furniture — a large wardrobe.

The day came for the memorable public meeting —
December 9th. During the interval Satan had been busy
hurling at Mr. Miiller his fiery darts, and he was very low
in spirit. He wa* taking a step not to be retraced with-
out both much humiliation to himself and reproach to his
Master : and what if it were a misstep and he were moving
without real guidance from above ! But as soon as he began
to speak; help was given him. He was borne up on the
Everlasting Arms, and had the assurance that the work was
of the Lord. He cautiously avoided all appeals to the
transient feelings of his hearers, and took no collection,
desiring all these first steps to be calmly taken, and every
matter careftilly and prayerfully weighed before a decision.
Excitement of emotion or kindlings of enthusiasm might
obsctire the vision and hinder clear apprehension of the
mind of Grod. After the meeting there was a voluntary
gift of ten shillings, and one sister offered herself for the
work. The next morning a statement concerning the new
orphan work was put in print, and on January 16, 1S36,
a supplementary statement appeared.*

At every critical point Mr. Miiller is entitled to ex-
plain his own views and actions: and the work he was now
undertaking is so vitally linked with his whole after-life
that it should here have full mention As to his proposed
orphan house he gives three chief reasons for its establish-
ment :

1. That God may be glorified in so furnishing the
means as to show that it is not a vain thing to trust in
Him ;

2. That the spiritual welfare of fatherless and mother-
less children may be promoted ;

* Appendix E. Narrative 1: 143-146, 14S-153, 154, 155.

124 George Muller of Bristol

3. That their toinporal good may bo secured.

He had frequent reminders in his pastoral labours that
the faith of God's chihiren greatly needed strengthening;
and he longed to have some visible proof to point to, that
the heaveul}- Father is the same faithful Promiser and
Provider as ever, and as willing to prove Him-
self the Living God to all wJio put their trust in Him, and
that even in their old age He does not forsiike those who
rely only upon Him. Eemembering the great blessing that
had come to himself through the work of faith of Franck6,
he judged that he was bound to serve the Church of Christ
in being able to tal'e God at His word and rely upon it.

If he, a poor man, luithout asl'ing any one but God, could
get means to carry on an orphan house, it would be seen
that God is faithful still and still hears prayer.
"While the orphan work was to be a branch of the Scrip-
tural Knowledge Institution, only those funds were to be
applied thereto which should be expressly given for that
purpose ; and it would be carried on only so far and so
fast as the Lord should provide both money and helpers.

It was proposed to receive only such children as had
been bereft of both parents, and to take in such from theii
seventh to their twelfth year, though later on younger
orphans were admitted ; and to bring up the boys for a
trade, and the girls for service, and to give them all a plain
education likely to fit them for their life-work.

So soon as the enterprise was fairly launched, the Lord's
power and will to provide began at once and increasingly
to appear ; and. from this point on, the journal is one long
record of man's faith and supplication and of God's faith-
fulness and interposition. It only remains to note the
new steps in advance which mark the growth of the work,
and the new straits which arise and how they are met,
together with such questions and perplexing crises as from

The Growth of God's Own Plant 125

time to time demand and receive a new divine solu-
tion.

A foremost need was that of able and suitable helpers,
which only God could supply. In order fully to carry out
his plans, Mr. Mtiller felt that he must have men and
women like-minded, who would naturally care for the
state of the orphans and of the work. If one Achan could
disturb the whole camp of Israel, and one Ananias or Sap-
phira, the whole church of Christ, one faithless, prayerless^
self-seeking assistant would prove not a helper but a hin-
Jerer both to the work itself and to all fellow-workers. No
step was therefore hastily taken. He had patiently waited
on God hitherto, and he now waited to receive at His hands
His own chosen servants to join in this service and give to
it unity of plan and spirit.

Before he called, the Lord answered. As early as
December 10th a brother and sister had willingly offered
themselves, and the spirit that moved them will appear
in the language of their letter :

" We propose ourselves for the service of the intended
orphan house, if you think us qualified for it ; also to give
up all the furniture, etc., which the Lord has given us, for
its use ; and to do this without receiving any salary what-
ever ; believing that, if it be the will of the Lord to em-
ploy us. He will supply all our need."

Other similar self-giving followed, proving that God's
people are willing in the day of His power. He who
wrought in His servant to will and to work, sent helpers
to share his burdens, and to this day has met all similar
needs out of His riches in glory. There has never yet
been any lack of competent, cheerful, and devoted helpers,
although the work so rapidly expanded and extended.

The gifts whereby the work was supported need a
separate review that many lessons of interest may find a

126 George Muller of Bristol

record. But it should here be noted that, among the first
givers, was a poor needlewoman who brought the sur-
prising sum of one hundred pounds, the singular self-denial
and whole hearted giving exhibited making this a peculiar-
ly sacred offering and a token of God's favour. There was a
felt significance in His choice of a poor sickly seamstress
as His instrument for laying the foundations for this great
work. He who worketh all things after the counsel of His
own will, passing by the rich, mighty, and noble some-
things of this world, chose again the poor, weak, base, de-
spised nothings, that no flesh should glory in His presence.

For work among orphans a house was needful, and for
this definite prayer was offered ; and April 1, 1836, was
fixed as the date for opening such house for female or-
phans, as the most helplessly destitute. The building.
No. 6 Wilson Street, where Mr. Miiller had himself lived
up to March 25th, having been rented for one year, was
formally opened April 21st, the day being set apart for
prayer and praise. The public generally were informed
that the way was open to receive needy applicants, and
the intimation was further made on May 18th that it was
intended shortly to open a second house for infant chil-
dren— both boys and girls.

We now retrace our steps a little to take special notice
of a fact in Mr. Miiller's experience which, in point of
time, belongs earlier.

Though he had brought before the Lord even the most
minute details about his plans for the proposed orphan
work and house and helpers, asking in faith for building
and furnishing, money for rent and other expenses, etc.,
he confesses that he had never once asJced the Lord to send
the orphans! This seems an unaccountable omission ; but
the fact is he had assumed that there would be applications
in abundance. His surprise and chagrin cannot easily be

The Growth of God's Own Plant 127

imagined, when the appointed time came for receiving
applications, February 3rd, and not one application was
made! Everything was ready except the orphans. This
led to the deepest humiliation before God. All the even-
ing of that day he literally lay on his face, probing his
own heart to read his own motives, and praying God to
search him and show him His mind. He was thus
brought so low that from his heart he could say that, if
God would thereby be more glorified, he would rejoice in
the fact that his whole scheme should come to nothing.
The very next day the first application was made for ad-
mission; on April 11th orphans began to be admitted;
and by May 18th there were in the house twenty-six,
and more daily expected. Several applications being made
for children under seven, the conclusion was reached that,
while vacancies were left, the limit of years at first fixed
should not be adhered to; but every new step was taken
with care and prayer, that it should not be in the energy
of the flesh, or in the v/isdom of man, but in the power and
wisdom of the Spirit. How often we forget that solemn
warning of the Holy Ghost, that even when our whole
work is not imperilled by a false beginning, but is well
laid upon a true foundation, we may carelessly build into
it wood, hay, and stubble, which will be burned up in the
fiery ordeal that is to try every man's work of what sort it
is!

The first house had scarcely been opened for girls when
the way for the second was made plain, suitable premises
being obtained at No. 1 in the same street, and a well-fitted
matron being given in answer to prayer. On November
28th, some seven months after the opening of the first,
this second house was opened. Some of the older and
abler girls from the first house were used for the domestic
work of the second, partly to save hired help, and partly

128 George Muller of Bristol

to accustom them to working for others and thus give a
proper dignity to what is sometimes despised as a degrad-
ing and menial form of service. By April 8, 1837, there
were in each house thirty orphan children.

The founder of this orphan work, who had at the first
asked for one thousand pounds of God, tells us that, in his
own mind, the thing was as good as done, so that he often
gave thanks for this large sum as though already in hand.
(Mark xi. 24 ; 1 John v. 13, 14.) This habit of counting a
promise as fulfilled had much to do with the triumphs
of his faith and the success of his labour. Now that the
first part of his Narrative of the Lord's Dealings was about
to issue from the press, he felt that it would much honour
the Master whom he served if the entire amount should be
actually in hand before the Narrative should appear, and
without any one having been asked to contribute. He there-
fore gave himself anew to prayer ; and on June 15th the
whole sum was complete, no appeal having been made but
to the Living God, before whom, as he records with his
usual mathematical precision, he had daily brought his
petition for eighteen months and ten days.

In closing this portion of his narrative he hints at a
proposed further enlargement of the work in a third house
for orphan boys above seven years, with accommodations
for about forty. Difficulties interposed, but as usual dis-
appeared before the power of prayer. Meanwhile the
whole work of the Scriptural Knowledge Institution pros-
pered, four day-schools having been established, with over
one thousand pupils, and more than four thousand copies
of the word of God having been distributed.

George ]\Iiiller was careful always to consult and then
to obey conviction. Hence his moral sense, by healthy
exercise, more and more clearly discerned good and
evil. This conscientiousness was seen in the issue of

The Growth of God's Own Plant 1 29

the first edition of his Narrative When the first
five hundred copies came from the publishers, he was so
weighed down by misgivings that he hesitated to dis-
tribute them. Notwithstanding the spirit of prayer with
which he had begun, continued, and ended the writing of
it and had made every correction in the proof ; notwith-
standing the motive, consciously cherished throughout,
that God's glory might be promoted in this record of His
faithfulness, he reopened with himself the whole question
whether this published Narrative might not turn the eyes
of men from the great Master Workman to His human
instrument. As he opened the box containing the reports,
he felt strongly tempted to withhold from circulation the
pamphlets it held ; but from the moment when he gave
out the first copy, and the step could not be retraced, his
scruples were silenced.

He afterward saw his doubts and misgivings to have
been a temptation of Satan, and never thenceforth ques-
tioned that in writing, printing, and distributing this and
the subsequent parts of the Narrative he had done the will
of God. So broad and clear was the divine seal set upon it
in the large blessing it brought to many and widely
scattered persons that no room was left for doubt. It
may be questioned whether any like journal has been as
widely read and as remarkably used, both in converting
sinners and in quickening saints. Proofs of this will here-
after abundantly appear.

It was in the year 1837 that Mr. Miiller, then in his
thirty-second year, felt with increasingly deep conviction
that to his own growth in grace, godliness, and power for
service two things were quite indispensable : first, more
retirement for secret communion with God, even at the ap-
parent expense of his public work ; and second, ampler
provision for the spiritual oversight of the flocJc of Gody the

130 George Miiller of Bristol

total number of commmiicaiits now being near to foul
hundred.

The former of these convictions has an emphasis which
touches every believer's life at its vital centre. George
Miiller was conscious of being too busy to pray as he ought.
His outward action was too constant for inward reflection,
and he saw that there was risk of losing peace and power,
and that activity even in the most sacred sphere must not
be so absorbing as to prevent holy meditation on the Word
and fervent supplication. The Lord said first to Elijah,

" Go, HIDE THYSELF " ; then, ' Go, SHOW THYSELF." He

who does not first hide 'himself in the secret place to be
alone with God, is unfit to show himself in the public place
to move among men. Mr. Miiller afterward used to say to
brethren who had " too much to do " to spend proper time
with God, that four hours of work for which one hour of
prayer prepares, is better than five hours of work with the
praying left out ; that our service to our Master is more
acceptable and our mission to man more profitable, when
saturated with the moisture of God's blessing — the dew
of the Spirit. Whatever is gained in quantity is lost in
quality whenever one engagement follows another with-
out leaving proper intervals for refreshment and renewal
of strength by waiting on God. No man, perhaps, since
John Wesley has accomplished so much even in a long
life as George Miiller ; yet few have ever withdrawn so
often or so long into the pavilion of prayer. In fact, from
one point of view his life seems more given to supplication
and intercession than to mere action or occupation among
men.

At the same time he felt that the curacy of souls must
not be neglected by reason of his absorption in either
work or prayer. Both believers and inquirers needed
pastoral oversight ; neither himself nor his brother Craik

The Growth of God's Own Plant 131

had time enough for visiting so large a flock, many of
whom were scattered over the city ; and about fifty new
members were added every year who had special need of
teaching and care. Again, as there were two separate
congregations, the number of meetings was almost
doubled ; and the interruptions of visitors from near and
far, the burdens of correspondence, and the oversight of
the Lord's work generally, consumed so much time that
even with two pastors the needs of the church could not
be met. At a meeting of both congregations in October,
these matters were frankly brought before the believers,
and it was made plain that other helpers should be pro-
vided, and the two churches so united as to lessen the
number of separate meetings.

In October, 1837, a building was secured for a third
orphan house, for boys ; but as the neighbours strongly
opposed its use as a charitable institution, Mr .Miiller,
with meekness of spirit, at once relinquished all claim upon
the premises, being mindful of the maxim of Scripture :
" As much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men."
(Rom. xiii. 18.) He felt sure that the Lord would provide,
and his faith was rewarded in the speedy supply of a
building in the same street where the other two houses
were.

Infirmity of the flesh again tried the faith and patience
of Mr. Miiller, For eight weeks he was kept out of the
pulpit. The strange weakness in the head, from which he
had suffered before and which at times seemed to threaten
his reason, forced him to rest ; and in November he went
to Bath and Weston-super-Mare, leaving to higher Hands
the work to which he was unequal.

One thing he noticed and recorded : that, even during
this head trouble, prayer and Bible-reading could be borne
better than anything else. He concluded that whenever

132 George Muller of Bristol

undue carefulness is expended on the body, it is very hard
to avoid undue carelessness as to the soul ; and that it is
therefore muc'h safer comparatively to disregard the body,
that one may give himself wholly to the culture of his
spiritual health and the care of the Lord's work. Though
some may think that in this he ran to a fanatical extreme,
there is no doubt that such became more and more a law of
his life. He sought to dismiss all anxiety, as a duty ;
and, among other anxious cares, that most subtle and se-
ductive form of solicitude which watches every change of
symptoms and rushes after some new medical man or med-
ical remedy for all ailments real or fancied.

Mr. Miiller was never actually reckless of his bodily
health. His habits were temperate and wholesome, but
no man could be so completely wrapped up in his Master's
will and work without being correspondingly forgetful of
his physical frame. There are not a few, even among
God's saints, whose bodily weaknesses and distresses so
engross them that their sole business seems to be to nurse
the body, keep it alive and promote its comfort. As Dr.
Watts would have said, this is living "at a poor dying
rate."

When the year 1838 opened, the weakness and distress
in the head still afflicted Mr. Miiller. The symptoms were
as bad as ever, and it particularly tried him that they
were attended by a tendency to irritability of temper, and
even by a sort of satanic feeling wholly foreign to him at
other times. He was often reminded that he was by na-
ture a child of wrath even as others, and that, as a child of
God, he could stand against the wiles of the devil only by
putting on the whole armour of God. The pavilion of
God is the saint's place of rest ; the panoply of God is
his coat of mail. Grace does not at once remove or over-
come all tendencies to evil, but, if not eradicated, they are

The Growth of God's Own Plant 133

counteracted by the Spirit's wondrous working. Peter
found that so long as his eye was on His Master he could
walk on the water. There is always a tendency to sink,
and a holy walk with God, that defies the tendency down-
ward, is a divine art that can neither be learned nor prac-
tised except so long as we keep ' looking unto Jesus ' :
that look of faith counteracts the natural tendency to sink,
so long as it holds the soul closely to Him. This man of
God felt his risk, and, sore as this trial was to him, he
prayed not so much for its removal as that he might be
kept from any open dishonour to the name of the Lord,
beseeching God that he might rather die than ever bring
on Him reproach.

Mr. Miiller's journal is not only a record of his outer
life of consecrated labour and its expansion, but it is a
mirror of his inner life and its growth. It is an encour-
agement to all other saints to find that this growth was,
like their own, in spite of many and formidable hindrances^
over which only grace could triumph. Side by side with
glimpses of habitual conscientiousness and Joy in God,
we have revelations of times of coldness and despondency.
It is a wholesome lesson in holy living that we find this
man setting himself to the deliberate task of cultivating
obedience and gratitude ; by the culture of obedience
growing in knowledge and strength, and by the culture of
gratitude growing in thankfulness and love. Weakness and
coldness are not hopeless states : they have their divine
remedies which strengthen and warm the whole being.

Three entries, found side by side in his journal, furnish
pertinent illustration and most wholesome instruction on
this point. One entry records his deep thankfulness to
God for the privilege of being permitted to be His instrU'
ment in providing for homeless orphans, as he watches
the little girls, clad in clean warm garments, pass his win-

134 George Muller of Bristol

dow on theii way to the chapel on the Lord's day morning,
A second entry records his determination, with God's help,
to send no more letters in parcels because he sees it to be
a violation of the postal laws of the land, and because he
desires, as a disciple of the Lord Jesus, to submit himself
to all human laws so far as such submission does not con-
flict with loyalty to God. A third entry immediately fol-
lows which reveals this same man struggling against those
innate tendencies to evil which compel a continual resort
to the throne of grace with its sympathizing High Priest.
" This morning," he writes, " I greatly dishonoured the
Lord by irritability manifested towards my dear wife ;
and that, almost immediately after I had been on my knees
before God, praising Him for having given me such a
wife."

These three entries, put together, convey a lesson whicu
is not learned from either of them alone. Here is grati-
tude for divine mercy, conscientious resolve at once to stop
a doubtful practice, and a confession of inconsistency in
his home life. All of these are typical experiences and
suggest to us means of gracious growth. He who lets no
mercy of God escape thankful recognition, who never hesi-
tates at once to abandon an evil or questionable practice,
and who, instead of extenuating a sin because it is com-
paratively small, promptly confesses and forsakes it, — such
a man will surely grow in Christlikeness.

We must exercise our spiritual senses if we are to dis-
cern things spiritual. There is a clear vision for God's
goodness, and there is a dull eye that sees little to be
thankful for; there is a tender conscience, and there is a
moral sense that grows less and less sensitive to evil; there
is an obedience to the Spirit's rebuke which leads to im-
mediate confession and increases strength for every new
conflict. Mr. Miiller cultivated habits of life which made

The Growth of God's Own Plant 135

his whole nature more and more open to divine impression,
and so his sense of God became more and more keen and
constant.

One great result of this spiritual culture was a growing
absorption in God and jealousy for His glory. As he saw
divine things more clearly and felt their supreme im-
portance, he became engrossed in the magnifying
of them before men ; and this is glorifying God.
We cannot make God essentially any more glorious,
for He is infinitely perfect ; but we can help men
to see what a glorious God He is, and thus come
into that holy partnership with the Spirit of God
whose office it is to take of the things of Christ and
show them unto men, and so glorify Christ. Such fellow-
ship in glorifying God Mr. Mliller set before him: and in
the light of such sanctified aspiration we may read that
humble entry in which, reviewing the year 1837 with all
its weight of increasing responsibility, he lifts his heart
to his divine Lord and Master in these simple words:

" Lord, Thy servant is a poor man ; but he has trusted
in Thee and made his boast in Thee before the sons of
men; therefore let him not be confounded ! Let it not
be said, ' All this is enthusiasm, and therefore it is come
to naught.' "

One is reminded of Moses in his intercession for Israel^
of Elijah in his exceeding jealousy for the Lord of hosts,
and of that prayer of Jeremiah that so amazes us by its
boldness:

" Do not abhor us for Thy name's sake !
Do not disgrace the throne of Thy glory ! " *

Looking back over the growth of the work at the end
* Comp. Numbers xiv. 13-19. 1 Kings xix. 10 ; Jer. xiv. 21.

136 George Muller of Bristol

of the year 1837, he puts on record the following facts and
figures:

Three orphan houses were now open with eighty-one
children, and nine helpers in charge of them. In the Sun-
day-schools there were three hundred and twenty, and in
the day-schools three hundred and fifty ; and the Lord had
furnished over three hundred and seven pounds for tem-
poral supplies.

From this same point of view it may be well to glance
back over the five years of labour in Bristol up to July,
1837. Between himself and his brother Craik uninter-
rupted harmony had existed from the beginning. They had
been perfectly at one in their views of the truth, in their
witness to the truth, and in their judgment as to all matters
affecting the believers over whom the Holy G-host had
made them overseers. The children of God had been kept
from heresy and schism under their joint pastoral care ;
and all these blessings Mr. Muller and his true yoke-fellow
humbly traced to the mercy and gTace of the great
Shepherd and Bishop of souls. Thus far over one hundred
and seventy had been converted and admitted to fellow-
ship, making the total number of communicants three
hundred and seventy, nearly equally divided between
Bethesda and Gideon. The whole history of these years
is lit up with the sunlight of God's smile and blessing.

CHAPTER X

THE WOKD OF GOD AND PRAYER

Habit both shows and malces the man, for it is at once
historic and prophetic, the mirror of the man as he is and
the mould of the man as he is to be. At this point,
therefore, special attention may properly be given to the
two marked habits which had principally to do with the
man we are studying.

Early in the year 1838, 'he began reading that third
biography which, with those of Francke and John Newton,
had such a singular influence on his own life — Philip's
Life of George Whitefield. The life-story of the orphan's
friend had given the primary impulse to his work; the
life-story of the converted blasphemer had suggested his
narrative of the Lord's dealings; and now the life-story
of the great evangelist was blessed of God to shape his
general character and give new power to his preaching and
his wider ministry to souls. These three biographies to-
gether probably affected the whole inward and outward
life of George Miiller more than any other volumes but the
Book of God, and they were wisely fitted of God to co-work
toward such a blessed result. The example of Francke in-
cited to faith in prayer and to a work whose sole depend-
ence was on God. Newton's witness to grace led to a
testimony to the same sovereign love and mercy as seen
in his own case. Whitefield's experience inspired to greater
137

138 George Muller of Bristol

fidelity and earnestness in preaching t'he Word, and to
greater confidence in the power of the anointing Spirit.

Particularly was this impression deeply made on Mr.
Miiller's mind and heart: that Whitefield's unparalleled
success in evangelistic labours was plainly traceable to two
causes and could not be separated from them as direct
effects; namely, his unusual prayerfulness, and his habit of
reading the Bible on his Icnees.

The great evangelist of the last century had learned that
first lesson in service, his own utter nothingness and help-
lessness: tlhat he was nothing, and could do nothing, with-
out God. He could neither understand the Word for him-
self, nor translate it into his own life, nor apply it to others
with power, unless the Holy Spirit became to him both
insight and unction. Hence his success; he was filled with
the Spirit: and this alone accounts both for the quality and
the quantity of his labours. He died in 1770, in the fiity-
sixth year of his age, having preached his first sermon in
Gloucester in 1736. During this thirty-four years his
labours had been both unceasing and untiring. While on
his joumeyings in America, he preached one hundred and
seventy-five times in seventy-five days, besides travelling,
in the slow vehicles of those days, upwards of eight hun-
dred miles. When health declined, and he was put on ' short
allowance,' even that was one sermon each week-day and
three on Sunday. There was about his preaching, more-
over, a nameless charm which held thirty thousand hearers
half-breathless on Boston Common and made tears pour
down the sooty faces of the colliers at Kingswood.

The passion of George Miiller's soul was to know fully
the secrets of prevailing with God and with man. George
Whitefield's life drove home the truth that God alone
could create in him a holy earnestness to win souls and
qualify him for such divine work by imparting a compas-

The Word of God and Prayer 139

sion for the lost that should become an absorbing passion
for their salvation. And — let this be carefully marked as
another secret of this life of service — he now began himself
to read the word of God upon his knees, and often found
for hours great blessing in such meditation and prayer
over a single psalm or chapter.

Here we stop and ask w'hat profit there can be in thus
prayerfully reading and searching the Scriptures in the
very attitude of prayer. Having tried it for ourselves^ we
may add our humble witness to its value.

First of all, this habit is a constant reminder and recog-
nition of the need of spiritual teaching in order to the
understanding of the holy Oracles. No reader of God's
word can thus bow before God and His open book, with-
out a feeling of new reverence for the Scriptures, and
dependence on their Author for insight into their myster-
ies. The attitude of worship naturally suggests sober-
mindedness and deep seriousness, and banishes frivolity.
To treat that Book with lightness or irreverence would
be doubly profane when one is in the posture of prayer.

Again, such a habit naturally leads to self-searching and
comparison of the actual life with the example and pattern
shown in the Word. The precept compels the practice to
be seen in the light of its teaching; the command chal-
lenges the conduct to appear for examination. The
prayer, whether spoken or unspoken, will inevitably be:

" Search me, 0 God, and know my heart,
Try me, and know my thoughts;
And see if there be any wicked way in me.
And lead me in the way everlasting ! "

(Psalm cxxxix. 23, 24.)

The words thus reverently read will be translated into
the life and mould the character into the image of God.

140 George Miiller of Bristol

" Beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, we are
changed into the same image from glory to glory, even
as by the Lord the Spirit." *

But perhaps the greatest advantage will be that the
Holy Scriptures will thus suggest the very words which
become the dialect of prayer. " We know not What we
should pray for as we ought " — neither wliat nor Tiow to
pray. But here is the Spirit's own inspired utterance, and,
if the praying be moulded on the model of His teaching,
how can we go astray ? Here is our God-given liturgy and
litany — a divine prayer-book. "We have here God's prom-
ises, precepts, warnings, and counsels, not to speak of all
the Spirit-inspired literal prayers therein contained; and,
as we reflect upon these, our prayers take their cast in this
matrix. We turn precept and promise, warning and coun-
sel into supplication, with the assurance that we cannot he
asking anything that is not according to His wiU,'\ for are
we not turning His own word into prayer ?

So Mr. Miiller found it to be. In meditating over
Hebrews xiii. 8: "Jesus Christ the same yesterday and
to-day and for ever," translating it into prayer, he besought
God, with the confidence that the prayer was already
granted, that, as Jesus had already in His love and power
supplied all that was needful, in the same unchangeable
love and power He would so continue to provide. And
so a promise was not only turned into a prayer, but into
a prophecy — an assurance of blessing — and a river of joy
at once poured into and flowed through his soul.

The prayer habit, on the knees, with the Word open
before the disciple, has thus an advantage which it is diffi-
cult to put into words: It provides a sacred channel of
approach to Ood. The inspired Scriptures form the

* 2 Cor. iii. 18. 1 1 John v. 13.

The Word of God and Prayer 141

vehicle of the Spirit in communicating to us the knowledge
of the will of God. If we think of God on the one side
and man on the other, the word of God is the mode of
conveyance from God to man, of His own mind and heart.
It therefore becomes a channel of God's approach to us,
a channel prepared by the Spirit for the purpose, and un-
speakably sacred as such. When therefore the believer
uses the word of God as the guide to determine both the
spirit and the dialect of his prayer, he is inverting the
process of divine revelation and using the channel of God's
approach to him as the channel of his approach to God.
How can such use of God's word fail to help and
strengthen spiritual life ? What medium or channel of
approach could so insure in the praying soul both an
acceptable frame and language taught of the Holy Spirit ?
If the first thing is not to pray but to hearken, this surely
is hearkening for God to speak to us that we may know
how to speak to Him.

It was habits of life such as these, and not impulsive
feelings and transient frames, that made this man of God
what he was and strengthened him to lift up his hands
in God's name, and follow hard after Him and in Him
rejoice.* Even his sore affliction, seen in the light of such
prayer — prayer itself illuminated by the word of God —
became radiant; and his soul was brought into that state
where he so delighted in the will of God as to be able
from his heart to say that he would not have his disease
removed until through it God had wrought the blessing
it was meant to convey. And when his acquiescence in
the will of God had become thus complete he instinctively
felt that he would speedily he restored to health.

Subsequently, in reading Proverbs iii. 5-lS, he was

* Psalm Ixiii. 4, 8, 11.

142 George Muller of Bristol

struck with the words, " Neither be weary of His correc-
tion." He felt that, though he had not been permitted to
" despise the chastening of the Lord," he had at times
been somewhat '*' weary of His correction," and he lifted
up the prayer that he might so patiently bear it as neither
to faint nor be weary under it, till its full purpose was
wrought.

Frequent were the instances of the habit of translating
promises into prayers, immediately applying the truth
thus unveiled to him. For example, after prolonged medi-
tation over the first verse of Psalm Ixv, " 0 Thou that
hearest prayer," he at once asked and recorded certain
definite petitions. This writing down specific requests for
permanent reference has a blessed influence upon the
prayer habit. It assures practical and exact form for our
supplications, impresses the mind and memory with what
is thus asked of God, and leads naturally to the record of
the answers when given, so that we accumulate evidences
in our own experience that God is to us personally a
prayer-hearing God, whereby unbelief is rebuked and im-
portunity encouraged.

On this occasion eight specific requests are put on
record, together with the solemn conviction that, having
asked in conformity with the word and will of God, and
in the name of Jesus, he has confidence in Him that He
heareth and that he has t'he petitions thus asked of Him.*
He writes:

" I believe He has heard me. I believe He will make
it manifest in His own good time that He has h^.ard me;
and I have recorded these my petitions this fourteenth day
of January, 1838, that when God has answered them He
may get, through this, glory to His name."

* 1 John V. 13.

The Word of God and Prayer 143

The thoug'htful reader must see in all this a man of
weak faith, feeding and nourishing his trust in God that
his faith may grow strong. He uses the promise of a
prayer-hearing God as a staff to stay his conscious feeble-
ness, that he may lean hard upon the strong Word which
cannot fail. He records the day when he thus takes this
staff in hand, and the very petitions which are the burdens
which he seeks to lay on God, so that his act of committal
may be the more complete and final. Could God ever dis-
honour such trust ?

It was in this devout reading on his knees that his
w'hole soul was first deeply moved by that phrase,

" A FATHER OF THE FATHERLESS." (Psalm Ixviii. 5.)

He saw this to be one of those " names " of Jehovah which
He reveals to His people to lead them to trust in Him,
as it is written in Psalm ix. 10:

" They that know Thy name
Will put their trust in Thee."

These five words from the sixty-eighth psalm became an-
other of his life-texts, one of the foundation stones of all
his work for the fatherless. These are his own words:

" By the help of God, this shall be my argument before
Him, respecting the orphans, in the hour of need. He is
their Father, and therefore has pledged Himself, as it
were, to provide for them; and I have only to remind Him
of the need of these poor children in order to have it sup-
plied."

This is translating tihe promises of God's word, not only
into praying, but into living, doing, serving. Blessed was
the hour when Mr. Miiller learned that one of God's
chosen names is " the Father of the fatherless " !

144 George Miiller of Bristol

To sustain such burdens would have been quite impos-
sible but for faith in such a God. In reply to oft-repeated
remarks of visitors and observers who could not under-
stand the secret of his peace, or how any man who had so
many children to clothe and feed could carry such pros-
trating loads of care, he had one uniform reply: " By the
grace of God, this is no cause of anxiety to me. These
children I have years ago cast upon the Lord. The whole
work is His, and it becomes me to be without carefulness.
In whatever points I am lacking, in this point I am able
by the grace of God to roll the burden upon my heavenly
Father." *

In tens of thousands of cases this peculiar title of God,
chosen by Himself and by Himself declared, became to
Mr. Miiller a peculiar revelation of God, suited to his
special need. The natural inferences drawn from such
a title became powerful arguments in prayer, and re-
bukes to all unbelief. Thus, at the outset of his work
for the orphans, the word of God put beneath his feet a
rock basis of confidence that he could trust the almighty
Father to support the work. And, as the solicitudes of
the work came more and more heavily upon him, he cast
the loads he could not carry upon Him who, before George
Miiller was born, was the Father of the fatherless.

About this time we meet other signs of the conflict
going on in Mr. Miiller's own soul. He could not shut
his eyes to the lack of earnestness in prayer and fervency
of spirit which at times seemed to rob him of both peace
and power. And we notice his experience, in common with
so many saints, of the paradox of spiritual life. He saw
that " such fervency of spirit is altogether the gift of
God," and yet he adds, " I have to ascribe to myself the
loss of it." He did not run divine sovereignty into blank
* Journal 1 : 285.

The Word of God and Prayer 145

fatalism as so many do. He saw that God must be sov-
ereign in His gifts, and yet man must be free in his recep-
tion and rejection of them. He admitted the mystery
without attempting to reconcile the apparent contradic-
tion. He confesses also that the same book, Philip's Life
of Whitefield, which had been used of God to kindle such
new fires on the altar of his heart, had been also used of
Satan to tempt him to neglect for its sake the systematic
study of the greatest of books.

Thus, at every step, George Miiller's life is full of both
encouragement and admonition to fellow disciples. While
away from Bristol he wrote in February, 1838, a tender let-
ter to the saints there, whidh is another revelation of the
man's heart. He makes grateful mention of the mercies of
God, to him, particularly His gentleness, long-suffering,
and faithfulness and the lessons taught him throug*h afflic-
tion. The letter makes plain that much sweetness is mixed
in the cup of suffering, and that our privileges are not
properly prized until for a time we are deprived of them.
He particularly mentions how secret prayer, even when
reading, conversation, or prayer with others was a burden,
always brought relief to his head. Converse with the Father
was an indispensable source of refreshment and blessing at
all times. As J. Hudson Taylor says ," Satan, the Hinderer,
may build a barrier about us, but he can never roof us in,
so that we cannot hole up." Mr. Miiller also gives a valu-
able hint that has already been of value to many afflicted
saints, that he found he could help by prayer to fight the
battles of the Lord even when he could not by preaching.

After a short visit to Germany, partly in quest of health
and partly for missionary objects, and after more than
twenty-two weeks of retirement from ordinary public
duties, his head was much better, but his mental health
allowed only about three hours of daily work. While in

146 George Miiller of Bristol

Germany he had again seen his father and elder brother,
and spoken with them about their salvation. To his
father his words brought apparent blessing, for he seemed
at least to feel his lack of the one thing needful. The
separation from him was the more painful as there was so
little hope that they should meet again on earth.

In May he once more took part in public services in
Bristol, a period of six months having elapsed since he had
previously done so. His head was still weak, but there
seemed no loss of mental power.

About three months after he had been in Germany
part of the fruits of his visit were gathered, for twelve
brothers and three sisters sailed for the East Indies.

On June 13, 1838, Mrs. Miiller gave birth to a stillborn
babe, — another parental disappointment, — and for more
than a fortnight her life hung in the balance. But once
more prayer prevailed for her and her days were pro-
longed.

One month later another trial of faith confronted them
in the orphan work. A twelvemonth previous there were
in hand seven hundred and eighty pounds; now that sum
was reduced to one thirty-ninth of the amount — twenty
pounds. Mr. and Mrs. Miiller, with Mr. Craik and one
other brother, connected with the Boys' Orphan House,
were the only four persons who were permitted to know
of the low state of funds; and they gave themselves to
united prayer. And let it be carefully observed that Mr.
Miiller testifies that his own faith was kept even stronger
than when the larger sum was on hand a year before; and
this faith was no mere fancy, for, although the supply was
so low and shortly thirty pounds would be needed, notice
was given for seven more children to enter, and it was
further proposed to announce readiness to receive fi""'e
others !

The Word of God and Prayer 147

The trial-hour had come, but was not past. Less than
two months later the money-supply ran so low that it was
needful that the Lord should give ly the day and almost
by the hour if the needs were to be met. In answer to
prayer for help God seemed to say, " Mine hour is not yet
come." Many pounds would shortly be required, toward
which there was not one penny in hand. When, one day,
over four pounds came in, the thought occurred to Mr.
Miiller, " Why not lay aside three pounds against the
coming need ? " But immediately he remembered that it is
written : " Sufficient unto the day is the evil
THEREOF." * He unhesitating'ly cast himself upon God,
and paid out the whole amount for salaries then due,
leaving himself again penniless.

At this time Mr. Craik was led to preac'h a sermon on
Abraham, from Genesis xii, making prominent two facts:
first, that so long as he acted in faith and walked in the
will of God, all went on well; but that, secondly, so far
as he distrusted the Lord and disobeyed Him, all ended in
failure. Mr. Miiller heard this sermon and conscientiously
applied it to himself. He drew two most practical con-
clusions which he had abundant opportunity to put into
practice:

First, that he must go into no b3rways or paths of his
own for deliverance out of a crisis;

And, secondly, that in proportion as he had been per-
mitted to honour God and bring some glory to His name
by trusting Him, he was in danger of dishonouring Him.

Having taught him these blessed truths, the Lord
tested him as to how far he would venture upon them.
While in such sore need of money for the orphan work,
he had in the bank some two hundred and twenty pounds,

* Matt. vi. 34.

148 George Muller of Bristol

intrusted to him for other purposes. He might use this
money for the time at least, and so relieve the present
distress. The temptation was the stronger so to do, be-
cause he knew the donors and knew them to be liberal
supporters of the orphans; and he had only to explain to
them the straits he was in and they would gladly consent
to any appropriation of their gift that he might see best !
Most men would have cut that Gordian knot of perplexity
without hesitation.

Not so George Miiller. He saw at once that this would
be finding a way of Ms own out of difficulty, instead of
waiting on the Lord for deliverance. Moreover, he also saw
that it would be forming a habit of trusting to such ex-
pedients of his own, which in other trials would lead to a
similar course and so hinder the growth of faith. We use
italics here because here is revealed one of the tests by
which this man of faith was proven; and we see how he
kept consistently and persistently to the one great purpose
of his life — to demonstrate to all men that to rest solely on
the promise of a faithful God is the only way to know for
one's self and prove to others, His faithfulness.
At this time of need — the type of many others — this man
who had determined to risk everything upon God's word
of promise, turned from doubtful devices and questionable
methods of relief to pleading with Ood. And it may be
well to mark his manner of pleading. He used argument
in prayer, and at this time he piles up eleven reasons why
God should and would send help.

This method of holy argument — ordering our cause
before God, as an advocate would plead before a judge —
is not only almost a lost art, but to many it actually seems
almost puerile. And yet it is abundantly taught and
exemplified in Scripture. Abraham in his plea for
Sodom is the first great example of it. Moses excelled in

The Word of God ana i rayer 149

this art, in many crises interceding in behalf of the people
with consummate skill, marshalling arguments as a gen-
eral-in-chief marshals batallions. Elijah on Carmel is a
striking example of power in this special pleading. What
holy zeal and jealousy for God ! It is probable that if we
had fuller records we should find that all pleaders with
God, like Noah, Job, Samuel, David, Daniel, Jeremiah,
Paul, and James, have used the same method.

Of course God does not need to be convinced: no argu-
ments can make any plainer to Him the claims of trusting
souls to His intervention, claims based upon His own word,
confirmed by His oath. And yet He will be inquired of
and argued with. That is His way of blessing. He loves
to have us set before Him our cause and His own promises:
He delights in the well-ordered plea, where argument is
piled upon argument. See how the Lord Jesus Christ
commended the persistent argument of the woman of
Canaan, who with the wit of importunity actually turned
his own ohjection into a reason. He said, " It is not meet
to take the children's bread and cast it to the little
dogs." * " Truth, Lord," she answered, " yet the little
dogs under the master's tables eat of the crumbs which
fall from the children's mouths ! " What a triumph of
argument ! Catching the Master Himself in His words,
as He meant she should, and turning His apparent reason
for not granting into a reason for granting her request !
" 0 woman," said He, " great is thy faith ! Be it unto
thee even as thou wilt " — thus, as Luther said, " flinging
the reins on her neck."

This case stands unique in the word of God, and it is
this use of argument in prayer that makes it thus solitary
in grandeur. But one other case is at all parallel, — that of

* Cf. Matt. vii. 6, xv. 26, 27. Not Kvvi%, but tcvvapioti, the
diminutive for little pet dogs.

150 George Muller of Bristol

the centurion of Capernaum,* who, when our Lord prom-
ised to go and heal his servant, argued that such coming was
not needful, since He had only to speak the healing word.
And notice the basis of his argument: if he, a commander
exercising authority and yielding himself to higher
authority, both obeyed the word of his superior and ex-
acted obedience of his subordinate, how much more could
the Great Healer, in his absence, by a word of command,
wield the healing Power that in His presence was obedient
to His will ! Of him likewise our Lord said: " I have not
found so great faith, no, not in Israel ! "

We are to argue our case with God, not indeed to con-
vince Him, but to convince ourselves. In proving to Him
that, by His own word and oath and character. He has
bound Himself to interpose, we demonstrate to our own
faith that He has given us the right to ask and claim, and
that He will answer our plea because He cannot deny Him-
self.

There are two singularly beautiful touches of the Holy
Spirit in which the right thus to order argument before
God is set forth to the reflective reader. In Micah. vii. 20
we read:

" Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob,
The mercy to Abraham,
Which thou hast sworn unto our fathers.
From the days of old."

Mark the progress of the thought. What was mercy to
Abraham was truth to Jacob. God was under no obliga-
tion to extend covenant blessings; hence it was to Abra-
ham a simple act of pure mercy; but, having so put Him-

* Matt. viii. 8,

The Word of God and Prayer 151

self under voluntary bonds, Jacob could claim as truth
w*liat to Abraham had been mercy. So in 1 John i. 9:

" If we confess our sins
He is faithful and just to forgive us our s:ns.
And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness,"

Plainly, forgiveness and cleansing are not originally mat-
ters of faithfulness and justice, but of mercy and grace.
But, after God had pledged Himself thus to forgive and
cleanse the penitent sinner w'ho confesses and forsakes his
sins,* what was originally grace and mercy becomes faith-
fulness and justice; for God owes it to Himself and to His
creature to stand by His own pledge, and fulfil the lawful
expectation which His own gracious assurance has created.

Thus we have not only examples of argument in prayer,
but concessions of the living God Himself, that when we
have His word to plead we may claim the fulfilment of
His promise, on the ground not of His mercy only, but of
His truth, faithfulness, and justice. Hence the holy bold-
ness with which we are bidden to present our plea at the
throne of grace. God owes to His faithfulness to do what
He has promised, and to His justice not to exact from the
sinner a penalty already borne in his behalf by His own
Son.

No man of his generation, perhaps, has been more wont
to plead thus with God, after the manner of holy argu-
ment, than he whose memoir we are now writing. He was
one of the elect few to whom it has been given to revive
and restore this lost art of pleading with God. And if all
disciples could learn the blessed lesson, what a period of
renaissance of faith would come to the church of God !

George Miiller stored up reasons for God's intervention.

* Proverbs xxviii. 13.

152 treorge Muller of Bristol

As he came upon promises, authorized declarations of God
concerning Himself, names and titles He had chosen to
express and reveal His true nature and will, injunctions
and invitations which gave to the believer a right to pray
and boldness in supplication — as he saw all these, fortified
and exemplified by the instances of prevailing prayer, he
laid these arguments up in memory, and then on occasions
of great need brought them out and spread them before
a prayer-hearing God. It is pathetically beautiful to fol-
low this humble man of God into the secret place, and
there hear him pouring out his soul in these argumenta-
tive pleadings, as though he would so order his cause be-
fore God as to convince Him that He must interpose to
save His own name and word from dishonour !

These were His orphans, for had He not declared Him-
self the Father of the fatherless ? This was His work,
for had He not called His servant to do His bidding, and
what was that servant but an instrument that could
neither fit itself nor use itself ? Can the rod lift itself,
or the saw move itself, or the hammer deal its own blow,
or the sword make its own thrust ? And if this were
God's work, was He not bound to care for His own work ?
And was not all this deliberately planned and carried on
for His own glory ? And would He suffer His own glory
to be dimmed ? Had not His own word been given and
confirmed by His oath, and could God allow His promise,
thus sworn to, to be dishonoured even in the least particu-
lar ? Were not the half-believing church and the unbe-
lieving world looking on, to see how the Living God would
stand by His own unchanging assurance, and would He
supply an argument for the skeptic and the scoffer ?
Would He not, must He not, rather put new proofs of His
faithfulness in the mouth of His saints, and furnish in-

The Word of God and Prayer 153

creasing arguments wherewith to silence the cavilling
tongue and put to shame the hesitating disciple ?*

In some such fashion as this did this lowly-minded
saint in Bristol plead with God for more than threescore
years, and prevail — as every true believer may who with a
like boldness comes to the throne of grace to obtain mercy
and find grace to help in every time of need. How few of
us can sincerely sing:

I believe God answers prayer,
Answers always, everywhere ;
I may cast my anxious care,
Burdens I could never bear,
On tbe God who heareth prayer.
Never need my soul despair
Since He bids me boldly dare
To the secret place repair,
There to prove He answers prayer.

* Mr. Miiller himself tells how he argued his case before the r^ord
at this time. (Appendix F. Narrative, vol. 1^ 243, 244

CHAPTER XI

TRIALS OF FAITH, AND HELPEES TO FAITH

God has His own mathematics : witness that miracle of
the loaves and fishes. Our Lord said to His disciples:
" Give ye them to eat/' and as they divided, He multiplied,
the scanty provision ; as they subtracted from it He added
to it; as they decreased it by distributing, He increased
it for distributing. And it has been beautifully said of all
holy partnerships, that griefs shared are divided, and joys
shared are multiplied.

We have already seen how the prayer circle had been en-
larged. The founder of the orphan work, at the first, had
only God for his partner, telling Him alone his own wants
or the needs of his work. Later on, a very few, including
his own wife, Mr. Craik, and one or two helpers, were per-
mitted to know the condition of the funds and supplies.
Later still, in the autumn of 1838, he began to feel that he
ought more fully to open the doors of his confidence
to his associates in the Lord's business. Those who shared
in the toils should also share in the prayers, and therefore
in tihe knowledge of the needs which prayer was to supply;
else how could they fully be partakers of the faith, the
work, and tlie reward ? Or, again, how could they feel the
full proof of the presence and power of God in the answers
to prayer, know the joy of the Lord which such answers
inspire, or praise Him for the deliverance which such
154

Trials of Faith, and Helpers to Faith 155

answers exhibit ? It seemed plain that, to the highest
glory of God, they must know the depths of need, the ex-
tremities of want out of which God had lifted them, and
then ascribe all honour and praise to His name.

Accordingly Mr. Miiller called together all the beloved
brothers and sisters linked with him in the conduct of the
work, and fully stated the case, keeping nothing back.
He showed them the distress they were in, while he bade
them be of good courage, assuring them of his own con-
fidence that help was nigh at hand, and then united them
with himself and the smaller praying circle which had
previously existed, in supplication to Jehovah Jireh.

The step thus taken was of no small importance to all
concerned. A considerable number of praying believers
were henceforth added to the band of intercessors that
gave God no rest day nor night. While Mr. Miiller with-
held no facts as to the straits to which the work was re-
duced, he laid down certain principles which from time to
time were reiterated as unchanging laws for the conduct
of the Lord's business. For example, nothing must be
bought, whatever the extremity, for which there was not
money in hand to pay : and yet it must be equally a
settled principle that the children must not be left to lack
anything needful ; for better that the work cease, and the
orphans be sent away, than that they be kept in a nominal
home where they were really left to suffer from hunger or
nakedness.

Again, nothing was ever to be revealed to outsiders of ex-
isting need, lest it should be construed into an appeal for
help ; but the only resort must be to the living God.
The helpers were often reminded that the supreme object
of the institutions, founded in Bristol, was to prove God's
faithfulness and the perfect safety of trusting solely to
His promises ; :\ealousy for Him must therefore restrain

156 George Muller of Bristol

all tendency to look to man for help. Moreover, they
were earnestly besought to live in such daily and hourly
fellowship with God as that their own unbelief and dis-
obedience might not risk either their own power in prayer,
or the agreement, needful among them, in order to com-
mon supplication. One discordant note may prevent the
harmonious symphony of united prayer, and so far hinder
the acceptableness of such prayer with God.

Thus informed and instructed, these devoted coworkers,
with the beloved founder of the orphan work, met the
crisis intelligently. If, when there were no funds, there
must be no leaning upon man, no debt incurred, and yet
no lack allowed, clearly the only resort or resource must
be waiting upon the unseen God ; and so, in these straits
and in every succeeding crisis, they went to HIec: alone.
The orphans themselves were never told of any existing
need; in every case their wants were met, though they
knew not how. The barrel of meal might be em-pty, yet
there was always a handful when needed, and the cruse of
oil was never so exhausted that a few drops were not left to
moisten the bandful of meal. Famine and drought never
reached the Bristol orphanage : the supplies might come
slowly and only for one day at a time, but somehow, when
the need was urgent and could no longer wait, there was
enough — though it might be barely enough to meet the
want.

It should be added here, as completing this part of the
Narrative, that, in August, 1840, this circle of prayer was
still further enlarged by admitting to its intimacies of
fellowship and supplication the brethren and sisters who
laboured in the day-schools, the same solemn injunctions
being repeated in their case against any betrayal to out-
siders of the crises that might arise.

To impart the knowledge of affairs to so much larger a

Trials of Faith, and Helpers to Faith 157

band of helpers brought in every way a greater blessing,
and especially so to the helpers themselves. Their
earnest, believing, importunate prayers were thus called
forth, and God only knows how much the con-
sequent progress of the work was due to their
faith, supplication, and self-denial. The practical
knowledge of the exigencies of their common ex-
perience begat an unselfishness of spirit which prompted
countless acts of heroic sacrifice that have no human
record or written history, and can be known only when the
pages of the Lord's own journal are read by an assembled
universe in the day when the secret things are brought to
light. It has, since Mr. Miiller's departure, transpired
how large a share of the donations received are to be
traced to him ; but there is no means of ascertaining as
to the aggregate amount of the secret gifts of his coworkers
ir> this sacred circle of prayer.

We do know, howerer, that Mr. Miiller was not the only
6t;lf-denying giver, though he may lead the host. His
true yoke-fellows often turned the crisis by their own offer-
ings, Which though small were costly ! Instnimentallj
they were used of God to relieve existing want by their
gifts, for out of the abundance of their deep poverty
abounded the riches of their liberality. The money they
gave was sometimes like the widow's two mites — all their
living ; and not only the last penny, but ornaments,
jewels, heirlooms, long kept and cherished treasures, like
the alabaster flask of ointment which was broken upon the
feet of Jesus, were laid down on God's altar as a willing
sacrifice. They gave all they could spare and often what
they could ill spare, so that there might be meat in God's
house and no lack of bread or other needed supplies for His
little ones. In a sublime sense this work was not Mr. Miil-
ler's only;,but theirs also, who with him took part in prayers

158 George M tiller of Bristol

and tears, in cares and toils, in self-denials and self-offer-
ings, whereby God chose to carry forward His plans for
these homeless waifs ! It was in thus giving that all these
helpers found also new power, assurance, and blessing in
praying; for, as one of them said, he felt that it would
scarcely be " upright to pray, except he were to give what he
had." *

The helpers, thus admitted into Mr. Miiller's confidence,
came into more active sympathy with him and the work,
and partook increasingly of the same spirit. Of this some
few instances and examples have found their way into his
Journal.

A gentleman and some ladies visiting the orphan houses
saw the large number of little ones to be cared for. One
of the ladies said to the matron of the Boys' House : " Of
course you cannot carry on these institutions without a
good stock of funds " ; and the gentleman added, " Have
you a good stock ? " The quiet answer was, " Our funds
are deposited in a bank which cannot break." The reply
drew tears from the eyes of the lady, and a gift of five
pounds from the pocket of the gentleman — a donation
most opportune, as there was not one penny tlien in hand.

Fellow labourers such as these, who asked nothing for
themselves, but cheerfully looked to the Lord for their own
supplies, and willingly parted with their own money or
goods in the hour of need, filled Mr. Miiller's heart with
praise to God, and held up his hands, as Aaron and Hur
sustained those of Moses, till the sun of his life went down.
During all the years of his superintendence these were the
main human support of his faith and courage. They met
witlh him in daily prayer, faithfully kept among them-
selves the secrets of the Lord's work in the great trials of

* Narrative, 1 : 246.

Trials of Faith, and Helpers to Faith 159

faith ; and, when the hour of triumph came, they felt it
to be both duty and privilege in the annual report to pub-
lish their deliverance, to make their boast in God, that
all men might know His love and faithfulness and ascribe
unto Him glory.

From time to time, in connection with the administra'
tion of the work, various questions arose which have a
wider bearing on all departments of Christian service, for
their solution enters into what may be called the ethica
and economics of the Lord's work. At a few of these we
may glance.

As the Lord was dealing with them by the day, it
seemed clear that they were to live by the day. No dues
should be allowed to accumulate, even such as would
naturally accrue from ordinary weekly supplies of bread,
milk, etc. From the middle of September, 1838, it was
therefore determined that every article bought was to be
paid for at the time.

Again, rent became due in stated amounts and at stated
times. This want was therefore not unforeseen, and, looked
at in one aspect, rent was due daily or weekly, though col-
lected at longer intervals. The principle having been laid
down that no debt should be incurred, it was considered as
implying that the amount due for rent should be put aside
daily, or at least weekly, even though not then payable. This
rule was henceforth adopted, with this understanding, that
money thus laid aside was sacred to that end, and not to
be drawn upon, even temporarily, for any other.

Notwithstanding such conscientiousness and consistency
the trial of faith and patience continued. Money came in
only in small sums, and barely enough with rigid economy
to meet each day's wants. The outlook was often most
dark and the prospect most threatening ; but no real need
ever failed to be supplied: and so praise was continually^

i6o George M tiller of Bristol

mingled with prayer, the incense of thanksgiving making
fragrant the flame of supplication. God's interposing power
and love could not be doubted, and in fact made the more
impression as unquestionable facts, because help came so
frequently at the hour of extremity, and in the exact form
or amount needed. Before the provision was entirely
exhausted, there came new supplies or the money where-
with to buy, so that these many mouths were always fed
and these many bodies always clad.

To live up to such principles as had been laid down was
not possible without faith, kept in constant and lively
exercise. For example, in the closing months of 1838
God seemed purposely putting them to a severe test,
wrhether or not they did trust Him alone. The orphan work
was in continual straits : at times not one half-penny was
in the hands of the matrons in the three houses. But
not only was no knowledge of such facts ever allowed to
leak out, or any hint of the extreme need ever given to
outsiders, hut even those who inquired, with intent to aid,
were not informed.

One evening a brother ventured to ask how the balance
would stand when the next accounts were made up, and
whether it would be as great in favour of the orphans as
when the previous balance-sheet had been prepared. Mr.
Miiller's calm but evasive answer was : " It will he as great
as the Lord pleases.'' This was no intentional rudeness.
To have said more would have been turning from the one
Helper to make at least an indirect appeal to man for help;
and every such snare was carefully avoided lest the one
great aim should be lost sight of : to prove to all men that
it is safe to trust only in the Living God.

While admitting the severity of the straits to which the
whole work of the Scriptural Knowledge Institution was
often brought. Mr. Miiller takes pains to assure his readers

Trials of Faith, and Helpers to Faith i6i

that these straits were never a surprise to him, and that
his expectations in the matter of funds were not dis-
appointed, but rather the reverse. He had looked for
great emergencies as essential to his full witness to a
prayer-hearing God. The almighty Hand can never be
clearly seen while any human help is sought for or is in
sight. "We must turn absolutely away from all else if we
are to turn fully unto the living God. The deliverance
is signal, only in proportion as the danger is serious, and is
most significant when, without God, we face absolute
despair. Hence the exact end for which the whole work
was mainly begun could be attained only through such
conditions of extremity and such experiences of inter-
position in extremity.

Some who have known but little of the interior history
of the orphan work have very naturally accounted for the
regularity of supplies by supposing that the public state-
ments, made about it by word of mouth, and especially by
the pen in the printed annual reports, have constituted
appeals for aid. Unbelief would interpret all God's working
however wonderful, by ' natural laws,' and the carnal
mind, refusing to see in any of the manifestations of God's
power any supernatural force at work, persists in thus ex-
plaining away all the ' miracles of prayer.'

ISTo doubt humane and sympathetic hearts have been
strongly moved by the remarkable ways in which God has
day by day provided for all these orphans, as well as the
other branches of work of the Scriptural Knowledge
Institution ; and believing souls have been drawn into
loving and hearty sympathy with work so conducted, and
have been led to become its helpers. It is a well-known
fact that God has ased these annual reports to accomplish
just such results. Yet it remains true that these reports
were never intended or issued as appeals for aid, and no de-

i62 George Muller of Bristol

pendence has been placed upon them for securing timelf
help. It is also undeniable that, however frequent their
issue, wide their circulation, or great their influence, the
regularity and abundance of the supplies of all needs must
in some other way be accounted for.

Only a few days after public meetings were held or
printed reports issued, funds often fell to their lowest ebb.
Mr. Muller and his helpers were singularly kept from all
undue leaning upon any such indirect appeals, and fre-
quently and definitely asked God that they might never
be left to look for any inflow of means through such
channels. For many reasons the Lord's dealings with
them were made known, the main object of such publicity
always being a testimony to the faithfulness of God. This
great object Mr. Miiller always kept foremost, hoping and
praying that, by such records and revelations of God's
fidelity to His promises, and of the manner in which He
met each new need, his servant might awaken, quicken, and
stimulate faith in Him as the Living God. One has only
to read these reports to see the conspicuous absence of
any appeal for human aid, or of any attempt to excite pity,
sympathy and compassion toward the orphans. The bur-
den of every report is to induce the reader to venture
wholly upon Go'd, to taste and see that the Lord is good,
and find for himself how blessed are all they that put their
trust in Him. Only in the light of this supreme purpose
can these records of a life of faith be read intelligently
and intelligibly.

Weakness of body again, in the autumn of 1839, com-
pelled, for a time, rest from active labour, and Mr. Miiller
w^nt to Trowbridge and Exeter, Teignmouth and Ply-
mouth. God had precious lessons for him which He could
best teach -n the school of affliction.

While at Plymouth Mr. Muller felt anew the impulse to

Trials of Faith, and Helpers to Faith 163

earhj rising for purposes of devotional communion. At
Halle he had been an early riser, influenced by zeal for
excellence in study. Afterwards, when his weak head
and feeble nerves made more sleep seem needful, he judged
that, even when he rose late, the day would be long enough
to exhaust his little fund of strength ; and so often he lay
in bed till six or even seven o'clock, instead of rising at
four ; and after dinner took a nap for a quarter-hour. It
now grew upon him, however, that he was losing in spirit-
ual vigour, and that his soul's health was declining under
this new regimen. The work now so pressed upon him as
to prevent proper reading of the Word and rob him of lei-
sure for secret prayer.

A ' chance remark ' — there is no chance in a believer's
life ! — made by the brother at whose house he was abiding
at Plymouth, much impressed him. Eeferring to the
sacrifices in Leviticus, he said that, as the refuse of the
animals was never offered up on the altar, but only the best
parts and the fat, so the choicest of our time and strength,
the best parts of our day, should be especially given to the
Lord in worship and communion. George Miiller medi-
tated much on this ; and determined, even at the risk of
damage to bodily health, that he would no longer spend his
best hours in bed. Henceforth he allowed himself but
seven hours' sleep and gave up his after-dinner rest. This
resumption of early rising secured long seasons of unin-
terrupted interviews with God, in prayer and meditation
on the Scriptures, before breakfast and the various inevi-
table interruptions that followed. He found himself not
worse but better, physically, and became convinced that
to have lain longer in bed as before would have kept his
nerves weak ; and, as to spiritual life, such new vitality
and vigour accrued from thus waiting upon God while

164 George Muller of Bristol

others slept, that it continued to be the habit of his after-
life.

In November, 1839, when the needs were again great
and the supplies very small, he was kept in peace : " I was
not," he says, " looking at the little in hand, hut at the ful-
ness of God.''

It was his rule to empty himself of aU that he had, in
order to greater boldness in appealing for help from above.
All needless articles were sold if a market could be found.
But what was useful in the Lord's work he did not reckon
as needless, nor regard it right to sell, since the Father
knew the need. One of his fellow labourers had put for-
ward his valuable watch as a security for the return of
money laid by for rent, but drawn upon for the time ;
yet even this plan was not felt to be scriptural, as the watch
might be reckoned among articles needful and useful
in the Lord's service, and, if suCh expedients were quite
abandoned, the deliverance would be more manifest as
of the Lord. And so, one by one, all resorts were laid
aside that might imperil full trust and sole dependence
upon the one and only Helper.

When the poverty of their resources seemed most pinch-
ing, Mr. Miiller still comforted himself with the daily proof
that God had not forgotten, and would day by day feed
them with 'the bread of their convenience.' Often he
said to himself. If it is even a proverb of the world that
" Man's necessity is God's opportunity," how much more
may God's own dear children in their great need look to
Him to make their extremity the fit moment to display
His love and power !

In February, 1840, another attack of ill health combined
Tvith a mission to Germany to lead Mr. Muller for five
weeks to the Continent. At Heimersleben, where he
found his father weakened by a serious cough, the two

Trials of Faith, and Helpers to Faith 165

rooms in which he spent most time in prayer and reading
of the Word, and confession of the Lord, were the same
in which, nearly twenty years before, he had passed most
time as an unreconciled sinner against God and man.
Later on, at Wolfenbiittel, he saw the inn whence in 1821
he ran away in debt. In taking leave once more of his father
he was pierced by a keen anguish, fearing it was his last
farewell, and an unusual tenderness and affection were now
exhibited by his father, whom he yearned more and more
to know as safe in the Lord Jesus, and depending no
longer on outward and formal religiousness, or substitut-
ing the reading of prayers and of Scripture for an inward
conformity to Christ. This proved the last interview, for
the father died on March 30th of the same year.

The main purpose of this journey to Germany was to
send forth more missionaries to the East. At Sanders-
leben Mr. Miiller met his friend, Mr. Stahlschmidt, and
found a little band of disciples meeting in secret to evade
the police. Those who have always breathed the atmos-
phere of religious liberty know little of such intolerance
as, in that nominally Christian land, stifled all freedom of
worship. Eleven years before, when Mr. Stahlschmidt's
servant had come to this place, he had found scarce one
true disciple beside his master. The first meetings had
been literally of but two or three, and, when they had
grown a little larger, Mr. Kroll was summoned before the
magistrates and, like the apostles in the first days of the
church, forbidden to speak in His name. But again, like
those same primitive disciples, believing that they were to
obey God rather than men, the believing band had con-
tinued to meet, notwithstanding police raids which were
60 disturbing, and government fines which were so exact-
ing. So secret, however, were their assemblies, as to have
neither stated place nor regular time.

1 66 George Muller of Bristol

George Muller found these persecuted believers, meeting
in the room of a humble weaver where there was but one
chair. The twenty-five or thirty who were present found
such places to sit or stand as they might, in and about the
loom, which itself filled half the space.

In Halberstadt Mr. Muller found seven large Protestant
churches without one clergyman who gave evidence of
true conversion, and the few genuine disciples there were
likewise forbidden to meet together.

A few days after returning to Bristol from his few
weeks in Germany, and at a time of great financial distress
in the work, a letter reached him from a brother who had
often before given money, as follows :

" Have you any present need for the Institution under
your care ? I know you do not ash, except indeed of Him
whose work you are doing ; but to answer when asked
seems another thing, and a right thing. I have a reason
for desiring to know the present state of your means tow-
ards the objects you are labouring to serve : viz., should
you not have need, other departments of the Lord's work,
or other people of the Lord, may have need. Kindly then
inform me, and to what amount, i.e. what amount you at
this present time need or can profitably lay out."

To most men, even those who carry on a work of faith
and prayer, such a letter would have been at least a temp-
tation. But Mr. Miiller did not waver. To announce even
to an inquirer the exact needs of the work would, in his
opinion, involve two serious risks :

1. It would turn his own eyes away from God to man ;

2. It would turn the minds of saints away from depend-
ence solely upon Him.

This man of God had staked everything upon one great
experiment — he had set himself to prove that the prayer
which resorts to God only will bring help in every crisis,

Trials of Faith, and Helpers to Faith 167

even when the crisis is unknown to His people whom He
uses as the means of relief and help.

At this time there remained in hand but twenty-seven
pence ha'penny, in all, to meet the needs of hundreds
of orphans. Nevertheless this was the reply to the
letter :

" Whilst I thank you for your love, and whilst I agree
with you that, in general, there is a difference between aslc-
ingfor money an^ answering when asi5;e(Z, nevertheless, in our
case, I feel not at liberty to speak about the state of our
funds, as the primary object of the work in my hands is
to lead those who are weak in faith to see that there is
reality in dealing with God alone."

Consistently with his position, however, no sooner was
the answer posted than the appeal went up to the Living
God : " Lord, thou knowest that, for Thy sake, I did not
tell this brother about our need. Now, Lord, show afresh
that there is reality in speaking to Thee only, about our
need, and speak therefore to this brother so that he may
help us." In answer, God moved this inquiring brother to
send one hundred pounds, which came when not one penny
was in hand.

The confidence of faith, long tried, had its increasing
reward and was strengthened by experience. In July,
1845, Mr. Miiller gave this testimony reviewing these very
years of trial :

" Though for about seven years, our funds have been so
exhausted that it has been comparatively a rare case that
there have been means in hand to meet the necessities of the
orphans for three days together, yet I have been only once
tried in spirit, and that was on September 18, 1838, when
for the first time the Lord seemed not to regard our prayer.
But when He did send help at that time, and I saw that it
was only for the trial of our faith, and not because He had

1 68 George MuUer of Bristol

forsaken the work, that we were brought so low, my soul
was so strengthened and encouraged that I have not only
not been allowed to distrust the Lord since that time, but
I have not even been cast down when in the deepest
poverty."

CHAPTEE XII

NEW LESSONS IN GOD's SCHOOL OF PRAYER

The teacher must also be a learner, and therefore only
he who continues to learn is competent to continue to
teach. Nothing but new lessons, daily mastered, can keep
our testimony fresh and vitalizing and enable us to give
advance lessons. Instead of being always engaged in
a sort of review, our teaching and testimony will thus be
drawn each day from a new and higher level.

George Miiller's experiences of prevailing prayer went
on constantly accumulating, and so qualified him to speak
to others, not as on a matter of speculation, theory, or
doctrinal belief, but of long, varied, and successful per-
sonal experiment. Patiently, carefully and frequently, he
seeks to impress on others the conditions of effective sup-
plication. From time to time he met those to whom his
courageous, childlike trust in God was a mystery ; and
occasionally unbelief's secret misgivings found a voice
in the question, what lie would do if God did not send help!
what, if a meal-time actually came with no food, and no
money to procure it ; or if clothing were worn out, and
nothing to replace it ?

To all such questions there was always ready this one
answer : that such a failure on God's part is inconceivable,
and must therefore be put among the impossibilities.
There are, however, conditions necessary on man's part :
the suppliant soul must come to God in the right spirit and
169

1 70 George M tiller of Bristol

attitude. For the sake of such readers as might need
further guidance as to the proper and acceptable manner
of approach to God, he was wont to make very plain the
scripture teaching upon this point.

Five grand conditions of prevailing prayer were ever
before his mind :

1. Entire dependence upon the merits and mediation
of the Lord Jesus Christ, as the only ground of any claim
for blessing. (See John xiv. 13, 14 ; xv. 16, etc.)

2. Separation from all known sin. If we regard in-
iquity in our hearts, the Lord will not hear us, for it would
be sanctioning sin. (Psalm Ixvi. 18.)

3. Faith in God's word of promise as confirmed by His
oath. Not to believe Him is to make Him both a liar
and a perjurer. (Hebrews xi. 6; vi. 13-20.)

4. Asking in accordance with His will. Our motives
must be godly : we must not seek any gift of God to con-
sume it upon our own lusts. (1 John v. 13 ; James iv.
3.)

5. Importunity in supplication. There must be wait-
ing on God and waiting for God, as the husbandman has
long patience to wait for the harvest. (James v. 7 ; Luke
xviii. 1-10.)

The importance of firmly fixing in mind principles such
as these cannot be overstated. The first lays the basis of
all prayer, in our oneness with the great High Priest.
The second states a condition of prayer, found in abandon-
ment of sin. The third reminds us of the need of
honouring God by faith that He is, and is the Eewarder of
the diligent seeker. The fourth reveals the sympathy with
God that helps us to ask what is for our good and His
glory. The last teaches us that, having laid hold of God
in prayer, we are to keep hold until His arm is outstretched
in blessing.

New Lessons in God's School of Prayer 171

Where these conditions do not exists for God to answer
prayer would be both a dishonour to Himself and a damage
to the suppliant. To encourage those who come to Him
in their own name, or in a self-righteous, self-seeking, and
disobedient spirit, would be to set a premium upon con-
tinuance in sin. To answer the requests of the unbe-
lieving would be to disregard the double insult put upon
His word of promise and His oath of confirmation, by
persistent doubt of His truthfulness and distrust of His
faithfulness. Indeed not one condition of prevailing
prayer exists which is not such in the very nature of
things. These are not arbitrary limitations affixed to
prayer by a despotic will ; they are necessary alike to God's
character and man's good.

All the lessons learned in God's school of prayer made
Mr. Miiller's feelings and convictions about this matter
more profound and subduing. He saw the vital relation
of prayer to holiness, and perpetually sought to impress it
upon both his hearers and readers; and, remembering that
for the purpose of persuasion the most effective figure of
epeech is repetition, he hesitated at no frequency of restate-
ment by which such truths might find root in the minds
and hearts of others.

There has never been a saint, from Abel's day to our
own, who has not been taught the same essential lessons.
All prayer which has ever brought down blessing has pre-
vailed by the same law of success — the inward impulse of
God's Holy Spirit. If, therefore, that Spirit's teachings
be disregarded or disobeyed, or His inward movings be
hindered, in just such measure will prayer become formal
or be altogether abandoned. Sin, consciously indulged,
or duty, knowingly neglected, makes supplication an of-
fence to God.

Again, all prayer prevails only in the measure of our

172 George Muller of Bristol

real, even if not conscious, unity with the Lord Jesus
Christ as the ground of our approach, and in the degree of
our dependence on Him as the medium of our access to
God.

Yet again, all prayer prevails only as it is offered in
faith ; and the answer to such prayer can be recognized
and received only on the plane of faith; that is, we must
maintain the believing frame, expecting the blessing, and
being ready to receive it in God's way and time and form,
and not our own.

The faith that thus expects cannot be surprised at
answers to prayer. When, in November, 1840, a sister gave
ten pounds for the orphans, and at a time specially oppor-
tune, Mr. Muller records his triumphant joy in God as ex-
ceeding and defying all expression. Yet he was free
from excitement and not in the least surprised, because by
grace he had been trustfully waiting on God for deliver-
ance. Help had been so long delayed that in one of the
houses there was no bread, and in none of them any milk
or any money to buy either. It was only a few minutes be-
fore the milkman's cart was due, that this money came.

However faithful and trustful in prayer, it betiooves us
to be none the less careful and diligent in the use of all
proper means. Here again Mr. Miiller's whole life is a
lesson to other believers. For example, when travelling in
other lands, or helping other brethren on their way, he be-
sought the Lord's constant guardianship over the convey-
ances used, and even over the luggage so liable to go astray.
But he himself looked carefully to the seaworthiness of the
vessel he was to sail in, and to every other condition of
safe and speedy transportation for himself and others. In
one case where certain German brethren and sisters were
departing for foreign shores, he noticed the manner in
which the cabman stored away the small luggage in the fly;

New Lessons in God's School of Prayer 173

and observed that several carpetbags were hastily thrust
into a hind boot. He also carefully counted the pieces
of luggage and took note of the fact that there were seven-
teen in all. On arriving at the w*harf, where there is gen-
erally much hurry and flurry, the dishonest cabman would
have driven off with a large part of the property belong-
ing to the party, but for this man of God who not only
prayed but watched. He who trusted God implicitly, no
less faithfully looked to the cabman's fidelity, who, after
he pretended to have delivered all the luggage to the por-
ters, was compelled to open that hind boot and, greatly
to his own confusion, deliver up the five or six bags hidden
away there. Mr. Miiller adds in his Narrative that " such
a circumstance should teach one to make the very small-
est affairs a subject of prayer, as, for instance, that all the
luggage migiht be safely taken out of a fly." May we not
add that such a circumstance teaches us that companion
lesson, quite as important in its way^ that we are to be
watchful as well as prayerful, and see that a dishonest cab-
driver does not run off with another's goods !

This praying saint, who watched man, most of all
watched God. Even in the lesser details of his work, his
eye was ever looking for God's unfailing supplies, and tak-
ing notice of the divine leadings and dealings; and, after-
ward, there always followed the fruit of the lips, giving
thanks to His name. Here is another secret revealed :
prayerfulness and thankfulness — those two handmaidens
of God — always go together, each helping the other.
"Pray without ceasing: in everything give thanks." (1
Thess. V. 17, 18.) These two precepts stand side by side
where they belong, and he who neglects one will find him-
self disobeying the other. This man who prayed so much
and so well, offered the sacrifice of praise to God continu-
allj.

174 George Miiller of Bristol

For example, on September 21, 1840, a specific entry
was made in the Narrative, so simple, childlike, and in
every way characteristic, that every word of it is precious.

" The Lord, to show His continued care over us, raises
up new helpers. They that trust in the Lord shall never
be confounded. Some who helped for a while may fall
asleep in Jesus ; others grow cold in the service of the
Lord; others be as desirous as ever to help, but no longer
able ; or, having means, feel it to be His will to lay them
out in another way. But in leaning upon God, the Living
God alone, we are beyond disappointment and beyond
being forsaken because of death, or want of means, or want
of love, or because of the claims of other worTc. How precious
to have learned, in any measure, to be content to stand
with God alone in the world, and to know that surely no
good thing shall be withheld from us, whilst we walk up-
rightly ! "

Among the gifts received during this long life of stew-
ardship for God some deserve indi ddual mention.

To an offering received in Marc i, 1839, a peculiar his-
tory attaches. The circumstances attending its reception
made upon him a deep impression. He had given a copy
of the Annual Eeport to a believing brother who had been
greatly stirred up to prayer by reading it ; and knowing
his own sister, who was also a disciple, to possess sundry
costly ornaments and jewels, such as a heavy gold chain,
a pair of gold bracelets, and a superb ring set with fine
brilliants, this brother besought the Lord so to show her
the uselessness of such trinkets that she should be led to
lay them all upon His altar as an offering for the orphan
work. This prayer was literally answered. Her sacrifice of
jewels proved of service to the work at a time of such
pressing need that Mr. Miiller's heart specially rejoiced in
God. By the proceeds of the sale of these ornaments he

New Lessons in God's School of Prayer 1 75

was helped to meet the expenses of a whole week, and besides
to pay the salaries due to the helpers. But, before dis-
posing of the diamond ring, he wrote with it upon the
window-pane of his own room that precious name and
title of the Lord — " Jehovah Jieeh " — and henceforth
whenever, in deep poverty, he east his eyes upon those two
words, imperishably written with the point of a diamond
upon that pane, he thankfully remembered that " the

LOED WILL PROVIDE."

How many of his fellow believers might find unfailing
refreshment and inspiration in dwelling upon the divine
promises ! Ancient believers were bidden to write God's
words on the palms of their hands, the doorposts of their
houses, and on their gates, so that the employments of
their hands, their goings out and comings in, their per-
sonal and home life, might be constant reminders of
Jehovah's everlasting faithfulness. He who inscribed this
chosen name of God upon the window-pane of his dwell-
ing, found that every ray of sunlight that shone into his
room lit up his Lord's promise.

He thus sums up the experiences of the year 1840 :

1. Notwithstanding multiplied trials of faith, the or-
phans have lacked nothing.

2. Instead of being disappointed in his expectations
or work, the reverse had been true, such trials being seen
to be needful to demonstrate that the Lord was their
Helper in times of need.

3. Such a way of living brings the Lord very near, as
one who daily inspects the need that He may send the
more timely aid.

4. Such constant, instant reliance upon divine help
does not so absorb the mind in temporal things as to unfit
for spiritual employments and enjoyments ; but rather

T76 George Muller of Bristol

prompts to habitual communion with the Lord and His
Word.

5. Other children of God may not be called to a simi-
lar work, but are called to a like faith, and may experience
similar interposition if they live according to His will and
seek His help.

6. The incurring of debt, being unscriptural, is a sin
needing confession and abandonment if we desire un-
hindered fellowship with God, and experience of His inter-
position.

It was in this year 1840, also, that a further object was
embraced in the work of the Scripture Knowledge Insti-
tution, namely, the circulation of Christian books and
tracts. But, as the continuance and enlargement of these
benevolent activities made the needs greater, so, in answer
to prayer, the Hand of the great Provider bestowed larger
supplies.

Divine interposition will never be doubted by one who,
like George Muller, gives himself to prayer, for the coin-
cidences will prove too exact and frequent between demand
and supply, times and seasons of asking and answering,
to allow of doubt that God has helped.

The * ethics of language ' embody many lessons. For
example, the term ' poetic retribution ' describes a visita-
tion of judgment where the penalty peculiarly befits the
crime. As poetic lines harmonize, rhyme and rhythm
showing the work of a designing hand, so there is often
harmony between an offense and its retribution, as when
Adonibezek, who had afflicted a like injury upon three-
score and five captive kings, had his own thumbs and
great toes cut off, or as when Haman was himself hung on
the gallows that he built for Mordecai. We read in Psalm
ix. 16:

New Lessons in God's School of Prayer 177

**The Lord is known by the judgment which He 6.;e-
cuteth :

The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands."
The inspired thought is that the punishment of evil-doers
is in such exact correspondence with the character of their
evil doings as to show that it is the Lord executing ven-
geance— the penalty shows a designing hand. He who
watches the peculiar retributive judgments of God, how
He causes those who set snares and pitfalls for others to
fall into them themselves, will not doubt that behind such
* poetic retribution ' there is an intelligent Judge.

Somewhat so th*'. poetic harmony between prayer and its
answer silences ail question as to a discriminating Hearer
of the suppliant soul. A single case of such answered
prayer might be accounted accidental ; but, ever since
men began to call upon the name of the Lord, there have
been such repeated, striking, and marvellous correspond-
ences between the requests of man and the replies of God,
that the inference is perfectly safe, the induction has too
broad a basis and too large a body of particulars to allow
mistake. The coincidences are both too many and too
exact to admit the doctrine of chance. We are compelled,
not to say justified, to conclude that the only sufficient
and reasonable explanation must be found in a God who
hears and answers prayer.

Mr. Miiller was not the only party to these transactions,
nor the only person thus convinced that God was in the
whole matter of the work and its support. The donors as
well as the receiver were conscious of divine leading.

Frequent were the instances also when those who gave
most timely help conveyed to Mr. Miiller the knowledge of
the experiences that accompanied or preceded rheir of-
ferings ; as, for example, when, without any intimation
being given them from man that there was special need,

178 George Muller of Bristol

the heart \ras impressed in praj^er to God that there was an
emergency requiring prompt assistance.

For example, in June, 1841, fifty pounds were received
with these words : " / am not concerned at my having been
prevented for so many days from sending this money; I am
confident it has not been needed."

" This last sentence is remarkable," says Mr. Miiller.
" It is now nearly three years since our funds were for the
first time exhausted, and only at this period, since then,
could it have been said in truth, so far as I remember, that
a donation of fifty pounds was not needed. From the be-
ginning in July, 1838, till now, there never had been a pe-
riod when we so abounded as when this donation came; for
there were then, in the orphan fund and the other funds,
between two and three hundred pounds ! The words of
our brother are so much the more remarkable as, on four
former occasions, when he likewise gave considerable
donations, we were always in need, yea, great need, which
he afterwards knew from the printed accounts."

Prevailing prayer is largely conditioned on constant
obedience. " "Whatsoever we ask we receive of Him, be-
cause we keep His commandments, and do those things
which are well pleasing in His sight." (1 John iii. 22.)
There is no way of keeping in close touch with God unless a
new step is taken in advance whenever new light is given.
Here is another of the life-secrets of George Miiller.
Without unduly counting the cost, he followed every lead-
ing of God.

In July, 1841, both Mr. Craik and Mr. Miiller were im-
pressed that the existing mode of recei^ang free-will offer-
ings from those among whom they laboured was inex-
pedient. These contributions were deposited in boxes, over
which their names were placed with an explanation of the
purpose to which such offerings were applied. But it was

New Lessons in God's School of Prayer 1 79

felt that this might have the appearance of unduly ele-
vating them above others, as though they were assuming
official importance, or excluding others from full and
equal recognition as labourers in word and doctrine. They
therefore decided to discontinue this mode of receiving
such offerings.

Such an act of obedience may seem to some, overscrupu-
lous, but it cost some inward struggles, for it threatened a
possible and probable decrease in supplies for their own
needs, and the question naturally arose how such lack
should be supplied. Happily Mr. Miiller had long ago
settled the question that to follow a clear sense of duty is
always safe. He could say, in every such crisis, " 0 God
my heart is fixed, my heart is fixed, trusting in Thee."
(Psalm exii. 7.) Once for all having made such a decision,
such apparent risks did not for a moment disturb his peace.
Somehow or other the Lord would provide, and all he had
to do was to serve and trust Him and leave the rest to
His Fatherhood.

In the autumn of 1841 it pleased God that, beyond any
previous period, there should be a severe test of faith.
For some months the supplies had been comparatively
abundant, but now, from day to day and from meal to
meal, the eye of faith had to be turned to the Lord, and,
notwithstanding continuance in prayer, help seemed at
times to fail, so much so that it was a special sign of God's
grace that, during this long trial of delay, the confidence
of Mr. Miiller and his helpers did not altogether give way.
But he and they were held up, and he unwaveringly rested
on the fatherly pity of God.

On one occasion a poor woman gave two pence, adding,
" It is but a trifle, but I must give it to you." Yet so oppor-
tune was the gift of these ' two mites ' that one of these
two pence was just what was at that time needed to make

i8o George Muller of Bristol

up the sum required to buy bread for immediate use. At
another time eight pence more being necessary to provide
for the next meal, but seveii pence were in hand ; but on
opening one of the boxes, one penny only was found de-
posited, and thus a single penny was traced to the Father's
care.

It was in December of this same year, 1841, that, in order
to show how solely dependence was placed on a heavenly
Provider, it was determined to delay for a while both the
holding of any public meeting and the printing of the
Annual Eeport. Mr. Miiller was confident that, though
no word sliould be either spoken or printed about the work
and its needs, the means would still be supplied. As a mat-
ter of fact the report of 1841-3 was thus postponed for five
months; and so, in the midst of deep poverty and partly he-
cause of the very pressure of such need, another bold step
was taken, which, like the cutting away of the ropes that
held the life-boat, in that Mediterranean shipwreck, threw
Mr. Miiller, and all that were with him in the work, more
completely on the promise and the providence of God.

It might be inferred that, where such a decision was
made, the Lord would make haste to reward at once such
courageous confidence. And yet, so mysterious are His
ways, that never, up to that time, had Mr. Miiller's faith
been tried so sharply as between December 12, 1841, an'd
April 12, 1842. During these four months, again, it
was as though God were saying, " I will now see whether
indeed you truly lean on Me and look to Me." At any time
during this trial, Mr. Miiller might have changed his
course, holding the public meeting and publishing the
report, for, outside the few who were in his councils,
no one "knew of the determination, and in fact many chil-
dren of God, looking for the usual year's journal of ' The
Lord's Dealings,' were surprised at the delay. But the

New Lessons in God's School of Prayer i8i

conclusion conscientiously reached was, for the glory of the
Lord, as steadfastly pursued, and again Jehovah Jireh
revealed His faithfulness.

During this four months, on March 9, 1842, the need
was so extreme that, had no help come, the work could not
have gone on. But, on that day, from a brother living
near Dublin, ten pounds came : and the hand of the Lord
clearly appeared in this gift, for when the post had already
come and no letter had come with it, there was a strong
confidence suggested to Mr. Miiller's mind that deliver-
ance was at hand; and so it proved, for presently the letter
was brought to him, having been delivered at one of the
other houses. During this same month, it was necessary
once to delay dinner for about a half-hour, because of a lack
of supplies. Such a postponement had scarcely ever been
known before, and very rarely was it repeated in the entire
after-history of the work, though thousands of mouths had
to be daily fed. ,

In the spring of 1843, Mr. Miiller felt led to open a
fourth orphan house, the third having been opened nearly
six years before. This step was taken with his uniform
conscientiousness, deliberation, and prayerfulness. He
had seen many reasons for such enlargement of the work,
but he had said nothing about the matter even to his be-
loved wife. Day by day he waited on God in prayer, pre-
ferring to take counsel only of Him, lest he might do
something in haste, move in advance of clear leading, or
be biassed unduly by human judgment.

Unexpected obstacles interfered with his securing the
premises which had already been offered and found suit-
able; but he was in no way ' discomforted.' The burden of
his prayer was, " Lord, if Thou hast no need of another
orphan house, I have none " ; and he rightly judged that
the calm deliberation with which he had set about the

1 82 George Mtiller of Bristol

whole matter, and the unbroken peace with which he met
new hindrances, were proofs that he was following the
guidance of God and not the motions of self-will.

As the public meeting and the publication of the An-
nual Report had becD purposely postponed to show that no
undue dependence was placed even on indirect appeals
to man, much special prayer went up to God, that, before
July 15, 1844, when the public meeting was to be held.
He would so richly supply all need that it might clearly
appear that, notwithstanding these lawful means of inform-
ing His servants concerning the work had for a time not
been used, the prayer of faith had drawn down help from
above. As the financial year had closed in May, it
would be more than tivo years since the previous report
had been made to the public.

George Miiller was Jealous for the Lord God of hosts.
He desired that " even the shadow of ground might be cut
off for persons to say, * They cannot get any more money ;
and therefore they now publish another report.' " Hence,
while, during the whole progress of the work, he desired
to stand with his Master, without heeding either the
favourable or unfavourable judgments of men, he felt
strongly that God would be much honoured and glorified
as the prayer-hearing God if, before the public had been
at all apprised of the situation, an ample supply might be
given. In such case, instead of appearing to ask aid of
men, he and his associates would be able to witness to the
church and the world, God's faithfulness, and offer Him
the praise of joyful and thankful hearts. As he had asked,
so was it done unto him. Money and other supplies came
in, and, on the day before the accounts were closed, such
liberal gifts, that there was a surplus of over twenty pounds
for the whole work.

CHAPTEE XIII

FOLLOWING THE PILLAR OF CLOUD AND FIRE

" The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord."
(Psalm xxxvii. 33.) Some one quaintly adds, " Yes, and
the stops, too ! " The pillar of cloud and fire is a symbol
of that divine leadership which guides both as to forward
steps and intervals of rest. Mr Miiller found it
blessed to follow, one step at a time, as God ordered his
way, and to stand still and wait when He seemed to call
for a halt.

At the end of May, 1843, a crisis was reached, which
was a new example of the experiences to which faith is
liable in the walk with God ; and a new illustration of
the duty and delight of depending upon Him in every-
thing and for everything, habitually waiting upon Him^
and trusting in Him to remove all hindrances in the way
of service.

Some eighteen months previously, a German lady from
Wiirtemberg had called to consult him as to her own plans,
and, finding her a comparative stranger to God, he spoke
to her about her spiritual state, and gave her the first two
parts of his Narrative. The perusal of these pages was
so blest to her that she was converted to God, and felt
moved to translate the Narrative into her own tongue as
a channel of similar blessing to other hearts.
183

1 84 George Muller of Bristol

This work of translation she partially accomplished,
though somewhat imperfectly ; and the whole occurrence
impressed Mr. Muller as an indication that God was once
more leading him in the direction of Germany, for another
Geason of labour in his native land. Much prayer deep-
ened his persuasion that he had not misread God's signal^
and that His time had now fully come. He records some
of the motives which led to this conclusion.

1. First, he yearned to encourage believing brethren
who for conscience' sake had felt constrained to separate
themselves from the state churches, and meet for worship
in such conditions as would more accord with New Testa-
ment principles, and secure greater edification.

2. Being a German himself, and therefore familiar with
their language, customs, and habits of thought, he saw
that he was fitted to wield a larger influence among his
fellow countrymen than otherwise.

3. He was minded to publish his Narrative in his own
tongue wherein he was born, not so much in the form of a
mere translation, as of an independent record of his life'^
experiences such as would be specially suited to its new
mission.

4. An effectual door was opened before him, and more
widely than ever, especially at Stuttgart; and although
there were many adversaries, tfhey only made his help the
more needful to those whose spiritual welfare was in peril.

5. A distinct burden was laid on his heart, as from the
Lord, which prayer, instead of relieving, increased — a bur-
den which he felt without being able to explain — so that
the determination to visit his native land gave him a cer-
tain peace which he did not have when he thought of re-
maining at home.

To avoid mistake, with equal care he records the counter-
arguments.

Following the Pillar of Cloud and Fire 185

1. The new orphan house, No. 4, was about to be opened,
and his presence was desirable if not needful.

2. A few hundred pounds were needed, to be left with
his helpers, for current expenses in his absence.

3. Money was also required for travelling expenses of
himself and his wife, whose health called for a change.

4. Funds would be needful to publish four thousand
copies of his Narrative and avoid too high a market-price.

5. A matron for the new orphan house was not yet
found, suitable for the position.

In this careful weighing of matters many sincere disciples
fail, prone to be impatient of delay in making decisions.
Impulse too often sways, and self-willed plans betray into
false and even disastrous mistakes. Life is too precious
to risk one such failure. There is given us a promise of
deep meaning :

" The meek will He guide in judgment ;
And the meek will He teach His way."

(Psalm XXV. 9.)

Here is a double emphasis upon meekness as a condition
of such guidance and teaching. Meekness is a real pref-
erence for God's will Where this holy habit of mind
exists, the whole being becomes so open to impression that,
vsdthout any outirard sign or token, there is an inivard
recognition and choice of the will of God. God guides,
not by a visible sign, but by swaying the judgment. To
wait before Him, weighing candidly in the scales every
consideration for or against a proposed course, and in
readiness to see which way the preponderance lies, is a
frame of mind and heart in which one is fitted to be
guided ; and God touches the scales and makes the bal-
ance to sway as He will. But our hands must le off the
scales, otherwise we need expect no ioterpogition of His,

1 86 George Muller of Bristol

in our favour. To return to the fi^re with which this
chapter starts, the meek soul simply and humbly waits,
and watches the moving of the Pillar.

One sure sign of this spirit of meekness is the entire rest-
fulness with which apparent obstacles to any proposed plan
or course are regarded. When waiting and wishing only
to know and do God's will, hindrances will give no anx-
iety, but a sort of pleasure, as affording a new opportunity
for divine interposition. If it is the Pillar of God we are
following, the Eed Sea will not dismay us, for it will fur-
nish but another scene for the display of the power of Him
who can make the waters to stand up as an heap, and to
become a wall about us as we go through the sea on dry
ground.

Mr. Muller had learned this rare lesson, and in this case
he says : " / had a secret satisfaction in the greatness of
the difficulties which were in the way. So far from being
cast down on account of them, they delighted my soul ;
for I only desired to do the wall of the Lord in this matter."

Here is revealed another secret of holy serving. To him
who sets the Lord always before him, and to whom the will
of God is his delight, there pertains a habit of soul which,
in advance settles a thousand difficult and perplexing
questions.

The case in hand is an illustration of the blessing found
in such meek preference for God's pleasure. If it were the
will of the Lord that this Continental tour should be
undertaken at that time, difficulties need not cast him
down ; for the difficulties could not he of God; and, if not
of God, they should give him no unrest, for, in answer to
prayer, they would all be removed. If, on the other hand,
this proposed visit to the Continent were not God's plan
at all, but only the fruit of self-will ; if some secret, self-
ish, and perhaps subtle motive were controlling, then in-

Following the Pillar of Cloud and Fire 187

deed hindrances might well be interferences of God, de-
signed to stay his steps. In the latter case, Mr. Miiller
rightly Judged that difficulties in the way would naturally
vex and annoy him ; that he would not like to look at
them, and would seek to remove them by his own efforts.
Instead of giving him an inward satisfaction as affording
God an opportunity to intervene in his behalf, they would
arouse impatience and vexation, as preventing self-will
from carrying out its own purposes.

Such discriminations have only to be stated to any
spiritual mind, to have their wisdom at once apparent.
Any believing child of God may safely gauge the measure
of his surrender to the will of God, in any matter, by the
measure of impatience he feels at the obstacles in the way ;
for, in proportion as self-will sways him, whatever seems
to oppose or hinder his plans will disturb or annoy ; and,
instead of quietly leaving all such hindrances and obstacles
to the Lord, to deal with them as He pleases, in His own
way and time, the wilful disciple will, impatiently and in
the energy of the flesh, set himself to remove them by his
own scheming and struggling, and he will brook no delay.

Whenever Satan acts as a hinderer (1 Thess. ii. 18) the
obstacles which he puts in our way need not dismay us ;
God permits them to delay or deter us for the time, only
as a test of our patience and faith, and the satanic
hinderer will be met by a divine Helper who will sweep
away all his obstacles, as with the breath of His mouth.

Mr. Miiller felt this, and he waited on God for light and
help. But, after forty days' waiting, the hindrances, in-
stead of decreasing, seemed rather to increase. Much more
money was spent than was sent in ; instead of finding
another suitable matron, a sister, already at work, was
probably about to withdraw, so that two vacancies would
need to be filled instead of one. Yet his rest and peace

1 88 George Muller of Bristol

of mind were unbroken. Being persuaded that he was
yielded up to the will of God, faith not only held him to
his purpose, but saw the obstacles already surmounted,
so that he gave thanks in advance. Because Caleb "' fol-
lowed the Lord fully," even the giant sons of Anak with
their walled cities and chariots of iron had for him no ter-
rors. Their defence was departed from them, but the Lord
was with His believing follower, and made him strong to
drive them out and take possession of their very strong-
hold as his own inheritance.

During this period of patient waiting, Mr. Muller
remarked to a believing sister : " Well, my soul is
at peace. The Lord's time is not yet come ; but, when
it is come, He will blow away all these obstacles,
as chaff is blown away before the wind." A quar-
ter of an hour later, a gift of seven hundred pounds
became available for the ends in view, so that three of the
five hindrances to this Continental tour were at once re-
moved. All travelling expenses for himself and wife, all
necessary funds for the home work for two months in
advance, and all costs of publishing the ISTarrative in Ger-
man, were now provided. This was on July 12th ; and
so soon afterward were the remaining impediments out of
the way that, by August 9th, Mr. and Mrs. Miiller were
off for Germany.

The trip covered but seven months : and on March 6,
1844, they were once more in Bristol. During this so-
journ abroad no journal was kept, but Mr. Miiller's letters
serve the purpose of a record. Eotterdam, Weinheim,
Cologne, Mayence, Stuttgart, Heidelberg, etc., were
visited, and Mr. Miiller distributed tracts and con-
versed with individuals by the way ; but his main
work was to expound the Word in little assem-
blies of believers, who had separated themselves from

Following the Pillar of Cloud and Fire 189

the state church on account of what they deemed errors
in teaching, practice, modes of worship, etc.

The first hour of his stay at Stuttgart brought to him one
of the sharpest trials of faith he had ever thus far experi-
enced. The nature of it he does not reveal in his Journal,
hut it now transpires that it was due to the recalling of the
seven hundred pounds, the gift of which had led to his
going to Germany. This fact could not at the time be
recorded because the party would feel it a reproach.
Nor was this the only test of faith during his sojourn
abroad ; in fact so many, so great, so varied, and so pro-
longed were some of these trials, as to call into full exer-
cise all the wisdom and grace which he had received from
God, and whatever lessons he had previously learned in
the school of experience became now of use. Yet not
only was his peace undisturbed, but he bears witness that
the conviction so rooted itself in his inmost being that in
all this God's goodness was being shown, that he would
have had nothing different. The greatest trials bore fruit
in the fullest blessings and sometimes in clusters of bless-
ings. It particularly moved him to adoring wonder and
praise to see God's wisdom in having delayed his visit until
the very time when it occurred. Had he gone any earlier
he would have gone too soon, lacking the full experience
necessary to confront the perplexities of his work. When
darkness seemed to obscure his way, faith kept him ex-
pectant of light, or at least of guidance in the darkness ;
and he found that promise to be literally fulfilled :

" As thou goest, step by step, the way shall open up be'
fore thee." (See the Hebrew, of Prov. iv. 12.)

At Stuttgart he found and felt, like Jude, that it was
" needful earnestly to contend for the faith once delivered
to the saints." Even among believers, errors had found
far too deep root. Especially was undue stress laid upon

IQO George Miiller of Bristol

haptism, which was made to occupy a prominence and im-
portance out of all due proportion of faith. One brother
had been teaching that, without it, there is no new birth,
and that, consequently, no one could, before baptism,
claim the forgiveness of sins; that the apostles were not
born from above until the day of Pentecost, and that
our Lord Himself had not been new-born until His own
baptism, and had thence, for the rest of His mortal life,
ceased to be under the law ! Many other fanciful no-
tions were found to prevail, such as that baptism is the
actual death of the old man by drowning, and that it
is a covenant with the believer into which God enters;
that it is a sin to break bread with unbaptized believers
or with members of the state church; and that the bread
and the cup used in the Lord's Supper not only mean
but are the very body and blood of the Lord, etc.

A more serious and dangerous doctrine which it was
needful to confront and confute was what Mr. Miiller calls
that " awful error," spread almost universally among be-
lievers in that land, that at last "all will be saved," not
sinful men only, but " even the devils themselves."

Calmly and courteously, but firmly and courageously,
these and kindred errors were met with the plain witness
of the Word. Eefutation of false teaching aroused a
spirit of bitterness in opposers of the truth, and, as is too
often the case, faithful testimony was the occasion of acri-
mony; but the Lord stood by His servant and so strength-
ened him that he was kept both faithful and peaceful.

One grave practical lack which Mr. Miiller sought to
remedy was ignorance of those deeper truths of the Word,
\which relate to the power and presence of the Holy Spirit
of God in the church, and to the ministry of saints, one
to another, as fellow members in the body of Christ, and
as those to whom that same Spirit divides severally, as

Following the Pillar of Cloud and Fire 191

He will, spiritual gifts for service. As a natural result
of being untaug'ht in these important practical matters,
believers' meetings had proved rather opportunities for
unprofitable talk than godly edifying which is in faith.
The only hope of meeting such errors and supplying such
lack lay in faithful scripture teaching, and he undertook
for a time to act as the sole teacher in these gatherings,
that the word of God might have free course and be glori-
fied. Afterward, when there seemed to be among the
brethren some proper apprehension of vital spiritual
truths, with his usual consistency and humility he re-
sumed his place as simply a brother among fellow be-
lievers, all of whom had liberty to teach as the Spirit
might lead and guide. There was, however, no shrinking
from any duty or responsibility laid upon him by larger,
clearer acquaintance with truth, or more complete experi-
ence of its power. When called by the voice of his
brethren to expound the Word in public assemblies, he
gladly embraced all opportunities for further instruction
out of Holy Scripture and of witness to God. With strong
emphasis he dwelt upon the presiding presence of the
Blessed Spirit in all assemblies of saints, and upon the
duty and privilege of leaving the whole conduct of such
assemblies to His divine ordering; and in perfect accord
with such teaching he showed that the Holy Spirit, if
left free to administer all things, would lead such brethren
to speak, at such times and on such themes as He might
please; and that, whenever their desires and preferences
were spiritual and not carnal, such choice of the Spirit
would always be in harmony with their own.

These views of the Spirit's administration in the as-
semblies of believers, and of His manifestation in all be-
lievers for common profit, fully accord with scripture
teaching. (1 Cor. xii., Romans xii., Ephes. iv., etc.)

192 George Miiller of Bristol

Were such views practically held in the church of this
day, a radical revolution would be wrought and a revival
of apostolic faith and primitive church life would in-
evitably follow. No one subject is perhaps more mis-
understood, or less understood, even among professed be-
lievers, than the person, offices, and functions of the
Spirit of God. John Owen, long since, suggested that
the practical test of soundness in the faith, during the
present gospel age, is the attitude of the church toward the
Holy Spirit. If so, the great apostasy cannot be far oS.,
if indeed it is not already upon us, for there is a shame-
ful ignorance and indifference prevalent, as to the whole
matter of His claim to holy reverence and obedience.

In connection with this visit to Germany, a curious mis-
apprehension existed, to which a religious periodical 'had
given currency, that Mr. Miiller was deputed by the Eng-
lish Baptists to labour among German Baptists to bring
them back to the state church. This rumour was of
course utterly unfounded, but he had no chance to cor-
rect it until just before his return to Britain, as he had
not until then heard of it. The Lord had allowed this
false report to spread and had used it to serve His own
ends, for it was due in part to this wrong impression of
Mr. Miiller's mission that he was not molested or inter-
fered with by the officers of the government. Though for
months openly and undisguisedly teaching vital gospel
truths among believers who had separated from the es-
tablished church, he had suffered no restraint, for, so long
as it was thought that his mission in Germany was to re-
claim to the fold of the state churc^h those who had wan-
dered away, he would of course be liable to no interference
from state officials.

The Lord went before His servant also in preparing
the way for the publishing of his Narrative, guiding him

Following the Pillar of Cloud and Fire 193

to a bookseller who undertook its sale on commission, en-
abling the author to retain two thousand copies to give
away, while the rest were left to be sold.

Mr. Miiller, about this time, makes special mention of
his joy and comfort in the spiritual blessing attending
his work, and the present and visible good, wrought
through the publication of his Narrative. Many believers
had been led to put more faith in the promises of the
great Provider, and unbelievers had been converted by
their perusal of the simple story of the Lord's dealings;
and these tidings came from every quarter where the Nar-
rative had as yet found its way.

The name of Henry Craik, hitherto afl&xed to every
report together with George Miiller's, appears for the last
time in the Report of 1844. This withdrawal of his name
resulted, not from any division of feeling or diminution
of sympathy, but solely from Mr. Craik's conviction that
the honour of being used of God as His instrument in
forwarding the great work of the Scriptural Knowledge
Institution belonged solely to George ]\Iuller.

The trials of faith ceased not although the occasions
of praise were so multiplied. On September 4, 1844, at
day-dawn, but one farthing was left on hand, and one
hundred and forty mouths were to be fed at breakfast !

The lack of money and such supplies was, however, only
one form of these tests of faith and incentives to prayer.
Indeed he accounted these the lightest of his burdenSi
for there were other cares and anxieties that called fol
greater exercise of faith resolutely to cast them on Him
who, in exchange for solicitude, gives His own perfect
peace. TVTiat these trials were, any thoughtful mind must
at once see who remembers how these many orphans were
needing, not only daily supplies of food and clothing, but
education, in mind and in morals; preparation for, and

194 George M tiller of Bristol

location in, suitable homes; careful guards about their
health and every possible precaution and provision to pre-
vent disease; also the character of all helpers must be
carefully investigated before they were admitted, and
their conduct carefully watched afterward lest any un-
worthy or unqualified party should find a place, or be re-
tained, in the conduct of the work.

These and other matters, too many to be individually
mentioned, had to be borne daily to the great Helper,
without whose Everlasting Arms they could not have been
carried. And Mr. Miiller seeks constantly to impress on
all who read his pages or heard his voice, the perfect
trustworthiness of God. For any and all needs of the
work help was always given, and it never once came too late.
However poor, and however long the suppliant believer
waits on God, he never fails to get help, if he trusts the
promises and is in the path of duty. Even the delay in
answered prayer serves a purpose. God permits us to call
on Him while He answers not a word, both to test our
faith and importunity, and to encourage others who hear
of His dealings with us.

And so it was that, whether there were on hand much
or little, by God's grace the founder of these institutions
remained untroubled, confident that deliverance would
surely come in the best way and time, not only with
reference to temporal wants, but in all things needful.

During the history of the Institution thus far, enlarge-
ment had been its law. Mr. Miiller's heart grew in capacity
for larger service, and his faith in capacity for firmer con-
fidence, so that while he was led to attempt greater things
for God, he was led also to expect greater things from God.
Those suggestive words of Christ to Nathanael have often
prompted like larger expectations: " Believest thou ?
thou shalt see greater things than these." (John i. 50.)

Following the Pillar of Cloud and Fire 195

In the year 1846, the wants of the mission field took far
deeper hold of him than ever before. He had already
been giving aid to brethren abroad, in British Guiana and
elsewhere, as well as in fields nearer at home. But he
felt a strong yearning to be used of God more largely in
sending to their fields and supporting in their labours, the
chosen servants of the Lord who were working on a scrip-
tural basis and were in need of help. He had observed that
whenever God had put into his heart to devise liberal
things, He had put into his hand the means to carry out
such liberal purposes; and from this time forth he deter-
mined, as far as God should enable him, to aid brethren of
good report, labouring in word and doctrine, throughout
the United Kingdom, who were faithful witnesses to God
and were receiving no regular salary. The special object
he had in view was to give a helping hand to such as for
the sake of conscience and of Christ had relinquished
former stipends or worldly emoluments.

Whatever enlargement took place in the work, however,
it was no sign of surplus funds. Every department of
service or new call of duty had separate and prayerful
consideration. Advance steps were taken only when and
where and so fast as the Pillar moved, and fresh work
was often undertaken at a time when there was a lack
rather than an abundance of money.

Some who heard of Mr. Miiller's absence in Germany
inferred plenty of funds on hand — a conclusion that was
neither true nor legitimate. At times when poverty was
most pressing, additional expenditure was not avoided nor
new responsibility evaded if, after much prayer, the Lord
seemed plainly leading in that direction. And it was
beautiful to see how He did not permit any existing work
to be embarrassed because at His bidding new work was
undertaken.

196 George Mtiller of Bristol

One great law for all who would be truly led by God's
Pillar of cloud and fire^, is to take no step at the bidding
of self-will or without the clear moving of the heavenly
Guide. Though the direction be new and the way seem be-
set with difficulty, there is never any risk, provided we are
only led of God. Each new advance needs separate and
special authority from Him, and yesterday's guidance is
not sufficient for to-day.

It is important also to observe that, if one branch of the
work is in straits, it is not necessarily a reason for aban-
doning another form of service. The work of God de-
pends on Him alone. If the whole tree is His planting,
we need not cut off one limb to save another. The whole
body is His, and, if one member is weak, it is not neces-
sary to cut off another to make it strong, for the strength
of the whole body is the dependence of every part. In
our many-branching service each must get vitality and
vigour from the same source in God. Nevertheless let us
not forget that the stops, as well as the steps, of a good
man are ordered of the Lord. If the work is His work, let
Him control it, and, whether we expand or contract, let
it be at His bidding, and a matter of equal satisfaction to
His servant.

CHAPTER XIV

god's building: the new orphan houses

How complex are the movements of God's providence'?
Some events are themselves eventful. Like the wheels
in Ezekiel's vision — a wheel in the middle of a wheel, —
they involve other issues within their mysterious mechan-
ism, and constitute epochs of history. Such an epochal
event was the building of the first of the New Orphan
Houses on Ashley Down.

After October, 1845, it became clear to Mr. Mliller that
the Lord was leading in this direction. Eesidents on
Wilson Street had raised objections to the noise made by
the children, especially in play hours; the playgrounds
were no longer large enough for so many orphans; the
drainage was not adequate, nor was the situation of the
rented houses favourable, for proper sanitary conditions;
it was also desirable to secure ground for cultivation, and
thus supply outdoor work for the boys, etc. Such were
some of the reasons which seemed to demand the building
of a new orphan house ; and the conviction steadily
gained ground that the highest well-being of all concerned
would be largely promoted if a suitable site could be found
on which to erect a building adapted to the purpose.

There were objections to building which were carefully
weighed: money in large sums would be needed; planning
and constructing would severely tax time and strength;

198 George Miiller of Bristol

wisdom and oversight would be in demand at every stage
of the work; and the question arose whether such per-
manent structures befit God's pilgrim people, who have
here no continuing city and believe that the end of all
things is at hand.

Continuance in prayer, however, brought a sense of
quiet and restful conviction that all objections were over-
balanced by other and favourable considerations. One
argument seemed particularly weighty: Should God pro-
vide large amounts of money for this purpose, it would still
further illustrate the power of prayer, offered in faith,
to command help from on high. A lot of ground, spa-
cious enough, would, at the outset, cost thousands of
pounds; but why should this daunt a true child of God
whose Father was infinitely rich ? Mr. Miiller and his
helpers sought day by day to be guided of God, and, as
faith fed on this daily bread of contact with Him, the
assurance grew strong that help would come. Shortly
Mr. Miiller was as sure of this as though the building
already stood before his eyes, though for five weeks not one
penny had been sent in for this purpose. Meanwhile
there went on that searching scrutiny of his own heart
by which he sought to know whether any hidden motive
of a selfish sort was swaying his will; but as strict self-
examination brought to light no conscious purpose but to
glorify God, in promoting the good of the orphans, and
provoking to larger trust in God all who witnessed the
work, it was Judged to be God's will that he should go
forward.

In November of this year, he was much encouraged
by a visit from a believing brother * who bade him go
on in the work, but wisely impressed on him the need

■* Robert C. Chapman, of Barnstaple, yet living — and whom Mr
Miiller cherished as his "oldest friend."

God's Building: the New Orphan Houses 199

of asking for wisdom from above, at every step, seek-
ing God's help in showing him the plan for the building,
that all details might accord with the divine mind. On
the thirty-sixth day after specific prayer had first been
offered about this new house, on December 10, 1845, Mr.
Miiller received one thousand pounds for this purpose, the
largest sum yet received in one donation since the work
had begun, March 5, 1834. Yet he was as calm and com-
posed as though the gift had been only a shilling; having
full faith in God, as both guiding and providing, he
records that he would not have been surprised had the
amount been five or ten times greater.

Three days later, a Christian architect in London vol-
untarily offered not only to draught the plans, but gra-
tuitously to superintend the building ! This offer had
been brought about in a manner so strange as to be natu-
rally regarded as a new sign and proof of God's approval
and a fresh pledge of His sure help. Mr. Miiller's sister-
in-law, visiting the metropolis, had met this architect;
and, finding him much interested to know more of the
work of which he had read in the narrative, she had told
him of the pui-pose to build; whereupon, without either
solicitation or expectation on her part, this cheerful offer
was made. Not only was this architect not urged by her,
but he pressed his proposal, himself, urged on by his
deep interest in the orphan work. Thus, within forty
days, the first thousand pounds had been given in answer
to prayer, and a pious man, as yet unseen and unknown
by Mr. Miiller, had been led to offer his services in pro-
viding plans for the new building and superintending its
erection. Surely God was moving before His servant.

For a man, personally penniless, to attempt to erect
such a house, on such a scale, without appeal to man and
in sole dependence on God was no small venture of faith.

200 George Miiller of Bristol

The full risk involved in such an undertaking, and the
full force of the testimony which it has since afforded to
a prayer-hearing God, can be felt only as the full weight
of the responsibility is appreciated and all the circum-
stances are duly considered.

First of all, ground must be bought, and it must com-
prise six or seven acres, and the site must be in or near
Bristol; for Mr. Miiller's general sphere of work was in
the city, the orphans and their helpers should be within
reasonable reach of their customary meeting-place, and on
many other accounts such nearness to the city was de-
sirable. But such a site would cost from two thousand
to three thousand pounds.

Next the building must be constructed, fitted up, and
furnished, with accommodations for three hundred or-
phans and their overseers, teachers, and various helpers.
However plain the building and its furnishings, the total
cost would reach from three to four times the price of the
site.

Then, the annual cost of keeping such house open and
of maintaining such a large body of inmates would be
four or five thousand pounds more.

Here, then, was a prospective outlay of somewhere be-
tween ten thousand and fifteen thousand pounds, for site
and building, with a further expense of one third as much
more every year. No man so poor as George Miiller, if at the
same time sane, would ever have tJiought of such a gigantic
scheme, much less have undertaken to work it out, if his
faith and hope were not fixed on God. Mr. Miiller him-
self confesses that here lay his whole secret. He was
not driven onward by any self-seeking, but drawn onward
by a conviction that he was doing the will of God. When
Constantine was laying out on a vast scale the new capital
on the Bosphorus, he met the misgivings of those about

God's Building : the New Orphan Houses 201

him who wondered at his audacity, by simply saying, '' I
am following One who is leading me." George Miiller's
scheme was not self-originated. He followed One who was
leading h'im; and, because confident and conscious of such
guidance, he had only to follow, trust, and wait.

In proportion as the undertaking was great, he desired
God's hand to be very clearly seen. Hence he forbore
even to seem prominent: he issued no circular, announc-
ing his purpose, and spoke of it only to the few who were
in his councils, and even then only as conversation led
in that direction. He remembered the promise, " I will
guide thee with Mine eye," and looking up to God, he
took no step unless the divine glance or beck made duty
" clear as daylight." As he saw the matter, his whole
business was to wait on God in prayer with faith and
patience.

The assurance became doubly sure that God would huild
for Himself a large orphan house near Bristol, to show
to all, near and far, what a blessed privilege it is to trust
in Him. He desired God Himself so manifestly to act
as that he should be seen by all men to be nothing but His
instrument, passive in His hands. Meanwhile he went
on with his daily search into the Word, where he found
instruction so rich, and encouragement so timely, that
the Scriptures seemed written for his special use — to con^
vey messages to him from above. For example, in the
opening of the Book of Ezra, he saw how God, when Hl<
time had fully come for the return of His exiled peoph
to their own land and for the rebuilding of His Temple-
used Cyrus, an idolatrous king, to issue an edict, and to
provide means for carnnng out His own unknown purpose.
He saw also how God stirred up the people to help the
returning exiles in their work; and he said to himself,
this same God can and will, in His own way, supply the

202 George Miiller of Bristol

money and all the needed help of man, stirring up the
hearts of His own children to aid as He may please.

The first donations toward the work themselves embody
a suggestive lesson. On December 10th, one thousand
pounds had been given in one sum; twenty days later,
fifty pounds more; and the next day, three and sixpence,
followed, the same evening, by a second gift of a thousand
pounds. Shortly after, a little bag, made of foreign seeds,
and a flower wrought of shells, were sent to be sold for
the fund; and, in connection with these last gifts, of very
little inherent value, a promise was quoted, which had been
prominently before the giver's mind, and which brought
more encouragement to Mr. Miiller than any mere sum of
money:

" Who art thou, 0 great mountain ?
Before Zerubbabel, thou shalt become a plain ! "

(Zech. iv. 7.)

Gifts, however large, were never estimated by intrinsic
worth, but as tokens of God's working in the minds of
His people, and of His gracious working with and through
His servant; and, for this reason, a thousand pounds
caused no more sincere praise to God and no more excite-
ment of mind than the fourpence given subsequently by
a poor orphan.

Specially asking the Lord to go before him, Mr. Miiller
now began to seek a suitable site. About four weeks
passed in seemingly fruitless search, when he was strongly
impressed that very soon the Lord would give the ground,
and he so told his helpers on the evening of Saturday,
January 31, 1846. Within two days, his mind was drawn
to Ashley Down, where he found lots singularly suited for
his needs. Shortly after, he called twice on the owner,
once at his house and again at his office; but on both oc-

God's Building : the New Orphan Houses 203

casions failing to find him, he only left a message. He
judged that God's hand was to be seen even in his not
finding the man he sought, and that, having twice failed
the same day, he was not to push the matter as though
self-willed, but patiently wait till the morrow. When he
did find the owner, his patience was unexpectedly re-
warded. He confessed that he had spent two wakeful
hours in bed, thinking about his land, and about what
reply he should make to Mr. Miiller's inquiry as to its
sale for an orphan house; and that he had determined,
if it were applied for, to ask but one hundred and twenty
pounds an acre, instead of two hundred, his previous
price.

The bargain was promptly completed; and thus the
Lord's servant, by not being in a hurry, saved, in the
purchase of the site of seven acres, five hundred and sixty
pounds ! Mr. Miiller had asked the Lord to go before
him, and He had done so in a sense he had not thought
of, first speaking about the matter to the owner, holding
his eyes waking till He had made clear to him, as His
servant and steward, what He would have him do in the
sale of that property.*

Six days after, came the formal offer from the London
architect of his services in surveying, in draughting plans,
elevations, sections, and specifications, and in overseeing
the work of construction; and a week later he came to
Bristol, saw the site, and pronounced it in all respects well
fitted for its purpose.

Up to June 4, 1846, the total sum in hand for the build-
ing was a little more than twenty-seven hundred pounds,
a small part only of the sum needful; but Mr. Miiller
felt no doubt that in God's own time all that was required
would be given. Two hundred and twelve days he had
* Appendix G.

204 George 1VI tiller of Bristol

been waiting on God for the way to be opened for build-
ing, and he resolved to wait still further until the wJiole
sum was in hand, using for the purpose only such gifts as
were specified or left free for that end. He also wisely
decided that others must henceforth share the burden,
and that he would look out ten brethren of honest report,
full of the Holy Ghost and of wisdom, to act as trustees
to hold and administer this property in God's name. He
felt that, as this work was now so enlarging, and the
foundations of a permanent Institution were to be laid,
the Christian public, who would aid in its erection and
support, would be entitled to a representation in its con-
duct. At such a point as this many others have made a
serious mistake, forfeiting confidence by administering
public benefactions in a private manner and an autocratic
spirit — their own head being the office, and their own
pocket the treasury, of a public and benevolent institu-
tion.

Satan again acted as a hinderer. After the ground
for the new orphan house had been found, bought and
paid for, unforeseen obstacles prevented prompt posses-
sion; but Mr. Miiller's peace was not disturbed, knowing
even hindrances to be under God's control. If the Lord
should allow one piece of land to be taken from him, it
would only be because He was about to give him one still
better; and so the delay only proved his faith and per-
fected his patience.

On July 6th, two thousand pounds were given — twice as
large a gift as had yet come in one donation; and, on
January 25, 1847, another like offering, so that, on July
5th following, the work of building began. Six months
later, after four hundred days of waiting upon God for
this new orphan house, nine thousand pounds had been
given in answer to believing prayer,

God's Building : the New Orphan Houses 205

As the new building approached completion, with its
three hundred large windows, and requiring full prepara-
tion for the accommodation of about three hundred and
thirty inmates, although above eleven thousand pounds
had been provided, several thousand more were necessary.
But Mr. Miiller was not only helped, but far beyond his
largest expectations. Up to May 26, 1848, these latter needs
existed, and, had but one serious difficulty remained un-
removed, the result must have been failure. But all the
necessary money was obtained, and even more, and all
the helpers were provided for the oversight of the orphans.

On June 18, 1849, more than twelve years after the be-
ginning of the work, the orphans began to be transferred
from the four rented houses on Wilson Street to the
new orphan house on Ashley Down. Five weeks passed
before fresh applicants were received, that everything
about the new institution might first be brought into
complete order by some experience in its conduct.
By May 26, 1850, however, there were in the house two
hundred and seventy-five children, and the whole number
of inmates was three hundred and eight.

The name — " The New Orphan House/' rather than
" Asylum " — was chosen to distinguish it from another
institution, near by ; and particularl}'' was it requested
that it might never be known as "Mr. Midler's Orphan
House," lest undue prominence be given to one who had
been merely God's instrument in its erection. He es-
teemed it a sin to appropriate even indirectly, or allow
others to attribute to him, any part of the glory which
belonged solely to Him who had led in the work, given
faith and means for it, and helped in it from first to last.

The property was placed in the hands of eleven trustees,
chosen by Mr. Miiller, and the deeds were enrolled in
chancery. Arrangements were made that the house

2o6 George Miiller of Bristol

should be open to visitors only on Wednesday afternoons,
as about one hour and a half were necessary to see the
whole building.

Scarcely were the orphans thus housed on As'hley
Down, before Mr. Miiller's heart felt enlarged desire that
one thousand, instead of three hundred, might enjoy such
privileges of temporal provision and spiritual instruction ;
and, before the new year, 1851, had dawned, this yearning
had matured into a purpose. With his uniform careful-
ness and prayerfulness, he sought to be assured that he was
not following self-will, but the will of God; and again in
the scales of a pious judgment the reasons for and against
were conscientiously weighed. Would he be going ' be-
yond his measure,' spiritually, or naturally ? Was not the
work, with its vast correspondence and responsibility,
already sufficiently great ? Would not a new orphan house
for three hundred orphans cost another fifteen thousand
pounds, or, if built for seven hundred, with the necessary
ground, thirty-five thousand ? And, even when built and
fitted and filled, would there not be the providing for
daily wants, which is a perpetual care, and cannot be paid
for at once like a site and a building ? It would demand
eight thousand pounds annual outlay to provide for an-
other seven hundred little ones. To all objections the
one all-sufficient answer was the all-sufficient God ; and,
because Mr. Miiller's eye was on His power, wisdom, and
riches, his own weakness, folly, and poverty were forgotten.

Another objection was suggested : What if he should
succeed in thus housing and feeding a thousand poor waifs,
what would become of the institution after his death ? The
reply is memorable : " My business is, with all my might,
to serve my own generation by the will of God: in so doing
I shall best serve the next generation, should the Lord
Jesus tarry." Were such objection valid, it were as valid

God's Building : the New Orphan Houses 207

against beginning any work likely to outlive the worker.
And Mr. Miiller remembered how Francke at Halle had
to meet the same objection when, now over two hundred
years ago, he founded the largest charitable establishment
which, up to 1851, existed in the world. But when, after
about thirty years of personal superintendence, Francke
was taken away, his son-in-law, as we have seen, became
the director. That fellow countryraan who had spoken to
Mr. Miiller's soul in 1826, thus twenty-five years later en-
couraged him to go forward, to do his own duty and leave
the future to the Eternal God.

Several reasons are recorded by Mr. Miiller as specially
influencing still further advance : the many applications
that could not, for want of room, be accepted ; the low
moral state of the poorhouses to which these children of
poverty were liable to be sent ; the large number of dis-
tressing cases of orphanhood, known to be deserving of
help ; the previous experiences of the Lord's gracious
leading and of the work itself ; his calmness in view of the
proposed expansion; and the spiritual blessing possible to a
larger number of homeless children. But one reason
overtopped all others : an enlarged service to man, at-
tempted and achieved solely in dependence upon God,
would afford a correspondingly weightier witness to the
Hearer of prayer. These reasons, here recorded, will need
no repetition in connection with subsequent expansions of
the work, for, at every new stage of advance, they were
what influenced this servant of God.

On January 4, 1851, another offering was received, of
three thousand pounds — the largest single donation up to
that date — which, being left entirely to his own dis-
posal, encouraged him to go forward.

Again, he kept his own counsel. Up to January 25th,
he had not mentioned, even to his own wife, his thought

2o8 George Miiller of Bristol

of a further forward movement, feeling that, to avoid all
mistakes, he must first of all get clear lig'ht from God, and
not darken it by misleading human counsel. Not until
the Twelfth Eeport of the Scriptural Knowledge Insti-
tution was issued, was the public apprised of Ms purpose,
with God's help to provide for seven hundred more needy
orphans.

Up to October 2, 1851, only about eleven hundred
pounds had been given directly toward the second pro-
posed orphan house, and, up to May 26th following, a total
of some thirty-five hundred pounds. But George Miiller
remembered one who, " after he had patiently endured,
obtained the promise." He had waited over two years be-
fore all means needful for the first house had been supplied,
and could wait still longer, if so God willed it, for the
answers to present prayers for means to build a second.

After waiting upwards of nineteen months for the
building fund for the second house, and receiving, almost
daily, something in answer to prayer, on January 4, 1853,
he had intimation that there were about to be paid him, as
the joint donation of several Christians, eighty-one hundred
pounds, of which he appropriated six thousand for the
building fund. Again he was not surprised nor excited,
though exceeding joyful and triumphant in God. Just
two years previous, when recording the largest donation
yet received, — three thousand pounds, — he had recorded
also his expectation of still greater things ; and now a do-
nation between two and three times as large was about to
come into his hands. It was not the amount of money,
however, that gave him his overflowing delight, but the
fact that not in vain had he made his boast in God.

As now some four hundred and eighty-three orphans
were waiting for admission, he was moved to pray that
Boon the way might be opened for the new building to

God's Building : the New Orphan Houses 209

be begun. James i. 4 was deeply impressed upon him
as the injunction now to be kept before him ; " But let
patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect
and entire, wanting nothing."

On May 26, 1853, the total sum available for the new
building was about twelve thousand five hundred pounds,
and over five hundred orphans had applied. Twice this sum
would be needed, however, before the new house could be
begun without risk of debt.

On January 8, 1855, several Christian friends united in
the promise that fifty-seven hundred pounds should be
paid to him for the work of God, and of this, thirty-four
hundred was by him set apart for the building fund. As
there were now between seven hundred and eight hundred
applicants, it seemed of God that, at least, a site should
be secured for another new orphan house; and a few weeks
later Mr. Miiller applied for the purchase of two fields
adjoining the site of the first house. As they could not,
however, be sold at that time, the only resource was to be-
lieve that the Lord had other purposes, or would give
better ground than that on which His servant had set his
mind.

Further thought and prayer suggested to him that two
houses could be built instead of one, and located on each
side of the existing building, upon the ground already
owned. Accordingly it was determined to begin, on the
south side, the erection of a house to accommodate four
hundred orphans, there being money in the bank, or soon
to be available, sufficient to build, fit up, and furnish it.

On May 26, 1856, nearly thirty thousand pounds were
in hand for the new Orphan House No. 2; and on Novem-
ber 12, 1857, this house was opened for four hundred
additional orphans, and there was a balance of nearly
twenty-three hundred pounds. The God who provided

?io George Mtiller of Bristol

the building furnished the helpers, without eitheT
difficulty or advertising.

With the beginning of the new year, Mr. Miiller began
to lay aside six hundred pounds as the first of the appro-
priations for the third orphan house, and the steps which
led to the accomplishment of this work, also, were identi-
cal with those taken hitherto. A purchase was made of
additional ground, adjoining the two buildings ; and, as
there were so many applicants and the cost of providing
for a larger number would be but little more, it was deter-
mined to build so as to receive four hundred and fifty
instead of three hundred, rejoicing that, in every en-
largement of the work, it would be more apparent how
much one poor man, simply trusting in God, can bring
about by prayer ; and that thus other children of God
might be led to carry on the work of God in dependence
solely on Him, and generally to trust Him more in all
circumstances and positions.

Orphan House No. 3 was opened March 12, 1862, and
with over ten thousand pounds in hand for current ex-
penses. All the helpers needed had not then been sup-
plied, but this delay was only a new incentive to believing
prayer : and, instead of once, thrice, a day, God was be-
sought to provide suitable persons. One after another
was thus added, and in no case too late, so that the recep-
tion of children was not hindered nor was the work em-
barrassed.

Still further enlargement seemed needful, for the
same reasons as previously. There was an increasing de-
mand for accommodation of new applicants, and past
experience of God's wondrous dealings urged him both to
attempt and to expect greater things. Orphan Houses
Nos. 4 and 5 began to loom up above his horizon of faith.
By May 26, 1862, he had over sixty-six hundred pounds to

God's Building: the New Orphan Houses 211

apply on their erection. In Xoveraber. 1S64, a large dona-
tion of five thousand pounds was received from a donor
■who would let neither his name nor residence be known,
and by this time about twenty-seven thousand pounds
had thus accumulated toward the fifty thousand required.

As more than half the requisite sum was thtis in hand,
the purchase of a site might safely be made and the
foundations for the buildings be laid. Mr. MUller's eyes
had, for years, been upon land adjoining the three houses
already bidlt, separated from them only by the turnpike
road. He called to see the agent, and found that the
property was subject to a lease that had yet two years to
run. This obstacle only incited to new prayer, but diffi-
culties seemed to increase : the price asked was too high,
and the Bristol Water-works Company was negotiating for
this same piece of land for reservoir purposes. Neverthe-
less God successively removed all hindrances, so that the
ground was bought and conveyed to the trustees in March,
1865 ; and, after the purchase-money was paid, about
Ivventy-five thousand pounds yet remained for the struc-
tures. Both the cost and the inconvenience of building
would be greatly lessened by erecting both houses at the
same time ; and God was therefore asked for ample means
speedily to complete the whole work.

In May, 1866, over thirty-four thousand pounds being
at Mr. Miiller's disposal, Xo. -i was commenced ; and in
January following, Xo. 5 also. Up to the end of March,

1867, over fifty thousand pounds had been supplied, leav-
ing but six thousand more needful to fit and furnish the
two buildings for occupancy. By the opening of February,

1868, fifty-eight thousand pounds in all had been donated;
so that, on Xovember 5, 1868, new Orphan House Xo. 4,
and on January 6, 18T0, Xo. 5, were thrown open, a bal-
ance of several thousand pounds remaining for general

212 George Miiller of Bristol

purposes. Thus, early in 1870, the orphan work had
reached its complete outfit, in five large buildings on Ash-
ley Down with accommodations for two thousand orphans
and for all needed teachers and assistants.

Thus have been gathered, into one chapter, the tacts
about the erection of this great monument to a prayer-
hearing God on Ashley Down, though the work of build-
ing covered so many years. Between the first decision to
build, in 1845, and the opening of the third house, in 1862,
nearly seventeen years had elapsed, and before No. 5 was
opened, in 1870, twenty-five years. The work was one in its
plan and purpose. At each new stage it supplies only a
wider application and illustration of the same laws of life
and principles of conduct, as, from the outset of the work in
Bristol, had with growing power controlled George Miiller.
His one supreme aim was the glory of God ; his one sole
resort, believing prayer; his one trusted oracle, the inspired
Word ; and his one divine Teacher, the Holy Spirit. One
step taken in faith and prayer had prepared for another ;
one act of trust had made him bolder to venture upon
another, implying a greater apparent risk and therefore
demanding more implicit trust. But answered prayer was
rewarded faith, and every new risk only showed that there
was no risk in confidently leaning upon the truth and
faithfulness of God.

One cannot but be impressed, in visiting the orphan
houses, with several prominent features, and first of all
their magnitude. They are very spacious, with about
seventeen hundred large windows, and accommodations
for over two thousand inmates. They are also very sub-
stantial, beinsf built of stone and made to last. They are
scrupulously plain; utility rather than beauty seems con-
spicuously stamped upon them, within and without.
Economy has been manifestly a ruling law in their con-

God's Building: the New Orphan Houses 213

stniction ; the furniture is equally unpretentious and
unostentatious ; and, as to garniture, there is absolutely
none. To some few, they are almost too destitute of em-
bellishment, and Mr. Miiller has been blamed for not in-
troducing some aesthetic features which might relieve this
bald utilitarianism and serve to educate the taste of these
orphans.

To all such criticisms, there are two or three adequate
answers. First, Mr. Miiller subordinated everything to his
one great purpose, the demonstration of the fact that the
Living God is the Hearer of prayer. Second, he felt him-
self to be the steward of God's property, and he hesitated
to spend one penny on what was not necessary to the
frugal carrying on of the work of God. He felt that all
that could be spared without injury to health, a proper
mental training, and a thorough scriptural and spiritual
education, should be reserved for the relief of the neces-
sities of the poor and destitute elsewhere. And again,
he felt that, as these orphans were likely to be put at ser-
vice in plain homes, and compelled to live frugally^ any
surroundings which would accustom them to indulge re-
fined tastes, might by contrast make them discontented
with their future lot. And so he studied to promote
simply their health and comfort, and to school them to
contentment when the necessities of life were supplied.

But, more than this, a moment's serious thought will
show that, had he surrounded them with those elegancies
which elaborate architecture and the other fine arts
furnish, he might have been even more severely criticised.
He would have been spending the gifts of the poor who
often sorely denied themselves for the sake of these or-
phans, to purchase embellishments or secure decorations
which, if they had adorned the humble homes of thou-
sands of donors, would have made their gifts impossible.

214 George Miiller of Bristol

When we remember how many offerings, numbering tens
of thousands, were, like the widow^s mites, very small in
themselves, yet, relatively to ability, very large, it -will be
seen how incongruous it would have been to use the gifts,
saved only by limiting even the wants of the givers, to buy
for the orphans what the donors could not and would not
afford for themselves.

Cleanness, neatness, method, and order, however, every-
where reign, and honest labour has always had, at the
orphan houses, a certain dignity. The tracts of land, ad-
joining the buildings, are set apart as vegetable-gardens,
where wholesome exercise is provided for the orphan boys,
and, at the same time, work that helps to provide daily
food, and thus train them in part to self-support.

Throughout these houses studious care is exhibited, as
to methodical arrangement. Each child has a square an4
numbered compartment for clothes, six orphans beinj
told off, at a time, in each section, to take charge. The
boys have each three suits, and the girls, five dresses each,
the girls being taught to make and mend their own gar-
ments. In the nursery, the infant children have books and
playthings to occupy and amuse them, and are the objects
of tender maternal care. Several children are often ad-
mitted to the orphanage from one family, in order to avoid
needless breaking of household ties by separation. The
average term of residence is about ten years, though some
orphans have been there for seventeen.

The daily life is laid out with regularity and goes on
like clockwork in punctuality. The children rise at six
and are expected to be ready at seven, the girls for knitting
and the boys for reading, until eight o'clock, when break-
fast is served. Half an hour later there is a brief morning
service, and the school begins at ten. Half an hour of
recreation on the playground prepares for the one-o'clock

God's Building: the New Orphan Houses 215

dinner, and school is resumed, until four ; then comes an
hour and a half of play or outdoor exercise, a half-hour
service preceding the SLx-o'clock meal. Then the girls
ply the needle, and the boys are in school, until bedtime,
the younger children going to rest at eight, and the
older, at nine. The food is simple, ample, and nutritious,
consisting of bread, oatmeal, milk, soups, meat, rice, and
vegetables. Everything is adjusted to one ultimate end ;
to use Mr. Miiller's own words : " We aim at this : that,
if any of them do not turn out well, temporally or spirit-
ually, and do not become useful members of society, it
shall not at least be our fault." Tlie most thorough and
careful examination of the whole methods of the insti-
tution ■will only satisfy the visitor that it will not be the
fault of those who superintend this work, if the orphans
are not well fitted, body and soul, for the work of life,
and are not prepared for a blessed immortality.

CHAPTER XV

THE MANIFOLD GRACE OF GOD

Some one has quaintly said, in commenting upon the
Twenty-third Psalm, that " the coach in which the Lord's
saints ride has not only a driver, but two footmen " —
" goodness and mercy shall folloiv me."

Surely these two footmen of the Lord, in their celestial
livery of grace, followed George Miiller all the days of his
life. Wonderful as is the story of the building of those
five orphan houses on Ashley Down, many other events
and experiences no less showed the goodness and mercy of
God, and must not be unrecorded in these pages, if we are
to trace, however imperfectly. His gracious dealings ; and
having, by one comprehensive view, taken in the story of
the orphan homes, we may retrace our steps to the year
■when the first of these houses was planned, and, following
another path, look at Mr. Miiller's personal and domestic
life.

He himself loved to trace the Lord's goodness and
mercy, and he saw abundant proofs that they had followed
him. A few instances may be given, from different de-
partments of experience, as representative examples.

The Lord's tender care was manifest as to his beloved
daughter Lydia. It became clear in the year 1843, that,
both for the relief of the mother and the profit of the
daughter, it would be better that Lydia should be taught
"Elsewhere than at home ; and in answer to prayer, her father
216

The Manifold Grace of God 217

was divinely directed to a Christian sister, whose special
gifts in the way of instructing and training children were
manifestly from the Spirit, who divides unto all believers
severally as He will. She seemed to be marked of God, as
the woman to whom was to be intrusted the responsible
task of superintending the education of Lydia. Mr. Miil-
ler both expected and desired to pay for such training, and
asked for the account, which in the first instance he paid,
but the exact sum was returned to him anonymously ;
and, for the six remaining years of his daughter's stay, he
could get no further bills for her schooling. Thus God
provided for the board and education of this only child,
not only without cost to her parents, but to their intense
satisfaction as being under the true " nurture and admo-
nition of the Lord;" for while at this school, in April, 1846,
Lydia found peace in believing, and began that beautiful
life in the Lord Jesus Christ, that, for forty-four years
afterward, so singularly exhibited His image.

Many Christian parents have made the fatal mistake
of intrusting their children's education to those whose
gifts were wholly intellectual and not spiritual, and who
have misled the young pupils entrusted to their care, into
an irreligious or infidel life, or, at best, a career of mere
intellectualism and worldly ambition. In not a few in-
stances, all the influences of a pious home have been
counteracted by the atmosphere of a school which, if not
godless, has been without that fragrance of spiritual de-
voutness and consecration which is indispensable to the
true training of impressible children during the plastic
years when character is forming for eternity !

Goodness and mercy followed Mr. and Mrs. Mliller con-
spicuously in their sojourn in Germany in 1845, which
covered about three months, from July 19th to October
11th.

2i8 George M tiller of Bristol

God plainly led to Stuttgart, where brethren had fallen
into grievous errors and needed again a helping hand.
When the strong impression laid hold of Mr. Miiller, more
than two months before his departure for the Continent,
that he was to return there for a season, he began definitely
to pray for means to go with, on May 3rd, and, within a
quarter hour after, five hundred pounds were received, the
donor specifying that the money was given for all expenses
needful, " preparatory to, and attendant upon " this pro-
posed journey. The same goodness and mercy followed
all his steps while abroad. Provision was made, in God's
own strange way, for suitable lodgings in Stuttgart, at a
time -w^hen the city was exceptionally crowded, a wealthy
retired surgeon, who had never before rented apartments,
being led to offer them. All Mr. Miiller's labours were
attended with blessing : during part of the time he held
as many as eight meetings a week ; and he was enabled to
publish eleven tracts in German, and judiciously to scatter
over two hundred and twenty thousand of them, as well
as nearly four thousand of his Narrative, and yet evade
interference from the police.

One experience of this sojourn abroad should have
special mention for the lesson it suggests, both in charity
for others' views and loving adaptation to circumstances.
A providential opening occurred to address meetings of
about one hundred and fifty members of the state church.
In his view the character of such assemblies was not wholly
conformed to the Scripture pattern, and hence did not
altogether meet his approval ; but such opportunity was
afforded to bear testimony for the truth's sake, and to
exhibit Christian unity upon essentials, for love's sake,
that he judged it of the Lord that he should enter this
open door. Those who knew Mr. Mliller but little, but
knew his Dositive convictions and uncompromising loj'alty

The Manifold Grace of God 219

to them, might suspect that he would have little for-
bearance with even minor errors, and would not bend
himself from his stern attitude of inflexibility to accom-
modate himself to those who were ensnared by them.
But those who knew him better, saw that he held fast the
form of sound words with faith and love which are in
Christ Jesus. Like Paul, ever ready to be made all things
to all men that by all means he might save some, in his
whole character and conduct nothing shone, more radi-
antly beautiful, than Love. He felt that he who would
lift up others must bow himself to lay hold on them ;
that to help brethren we must bear with them, not in-
sisting upon matters of minor importance as though they
were essential and fundamental. Hence his course, in-
stead of being needlessly repellant, was tenderly concilia-
tory ; and it was a conspicuous sign of grace that, while
holding his own views of truth and duty so positively and
tenaciously, the intolerance of bigotry was so displaced
by the forbearance of charity that, when the Lord so led
and circumstances so required, he could conform for a
time to customs whose propriety he doubted, without
abating either the earnestness of his conviction or the
integrity of his testimony.

God's goodness and mercy were seen in the fact that,
whenever more liberal things were devised for Him, He
responded in providing liberally means to carry out such
desires. This was abundantly illustrated not only in the
orphan work, but in the history of the Scriptural Knowl-
edge Institution; when, for years together, the various
branches of this work grew so rapidly, until the point of
full development was reached. The time indeed came
when, in some departments, it pleased God that contrac-
tion should succeed expansion, but even here goodness
ruled, for it was afterward seen that it was because other

220 George Muller of Bristol

brethren had been led to take up such branches of the
Lord's work, in all of which developments Mr. Miiller as
truly rejoiced as though it had been his work alone that
was honoured of God.

The aiding of brethren in the mission fields grew more
and more dear to his heart, and the means to indulge
his unselfish desires were so multiplied that, in 1846, he
found, on revicAving the history of the Lord's dealings,
that he had been enabled to expend about seven times as
much of late years as previously. It may here be added,
again by way of anticipation, that when, nineteen years
later, in 1865, he sat down to apportion to such labourers
in the Lord as he was wont to assist, the sums he felt it
desirable to send to each, he found before him the names
of one hundred and twenty-two such ! Goodness and
mercy indeed ! Here was but one branch of his work,
and yet to what proportions and fruitfulness it had
grown ! He needed four hundred and sixty-six pounds to
send them to fill out his appropriations, and he lacked
ninety-two of this amount. He carried the lack to the
Lord, and that evening received five pounds, and the next
morning a hundred more, and a further " birthday memo-
rial " of fifty, so that he had in all thirty-seven more than
he had asked.

What goodness and mercy followed him in the strength
he ever had to bear the heavy loads of care incident to
his work ! The Lord's coach bore him and his burdens
together. Day by day his gracious Master preserved his
peace unbroken, though disease found its way into this
large family, though fit homes and work must be found
for outgoing orphans, and fit care and training for in-
coming orphans; though crises were constantly arising
and new needs constantly recurring, grave matters
daily demanded prayer and watching, and perpetual dili-

The Manifold Grace of God 221

gence and vigilance were needful; for the Lord was his
Helper, and carried all his loads.

During the winter of 1846-7 there was a peculiar sea-
son of dearth. Would God's goodness and mercy fail ?
There were those who looked on, more than half incredu-
lous, saying to themselves if not to others, "I wonder
how it is now with Mr. Miiller and his orphans ! If he
is able to provide for them now as he has been, we will
say nothing." But all through this time of widespread
want his witness was, "We lack nothing: God helps us."
Faith led when the way was too dark for sight; in fact
the darker the road the more was the Hand felt that leads
the blind by a way they know not. They went through
that winter as easily as through any other from the begin-
ning of the world

Was it no sign that God's ^ footmen ' followed George
Miiller that the work never ceased to be both a work of
faith and of prayer ? that no difficulties or discourage-
ments, no successes or triumphs, ever caused for an hour
a departure from the sublime essential principles on which
the work was based, or a diversion from the purpose for
which it had been built up ?

We have heard it said of a brother, much honoured of
God in beginning a work of faith, that, when it had grown
to greater proportions, he seemed to change its base to that
of a business scheme. How it glorifies God that the holy
enterprise, planted in Bristol in 1834, has known no
such alteration in its essential features during all these
years ! Though the work grew, and its needs with it,
until the expenses were twofold, threefold, fourfold, and,
at last, seventyfold what they were when that first Orphan
House was opened in Wilson Street, there has been no
change of lase, never any looking to man for patronage or
support, never any dependence upon a regular income or

222 George Muller of Bristol

fixed endowment. God has been, all through these years,
as at first, the sole Patron and Dependence. The Scriptural
Knowledge Institution has not been wrecked on the rocks
of financial failure, nor has it even drifted away from its
original moorings in the safe anchorage-ground of the
Promises of Jehovah.

Was it not goodness and mercy that kept George Miiller
ever grateful as well as faithful ! He did not more con-
stantly feel his need of faith and prayer than his duty
and privilege of abounding joy and praise. Some might
think that, after such experiences of answered prayer, one
would be less and less moved by them, as the novelty was
lost in the uniformity of such interpositions. But no.
When, in June, 1853, at a time of sore need, the Lord
sent, in one sum, three hundred pounds, he could scarcely
contain his triumphant joy in God. He walked up and
down his room for a long time, his heart overflowing and
his eyes too, his mouth filled with laughter and his
voice with song, while he gave himself afresh to the faith-
ful Master he served. God's blessings were to him always
new and fresh. Answered prayers never lost the charm
of novelty; like flowers plucked fresh every hour from
the gardens of God, they never got stale, losing none of
their beauty or celestial fragrance.

And what goodness and mercy was it that never suf-
fered prayerfulness and patience to relax their hold, either
when answers seemed to come fast and thick like snow-
flakes, or when the heavens seemed locked up and faith
had to wait patiently and long ! Every day brought new
demands for continuance in prayer. In fact, as Mr. Miiller
testifies, the only difference between latter and former
days was that the difficulties were greater in proportion
as the work was larger. But he adds that this was to be
expected, for the Lord gives faith for the very purpose

The Manifold Grace of God 223

of trying it for the glory of His own name and the good
of him who has the faith, and it is by these very trials
that trust learns the secret of its triumphs.

Goodness and mercy not only guided but also guarded
this servant of God. God's footmen bore a protecting
shield which was always over him. Amid thousands of
unseen perils, occasionally some danger was known,
though generally after it was passed. While at Keswick
labouring in 1847, for example, a man, taken deranged
while lodging in the same house, shot himself. It after-
ward transpired that he had an impression that Mr. Miil-
ler had designs on his life, and had he met Mr, Miiller
during this insane attack he would probably have shot him
with the loaded pistol he carried about on his person.

The pathway of this man of God sometimes led through
deep waters of affliction, but goodness and mercy still fol-
lowed, and held him up. In the autumn of 1852, his be-
loved brother-in-law, Mr. A. N. Groves, came back from
the East Indies, very ill; and in May of the next year,
after blessed witness for God, he fell asleep at Mr. Miiller's
house. To him Mr. Miiller owed much through grace at
the outset of his labours in 1829. By his example his faith
had been stimulated and helped when, with no visible sup-
port or connection with any missionary society, Mr. Groves
had gone to Bagdad with wife and children, for the sake
of mission work in this far-off field, resigning a lucrative
practice of about fifteen hundred pounds a year. The tie
between these men was very close and tender and the loss
of this brother-in-law gave keen sorrow.

In July following, Mr. and Mrs. Miiller went through
a yet severer trial. Lydia, the beloved daughter and only
child, — born in 1832 and new-born in 1846, and at this
time twenty years old and a treasure without price, — was
taken ill in the latter part of June, and the ailment de-

224 George Miiller of Bristol

veloped into a malignant typhoid which, two weeks later,
brought her to the gates of death. These parents had
to face the prospect of being left childless. But faith
triumphed and prayer prevailed. Their darling Lydia
was spared to be, for many years to come, a blessing be-
yond words, not only to them and to her future husband,
but to many others in a wider circle of influence. Mr.
Miiller found, in this trial, a special proof of God's good-
ness and mercy, which he gratefully records, in the growth
in gi-ace, evidenced in his entire and Joyful acquiescence in
the Father's will, when, with such a loss apparently before
him, his confidence was undisturbed that all things would
work together for good. He could not but contrast with
this experience of serenity, that broken peace and com-
plaining spirit with which he had met a like trial in
August, 1831, twenty-one years before. How, like a mag-
net among steel filings, the thankful heart finds the mer-
cies and picks them out of the black dust of sorrow and
suffering !

The second volume of Mr. Miiller's Narrative closes
with a paragraph in which he formally disclaims as im-
pudent presumption and pretension all high rank as a
miracle-worker, and records his regret that any work,
based on scriptural promises and built on the simple lines
of faith and prayer, should be accounted either phe-
nomenal or fanatical.

The common ways of accounting for its success would
be absurdly ridiculous and amusing were they not so sadly
unbelieving. Those who knew little or nothing, either of
the exercise of faith or the experience of God's faithful-
ness, resorted to the most God-dishonouring explanations
of the work. Some said: "Mr. Miiller is a foreigner; his
methods are so novel as to attract attention." Others
thought that the " Annual Eeports brought in the

The Manifold Grace of God 225

money," or suggested that he had "a secret treasure."
His quiet reply was, that his being a foreigner would be
more likely to repel than to attract confidence; that the
novelty would scarcely avail him after more than a score
of years; that other institutions which issued reports did
not always escape want and debt ; but, as to the secret
treasure to which he was supposed to have access, he felt
constrained to confess that there was more in that sup-
position than the objectors were aware of. He had indeed
a Treasury, inexhaustible — in the promises of a God un-
changeably faithful — from which he admits that he had
already in 1856 drawn for twenty-two years, and in all
over one hundred and thirteen thousand pounds. As to
the Reports, it may be worth while to notice that he never
but once in his life advertised the public of any need,
and that was the need of more orphans — more to care for
in the name of the Lord — a single and singular case of ad-
vertising, by which he sought not to increase his income,
but his expenditure — not asking the public to aid him in
supporting the needy, but to increase the occasion of his
outlay !

So far was he from depending upon any such sources
of supply as the unbelieving world might think, that it
was in the drying up of all such channels that he found
the opportunity of his faith and of God's power. The
visible treasure was often so small that it was reduced to
nothing, but the invisible Treasure was God's Riches in
glory, and could be drawn from without limit. This it was
to which he looked alone, and in which he felt that he had
a river of supply that can never run dry.*

The orphan work had, to Mr. Miiller, many charms
which grew on him as he entered more fully into it. While
his main hope was to be the means of spiritual health to
* Appendix H.

226 George Muller of Bristol

these children, he had the joy of seeing how God used
these homes for the promotion of their physical welfare
also, and, in cases not a few, for the entire renovation of
their weak and diseased bodies. It must be remembered
that most of them owed their orphan condition to that
great destroyer. Consumption. Children were often
brought to the orphan houses thoroughly permeated by
the poison of bad blood, with diseased tendencies, and
sometimes emaciated and half-starved, having had neither
proper food nor medical care.

For example, in the spring of 1855, four children from
five to nine years old, and of one family, were admitted
to the orphanage, all in a deplorable state from lack of
both nursing and nutrition. It was a serious question
whether they should be admitted at all, as such cases
tended to turn the institution into a hospital, and absorb
undue care and time. But to dismiss them seemed al-
most inhuman, certainly inhumane. So, trusting in God,
they were taken in and cared for with parental love. A
few weeks later these children were physically unrecog-
nizable, so rapid had been the improvement in health,
and probably there were with God's blessing four graves
less to be dug.

The trials incident to the moral and spiritual condition
of the orphans were even greater, however, than those
caused by ill health and weakness. When children proved
incorrigibly bad, they were expelled, lest they should cor-
rupt others, for the institution was not a reformatory, as it
was not a hospital In 1849, a boy, of less than eight years,
had to be sent away as a confirmed liar and thief, having
twice run off with the belongings of other children and
gloried in his juvenile crimes. Yet the forbearance exer-
cised even in his case was marvellously godlike, for, dur-
ing over five years, he had been the subject of private ad-

The Manifold Grace of God 227

monitions and prayers and all other methods of reclama-
tion; and, when expulsion became the last resort, he was
solemnly and with prayer, before all the others, sent away
from the orphan house, that if possible such a course
might prove a double blessing, a remedy to him and a
warning to others; and even then this young practised sin-
ner was followed, in his expulsion, by loving supplication.

Towards the end of November, 1857, it was found that
a serious leak in the boiler of the heating apparatus of
house No. 1 would make repairs at once necessary, and as
the boilers were encased in bricks and a new boiler might
be required, such repairs must consume time. Meanwhile
how could three hundred children, some of them very
young and tender, be kept warm ? Even if gas-stoves could
be temporarily set up, chimneys would be needful to carry
off the impure air ; and no way of heating was available
during repairs, even if a hundred pounds were expended
to prevent risk of cold. Again Mr. Miiller turned to the
Living God, and, trusting in Him, decided to have the
repairs begun. A day or so before the fires had to be put
out, a bleak north wind set in. The work could no longer
be delayed ; yet weather, prematurely cold for the season,
threatened these hundreds of children with hurtful ex-
posure. The Lord was boldly appealed to. " Lord, these
are Thy orphans : be pleased to change this north wind
into a south wind, and give the workmen a mind to work
that the job may be speedily done."

The evening before the repairs actually began, the cold
blast was still blowing ; but on that day a south wind Hew,
and the weather was so mild that no fire was needful! Not
only so, but, as Mr. Miiller went into the cellar with the
overseer of the work, to see whether the repairs could in no
way be expedited, he heard him say, in the hearing of the
men, " they will work late this evening, and come very early

2 28 George Muller of Bristol

again to-morrow." " We tvould rather, sir,'^ was the reply,
" worh all night." And so, within about thirty hours, the
fire was again burning to heat the water in the boiler;
and, until the apparatus was again in order, that merciful
soft south wind had continued to blow. Goodness and
mercy were following the Lord^s humble servant, made
the more conspicuous by the crises of special trial and
trouble.

Every new exigency provoked new prayer and evoked
new faith. When, in 1862, several boys were ready to be
apprenticed, and there were no applications such as were
desired, prayer was the one resort, as advertising would
tend to bring applications from masters who sought ap-
prentices for the sake of the premium. But every one of
the eighteen boys was properly bound over to a Christian
master, whose business was suitable and who would receive
the lad into his own family.

About the same time one of the drains was obstructed
which runs about eleven feet underground. When three
holes had been dug and as many places in the drain
tapped in vain, prayer was offered that in the fourth case
the workmen might be guided to the very spot where the
stoppage existed — and the request was literally answered.

Three instances of marked deliverance, in answer to
prayer, are specially recorded for the year between May
26, 1864, and the same date in 1865, which should not be
passed by without at least a mention.

First, in the great drought of the summer of 1864, when
the fifteen large cisterns in the three orphan houses were
empty, and the nine deep wells, and even the good spring
which had never before failed, were almost all dry. Two
or three thousand gallons of water were daily required,
and daily prayer was made to the God of the rain. See
how God provided, while pleased to withhold the supply

The Manifold Grace of God 229

from above ! A farmer, near by, supplied, from bis larger
wells, about half the water needful, the rest being fur-
nished by the half-exhausted wells on Ashley Down; and,
when he could no longer spare water, without a day's inter-
val, another farmer offered a supply from a brook which
ran through his fields, and thus there was abundance
until the rains replenished cisterns and wells.*

Second, when, for three years, scarlet and typhus fevers
and smallpox, being prevalent in Bristol and the vicinity,
threatened the orphans, prayer was again made to Him
who is the God of health as well as of rain. There was no
case of scarlet or typhus fever during the whole time,
though smallpox was permitted to find an entrance into
the smallest of the orphan houses. Prayer was still the
one resort. The disease spread to the other houses, until
at one time fifteen were ill with it. The cases, however,
were mercifully light, and the Lord was besought to allow
the epidemic to spread no further. Not another child was
taken ; and when, after nine months, the disease alto-
gether disappeared, not one child had died of it, and only
one teacher or adult had had an attack, and that was very
mild. What ravages the disease might have made among
the twelve hundred inmates of these orphan houses, had
it then prevailed as later, in 1873 !

Third, tremendous gales visited Bristol and neigh-
bourhood in January, 1865. The roofs of the orphan
houses were so injured as to be laid open in at least twenty
places, and large panes of glass were broken. The day was
Saturday, and no glazier and slater could be had before
Monday. So the Lord of wind and weather was besought
to protect the exposed property during the interval. The
wind calmed down, and the rain was restrained until

* About twenty years later the Bristol Water Works Co. intro-
duced pipes and thus a permanent and unfailing supply.

230 George Milller of Bristol

midday of Wednesday, when the repairs were about fin-
ished, but heavy rainfalls drove the slaters from the roof.
One exposed opening remained and much damage threat-
ened ; but, in answer to prayer, the rain was stayed, and
the work resumed. No damage had been done while the
last opening was unrepaired for it had exposed the build-
ing from the south, while the rain came from the north.

Mr. Miiller records these circumstances with his usual
particularity, as part of his witness to the Living God,
and to the goodness and mercy that closely and continually
followed him.

During the next year, 1865-6, scarlet fever broke out in
the orphanage. In all thirty-nine children were ill, but
all recovered. Whooping-cough also made its appearance;
but though, during that season, it was not only very prev-
alent but very malignant in Bristol, in all the three houses
there were but seventeen cases, and the only fatal one was
that of a little girl with constitutionally weak lungs.

During this same year, however, the Spirit of God
wrought mightily among the girls, as in the previous year
among the boys, so that over one hundred became deeply
earnest seekers after salvation ; and so, even in tribula-
tion, consolation abounded in Christ. Mr. Miiller and his
wife and helpers now implored God to deepen and broaden
this work of His Spirit. Towards the end of the year
closing in May, 1866, Emma Bunn, an orphan girl of
seventeen, was struck with consumption. Though, for
fourteen years, she had been under Mr. Miiller's care, she
was, in this dangerous illness, still careless and indif-
ferent ; and, as she drew near to death, her case continued
as hopeless as ever. Prayer was unceasing for her ; and
it pleased God suddenly to reveal Christ to her as her
Saviour. Great self-loathing now at once took the place
of former indifference i confession of sin^ of previous cal-

The Manifold Grace of God 231

lousness of conscience ; and unspeakable joy in the Lord,
of former apathy and coldness. It was a spiritual miracle
— this girl's sudden transformation into a witness for God,
manifesting deepest conviction for past sin and earnest
concern for others. Her thoughtless and heedless state
had been so well known, that her conversion and dying
messages were now the Lord's means of the most extensive
and God-glorifying work ever wrought up to that time
among the orphans. In one house alone three hundred and
fifty were led to seek peace in believing.

What lessons lie hidden — nay, lie on the very surface- —
to be read of every willing observer of these events ! Prayer
can break even a hard heart ; a memory, stored with bib-
lical truth and pious teaching, will prove, when once God's
grace softens the heart and unlooses the tongue, a source
of both personal growth in grace and of capacity for wide
service to others. We are all practically too careless of the
training of children, and too distrustful of young con-
verts. Mr. Midler was more and more impressed by the
triumphs of the grace of God as seen in children con-
verted at the tender age of nine or ten and holding the
beginning of their confidence steadfast unto the end.

These facts and experiences, gleaned, like handfuls of
grain, from a wide field, show the character both of the
seed sown and the harvest reaped, from the sowing.

Again, when, in 1866, cholera developed in England, in
answer to special prayer not one case of this disease was
known in the orphan houses ; and when, in the same
autumn, whooping-cough and measles broke out, though
eight children had the former and two hundred and sixty-
two, the latter, not one child died, or was afterward debili-
tated by the attack. From May, 1866, to May, 1867, out of
over thirteen hundred children under care, only eleven
died, considerably less than one per cent.

232 George Miiller of Bristol

That severe and epidemic disease should find its way
into the orphanages at all may seem strange to those who
judge God's faithfulness by appearances, but many were
the compensations for such trials. By them not only were
the hearts of the children often turned to God, but the
hearts of helpers in the Institution were made more sym-
pathetic and tender, and the hearts of God's people at
large were stirred up to practical and systematic help. God
uses such seeming calamities as ' advertisements ' of His
work; many who would not have heard of the Institution,
or on whom what they did hear would have made little im-
pression, were led to take a deep interest in an orphanage
where thousands of little ones were exposed to the ravages
of some malignant and dangerous epidemic.

Looking back, in 1865, after thirty-one years, upon the
work thus far done for the Lord, Mr. Miiller gratefully
records that, during the entire time, he had been enabled
to hold fast the original principles on which the work was
based on March 5, 1834. He had never once gone into
debt ; he had sought for the Institution no patron but the
Living God ; and he had kept to the line of demarkation
between believers and unbelievers, in all his seeking for
active helpers in the work.

His grand purpose, in all his labours, having been, from
the beginning, the glory of God, in showing what could be
done through prayer and faith, without any leaning upon
man, his unequivocal testimony is: " Hitherto hath the
Lord helped us." Though for about five years they had, al-
most daily, been in the constant trial of faith, they were as
constantly proving His faithfulness. The work had rapidly
grown, till it assumed gigantic proportions, but so did the
help of God keep pace with all the needs and demands of
its growth.

In January, 1866, Mr. Henry Craik, who had for thirty-

The Manifold Grace of God 233

six years been Mr. Miiller's valued frien'd, and, since 1833,
his coworker in Bristol, fell asleep after an illness of seven
months. In Devonshire these two brethren had first
known each other, and the acquaintance had subsequently
ripened, through years of common labour and trial, into an
affection seldom found among men. They were nearly of
an age, both being a little past sixty when Mr. Craik died.
The loss was too heavy to have been patiently and serenely
oome, had not the survivor known and felt beneath him
the Everlasting Arms. And even this bereavement, which
in one aspect was an irreparable loss, was seen to be only
another proof of God's love. The look ahead might be a
dark one, the way desolate and even dangerous, but good-
ness and mercy were still following v&ry close behind, and
fvould in every new place of danger or difficulty be at hand
to help over hard places and give comfort and cheer in
the night season.

CHAPTER XVI

THE SHADOW OF A GREAT SORROW

" With clouds He covereth the light." No human life
is without some experience of clouded skies and stormy
days, and sometimes " the clouds return after the rain."
It is a blessed experience to recognize the silver lining on
the darkest storm cloud, and, better still, to be sure of the
shining of God's light behind a sky that seems wholly and
hopelessly overcast.

The year 1870 was made forever pathetically memorable
by the decease of Mrs. Miiller, who lived just long enough
to see the last of the New Orphan Houses opened. From
the outset of the work in November, 1835, for more than
thirty-four years, this beloved, devoted wife had been also
a sympathetic helper.

This wedded life had approached very near to the ideal
of connubial bliss, by reason of mutual fitness, common
faith in God and love for His work, and long associa-
tion in prayer and service. In their case, the days of
courtship were never passed ; indeed the tender and deli-
cate mutual attentions of those early days rather increased
than decreased as the years went on; and the great maxim
was both proven and illustrated, that the secret of winning
love is the secret of keeping it. More than that, such
affection grows and becomes more and more a fountain of
mutual delight. Never had his beloved " Mary " been so
234

The Shadow of a Great Sorrow 235

precious to her husband as during the very year of her
departure.

This marriage union was so happy that Mr. Miiller
could not withhold his loving witness that he never saw
her at any time after she became his wife, without a new
feeling of delight. And day by day they were wont to
find at least a few moments of rest together, sitting after
dinner, hand in hand, in loving intercourse of mind and
heart, made the more complete by this touch of physical
contact, and, whether in speech or silence, communing
in the Lord. Their happiness in God and in each other
was perennial, perpetual, growing as the years fled by.

Mr. Miiller's solemn conviction was that all this wedded
bliss was due to the fact that she was not only a devoted
Christian, but that their one united object was to live
only and wholly for God; that they had always abundance
of work for God, in which they were heartily united; that
this work was never allowed to interfere with the care of
their own souls, or their seasons of private prayer and
study of the Scriptures; and that they were wont daily,
and often thrice a day, to secure a time of united prayer
and praise when they brought before the Lord the mat-
ters which at the time called for thanksgiving and sup-
plication.

Mrs. Miiller had never been a very vigorous woman,
find more than once had been brought nigh unto death.
In October, 1859, after twenty-nine years of wedded life
and love, she had been laid aside by rheumatism and had
continued in great suffering for about nine months, quite
helpless and unable to work; but it was felt to be a special
mark of God's love and faithfulness that this very afflic-
tion was used by Him to reestablish her in health and
strength, the compulsory rest made necessary for the
greater part of a year being in Mr. Miiller's judgment a

236 George Mtiller of Bristol

means of prolonging her life and period of service for the
ten years following. Thus a severe trial met by them
both in faith had issued in much blessing both to soul and
body.

The closing scenes of this beautiful life are almost too
sacred to be unveiled to common eyes. For some few
years before her departure, it was plain that her health
and vitality were declining. With difficulty could she be
prevailed on, however, to abate her activity, or, even when
a distressing cough attacked her, to allow a physician to
be called. Her husband carefully guarded and nursed
her, and by careful attention to diet and rest, by avoid-
ance of needless exposure, and by constant resort to
prayer, she was kept alive through much weakness and
sometimes much pain. But, on Saturday night, February
5th, she found that she had not the use of one of her limbs,
and it was obvious that the end was nigh. Her own mind
was clear and her own heart at peace. She herself remarked,
" He will soon come." And a few minutes after four in the
afternoon of the Lord's day, February 6, 1870, she sweetly
passed from human toils and trials, to be forever with the
Lord.

Under the weight of such a sorrow, most men would have
sunk into depths of almost hopeless despair. But this
man of God, sustained by a divine love, at once sought
for occasions of thanksgiving; and, instead of repining over
his loss, gratefully remembered and recorded the goodness
of God in talcing such a wife, releasing her saintly spirit
from the bondage of weakness, sickness, and pain, rather
than leaving her to a protracted suffering and the mute
agony of helplessness; and, above all, introducing her to
her heart's desire, the immediate presence of the Lord
Jesus, and the higher service of a celestial sphere. Is
not that grief akin to selfishness which dwells so much

The Shadow of a Great Sorrow 237

on our own deprivations as to be oblivious of the ecstatic
gain of the departed saints who, withdrawn from us and
absent from the body, are at home with the Lord ?

It is only in those circumstances of extreme trial
which prove to ordinary men a crushing weight, that im-
plicit faith in the Father's unfailing wisdom and love
proves its full power to sustain. Wheie self-will is
truly lost in the will of God, the life that is hidden in Him
is most radiantly exhibited in the darkest hour.

The death of this beloved wife afforded an illustration
cf this. Within a few hours after this withdrawal of her
Vho had shared with him the planning and working of
these long years of service, Mr. Miiller went to the
Monday-evening prayer meeting, then held in Salem
Chapel, to mingle his prayers and praises as usual with
those of his brethren. With a literally shining counte-
nance, he rose and said: "Beloved brethren and sisters
in Christ, I ask you to join with me in hearty praise and
thanksgiving to my precious Lord for His loving kind-
ness in having taken my darling, beloved wife out of the
pain and suffering which she has endured, into His own
presence; and as I rejoice in everything that is for her
happiness, so I now rejoice as I realize how far happier
she is, in beholding her Lord whom she loved so well,
than in any joy she has known or could know here. 1
ask you also to pray that the Lord will so enable me to
have fellowship in her joy that my bereaved heart may
be occupied with her blessedness instead of my unspeak-
able loss." These remarkable words are supplied by one
who was himself present and on whose memory they made
an indelible impression.

This occurrence had a marked effect upon all who were
at that meeting. Mrs. Miiller was known by all as a most
valuable, lovely, and holy woman and wife. After nearly

238 George Muller of Bristol

forty years of wedded life and love, she had left the earthly
home for the heavenly. To her husband she had been a
blessing beyond description, and to her daughter Lydia,
at once a wise and tender mother and a sympathetic com-
panion. The loss to them both could never be made up
on earth. Yet in these circumstances this man of God
had grace given to forget his own and his daughter's irrep-
arable loss, and to praise God for the unspeakable gain to
the departed wife and mother.

The body was laid to rest on February 11th, many thou-
sands of sorrowing friends evincing the deepest sympathy.
Twelve hundred orphans mingled in the funeral procession,
and the whole staff of helpers so far as they could be spared
from the houses. The bereaved husband strangely upheld
hy the arm of the Almighty Friend in whom he trusted,
took upon himself the funeral service both at chapel and
cemeter5^ He was taken seriously ill afterward, but, as
soon as his returning strength allowed, he preached hi?
wife's funeral sermon — another memorable occasion. It
was the supernatural serenity of his peace in the presence
of such a bereavement that led his attending physician to
say to a friend, " I have never before seen so unhuman a
man." Yes, w/ihuman indeed, though far from inhuman,
lifted above the weakness of mere humanity by a power not
of man.

That funeral sermon was a noble tribute to the goodness
of the Lord even in the great affliction of his life. The
text was :

" Tliou art good and doest good.'' (Psalm cxix. 68.)

Its three divisions were : " The Lord was good and did
good: first, in giving her to me ; second in so long leaving
her to me ; and third, in taking her from me." It is

The Shadow of a Great Sorrow 239

happily preserved in Mr. Miiller's journal, and must be
read to be appreciated.*

This union, begun in prayer, was in prayer sanctified to
the end. Mrs. Miiller's chief excellence lay in her devoted
piety. She wore that one ornament which is in the sight
of God of great price — the meek and quiet spirit ; the
beauty of the Lord her God was upon her. She had sym-
pathetically shared her husband's prayers and tears during
all the long trial-time of faith and patience, and partaken
of all the joys and rewards of the triumph hours. Mr.
Miiller's own witness to her leaves nothing more to be
added, for it is the tribute of him who knew her longest
and best. He writes:

" She was God's own gift, exquisitely suited to me even
in natural temperament. Thousands of times I said to
her, ' My darling, God Himself singled you out for me,
as the most suitable wife I could possibly wish to have
had.' "

As to culture, she had a basis of sensible practical educa-
tion, surmounted and adorned by ladylike accomplish-
ments which she had neither time nor inclination to in-
dulge in her married life. Not only was she skilled in the
languages and in such higher studies as astronomy, but in
mathematics also ; and this last qualification made her for
thirty-four years an invaluable help to her husband, as
month by month she examined all the account-books, and
the hundreds of bills of the matrons of the orphan houses^
and with the eye of an expert detected the least mistake.

All her training and natural fitness indicated a provi-
dential adaptation to her work, like " the round peg in the
round hole." Her practical education in needlework, and
her knowledge of the material most serviceable for various

* Narrative, III. 575-594.

240 George Miiller of Bristol

household uses, made her competent to direct both in the
purchase and manufacture of cloths and other fabrics for
garments, bed-linen, etc. She moved about those orphan
houses like an angel of Love, taking unselfish delight in
such humble ministries as preparing neat, clean, beds to
rest the little ones, and covering them with warm blankets
in cold weather. For the sake of Him who took little
children in His arms, she became to these thousands of
destitute orphans a nursing mother.

Shortly after her death, a letter was received from a be-
lieving orphan some seventeen years before sent out to ser-
vice, asking, in behalf also of others formerly in the houses,
permission to erect a stone over Mrs Miiller's grave as
an expression of love and grateful remembrance. Con-
sent being given, hundreds of little offerings came in from
orphans who during the twenty-five years previous had
been under her motherly oversight — a beautiful tribute
to her worth and a touching offering from those who
had been to her as her larger family.

The dear daughter Lydia had, two years before Mrs. Miil-
ler's departure, found in one of her mother's pocketbooks
a sacred memorandum in her own writing, which she
brought to her bereaved father's notice two days after his
wife had departed. It belongs among the precious relics
of her history. It reads as follows:

" Should it please the Lord to remove M. M. [Mary
Miiller] by a sudden dismissal, let none of the beloved sur-
vivors consider that it is in the way of judgment, either to
her or to them. She has so often, when enjojdng con-
scious nearness to the Lord, felt ' How sweet it would be
now to depart and to be forever with Jesus,' that nothing
but the shock it would be to her beloved husband and
child, etc., has checked in her the longing desire that
thus her happy spirit might take its flight. Precious

The Shadow of a Great Sorrow 24 y

Jesua ! Thy will in this as in everything else, and noi
hers, be done ! "

These words were to Mr. Miiller her last legacy; and
with the comfort they gave him, the loving sympathy of
his precious Lydia who did all that a daughter could do to
fill a mother's place, and with the remembrance of Him
who hath said, ' I will never leave thee nor forsake thee,'
he went on his lonely pilgrim way, rejoicing in the Lord,
feeling nevertheless a wound in his heart, that seemed
rather to deepen than to heal.

Sixteen months passed, when Mr. James Wright, who
like Mr. Miiller had been bereft of his companion, asked
of him the hand of the beloved Lydia in marriage. The
request took Mr. Miiller wholly by surprise, but he felt
that, to no man living, could he with more joyful con-
fidence commit and intrust his choicest remaining earthly
treasure ; and, ever solicitous for others' happiness rather
than his own, he encouraged his daughter to accept Mr.
Wright's proffered love, when she naturally hesitated on
her father's account. On November 16, 1871, they were
married, and began a life of mutual prayer and sympathy
which, like that of her father and mother, proved supreme-
ly and almost ideally happy, helpful, and useful.

While as yet this event was only in prospect, Mr. Miiller
felt his own lonely condition keenly, and much more in
view of his daughter's expected departure to her husband's
home. He felt the need of some one to share intimately
his toils and prayers, and help him in the Lord's work, and
the persuasion grew upon him that it was God's will that
he should marry again. After much prayer, he deter-
mined to ask Miss Susannah Grace Sangar to become his
wife, having known her for more than twenty-five years
as a consistent disciple, and believing her to be well fitted
to be his helper in the Lord. Accordingly, fourteen days

242 George Miiller of Bristol

after his daughter's marriage to Mr. Wright, he entered
into similar relations with Miss Sangar, who for years
after joined him in prayer, unselfish giving, and labours
for souls.

The second Mrs. Miiller was of one mind with her hus-
band as to the stewardship of the Lord's property. He
found her poor, for what she had once possessed she had
lost ; and had she been rich he would have regarded her
wealth as an obstacle to marriage, unfitting her to be his
companion in a self-denial based on scriptural principle.
Eiches or hoarded wealth would have been to both of them
a snare, and so she also felt; so that, having still, before her
marriage, a remnant of two hundred pounds, she at once
put it at the Lord's disposal, thus joining her husband
in a life of voluntary poverty ; and although subsequent
legacies were paid to her, she continued to the day of her
death to be poor for the Lord's sake.

The question had often been asked Mr. Miiller what
would become of the worh when he, the master workman,
should be removed. Men find it hard to get their eyes off
the instrument, and remember that there is only, strictly
speaking, one Agent, for an agent is one who works, and an
instrument is what the agent works with. Though pro-
vision might be made, in a board of trustees, for carrying
on the orphan work, where would be found the man to
take the direction of it, a man whose spirit was so akin
to that of the founder that he would trust in God and
depend on Him just as Mr. Miiller had done before him ?
Such were the inquiries of the somewhat doubtful or
fearful observers of the great and many-branched work
carried on under Mr. Miiller's supervision.

To all such questions he had always one answer ready —
his one uniform solution of all cares and perplexities :
the Living God. He who had built the orphan houses

The Shadow of a Great borrow 243

could maintain them ; He who had raised up one humble
man to oversee the work in His name, could provide for a
worthy successor, like Joshua who not only followed but
succeeded Moses. Jehovah of hosts is not limited in re-
sources.

Nevertheless much prayer was offered that the Lord
would provide such a successor, and, in Mr. James Wright,
the prayer was answered. He was not chosen, as Mr.
Miiller's son-in-law, for the choice was made before his
marriage to Lydia Miiller was even thought of by him.
For more than thirty years, even from his boyhood, Mr.
Wright had been well known to Mr. Miiller, and his
growth in the things of God had been watched by him.
For thirteen years he had already been his " right hand "
in all most important matters ; and, for nearly all of that
time, had been held up before God as his successor, in the
prayers of Mr. and Mrs. Miiller, both of whom felt divinely
assured that God would fit him more and more to take the
entire burden of responsibility.

When, in 1870, the wife fell asleep in Jesus, and Mr.
Miiller was himself ill, he opened his heart to Mr. Wright
as to the succession. Humility led him to shrink from
such a post, and his then wife feared it would prove too
burdensome for him ; but all objections were overborne
when it was seen and felt to be God's call. It was twenty-
one months after this, when, in November, 1871, Mr.Wright
was married to Mr. Miiller's only daughter and child, so
that it is quite apparent that he had neither sought the
position he now occupies, nor was he appointed to it be-
cause he was Mr. Miiller's son-in-law, for, at that time,
his first wife was living and in health. From May, 1872,
therefore, Mr. Wright shared with his father-in-law the re-
sponsibilities of the Institution, and gave him great joy

244 George Muller of Bristol

as a partner and successor in full sympathy with all the
great principles on which his work had heen based.

A little over three years after Mr. Miiller's second mar-
riage, in March, 1874, Mrs. Miiller was taken ill, and be-
came, two days later, feverish and restless, and after about
two weeks was attacked with hemorrhage which brought
her also very near to the gates of death. She rallied ; but
fever and delirium followed and obstinate sleeplessness,
till, for a second time, she seemed at the point of death.
Indeed so low was her vitality that, as late as April 17th,
a most experienced London physician said that he had
never known any patient to recover from such an illness ;
and thus a third time all human hope of restoration
seemed gone. And yet, in answer to prayer, Mrs. Miiller
was raised up, and in the end of May, was taken to the
seaside for change of air, and grew rapidly stronger until
she was entirely restored. Thus the Lord spared her to
be the companion of her husband in those years of mis-
sionary touring which enabled him to bear such world-
wide witness. Out of the shadow of his griefs this beloved
man of God ever came to find that divine refreshment
which is as the " shadow of a great rock in a weary land."

CHAPTEE XVII

THE PERIOD OF WORLD-WIDE WITNESS

God's real answers to prayer are often seeming denials.
Beneath the outward request He hears the voice of the in-
ward desire, and He responds to the mind of the Spirit
rather than to the imperfect and perhaps mistaken words
in which the yearning seeks expression. Moreover, His
infinite wisdom sees that a larger blessing may be ours
only by the withholding of the lesser good which we seek;
and so all true prayer trusts Him to give His own answer,
not in our way or time, or even to our own expressed de-
sire, but rather to His own unutterable groaning within us
which He can interpret better than we.

Monica, mother of Augustine, pleaded with God that
her dissolute son might not go to Rome, that sink of ini-
quity; but he was permitted to go, and thus came into con-
tact with Ambrose, bishop of Milan, through whom he was
converted. God fulfilled the mother's desire while deny-
ing her request.

When George Mliller, five times within the first eight
years after conversion, had offered himself as a missionary,
God had blocked his way ; now, at sixty-five. He was about
to permit him, in a sense he had never dreamed of, to be a
missionary to the world. From the beginning of his
ministry he had been more or less an itinerant,
spending no little time in wanderings about in Britain and
on the Continent ; but now he was to go to the regions
245

246 George Miiller of Bristol

beyond and spend the major part of seventeen years in wit-
nessing to the prayer-hearing God.

These extensive missionary tours occupied the evening
of Mr. Mtiller's useful life, from 1875 to 1892. They
reached, more or less, over Europe, America, Asia, Africa,
and Australia ; and would of themselves have sufficed for
the work of an ordinary life.

They had a singular suggestion. While, in 187-1, com-
pelled by Mrs. Mtiller's health to seek a change of air, he
was preaching in the Isle of Wight, and a beloved Chris-
tian brother for whom he had spoken, himself a man of
much experience in preaching, told him how ' that day
had been the happiest of his whole life ' ; and this remark,
with others like it previously made, so impressed him
that the Lord was about to use him to help on believers
outside of Bristol, that he determined no longer to con-
fine his labours in the Word and doctrine to any one place,
but to go wherever a door might open for his testimony.

In weighing this question he was impressed with seven
reasons or motives, which led to these tours :

1. To preach the gospel in its simplicity, and especially
to show how salvation is based, not upon feelings or even
upon faith, but upon the finished work of Christ ; that
justification is ours the moment we believe, and we are
to accept and claim our place as accepted in the Beloved
without regard to our inward states of feeling or emotion.

2. To lead believers to know their saved state, and to
realize their standing in Christ, great numbers not only of
disciples, but even preachers and pastors, being themselves
destitute of any real peace and joy in the Lord, and
hence unable to lead others into joy and peace.

3. To bring believers back to the Scriptures, to search the
Word and find its hidden treasures ; to test everything by
this divine touchstone and hold fast only what will stand

The Period of World-wide Witness 247

this test; to make it the daily subject of meditative and
prayerful examination in order to translate it into daily
obedience.

4. To promote among all true believers, Irotlierly love; to
lead them to make less of those non-essentials in which
disciples differ, and to make more of those great essential
and foundation truths in which all true believers are united;
to help all who love and trust one Lord to rise above
narrow sectarian prejudices, and barriers to fellowship.

5. To stretigthen the faith of believers, encouraging a
simpler trust, and a more real and unwavering confidence
in God, and particularly in the sure answers to believing
prayer, based upon His definite promises.

6. To promote separation from the world and deadness
to it, and so to increase heavenly-mindedness in children
of God; at the same time warning against fanatical
extremes and extravagances, such as sinless perfection
while in the flesh.

7. And finally to fix the hope of disciples on the blessed
coming of our Lord Jesus; and, in connection therewith,
to instruct them as to the true character and object of the
present dispensation, and the relation of the church to the
world in this period of the outgathering of the Bride of
Christ.

These seven objects may be briefly epitomized thus :
Mr. Miiller's aim was to lead sinners to believe on the
name of the Son of God, and so to have eternal life; to
help those who have thus believed, to Inow that they have
this life ; to teach them so to build up themselves on their
most holy faith, by diligent searching into the word of
God, and praying in the Holy Ghost, as that this
life shall be more and more a real possession and a
conscious possession ; to promote among all disciples
the unity of the Spirit and the charity which is the bond

248 George Muller of Brfsto/

of perfectness, and to help them to exhibit that
life before the world ; to incite them to cultivate an
unworldly and spiritual type of character such as conforms
to the life of God in them ; to lead them to the prayer of
faith which is both the expression and the expansion of the
life of faith ; and to direct their hope to the final appear-
ing of the Lord, so that they should purify themselves even
as He is pure, and occupy till He comes. Mr. Miiller was
thus giving himself to the double work of evangelization
and edification, on a scale commensurate with his love for
a dying world, as opportunity afforded doing good unto all
men, and especially to them who are of the household of
faith.

Of these long and busy missionary journeys, it is needful
to give only the outline, or general survey. March 26,
1875, is an important date, for it marks the starting-poir ".
He himself calls this " the beginning of his missionaiy
tours."

From Bristol he went to Brighton, Lewes, and Sunder-
land— on the way to Sunderland preaching to a great
audience in the Metropolitan Tabernacle, at Mr. Spur-
geon's request — then to Newcastle-on-Tyne, and back to
London, where he spoke at the Mildmay Park Conference,
Talbot Road Tabernacle, and ' Edinburgh Castle.' This
tour closed, June 5th, after seventy addresses in public,
during about ten weeks.

Less than six weeks passed, when, on August 14th, the
second tour began, in which case the special impulse that
moved him was a desire to follow up the revival work of
Mr. Moody and Mr. Sankey. Their short stay in each place
made them unable to lead on new converts to higher at-
tainments in knowledge and grace, and there seemed to
be a call for some instruction fitted to confirm these new
believers in the life of obedience. Mr, Miiller accordingly

The Period of World-wide Witness 249

followed these evangelists in England, Ireland, and Scot-
land, staying in each place from one week to six, and seek-
ing to educate and edify those who had been led to Christ.
Among the places visited on this errand in 1875, were
London ; then Kilmarnock, Saltwater, Dundee, Perth,
Glasgow, Kirkentilloch in Scotland, and Dublin in Ireland;
then, returning to England, he went to Leamington,
Warwick, Kenilworth, Coventry, Kugby, etc. In some cases,
notably at Mildmay Park, Dundee and Glasgow, Liverpool
and Dublin, the audiences numbered from two thousand
to six thousand, but everywhere rich blessing came from
above. This second tour extended into the new year, 1876,
and took in Liverpool, York, Kendal, Carlisle, Annan,
Edinburgh, Arbroath, Montrose, Aberdeen, and other
places; and when it closed in July, having lasted nearly
eleven months, Mr. Miiller had preached at least three hun-
dred and six times, an average of about one ser-
mon a day, exclusive of days spent in travel. So accept-
able and profitable were these labours that there were over
one hundred invitations urged upon him which he was
unable to accept.

The third tour was on the Continent. It occupied most
of the year closing May 26, 1877, and embraced Paris,
various places in Switzerland, Prussia and Holland,
Alsace, Wurtemberg, Baden, Hesse Darmstadt, etc. Alto-
gether over three hundred addresses were given in about
seventy cities and villages to all of which he had been in-
vited by letter. When this tour closed more than sixty
written invitations remained unaccepted, and Mr. Miiller
found that, through his work and his writings, he was as
well known in the continental countries visited, as in Eng-
land.

Turning now toward America, the fourth tour extended
from August, 1877, to June of the next year. For many

250 George Miiller of Bristol

years invitations had been coming with growing fre-
quency, from the United States and Canada; and of late
their urgency led him to recognize in them the call of God,
especially as he thought of the many thousands of Ger-
mans across the Atlantic, who as they heard him speak in
their own native tongue would keep the more silence.
(Acts xxii. 2.)

Mr. and Mrs. Miiller, landing at Quebec, thence went to
the United States, where, during ten months, his labours
stretched over a vast area, including the States of New
York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Mary-
land, District of Columbia, Virginia, South Carolina,
Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, and Missouri. Thus
having swept round the Atlantic sea-border, he crossed to
the Pacific coast, and returning visited Salt Lake City in
Utah — the very centre and stronghold of Mormonism —
Illinois, Ohio, etc. He spoke frequently to large congre-
gations of Germans, and, in the Southern States, to the
coloured population; but he regarded no opportunity for
service afforded him on this tour as so inspiring as the re-
peated meetings with and for ministers, evangelists, pas-
tors, and Christian workers; and, next to them in impor-
tance, his interviews with large bodies of students and pro-
fessors in the universities, colleges, theological seminaries,
and other higher schools of education. To cast the salt
of the gospel into the very springs of bocial influence, the
sources whence power flows, was to him a most sacred priv-
ilege. His singular catholicity, charity, and humility drew
to him even those who differed with him, and all denom-
inations of Christians united in giving him access to the
people. During this tour he spoke three hundred times,
and travelled nearly ten thousand miles; over one hundred
invitations being declined, for simple lack of time and
strength.

The Period of World-wide Witness 251

After a stay in Bristol of about two months, on Septem-
ber 5, 1878, he and his wife began the fifth of these mis-
sionary tours. In this case, it was on the Continent, where
he ministered in English, German, and French; and in
Spain and Italy, when these tongues were not available,
his addresses were through an interpreter. Many open
doors the Lord set before him, not only to the poorer and
humbler classes, but to those in the middle and higher
ranks. In the Riviera, he had access to many of the no-
bility and aristocracy, who from different countries sought
health and rest in the equable climate of the Mediterra-
nean, and at Mentone he and Mr. Spurgeon held sweet
converse. In Spain Mr. Miiller was greatly gladdened by
seeing for himself the schools, entirely supported by the
funds of the Scriptural Knowledge Institution, and by
finding that, in hundreds of cases, even popish parents so
greatly valued these schools that they continued to send
their children, despite both the threats and persuasions of
the Romish priests. He found, moreover, that the pupils
frequently at their homes read to their parents the word
of God and sang to them the gospel hymns learned at these
schools, so that the influence exerted was not bounded by
its apparent horizon, as diffused or refracted sunlight
reaches with its illumining rays far beyond the visible
track of the orb of day.

The work had to contend with governmental opposition.
Wlien a place was first opened at Madrid for gospel ser-
vices, a sign was placed outside, announcing the fact.
Official orders were issued that the sign should be painted
over, so as to obliterate the inscription. The painter of
the sign, unwilling both to undo his own work and to
hinder the work of God, painted the sign over with water-
colours, which would leave the original announcement half
visible, and would soon be washed off by the rains; where-

252 George Muller of Bristol

upon the govemmeiit sent its own workman to daub the
sign over with thick oil-colour.

Mr. Muller, ready to preach the gospel to those at Rome
also, felt his spirit saddened and stirred within him, as
he saw that city wholly given to idolatry — not pagan but
papal idolatry — the Eome not of the Caesars, but of the
popes. While at Naples he ascended Vesuvius. Those
masses of lava, which seemed greater in bulk than the
mountain itself, more impressed him with the power of
God than anything else he had ever seen. As he looked
upon that smoking cone, and thought of the liquid death
it had vomited forth, he said within himself, " What can-
not God do ! " He had before felt somewhat of His Al-
mightiness in love and grace, but he now saw its manifes-
tation in Judgment and wrath. His visit to the Vaudoia
valleys, where so many martyrs had suffered banishment
and imprisonment, loss of goods and loss of life for Jesus'
sake, moved him to the depths of his being and stimulated
in him the martyr spirit.

When he arrived again in Bristol, June 18, 1879, he had
been absent nine months and twelve days, and preached
two hundred and eighty-six times and in forty-six towns
and cities. After another ten weeks in Bristol, he and his
wife sailed again for America, the last week of August,
1879, landing at New York the first week in September.
This visit took in the States lying between the Atlantic
Ocean and the valley of the Mississippi — New York and
New Jersey, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and Illinois, Wis-
consin, Iowa, Minnesota — and, from London and Hamilton
to Quebec, Canada also shared the blessing. This visit
covered only two hundred and seventy-two days, but he
preached three hundred times, and in over forty cities.
Over one hundred and fifty written invitations still re-
mained without response, and the number increased the

The Period of World-wide Witness 253

longer his stay. Mr. Miiller therefore assuredly gathered
that the Lord called him to return to America, after
another brief stay at Bristol, where he felt it needful to
spend a season annually, to keep in close touch with the
work at home and relieve Mr. and Mrs. Wright of their
heavy responsibilities, for a time.

Accordingly on September 15, 1880, again turning from
Bristol, these travellers embarked the next day on their
seventh mission tour, landing, ten days later, at Quebec.
Mr. Miiller had a natural antipathy to the sea, in his
earlier crossing to the Continent having suifered much
from sea-sickness; but he had undertaken these long voy-
ages, not for his own pleasure or profit, but wholly on God's
errand; and he felt it to be a peculiar mark of the loving-
kindness of the Lord that, while he was ready to endure
any discomfort, or risk his life for His sake, he had not in
his six crossings of the Atlantic suffered in the least, and
on this particular voyage was wholly free from any in-
disposition.

From Quebec he went to Massachusetts, Connecticut,
New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Among other
places of special interest were Boston, Plymouth — the
landing-place of the Pilgrims, — Wellesley and South Had-
ley colleges — the great schools for woman's higher educa-
tion,— and the centres farther westward, where he had
such wide access to Germans. This tour extended over
a smaller area than before, and lasted but eight months;
but the impression on the people was deep and permanent.
He had spoken about two hundred and fifty times in all;
and Mrs. Miiller had availed herself of many opportunities
of personal dealing with inquirers, and of distributing
books and tracts among both believers and unbelievers. She
had also written for her husband more than seven hundred
letters, — this of itself being no light task, inasmuch as it

254 George MuUer of Bristol

reaches an average of about three a day. On May 30, 1881,
they were again on British shores.

The eighth long preaching tour, from August 23, 1881,
to May 30, 1883, was given to the Continent of Europe,
where again Mr. Miiller felt led by the low state of relig-
ious life in Switzerland and Germany.

This visit was extended to the Holy Land in a way strik-
ingly providential. After speaking at Alexandria, Cairo,
and Port Said, he went to Jaffa, and thence to Jerusalem,
on November 28. With reverent feet he touched the soil
once trodden by the feet of the Son of God, visiting, with
pathetic interest, Gethsemane and Golgotha, and crossing
the Mount of Olives to Bethany, thence to Bethlehem and
back to Jaffa, and so to Haipha, Mt. Carmel, and
Beyrut, Smyrna, Ephesus, Constantinople, Athens, Brin-
disi, Eome, and Florence. Again were months crowded
with services of all sorts whose fruit will appear only in
the Day of the Lord Jesus, addresses being made in Eng-
lish, German, and French, or by translation into Arabic,
Armenian, Turkish, and modem Greek, Sightseeing was
always but incidental to the higher service of the Master.
During this eighth tour, covering some eight months, Mr.
Miiller spoke hundreds of times, with all the former tokens
of God's blessing on his seed-sowing.

The ninth tour, from August 8, 1882, to June 1, 1883,
was occupied with labours in Germany, Austria, and Eus-
sia, including Bavaria, Hungary, Bohemia, Saxony, and
Poland. His special joy it was to bear witness in
Kroppenstadt, his birthplace, after an absence of about
sixty-four years. At St. Petersburg, while the guest oi
Princess Lieven, at her mansion he met and ministered to
many of high rank; he also began to hold meetings in the
house of Colonel Paschkoff, who had suffered not only per-
secution but exile for the Lord's sake. While the Scrip-

The Period of World-wide Witness 255

^iures were being read one day in Euss^, with seven poor
Russians, a policeman sununarily broke up the meeting
and dispersed the little company. At Lodz in Poland, a
letter was received, in behalf of ' almost the whole popula-
tion,' begging him to remain longer; and so signs seemed
to multiply, as he went forw^ard, that he was in the path
of duty and that God was with him.

On September 26, 1883, the tenth tour began, this time
his face being tuTned toward the Orient. Nearly sixty
years before he had desired to go to the East Indies as
a missionary; now the Lord permitted him to carry
out the desire in a new and strange way, and India was
the twenty-third country visited in his tours. He trav-
elled over 21,000 miles, and spoke over two hundred times,
to missionaries and Christian workers, European resi-
dents, Eurasians, Hindus, Moslems, educated natives, native
boys and girls in the orphanage at Colar, etc. Thus, in
his seventy-ninth year, this servant of God was still in
labours abundant, and in all his work conspicuously blessed
of God.

After some months of preaching in England, Scotland,
and "Wales, on November 19, 1885, he and his wife set out
on their fourth visit to the United States, and their
eleventh longer mission tour. Crossing to the Pacific, they
went to Sydney, New South "Wales, and, after seven
months in Australia, sailed for Java, and thence to China,
arriving at Hong Kong, September 12th; Japan and the
Straits of Malacca were also included in this visit to the
Orient. The return to England was by way of Nice; and,
after travelling nearly 38,000 miles, in good health Mr.
and Mrs. Miiller reached home on June 14, 1887, having
been absent more than one year and seven months, during
which Mr. Miiller had preached whenever and wherever
©pportunity was afforded.

256 George Muller of Bristol

Less than two months later, on August 12, 1887, he
sailed for South Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, Cey-
lon, and India. This twelfth long tour closed in March,
1890, having covered thousands of miles. The intense
heat at one time compelled Mr. Miiller to leave Calcutta,
and on the railway journey to Darjeeling his wife feared
he would die. But he was mercifully spared.

It was on this tour and in the month of January. 1890,
while at Jubbulpore, preaching with great help from
the Lord, that a letter was put into Mr. Miiller's hands,
from a missionary at Agra, to whom Mr. Wright had sent
a telegram, informing his father-in-law of his dear Lydia's
death. For nearly thirty years she had laboured gratui-
tously at the orphan houses and it would be difficult to fill
that vacancy; but for fourteen years she had been her
husband's almost ideal companion, and for nearly fifty-
eight years her father's unspeakable treasure — and here
were two other voids which could never be filled. But Mr.
Miiller's heart, as also Mr. Wright's, was kept at rest by
the strong confidence that, however mysterious God's
ways, all His dealings belong to one harmonious spiritual
mechanism in which every part is perfect and all things
work together for good. (Romans viii. 28.)

This sudden bereavement led Mr. Miiller to bring his
mission tour in the East to a close and depart for Bristol,
that he might both comfort Mr. Wright and relieve him
of undue pressure of work.

After a lapse of two months, once more Mr. and Mrs.
Miiller left home for other extensive missionary journeys.
They went to the Continent and were absent from July,
1890, to May, 1892. A twelvemonth was spent in Ger-
many and Holland, Austria and Italy. This absence in
fact included two tours, with no interval between them,
and concluded the series of extensive journeys reaching
through seventeen years.

The Period of World-wide Witness 257

This man — from his seventieth to his eighty-seventh
year — when most men are withdrawing from all activities,
had travelled in forty-two countries and over two hun-
dred thousand miles, a distance equivalent to nearly eight
journeys round the globe ! He estimated that during
these seventeen years he had addressed over three mil-
lion people; and from all that can be gathered from the
records of these tours, we estimate that he must have
spoken, outside of Bristol, between five thousand and
six thousand times. What sort of teaching and testimony
occupied these tours, those who have known the preacher
and teacher need not be told. While at Berlin in 1891,
he gave an address that serves as an example of the vital
truths which he was wont to press on the attention of
fellow disciples. We give a brief outline:

He first urged that believers should never, even under
the greatest difficulties, be discouraged, and gave for his
position sound scriptural reasons. Then he pointed out
to them that the chief business of every day is first of all
to seek to be truly at rest and happy in God. Then he
showed how, from the word of God, all saved believers
may know their true standing in Christ, and how in cir-
cumstances of particular perplexity they might ascertain
the will of God. He then urged disciples to seek with in-
tense earnestness to become acquainted with God Himself
as revealed in the Holy Scriptures, and carefully to form
and maintain godly habits of systematic Bible study and
prayer, holy living and consecrated giving. He taught
that God alone is the one all-satisfying portion of the soul,
and that we must determine to possess and enjoy Him as
such. He closed by emphasizing it as the one, single, all-
absorbing, daily aim to glorify God in a complete surren-
der to His will and service.

In all these mission tours, again, the faithfulness of God

258 George Muller of Bristol

was conspicuously seen, in the bounteous supply of every
need. Steamer fares and long railway journeys; hotel ac-
commodations, ordinarily preferred to private hospitality,
which seriously interfered with private habits of devotion,
public work, and proper rest — such expenses demanded a
heavy outlay; the new mode of life, now adopted for the
Lord's sake, was at least three times as costly as the former
frugal housekeeping; and yet, in answer to prayer and
without any appeal to human help, the Lord furnished all
that was required.

Accustomed to look, step by step, for such tokens of
divine approval, as emboldened him to go foward, Mr.
Miiller records how, when one hundred pounds was sent
to him for personal uses, this was recognized as a foretoken
from his gi-eat Provider, "by which," he writes, " God
meant to say to my own heart, ' I am pleased with thy work
and service in going about on these long missionary tours.
I will pay the expenses thereof, and I give thee here a
specimen of what I am yet willing to do for thee.' "

Two other facts Mr. Miiller specially records in con-
nection with these tours: first, God's gracious guiding
and guarding of the work at Bristol so that it suffered
nothing from his absence; and secondly, the fact that
these journeys had no connection with collecting of money
for the work or even informing the public of it. No
reference was made to the Institution at Bristol, except
when urgently requested, and not always even then; nor
were collections ever made for it. Statements found their
way into the press that in America large sums were gath-
ered, but their falsity is sufficiently shown by the fact that
in his first tour in America, for example, the sum total of
all such gifts was less than sixty pounds, not more than
two thirds of the outlay of every day at the orphan houses.

These missionary tours were not always approved even

The Period of World-wide Witness 259

by the friends and advisers of Mr. Miiller. In 1882, while
experiencing no little difficulty and trial, especially as to
funds, there were not a few who felt a deep interest in
the Institution on Ashley Down, who would have had
God's servant discontinue his long absences, as to them
it appeared that these were the main reason for the falling
off in funds. He was always open to counsel, but he
always reserved to himself an independent decision; and,
on weighing the matter well, these were some of the
reasons that led him to think that the work of God at
home did not demand his personal presence:

1. He had observed year after year that, under the godly
and efficient supervision of Mr. Wright and his large staff
of helpers, every branch of the Scriptural Knowledge In-
stitution had been found as healthy and fruitful during
these absences as when Mr. Miiller was in Bristol.

2. The Lord's approval of this work of wider witness
had been in manner conclusive and in measure abundant,
as in the ample supply of funds for these tours, in the
wide doors of access opened, and in the large fruit already
evident in blessing to thousands of souls.

3. The strong impression upon his mind that this was
{he work which was to occupy the ' evening of his life,'
grew in depth, and was confirmed by so many signs of
God^s leading that he could not doubt that he was led
both of God^s providence and Spirit.

4. Even while absent, he was never out of communica-
tion with the heplers at home. Generally he heard at least
weekly from Mr. Wright, and any matters needing his
counsel were thus submitted to him by letter; prayer to
God was as effectual at a distance from Bristol as on the
spot; and bis periodical returns to that city for some weeks
or months between these tours kept him in close touch
with every department of the work.

26o George Muller of Bristol

5. The supreme consideration, however, was this: To
suppose it necessary for Mr. Muller himself to he at home
in order that sufficient means should he supplied, was a direct
contradiction of the very principles upon which, and to
maintain which, the whole work had been begun. Real trust
in God is above circumstances and appearances. And this
had been proven; for, during the third year after these
tours began, the income for the various departments of the
Scriptural Knowledge Institution was larger than ever
during the preceding forty-four years of its existence; and
therefore, nothwithstanding the loving counsel of a few
donors and friends who advised that Mr. Miiller should
stay at home, he kept to his purpose and his principles,
partly to demonstrate that no man's presence is indis-
pensable to the work of the Lord. " Them that honour
Me I will honour." (1 Samuel ii. 39.) He regarded it the
greatest honour of his life to bear this wide witness to God,
and God correspondingly honoured His servant in bearing
this testimony.

It was during the first and second of these American
tours that the writer had the privilege of coming into per-
sonal contact with Mr. Miiller. While I was at San Fran-
cisco, in 1878, he was to speak on Sabbath afternoon, May
12th, at Oakland, just across the bay, but conscientious
objections to needless Sunday travel caused me volun-
tarily to lose what then seemed the only chance of seeing
and hearing a man whose career had been watched by me
for over twenty years, as he was to leave for the East a
few days earlier than myself and was likely to be always
a little in advance. On reaching Ogden, however, where
the branch road from Salt Lake City joins the main line,
Mr. and Mrs. Miiller boarded my train and we travelled
to Chicago together. I introduced myself, and held with
him daily converse about divine things, and, while tarry-

The Period of World-wide Witness 261

ing at Chicago, had numerous opportunities for hearing
him speak there.

The results of this close and frequent contact were
singularly blessed to me, and at my invitation he came to
Detroit, Michigan, on his next tour, and spoke in the Fort
Street Presbyterian Church, of which I was pastor, on
Sundays, January 18 and 25, 1880, and on Monday and
Friday evenings, in the interval.

In addition to these numerous and favourable op-
tunities thus providentially afforded for hearing and
conversing with Mr. Miiller, he kindly met me for several
days in my study, for an hour at a time, for conference
upon those deeper truths of the word of God and deeper
experiences of the Christian life, upon which I was then
very desirous of more light. For example, I desired
to understand more clearly the Bible teaching about the
Lord's coming. I had opposed with much persistency
what is known as the premillennial view, and brought
out my objections, to all of which he made one reply:
" My beloved brother, I have heard all your argu-
ments and objections against this view, but they have
one fatal defect: not one of them is based upon the word of
God. You will never get at the truth upon any matter of
divine revelation unless you lay aside your prejudices and
like a little child ask simply what is the testimony of
Scripture."

With patience and wisdom he unravelled the tangled
skein of my perplexity and difficulty, and helped me to
settle upon biblical principles all matters of so-called ex-
pediency. As he left me, about to visit other cities, his
words fixed themselves in my memory. I had expressed
to him my growing conviction that the worship in the
churches had lost its primitive simplicity; that the pew-
rent system was pernicious; that fixed salaries for ministers

262 George Muller of Bristol

of the gospel were unscriptural; that the church of God
should be administered only by men full of the Holy
Ghost, and that the duty of Christians to the non-church-
going masses was grossly neglected, etc. He solemnly said
to me: "My beloved brother, the Lord has given you
much light upon these matters, and will hold you cor-
respondingly responsible for its use. If you obey Him and
walk in the light, you will have more; if not, the light will
be withdrawn."

It is a singular lesson on the importance of an anointed
tongue, that forty simple words, spoken over twenty years
ago, have had a daily influence on the life of him to whom
they were spoken. Amid subtle temptations to com-
promise the claims of duty and hush the voice of con-
science, or of the Spirit of God, and to follow the tradi-
tions of men rather than the word of God, those words of
that venerated servant of God have recurred to mind with
ever fresh force. We risk the forfeiture of privileges which
are not employed for God, and of obscuring convictions
which are not carried into action. God's word to us is
"use or lose." "To him that hath shall be given: from
him that hath not shall be taken away even that which
he seemeth to have." It is the hope and the prayer of
him who writes this memoir that the reading of these
pages may prove to be an interview with the man whose
memorial they are, and that the witness borne by George
Muller may be to many readers a source of untold and life-
long blessing.

It need not be said that to carry out conviction into
action is a costly sacrifice. It may make necessary renun-
ciations and separations which leave one to feel a strange
sense both of deprivation and loneliness. But he who will
fly as an eagle does into the higher levels where cloudless
day abides, and live in the sunshine of God, must consent

The Period of World-wide Witness 263

to live a comparatively lonely life. No bird is so solitary
as the eagle. Eagles never fly in flocks: one, or at most
two, and the two, mates, being ever seen at once. But the
life that is lived unto God, however it forfeits human
companionship, knows divine fellowship, and the child of
God who like his Master undertakes to " do always the
things that please Him," can like his Master say, " The
Father hath not left me alone." " I am alone; yet not
alone, for the Father is with me." Whosoever will prompt-
ly follow whatever light God gives, without regard to
human opinion, custom, tradition, or approbation, will
learn the deep meaning of these words: " Then shall w"
know, if we follow on to know the Lord."

CHAPTER XVIII

FAITH AND PATIENCE IN SEEVING

Quantity of service is of far less importance than
quality. To do well, rather than to do much, will be the
motto of him whose main purpose is to please God. Our
Lord bade His disciples tarry until endued with power
from on high, because it is such enduement that gives to
all witness and work the celestial savour and flavour of the
Spirit.

Before we come to the closing scenes, we may well look
back over the life-work of George Miiller, which happily
illustrates both quantity and quality of service. It may
be doubted whether any other one man of this century
accomplished as much for God and man, and yet all the
abundant offerings which he brought to his Master ware
characterized by a heavenly fragrance.

The orphan work was but one branch of that tree —
the Scriptural Knowledge Institution — which owed its
existence to the fact that its founder devised large and
liberal things for the Lord's cause. He sought to estab-
lish or at least to aid Christian schools u^herever needful, to
scatter Bibles and Testaments, Christian books and tracts;
to aid missionaries who were witnessing to the truth and
working on a scriptural basis in destitute parts ; and
though each of these objects might well have engrossed
his mind, they were all combined in the many-sided work
which his love for souls suggested.
264

Faith ancf Patience in Serving 265

An aggressive spirit is never content with what has been
done, but is prompt to enter any new door that is provi-
dentially opened. When the Paris Exposition of 1867
offered such rare opportunities, both for preaching to the
crowds passing through the French capital, and for circu-
lating among them the Holy Scriptures, he gladly availed
himself of the services of two brethren whom God had sent
to labour there, one of whom spoke three, and the other,
eight, modern languages ; and through them were circu-
lated, chiefly at the Exposition, and in thirteen different
languages, nearly twelve thousand copies of the word of
God, or portions of the same. It has been estimated that
at this International Exhibition there were distributed in
all over one and a quarter million Bibles, in sixteen
tongues, which were gratefully accepted, even by Romish
priests. Within six months those who thus entered God's
open door scattered more copies of the Book of God than
in ordinary circumstances would have been done by ten
thousand colporteurs in twenty times that number of
months, and thousands of souls are known to have found
salvation by the simple reading of the New Testament.
Of this glorious work, George Miiller was permitted to be
so largely a promoter.

At the Havre Exhibition of the following year, 1868, a
similar work was done ; and in like manner, when a provi-
dential door was unexpectedly opened into the Land of the
Inquisition, Mr. Miiller promptly took measures to pro-
mote the circulation of the Word in Spain. In the streets
of Madrid the open Bible was seen for the first time, and
copies were sold at the rate of two hundred and fifty in an
hour, so that the supply was not equal to the demand. The
same facts were substantially repeated when free Italy
furnished a field for sowing the seed of the Kingdom.
This wide-awake servant of God watched the signs of the

266 George Muller of Bristol

times and, while others slept, followed the Lord's signals
of advance.

One of the most fascinating features of the Narrative
is found in the letters from his Bible distributors. It is
interesting also to trace the story of the growth of the
tract enterprise, until, in 1874, the circulation exceeded
three and three-quarter millions, God in His faithfulness
supplying abundant means.*

The good thus effected by the distributors of evangelical
literature must not be overlooked in this survey of the
many useful agencies employed or assisted by Mr. Miiller.
To him the world was a field to be sown with the seed of
the Kingdom, and opportunities were eagerly embraced
for widely disseminating the truth. Tracts were liberally
used, given away in large quantities at open-air services,
fairs, races and steeplechases, and among spectators at pub-
lic executions, or among passengers on board ships and rail-
way trains, and by the way. Sometimes, at a single gath-
ering of the multitudes, fifteen thousand were distributed
judiciously and prayerfully, and this branch of the work
has, during all these years, continued with undiminished
fruitfulness to yield its harvest of good.

All this was, from first to last, and of necessity, a work
of faith. How far faith must have been kept in constant
and vigorous exercise can be appreciated only by putting
one's self in Mr. Miiller's place. In the year 1874, for in-
stance, about forty-four thousand pounds were needed, and
he was compelled to count the cost and face the situation.
Two thousand and one hundred hungry mouths were daily
to be fed, and as many bodies to be clad and cared for.
One hundred and eighty-nine missionaries were needing
assistance ; one hundred schools, with about a*D<^ thou-
sand pupils, to be supported ; four million pages of
* Narrative. IV. 244.

Faith and Patience in Serving 267

tracts and tens of thousands of copies of the Scrip-
tiires to be yearly provided for distribution ; and, be-
side all these ordinary expenses, inevitable crises or
emergencies, always liable to arise in connection with the
conduct of such extensive enterprises, would from time to
time call for extraordinary outlay. The man who was at
the head of the Scriptural Knowledge Institution had to
look at this array of unavoidable expenses, and at the
game time face the human possibility and probability of an
empty treasury whence the last shilling had been drawn.
Let him tell us how he met such a prospect:
" God, our infinitely rich Treasurer, remains to us. It
is this which gives me peace. . . . Invariably, with this
probability before me, I have said to myself: ' God who has
raised up this work through me ; God who has led me gen-
erally year after year to enlarge it ; God, who has sup-
ported this work now for more than forty years, will still
help and will not suffer me to be confounded, because I
rely upon Him. I commit the whole work to Him, and
He will provide me wdth what I need, in future also,
though I know not whence the means are to come.' " *

Thus he wrote in his journal, on July 28, 1874. Since
then twenty-four years have passed, and to this day the
work goes on, though he who then had the guidance of it
sleeps in Jesus. Whoever has had any such dealings with
God, on however small a scale, cannot even thinh of the
Lord as failing to honour a faith so simple, genuine, and
childlike, a faith which leads a helpless believer thus to cast
himself and all his cares upon God with utter abandonment
of all anxiety. This man put God to proof, and proved
to himself and to all who receive his testimony that it is
blessed to wait only upon Him. The particular point
which he l*ad in view, in making these entries in his jour-
* Narrative. IV. 386, 387.

268 George Muller of Bristol

nal, is the object also of embodying them in these pages,
namely, to show that, while the annual expenses of this In-
stitution were so exceedingly large and the income so ap-
parently uncertain, the soul of this believer was, to use his
own words, " throughout, without the least wavering,
stayed upon God, believing that He who had through him
begun the Institution, enlarged it almost year after year,
and upheld it for forty years in answer to prayer by faith,
would do this still and not suffer this servant of His to be
confounded." * Believing that God would still help, and
supply the means, George Miiller was willing, and
teOROUGHLT in heart prepared, if necessary, to pass again
through similar severe and prolonged seasons of trial as
he had already endured.

The Living God had kept him calm and restful, amid
all the ups and downs of his long experience as the super-
intendent and director of this many-sided work, though
the tests of faith had not been light or short of duration.
For more than ten years at a time — as from August, 1838,
to April, 1849, day by day, and for months together from
meal to meal — it was necessary to look to God, almost with-
out cessation, for daily supplies. When, later on, the
Institution was twentyfold larger and the needs propor-
tionately greater, for months at a time the Lord likewise
constrained His servant to lean from hour to hour, in the
same dependence, upon Him. All along through these
periods of unceasing want, the Eternal God was his refuge
and underneath were the Everlasting Arms. He reflected
that God was aware of all this enlargement of the work
and its needs; he comforted himself with the consoling
thought that he was seeking his Master's glory; and that if
in this way the greater glory would accrue to Him for the
good of His people and of those who were still unbelievers,
* Narrative, IV, 389.

Faith and Patience in Serving 269

it was no concern of the servant; nay, more than this, it be-
hooved the servant to he willing to go on in this path of
trial, even unto the end of his course, if so it should please
his Master, who guides His affairs with divine discretion.

The trials of faith did not cease even until the end.
July 28, 1881, finds the following entry in Mr. Miiller's
journal :

" The income has been for some time past only about a
third part of the expenses. Consequently all we have for
the support of the orphans is nearly gone ; and for the
first four objects of the Institution we have nothing at
all in hand. The natural appearance now is that the work
cannot be carried on. But I believe that the Lord will
help, both with means for the orphans and also for other
objects of the Institution, and that we shall not be con-
founded; also that the work shall not need to be given
up. I am fully expecting help, and have written this to
the glory of God, that it may be recorded hereafter for the
encouragement of His children. The result will be seen.
I expect that we shall not be confounded, though for some
years we have not been so poor."

While faith thus leaned on God, prayer took more
vigorous hold. Six, seven, eight times a day, he and his
dear wife were praying for means, looking for answers,
and firmly persuaded that their expectations would not
be disappointed. Since that entry was made, seventeen
more years have borne their witness that this trust was not
put to shame. Not a branch of this tree of holy enterprise
has been cut off by the sharp blade of a stern necessity.

Though faith had thus tenaciously held fast to the prom-
ises, the presisure was not at once relieved. When, a fort-
night after these confident records of trust in God had been
spread on the pages of the journal, the balance for the
orphans was less than it had been for twenty-five years,

270 George Muller of Bristol

it would have seemed to human sight as though God had
forgotten to be gracious. But, on August 23d, over one
thousand pounds came in for the support of the orphans
and thus relief was afforded for a time.

Again, let us bear in mind how in the most unprece-
dented straits God alone was made the confidant, even the
best friends of the Institution, alike the poor and the rich,
being left in ignorance of the pressure of want. It
would have been no sin to have made known the circum-
stances, or even to have made an appeal for aid to the
many believers who would gladly have come to the relief
of the work. But the testimony to the Lord was to be jeal-
ously guarded, and the main object of this work of faith
would have been imperilled just so far as by any appeal to
men this witness to God was weakened.

In this crisis, and in every other, faith triumphed, and
so the testimony to a prayer-hearing God grew in volume
and power as the years went on. It was while as yet this
period of testing was not ended, and no permanent relief
was yet supplied, that Mr. Miiller, with his wife, left Bris-
tol on August 23d, for the Continent, on his eighth long
preaching tour. Thus, at a time when, to the natural eye,
his own presence would have seemed well-nigh indis-
pensable, he calmly departed for other spheres of duty,
leaving the work at home in the hands of Mr. Wright and
his helpers. The tour had been already arranged for,
under God's leading, and it was undertaken, with the sup-
porting power of a deep conviction that God is as near to
those who in prayer wait on Him in distant lands, as on
Ashley Down, and needs not the personal presence of any
man in any one place, or at any time, in order to carry on
His work.

In an American city, a half-idiotic boy who was bearing
a heavy burden asked a drayman, who was driving an

i^aith and Patience in Serving 271

empty cart, for a ride. Being permitted, he mounted the
cart with his basket, but thinking he might so relieve the
horse a little, while still himself riding, lifted his load and
carried it. We laugh at the simplicit}' of the idiotic lad,
and yet how often we are guilty of similar folly ! We pro-
fess to cast ourselves and our cares upon the Lord, and
then persist in bearing our own burdens, as if we felt that
He would be unequal to the task of sustaining us and our
loads. It is a most wholesome lesson for Christian
workers to learn that all true work is primarily the Lord's,
and only secondarily ours, and that therefore all ' care-
fulness ' on our part is distrust of Him, implying a sinful
self-conceit which overlooks the fact that He is the one
Worker and all others are only His instruments.

As to our trials, difficulties, losses, and disappointments,
we are prone to hesitate about committing them to the
Lord, trustfully and calmly. We thinly; we have done well
if we take refuge in the Lord's promise to his reluctant
disciple Peter, " What I do thou knowest not now, but
thou shalt know hereafter," referring this ' hereafter ' to
the future state where we look for the solution of all prob-
lems. In Peter's case the hereafter appears to have come
when the feet-washing was done and Christ explained
its meaning ; and it is very helpful to our faith to observe
Mr. Miiller's witness concerning all these trying and dis-
appointing experiences of his life, that, without one ex-
ception, he had found already in this life that they
•worked together for his good ; so that he had reason to
praise God for them all. In the ninetieth psalm we read :

*'Make us glad according to the days wherein Thou hast
afflicted us
And the years wherein we have seen evil."

(Psalm xc. 15.)

2 72 George Muller of Bristol

This is an inspired prayer, and such prayer is a prophecy.
Not a few saints have found, this side of heaven, a divine
gladness for every year and day of sadness, when their
afflictions and adversities have been patiently home.

Faith is the secret of both peace and steadfastness, amid
all tendencies to discouragement and discontinuance in
well-doing. James was led by the Spirit of God to write
that the unstable and unbelieving man is like the " wave of
the sea driven with the wind and tossed." There are
two motions of the waves — one up and down, which we
call undulation, the other to and fro, which we call
fluctuation. How appropriately both are referred to —
" tossed " up and down, " driven " to and fro ! The
double-minded man lacks steadiness in both respects: his
faith has no uniformity of experience, for he is now at the
crest of the wave and now in the trough of the sea; it has
no uniformity of progress, for whatever he gains to-day
he loses to-morrow.

Fluctuations in income and apparent prosperity did not
take George Miiller by surprise. He expected them, for
if there were no crises and critical emergencies how could
there be critical deliverances ? His trust was in God, not
in donors or human friends or worldly circumstances:
and because he trusted in the Living God who says of
Himself, " I am the Lord, I change not," amid all other
changes, his feet were upon the one Eock of Ages that no
earthquake shock can move from its eternal foundations.

Two facts Mr. Miiller gratefully records at this period of
his life: (Narrative, IV. 411, 418.)

First. " For above fifty years I have now walked, by
His grace, in a path of complete reliance upon Him who
is the faithful one, for everything I have needed; and yet
I am increasingly convinced that it is by His help alone I
am enabled to continue in this course; for, if left to my-

Faith and Patience in Serving 273

self, even after the precious enjoyment so long experi-
enced of walking thus in fellowship with God, I should
yet be tempted to abandon this path of entire dependence
upon Him. To His praise, however, I am able to state
that for more than half a century I have never had the
least desire to do so."

Second. From May, 1880, to May 1881, a gracious work
of the Spirit had visited the orphans on Ashley Down and
in many of the schools. During the three months spent
by Mr. Miiller at home before sailing for America in Sep-
tember, 1880, he had been singularly drawn out in prayer
for such a visitation of grace, and had often urged it on the
prayers of his helpers. The Lord is faithful, and He
cheered the heart of His servant in his absence by abun-
dant answers to his intercessions. Before he had fairly
entered on his work in America, news came from home
of a blessed work of conversion already in progress, and
which went on for nearly a year, until there was good
ground for believing that in the five houses five hundred
and twelve orphans had found God their Father in Christ,
and nearly half as many more were in a hopeful state.

The Lord did not forget His promise, and He did keep
the plant He had permitted His servant to set in His
name in the soil on Ashley Down. Faith that was tried,
triumphed. On June 7, 188-1, a legacy of over eleven
thousand pounds reached him, the largest single gift ever
yet received, the largest donations which had preceded be-
ing respectively one thousand, two thousand, three thou-
sand, five thousand, eight thousand one hundred, and nine
thousand and ninety-one pounds.

This last amount, eleven thousand, had been due for
over six years from an estate, but had been kept back by
the delays of the Chancery Court. Prayer had been made
day by day that the bequest might be set free for its uses,

2 74 George Muller of Bristol

and now the full answer had come; and God had sin-
gularly timed the supply to the need, for there was at that
time only forty-one pounds ten shillings in hand, not
one half of the average daily expenses, and certain sani-
tary improvements were just about to be carried out which
would require an outlay of over two thousand pounds.

As Mr. Muller closed the solemn and blessed records of
1884, he wrote:

" Thus ended the year 1884, during which we had been
tried, greatly tried, in various ways, no doubt for the
exercise of our faith, and to make us know God more fully;
but during which we had also been helped and blessed,
and greatly helped and blessed. Peacefully, then, we were
able to enter upon the year 1885, fully assured that, as we
had God for tjs and with us, all, all would be well."
John Wesley had in the same spirit said a century be-
fore, " Best of all, God is with us."

Of late years the orphanage at Ashley Down has nf ':
had as many inmates as formerly, and some four or five
hundred more might now be received. Mr. Miiller felt
constrained, for some years previous to his death, to make
these vacancies known to the public, in hopes that some
destitute orphans might find there a home. But it must
be remembered that the provision for such children has
been greatly enlarged since this orphan work was begun.
In 1834 the total accommodation for all orphans, in Eng-
land, reached thirty-six hundred, while the prisons con-
tained nearly twice as many children under eight years of
age. This state of things led to the rapid enlargement
of the work until over two thousand were housed on Ash-
ley Down alone; and this colossal enterprise stimulated
others to open similar institutions until, fifty years after
Mr. Miiller began his work, at least one hundred thousand
orphans were cared for in England alone. Thus God

Faith and Patience in Serving 275

used Mr. Miiller to give such an impetus to this form
of philanthropy, that destitute children became the object
of a widely organized charity both on the part of indi-
viduals and of societies, and orphanages now exist for
various classes.

In all this manifold work which Mr. Miiller did he was,
to the last, self-oblivious. From the time when, in Octo-
ber, 1830, he had given up all stated salary, as pastor and
minister of the gospel, he had never received any salary,
stipend nor fixed income, of any sort, whether as a pastor
or as a director of the Scriptural Knowledge Institution.
Both principle and preference led him to wait only upon
God for all personal needs, as also for all the wants of his
work. Nevertheless God put into the hearts of His believ-
ing children in all parts of the world, not only to send gifts
in aid of the various branches of the work which Mr. Miil-
ler superintended, but to forward to him money for his
own uses, as well as clothes, food, and other temporal sup-
plies. He never appropriated one penny which was not in
some way indicated or designated as for his own personal
needs, and subject to his personal judgment. No straits
of individual or family want ever led him to use, even for
a time, what was sent to him for other ends. Generally
gifts intended for himself were wrapped up in paper with
his name written thereon, or in other equally distinct ways
designated as meant for him. Thus as early as 1874 his
year's income reached upwards of twenty-one hundred
pounds. Few nonconformist ministers, and not one in
twenty of the clergy of the establishment, have any such
income, which averages about six pounds for every day in
the year — and all this came from the Lord, simply in
answer to prayer, and without appeal of any sort to man
or even the revelation of personal needs. If we add lega-
cies paid at the end of the year 1873, Mr. Miiller's entire

276 George Miiller of Bristol

income in about thirteen months exceeded thirty-one
hundred pounds. Of this he gave, out and out to the
needy, and to the work of God, the whole amount save
about two hundred and fifty, expended on personal and
family wants; and thus started the year 1875 as poor as
he had begun forty-five years before; and if his personal
expenses were scrutinized it would be found that even
what he ate and drank and wore was with equal conscien-
tiousness expended for the glory of God, so that in a true
sense we may say he spent nothing on himself.

In another connection it has already been recorded that,
when at Jubbulpore in 1890, Mr. Miilier received tidings
of his daughter's death. To any man of less faith that
shock might have proved, at his advanced age, not only a
stunning but a fatal blow. His only daughter and only
child, Lydia, the devoted wife of James Wright, had been
called home, in her fifty-eighth year, and after nearly
thirty years of labour at the orphan houses. What this
death meant to Mr. Miiller, at the age of eighty-four, no
one can know who has not witnessed the mutual devotion
of that daughter and that father: and what that loss was
to Mr. Wright, the pen alike fails to portray. If the
daughter seemed to her father humanly indispensable, she
was to her husband a sort of inseparable part of his being;
and over such experiences as these it is the part of deli-
cacy to draw the curtain of silence. But it should be re-
corded that no trait in Mrs. Wright was more pathetically
attractive than her humility. Few disciples ever felt their
own nothingness as she did, and it was this ornament of
a meek and quiet spirit — the only ornament she wore —
that made her seem so beautiful to all who knew her
well enough for this ' hidden man of the heart ' to be dis-
closed to their vision. Did not that ornament in the Lord's

Faith and Patience in Serving 277

sight appear as of great price ? Truly " the beauty of the
Lord her God was upon her.

James Wright had lived -ttath his beloved Lydia for
more than eighteen years, in " unmarred and unbroken
felicity." They had together shared in prayers and tears
before God, bearing all life's burdens in common. Weak
as she was physically, he always leaned upon her and found
her a tower of spiritual strength in time of heavy re-
sponsibility. While, in her lowly-mindedness, she thought
of herself as a ' little useless thing,' he found her both a
capable and cheerful supervisor of many most important
domestic arrangements where a competent woman's hand
was needful: and, with rare tact and fidelity, she kept
watch of the wants of the orphans as her dear mother had
done before her. After her decease, her husband found
among her personal effects a precious treasure — a verse
written with her own hand:

" I have seen the face of Jesus,
Tell me not of aught beside ;
I have heard the voice of Jesus,
All my soul is satisfied."

This invaluable little fragment, like that other writing
found by this beloved daughter among her mother's
effects, became to Mr. Wright what that had been to Mr.
Miiller, a sort of last legacy from his departed and beloved
wife. Her desires were fulfilled; she had seen the face
and heard the voice of Him who alone could satisfy her
soul.

In the Fifty-third Eeport, which extends to May 26,
1892, it is stated that the expenses exceeded the income
for the orphans by a total of over thirty-six hundred
pounds, so that many dear fellow labourers, without the
least complaint, were in arrears as to salaries. This was
the second time only, in fifty-eight years, that the income

278 George Miiller of Bristol

thus fell short of the expenses. Ten years previous, the
expenses had been in excess of the income by four hun-
dred and eighty-eight pounds, but, within one month
after the new financial year had begun, by the payment
of legacies three times as much as the deficiency was paid
in; and, adding donations, six times as much. And now
the question arose whether God would not have Mr.
Miiller contract rather than expand the work.

He says: "The Lord's dealings with us during the
last year indicate that it is His will we should contract
our operations, and we are waiting upon Him for direc-
tions as to how and to what extent this should be done;
for we have but one single object — the glory of God.
When I founded this Institution, one of the principles
stated was, ' that there would be no enlargement of the
work by going into debt': and in like manner we cannot
go on with tliat which already exists if we have not suffi-
cient means coming in to meet the current expenses.'-
Thus the godly man who loved to expand his service for
God was humble enough to bow to the will of God if its
contraction seemed needful.

Prayer was much increased, and faith did not fail under
the trial, which continued for weeks and months, but was
abundantly sustained by the promises of an unfailing
Helper. This distress was relieved in March by the sale
of ten acres of land, at one thousand pounds an acre, and
at the close of the year there was in hand a balance of
over twenty-three hundred pounds.

The exigency, however, continued more or less severe
until again, in 1893-4, after several years of trial, the Lord
once more bountifully supplied means. And Mr. Miiller is
careful to add that though the appearance during those
years of trial was many times as if God had forgotten or
forsaken them and would never care any more about the

Faith and Patience in Serving 279

Institution, it was only in appearance, for he was as mind-
ful of it as ever, and he records how by this discipline faith
was still further strengthened, God was glorified in the pa-
tience and meekness whereby He enabled them to endure
the testing, and tens of thousands of believers were blessed
in afterward reading about these experiences of divine
faithfulness.*

Five years after Mrs. Wright's death, Mr. Miiller was
left again a widower. His last great mission tour had
come to an end in 1893, and in 1895, on the 13th of
January, the beloved wife who in all these long jour-
neys had been his constant companion and helper, passed
to her rest, and once more left him peculiarly alone, since
his devoted Lydia had been called up higher. Yet by
the same grace of God which had always before sustained
him he was now upheld, and not only kept in unbroken
peace, but enabled to " kiss the Hand which administered
the stroke."

At the funeral of his second wife, as at that of the first,
he made the address, and the scene was unique in inter-
est. Seldom does a man of ninety conduct such a service.
The faith that sustained him in every other trial held
him up in this. He lived in such habitual communion
with the unseen world, and walked in such uninterrupted
fellowship with the unseen God, that the exchange of
worlds became too real for him to mourn for those who had
made it, or to murmur at the infinite Love that numbers
our days. It moved men more deeply than any spoken
word of witness to see him manifestly borne up as on ever-
lasting Arms.

I remember Mr. Miiller remarking that he waited eight
years before he understood at all the purpose of God in re-

* Fifty-fifth Report, p. 33.

28o George Muller of Bristol

moving his first wife, who seemed so indispensable to him
and his work. His own journal explains more fully this
remark. When it pleased God to take from him his second
wife, after over twenty-three years of married life,
again he rested on the promise that " All things work
together for good to them that love God " and reflected
on his past experiences of its truth. When he lost
his first wife after over thirty-nine years of happy
wedlock, while he bowed to the Father's will, how
that sorrow and bereavement could work good had
been wholly a matter of faith, for no compensating
good was apparent to sight ; yet he believed God's word
and waited to see how it would be fulfilled. That loss
seemed one that could not be made up. Only a little be-
fore, two orphan houses had been opened for nine hun-
dred more orphans, so that there were total accommoda-
tions for over two thousand; she, who by nature, culture,
gifts, and graces, was so wonderfully fitted to be her hus-
band's helper, and who had with motherly love cared for
these children, was suddenly removed from his side. Four
years after Mr. Miiller married his second wife, he saw it
plainly to be God's will that he should spend life's even*
ing-time in giving witness to the nations. These mission
tours could not be otherwise than very trying to the physi-
cal powers of endurance, since they covered over two hun-
dred thousand miles and obliged the travellers to spend a
week at a time in a train, and sometimes from four to six
weeks on board a vessel. Mrs. Miiller, though never taking
part in public, was severely taxed by all this travel, and al-
ways busy, writing letters, circulating books and tracts, and
in various ways helping and relieving her husband. All at
once, while in the midst of these fatiguing journeys and
exposures to varying climates, it flashed upon Mr. Miiller
that his first wife, who had died in her seventy-third year,

Faith and Patience in Serving 281

could never have undertaken these tours, and that the Lord
had thus, in taking her, left him free to make these exten-
sive journeys. She would have been over fourscore years old
when these tours began, and, apart from age, could not
have borne the exhaustion, because of her frail health ;
whereas the second Mrs. Miiller, who, at the time, was not
yet fifty-seven, was both by her age and strength fully
equal to the strain thus put upon her.

CHAPTEE XIX

AT EVENING-TIME LIGHT

The closing scene of this beautiful and eventful life-
history has an interest not altogether pathetic. Mr. Miil-
ler seems like an elevated mountain, on whose summit the
evening sun shines in lingering splendour, and whose
golden peak rises far above the ordinary level and belongs
to heaven more than earth, in the clear, cloudless calm of
God.

From May, 1892, when the last mission tour closed, he
devoted himself mainly to the work of the Scriptural
Knowledge Institution, and to preaching at Bethesda and
elsewhere as God seemed to appoint. His health was
marvellous, especially considering how, when yet a young
man, frequent and serious illnesses and general debility
had apparently disqualified him from all military duty,
and to many prophesied early death or hopeless succumb-
ing to disease. He had been in tropic heat and arctic cold,
in gales and typhoons at sea, and on Journeys by rail, some-
times as continuously long as a sea-voyage. He had borne
the pest of fleas, mosquitoes, and even rats. He had en-
dured changes of climate, diet, habits of life, and the
strain of almost daily services, and come out of all un-
scathed. This man, whose health was never robust, had
gone throug'h labours that would try the mettle of an iron
282

At Evening-time — Light 283

constitution ; this man, who had many times been laid
aside by illness and sometimes for months and who in 1837
had feared that a persistent head trouble might unhinge
his mind, could say, in his ninety-second year : " I have
been able, every day and all the day, to work, and that with
ease, as seventy years since." When the writer was hold-
ing meetings in Bristol in 1896, on an anniversary very
sacred to himself, he asked his beloved father Mtiller to
speak at the closing meeting of the series, in the Y.M.C.A.
Hall ; and he did so, delivering a powerful address of
forty-five minutes, on Prayer in connection with Missions,
and giving his own life-story in part, with a vigour of voice
and manner that seemed a denial of his advanced age.*

The marvellous preservation of such a man at such an
age reminds one of Caleb, who at eightj'-five could boast in
God that he was as strong even for war as in the day that
he was sent into the land as one of the spies ; and Mr.
Miiller himself attributed this preservation to three causes:
first, the exercising of himself to have always a conscience
void of offence both toward God and toward men ;
secondly to the love he felt for the Scriptures, and the con-
stant recuperative power they exercised upon his whole
being ; and third, to that happiness he felt in God and His
work, which relieved him of all anxiety and needless wear
and tear in his labours.

The great fundamental truth that this heroic man
stamped on his generation was that the Living God is the
same to day and forever as yesterday and in all ages past,
and that, with equal confidence with the most trustful souls
of any age, we may believe His word, and to every pro-
mise add, like Abraham, our ^ Amen ' — it shall be so ! f
When, a few days after his death, Mr. E. H. Glenny, who
is known to many as the beloved and self-sacrificing friend

* Appendix K. f Gen. xv. 6. (Hebrew.)

284 George M Oiler of Bristol

of the North African Mission, passed through Barcelonn, he
found written in an album over his signature the words:
"Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and to-day and for ever."
And, like the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, quoting
from the 102d Psalm, we may say of Jehovah, while all else
changes and perishes ;

" Thou kemainest " ;
" Thou abt the same."

Toward the close of life Mr. Miiller, acting under medi-
cal advice, abated somewhat of his active labours, preaching
commonly but once a Sunday. It was my privilege to hear
him on the morning of the Lord's day, March 22, 1896.
He spoke on the 77th Psalm ; of course he found here his
favourite theme — prayer ; and, taking that as a fair speci-
men of his average preaching, he was certainly a remark-
able expositor of Scripture even at ninety-one years of
age. Later on the outline of this discourse will be found.

On Sunday morning, March 6, 1898, he spoke at Alma
Eoad Chapel, and on the Monday evening following was at
the prayer service at Bethesda, on both occasions in his
usual health. On Wednesday evening following, he took
his wonted place at the Orphan House prayer meeting and
gave out the hymns :

"The countless multitude on high."
and

" We'll sin^ of the Shepherd that died."

When he bade his beloved son-in-law "good-night,"
there was no outward sign of declining strength. He
seemed to the last the vigorous old man, and retired to rest
as usual. It had been felt that one so advanced in years
should have some night-attendant, especially as indica-
tions of heart-weakness had been noticed of late, and

At Evening-time — Light 285

he had yielded to the pressuTe of love and consented
to such an arrangement after that night. But the consent
came too late. He was never more to need human attend-
ance or attention. On Thursday morning, March 10th,
at about seven o'clock, the usual cup cf tea was taken to
his room. To the knock at the door there was no response
save an ominous silence. The attendant opened the door,
only to find that the venerable patriarch lay dead, on the
floor beside the bed. He had probably risen to take some
nourishment — a glass of milk and a biscuit being always
put within reach — and, while eating the biscuit, he had felt
faint, and fallen, clutching at the table-cloth as he fell, for
it was dragged off, with certain things that had lain on the
table. His medical adviser, who was promptly summoned,
gave as his opinion that he had died of heart-failure some
hour or two before he had been found by his attendant.

Such a departure, even at such an age, produced a world-
wide sensation. That man's moral and spiritual forces
reached and touched the earth's ends. Not in Bristol, or in
Britain alone, but across the mighty waters toward the sun-
rise and sunset was felt the responsive pulse-beat of a deep
sympathy. Hearts bled all over the globe when it was
announced, by telegraph wire and ocean cable, that George
Miiller was dead. It was said of a great Englishman that
his influence could be measured only by " parallels of lati-
tude " ; of George Miiller we may add, and by meridians
of longitude. He belonged to the whole church and the
whole world, in a unique sense; and tho whole race of man
sustained a loss when he died.

The funeral, which took place on the Monday following,
was a popular tribute of affection, such as is seldom seen.
Tens of thousands of people reverently stood along the
route of the simple procession ; men left their workshops
and offices, women left their elegant homes or humble

286 George Muller of Bristol

kitchens, all seeking to pay a last token of respect. Bris-
tol had never before witnessed any such scene.

A brief service was held at Orphan House No. 3, where
over a thousand children met, who had for a second time
lost a ' father '; in front of the reading-desk in the great
dining-room, a coffin of elm, studiously plain, and by re-
quest without floral offerings, contained all that was mortal
of George Miiller, and on a brass plate was a simple in-
scription, giving the date of his death, and his age.

Mr. James Wright gave the address, reminding those
who were gathered that, to all of us, even those who have
lived nearest God, death comes while the Lord tarries ;
that it is blessed to die in the Lord ; and that for believers
in Christ there is a glorious resurrection waiting. The
tears that ran down those young cheeks were more elo-
quent than any words, as a token of affection for the dead.

The procession silently formed. Among those who
followed the bier were four who had been occupants of
that first orphan home in Wilson Street. The children's
grief melted the hearts of spectators, and eyes unused to
weeping were moistened that day. The various carriages
bore the medical attendants, the relatives and connections
of Mr. Muller, the elders and deacons of the churches with
which he was associated, and his staff of helpers in the
work on Ashley Down. Then followed forty or fifty other
vehicles with deputations from various religious bodies,
etc.

At Bethesda, every foot of space was crowded, and hun-
dreds sought in vain for admission. The hymn was sung
which Mr. Miiller had given out at that last prayer meet-
ing the night before his departure. Dr. Maclean of Bath
offered prayer, mingled with praise for such a long life of
service and witness, of prayer and faith, and Mr. Wright
ppoke from Hebrews xiii. 7, 8 :

At Evening-time — Light 287

" Eemember them which have the rule over you.
Who have spoken uiito you the word of God :
Whose faith follow.

Considering the end of their conversation :
Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and to-day and for-

He spoke of those spiritual rulers and guides whom
God sets over his people; and of the privilege of imitating
their faith, calling attention to the two characteristics of
his beloved father-in-law's faith: first, that it was based
on that immovable Eock of Ages, God's written word; and
secondly, that it translated the precepts and promises of
that word into daily life.

Mr. Wright made very emphatic Mr. Miiller's acceptance
of the whole Scriptures, as divinely inspired. He had been
wont to say to young believers, " Put your finger on the
passage on which your faith rests," and had himself read
the Bible from end to end nearly two hundred times. He
fed on the Word and therefore was strong. He found the
centre of that Word in the living Person it enshrines, and
his one ground of confidence was His atoning work. Always
in his own eyes weak, wretched, and vile, unworthy of the
smallest blessing, he rested solely on the merit and media-
tion of His great High Priest.

George Miiller cultivated faith. He used to say to his
helpers in prayer and service, " Never let enter your minds
a shadow of doubt as to the love of the Father's heart
or the power of the Father's arm." And he projected his
whole life forward, and looked at it in the light of the
Judgment Day.

Mr. Wright's address made prominent one or two other
most important lessons, as, for example, that the Spirit
bids us imitate, not the idiosyncrasies or philanthropy of

288 George Muller of Bristol

others, but tJieir faith. And he took occasion to remind
his hearers that philanthropy was not the foremost aim or
leading feature of Mr. Miiller's life, but above all else to
magnify and glorify God, as still the living God who, now
as well as thousands of years ago, hears the prayers of His
children and helps those who trust Him." He touchingly
referred to the humility that led Mr. Miiller to do the
mightiest thing for God without self-consciousness, and
showed that God can take up and use those who are will-
ing to be only instruments.

Mr. Wright further remarked: "I have been asked again
and again lately as to whether the orphan work would go
on. It is going on. Since the commencement of the year we
have received between forty and jfifty fresh orphans, and
this week expect to receive more. The other four ob-
jects of the Institution, according to the ability God gives
us, are still being carried on. We believe that whatever
God would do with regard to the future will be worthy
of Him. We do not know much more, and do not want
to. He knows what He will do. I cannot think, how-
ever, that the God who has so blessed the work for so long
will leave our prayers as to the future unanswered."

Mr. Benjamin Perry then spoke briefly, characterizing
Mr. Muller as the greatest personality Bristol had known
as a citizen. He referred to his power as an expounder
of Scripture, and to the fact that he brought to others for
their comfort and support what had first been food to
his own soul. He gave some personal reminiscences, re-
ferring, for instance, to his ability at an extreme old age
still to work without hindrance either mental or physical,
free from rheumatism, ache, or pain, and seldom suffering
from exhaustion. He briefly described him as one who,
in response to the infinite love of God, which called him
from a life of sin to a life of salvation and service, wholly

At Evening-time — Light 289

loved God above everybody and everything, so that his
highest pleasure was to please and serve Him. As an il-
lustration of his humility, he gave an incident. When
of late a friend had said, " When God calls you home, it
will be like a ship going into harbour, full sail " — " Oh
no ! " said Mr. Miiller, " it is poor George Miiller who
needs daily to pray, " Hold Thou me up in my goings, that
my footsteps slip not.' " The close of such lives as those
of Asa and Solomon were to Mr. Miiller a perpetual warn-
ing, leading him to pray that he might never thus depart
from the Lord in his old age.

After prayer by Mr. J. L. Stanley, Col. Molesworth
gave out the hymn,

" 'Tis sweet to think of those at rest."

And after another prayer by Mr. Stanley Amot, the body
was borne to its resting-place in Arno's Vale Cemetery,
and buried beside the bodies of Mr. Miiller's first and
second wives, some eighty carriages joining in the proces-
sion to the grave. Everything from first to last was as
simple and unostentatious as he himself would have wished.
At the graveside Col. Molesworth prayed, and Mr. George
F. Bergin read from 1 Cor. xv. and spoke a few words
upon the tenth verse, which so magnifies the grace of God
both in what we are and what we do.

Mr. E. K. Groves, nephew of Mr. Miiller, announced
as the closing hymn the second given out by him at that
last prayer meeting at the orphanage.

" We'll sing of the Shepherd that died."

Mr. E. T. Davies then offered prayer, and the body was
left to its undisturbed repose, until the Lord shall come.

Other memorial services were held at the Y. M. C. A.
Hall, and very naturally at Bethesda Chapel, which
brought to a fitting close this aeries of loving tributes to

290 George Muller of Bristol

the departed. On the Lord's day preceding the burial, in
nearly all the city pulpits, more or less extended reference
had been made to the life, the character, and the career
of the beloved saint who had for so many years lived his
irreproachable life in Bristol. Also the daily and weekly
press teemed with obituary notices, and tributes to his
piety, worth, and work.

It was touchingly remarked at his funeral that he first
confessed to feeling weak and weary in his work that last
night of his earthly sojourn; and it seemed specially
tender of the Lord not to allow that sense of exhaustion
to come upon him until just as He was about to send His
chariot to bear him to His presence. Mr. Miiller's last ser-
mon at Bethesda Chapel, after a ministry of sixty-six
years, had been from 2 Cor. v. 1:

" For we know that, if our earthly house of this taber-
nacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house
not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."

It was as though he had some foretokens of his being
about shortly to put off this his tabernacle. Evidently
he was not taken by surprise. He had foreseen that his
days were fast completing their number. Seven months
before his departure, he had remarked to his medical at-
tendant, in connection with the irregularity of his pulse:
" It means death."

Many of the dear orphans — as when the first Mrs.
Miiller died — wrote, asking that they might contribute
toward the erection of a monument to the memory of
their beloved benefactor. Already one dear young servant
had gathered, for the purpose, over twenty pounds. In con-
formity with the known wishes of his father-in-law that
only the simplest headstone be placed over his remains,
Mr. Wright thought necessary to check the inflow of such
gifts, the sum in hand being quite sufficient.

Further urgent appeals were made both from British

At Evening-time — Light 291

and American friends, for the erection of some statue or
other large visible monument or memorial, and in these
appeals the local newspapers united. At length private
letters led Mr. Wright to communicate with the public
press, as the best way at once to silence these appeals and
express the ground of rejecting such proposals. He wrote
as follows:

" You ask me, as one long and closely associated with
the late Mr. George Miiller, to say what I think would
be most in accordance with his own wishes as a fitting
memorial of himself.

*' Will not the best way of replying to this question be
to let him speak for himself ?

" 1st. When he erected Orphan House No. 1, and the
question came what is the building to be called, he
deliberately avoided associating his own name with it,
and named it ' The New Orphan House, Ashley Down.'
N.B. — To the end of his life he disliked hearing or
reading the words ' Miiller's Orphanage.' In keeping
with this, for years, in every Annual Report, when re-
ferring to the Orphanage he reiterated the statement,
' The New Orphan Houses on Ashley Down, Bristol, are
not my Orphan Houses, . . . they are God's Orphan
Houses.' (See, for example, the Report for 1897, p. 69.)

" 2d. For years, in fact until he was nearly eighty years
old, he steadily refused to allow any portrait of himself
to be published; and only most reluctantly (for reasons
which he gives with characteristic minuteness in the
preface to ' Preaching Tours ') did he at length give way
on this point.

" 3d. In the last published Report, at page 66, he states:
* The primary object I had in view in carrying on this
work,' viz., ' that it might be seen that now, in the nine-
teenth century, God is still the Living God, and that now,
Qs well as thousands of years ago, He listens to the prayers

292 George Miiller of Bristol

of His children and helps those who trust in Him.' From
these words and ways of acting, is it not evident,
that the only ' memorial ' that George Miiller cared
about was that which consists in the effect of his example,
Godward, upon his fellow men ? Every soul converted to
God (instrumentally) through his words or example con-
stitutes a permanent memorial to him as the father in
Christ of such an one. Every believer strengthened in
faith (instrumentally) through his words or example con-
stitutes a similar memorial to his spiritual teacher.

" He knew that God had, already, in the riches of His
grace, given him many such memorials; and he departed
this life, as I well know, cherishing the most lively hope
that he should greet above thousands more to whom it had
pleased God to make him a channel of rich spiritual bless-
ing.

" He used often to say to me, when he opened a letter
in which the writer poured out a tale of sore pecuniary
need, and besought his help to an extent twice or three
or ten times exceeding the sum total of his (Mr. Miiller's)
earthly possessions at the moment, ' Ah ! these dear peo-
ple entirely miss the lesson I am trying to teach them,
for they come to me, instead of going to God.' And if
he could come back to us for an hour, and listen to an
account of what his sincerely admiring, but mistaken,
friends are proposing to do to perpetuate his memory, I
can hear him, with a sigh, exclaiming, ' Ah ! these dear
friends are entirely missing the lesson that I tried for
seventy years to teach them,' viz., ' That a man can re-
ceive nothing except it be given him from above,' and that,
therefore, it is the Blessed Oiver, and not the poor re-
ceiver, that is to be glorified.

« Yours faithfully,

"James Wright."

CHAPTEE XX

THE SUMMARY OF THE LIFE-WORK

Death shuts the door upon earthly service, whatever
door it may open to other forms and spheres of activ-
ity. There are many intimations that service beyond the
grave is both unceasing and untiring : the blessed dead
" rest indeed from their labours " — toilsome and painful
tasks — " but their worhs " — activities for God — " do follow
them/' where exertion is without exhaustion.

This is therefore a fit point for summing up the results
of the work over which, from its beginning, one man had
specially had charge. One sentence from Mr. Miiller's pen
marks the purpose which was the very pivot of his whole
being : " I have joyfully dedicated my whole life to the
object of exemplifying how much may be accomplished
by prayer and faith." This prepared both for the develop-^
ment of the character of him who had such singleness of
aim, and for the development of the work in which thai
aim found action. Mr. Miiller's oldest friend, Robert C.
Chapman of Barnstaple, beautifully says that " when a
man's chief business is to serve and please the Lord, alii
his circumstances become his servants "; and we shall find
this maxim true in Mr. Miiller's life-work.

The Fifty-ninth Report, issued May 26, 1898, was the
last up to the date of the publication of this volume, and
the first after Mr. Miiller's death. In this, Mr. Wri^rht
293

294 George Miiller of Bristol

gives the brief but valuable summary not only of the
whole work of the year preceding, but of the whole work
from its beginning, and thus helps us to a comprehensive
survey.

This report is doubly precious as it contains also the
last contribution of Mr. Miiller's own pen to the record of
the Lord's dealings. It is probable that on the afternoon
of March 9th he laid down his pen, for the last time, all
unconscious that he was never again to take it up. He
had made, in a twofold sense, his closing entry in life's
solemn journal ! In the evening of that day he took his
customai-y part in the prayer service in the orphan house —
then went to sleep for the last time on earth ; there came
a waking hour, when he was alone with God, and suddenly
departed, leaving his body to its long sleep that knows no
waking until the day of the Lord's coming, while his spirit
returned unto God who gave it.

The afternoon of that day of death, and of ' birth ' into
the heavenly life — as the catacomb saints called it — ^found
the helpers again assembled in the same prayer room to
commit the work to him " who only hath immortality,"
and who, amid all changes of human administration, ever
remains the divine Master Workman, never at a loss for
His owm chosen instruments.

Mr. Wright, in this report, shows himself God's chosen
successor in the work, evidently like-minded with the
departed director. The first paragraph, after the brief
and touching reference to his father-in-law, serves to con-
vey to all friends of this work the assurance that he to
whom Mr. Miiller left its conduct has also learned the one
secret of all success in coworking with God. It sounds,
as the significant keynote for the future, the same old key-
note of the past, carrying on the melody and harmony,
without change, into the new measures. It is the same

The Summary of the Life-work 295

oratorio, without alteration of theme, time, or even key :
the leading performer is indeed no more, but another hand
takes up his instrament and, trembling with emotion, con*
tinues the unfinished strain so that there is no inter-
ruption. Mr. Wright says :

" It is written (Job xxvi. 7) : 'He hangeth the earth
upon nothing ' — that is, no visible support. And so we
exult in the fact that ' the Scriptural Knowledge Institu-
tion for Home and Abroad' hangs, as it has ever hung,
since its commencement, now more than sixty-four years
ago, ' upon nothing,' that is, upon no visible support. It
hangs upon no human patron, upon no endo\\Tnent or
funded property, but solely upon the good pleasure of the
blessed God."

Blessed lesson to learn ! that to hang upon the invisi-
ble God is not to hang " upon nothing," though it be upon
nothing visible. The power and permanence of the
invisible forces that hold up the earth after sixty centuries
of human history are sufficiently shown by the fact that
this great globe still swings securely in space and is whirled
through its vast orbit, and that, without variation of a
second, it still moves with divine exactness in its appointed
path. We can therefore trust the same invisible God to
sustain with His unseen power all the work which faith
suspends upon His truth and love and unfailing word of
promise, though to the natural eye all these may seem as
nothing.

Mr. Wright records also a very striking answer to long-
continued prayer, and a most impressive instance of the
tender care of the Lord, in the providing of an associate,
every way like-minded, and well fitted to share the respon-
sibility falling upon his shoulders at the decease of his
father-in-law.

Feeling the burden too great for him, his one resource

296 George Mtiller of Bristol

was to cast his burden on the Lord. He and Mr. Miiller
had asked of God such a companion in labour for three
years before his departure, and Mr. "Wright and his dear
wife had, for twenty-five years before that — from the time
when Mr. Miiller's long missionary tours began to withdraw
him from Bristol — besought of the Lord the same favour.
But to none of them had any name been suggested, or, if so,
it had never been mentioned.

After that day of death, Mr. Wright felt that a gracious
Father would not long leave him to sustain this great bur-
den alone, and about a fortnight later he felt assured that
it was the will of God that he should ask Mr. George
Frederic Bergin to Join him in the work, who seemed to
him a " true yoJce- fellow." He had known him well for a
quarter-century ; he had worked by his side in the church;
and though they were diverse in temperament, there had
never been a break in unity or sympathy. Mr. Bergin was
seventeen years his junior, and so likely to survive and suc-
ceed him ; he was very fond of children, and had been
much blessed in training his own in the nurture and ad-
monition of the Lord, and hence was fitted to take charge
of this larger family of orphans. Confident of being led
of God, he put the matter before Mr. Bergin, delighted but
not surprised to find that the same God had moved on his
mind also, and in the same direction ; for not only was
he ready to respond to Mr. Wright's appeal, but he had
been led of God to feel that he should, after a certain time,
go to Mr. Wright and offer himself. The Spirit who guided
Philip to the Eunuch and at the same time had made the
Eunuch to inquire after guidance ; who sent men from
Cornelius and, while they were knocking at Simon's house,
was bidding Peter go with them, still moves in a mys-
terious way, and simultaneously, on those whom He would
bring together for cooperation in loving service. And

The Summary of the Life-work 297

thus Mr. Wright found the Living God the same Helper
and SuppKer of every need, after his beloved father-in-law-
had gone up higher ; and felt constrained to feel that the
God of Elijah was still at the crossing of the Jordan and
could work the same wonders as before, supplying the need
of the hour when the need came.

Mr. Miiller's owti gifts to the service of the Lord find
?n this posthumous report their first full record and recog-
nition, Eeaders of the Annual Eeports must have noticed
an entry, recurring with strange frequency during all these
thirty or forty years, and therefore suggesting a giver
that must have reached a very ripe age : " from a servant
of the Lord Jesus, who, constrained by the love of Christ,
seeks to lay up treasure in heaven." If that entry be care-
fully followed throughout and there be added the per-
sonal gifts made by Mr. Miiller to various benevolent
objects, it will be found that the aggregate sum from this
" servant " reaches, up to March 1, 1898, a total of eighty-
one thousand four hundred and ninety pounds eighteen
shillings and eightpence. Mr. Wright, now that this " ser-
vant of the Lord Jesus " is with his Master, who promised,
" Where I am there shall also My servant be," feels
free to make known that this donor was no other than
George Midler himself who thus gave out of his own money
— money given to him for his own use or left to him by
legacies — the total sum of about sixty-four thousand five
hundred pounds to the Scriptural Knowledge Institution,
and, in other directions, seventeen thousand more.

This is a record of personal gifts to which we know no
parallel. It reminds us of the career of John Wesley,
whose simplicity and frugality of habits enabled him not
only to limit his own expenditure to a very small sum. but
whose Christian liberality and unselfishness prompted him
to give all that he could thus save to purely benevolent

298 George Muller of Bristol

objects. While he had but thirty pounds a year, he lived
on twenty-eight and gave away forty shillings. Receiving
twice as much the next year, he still kept his living ex-
penses down to the twenty-eight pounds and had thirty-
two to bestow on the needy ; and when the third year his
income rose to ninety pounds, he spent no more than be-
fore and gave away sixty-two. The fourth year brought one
hundred and twenty, and he disbursed still but the same
sum for his own needs, having ninety-two to spare. It is
calculated that in the course of his life he thus gave away
at least thirty thousand pounds, and four silver spoons
comprised all the silver plate that he possessed when the
collectors of taxes called upon him. Such economy on the
one hand and such generosity on the other have seldom
been known in human history. But George Miiller's
record will compare favourably with this or any other of
modern days. His frugality, simplicity, and economy
were equal to Wesley's, and his gifts aggregated eighty-one
thousand pounds. Mr. Miiller had received increasingly
large sums from the Lord which he invested well and most
profitably, so that for over sixty years he never lost a penny
through a bad speculation ! But his investments were not
in lands or banks or railways, but in the ivorJc of God. He
made friends out of the mammon of unrighteousness that
when he failed received him into everlasting habitations. He
continued, year after year, to make provision for himself,
his beloved wife and daughter, by laying up treasure — in
heaven. Such a man had certainly a right to exhort others
to systematic beneficence. He gave — as not one in a million
gives — not a tithe, not any fixed proportion of annual in-
come, but all that was left after the simplest and most
necessary supply of actual wants. While most Christians
regard themselves as doing their duty if, after they have
given a portion to the Lord, they spend all the rest on

The Summary of the Life-work 299

themselves, God led George Miiller to reverse this rule
and reserve only the most frugal sum for personal needs,
that the entire remainder might be given to him that
needeth. The utter revolution implied in our habits of
giving which would be necessary were such a rule adopted
is but too obvious. Mr. Miiller's own words are :

" My aim never was, how much I could oMain, but rather
how much I could give."

He kept continually before him Ms stewardship of God's
property ; and sought to make the most of the one brief
life on earth, and to use for the best and largest good the
property held by him in trust. The things of God were
deep realities, and, projecting every action and decision
and motive into the light of the judgment-seat of Christ,
he asked himself how it would appear to him in the light
of that tribunal. Thus he sought prayerfully and con-
scientiously so to live and labour, so to deny himself, and,
by love, serve God and man, as that he should not be
ashamed before Him at His coming. But not in a spirit of
fear was this done ; for if any man of his generation knew
the perfect love that casts out fear, it was George Miiller.
He felt that God is love, and love is of God. He saw that
love manifested in the greatest of gifts — His only-begotten
Son at Calvary — he knew and believed the Love that God
hath to us ; he received it into his own heart ; it became
an abiding presence, manifested in obedience and benevo-
lence, and, subduing him more and more, it became per-
fected so as to expel tormenting fear and impart a holy
confidence and delight in God.

Among the texts which strongly impressed and moulded
Mr. Miiller's habits of giving was Luke vi. 38 :

" Give and it shall be given unto you. Good measure,
pressed down, shaken together and running over shall men
give into your bosom."

300 George Miiller of Bristol

He believed this promise and he verified it. His testi-
mony is : "I had given, and God had caused to be given
TO ME AGAIN, and bountifully."

Again he read : " It is more blessed to give than to re-
ceive."

He says that he beivIeved what he found in the word of
God, and by His grace sought to act accordingly, and
thus again records that he was blessed abundantly and
his peace and joy in the Holy Ghost increased more and
more.

It will not be a surprise, therefore, that, as has been al-
ready noted, Mr. Miiller's entire personal estate at his death,
as sworn to, when the will was admitted to probate, was
only £169 9s. 4d., of which books, household furniture, etc.,
were reckoned at over one hundred pounds, the only money
in his possession being a trifle over sixty pounds, and even
this only awaiting disbursement as God's steward.

The will of Mr. Miiller contains a pregnant clause which
should not be forgotten in this memorial. It closes with
a paragraph which is deeply significant as meant to be his
posthumous word of testimony — " a last testament " :

" I cannot help admiring God's wondrous grace in bring-
ing me to the knowledge of the Lord Jesus when I was an
entirely careless and thoughtless young man, and that He
has kept me in His fear and truth, allowing me the great
honour, for so long a time, of serving Him."

In the comprehensive summary contained in this Fifty-
ninth Report, remarkable growth is apparent during the
sixty-four years since the outset of the work in 1834. Dur-
ing the year ending May 26, 1898, the number of day-
schools was 7, and of pupils, 354; the number of children
in attendance from the beginning, 81,501. The number
of home Sunday-schools, 12, and of children in them, 1341;
but from the beginning, 33,944. The number of Sunday-

The Summary of the Life-work 301

schools aided in England and Wales, 25. The amount
expended in connection with home schools, £736 13s. lOd.;
from the outset, £109,992 19s. lOd. The Bibles and parts
thereof circulated, 15,411; from the beginning, 1,989,266.
Money expended for this purpose the past year, £439; from
the first, £41,090 13s. 3d. Missionary labourers aided, 115.
Money expended, £2082 9s. 6d.; from the outset, £261,859
7s. 4:d. Circulation of books and tracts, 3,101,338.
Money spent, £1001 3s.; and from the first, £47,188
lis. 10^. The number of orphans on Ashley Down, 1620;
and from the first, 10,024. Money spent in orphan houses,
last year, £22,523 13s. Id.; and from the beginning,
£988,829.

To carry out conviction into action is sometimes a costly
sacrifice; but whatever Mr. Miiller's fidelity to conviction
cost in one way, he had stupendous results of his life-work
to contemplate, even while he lived. Let any one look at
the above figures and facts, and remember that here was
one poor man who, dependent on the help of God only in
answer to prayer, could look back over threescore years and
see how he had built five large orphan houses and taken
into his family over ten thousand orphans, expending, for
their good, within twelve thousand pounds of a round
million. He had given aid to day-schools and Sunday-
schools, in this and other lands, where nearly one hundred
and fifty thousand children have been taught, at a cost
of over one hundred and ten thousand pounds more. He
had circulated nearly two million Bibles and parts thereof
at the cost of over forty thousand pounds: and over three
million books and tracts, at a cost of nearly fifty thousand
pounds more. And besides all this he had spent over two
hundred and sixty thousand pounds to aid missionary la-
bourers in various lands. The sum total of the money thus
spent during sixty years has thus reached very nearly the

302 George Miiller of Bristol

astonishing aggregate of one and a half million of pounds
sterling ($7,500,000).

To summarize Mr. Muller's service we must understand
his great secret. Such a life and such a work are the
result of one habit more than all else, — daily and frequent
communion with God. Unwearied in supplications and in-
tercessions, we have seen how, in every new need and crisis,
prayer was the one resort, the prayer of faith. He first
satisfied himself that he was in the way of duty; then
he fixed his mind upon the unchanging word of promise;
then, in the boldness of a suppliant who comes to a throne
of grace in the name of Jesus Christ and pleads the as-
surance of the immutable Promiser, he presented every
petition. He was an unwearied intercessor. No delay
discouraged him. This is seen particularly in the case of
individuals for whose conversion or special guidance into
the paths of full obedience he prayed. On his prayer list
were the names of some for whom he had besought God,
daily, by name, for one, two, three, four, six, ten years
before the answer was given. The year just before hia
death, he told the writer of two parties for whose recon^
ciliation to God he had prayed, day by day, for over sixty
years, and who had not as yet to his knowledge turned unto
God: and he significantly added, " I have not a doubt
that I shall meet them both in heaven; for my Heavenly
Father would not lay upon my heart a burden of prayer
for them for over threescore years, if He had not con-
cerning them purposes of mercy."

This is a sufficient example of his almost unparalleled
perseverance and importunity in intercession. However
long the delay, he held on, as with both hands clasping
the very horns of the altar; and his childlike spirit
reasoned simply but confidently, that the very fact of his
own spirit being so long drawn out in prayer for one ob-

The Summary of the Life-work 303

ject, and of the Lord's enabling him so to continue pa-
tiently and believingly to wait on Him for the blessing,
was a promise and prophecy of the answer; and so he
waited on, so assured of the ultimate result that he praised
God in advance, believing that he had practically received
that for which he asked.

It is most helpful here to add that one of the parties
for whom for so many years he unceasingly prayed has
recently died in faith, having received the promises and
embraced them and confessed Jesus as his Lord. Just
before leaving Bristol with this completed manuscript of
Mr. Miillers life, I met a lady, a niece of the man referred
to, through whom I received a knowledge of these facts.
He had, before his departure, given most unequivocal testi-
mony to his faith and hope in the Saviour of sinners.

If George Miiller could still speak to us, he would again
repeat the warning so frequently found in his journal
and reports, that his fellow disciples must not regard him
as a mirade-u'orl-er, as though his experience were to be
accounted so exceptional as to have little application in
our ordinary spheres of life and service. "With patient
repetition he affirms that in all essentials such an experi-
ence is the privilege of all believers. God calls disciples
to various forms of worl', but all alike to the same faith.
To say, therefore, " I am not called to build orphan
houses, etc., and have no right to expect answers to my
prayers as Mr. Miiller did," is wrong and unbelieving.
Every child of God, he maintained, is first to get into the
sphere appointed of God, and therein to exe—'.ise full trust,
and live by faith upon God's sure word of piomise.

Throughout all these thousands of pages written by his
pen, he teaches that everj^ experience of God's faithfulness
5s both the reward of past faith and prayer, and the prepa-
ration of the servant of God for larper work and more

304 George Muller of Bristol

efficient service and more convincing witness to his Lord.

No man can understand such a work who does not see in
it the supernatural power of God. Without that the
enigma defies solution; with that all the mystery is at
least an open mystery. He himself felt from first to last
that this supernatural factor was the key to the whole
work, and without that it would have been even to himself
a problem inexplicable. How pathetically we find him
often comparing himself and his work for God to " the
Burning Bush in the Wilderness " which, always afiame
and always threatened with apparent destruction, was not
consumed, so that not a few turned aside wondering to
see this great sight. And why was it not burnt ? Be-
cause Jehovah of hosts, who was in the Bush, dwelt in the
man and in his work: or, as Wesley said with almost his
last breath, " Best of all, God is with us."

This simile of the Burning Bush is the more apt when
we consider the rapid growth of the worJc. At first so very
small as to seem almost insignificant, and conducted in
one small rented house, accommodating thirty orphans,
then enlarged until other rented premises became neces-
sary; then one, two, three, four, and even five immense
structures being built, until three hundred, seven hundred,
eleven hundred and fifty, and finally two thousand and
fifty inmates could find shelter within them, — how seldom
has the world seen such vast and, at the same time, rapid
enlargement ! Then look at the outlay ! At first a trifling
expenditure of perhaps five hundred pounds for the first
year of the Scriptural Knowledge Institution, and of five
hundred pounds for the first twelve month of the orphan
work, and in the last year of Mr. ]\Iiiller's life a grand total
of over twenty-seven thousand five hundred, for all the
purposes of the Institution.

The cost of the houses built on Ashley Down might

The Summary of the Life-work 305

have staggered a man of large capital, but this poor man
only cried and the Lord helped him. The first house cost
fifteen thousand pounds; the second, over twenty-one
thousand; the third, over twenty-three thousand; and the
fourth and fifth, from fifty thousand to sixty thousand
more — so that the total cost reached about one hundred
and fifteen thousand. Besides all this, there was a yearly
expenditure which rose as high as twenty-five thousand
for the orphans alone, irrespective of those occasional out-
lays made needful for emergencies, such as improved sani-
tary precautions, which in one case cost over two thou-
sand pound's.

Here is a burning bush indeed, always in seeming dan-
ger of being consumed, yet still standing on Ashley Down,
and still preserved because the same presence of Jehovah
burns in it. Not a branch of this many-sided work has
utterly perished, while the whole bush still challenges un-
believers to turn aside and see the great sight, and take
off the shoes from their feet as on holy ground where God
manifests Himself.

Any complete survey of this great life-work must in-
clude much that was wholly outside of the Scriptural
Knowledge Institution; such as that service which Mr.
Miiller was permitted to render to the church of Christ
and the world at large as a preacher, pastor, witness for
truth, and author of books and tracts.

His preaching period covered the whole time from 1826
to 1898, the year of his departure, over seventy years;
and from 1830, when he went to Teignmouth, his preach-
ing continued, without interruption except from ill healthy
until his life closed, with an average through the whole
period of probably three sermons a week, or over ten
thousand for his lifetime. This is probably a low esti-
mate, for during his missionary tours, which covered over

3o6 George Muller of Bristol

two hundred thousand miles and were spread through
seventeen years, he spoke on an average about once a day
notwithstanding already advanced age.

His church life was much blessed even in visible and
tangible results. During the first two and a half years
of work in Bristol, two hundred and twenty-seven mem-
bers were added, about half of whom were new converts,
and it is probable that, if the whole number brought to
the knowledge of Christ by his preaching could now be
ascertained, it would be found to aggregate full as many
as the average of those years, and would thus reach into
the thousands, exclusive of orphans converted on Ashley
Down. Then when we take into account the vast num-
bers addressed and impressed by his addresses, given in all
parts of the United Kingdom, on the Continent of Europe,
and in America, Asia, and Australia, and the still vaster
numbers who have read his Narrative, his books and tracts,
or who have in various other ways felt the quickening
power of his example and life, we shall get some concep-
tion— still, at best, inadequate — of the range and scope of
the influence he wielded by his tongue and pen, his labours,
and his life. Much of the best influence defies all tabu-
lated statistics and evades all mathematical estimates ; it
is like the fragrance of the alabaster flask which fills all
the house but escapes our grosser senses of sight, hearing,
and touch. This part of George Miiller's work we can-
not summarize: it belongs to a realm where we cannot
jienetrate. But God sees, knows, and rewards it.

CHAPTER XXI

THE CHUECH LIFE AND GEOWTH

Theoughout Mr. Miiller's journal we meet scattered
and fragmentary suggestions as to the true conception of
Christian teaching and practice, the nature and office of
the Christian ministry, the principles which should pre-
vail in church conduct, the mutual relations of believers,
and the Spirit's relation to the Body of Christ, to pure
worship, service, and testimony. These hints will be of
more value if they are crystallized into unity so as to be
seen in their connection with each other.

The founder of the orphan houses began and ended his
public career as a preacher, and, for over sixty years, was
so closely related to one body of believers that no review
of his life can be complete without a somewhat extended
reference to the church in Bristol of which he was one of
the earliest leaders, and, of all who ministered to it, the
longest in service.

His church-work in Bristol began with his advent to
that city and ended only with his departure from it for the
continuing city and the Father's House. The Joint min-
istry of himself and Mr. Henry Craik has been traced
already in the due order of events; but the development
of church-life, under this apostolic ministry, furnishes in-
structive lessons which yield their full teaching only when
gathered up and grouped together so as to secure unity,
continuity, and completeness of impression.
307

3o8 George Muller of Bristol

When Mr. Muller and Mr. Craik began joint work in
Bristol, foundations needed to be relaid. The church-life,
as they found it, was not on a sufficiently scriptural basis,
and they waited on God for wisdom to adjust it more com-
pletely to His word and will. This was the work of time,
for it required the instruction of fellow believers so that
they might be prepared to cooperate, by recognizing scrip-
tural and spiritual teaching; it required also the creation
of that bond of sympathy which inclines the flock to hear
and heed the shepherd's voice, and follow a true pastoral
leadership. At the outset of their ministry, these brethren
carefully laid down some principles on which their minis-
try was to be based. On May 23, ]832, they frankly
stated, at Gideon Chapel, certain terms on which alone they
could take charge of the church: they must be regarded
as simply God's servants to labour among them so long
as, and in such way as might be His will, and under no
bondage of fixed rules; they desired pew-rents to be done
away with, and voluntary offerings substituted, etc.

There was already, however, a strong conviction that a
neiv start was in some respects indispensable if the exist-
ing church-life was to be thoroughly modelled on a scrip-
tural pattern. These brethren determined to stamp upon
the church certain important features such as these: Apos-
tolic simplicity of worship, evangelical teaching, evangelis-
tic work, separation from the world, systematic giving,
and dependence on prayer. They desired to give great
prominence to the simple testimony of the Word, to sup-
port every department of the work by free-will offerings,
to recognize the Holy Spirit as the one presiding and
governing Power in all church assemblies, and to secure
liberty for all believers in the exercise of spiritual gifts
as distributed by that Spirit to all members of the Body of
Christ for service. They believed it scriptural to break

The Church Life and Growth 309

bread every Lord's day, and to baptize by immersion; and,
although this latter has not for many years been a term
of communion or of fellowship, believers have always been
carefully taught that this is the duty of all disciples.

It has been already seen that in August, 1832, seven
persons in all, including these two pastors, met at Bethesda
Chapel to unite in fellowship, without any formal basis
or bond except that of loyalty to the Word and Spirit of
God. This step was taken in order to start anew, without
the hindrance of customs already prevailing, which were
felt to be unscriptural and yet were difficult to abolish
■without discordant feeling; and, from that date on,
Bethesda Chapel has been the home of an assembly of
believers who have sought steadfastly to hold fast the New
Testament basis of church-life.

Such blessed results are largely due to these beloved
colleagues in labour who never withheld their testimony,
but were intrepidly courageous and conscientiously faith-
ful in witnessing against whatever they deemed opposed
to the Word. Love ruled, but w^as not confounded with
laxity in matters of right and wrong; and, as they saw
more clearly what was taught in the Word, they sought
to be wholly obedient to the Lord's teaching and leading,
and to mould and model every matter, however minute,
in every department of duty, private or public, according
to the expressed will of God.

In January, 1834, all teachers who were not believers
were dismissed from the Sunday-school; and, in the Dor-
cas Society, only believing sisters were accepted to make
clothes for the destitute. The reason was that it had
been found unwise and unwholesome to mix np or yoke
together believers and unbelievers.* Such association
proved a barrier to spiritual converse and injurious to both
* 2 Cor. vi. 14-18.

3IO George M tiller of Bristol

classes, fostering in the unbelievers a false security, ensnar-
ing them in a delusive hope that to help in Christian work
might somehow atone for rejection of Jesus Christ as a
Saviour, or secure favour from God and an open door
into heaven. No doubt all this indiscriminate association
of children of God with children of the world in a " mixed
multitude" is unscriptural. Unregenerate persons are
tempted to think there is some merit at least in mingling
with worshippers and workers, and especially in giving
to the support of the gospel and its institutions. The
devil seeks to persuade such that it is acceptable to
God to conform externally to religious rites and forms,
and take part in outward acts of service and sacri-
fice, and that He will deal leniently with them, despite
their unbelief and disobedience. Mr. Miiller and Mr.
Craik felt keenly that this danger existed and that even
in minor matters there must be a line of separation, for
the sake of all involved.

When, in 1837, in connection with the congregation at
Bethesda, the question was raised — commonly known as
that of close communion — whether believers who had not
been baptized as such should be received into fellowship,
it was submitted likewise to the one test of clear scripture
teaching. Some believers were conscientiously opposed
to such reception, but the matter was finally and har-
moniously settled by " receiving all who love our Lord
Jesus met/ full communion, irrespective of baptism," and
Mr. Miiller, looking back forty-four years later upon this
action, bears witness that the decision never became a
source of dissension.*

In all other church matters, prayer and searching the
Word, asking counsel of the Holy Oracles and wisdom from
above, were the one resort, and the resolution of all difii-
* Appendix L

The Church Life and Growth 311

culties. When, in the spring of 1838, sundry questions
arose somewhat delicate and difficult to adjust, Mr. Miiller
and Mr. Craik quietly withdrew from Bristol for two
weeks, to give themselves to prayer and meditation, seek-
ing of God definite direction.

The matters then at issue concerned the scriptural con-
ception, mode of selection and appointment, scope of
authority and responsibility, of the Eldership; the proper
mode of observance of the Lord's Supper, its frequency,
proper subjects, etc. Nothing is ever settled finally until
settled rightly, nor settled rightly until settled scripturally.
A serious peril confronted the church — not of controversy
only, but of separation and schism; and in such circum-
stances mere discussion often only fans the embers of strife
and ends in hopeless alienation. These spiritually minded
pastors followed the apostolic method, referring all hb)?^-
ters to the Scriptures as the one rule of faith and practice,
and to the Holy Spirit as the presiding Presence in the
church of God; and they purposely retired into seclusion
from the strife of tongues and of conflicting human
opinion, that they might know the mind of the Lord and
act accordingly. The results, as might be foreseen, were
clear light from above for themselves, and a united judg-
ment among the brethren; but more than this, God gave
them wisdom so to act, combining the courage of convic-
tion with the meekness and gentleness of Christ, as that
all clouds were dispelled and peace restored.*

For about eight years, services had been held in both
Gideon and Bethesda chapels; but on April 19, 1840,
the last of the services conducted by Mr. Miiller and Mr.
Craik was held at Gideon, — Bethesda, from this time on,
becoming the central place of assembly. The reasons for
this step were somewhat as follows:
* Appendix M.

312 George Mliller of Bristol

These joint pastors strongly felt, with some others, that
not a few of the believers who assembled at Gideon Chapel
were a hindrance to the clear, positive, and united testi-
mony which should be given both to the church and world;
and it was on this account that, after many meetings for
prayer and conference, seeking to know God's mind, it
was determined to relinquish Gideon as a place of wor-
ship. The questions involved affected the preservation
of the purity and simplicity of apostolic worship, and
so the conformity of church-life to the New Testament
pattern. These well-yoked pastors were very jealous for
the Lord God of hosts, that, among the saints to whom
they ministered, nothing should find a lodgment which
was not in entire accord with scriptural principles, pre-
cepts, and practices.

Perhaps it is well here to put on record, even at rish
of repetition, the principles which Mr. Miiller and hi.;,
colleague were wont to enforce as guards or landmarks
which should be set up and kept up, m order to exclude
those innovations which always bring spiritual declension.

1. Believers should meet, simply as such, without refer-
ence to denominational lines, names, or distinctions, as a
corrective and preventive of sectarianism.

2. They should steadfastly maintain the Holy Scrip-
tures as the divine rule and standard of doctrine, de-
portment, and discipline.

3. They should encourage freedom for the exercise of
whatever spiritual gifts the Lord might be pleased by
His Spirit to bestow for general edification.

4. Assemblies on the Lord's day should be primarily
ioT believers, for the breaking of bread, and for worship;
unbelievers sitting promiscuously among saints would
either hinder the appearance of meeting for such purposes.

The Church Life and Growth 313

or compel a pause between other parts of the service and
the Lord's Supper.

5. The pew-rent system should be abolished, as promot-
ing the caste spirit, or at least the outward appearance of
a false distinction between the poorer and richer classes,
especially as pew-holders commonly look on their sittings
as private property.

6. All money contributed for pastoral support, church
work, and missionary enterprises at home and abroad
should be by free-will offerings.

It was because some of these and other like scriptural
principles were thought to be endangered or compromised
by practices prevailing at Gideon Chapel before Mr. Miiller
and Mr. Craik took charge, that it seemed best on the
whole to relinquish that chapel as a place of worship.
As certain customs there obtaining had existed previously,
it seemed to these godly-minded brethren that it would
be likely to cause needless offence and become a root of
bitterness should they require what they deemed unscrip-
tural to be renounced; and it seemed the way of love to
give up Gideon Chapel after these eight years of labour
there, and to invite such as felt called on to separate from
every sectarian system, and meet for worship where free
exercise would be afforded for every spiritual gift, and
where New Testament methods might be more fully fol-
lowed, to assemble with other believers at Bethesda, where
previous hindering conditions had not existed.

Mr. Miiller remained very intimately connected with
Bethesda and its various outgrowths, for many years, as the
senior pastor, or elder, — though only primus inter pares,
i.e., leader among equals. His opinions about the work
of the ministry and the conduct of church-life, which did
so much to shape the history of these churches, therefore

314 George Muller of Bristol

form a necessary part of this sketch of the development
of church-life.

It was laid upon his heart frequently to address his
brethren in the ministry of the Word and the curacy of
souls. Everywhere, throughout the world, he welcomed
opportunities for interviews, whether with many or few,
upon whom he could impress his own deep convictions as
to the vital secrets of effective service in the pulpit and
pastorate. Such meetings with brethren in the ministry
numbered hundreds and perhaps thousands in the course
of his long life, and as his testimony was essentially the
same on all occasions, a single utterance may be taken as
the type of all. During his American tours, he gave an
hour's address which was reported and published, and the
substance of which may therefore be given.

First of all he laid great stress upon the need of conver-
sion. Until a man is both truly turned unto God and
sure of this change in himself he is not fitted to convert
others. The ministry is not a human profession, but a
divine vocation. The true preacher is both a herald and
a witness, and hence must back up his message by his per-
sonal testimony from experience.

But even conversion is not enough: there must be an
intimate knowledge of the Lord Jesus. One must know
the Lord as coming near to himself, and know the joy
and strength found in hourly access. However it be done,
and at any cost, the minister of Christ must reach this
close relationship. It is an absolute necessity to peace and
power.

Growth in happiness and love was next made very prom-
inent. It is impossible to set limits to the experience of
any believer who casts himself wholly on God, surrenders
himself wholly to God, and cherishes deep love for His
word and holy intimacy with Himself. The first business

The Church Life and Growth 315

of every morning should be to secure happiness in God.

He who is to nourish others must carefully feed his
own soul. Daily reading and study of the Scriptures, with
much prayer, especially in the early morning hours, was
strenuously urged. Quietness before God should be habit-
ually cultivated, calming the mind and freeing it from pre-
occupation. Continuous reading of the Word, in course,
will throw light upon the general teaching of the Word,
and reveal God's thoughts in their variety and connection,
and go far to correct erroneous views.

Holiness must be the supreme aim: prompt obedience
to all known truth, a single eye in serving God, and zeal
for His glory. Many a life has been more or less a failure
because habits of heart well pleasing to God have been
neglected. Xothing is more the crowning grace than the
unconscious grace of humility. All praise of man robs
God of His own honour. Let us therefore be humble and
turn all eyes unto God.

The message must be gotten from God, if it is to be
with power. "Ask God for it," said Mr. Miiller, "and
be not satisfied until the heart is at rest. When the text
is obtained ask further guidance in meditating upon it,
and keep in constant communion so as to get God's mind
in the matter and His help in delivery. Then, after the
work is done, pray much for blessing, as well as in ad-
vance." He then told some startling facts as to seed sown
many years before, but even now yielding fruit in answer
to prayer.

He laid also special emphasis upon expounding the Scrip-
ture. The word of God is the staple of all preaching;
Christ and nothing else the centre of all true ministry
of the Word. Whoever faithfully and constantly preaches
Christ will find God's word not returning to him void.
Preach simply. Luther's rule was to speak so that an

3i6 George Muller of Bristol

ignorant maid-servant could understand; if she does, tlie
learned professor certainly will; but it does not hold true
that the simple understand all that the wise do.

Mr. Miiller seldom addressed his brethren in the min-
istry without giving more or less counsel as to the conduct
of church-life, giving plain witness against such hin-
drances as unconverted singers and choirs, secular methods
of raising money, pew-rents and caste distinctions in the
house of prayer, etc.; and urging such helps as inquirers'
meetings, pastoral visits, and, above all else, believing
prayer. He urged definite praying and importunate pray-
ing, and remarked that Satan will not mind how we labour
in prayer for a few days, weeks, or even months, if he can
at last discourage us so that we cease praying, as though
it were of no use.

As to prayers for past seed-sowing, he told the writer
of this memoir how in all supplication to God he looked
not only forward but haclcward. He was wont to ask that
the Lord would be pleased to bless seed long since sown
and yet apparently unfruitful; and he said that, in answer
to these prayers, he had up to that day evidence of God's
loving remembrance of his work of faith and labour of
love in years long gone by. He was permitted to know
that messages delivered for God, tracts scattered, and other
means of service had, after five, ten, twenty, and even
sixty years, at last brought forth a harvest. Hence his
urgency in advising fellow labourers to pray unceasingly
that God would work mightily in the hearts of those who
had once been under their care, bringing to their remem-
brance the truth which had been set before them.

The humility Mr. Miiller enjoined he practised. He was
ever only the servant of the Lord. Mr. Spurgeon, in one of
his sermons, describes the startling effect on London
Bridge when he saw one lamp after another lit up with

The Church Life and Growth 317

flame, though in the darkness he could not see the lamp-
lighter; and George Miiller set many a light burning when
he was himself content to be unseen, unnoticed, and un-
knowTi. He honestly sought not his own glory, but had
the meek and quiet spirit so becoming a minister of Jesus
Christ.

Mr. Henry Craik's death in 1866, after thirty-four years
of co-labour in the Lord, left Mr. Miiller comparatively
alone with a double burden of responsibility, but his faith
was equal to the crisis and his peace remained unbroken.
A beloved brother, then visiting Bristol, after crowded ser-
vices conducted by him at Bethesda, was about leaving
the city; and he asked Mr. Miiller, " What are you going
to do, now that Mr. Craik is dead, to hold the people
and prevent their scattering? " " My beloved brother,"
was the calm reply, " we shall do what we have always
done, look only to the Lord."

This God has been the perpetual helper. Mr. Miiller
almost totally withdrew from the work, during the seven-
teen years of his missionary tours, between 1875 and 1892,
when he was in Bristol but a few v/eeks or months at a
time, in the intervals between his long journeys and voy-
ages. This left the assembly of believers still more de^
pendent upon the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls.
But Bethesda has never, in a sense, been limited to any
one or two men, as the only acknowledged leaders; from the
time when those seven believers gathered about the Lord's
table in 1832, the New Testament conception of the equal-
ity of believers in privilege and duty has been maintained.
The one supreme Leader is the Holy Ghost, and under
Him those whom He calls and qualifies. One of the fun-
damental principles espoused by these brethren is that the
Spirit of God controls in the assemblies of the saints; that
He sets the members, every one of them, in the Body as

3i8 George Muller of Bristol

it pleaseth Him, and divides unto them, severally as He will,
gifts for service in the Body; that the only true ordination
is His ordination, and that the manifestation of His gifts
is the sufficient basis for the recognition of brethren as
qualified for the exercise of an office or function, the pos-
session of spiritual gifts being sufficient authority for their
exercise. It is with the Body of Christ as with the
human body: the eye is manifestly made for seeing and
the ear for hearing, the hand and foot for handling and
walking; and this adaptation both shows the design of
God and their place in the organism. And so for more
than threescore years the Holy Spirit has been safely
trusted to supply and qualify all needed teachers, helpers,
and leaders in the assembly. There has always been a
considerable number of brethren and sisters fitted and dis-
posed to take up the various departments of service to
which they were obviously called of the Spirit, so that no
one person has been indispensable. Various brethren
have been able to give more or less time and strength to
preaching, visiting, and ruling in the church; while score?
of others, who, like Paul, Priscilla and Aquila, the tent'
makers, have their various business callings and seek
therein to " abide with God," are ready to aid as the Lord
may guide in such other forms of service as may consist with
their ordinary vocations. The prosperity of the congre-
gation, its growth, conduct, and edification, have there-
fore been dependent only on God, who, as He has with-
drawn one worker after another, has supplied others in
their stead, and so continues to do.

To have any adequate conception of the fruits of such
teaching and such living in church-life, it is needful to go
at least into one of the Monday-night prayer meetings at
Bethesda. It is primitive and apostolic in simplicity. No
one presides but the unseen Spirit of God. A hymn is

The Church Life and Growth 319

suggested by some brother, and then requests for prayer
are read, usually with definite mention of the names of
those by and for whom supplication is asked. Then prayer,
scripture reading, singing, and exhortation follow, without
any prearrangement as to subject, order in which or per-
sons by whom, the exercises are participated in. The full-
est liberty is encouraged to act under the Spirit's guidance;
and the fact of such guidance is often strikingly apparent
in the singular unity of prayer and song, scripture reading
and remarks, as well as in the harmonious fellowship ap-
parent. After more than half a centur}' these Monday-
night prayer services are still a hallowed centre of attrac-
tion, a ralMng-point for supplication, and a radiating-
point for serrice, and remain unchanged in the method of
their conduct.

The original congregation has proved a tree whose seed
is in itself after its kind. At the time of Mr. Miillers
decease it was nearly sixty-six years since that memorable
evening in 1832 when those seven believers met to form
a church; and the original body of disciples meeting in
Bethesda had increased to ten, six of which are now inde-
pendent of the mother church, and four of which still
remain in close affiliation and really constitute one church,
though meeting in Bethesda, Alma Road, Stokes Croft,
and Totterdown chapels. The names of the other churches
which have been in a sense offshoots from Bethesda are
as follows: ITnity, Bishopston, Cumberland Hall, Charle-
ton Hall, Xicholas Eoad, and Bedminster.

At the date of Mr. Miiller's decease the total member-
ship of the four affiliated congregations was upwards
of twelve hundred.

In this brief compass no complete outline could be
given of the church life and work so dear to him, and
over which he so long watched and prayed. This church

320 George Muller of Bristol

has been and is a missionary church. "When on March
1, 1836, Mr. and Mrs. Groves, with ten helpers, left Bristol
to carry on mission work in the East Indies, Mr. Miiller
felt deeply moved to pray that the body of disciples to
whom he ministered might send out from their own mem-
bers labourers for the wide world-field. That prayer was
not forgotten before God, and has already been answered
exceeding abundantly above all he then asked or thought.
Since that time some sixty have gone forth to lands afar
to labour in the gospel, and at the period of Mr. Miiller's
death there were at work, in various parts of the world,
at least twenty, who are aided by the free-will offerings
of their Bristol brethren.

When, in 1874, Mr. Miiller closed the third volume of
his Narrative, he recorded the interesting fact that, of
the many nonconformist ministers of the gospel resident
in Bristol when he took up work there more than forty-
two years before, not one remained, all having been re-
moved elsewhere or having died; and that, of all the Evan-
gelical clergy of the establishment, onl> one survived. Yet
he himself, with very rare hindrance through illness, was
permitted to preach and labour with health and vigoui
both of mind and body; over a thousand believers wer^
already under his pastoral oversight, meeting in three dif'
ferent chapels, and over three thousand had been admittec?
into fellowship.

It was the writer's privilege to hear Mr. Miiller preach
on the morning of March 22, 1896, in Bethesda Chapel.
He was in his ninety-first year, but there was a freshness,
vigour, and terseness in his preaching that gave no indica-
tion of failing powers; in fact, he had never seemed more
fitted to express and impress the thoughts of God.

His theme was the seventy-seventh psalm, and it af-
forded him abundant scope for his favourite subject —

The Church Life and Growth 321

prayer. He expounded the psalm verse ty verse, clearly,
sympathetically, effectively, and the outline of his treat-
ment strongly engraved itseK on my memory and is here
reproduced.

" I cried unto God with my voice/' Prayer seeks a
voice — ^to utter itself in words: the effort to clothe our
desires in language gives definiteness to our desires and
keeps the attention on the objects of prayer.

"In the day of my trouble." The Psalmist was in
trouble; some distress was upon him, perhaps physical
as well as mental, and it was an unceasing burden night
and day.

" My soul refused to be comforted." The words, " my
sore ran in the night," may be rendered, " my hand reached
out " — that is in prayer. But unbelief triumphed, and his
soul refused all comfort — even the comfort of God's
promises. His trouble overshadowed his faith and shut
out the vision of God.

" I remembered, or thought of God, and was troubled."
Even the thought of God, instead of bringing peace,
brought distress; instead of silencing his complaint, it
increased it, and his spirit was overwhelmed — the sure sign,
again, of unbelief. If in trouble God's promises and the
thought of God bring no relief, they will only become an
additional burden.

" Thou boldest mine eyes waking." There was no sleep
because there was no rest or peace. Care makes wakeful.
Anxiety is the foe of repose. His spirit was unbelieving
and therefore rebellious. He would not take God at His
word.

"I have considered the days of old." Memory now is
at work. He calls to remembrance former experiences
of trouble and of deliverance. He had often sought God
and been heard and helped^ and why not now? As he

322 George Muller of Bristol

made diligent search among the records of his experience
and recollected all God's manifest and manifold inter-
positions, he began to ask whether God could be fickle and
capricious, whether His mercy was exhausted and His
promise withdrawn, whether He had forgotten His cove-
nant of grace, and shut up His fountains of love.

Thus we follow the Psalmist through six stages of un-
belief:

1. The thought of God is a burden instead of a blessing.

2. The complaining spirit increases toward God.

3. His spirit is agitated instead of soothed and calmed.

4. Sleep departs, and anxiety forbids repose of heart.

5. Trouble only deepens and God seems far off.

6. Memory recalls God's mercies, but only to awaken dis-
trust.

At last we reach the turning--pomt in the psalm: he asks
as he reviews former experiences, Where is the differ-
ence ? Is THE CHANGE IN GOD OR IN ME ? " Sclah " —

the pause marks this turning-point in the argument or
experience.

"And I said. This is my infirmity.'" In other words^
" I HAVE BEEN A fool! " God is faithful. He never casts
off. His children are always dear to Him. His grace is
exhaustless and His promise unfailing. Instead of fixing
his eyes on his trouble he now fixes his whole mind on God.
He remembers His work, and meditates upon it; instead of
rehearsing his own trials, he talks of His doings. He gets
overwhelmed now, not with the greatness of his troubles,
but the greatness of his Helper. He recalls His miracles
of power and love, and remembers the mystery of His
mighty deeds — His way in the sea. His strange dealings
and leadings and their gracious results — and so faith once
more triumphs.

What is the conclusion, the practical lesson?

The Church Life and Growth 323

Unbelief is folly. It charges God foolishly. Man's are
the weakness and failure, but never God's. My faith may
be lacking, but not His power. Memory and meditation,
when rightly directed, correct unbelief. God has shown
Himself great. He has always done wonders. He led even
an unbelieving and murmuring people out of Egypt and
for forty years through the wilderness, and His miracles of
power and love were marvellous.

The psalm contains a great lesson. AfQiction is inevita-
ble. But our business is never to lose sight of the Father
who will not leave His children. We are to roll all bur-
dens on Him and wait patiently, and deliverance is sure.
Behind the curtain He carries on His plan of love, never
forgetting us, always caring for His own. His ways of
dealing we cannot trace, for His footsteps are in the track-
less sea, and unknown to us. But He is surely lead-
ing, and CONSTANTLY LOVING. Let us not be fools, but
pray in faith to a faithful God.

This is the substance of that morning exposition, and is
here given very inadequately, it is true, yet it serves not
only to illustrate Mr. Miiller's mode of expounding and
applying the Word, but the exposition of this psalm is a
sooi; of exponent also of his life. It reveals his habits of
prayer, the conflicts with unbelief, and how out of tempta-
tions to distrust God he found deliverance; and thus is
doubly valuable to us as an experimental commentary upon
the life-history we are studying.

CHAPTEE XXII

A GLANCE AT THE GIFTS AND THE GIVERS

There is One who still sits over against the Treasury,
watching the gifts cast into it, and impartially weighing
their worth, estimating the rich man's millions and the
widow's mites, not by the amount given, but by the motives
which impel and the measure of self-sacrifice accepted for
the Lord's sake.

The ample supplies poured into Mr. Miiller's hands
came alike from those who had abundance of wealth and
from those whose only abundance was that of deep pov-
erty, but the rills as well as the rivers were from God.
It is one of the charms of this life-story to observe the
variety of persons and places, sums of money and forms
of help, connected with the donations made to the Lord's
work; and the exact adaptation between the need and
the supply, both as to time and amount. Some instances
of this have been given in the historic order; but to get
a more complete view of the lessons which they suggest
it is helpful to classify some of the striking and impres-
sive examples, which are so abundant, and which afford
such valuable hints as to the science and the art of
giving.

Valuable lessons may be drawn from the beautiful
spirit shown by givers and from the secret history of their
gifts.

334

A Glance at the Gifts and the Givers 325

In some cases the facts were not known till long after,
even by Mr. Miiller himself; and when known, could not
be disclosed to the public while the parties were yet alive.
But when it became possible and proper to unveil these
hidden things they were revealed for the glor^' of God and
the good of others, and shine on the pages of this record
like stars in the sky. Paul rejoiced in the free-will offer-
ings of Philippian disciples, not because he desired a gift,
but fruit that might abound to their account; not because
their offerings ministered to his necessity, but because they
became a sacrifice of a sweet smell acceptable, well pleas-
ing to God. Such Joy constantly filled Mr. Miiller's heart.
He was daily refreshed and reinvigorated by the many
proofs that the gifts received had been first sanctified by
prayer and self-denial. He lived and breathed amid the
fragrance of sweet-savour offerings, permitted for more
than threescore years to participate in the Joy of the Lord
Himself over the cheerful though often costly gifts of His
people. By reason of identification with his Master, the
servant caught the sweet scent of these sacrifices as their
incense rose from His altars toward heaven. Even on
earth the self-denials of his own life found compensation
in thus acting in the Lord's behalf in receiving and dis-
bursing these gifts; and, he says, " the Lord thus im-
pressed on me from the beginning that the orphan houses
and work were His, not mine."

Many a flask of spikenard, very precious, broken upon
the feet of the Saviour, for the sake of the orphans, or
the feeding of starving souls with the Bread of Life,
filled the house with the odour of the ointment, so that to
dwell there was to breathe a hallowed atmosphere of de-
votion.

Among the first givers to the work was a poor needle-
woman, who, to Mr. Miiller s surprise, brought one hundred

326 Geurge Miiller of Bristol

pounds. She earned by her work only an average, per weeTc,
of three shillings and sixpence, and was moreover weak in
body. A small legacy of less than five hundred pounds
from her grandmother's estate had come to her at her
father's death by the conditions of her grandmother's will.
But that father had died a drunkard and a bankrupt, and
her brothers and sisters had settled with his creditors by
paying them five shillings to the pound. To her con-
science, this seemed robbing the creditors of three fourths
of their claim, and, though they had no legal hold upon
her, she privately paid them the other fifteen shillings to
the pound, of the unpaid debts of her father. Moreover,
when her unconverted brother and two sisters gave each
fifty pounds to the widowed mother, she as a child of God
felt that she should give double that amount. By this time
her own share of the legacy was reduced to a small remain-
der, and it was out of this that she gave the one hundred
pounds for the orphan work !

As Mr. Miiller's settled principle was never to grasp
eagerly at any gift whatever the need or the amount of the
gift, before accepting this money he had a long conversa-
tion with this woman, seeking to prevent her from giving
either from an unsanctified motive or in unhallowed haste,
without counting the cost. He would in such a case dis-
honour his Master by accepting the gift, as though God
were in need of our offerings. Careful scrutiny, however,
revealed no motives not pure and Christlike; this woman
had calmly and deliberately reached her decision. " The
Lord Jesus," she said, " has given His last drop of blood
for me, and should I not give Him this hundred pounds? "
He who comes into contact with such givers in his work
for God finds therein a means of grace.

This striking incident lends a pathetic interest to the
beginnings of the orphan work, and still more as we

A Glance at the Gifts and the Givers 327

further trace the story of this humble needlewoman. She
had been a habitual giver, but so unobtrusively that, while
she lived, not half a dozen people knew of either the
legacy or of this donation. Afterward, however, it came
to the light that in many cases she had quietly and most
unostentatiously given food, clothing, and like comforts
to the deserving poor. Her gifts were so disproportionate
to her means that her little capital rapidly diminished.
Mr. Miiller was naturally very reluctant to accept what
she brought, until he saw that the love of Christ con-
strained her. He could then do no less than to receive
her offering, in his Master's name, while like the Master
he exclaimed, " 0 woman, great is thy faith ! "

Five features made her benevolence praiseworthy. First,
all these deeds of charity were done in secret and without
any show; and she therefore was kept humble, not puffed
up with pride through human applause; her personal
habits of dress and diet remained as simple after her
legacy as before, and to the last she worked with her
needle for her owti support ; and, finally, while her
earnings were counted in shillings and pence, her givings
were counted in sovereigns or five-pound notes, and in one
case by the hundred pounds. Her money was entirely
gone, years before she was called higher, but the faithful
God never forgot His promise: "I will never leave thee
nor forsake thee." Never left to want, even after bodily
weakness forbade her longer to ply her needle, she asked
no human being for help, but in whatever straits made
her appeal to God, and was not only left to suffer no
lack, but, in the midst of much bodily suffering, her
mouth was filled with holy song.

Mr. Miiller records the first bequest as from a dear lad
who died in the faith. During his last illness, he had re-
ceived a gift of some new silver coins; and he asked that this.

328 George Muller of Bristol

his only treasure in money, might he sent for the orphans.
With pathetic tenderness Mr. Miiller adds that this pre-
cious little legacy of six shillings sixpence halfpenny, re-
ceived September 15, 1837, was the first they ever had.
Those who estimate all donations by money-worth can
little understand how welcome such a bequest was; but to
such a man this small donation, bequeathed by one of
Christ's little ones, and representing all he possessed, was
of inestimable worth.

In May, 1842, a gold watch and chain were accompanied
by a brief note, the contents of which suggest the possi-
bilities of service, open to us through the voluntary lim-
itation of artificial or imaginary wants. The note reads
thus: " A pilgrim does not want such a watch as this to
make him happy; one of an inferior kind will do to show
him how swiftly time fiies, and how fyst he is hastening
on to that Canaan where time will be no more: so that it
is for you to do with this what it seemeth good to yon.
It is the last relic of earthly vanity, and, while I am in
the body, may I be kept from all idolatry ! "

In March, 1884, a contribution reached Mr. Miiller from
one who had been enabled in a like spirit to increase the
amount over all previous gifts by the sale of some jewelry
which had been put away in accordance with 1 Peter iii.
3. How much superfluous ornament, worn by disciples,
might be blessedly sacrificed for the Lord^'s sake ! The one
ornament which is in His sight of great price would shine
with far more lustre if it were the only one worn.

Another instance of turning all things to account was
seen in the case of a giver who sent a box containing four
old crown pieces which had a curious history. They were
the wedding-day present of a bridegroom to his bride, who,
reluctant to spend her husband's first gift, kept them
until she passed them over, as heirlooms, to her four grand-

A Glance at the Gifts and the Givers 329

children. They were thus at last put out to usury, after
many years of gathering " rust " in hoarded idleness and
uselessness. Little did bridegroom or bride foresee how
these coins, after more than a hundred years, would come
forth from their hiding-place to be put to the Lord's uses.
Few people have ever calculated how much is lost to every
good cause by the simple withdrawal of money from circu-
lation. Those four cro\^Ti pieces had they been carefully
invested, so as to double in value, by compound interest,
every ten years, would have increased to one thousand
pounds during the years they had lain idle!

One gift was sent in, as an offering to the Lord, instead
of being used to purchase an ' engagement-ring,' by two
believers who desired their lives to be united by that
highest bond, the mutual love of the Lord who spared not
His own blood for them.

At another time, a box came containing a new satin
jacket, newly bought, but sacrificed as a snare to pride.
Its surrender marked an epoch, for henceforth the owner
determined to spend in dress only what is needful, and
not waste the Lord's money on costly apparel. En-
lightened believers look on all things as inalienably God's,
and, even in the voluntary diversion of money into sacred
rather than selfish channels, still remember that they give
to Him only what is His own ! " The little child feels
proud that he can drop the money into the box after the
parent has supplied the means, and told him to do so;
and so God's children are sometimes tempted to think
that they are giving of their own, and to be proud over
their gifts, forgetting the divine Father who both gives
us all we have and bids us give all back to Him."

A gift of two thousand pounds on January 29, 1872, was
accompanied by a letter confessing that the possession of
property had given the writer much trouble of mind, and

330 George Muller of Bristol

it had been disposed of from a conviction that the Lord
" saw it not good " for him to hold so much and therefore
allowed its possession to be a curse rather than a blessing.
Fondness for possessions always entails curse, and external
riches thus become a source of internal poverty. It is
doubtful whether any child of God ever yet hoarded wealth
without losing in spiritual attainment and enjoyment.
Greed is one of the lowest and most destructive of vices
and turns a man into the likeness of the coin he worships,
making him hard, cold, metallic, and unsympathetic, so
that, as has been quaintly said, he drops into his coffin
" with a chink."

God estimates what we give by what we heep, for it is
possible to bestow large sums and yet reserve so much
larger amounts that no self-denial is possible. Such giving
to the Lord costs us nothing.

In 1853, a brother in the Lord took out of his pocket a
roll of bank-notes, amounting to one hundred and ten
pounds, and put it into Mr. Miiller's hand, it being more
than one half of his entire worldly estate. Such giving is an
illustration of self-sacrifice on a large scale, and brings
corresponding blessing.

The motives prompting gifts were often unusually sug-
gestive. In October, 1857, a donation came from a Chris-
tian merchant who, having sustained a heavy pecuniary
loss, wished to sanctify his loss hy a gift to the Lord's worh.
Shortly after, another offering was handed in by a young
man in thankful remembrance that twenty-five years before
Mr. Miiller had prayed over him, as a child, that God would
convert him. Yet another gift, of thirty-five hundred
pounds, came to him in 1858, with a letter stating that the
giver had further purposed to give to the orphan work
the chief preference in his will, but had now seen it to be
far better to act as his own executor and give the whole

A Glance at the Gifts and the Givers 331

amounit while he lived. Immense advantage would accrue^
both to givers and to the causes they purpose to promote,
were this principle generally adopted! There is " many a
slip betwixt the cup " of the legator and " the lip " of the
legatee. Even a wrong wording of a will has often for-
feited or defeated the intent of a legacy. Mr. Miiller had
to warn intending donors that nothing that was reckoned
as real estate was available for legacies for charitable in-
stitutions, nor even money lent on real estate or in any
other way derived therefrom. These conditions no longer
exist, but they illustrate the ease with which a will may
often be made void, and the design of a bequest be de-
feated.

Many donors were led to send thank-offerings for avoided
or averted calamities: as, for example, for a sick horse,
given up by the veterinary surgeon as lost, but which re-
covered in answer to prayer. Another donor, who broke
his left arm, sends grateful acknowledgment to God that
it was not the right arm, or some more vital part like the
head or neck.

The offerings were doubly precious because of the un-
wearied faithfulness of God who manifestly prompted
them, and who kept speaking to the hearts of thousands,
leading them to give so abundantly and constantly that no
want was unsupplied. In 1859, so great were the outlays
of the work that if day by day, during the whole three
hundred and sixty-five, fifty pounds had been received,
the income would not have been more than enough. Yet
in a surprising variety and number of ways, and from per-
sons and places no less numerous and various, donations
came in. Not one of twenty givers was personally known
to Mr. Miiller, and no one of all contributors had ever
been asked for a gift, and yet, up to November, 1858, over
six hundred thousand pounds had already been received,

332 George Muller of Bristol

and in amounts varying from eighty-one hundred pounds
down to a single farthing.

Unique circumstances connected with some donations
made them remarkable. While resting at Ilfracombe, in
September, 1865, a gentleman gave to Mr. Miiller a sum of
money, at the same time narrating the facts which led
to the gift. He was a hard-working business man, wont
to doubt the reality of spiritual things, and strongly ques-
tioned the truth of the narrative of answered prayers which
he had read from Mr. Miiller's pen. But, in view of the
simple straightforward story, he could not rest in his
doubts, and at last proposed to himself a test as to whether
or not God was indeed with Mr. Miiller, as he declared.
He wished to buy a certain property if rated at a reason-
able valuation; and he determined, if he should secure
it at the low price which he set for himself, he would
give to him one hundred pounds. He authorized a bid to
be put in, in his behalf, but, curious to get the earliest
information as to the success of his venture, he went him-
self to the place of sale, and was surprised to find the
property actually knocked off to him at his own price.
Astonished at what he regarded as a proof that God was
really working with Mr. Miiller and for him, he made up
his mind to go in person and pay over the sum of money
to him, and so make his acquaintance and see the man
whose prayers God answered. Not finding him at Bristol,
he had followed him to Ilfracombe.

Having heard his story, and having learned that he
was from a certain locality, Mr. Miiller remarked upon
the frequent proofs of God's strange way of working on
the minds of parties wholly unknown to him and leading
them to senid in gifts; and he added: " I had a letter from
a lawyer in your very neighbourhood, shortly since, asking
for the proper form for a bequest, as a client of his, not

A Glance at the Gifts and the Givers 333

named, wished to leave one thousand pounds to the orphan
work." It proved that the man with whom he was then
talking was this nameless client, who, being convinced that
his doubts were wrong, had decided to provide for this
legacy.

In August, 1884, a Christian brother from the United
States called to see Mr. Miiller. He informed him how
greatly he had been blessed of God through reading his
published testimony to God's faithfulness; and that hav-
ing, through his sister's death, come into the possession of
some property, he had come across the sea, that he might
see the orphan houses and know their founder, for himself,
and hand over to him for the Lord's work the entire
bequest of about seven hundred pounds.

Only seventeen days later, a letter accompanying a dona-
tion gave further joy to Mr. Miiller's heart. It was from
the husband of one of the orphans who, in her seventeenth
year, 'had left the institution, and to whom Mr. Miiller
himself, on her departure, had given the first two volumes
of the Eeports. Her husband had read them with more
spiritual profit than any volume except the Book of books,
and had found his faith much strengthened. Being a lay
preacher in the Methodist Free Church, the blessed im-
pulses thus imparted to himself were used of God to
inspire a like self-surrender in the class under his care.

These are a few examples of the countless encourage-
ments that led Mr. Miiller, as he reviewed them, to praise
God unceasingly.

A Christian physician enclosed ten pounds in a letter,
telling how first he tried a religion of mere duty and
failed; then, after a severe illness, learned a religion of
love, apprehending the love of God to himself in Christ
and so learning how to love others. In his days of dark-
ness he had been a great lover of flowers and had put up

334 George Muller of Bristol

several plant-houses; flower-culture was his hobby, and a
fine collection of rare plants, his pride. He took down
and sold one of these conservatories and sent the proceeds
as " the price of an idol, cast down by God's power."
Another giver enclosed a like amount from the sale of
unnecessary books and pictures; and a poor man his half-
crown, " the fruit of a little tree in his garden."

A poor woman, who had devoted the progeny of a pet
rabbit to the orphan work, when the young became fit
for sale changed her mind and " kept back a part of the
price " ; that part, however, tivo rabbits, she found dead
on the day when they were to be sold.

In July, 1877, ten pounds from an anonymous source
were accompanied by a letter which conveys another in-
structive lesson. Years before, the writer had resolved
before God to discontinue a doubtful habit, and send the
cost of his indulgence to the Institution. The vow, made
in time of trouble, was unpaid until God brought the sin
to remembrance by a new trouble, and by a special mes-
sage from the Word : " Grieve not the Spirit of God."
The victory was then given over the habit, and, the prac-
tice having annually cost about twenty-six shillings, the
full amount was sent to cover the period during which
the solemn covenant had not been kept, with the promise
of further gifts in redemption of the same promise to the
Lord. This instance conveys more than one lesson. It re-
minds us of the costliness of much of our self-indulgence.
Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, in submitting the Budget for
1897, remarked that what is annually wasted in the un-
smoked remnants of cigars and cigarettes in Britain is esti-
mated at a million and a quarter pounds — the equivalent of
all that is annually spent on foreign missions by British
Christians. And many forms of self-gratification, in no
way contributing to either health or profit, would, if

A Glance at the Gifts and the Givers 335

what they cost were dedicated to the Lord, make His
treasuries overflow. Again, this incident reminds us of the
many vows, made in time of trouble, which have no pay-
ment in time of relief. Many sorrows come back, like
clouds that return after the rain, to remind of broken
pledges and unfulfilled obligations, whereby we have
grieved the Holy Spirit of God. " Pay that which thou
hast vowed; for God hath no pleasure in fools." And
again we are here taught how a sensitive and enlightened
conscience will make restitution to God as well as to
man; and that past unfaithfulness to a solemn covenant
cannot be made good merely by keeping to its terms for
the future. No honest man dishonours a past debt, or
compromises with his integrity by simply beginning anew
and paying as he goes. Reformation takes a retrospective
glance and begins in restitution and reparation for all
previous wrongs and unfaithfulness. It is one of the
worst evils of our day that even disciples are so ready to
bury the financial and moral debts of their past life in the
grave of a too-easy oblivion.

One donor, formerly living in Tunbridge "Wells, followed
a principle of giving, the reverse of the worldly way. As
his own family increased, instead of decreasing his gifts,
he gave, for each child given to him of God, the average
cost of maintaining one orphan, until, having seven
children, he was supporting seven orphans.

An anon}Taous giver wrote: " It was my idea that when
a man had sufficient for his own wants, he ought then to
supply the wants of others, and consequently I never had
sufficient. I now clearly see that God expects us to give
of what we have and not of what we have not, and to
leave the rest to Him. I therefore give in faith and love,
knowing that if I first seek the kingdom of God and His
righteousness, all other things will be added unto me."

336 George Miiller of Bristol

Another sends five pounds in fulfilment of a secret
promise that, if he succeeded in passing competitive exam-
ination for civil service, he would make a thank-offering.
And he adds that Satan had repeatedly tried to persuade
him that he could not afford it yet, and could send it
better in a little while. Many others have heard the
same subtle suggestion from the same master of wiles and
father of lies. Postponement in giving is usually its prac-
tical abandonment, for the habit of procrastination grows
with insensibly rapid development.

Habitual givers generally witnessed to the conscious
blessedness of systematic giving. Many who began by giv-
ing a tenth, and perhaps in a legal spirit, felt constrained,
by the growing joy of imparting, to increase, not the
amount only, but the proportion, to a fifth, a fourth, a
third, and even a half of their profits. Some wholly re-
versed the law of appropriation with which they began;
for at first they gave a tithe to the Lord's uses, reserving
nine tenths, whereas later on they appropriated nine tenthfe
to the Lord's uses, and reserved for themselves only a
tithe. Those who learn the deep meaning of our Lord's
words, " It is more blessed to give than to receive," find
such Joy in holding all things at His disposal that even
personal expenditures are subjected to the scrutiny of con-
science and love, lest anything be wasted in extravagance
or careless self-indulgence. Frances Eidley Havergal in
her later years felt herself and all she possessed to be so
fully and joyfully given up to God, that she never went
into a shop to spend a shilling without asking herself
whether it would be for God's glory.

Gifts were valued by Mr. Miiller only so far as they
were the Lord's money, procured by lawful means and
given in the Lord's own way. To the last his course was

A Glance at the Gifts and the Givers 337

therefore most conscientious in the caution with which he
accepted offerings even in times of sorest extremity.

In October, 1842, he felt led to offer aid to a sister who
seemed in great distress and destitution, offering to share
with her, if need be, even his house and purse.

This offer drew out the acknowledgment that she had
some five hundred pounds of her own; and her conversa-
tion revealed that this money was held as a provision
against possible future want, and that she was leaning upon
that instead of upon God. Mr. Miiller said but little to
her, but after her withdrawal he besought the Lord to make
so real to her the exhaustless riches she possessed in Christ,
and her own heavenly calling, that she might be con-
strained to lay down at His feet the whole sum which was
thus a snare to her faith and an idol to her love. Not a word
spolcen or written passed between him and her on the sub-
ject, nor did he even see her; his express desire being that
if any such step were to be taken by her, it might result
from no human influence or persuasion, lest her subse-
quent regret might prove both a damage to herself and a
dishonour to her Master.

For nearly four weeks, however, he poured out his
heart to God for her deliverance from greed. Then she
again sought an interview and told him how she had been
day by day seeking to learn the will of God as to this
hoarded sum, and had been led to a clear conviction that
it should be laid entire upon His altar. Thus the goodly
sum of five hundred pounds was within so easy reach, at
a time of verj' great need, that a word from Mr. Miiller
would secure it. Instead of saying that word, he exhorted
her to make no such disposition of the money at that time,
but to count the cost; to do nothing rashly lest she
should repent it, but wait at least a fortnight more before
reaching a final decision. His correspondence with this

$^S George Miiller of Bristol

sister may be found fully spread out in his journal,* and
is a model of devout carefulness lest lie should snatch at
a gift that might be prompted by wrong motives or given
with an unprepared heart. When finally given, unex-
pected hindrances arose afEecting her actual possession
and transfer, so that more than a third of a year elapsed be-
fore it was received; but meanwhile there was on his part
neither impatience nor distrust, nor did he even communi-
cate further with her. To the glory of God let it be added
that she afterward bore cheerful witness that never for one
moment did she regret giving the whole sum to His
service, and thus transferring her trust from the money to
the Master.

In August, 1853, a poor widow of sixty, who had sold
the little house which constituted her whole property, put
into an orphan-house box elsewhere, for Mr. Miiller, the
entire proceeds, ninety pounds. Those who conveyed it to
Mr. Miiller, knowing the circumstances, urged her to retain
at least a part of this sum, and prevailed on her to keep
five pounds and sent on the other eighty-five. Mr. Miiller,
learning the facts, and fearing lest the gift might result
from a sudden impulse to be afterward regretted,
offered to pay her travelling expenses that he might
have an interview with her. He found her mind had
been quite made up for ten years before the house
was sold that such disposition should be made of the
proceeds. But he was the more reluctant to accept the
gift lest, as she had already been prevailed on to take back
five pounds of the original donation, she might wish she
had reserved more; and only after much urgency had
failed to persuade her to reconsider the step would he
accept it. Even then, however, lest he should be evil

* Narrative, I. 487 et seg.

A Glance at the Gifts and the Givers 339

spoken of in the matter, he declined to receive any part of
the gift for personal uses.

In October, 1867, a small sum was sent in by one who
had years before taken it from another, and who desired
thus to make restitution, believing that the Christian be-
liever from whom it was taken would approve of this
method of restoring it. Mr. Miiller promptly returned it,
irrespective of amount, that restitution might be made
directly to the party who had been robbed or wronged,
claiming that such party should first receive it and then
dispose of it as might seem fit. As it did not belong to
him who took it, it was not his to give even in another's
behalf.

During a season of great straits Mr. Miiller received a
sealed parcel containing money. He knew from whom it
came, and that the donor was a woman not only involved
in debt, but frequently asked by creditors for their lawful
dues in vain.. It was therefore clear that it was not
fter money, and therefore not hers to give; and without even
opening the paper wrapper he returned it to the sender —
and this at a time when there was not in hand enough to
meet the expenses of that very day. In June, 1838, a
stranger, w'ho confessed to an act of fraud, wished
through Mr. Miiller to make restitution, with interest;
and, instead of sending the money by post, Mr.
Miiller took pains to transmit it by bank orders, which
thus enabled him, in case of need, to prove his fidelity in
acting as a medium of transmission — an instance of the
often-quoted maxim that it is the honest man who is
most careful to provide things honest in the sight of all
men.

Money sent as proceeds of a musical entertainment held
for the benefit of the orphans in the south of Devon
was politely returned. Mr. Miiller had no doubt of the

340 George Miiller of Bristol

kiDd intention of those who set this scheme on foot, but he
felt that money for the work of God should not he obtained
in this manner, and he desired only money provided in
God's way.

Friends who asked that they might know whefher their
gifts had come at a particularly opportune time were re-
ferred to the next Keport for answer. To acknowledge
that the help came very seasonably would be an indirect
revelation of need, and might be construed into an indirect
appeal for more aid — as help that was peculiarly timely
would soon be exhausted. And so this man of God con-
sistently avoided any such disclosure of an exigency, lest
his chief object should be hindered, namely, "to show
how blessed it is to deal with God alone, and to trust Him
in the darkest moments." And though the need was con-
tinual, and one demand was no sooner met than another
arose, he did not find this a trying life nor did he ever
tire of it.

As early as May, 1846, a letter from a brother contained
the following paragraph:

" With regard to property, I do not see my way clearly.
I trust it is all indeed at the disposal of the Lord; and,
if you would let me know of any need of it in His service,
any sum under two hundred pounds shall be at your dis-
posal at about a week's notice."

The need at that time was great. How easy and natural
to write back that the orphan work was then in want of
help, and that, as Mr. Miiller was just going away from
Bristol for rest, it would be a special comfort if his cor-
respondent would send on, say a hundred and ninety
pounds or so! But to deal with the Lord alone in the
whole matter seemed so indispensable, both for the
strengthening of his own faith and for the effectiveness of
his testimony to the church and the world, that at once

A Glance at the Gifts and the Givers 341

this temptation was seen to be a snare, and he replied that
only to the Lord could the need of any part of the work be
confided.

Money to he laid up as a fund for his old age or possible
seasons of illness or family emergencies was always dei-
clined. Such a donation of one hundred pounds was re-
ceived October 12, 1856, with a note so considerate and
Christian that the subtle temptation to lay up for himself
treasures on earth would have triumphed but for a heart
fixed immovably in the determination that there should
be no dependence upon any suc'h human provision. He
had settled the matter beyond raising the question again,
that he would live from day to day upon the Lord's bounty,
and would make but one investment, namely, using what-
ever means God gave, to supply the necessities of the poor,
depending on God richly to repay him in the hour of his
own need, according to the promise:

" He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord,*
And that which he hath given will He pay him again.*'

Proverbs xix. 17.

God so owned, at once, this disposition on Mr. Miiller's
part that his courteous letter, declining the gift for him-
self, led the donor not only to ask him to use the hundred
pounds for the orphan work, but to add to this sum a
further gift of two hundred pounds more.

CHAPTEE XXIII

god's witness to the woek

The eleventh chapter of Hebrews — that " Westminstel
Abbey " where Old Testament saints have a memorial
before God — gives a hint of a peculiar reward which faith
enjoys, even in this life, as an earnest and foretaste of its
final recompense.

By faith "the elders obtained a good report," that is,
they had witness home to them by G-od in return for witness
borne to Him. All the marked examples of faith here
recorded show this twofold testimony. Abel te&tified to
his faith in God's Atoning Lamb, and God te&tified to his
gifts. Enoch witnessed to the unseen God by his holy
walk with Him, and He testified to Enoch, by his trans-
lation, and even before it, that he pleased God. Noah's
faith bore witness to God's word, by building the axk and
preaching righteousness, and God bore witness to him by
bringing a flood upon a world of the ungodly and saving
him and his family in the ark.

George Miiller's life was one long witness to the prayer-
hearing God; and, throughout, God bore him witness that
his prayers were heard and his work accepted. The pages
of his journal are full of striking examples of this wit-
ness— the earnest or foretaste of the fuller recompense of
reward reserved for the Lord's coming.

Compensations for renunciations, and rewards for ser-

348

God's Witness to the Work 343

vice, do not all wait for the judgment-seat of Christ, but,
as some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to
judgment, so the seed sown for God yields a harvest that is
' open beforehand ' to joyful recognition. Divine love
graciously and richly acknowledged these many years of
self-forgetful devotion to Him and His needy ones, by
large and unexpected tokens of blessing. Toils and trials,
tears and prayers, were not in vain even this side of the
Hereafter.

For illustrations of this we naturally turn first of all to
the orphan work. Ten thousand motherless and fatherless
children had found a home and tender parental care in
the institution founded by George Miiller, and were there
fed, clad, and taught, before he was called up higher. His
efforts to improve their state physically, morally, and
spiritually were so manifestly owned of God that he felt
his compensation to be both constant and abundant, and
his journal, from time to time, glows with his fervent
thanksgivings.

This orphan work would amply repay all its cost during
two thirds of a century, should only its temporal benefits
be reckoned. Experience proved that, with God's blessing,
one half of the lives sacrificed among the children of
poverty would be saved by better conditions of body — such
as regularity and cleanliness of habits, good food, pure air,
proper clothing, and wholesome exercise. At least two
thirds, if not three fourths, of the parents whose offspring
have found a shelter on Ashley Down had died of consump-
tion and kindred diseases; and hence the children had been
largely tainted with a like tendency. And yet, all through
the history of this orphan work, there has been such care
of proper sanitary conditions that there has been singular
f'-eedom from all sorts of ailments, and especially epidemic
diseases; and when scarlet fever, measles, and such diseases

344 George Muller of Bristol

have found entrance, the cases of sickness have been com-
paratively few and mild, and the usual percentage of
deaths exceedingly small.

This is not the only department of training in which the
recompense has been abundant. Ignorance is everywhere
the usual handmaid of poverty, and there has been very
careful effort to secure proper mental culture. With what
success the education of these orphans has been looked
after will sufficiently appear from the reports of the school
inspector. From year to year these pupils have been ex-
amined in reading, writing, arithmetic. Scripture, dicta-
tion, geography, history, grammar, composition, and sing-
ing; and Mr. Home reported in 1885 an average per cent
of all marks as high as 91.1, and even this was surpassed
the next year when it was 94, and, two years later, when it
was 96.1.

But in the moral and spiritual welfare of these orphans,
which has been primarily sought, the richest recompense
has been enjoyed. The one main aim of Mr. Miiller and
his whole staff of helpers, from first to last, has been to
save these children — to bring them up in the nurture and
admonition of the Lord. The hindrances were many and
formidable. If the hereditary taint of disease is to be
dreaded, what of the awinl legacy of sin and crime ! Many
of these little ones had no proper bringing up till they
entered the orphan houses; and not a few had been
trained indeed, but only in Satan's schools of drink and
lust. And yet, notwithstanding all these drawbacks, Mr.
Miiller records, with devout thankfulness, that " the Lord
had constrained them, on the whole, to behave exceedingly
well, so much so as to attract the attention of observers."
Better still, large numbers have, throughout the whole
history of this work, given signs of a really regenerate
state, and have afterwards maintained a consistent charac-

God's Witness to the Work ,345

ter and conduct, and in some cases have borne singular
witness to the grace of God, both by their complete trans-
formation and by their influence for good.

In August, 1858, an orphan girl, Martha Pinnell, who
had been for over twelve years under Mr. Miiller's care,
and for more than five years ill with consumption, fell
asleep in Jesus. Before her death, she had, for two and a
half years, known the Lord, and the change in her charac-
ter and conduct had been remarkable. From an exceed-
ingly disobedient and troublesome child with a pernicious
influence, she had become both very docile and humble
and most influential for good. In her unregenerate days
she had declared that, if she should ever be converted, she
would be " a thorough Christian," and so it proved. Her
happiness in God, her study of His word, her deep knowl-
edge of the Lord Jesus, her earnest passion for souls,
??emed almost incredible in one so young and so recently
Lurned to God. And Mr. Miiller has preserved in the pages
of his Journal four of the precious letters \mtten by her
to other inmates of the orphan houses.*

At times, and frequently, extensive revivals have been
known among them when scores and hundreds have found
the Lord. The year ending May 26, 1858 was especially
notable for the unprecedented greatness and rapidity of the
work which the Spirit of God had wrought, in such con-
versions. Within a few days and without any special ap-
parent cause except the very peaceful death of a Chris-
tian orphan, Caroline Bailey, more than fifty of the one
hundred and forty girls in Orphan House No. 1
were under con^dction of sin, and the work spread into the
other departments, till about sixty were shortly exercising
faith. In July, 1859, again, in a school of one hundred
and twenty girls more than half were brought under
* Narrative, III. 253-357.

346 George Miiller of Bristol

deep spiritual concern; and, after a year had passed, shewed
the grace of continuance in a new life. In January and
February, 1860, another mighty wave of Holy Spirit power
swept over the institution. It began among little girls,
from six to nine years old, then extended to the older
girls, and then to the boys, until, inside of ten days, above
two hundred were inquiring and in many instances found
immediate peace. The young converts at once asked to
hold prayer meetings among themselves, and were per-
mitted; and not only so, but many began to labour and
pray for others, and, out of the seven hundred orphans
then in charge, some two hundred and sixty were shortly
regarded as either converted or in a most hopeful state.

Again, in 1872, on the first day of the week of prayer, the
Holy Spirit so moved that, without any unusual occasion
for deep seriousness, hundreds were, during that season,
hopefully converted. Constant prayer for their souls made
the orphan homes a hallowed place, and by August 1st, it
was believed, after careful investigation, that seven hun-
dred and twenty-nine might be safely cotmted as being
disciples of Christ, the number of believing orphans being
thus far in excess of any previous period. A series of such
blessings have, down to this date, crowned the sincere
endeavours of all who have charge of these children, to lead
them to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteous-
ness.

By far the majority of orphans sent out for service or
apprenticeship, had for some time before known the Lord;
and even of those who left the Institution unconverted, the
after-history of many showed that the training there re-
ceived had made impossible continuance in a life of sin.

Thus, precious harvests of this seed-sowing, gathered in
subsequent years, have shown that God was not unright-
eous to forget this work of faith, and labour of love, and
patience of hope.

God's Witness to the Wonc 347

In April, 1874, a letter from a former inmate of Che
orphanage enclosed a thank offering for the excellent Bible-
teaching there received which had borne fruit years after.
So carefully had she been instructed in the way of salva-
tion that, while yet herself unrenewed, she had been God'a
instrument of leading to Christ a fellow servant w'ho had
long been seeking peace, and so, became, like a sign-board
on the road, the means of directing another to the true
path, by simply telling her what she had been taught,
though not then following the path herself.

Another orphan wrote, in 1876, that often, when
tempted to indulge the sin of unbelief, the thought of that
six years' sojourn in Ashley Down came across the mind
like a gleam of sunshine. It was remembered how the
clothes there worn, the food eaten, the bed slept on, and
the very walls around, were the visible answers to believing
prayer, and the recollection of all these things proved a
potent prescription and remedy for the doubts and waver-
ings of the child of God, a shield against the fiery darts of
Satanic suggestion.

During the thirty years between 1865 and 1895, two
thousand five hundred and sixty-six orphans were known
to have left the institution as believers, an average of
eighty-five every year; and, at the close of this thirty
years, nearly six hundred were yet in the homes on Ashley
Down who had given credible evidence of a regenerate
state.

Mr. Miiller was permitted to know that not only had
these orphans been blessed in health, educated in mind,
converted to God, and made useful Christian citizens, but
many of them had become fathers or mothers of Christian
households. One representative instance may be cited. A
man and a woman who had formerly been among these or-
phans became husband and wife, and they have had eight

34^ George Muller of Bristol

children, all earnest disciples, one of whom went as a for-
eign missionary to Africa.

From the first, God set His seal upon this religious
training in the orphan houses. The first two children re-
ceived into No. 1 both became true believers and zealous
workers: one, a Congregational deacon, who, in a be-
nighted neighbourhood, acted the part of a lay preacher;
and the other, a laborious and successful clergyman in
the Church of England, and both largely used of God in
soul-winning. Could the full history be written of all
who have gone forth from these orphan homes, what a
volume of testimony would be furnished, since these are
but a few scattered examples of the conspicuously useful
service to which God has called those whose after-career
can be traced!

In his long and extensive missionary tours, Mr. Miillei
was permitted to see, gather, and partake of many widely
scattered fruits of his work on Ashley Down. When
preaching in Brooklyn, N. Y., in September, 1877, he
learned that in Philadelphia a legacy of a thousand pounds
was waiting for him, the proceeds of a life-insurance,
which the testator had willed to the work, and in city after
city he had the joy of meeting scores of orphans brought
up under his care.

He minutely records the remarkable usefulness of a Mr.
Wilkinson, who, up to the age of fourteen and a half years,
had been taught at the orphanage. Twenty years had
elapsed since Mr. Muller had seen him, when, in 1878, he
met him in Calvary Church, San Francisco, six thousand
five hundred miles from Bristol. He found him holding
fast his faith in the Lord Jesus, a happy and consistent
Christian. He further heard most inspiring accounts of
this man's singular service during the Civil War in Amer-
ica. Being on the gunboat Louisiana, he had there been

God's Witness to the Work 349

the leading spirit and recognized head of a little Bethel
church among his fellow seamen, who were by him led
so to engage in the service of Christ as to exhibit a devo-
tion that, without a trace of fanatical enthusiasm, was full
of holy zeal and joy. Their whole conversation was of
God. It further transpired that, months previous,
when the cloud of impending battle overhung the ship's
company, he and one of his comrades had met for prayer
in the ' chain-locker '; and thus began a series of most
remarkable meetings which, without one night's in-
terruption, lasted for some twenty months. Wil-
kinson alone among the whole company had any
previous knowledge of the word of God, and he be-
came not only the leader of the movement, but the chief
interpreter of the Scriptures as they met to read the
Book of God and exchange views upon it, Nor was he
satisfied to do thus much with his comrades daily, but at
another stated hour he, with some chosen helpers, gathered
the coloured sailors of the ship to teach them reading,
writing, etc.

A member of the Christian Commission, Mr. J. E. Ham-
mond, who gave these facts publicity, and who was in-
timately acquainted with Mr. Wilkinson and his work on
shipboard, said that he seemed to be a direct "product
of Mr. Miiller's faith, his calm confidence in God, the
method in his whole manner of life, the persistence of
purpose, and the quiet spiritual power," which so char-
acterized the founder of the Bristol orphanage, being emi-
nently reproduced in this young man who had been trained
under his influence. When in a sail-loft ashore, he was
compelled for two weeks to listen to the lewd and profane
talk of two associates detailed with him for a certain work.
For the most part he took refuge in silence; but his man-
ner of conduct, and one sentence which dropped from h^B

350 George MuUer of Bristol

lips, brought both those rough and wicked sailors to the
Saviour he loved, one of whom in three months read the
word of God from Genesis to Revelation.

Mr. Miiller went nowhere without meeting converted
orphans or hearing of their work, even in the far-off
corners of the earth. Sometimes in great cities ten or
fifteen would be waiting at the close of an address to
shake the hand of their " father," and tell him of their
debt of gratitude and love. He found them in every con-
ceivable sphere of service, many of them having house-
holds in which the principles taught in the orphan homes
were dominant, and engaged in the learned professions
as well as humbler walks of life.

God gave His servant also the sweet compensation of
seeing great blessing attending the day-schools supported
by the Scriptural Knowledge Institution.

The master of the school at Clayhidon, for instance,
wrote of a poor lad, a pupil in the day-school, prostrate
with rheumatic fever, in a wretched home and surrounded
by bitter opposers of the truth. "Wasted to a skeleton, and
in deep anxiety about his owa soul, he was pointed to Him
who says, " Come unto Me, . . . and I will give you rest."
While yet this conversation was going on, as though sud-
denly he had entered into a new world, this emaciated boy
began to repeat texts such as " Suffer the little children
to come unto me," and burst out singing:

"Jesus loves me, this I know,
For the Bible tells me so."

He seemed transported with ecstasy, and recited text after
text and hymn after hymn, learned at that school. No
marvel is it if that schoolmaster felt a joy, akin to the
angels, in this one proof that his labour in the Lord was
not in vaia. Such examples might be indefinitely mui-

God's Witness to the Work 351

tiplied, but this handful of first-fruits of a harvest may
indicate the character of the whole crop.

Letters were constantly received from missionary la-
bourers in various parts of the world who were helped by
the gifts of the Scriptural Knowledge Institution. The
testimony from this source alone would fill a good-sized
volume, and therefore its incorporation into this memoir
would be impracticable. Those who would see what grand
encouragement came to Mr. Miiller from fields of labour
where he was only represented by others, whom his gifts
aided, should read the annual reports. A few examples
may be given of the blessed results of such wide scattering
of the seed of the kingdom, as specimens of thousands.

Mr. Albert Fenn, who was labouring in Madrid, wrote
of a civil guard who, because of his bold witness for
Christ and renunciation of the Romish confessional, was
sent from place to place and most cruelly treated, and
threatened with banishment to a penal settlement. Again
he writes of a convert from Eome who, for tiying to estab-
lish a small meeting, was summoned before the governor.

" Who pays you for this? " " No one." " What do you
gain by it?" "Nothing." "How do you live?" "I
work with my hands in a mine." "Why do you hold
meetings?" "Because God has blessed my soul, and I
wish others to be blessed." " You ? you were made a
miserable day-labourer; I prohibit the meetings." " I
yield to force," was the calm reply, " but as long as I have
a mouth to speak I shall speak for Christ." How like those
primitive disciples who boldly faced the rulers at Jerusa-
lem, and, being forbidden to speak in Jesus' name, firmly
answered: "We ought to obey God rather than men.
Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto
you more than unto God judge ye: for we cannot but speak
the things which we have seen and heard."

352 George Muller of Bristol

A missionary labourer writes from India, of three Brah-
man priests and scores of Santhals and Hindus, sitting
down with four Europeans to keep the supper of the Lord
— all fruits of his ministry. Within a twelvemonth, sixty-
two men anid women, including head men of villages, and
four Brahman women, wives of priests and of head men,
were baptized, representing twenty-three villages in which
the gospel had been preached. At one time more than
one hundred persons were awakened in one mission in
Spain; and such harvests as these were not infrequent in
various fields to which the founder of the orphan work
had the joy of sending aid.

In 1885, a scholar of one of the schools at Carrara, Italy,
was confronted by a priest. " In the Bible," said he, " you
do not find the commandments of the church." " No,
sir," said the child, " for it is not for the church of God
to command, but to obey." " Tell me, then," said the priest,
" these commandments of God," " Yes, sir," replied the
child; ' I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt have no
other God before me. Neither shalt thou make any graven
image." " Stop! stop! " cried the priest, " I do not under-
stand it so." " But so," quietly replied the child, " it is
written in God's word." This simple incident may illus-
trate both the character of the teaching given in the
schools, and the character often developed in those who
were taught.

Out of the many pages of Mr. Miiller's journal, probably
about one-fifth are occupied wholly with extracts from
letters like these from missionaries, teachers, and helpers,
which kept him informed of the progress of the Lord's
work at home and in many lands where the labourers were
by him enabled to continue their service. Bible-carriages,
open-air services. Christian schools, tract distribution, and
various other forms of holy labour for the benighted souls

God's Witness to the Work 353

near and far, formed part of the many-branching tree of
life that was planted on Ashley Down.

Another of the main encouragements and rewards which
Mr. Miiller enjoyed in this life was the knowledge that
his example had emboldened other believers to attempt
like work for God, on like principles. This he himself
regarded as the greatest blessing resulting from his life-
work, that hundreds of thousands of children of God had
been led in various parts of the world to trust in God in
all simplicity; and when such trust found expression in
similar service to orphans, it seemed the consummation of
his hopes, for the work was thus proven to have its seed
in itself after its kind, a self-propagating life, which doub-
ly demonstrated it to be a tree of the Lord's own planting,
that He might be glorified.

In December, 1876, Mr. Miiller learned, for instance,
that a Christian evangelist, simply through reading about
the orphan work in Bristol, had it laid on his heart to
care about orphans, and encouraged by Mr. Miiller's ex-
ample, solely in dependence on the Lord, had begun in
1863 with three orphans at Nimwegen in Holland, and had
at that date, only fourteen years after; over four hundred
and fifty in the institution. It pleased the Lord that he
and Mrs. Miiller sfhould, with their own eyes, see this in-
stitution, and he says that in " almost numberless in-
stances " the Lord permitted him to know of similar fruits
of his work.

At his first visit to Tokyo, Japan, he gave an account
of it, and as the result, Mr. Ishii, a native Christian Japan-
ese, started an orphanage upon a similar basis of prayer,
faith, and dependence upon the Living God, and at Mr.
Miiller's second visdt to the Island Empire he found this
orphan work prosperously in progress.

How generally fruitful the example thus furnished on

354 George Miiller of Bristol

Ashley Down has been in good to the church and the world
will never be known on earth. A man living at Horfield,
in sight of the orphan buildings, has said that, whenever
he felt doubts of the Living God creeping into his mind,
he used to get up and look through the night at the many
windows lit up on Ashley Down, and they gleamed out
through the darkness as stars in the sky.

It was the witness of Mr. Miiller to a prayer-hearing God
which encouraged Rev. J. Hudson Taylor, in 1863, thirty
years after Mr. Miiller's great step was taken, to venture
wholly on the Lord, in founding the China Inland Mission.
It has been said that to the example of A. H. Francke
in Halle, or George Miiller in Bristol, may be more or less
directly traced every form of ' faith work,' prevalent
since.

The Scriptural Knowledge Institution was made in all
its departments a means of blessing. Already in the year
ending May 26, 1860, a hundred servants of Christ had
been more or less aided, and far more souls had been hope-
fully brought to God through their labours than during
any year previous. About six hundred letters, received
from them, had cheered Mr. Miiller's heart during the
twelvemonth, and this source of joy overflowed during
all his life. In countless cases children of God were lifted
to a higher level of faith and life, and unconverted souls
were turned to God through the witness borne to God by
the institutions on Ashley Down. Mr. Miiller has summed
up this long history of blessing by two statements which
are worth pondering.

First, that the Lord was pleased to give him far beyond
all he at first expected to accomplish or receive;

And secondly, that he was fully persuaded that all he
had seen and known would not equal the thousandth part
of what he should see and know when the Lord should

God's Witness to the Work 355

come. His reward with Him, to give every man according
as his work shall be.

The circulation of Mr. Mailer's Narrative was a most
conspicuous means of untold good.

In November, 1856, Mr. James McQuilkin, a young
Irishman, was converted, and early in the next year, read
the first two volumes of that Narrative He said to him-
self : " Mr. Miiller obtains all this simply by prayer; so
may I be blessed by the same means," and he began to pray.
First of all he received from the Lord, in answer, a spirit-
ual companion, and then two more of like mind; and they
four began stated seasons of prayer in a small schoolhouse
near Kells, Antrim, Ireland, every Friday evening. On the
first day of the new year, 1858, a farm-servant was remark-
ably brought to the Lord in answer to their prayers, and
these five gave themselves anew to united supplication.
Shortly a sixth young man was added to their number by
conversion, and so the little company of praying souls slow-
ly grew, only believers being admitted to these simple
meetings for fellowship in reading of the Scriptures,
prayer, and mutual exhortation.

About Christmas, that year, Mr. McQuilkin, with the
two brethren who had first joined him — one of whom was
Mr. Jeremiah Meneely, who is still at work for God — held
a meeting by request at Ahoghill. Some believed and
some mocked, while others thought these three converts
presumptuous; but two weeks later another meeting was
held, at which God's Spirit began to w^ork most mightily
and conversions now rapidly multiplied. Some converts
bore the sacred coals and kindled the fire elsewhere, and
60 in many places revival fiames began to burn; and in
Ballymena, Belfast, and at other points the Spirit's gra-
cious work was manifest.

Such was the starting-point, in fact, of one of the most

356 George Muller of Bristol

widespread and memorable revivals ever known in our
century, and which spread the next year in England,
Wales, and Scotland. Thousands found Christ, and walked
in newness of life; and the results are still manifest after
more than forty years.

As early as 1868 it was found that one w^ho had thank-
fully read this Narrative had issued a compendium of it
in Swedish. We have seen how widely useful it has been
in Germany; and in many other languages its substance
at least has been made available to native readers.

Knowledge came to Mr. Miiller of a boy of ten years
who got hold of one of these Eeports, and, although be-
longing to a family of unbelievers, began to pray: " God,
teach me to pray like George Miiller, and hear me as Thou
dost hear George Muller." He further declared his wish
to be a preacher, which his widowed mother very strongly
opposed, objecting that the boy did not know enough to
get into the grammar-school, which is the first step toward
such a high calling. The lad, however, rejoined: "I will
leam and pray, and God will help me through as He has
done George Miiller." And soon, to the surprise of every-
body, the boy had successfully passed his examination and
was received at the school.

A donor writes, September 20, 1879, that the reading
of the Narrative totally changed his inner life to one of
perfect trust and confidence in God. It led to the devot-
ing of at least a tenth of his earnings to the Lord's
purposes, and showed him how much more blessed it is
to give than to receive; and it leid him also to place a
copy of that Narrative on the shelves of a Town Institute
library where three thousand members and subscribers
might have access to it.

Another donor suggests that it might be well if Prof,
Huxley and his sympathisers, who haid been proposing some

God's Witness to the Work 35;

new arbitrary " prayer-gauge," would, instead of treating
prayer as so much waste of breath, try how long they
could keep five orphan houses running, with over two
thousand orphans, and without asking any one for help,
— either " God or man."

In September, 1882, another donor describes himself as
"simply astounded at the blessed results of prayer and
faith," and many others have found this brief narrative
" the most wonderful and complete refutation of skepti-
cism it had ever been their lot to meet with " — an array of
facts constituting the most undeniable " evidences of
Christianity." There are abundant instances of the power
exerted by Mr. Miiller's testimony, as when a woman who
had been an infidel, writes him that he was " the first per-
son by whose example she learned that there are some men
who live by faith," and that for this reason she had willed
to him all that she possessed.

Another reader found these Eeports " more faith-
strengthening and soul-refreshing than many a sermon,"
particularly so after Just wading through the mire of a
speech of a French infidel who boldly affirmed that of all
of the millions of prayers uttered every day, not one is an-
swered. We should like to have any candid skeptic con-
fronted with Mr. Miiller's unvarnished story of a life of
faith, and see how he would on any principle of ' compound
probability ' and ' accidental coincidences,' account for the
tens of thousands of answers to believing prayer ! The fact
is that one half of the infidelity in the world is dishonest,
and the other half is ignorant of the daily proofs that God
is, and is a Eewarder of them that diligently seek Him.

From almost the first publication of his Narrative, Mr.
Miiller had felt a conviction that it was thus to be greatly
owned of God as a witness to His faithfulness; and, as early
as 1843, it was laid on his heart to send a copy of his

358 George Mtiller of Bristol

Annual Eeport gratuitously to every Christian minister
of the land, which the Lord helped him to do, his aim
being not to get money or even awaken interest in the
work, but rather to stimulate faith and quicken prayer.*

Twenty-two years later, in 1868, it was already so ap-
parent that the published accounts of the Lord's dealings
was used so largely to sanctify and edify saints and even
to convert sinners and convince infidels, that he records
this as the greatest of all the spiritual blessings hitherto
resulting from his work for God. Since then thirty years
more have fled, and, during this whole period, letters from
a thousand sources have borne increasing witness that the
example he set has led others to fuller faith and firmer
confidence in God's word, power, and love; to a deeper
persuasion that, though Elijah has been taken up, God,
the God of Elijah, is still working His wonders.

And so, in all departments of his work for God, the
Lord to whom he witnessed bore witness to him in return,
and anticipated his final reward in a recompense of present
and overflowing joy. This was especially true in the long
tours undertaken, when past threescore and ten, to sow in
lands afar the seeds of the Kingdom ! As the sower went
forth to sow he found not fallow fields only, but harvest
fields also, from which his arms were filled with sheaves.
Thus, in a new sense the reaper overtook the ploughman,

* The autlior of this memoir purposes to give a copy of it to every
foreign missionary, and to workers in the home fields, so far as
means are supplied in answer to prayer. His hope is that the wit-
ness of this life may thus have still wider influence in stimulating
prayer and faith. The devout reader is asked to unite his supplica-
tions with those of many others who are asking that the Lord may be
pleased to furnish the means whereby this purpose may be carried
out. Already about one hundred pounds sterling have been given
for this end, and part of it, small in amount but rich in self-denial,
Crom the staff of helpers and the orphans on Ashley Down. A. T. P.

God's Witness to the Work 359

and the harvester, him that scattered the seed. In every
city of the United Kingdom and in the "sixty-eight cities"
where, up to 1877, he had preached on the continents of
Europe and America, he had found converted orphans,
and believers to whom abundant blessing had come
through reading his reports. After this date, twenty-one
years more yet remained crowded with experiences of good.
Thus, before the Lord called George Miiller higher. He
had given him a foretaste of his reward, in the physical, in-
tellectual and spiritual profit of the orphans; in the fruits
of his wide seed-sowing in other lands as well as Britain;
in the scattering of God's word and Christian literature;
in the Christian education of thousands of children in the
schools he aided; in the assistance afforded to hundreds of
devoted missionaries; in the large blessing imparted by his
published narrative, and in his personal privilege of bear-
ing witness throughout the world to the gospel of grace.

CHAPTER XXIV

LAST LOOKS, BACKWAKD AND FOEWAED.

The mountain-climber, at the sunset hour, naturally
takes a last lingering look backward at the prospect visible
from the lofty height, before he begins his descent to the
valley. And, before we close this volume, we as naturally
east one more glance backward over this singularly holy
\nd useful life, that we may catch further inspiration from
its beauty and learn some new lessons in holy living and
unselfish serving.

George Mliller was divinely fitted for, fitted into his
work, as a mortise fits the tenon, or a ball of bone its
socket in the joint. He had adaptations, both natural
and gracious, to the life of service to which he was called,
and these adaptations made possible a career of exceptional
sanctity and service, because of his complete self -surrender
to the will of God and his childlike faith in His word.

Three qualities or characteristics stand out very con-
spicuous in him: truth, faith, and love. Our Lord fre-
quently taught His disciples that the childlike spirit is the
soul of discipleship, and in the ideal child these three
traits are central. Truth is one centre, about which re-
volve childlike frankness and sincerity, genuineness and
simplicity. Faith is another, about which revolve con-
fidence and trust, docility and humility. Love is another
centre, around which gather unselfishness and generosity,
360

Last Looks, Backward and Forward 361

gentleness and restfulness of spirit. In the typical or per-
fect child, therefore, all these beautiful qualities would
coexist, and, in proportion as they are found in a disciple,
is he worthy to be called a child of God.

In Mr. Miiller these traits were all found and conjoined
in a degree very seldom found in any one man, and this fact
sufficiently accounts for his remarkable likeness to Christ
and fruitfulness in serving God and man. No pen-portrait
of him which fails to make these features very prominent
can either be accurate in delineation or warm in colouring.
It is difl&cult to overestimate their importance in their
relation to what George Miiller was and did.

Truth is the corner-stone of all excellence, for without
it nothing else is true, genuine, or real. From the hour
of his conversion his truthfulness was increasingly domi-
nant and apparent. In fact, there was about him a scrupu-
lous exactness which sometimes seemed unnecessary. One
smiles at the mathematical precision with which he states
facts, giving the years, days, and hours since he was
brought to the knowledge of God, or since he began to
pray for some given object; and the pounds, shillings,
pence, halfpence, and even farthings that form the total
sum expended for any given purpose. We see the same
conscientious exactness in the repetitions of statements,
whether of principles or of occurrences, which we meet in
his journal, and in which oftentimes there is not even a
change of a word. But all this has a significance. It
inspires absolute confidence in the record of the Lord's deal-
ings.

First, because it shows that the writer has disciplined
himself to accuracy of statement. Many a falsehood is
not an intentional lie, but an undesigned inaccuracy.
Three of our human faculties powerfully affect our verac-
ity: one is memory, another is imagination, and another

362 George Miiller of Bristol

is conscience. Memory takes note of facts, imagination
colours facts with fancies, and conscience brings the moral
sense to bear in sifting the real from the unreal. Where
conscience is not sensitive and dominant, memory and
imagination will become so confused that facts and fan-
cies will fail to be separated. The imagination will be
so allowed to invest events and experiences with either
a halo of glory or a cloud of prejudice that the narrator
will constantly tell, not what he clearly sees written in the
book of his remembrance, but what he beholds painted
upon the canvas of his own imagination. Accuracy will
be, half unconsciously perhaps, sacrificed to his own
imaginings; he will exaggerate or depreciate — as his own
impulses lead him; and a man who would not deliberately
lie may thus be habitually untrustworthy: you cannot tell,
and often he cannot tell, what the exact truth would be,
when all the unreality with which it has thus been in-
vested is dissipated like the purple and golden clouds
about a mountain, leaving the bare crag of naked rock
to be seen, just as it is in itself.

George Miiller felt the immense importance of exact
statement. Hence he disciplined himself to accuracy.
Conscience presided over his narrative, and demanded that
everything else should be scrupulously sacrificed to verac-
ity. But, more than this, God made him, in a sense, a
man without imagination — comparatively free from the
temptations of an enthusiastic temperament. He was a
mathematician rather than a poet, an artisan rather than
an artist, and he did not see things invested with a false
halo. He was deliberate, not impulsive; calm and not ex-
citable. He naturally weighed every word before he spoke,
and scrutinized every statement before he gave it form
"with pen or tongue. And therefore the very qualities
that, to some people, may make his narrative bare of

Last Looks, Backward and Forward 363

charm, and even repulsively prosaic, add to its value as a
plain, conscientious, unimaginative, unvarnished, and trust-
worthy statement of facts. Had any man of a more poetic
mind written that journal, the reader would have found
himself constantly and unconsciously making allowance
for the writer's own enthusiasm, discounting the facts,
because of the imaginative colouring. The narrative
might have heen more readable, but it would not have
been so reliable; and, in this story of the Lord's dealings,
nothing was so indispensable as exact truth. It would be
comparatively worthless, were it not ujideniable. The
Lord fitted the man who lived that life of faith and prayer,
and wrote that life-story, to inspire confidence, so that
even skeptics and doubters felt that they were reading,
not a novel or a poem, but a history.

Faith was the second of these central traits in George
Miiller, and it was purely the product of grace. We are
told, in that first great lesson on faith in the Scripture,
that (Genesis xv. 6) Abram believed in Jehovah — literally,
Amened Jehovah, The word " Amen " means not ' Let it be
so,' but rather ' it shall he so.' The Lord's word came to
Abram, saying this ' shall not be,' but something else ' shall
be '; and Abram simply said with all his heart, ' Amen ' —
' it shall be as God hath said.' And Paul seems to be imi-
tating Abram's faith when, in the shipwreck off Malta, he
said, "I believe God, that it shall he even as it was told
me." That is faith in its simplest exercise and it was George
Miiller's faith. He found the word of the Lord in His
blessed Book, a new word of promise for each new crisis
of trial or need; he put his finger upon the very text and
then looked up to God and said: " Thou hast spoken. I
believe." Persuaded of God's unfailing truth, he rested
on His word with unwavering faith, and consequently
he was at peace.

364

George MuUer of Bristol

Nothing is more noticeable, in the entire career of this
man of God, reaching through sixty-five years, than the
steadiness of his faith and the steadfastness it gave to his
whole character. To have a word of God was enough.
He built upon it, and, when floods came and beat against
that house, how could it fall! He was never confounded
nor obliged to flee. Even the earthquake may shake
earth and heaven, but it leaves the true believer the in-
heritor of a kingdom which cannot be moved ; for the
object of all such shaking is to remove what can be shaken,
that what cannot be shaken may remain.

If Mr. Miiller had any great mission, it was not to found
a world-wide institution of any sort, however useful in
scattering Bibles and books and tracts, or housing and feed-
ing thousands of orphans, or setting up Christian schools
and aiding missionary workers. His main mission was
to teach men that it is safe to trust God's word, to rest im-
plicitly upon whatever He hath said, and obey explicitly
whatever He has bidden; that prayer offered in faith,
trusting His promise and the intercession of His dear
Son, is never offered in vain; and that the life lived by
faith is a walk with God, just outside the very gates of
heaven.

Love, the third of that trinity of graces, was the other
great secret and lesson of this life. And what is love?
Not merely a complacent affection for what is lovable,
which is often only a half-selfish taking of pleasure in the
society and fellowship of those who love us. Love is the
principle of unselfishness: love ' seeketh not her own'; it
is the preference of another's pleasure and profit over our
own, and hence is exercised toward the unthankful and
unlovely, that it may lift them to a higher level. Such
love is benevolence rather than complacence, and so it
is " of God," for He loveth the unthankful and the evil :

Last Looks, Backward and Forward 365

and he that loveth is bom of God and knoweth God.
Such love is obedience to a principle of unselfishness, and
makes self-sacrifice habitual and even natural. While
Satan's motto is ' Spare thyself ! ' Christ's motto is ' Deny
thyself ! ' The sharpest rebuke ever administered by our
Lord was that to Peter when he became a Satan by coun-
selling his Master to adopt Satan's maxim.* We are bid-
den by Paul, Remember Jesus Christ,^ and by Peter, " Fol-
low His steps." $ If we seek the inmost meaning of these
two brief mottoes, we shall find that, about Jesus Christ's
character, nothing was more conspicuous than the obedi-
ence of faith and self-surrender to God: and in His career,
which we are bidden to follow, the renunciation of love,
or self-sacrifice for man. The taunt was sublimely true:
" He saved others, Himself He cannot save "; it was
hecause he saved others that He could not save Himself.
The seed must give up its own life for the sake of the crop;
and he who will be life to others must, like his Lord, con-
sent to die.

Here is the real meaning of that command, " Let him
deny himself and take up his cross." Self-denial is not
cutting off an indulgence here and there, but laying the
axe at the root of the tree of self, of which all indulgences
are only greater or smaller branches. Self-righteousness
and self-trust, self-seeking and self-pleasing, self-will, self-
defence, self-glory — these are a few of the m}Tiad branches
of that deeply rooted tree. And what if one or more of
these be cut off, if such lopping off of some few branches
only throws back into others the self-life to develop more
vigorously in them?

And what is cross-bearing? We speak of our ' crosses ' —
but the word of God never uses that word in the plural^,

» Matt. xvi. t 3 Tim. II. (Greek). t 1 Pet. II. 21.

366 George Muller of Bristol

for there is but one cross — the cross on which the self-
life is crucified, the cross of voluntary self-renunciation.
How did Christ come to the cross? We read in Philippians
the seven steps of his descent from heaven to Calvary.
He had everything that even the Son of God could hold
precious, even to the actual equal sharing of the glory of
God. Yet for man's sake what did he do? He did not
hold fast even His equality with God, He emptied HimseK,
took on Him the form of a servant, was made in the like-
ness of fallen humanity; even more than this, He humbled
Himself even as a man, identifying Himself with our
poverty and misery and sin; He accepted death for our
sakes, and that, the death of shame on the tree of curse.
Every step was downward until He who had been wor-
shipped by angels was reviled by thieves, and the crown
of glory was displaced by the crown of thorns! That is
what the cross meant to Him. And He says: " If any
man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take
up the cross and follow Me." This cross is not forced upon
us as are many of the little vexations and trials which we
call ' our crosses '; it is taken up by us, in voluntary self'
sacrifice for His sake. "We choose self-abnegation, to lose
our life in sacrifice that we may find it again in service.
That is the self-oblivion of love. And Mr. Miiller illus-
trated it. From the hour when he began to serve the
Crucified One he entered more and more fully into the fel-
lowship of His sufferings, seeking to be made conformable
unto His death. He gave up fortune-seeking and fame-
seeking; he cut loose from the world with its snares and
joys; he separated himself from even its doubtful practices,
he tested even churchly traditions and customs by the word
of God, and step by step conformed to the pattern showed
in that word. Every such step was a new self-denial, but
it was following Him. He chose voluntary poverty that

Last Looks, Backward and Forward 367

others might be rich, and voluntary loss that others might
have gain. His life was one long endeavour to bless others,
to be the channel for conveying God's truth and love and
grace to them. Like Paul he rejoiced in such sufferings
for others, because thus he filled up that which is behind
of the afflictions of Christ in his flesh for His body's sake
which is the church.* And unless Love's voluntary sac-
rifice be taken into account, George Miiller's life will still
remain an enigma. Loyalty to truth, the obedience of
faith, the sacrifice of love — these form the threefold key
that unlocks to us all the closed chambers of that life, and
these will, in another sense, unlock any other life to the
entrance of God, and present to Him an open door into
all departments of one's being. George Miiller had no
monopoly of holy living and holy serving. He followed
his Lord, both in self-surrender to the will of God and in
fielf-sacrifice for the welfare of man, and herein lay his
whole secret.

To one who asked him the secret of his service he said:
" There was a day when I died, utterly dud; " and, as he
spoke, he bent lower and lower until he almost touched
the floor — " died to George Miiller, his opinions, prefer-
ences, tastes and will — died to the world, its approval or
censure — died to the approval or blame even of my breth-
ren and friends — and since then I have studied only to
show myself approved unto God."

When George Miiller trusted the blood for salvation, he
took Abel's position; when he undertook a consecrated
walk he took Enoch's; when he came into fellowship with
God for his life-work he stood beside Noah; when he
rested only on God's word, he was one with Abraham;
and when he died to self and the world, he reached the
Belf-surrender of Moses.

* Coloss. 1 : 24.

368 George Muller of Bristol

The godlike qualities of this great and good man made
him none the less a man. His separation unto God im-
plied no unnatural isolation from his fellow mortals.
Like Terence, he could say: " I am a man, and nothing
common to man is foreign to me.'" To be well known,
Mr. Miiller needed to be known in his daily, simple, home
life. It was my privilege to meet him often, and in his
own apartment at Orphan House No. 3. His room was of
medium size, neatly but plainly furnished, with table and
chairs, lounge and writing-desk, etc. His Bible almost
always lay open, as a book to which he continually re-
sorted.

His form was tall and slim, always neatly attired, and
very erect, and his step firm and strong. His countenance,
in repose, might have been thought stern, but for the smile
which so habitually lit up his eyes and pla3Td over his
features that it left its impress on the lines of his face.
His manner was one of simple courtesy and unstudied dig-
nity: no one would in his presence, have felt like vain tri-
fling, and there was about him a certain indescribable air of
authority and majesty that reminded one of a born prince;
and yet there was mingled with all this a simplicity so
childlike that even children felt themselves at home with
him. In his speech, he never quite lost that peculiar for-
eign quality, known as accent, and he always spoke with
slow and measured articulation, as though a double watch
were set at the door of his lips. With him that unruly
member, the tongue, was tamed by the Holy Spirit, and he
had that mark of what James calls a ' perfect man, able
also to bridle the whole body.'

Those who knew but little of him and saw him only in
his serious moods might have thought him lacking in that
peculiarly human quality, humour. But neither was he an
ascetic nor devoid of that element of innocent appreciation

Last Looks, Backward and Forward 369

of the Indicrons and that keen enjoyment of a good story
which seem essential to a complete man. His habit was
sobriety, but he relished a joke that was free of all taint
of nncleanness and that had about it no sting for others.
To those whom he best knew and loved he showed his true
self, in his playful moods, — as when at Ilfracombe, climb-
ing with his wife and others the heights that overlook
the sea, he walked on a little in advance, seated himself
till the rest came up with him, and then, when they were
barely seated, rose and quietly said, " Well now, we have
had a good rest, let us go on." This one instance may
suffice to show that his sympathy with his divine Master
did not lessen or hinder his complete fellow feeling with
man. That must be a defective piety which puts a barrier
between a saintly soul and whatsoever pertains to human-
ity. He who chose us out of the world sent us back into
it, there to find our sphere of service; and in order to such
service we must keep in close and vital touch with human
beings as did our divine Lord Himself.

Service to God was with George Miiller a passion. In
the month of May, 189 T, he was persuaded to take at
Huntly a little rest from his constant daily work at the
orphan houses. The evening that he arrived he said,
"VThat opportunity is there here for services for the
Lord? When it was suggested to him that he had just come
from continuous work, and that it was a time for rest, he
replied that, being now free from his usual labours, he felt
he must be occupied in some other way in serving the
Lord, to glorify whom was his object in life. Meetings were
accordingly arranged and he preached both at Huntly and
at Teignmouth.

As we cast this last glance backward over this life of
peculiar sanctity and service, one lesson seems written
across it in unmistakable letters: peeyailixg pratee. If

3/0 George Miiller of Bristol

a consecrated human life is an example used by God to
teach us the philosophy of holy living, then this man was
meant to show us how prayer, offered in simple faith, has
power with God.

One paragraph of Scripture conspicuously presents the
truth which George Miiller's living epistle enforces and il-
lustrates; it is found in James v. 16-18:

" The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avail-
eth much," is the sentence which opens the paragraph. No
translation has ever done it Justice. Eotherham ren*-
ders it : " Much avails a righteous man's supplication,
working inwardly." The Revised Version translates,
'' avails much in its working." The difficulty of translat-
ing lies not in the obscurity but in the fulness of the mean-
ing of the original. There is a Greek middle participle
here (evepyovjuevTf), which may indicate " either the
cause or the time of the effectiveness of the prayer," and
may mean, through its working, or while it is actively
working. The idea is that such prayer has about it super-
natural energy. Perhaps the best key to the meaning of
these ten words is to interpret them in the light of the
whole paragraph :

" Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are, and
he prayed earnestly that it might not rain; and it rained
not on the earth by the space of three years and six
months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain,
and the earth brought forth her fruit."

Two things are here plainly put before us : first, that
Elijah was but a man, of like nature with other men
and subject to all human frailties and infirmities ; and,
secondly, that this man was such a power because he was
a man of prayer : he prayed earnestly; literally " he
prayed with prayer "; prayed habitually and importunate-
ly. No man can read Elijah's short history as given in the

Last Loolcs, Backward and Forward 371

word of God, without seeing that he was a man like our-
selves. Under the juniper-tree of doubt and despondency,
he complained of his state and wished he might die. In the
cave of a morbid despair, he had to be met and subdued
by the vision of God and by the still, small voice. He was
just like other men. It was not, therefore, because he was
above human follies and frailties, but because he was sub-
ject to them, that he is held up to us as an encouraging ex-
ample of power that prevails in prayer. He laid hold of
the Almighty Arm because he was weak, and he kept hold
because to lose hold was to let weakness prevail. ISTever-
theiess, this man, by prayer alone, shut up heaven's flood-
gates for three years and a half, and then by the same key
unlocked them. Yes, this man tested the meaning of
those wonderful words : " concerning the work of My
hands command ye Me." (Isaiah xlv. 11.) God put the
forces of nature for the time under the sway of this one
man's prayer — one frail, feeble, foolish mortal locked and
unlocked the springs of waters, because he held God's
key.

George Miiller was simply another Elijah. Like him, a
man subject to all human infirmities, he had his fits of de-
spondency and murmuring, of distrust and waywardness;
but he prayed and kept praying. He denied that he was
a miracle-worker, in any sense that implies elevation of
character and endowTnent above other fellow disciples, as
though he were a specially privileged saint; but in a
sense he was a miracle-worker, if by that is meant that he
wrought wonders impossible to the natural and carnal
man. With God all things are possible, and so are they
declared to be to him that believeth. God meant that
George Miiller, wherever his work was witnessed or his
story is read, should be a standing rebuke, to the practical
impotence of the average disciple. While men are asking

372 George Muller of Bristol

whether prayer can accomplish similar wonders as of old,
here is a man who answers the question by the indisputa-
ble logic of facts. Powerlessness always means prayer-
lessness. It is not necessary for us to be sinlessly perfect,
or to be raised to a special dignity of privilege and endow-
ment, in order to wield this wondrous weapon of power
with God; but it is necessary that we be men and women
of prayer — habitual, believing, importunate prayer.

George Miiller considered nothing too small to be a sub-
ject of prayer, because nothing is too small to be the sub-
ject of God's care. If He numbers our hairs, and notes a
sparrow's fall, and clothes the grass in the field, nothing
about His children is beneath His tender thought. In
every emergency, his one resort was to carry his want to
his Father. When, in 1858, a legacy of five hundred
pounds was, after fourteen months in chancery, still un-
paid, the Lord was besought to cause this money soon to be
placed in his hands; and he prayed that legacy out of the
bonds of chancery as prayer, long before, brought Peter
out of prison. The money was paid contrary to all
human likelihood, and with interest at four per cent.
When large gifts were proffered, prayer was offered for
grace to know whether to accept or decline, that no money
might be greedily grasped at for its own sake; and he
prayed that, if it could not be accepted without submitting
to conditions which were dishonouring to God, it might
be declined so graciously, lovingly, humbly, and yet firmly,
that the manner of its refusal and return might show that
he was acting, not in his own behalf, but as a servant
under the authority of a higher Master.

These are graver matters and might well be carried to
God for guidance and help. But George Miiller did not
stop here. In the lesser affairs, even down to the least, he
sought and received like aid. His oldest friend, Robert C.

Last Looks, Backward and Forward 373

Chapman of Barnstaple, gave the writer the following
simple incident:

In the early days of his love to Christ, visiting a friend,
and seeing him mending a quill pen, he said: "Brother

H , do you pray to God when you mend your pen?"

The answer was: " It would be well to do so, but I cannot
say that I do pray when mending my pen." Brother
Miiller replied: "I always do, and so I mend my pen
much better."

As we cast this last backward glance at this man of God,
seven conspicuous qualities stand out in him, the combina-
tion of which made him what he was: Stainless upright-
ness, child-like simplicity, business-like precision, tenacity
of purpose, boldness of faith, habitual prayer, and cheerful
self-surrender. His holy living was a necessary condition
of his abundant serving, as seems so beautifully hinted in
the seventeenth verse of the ninetieth Psalm:

*' Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us,
And establish Thou the work of our hands upon us."

How can the work of our hands be truly established by
the blessing of our Lord, unless His beauty also is upon us
— the beauty of His holiness transforming our lives and
witnessing to His work in us ?

So much for the backward look. We must not close
without a forward look also. There are two remarkable
sayings of our Lord which are complements to each otlier
and should be put side by side:

" If any man will come " If any man serve Me,

after Me, let him deny him- let him follow Me; and

self and take up his cross where I am, there shall also

and follow Me." my servant be. If any man

serve Me, him will My

Father honour."

374 George Muller of Bristol

One of these presents the cross, the other the crown;
one the renunciation, the other the compensation. In
both cases it is, " Let him follow Me "; but in the second
of these passages the following of Christ goes further
than the cross of Calvary; it reaches through the sepulchre
to the Resurrection Life, the Forty Days' Holy Walk in the
Spirit, the Ascension to the Heavenlie?, the session at the
Eight Hand of God, the Reappearing at His Second Com-
ing, and the fellowship of His final Reign in Glory. And
two compensations are especially made prominent: first,
the Eternal Home with Christ; and, second the Exalted
Honour from the Father. We too often look only at the
cross and the crucifixion, and so see our life in Christ
only in its oneness with Him in suffering and serving; we
need to look beyond and see our oneness with Him in rec-
ompense and reward, if we are to get a complete view of
His promise and our prospect. SeK-denial is not so much
an impoverishment as a postponement : we make a sacrifice
of a present good for the sake of a future and greater good.
Even our Lord Himself was strengthened to endure the
cross and despise the shame by the joy that was set before
Him and the glory of His final victory. If there were
seven steps downward in humiliation, there are seven up-
ward in exaltation, until beneath His feet every knee
shall bow in homage, and every tongue confess His uni-
versal Lordship. He that descended is the same also that
ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill all
things.

George Miiller counted all as loss that men count gain,
but it was for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus, his
Lord. He suffered the loss of all things and counted them
as dung, but it was that he might win Christ and be found
in Him; that he might know Him, and not only the fellow-
ship of His sufferings and conformity to His death, but the

Last Looks, Backward and Forward 375

power of His resoirrection, conformity to His life, and fel-
lowship in His glory. He left all behind that the world
values, but he reached forth and pressed forward toward
the goal, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ
Jesus. " Let us, therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus
minded."

When the Lord Jesus was upon earth, there was one
disciple whom He loved, who also leaned on His breast,
having the favoured place which only one could occupy.
But now that He is in heaven, every disciple may be the
loved one, and fill the favoured place, and lean on His
bosom. There is no exclusive monopoly of privilege and
blessing. He that follows closely and abides in Him knows
the peculiar closeness of contact, the honour of intimacy,
that are reserved for such as are called and chosen and
faithful, and follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.
God's self-denying servants are on their way to the final
sevenfold perfection, at home with Him, and crowned with
honour:

"And there shall be no more curse;

But the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it;

And His servants shall serve Him;

And they shall see His face;

And His name shall be in their foreheads.

And there shall be no night there.

And they shall reign for ever and ever."
Amen!

APPENDIX A

SCRIPTURE TEXTS THAT MOULDED
GEORGE MtJLLER

Certain marked Scripture precepts and promises had
such a singular influence upon this man of God, and so
often proved the guides to his course, that they illustrate
Psalm cxix. 105:

" Thy word is a lamp unto my feet.
And a light unto my path."

Those texts which, at the parting of the way, became
to him God's sign-boards, showing him the true direction,
are here given, as nearly as may be in the order in which
they became so helpful to him. The study of them will
prove a kind of spiritual biography, outlining his career.
Some texts, known to have been very conspicuous in their
influence, we put in capitals. The italics are his own,

**GOD so LOVED THE WORLD THAT He GAVE HiS ONLY-
BEGOTTEN SON, THAT WHOSOEVER BELIEVETH IN HiM
SHOULD NOT PERISH, BUT HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE."

(John iii. 16.)

" Cursed be the man that trusteth in man and maketh
flesh his arm." (Jeremiah xvii. 5.)
377

378 George M tiller of Bristol

" 0, fear the Lord, ye His saints; for there is no want to
them that fear Him." (Psa. xxxiv, 9.)

" Owe no man anything, but to love one another."

(Rom. xiii. 8.)
'Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His
righteousness ; and all these things shall be

ADDED UNTO YOU." (Matt. vi. 33.)

" The holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise
unto salvation." (2 Tim. iii. 15.)

" Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find;
knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that
asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him
that knocketh it shall be opened." (Matt. vii. 7, 8.)

" Whatsoever yb shall ask in My name, that
will i do, that the father may be glorified in the
Son: If ye shall ask anything in My name I will
DO IT." (John xiv. 13, 14.)

" Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your
life, what ye shall eat, and what ye shall drink, nor yet
for your body what ye shall put on. . . . Take, there-
fore, no thought for the morrow." (Matt. vi. 25-34.)

" If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doc-
trine." (John vii. 17.)

" If ye continue in My word, then are ye My disciples
indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall
make you free." (John viii. 31, 32.)

" And the eunuch said. See, here is water: what doth
hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said. If thou be^
lievest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he an-
swered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of
God. And they went down both into the water, both
Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him." (Acts viii.
36-38.)

Appendix 379

" Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into
Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? Therefore
we are buried with Him by baptism into death." (Rom.
vi. 3, 4.)

" Upon the first day of the week, when the disciples
came together to break bread." (Acts xx. 7.)

" My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons. For
if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring,
in goodly apparel, and there come in also a man in vile rai-
ment; and ye have respect unto him that weareth the gay
clothing, and say unto him. Sit thou here in a good place;
and say to the poor. Stand thou there, or sit here under
my footstool, are ye not then partial in yourselves, and
are become judges of evil thoughts? " (James ii. 1-6.)

" Having, then, gifts differing according to the grace
that is given us." (Eom. xii. 6.)

" All these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit,
dividing to every man severally as he will." (1 Cor. xii.

n.)

" Not because I desire a gift, but I desire fruit that
may abound to your account." (Philip, iv. 17.)

" Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or
what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body what ye shall
put on.". ..." Behold the fowls of the air. . . . Con-
sider the lilies of the field. . . . For your heavenly Father
knoweth that ye have need of these things." (Matt. vi.
25-33.)

" Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth."
(Matt. vi. 19.)

" Sell that ye have and give alms." (Luke xii. 33.)

" A man can receive nothing except it be given him
from heaven." (John iii. 37.)

380 George Miiller of Bristol

" Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit
the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His name."
(Acts XV. 14. Comp. Matt. xiii. 34-30, 36-43.)

" This know also, that in the last days perilous times
shall come. . . . Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and
worse, deceiving and being deceived." (2 Tim. iii. 1, 13.)

" Come out from among them, and be ye separate,
saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing." (2 Cor.
vi. 14-18.)

" Not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit, saith
the Lord of hosts." (Zech. iv. 6.)

** My grace is sufficient for thee." (2 Cor. xii. 9.)

" Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he
was called. Let every man, wherein he is called, therein
abide with God." (1 Cor. vii. 20, 24.)

" All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is pro-
fitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruc-
tion in righteousness." (2 Tim. iii. 16.)

'*OpEN thy mouth wide, and I WILL FILL IT."

(Psa. Ixxxi. 10.)

" Mine hour is not yet come." (John ii. 4.)

" He took a child, and set him in the midst of them;
and when He had taken him in His arms. He said unto
them. Whosoever shall receive one of such children in My
name, receiveth Me; and whosoever shall receive Me, re-
ceiveth not Me, but Him that sent Me." (Mark ix.
36, 37.)

" If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peace-
ably with all men." (Kom. xii. 18.)

" For they verily for a few days chastened us after their
own pleasure; but He for our profit, that we might be par-
takers of His holiness. Now no chastening for the pres-

Appendix 381

ent seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless, after-
ward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto
them which are exercised thereby." (Heb. xii. 10, 11.)

" What things soever te desire, when ye prat,
believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have
THEM." (Mark xi. 24.)

" He that believeth on Him shall not be confounded."
(1 Pet. ii. 6.)

" 0 Thou that hearest prayer, unto Thee shall all flesh
jome." (Psa. Ixv. 2.)

" Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare
what He hath done for my soul." (Psa. Ixvi. 16.)

"A Father of the fatherless." (Psa. Ixviii. 5.)

" My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord;
neither be weary of His correction." (Prov iii. 11.)

" Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord piti-
eth them that fear Him." (Psa. ciii. 13.)

" Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day,
AND FOR EVER." (Heb. xiii. 8.)

" To-morrow shall take thought for the things of itself."
" Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." (Matt.

vi. 34.)

" Hitherto hath the Lord helped us." (1 Sam. vii. 12.)

" Oh taste and see that the Lord is good:"

" Blessed is the man that trusteth in Him ! " (Psalm

xxxiv. 8.)

" All the fat is the Lord's." (Lev. iii. 16.)

" I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me."

(Psa. xl. 17.)

" Delight thyself also in the Lord, and He shall give

thee the desires of thine heart." (Psa. xxxvii. 4.)

382 George Muller of Bristol

"If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not
hear me." (Psa. Ixvi. 18.)

" Know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly
for Himself: The Lord will hear when I call unto Him."
(Psa. iv. 3.)

** Jehovah jireh." (The Lord will provide.)

(Gen. xxii. 14.)

"He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor

FORSAKE thee; SO THAT WE MAY BOLDLY SAY, THE

Lord is my helper." (Heb. xiii. 5, 6.)

" Be thou not one of them that strike hands, or of them
that are sureties for debts." (Prov. xxii. 26.)

" He that hateth suretyship is sure." (Prov. xi. 15.)

" I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though
the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved." (3
Cor. xii. 15.)

" Ye are all children of God by faith in Christ Jesus."
(Gal. iii. 26.)

''Casting all your care upon Him for He careth
FOR YOU." (1 Pet. V. 7.)

" Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer
and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be
made known unto God." (Phil. iv. 6.)

" Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe,
thou shouldest see the glory of God ? " (John xi. 40.)

"We KNOW THAT ALL THINGS WORK TOGETHER FOR
GOOD TO THEM THAT LOVE GOD." (Kom. viii. 28.)

" Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? " (Gen.
xviii. 25.)

" Of such (little children) is the kingdom of heaven."
(Matt. xix. 14.)

Appendix 383

" He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him
up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give
us all things ? " (Eom. viii. 32.)

" Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above."
(James i. 17.)

" The young lions do lack and suffer hunger; but they
that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing." (Psa.
xxxiv. 10.)

" There is that scattereth and yet increaseth; and there
is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to
poverty. The liberal soul shall be made fat, and he that
watereth shall be watered also himself." (Prov. xi. 24, 25.)

"Give and it shall be given unto you: good measure,
pressed down and shaken together, and running over,
shall men give unto your bosom. For with the same meas-
ure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again."
(Luke vi. 38.)

" The liberal deviseth liberal things; and by liberal
things shall he stand." (Isa. xxxii. 8.)

" For ye have the poor with you always, and whenso-
ever ye will ye may do them good. (Mark xiv. 7.)

" Let not then your good be evil spoken of." (Rom. xiv.
16.)

" Let your moderation (yieldingness) be known unto all
men." (Phil. iv. 5.)

*'My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall
INTO DIVERS temptations {i.e. trials); knowing this,

THAT the trying OF YOUR FAITH WORKETH PATIENCE.
But LET PATIENCE HAVE HER PERFECT WORK, THAT YE
MA.Y BE PERFECT AND ENTIRE, WANTING NOTHING."

(James i. 2-4.)

" Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not
unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowl-

384 George Muller of Bristol

edge Him, and He shall direct thy paths." (Prov. iii.
5,6.)

" The integrity of the upright shall guide them; but
the perverseness of transgressors shall destroy them."
(Prov. xi. 3.)

" Commit thy works unto the Lord and thy thoughts
shall be established." (Prov. xvi. 3.)

" For I say through the grace given unto me, to every
man that is among you, not to think of himself more
highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, ac-
cording as God has dealt to every man the measure of
faith." (Rom. xii. 3.)

"Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and he shall
strengthen thine heart: Wait, I say, on the Lord." (Psa.
xxvii. 14.)

" After he had patiently endured he obtained the prom-
ise." (Heb. vi. 15.)

" Verily, verily, I say unto you, whatsoever ye

SHALL ASK THE FATHER IN MY NAME, He WILL GIVE

IT YOU." (John xvi. 23.)

" He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly;
and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bounti-
fully." (2 Cor. ix. 6.)

" Ye are bought with a price: therefore, glorify God in
your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." (1 Cor.
vi. 20.)

" They that know Thy name will put their trust
IN Thee: for Thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them
that TRUST Thee," (Psa. ix. 10.)

" Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is
stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee. Trust ye in
the Lord forever; for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting
strength." (Isa. xxvi. 3, 4.)

Appendix 385

" If there be first a willing mind it is accepted accord-
ing to that a man hath and not according to that he hath
not." (3 Cor viii. 12.)

*' Be ye steadfast, unmovable, always aboundin^g
in the wokk of the lord, forasmuch as ye know
that your labour is not in vain in the lord."

(1 Cor. XV. 58.)
" Let us not be weary in well doing, for in due season we
shall reap if we faint not." (Gal. vi. 9.)

" Oh how great is Thy goodness, which Thou hast laid
up for them that fear Thee; which Thou hast wrought for
them that trust in Thee before the sons of men!" (Psa,
xxxi. 19.)
"Thou art good and doest good." (Psa. cxix. 68.)
" I know, 0 Lord, that Thy judgments are right, and
that Thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me. (Psa. cxix. 75.)
" My times are in Thy hand." (Psa. xxxi. 15.)
" The Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give
grace and glory: no good thing will He withhold from
them that walk uprightly." (Psa. Ixxxiv. 11.)

" Hold Thou me up and I shall be safe." (Psa. cxix. 117.)
" Behold I come quickly, and ]\Iy reward is with Me, to
give every man according as his work shall be." (Eev. xxii.
12.)

" It is more blessed to give than to receive." (Acts xx.
35.)
" Give us this day our daily bread." (Matt. vi. 11.)
" Able to do exceeding abundantly above all we ask or
think." (Eph. iii. 20.)

" Them that honour Me I will honour." (1 Sam. ii. 30.)

" That the trial of your faith, being much more precious

than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with

fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at

the appearing of Jesus Christ." (1 Peter i. 7.)

APPENDIX B

APPREHENSION OF TRUTH

Some points which God began to show Mr. Miiller while
at Teignmouth in 1829:

1. That the word of God alone is our standard of judg-
ment in spiritual things; that it can be explained only by
the Holy Spirit; and that in our day, as well as in former
times. He is the teacher of His people. The office of the
Holy Spirit I had not experimentally understood before
that time. Indeed, of the office of each of the blessed
persons, in what is commonly called the Trinity, I had no
experimental apprehension. I had not before seen from
the Scriptures that the Father chose us before the foun-
dation of the world; that in Him that wonderful plan of
our redemption originated, and that He also appointed all
the means by which it was to be brought about. Further,
that the Son, to save us, had fulfilled the law, to satisfy its
demands, and with it also the holiness of God; that He
had borne the punishment due to our sins, and had thus
satisfied the justice of God. And further, that the Holy
Spirit alone can teach us about our state by nature, show
us the need of a Saviour, enable us to believe in Christ,
explain to us the Scripturfjs, help us in preaching, etc. It
was my beginning to understand this latter point in par-
ticular, which had a great effect on me ; for the Lord
enabled me to put it to the test of experience, by laying
aside commentaries, and almost every other book, and
simply reading the word of God and studying it. The
result of this was, that the first evening that I shut myself
386

Appendix 387

into my room, to give myself to prayer and meditation
over the Scriptures, I learned more in a few hours than I
had done during a period of several months previously.
But the particular difference was, that I received real
strength for my soul in doing so. I now began to try by the
test of the Scriptures the things which 1 had learned and
seen, and found that only those principles which stood
the test were really of value.

2. Before this period I had been much opposed to the
doctrines of election, particular redemption, and final per-
severing grace; so much so that, a few days after my
arrival at Teignmouth I called election a devilish doc-
trine. I did not believe that I had brought myself to the
Lord, for that was too manifestly false; but yet I held, that
I might have resisted finally. And further, I knew nothing
about the choice of God's people, and did not believe that
the child of God, when once made so, was safe for ever.
In my fleshly mind I had repeatedly said. If once I could
prove that I am a child of God for ever, I might go back
into the world for a year or two, and then return to the
Lord, and at last be saved. But now I was brought to
examine these precious truths by the word of God. Being
made willing to have no glory of my own in the conversion
of sinners, but to consider myself merely as an instrument;
and being made willing to receive what the Scriptures
said; I went to the Word, reading the New Testament
from the beginning, with a particular reference to these
truths. To my great astonishment I found that the pas-
sages which speak decidedly for election and persevering
grace were about four times as many as those which speak
apparently against these truths ; and even those few,
shortly after, when I had examined and understood them,
served to confirm me in the above doctrines. As to the
effect which my belief in these doctrines had on me, I am

388 George Miiller of Bristol

constrained to state, for God^s glory, that though I am
still exceedingly weak, and by no means so dead to the
lusts of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride
of life, as I might and as I ought to be, yet, by the grace
of God, I have walked more closely with Him since that
period. My life has not been so variable, and I may say
that I have lived much more for God than before. And
for this have I been strengthened by the Lord, in a great
measure, through the instrumentality of these truths.
For in the time of temptation, I have been repeatedly led
to say: Should I thus sin ? I should only bring misery
into my soul for a time, and dishonour God; for, being a
son of God for ever, I should have to be brought back
again, though it might be in the way of severe chastise-
ment. Thus, I say, the electing love of God in Christ
(when I have been able to realize it) has often been the
means of producing Jioliness, instead of leading me into sin.
It is only the notional apprehension of such truths, the
want of having them in the heart, whilst they are in the
head, which is dangerous.

3. Another truth, into which, in a measure, I was led,
respected the Lord's coming. My views concerning this
point, up to that time, had been completely vague and
unscriptural. I had believed what others told me, without
trying it by the Word. I thought that things were getting
better and better, and that soon the whole world would be
converted. But now I found in the Word that we have not
the least Scriptural warrant to look for the conversion of
the world before the return of our Lord. I found in the
Scriptures that that which will usher in the glory of the
church, and uninterrupted joy to the saints, is the return
of the Lord Jesus, and that, till then, things will be more
or less in confusion. I found in the Word, that the re-
turn of Jesus, and not death, was the hope of the apostolic

Appendix 389

Christians; and that it became me, therefore, to look for
His appearing. And this truth entered so into my heart
that, though I went into Devonshire exceedingly weak,
scarcely expecting that I should return again to London,
yet I was immediately, on seeing this truth, brought off
from looking for death, and was made to look for the re-
turn of the Lord. Having seen this truth, the Lord also
graciously enabled me to apply it, in some measure at least,
to my own heart, and to put the solemn question to myself
— What may I do for the Lord, before He returns, as He
may soon come ?

4. In addition to these truths, it pleased the Lord to
lead me to see a higher standard of devotedness than I had
seen before. He led me, in a measure, to see what is my
true glory in this world, even to be despised, and to be
poor and mean with Christ. I saw then, in a measure,
though I have seen it more fully since, that it ill becomes
the servant to seek to be rich, and great, and honoured
in that world where his Lord was poor, and mean, and
despised.

APPENDIX C

SEPAEATION FROM THE LONDON SOCIETY FOR

PROMOTING CHRISTIANITY AMONG

THE JEWS.

It became a point of solemn consideration with me,
whether I could remain connected with the Society in the
usual way. My chief objections were these: 1. If I were
sent out by the Society, it was more than probable, yea,
almost needful, if I were to leave England, that I should
labour on the Continent, as I was unfit to be sent to eastern
countries on account of my health, which would probably
have suffered, both on account of the climate, and of my
having to learn other languages. Now, if I did go to the
Continent, it was evident that without ordination I could
not have any extensive field of usefulness, as unordained
ministers are generally prevented from labouring freely
there; but I could not conscientiously submit to be or-
dained by unconverted men, professing to have power to
set me apart for the ministry, or to communicate some-
thing to me for this work which they do not possess them-
selves. Besides this, I had other objections to being con-
nected with any state church or national religious estab-
lishment, which arose from the increased light which I
had obtained through the reception of this truth, that
the word of God is our only standard, and the Holy Spirit
our only teacher. For as I now began to compare what I
knew of the establishment in England and those on the
Continent with this only true standard, the word of God,
390

Appendix 391

I found that all establishments, even because they are
establishments, i.e., the world and the church mixed up
together, not only contain in them the principles which
necessarily must lead to departure from the word of God;
but also, as long as they remain establishments, entirely
preclude the acting throughout according to the Holy
Scriptures. — Then again, if I were to stay in England,
the Society would not allow me to preach in any place in-
discriminately, where the Lord might open a door for me;
and to the ordination of English bishops I had still greater
objections than to the ordination of a Prussian Consistory.

2. I further had a conscientious objection against being led
and directed by men in my missionary labours. As a ser-
vant of Christ, it appeared to me I ought to be guided by
the Spirit, and not by men, as to time and place; and
this I would say, with all deference to others, who may be
much more taught and much more spiritually minded
than myself. A servant of Christ has but one Master.

3. I had love for the Jews, and I had been enabled to give
proofs of it; yet I could not conscientiously say, as the
committee would expect from me, that I would spend the
greater part of my time only among them. For the
scriptural plan seemed to me that, in coming to a place,
I should seek out the Jews, and commence my labour
particularly among them; but that, if they rejected the
gospel, I should go to the nominal Christians. — The more
I weighed these points, the more it appeared to me that
I should be acting hypocritically, were I to suffer them
to remain in my mind, without making them known to
the committee.

APPENDIX D

THE SCRIPTUEAL KNOWLEDGE INSTITUTION
FOE HOME AND ABEOAD

I. The Principles of the Ixstitution.

1. We consider every believer bound, in one way or
other, to help the cause of Christ, and we have scriptural
warrant for expecting the Lord's blessing upon our work
of faith and labour of love: and although, according to
Matt. xiii. 24-43, 2 Tim. iii. 1-13, and many other pas-
sages, the world will not be converted before the coming
of our Lord Jesus, still, while He tarries, all scriptural
means ought to be employed for the ingathering of the
elect of God.

2. The Lord helping us, we do not mean to seek the
patronage of the world; i.e., we never intend to ask un-
converted persons of rank or wealth to countenance this
Institution, because this, we consider, would be dishonour-
able to the Lord. In the name of our God we set up our
banners, Ps. xx. 5; He alone shall be our Patron, and if
He helps us we shall prosper, and if He is not on our
side, we shall not succeed.

3. We do not mean to ash unbelievers for money
(2 Cor. vi. 14-18); though we do not feel ourselves
warranted to refuse their contributions, if they, of their
own accord should offer them. (Acts xxviii. 2-10.)

392

Appendix 393

4. "We reject altogether the help of unbelievers in
managing or carrying on the affairs of the Institution.
(2 Cor. vi. 14-18.)

5. We intend never to enlarge the field of labour by
contracting debts (Rom. xiii. 8), and afterwards appealing
to the Church of God for help, because this we consider
to be opposed both to the letter and the spirit of the New
Testament; but in secret prayer, God helping us, we shall
carry the wants of the Institution to the Lord, and act
according to the means that God shall give.

6. We do not mean to reckon the success of the In-
stitution by the amount of money given, or the number
of Bibles distributed, etc., but by the Lord's blessing
upon the work (Zech. iv. 6); and we expect this, in the
proportion in which He shall help us to wait upon Him
in prayer.

7. While we would avoid aiming after needless singu-
larity, we desire to go on simply according to Scripture,
without compromising the truth; at the same time thank-
fully receiving any instruction which experienced be-
lievers, after prayer, upon scriptural ground, may have
to give us concerning the Institution.

11. The Objects of the Institution are :

1. To assist day-schools, Sunday-schools, and adult-
schools, in which instruction is given upon scriptural
principles, and, as far as the Lord may give the means,
and supply us with suitable teachers, and in other re-
spects make our path plain, to establish schools of this
kind.

a. By day-schools upon scriptural principles, we under-
stand day-schools in which the teachers are godly persons,
— in which the way of salvation is scripturally pointed out,

394 George Muller of Bristol

— and in which no instruction is given opposed to the
principles of the gospel.

1). Sunday-schools, in which all the teachers are be-
lievers, and in which the Holy Scriptures alone are the
foundation of instruction, are such only as the Institution
assists with the supply of Bibles, Testaments, etc.; for we
consider it unscriptural that any persons who do not pro-
fess to know the Lord themselves should be allowed to
give religious instruction.

c. The Institution does not assist any adult-schools with
the supply of Bibles, Testaments, spelling-books, etc., ex-
cept the teachers are believers.

2. To circulate the Holy Scriptures.

We sell Bibles and Testaments to poor persons at a
reduced price. But while we, in general, think it better
that the Scriptures should be sold, and not given alto-
gether gratis, still, in cases of extreme poverty, we think it
right to give, without payment, a cheap edition.

3. The third object of this Institution is to aid mis-
sionary efforts.

We desire to assist those missionaries whose proceed-
ings appear to be most according to the Scriptures.

It is proposed to give such a portion of the amount of
the donations to each of the fore-mentioned objects as
the Lord may direct; but if none of the objects should
claim a more particular assistance, to lay out an equal
portion upon each; yet so that if any donor desires to
give for one of the objects exclusively the money shall
be appropriated accordingly.

APPENDIX E

EEASONS WHICH LED MR. MULLER TO
ESTABLISH AN ORPHAN HOUSE

I HAD constantly cases brought before me which proved
that one of the especial things which the children of God
needed in our day was to have their faith strengthened.
For instance: I might visit a brother who worked four-
teen or even sixteen hours a day at his trade, the neces-
sary result of which was that not only his body suffered,
but his soul was lean, and he had no enjoyment in the
things of God. Under such circumstances I might point
out to him that he ought to work less, in order that his
bodily health might not suffer, and that he might gather
strength for his inner man by reading the word of God,
by meditation over it, and by prayer. The reply, however,
I generally found to be something like this: "But if I
work less, I do not earn enough for the support of my
family. Even now, whilst I work so much, I have scarcely
enough. The wages are so low, that I must work hard in
order to obtain what I need." There was no trust in God.
No real belief in the truth of that word: " Seek ye first
the kingdom of God, and His righteousness: and all these
things shall be added unto you." I might reply some-
thing like this: "My dear brother, it is not your work
which supports your family, but the Lord; and He who
has fed you and your family when you could not work at
395

39^ George Miiller of Bristd\

all, on account of illness, would surely provide for you
and yours if, for the sake of obtaining food for your
inner man, you were to work only for so many hours a
day as would allow you proper time for retirement. And
is it not the case now, that you begin the work of the day
after having had only a few hurried moments for prayer;
and when you leave off your work in the evening, and
mean then to read a little of the word of God, are you
not too much worn out in body and mind to enjoy it, and
do you not often fall asleep whilst reading the Scriptures,
or whilst on your knees in prayer ? " The brother would
allow it was so; he would allow that my advice was good;
but still I read in his countenance, even if he should not
have actually said so, " How should I get on if I were to
carry out your advice ? " I longed, therefore, to have
something to point the brother to, as a visible proof that
our God and Father is the same faithful God as ever He
was; as willing as ever to peove Himself to be the living
God, in our day as formerly, to all who put their trust in
Him. — Again, sometimes I found children of God tried
in mind by the prospect of old age, when they might be
unable to work any longer, and therefore were harassed
by the fear of having to go into the poor-house. If in
such a case I pointed out to them how their Heavenly
Father has always helped those who put their trust in
Him, they might not, perhaps, always say that times have
changed; but yet it was evident enough that God was
not looked upon by them as the living God, My spirit
was ofttimes bowed down by this, and I longed to set
something before the children of God whereby they
might see that He does not forsake, even in our day,
those who rely upon Him. — Another class of persons
were brethren in business, who suffered in their souls,
and brought guilt on their consciences, by carrying on

Appendix 397

their business almost in the same way as unconverted
persons do. The competition in trade, the bad times, the
over-peopled country, were given as reasons why, if the
business were carried on simply according to the word of
God it could not be expected to do well. Such a brother,
perhaps, would express the wish that he might be differ-
ently situated; but very rarely did I see that there was a
stand made for God, that there was the holy determination
to trust in the living God, and to depend on Him, in order
that a good conscience might be maintained. To this class
likewise I desired to show, by a visible proof, that God is
unchangeably the same. — Then there was another class
of persons, individuals who were in professions in which
they could not continue with a good conscience, or persons
who were in an unscriptural position with reference to
spiritual things; but both classes feared, on account of
the consequences, to give up the profession in which they
could not abide with God, or to leave their position, lest
they should be thrown out of emplo3anent. My spirit
longed to be instrumental in strengthening their faith by
giving them not only instances from the word of God of
His willingness and ability to help all those who rely upon
Him, but to show them hy proofs that He is the same in
our day. I well knew that the word of God ought to he
enough, and it was, by grace, enough to me; but still, I
considered that I ought to lend a helping hand to my
brethren, if by any means, by this visible proof to the
unchangeable faithfulness of the Lord I might strengthen
their hands in God ; for I remembered what a great
blessing my own soul had received through the Lord's
dealings with His servant, A. H. Francke, who, in de-
pendence upon the living God alone, established an
immense orphan house, which I had seen many times
with my own eyes. I, therefore, judged myself bound to

398 George Miiller of Bristol

be the servant of the Church of God, in the particular
point on which I had obtained mercy: namely, in being
abU to take God hy His word and to rely upon it. All
these exercises of my soul, which resulted from the fact
that so many believers, with whom I became acquainted,
were harassed and distressed in mind, or brought guilt
on their consciences, on account of not trusting in the
Lord ; were used by God to awaken in my heart the
desire of setting before the church at large, and before
the world, a proof that He has not in the least changed;
and this seemed to me best done by the establishing of
an orphan house. It needed to be something which could
be seen, even by the natural eye. Now if I, a poor man,
simply by prayer and faith, obtained, icithout asking any
individual, the means for establishing and carry-ing on an
orphan house, there would be something which, with the
Lord's blessing, might be instrumental in strengthening
the faith of the children of God, besides being a testimony
to the consciences of the unconverted of the reality of the
things of God. This, then, was the primar}' reason for
establishing the orphan house. I certainly did from my
heart desire to be used by God to benefit the bodies of poor
children bereaved of both parents, and seek, in other re-
spects, with the help of God, to do them good for this life;
— I also particularly longed to be used by God in getting
the dear orphans trained up in the fear of God; — but still,
the first and primary object of the work was (and still is:)
that God might be magnified by the fact that the
orphans under my care are provided with all they
need only hy prayer and faith, without any one being
asked by me or my fellow labourers, whereby it may be
seen that God is faithful still, and hears peayeb

STILL.

The three chief reasons for establishing an orphan

Appendix 399

house are: 1. That God may be glorified, should He be
pleased to furnish me with the means, in its being seen
that it is not a vain thing to trust in Him; and that thus
the faith of His children may be strengthened. 2. The
spiritual welfare of fatherless and motherless children. 3.
Their temporal welfare.

That to which my mind has been particularly directed
is to establish an orphan house in which destitute father-
less and motherless children may be provided with food
and raiment, and scriptural education. Concerning this
intended orphan house I would say:

1. It is intended to be in connection with the Scriptural
Knowledge Institution for Home and Abroad, in so far as
it respects the reports, accounts, superintendence, and
the principles on which it is conducted, so that, in one
sense, it may be considered as a new object of the Insti-
tution, yet with this difference, that only those funds shall
he applied to the orphan house which are expressly given for
it. If, therefore, any believer should prefer to support
either those objects which have been hitherto assisted by
the funds of this Institution, or the intended orphan
house, it need only be mentioned, in order that the money
may be applied accordingly.

2. It will only be established if the Lord should provide
both the means for it and suitable persons to conduct it.

As to the means, I would make the following remarks:
The reason for proposing to enlarge the field is not
because we have of late particularly abounded in means;
for we have been rather straitened. The many gracious
answers, however, which the Lord had given us con-
concerning this Institution led brother C r and me to

give ourselves to prayer, asking Him to supply us with
the means to carry on the work, as we consider it un-
scriptural to contract debts. During five days, we prayed

400 George M tiller of Bristol

several times, both unitedly and separately. After that
time, the Lord began to answer our prayers, so that,
within a few days, about 501. was given to us. I would
further say that the very gracious and tender dealings of
God with me, in having supplied, in answer to prayer, for
the last five years, my own temporal wants without any
certain income, so that money, provisions, and clothes
have been sent to me at times when I was greatly
straitened, and that not only in small but large quantities;
and not merely from individuals living in the same place
with me, but at a considerable distance; and that not
merely from intimate friends, but from individuals whom
I have never seen: all this, I say, has often led me to
think, even as long as four years ago, that the Lord had
not given me this simple reliance on Him merely for
myself, but also for others. Often, when I saw poor
neglected children running about the streets at Teign-
mouth, I said to myself: " May it not be the will of God
that I should establish schools for these children, asking
Him to give me the means ? " However, it remained only
a thought in my mind for two or three years. About two
years and six months since I was particularly stirred up
afresh to do something for destitute children, by seeing
so many of them begging in the streets of Bristol, and
coming to our door. It was not, then, left undone on
account of want of trust in the Lord, but through an
abundance of other things calling for all the time and
strength of my brother Craik and myself; for the Lord
had both given faith, and had also shown by the follow-
ing instance, in addition to very many others, both what
He can and what He wdll do. One morning, whilst
sitting in my room, I thought about the distress of certain
brethren, and said thus to myself: " Oh, that it might
please the Lord to give me the means to help these poor

Appendix 401

brethren I " About an hour afterwards I bad 60Z. sent as
a present for myself from a brother whom up to this day
I have never seen, and who was then, and is still, residing
several thousand miles from this. Should not such an
experience, together with promises like that one in John
xiv. 13, 14, encourage us to ask with all boldness, for our-
selves and others, both temporal and spiritual blessings ?
The Lord, for I cannot but think it was He, again and
again brought the thought about these poor children to
my mind, till at last it ended in the establishment of
" The Scriptural Knowledge Institution, for Home and
Abroad " ; since the establishment of which, I have had
it in a similar way brought to my mind, first about four-
teen months ago, and repeatedly since, but especially
during these last weeks, to establish an orphan house.
My frequent prayer of late has been, that if it be of God,
He would let it come to pass; if not, that He would take
from me all thoughts about it. The latter has not been
the case, but I have been led more and more to think that
the matter may be of Him. Now, if so, He can influence
His people in any part of the world (for I do not look to
Bristol, nor even to England, but to the living God, whose
is the gold and the silver), to intrust me and brother

C r, whom the Lord has made willing to help me in

this work with the means. Till we have them, we can
do nothing in the way of renting a house, furnishing it,
etc. Yet, when once as much as is needed for this has
been sent us, as also proper persons to engage in the work,
we do not think it needful to wait till we have the orphan
house endowed, or a number of yearly subscribers for it;
but we trust to be enabled by the Lord, who has taught
us to ask for our daily bread, to look to Him for the supply
of the daily wants of those children whom He may be
pleased to put under our care. Any donations will be

402 George Mliller of Bristol

received at my house. Should any believers have tables,
chairs, bedsteads, bedding, earthenware, or any kind of
household furniture to spare, for the furnishing of the
house ; or remnants, or pieces of calico, linen, flannel,
cloth, or any materials useful for wearing apparel ; or
clothes already worn, they will be thankfully received.

Eespecting the persons who are needed for carrying on
the work, a matter of no less importance than the pro-
curing of funds, I would observe that we look for them
io God Himself, as well as for the funds; and that all who
may be engaged as masters, matrons, and assistants, ac-
cording to the smallness or largeness of the Institution,
must be known to us as true believers; and moreover, as
far as we may be able to judge, must likewise be qualified
for the work.

3. At present nothing can be said as to the time when
the operations are likely to commence; nor whether the
Institution will embrace children of both sexes, or be
restricted either to boys or girls exclusively; nor of what
age they will be received, and how long they may continue
in it; for though we have thought about these things, yet
we would rather be guided in these particulars by the
amount of the means which the Lord may put into our
hands, and by the number of the individuals whom He
may provide for conducting the Institution. Should the
Lord condescend to use us as instruments, a short printed
statement will be issued as soon as something more definite
can be said.

4. It has appeared well to us to receive only such desti-
tute children as have been bereaved of both parents.

5. The children are intended, if girls, to be brought up
for service; if boys, for a trade; and therefore they will
be employed, according to their ability and bodily strength,
in useful occupations, and thus help to maintain them-

Appendix 403

selves; besides this, they are intended to receive a plain
education; but the chief and the special end of the Insti-
tution will be to seek, with God's blessing, to bring them
to the knowledge of Jesus Christ by instructing ih&-<i. in
the Scriptures.

FuKTHER Account eespecting the Oephan House,
Etc.

When, of late, the thoughts of establishing an orphan
house, in dependence upon the Lord, revived in my
mind, during the first two weeks I only prayed that if it
were of the Lord He would bring it about; but if not,
that He graciously would be pleased to take all thoughts
about it out of my mind. My uncertainty about knowing
the Lord's mind did not arise from questioning whether
it would be pleasing in His sight that there should be an
abode and scriptural education provided for destitute
fatherless and motherless children; but whether it were
His will that I should be the instrument of setting such
an object on foot, as my hands were already more than
filled. My comfort, however, was, that, if it were His
will. He would provide not merely the means, but also
suitable individuals to take care of the children, so that
my part of the work would take only such a portion of
my time as, considering the importance of the matter, I
might give, notwithstanding my many other engage-
ments. The whole of those two weeks I never asked the
Lord for money or for persons to engage in the work. On
December 5th, however, the subject of my prayer all at
once became different. I was reading Psalm Ixxxi., and
was particularly struck, more than at any time before,
with verse 10: " Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it J* I
thought a few moments about these words, and then was

404 George Muller of Bristol

led to apply them to the case of the orphan house. It
struck me that I had never asked the Lord for anything
concerning it, except to know His will respecting its being
established or not; and 1 then fell on my knees, and
opened my mouth wide, asking him for much. I asked
in submission to His will, and without fixing a time when
He should answer my petition. I prayed that He would
give me a house, i.e., either as a loan, or that some one
might be led to pay the rent for one, or that one might
be given permanently for this object; further, 1 asked
Him for ilOOO; and likewise for suitable individuals to
take care of the children. Besides this, I have been since
led to ask the Lord to put into the hearts of His people
to send me articles of furniture for the house, and some
clothes for the children. When I was asking the petition
I was fully aware what I was doing, i.e., that I was asking
for something which I had no natural prospect of obtain-
ing from the brethren whom I know, but which was not
too much for the Lord to grant.

APPENDIX P

ARGUMENTS IN PRAYER FOR THE ORPHAN"
WORK

The arguments which I plead with God are:

1. That I set about the work for the glory of God,
i.e., that there might be a visible proof, by God supplying,
in answer to prayer only, the necessities of the orphans,
that He is the living God, and most willing, even in our
day, to answer prayer: and that, therefore. He would
be pleased to send supplies.

2. That God is the " Father of the fatherless," and that
He, therefore, as their Father, would be pleased to provide.
(Psalm Ixviii. 5.)

3. That I have received the children in the name of
Jesus, and that, therefore, He, in these children, has been
received, and is fed, and is clothed; and that, therefore,
He would be pleased to consider this. (Mark ix. 36, 37.)

4. That the faith of many of the children of God has
been strengthened by this work hitherto, and that, if
God were to withhold the means for the future, those
who are weak in faith would be staggered; whilst, by a
continuance of means, their faith might still further be
strengthened.

5. That many enemies would laugh, were the Lord to
withhold supplies, and say, did we not foretell that this
enthusiasm would come to nothing ?

405

4Q6 George Muller of Bristol

6. That many of the children of God, who are unin-
structed, or in a carnal state, would feel themselves
justified to continue their alliance with the world in the
work of God, and to go on as heretofore, in their unscrip-
tural proceedings respecting similar institutions, so far
as the obtaining of means is concerned, if He were not
to help me.

7. That the Lord would remember that I am His child,
and that He would graciously pity me, and remember that
I cannot provide for these children, and that therefore He
would not allow this burden to lie upon me long without
sending help.

8. That He would remember likewise my fellow labour-
ers in the work, who trust in Him, but who would be
tried were He to withhold supplies.

9. That He would remember that I should have to
dismiss the children from under our scriptural instruc-
tion to their former companions.

10. That He would show that those were mistaken
who said that, at the first, supplies might be expected,
while the thing was new, but not afterwards.

11. That I should not know were He to withhold
means, what construction I should put upon all the many
most remarkable answers to prayer which He has given
me heretofore in connection with this work, and which
most fully have shown to me that it is of God.

APPENDIX G

THE PURCHASE OF A SITE, ETC.

Me. Benjamin Perry gives an account of the circum-
stances under which the land was purchased, prior to the
erection of the orphan houses on Ashley Down, as he heard
it from Mr. Miiller's own mouth, showing how directly the
Lord worked on the mind of the owner. Mr. Miiller had
been making inquiries respecting the purchase of land
much nearer Bristol, the prices asked being not less than
£1000 per acre, when he heard that the land upon which
the Orphan Houses Nos. 1 and 2 stand was for sale, the
price being £200 per acre. He therefore called at the
house of the owner, and was informed that he was not at
home, but that he could be seen at his place of business in
the city. Mr. Miiller went there, and was informed that he
had left a few minutes before, and that he would find him
at home. Most men would have gone off to the owner's
house at once; but Mr. Miiller stopped and reflected, " Per-
adventure the Lord, having allowed me to miss the owner
twice in so short a time, has a purpose that I should not
see him to-day; and lest I should be going before the
Lord in the matter, I will wait till the morning." And ac-
cordingly he waited and went the next morning, when he
found the owner at home; and on being ushered into his
sitting-room, he said: " Ah, Mr. Miiller, I know what you
have come to see me about. You want to buy my land on
Ashley Down. I had a dream last night, and I saw you
came in to purchase the land, for which I have been ask-
407

4o8 George Muller of Bristol

ing £200 per acre; but the Lord told me not to charge you
more than £120 per acre, and therefore if you are willing
to buy at that price the matter is settled." And within
ten minutes the contract was signed, " Thus," Mr. Miiller
pointed out, " by being careful to follow the Lord, instead
of going before His leading, I was permitted to purchase
the land for £80 per acre less than I should have paid
if I had gone to the owner the evening before."

APPENDIX H

GOD'S FAITHFULNESS IN PROVIDING

Mk. Pekey writes: At one meeting at Huntly, by special
request Mr. Miiller gave illustrations of God''s faithfulness
in answer to prayer, connected with the orphan work, of
which the following are examples:

a. He stated that at various times, not only at the begirL-
ning of the work, but also in later years, God had seen fit
to try his faith to the utmost, but only to prove to him the
more definitely that He would never be other than his
faithful covenant-keeping God. In illustration he re-
ferred to a time when, the children having had their last
meal for the day, there was nothing left in money or kind
for their breakfast the following morning. Mr. Miiller
went home, but nothing came in, and he retired for the
night, committing the need to God to provide. Early the
next morning he went for a walk, and while praying for
the needed help he took a turn into a road which he was
quite unconscious of, and after walking a short distance
a friend met him, and said how glad he was to meet him,
and asked him to accept £5 for the orphans. He thanked
him, and without saying a word to the donor about the
time of need, he went at once to the orphan houses, prais-
ing God for this direct answer to prayer.

&. On another occasion, when there were no funds in
hand to provide breakfast for the orphans, a gentleman
called before the time for breakfast and left a donation
that supplied all their present needs. When that year's

4IO George Muller of Bristol

report was issued, this proof of God's faithfulness in send-
ing help just when needed was recorded, and a short time
after the donor called and made himself known, saying
that as his donation had been given at such a special time
of need he felt he must state the circumstances under
which he had given the money, which were as follows:
He had occasion to go to his office in Bristol early that
morning before breakfast, and on the way the thought
occurred to him: " I will go to Mr. Miiller's orphan house
and give them a donation," and accordingly turned and
walked about a quarter of a mile toward the orphanage,
when he stopped, saying to himself, " How foolish of me
to be neglecting the business I came out to attend to ! I
can give money to the orphans another time," and he
turned round and walked back towards his office, but soon
felt that he must return. He said to himself: " The or-
phans may be needing the money now. I may be
leaving them in want when God had sent me to help
them ; " and so strong was this impression that he
again turned round and walked back till he reached the
orphanages, and thus handed in the money which provided
them with breakfast. Mr. Miiller's comment on this was:
" Just like my gracious heavenly Father ! " and then he
urged his hearers to trust and prove what a faithful cove-
nant-keeping God He is to those who put their trust in
Him.

APPENDIX K

FURTHER RECOLLECTIONS OF MR. MULLER

Mr. Peery furnishes also the following reminiscences:
As George Miiller was engaged in free, homely conversa-
tion with his friends on a Sunday afternoon within about
three weeks of his departure to be with the Lord, he re-
ferred to two visits he had made during the previous week
to two old and beloved friends. He had fully appreciated
that, though they were about ten years younger than him-
self, his power to walk, and specially his power to continue
his service for his Lord, was far greater than theirs. So that
he playfully said, with a bright smile: " I came away from
both these beloved brethren feeling that I was quite young
by comparison as to strength, though so much older," and
then at once followed an ascription of praise to God for
His goodness to him: "Oh, how very kind and good my
heavenly Father has been to me ! I have no aches or pains,
no rheumatism, and now in my ninety-third year I can do
a day's work at the orphan houses with as much ease and
comfort to myself as ever."

One sentence aptly sets forth a striking feature in his
Christian character, viz.:

George Miiller, nothing. The Lord Jesus, everything.

In himself worse than By grace, in Christ, the son
nothing. of the King.

And as such he lived; for all those who knew and loved
this beloved and honoured servant of Christ best would
4ti

412 George MuUer of Bristol

testify that his habitual attitude towards the Lord was
to treat Him as an ever-present, almighty, loving Friend,
whose love was far greater to him than he could ever re-
turn, and who delighted in having his entire confidence
about everything, and was not only ready at hand to listen
to his prayers and praises about great and important mat-
ters, but nothing was too small to speak to Him about.
So real was this that it was almost impossible to be en-
joying the privilege of private, confidential iniercourse
with him without being conscious that at least to him the
Lord was really present. One to whom he turned for counsel,
in prayer, or in praise, as freely as most men would speak
to a third person present; and again and again most
marked answers to prayer have been received in response
to petitions thus unitedly presented to the Lord altogether
apart from his own special work.

APPENDIX L

CHURCH FELLOWSHIP, BAPTISM, ETC.

When brother Craik and I began to labour in Bristol,
and consequently some believers united with us in fellow-
ship, assembling together at Bethesda, we began meeting
together on the basis of the written Word only, without
having any church rules whatever. From the commence-
ment it was understood that, as the Lord should help us,
we would try everything by the word of God, and introduce
and hold fast that only which could be proved by Scrip-
ture. When we came to this determination on Aug. 13,
1832, it was indeed in weakness, but it was in uprightness
of heart. — On account of this it was that, as we ourselves
were not fully settled as to whether those only who had
been baptized after they had believed, or whether all who
believed in the Lord Jesus, irrespective of baptism, should
be received into fellowship, nothing war, determined about
this point. We felt free to break bread and be in commu-
nion with those who were not baptized, and therefore could
with a good conscience labour at Gideon, where the greater
part of the saints, at least at first, were unbaptized; but, at
the same time, we had a secret wish that none but believ-
ers who were baptized might be united with us at Bethes^
da. Our reason for this was that we had witnessed in Dev-
onshire much painful disunion, resulting as we thought,
from baptized and unbaptized believers being in fellowship.
413

414 George Muller of Bristol

Without, then, making it a rule, that Bethesda Church
was to be one of close communion, we nevertheless took
care that those who applied for fellowship should be in-
structed about baptism. For many months there occurred
no difficulty as none applied for communion but such as
had either been already baptized, or wished to be, or who
became convinced of the scriptural character of believers'
baptism, after we had conversed with them; afterwards,
however, three sisters applied for fellowship, none of whom
had been baptized; nor were their views altered after we had
conversed with them. As, nevertheless^ brother Craik and
I considered them true believers, and we ourselves were
not fully convinced what was the mind of the Lord in such
a case, we thought it right that these sisters should be
received; yet so that it might be unanimously, as all our
church acts then were done; but we knew hy that time that
there were several in fellowship with us who could not
conscientiously receive unbaptized believers. We men-
tioned, therefore, the names of the three sisters to the
church, stating that they did not see believers' baptism to
be scriptural, and that, if any brother saw, on that account,
a reason why they should not be received, he should let us
know. The result was that several objected, and two or
three meetings were held, at which we heard the objections
of the brethren, and sought for ourselves to obtain ac-
quaintance with the mind of God on the point. Whilst
several days thus passed away before the matter was decid-
ed, one of those three sisters came and thanked us that we
had not received her, before being baptized, for she now
saw that it was only shame and the fear of man which had
kept her back, and that the Lord had now made her will-
ing to be baptized. By this circumstance those brethren
who considered it scriptural that all ought to be baptized
before being received into fellowship, were confirmed in

Appendix 415

their views; and as to brother Craik and me, it made us, at
least, still more question whether those brethren might not
be right; and we felt, therefore, that in such a state of
mind we could not oppose them. The one sister, there-
fore, who wished to be baptized was received into fellow-
ship, but the two others not. Our consciences were
the less affected by this because all, though not bap-
tized, might take the Lord's supper with us at
Bethesda, though not be received into full fellowship;
and because at Gideon, where there were baptized
and unbaptized believers, they might even be received
into full fellowship; for we had not then clearly seen
that there is no scriptural distinction between being
in fellowship with individuals and breaking bread with
them. Thus matters stood for many months, i.e., be-
lievers were received to the breaking of bread even
at Bethesda, though not baptized, but they were not re-
ceived to all the privileges of fellowship. — In August of
1836 I had a conversation with brother- E. C. on the sub-
ject of receiving the unbaptized into communion, a subject
about which, for years, my mind had been more or less ex-
ercised. This brother put the matter thus before me: either
unbaptized believers come under the class of persons who
walk disorderly, and, in that case, we ought to withdraw
from them (2 Thess. iii. 6); or they do not walk disorderly.
If a believer be walking disorderly, we are not merely to
withdraw from him at the Lord's table, but our behaviour
towards him ought to be decidedly different from what it
would be were he not walking disorderly, on all occasions
when we may have intercourse with him, or come in any
way into contact with him. Now this is evidently not the
case in the conduct of baptized believers towards their
unbaptized fellow believers. The Spirit does not suffer it
to be so, but He witnesses that their not having been

4i6 George Miiller of Bristol

baptized does not necessarily imply that they are walking
disorderly; and hence there may be the most precious
communion between baptized and unbaptized believers.
The Spirit does not suffer us to refuse fellowship with
them in prayer, in reading or searching the Scriptures,
in social and intimate intercourse, and in the Lord's work;
and yet this ought to be the case, were they walking dis-
orderly.— This passage, 2 Thess. iii. 6, to which brother
E, C. referred, was the means of showing me the mind of
the Lord on the subject, which is, that we ought to receive all
whom Christ has received (Rom. xv. 7), irrespective of the
measure of grace or knowledge which they have attained unto.
— Some time after this conversation, in May, 1837, an op-
portunity occurred, when we (for brother Craik had seen
the same truth) were called upon to put into practice the
light which the Lord had been pleased to give us. A sis-
ter, who neither had been baptized, nor considered herself
under any obligation to be baptized, applied for fellow-
ship. We conversed with her on this as on other subjects
and proposed her for fellowship, though our conversation
had not convinced her that she ought to be baptized. This
led the church again to the consideration of the point. We
gave our reasons, from Scripture, for considering it right
to receive this unbaptized sister to all the privileges of the
children of God; but a considerable number, one-third
perhaps, expressed conscientious difficulty in receiving her.
The example of the Apostles, in baptizing the first believ-
ers upon a profession of faith, was especially urged, which
indeed would be an unsurmountable difficulty had not the
truth been mingled with error for so long a time, so that
it does not prove wilful disobedience if any one in our day
shovild refuse to be baptized after believing. The Lord,
however, gave us much help in pointing out the truth to
the brethren, so that the number of those who considered

Appendix 417

that only baptized believers should be in communion de-
creased almost daily. At last, only fourteen brethren and
sisters out of above 180 thought it right, this August 28,
1837, to separate from us, after we had had much inter-
course with them. [I am glad to be able to add that, even
of these fourteen, the greater part afterwards saw their
error, and came back again to us, and that the receiving of
all who love our Lord Jesus into full communion, irrespec-
tive of baptism, has never been the source of disunion
among us, though more than fifty-seven years have passed
away since.]

APPENDIX M

CHUECH CONDUCT

I. — Questions respecting the Eldership.

(1) How does it appear to be the mind of God that, in
every church, there should be recognized Elders?

Ans. From the following passages compared togethe "S
Matt. xxiv. 45; Luke xii. 42.

From these passages we learn that some are set by the
Lord Himself in the office of rulers and teachers, and
that this office (in spite of the fallen state of the church)
should be in being, even down to the close of the present
dispensation. Accordingly, we find from Acts xiv. 23,
XX. 17; Tit. i. 5; and 1 Pet. v. 1, that soon after the saints
had been converted, and had associated together in a
church character, Elders were appointed to take the rule
over them and to fulfil the office of under-shepherds.

This must not be understood as implying that, when
believers are associated in church fellowship, they ought
to elect Elders according to their own will, whether the
Lord may have qualified persons or not; but rather that
such should wait upon God, that He Himself would be
pleased to raise up such as may be qualified for teaching
and ruling in His church.

418

Appendix 419

(2) Eow do such come into office?

Ans. By the appointment of the Holy Ghost, Acts xx.
28.

(3) How may this appointment he made known to the
individuals called to the office, and to those am^ongst whom
they may he called to labour?

Ans. By the secret call of the Spirit, 1 Tim. iii. 1, con-
firmed by the possession of the requisite qualifications, 1
Tim. iii. 2-7; Tit. i. 6-9, and by the Lord's blessing rest-
ing upon their labours, 1 Cor. ix. 2.

In 1 Cor. ix. 2, Paul condescends to the weakness of
some, who were in danger of being led away by those
factious persons who questioned his authority. As an
Apostle — appointed by the express word of the Lord —
he needed not such outward confirmation. But if he used
his success as an argument in confirmation of his call, how
much more may ordinary servants of the Lord Jesus em-
ploy such an argument, seeing that the way in which they
are called for the work is such as to require some out-
ward confirmation!

(4) Is it incumhent upon the saints to acknowledge such
and to submit to them in the Lord?

Ans. Yes. See 1 Cor. xvi. 15, 16; 1 Thess. v. 12, 13;
Heb. xiii. 7, 17; and 1 Tim. v. 17.

In these passages obedience to pastoral authority is
clearly enjoined.

11. — Ought matters of discipline to he finally settled by
the Elders in private, or in the presence of the church, and
as the act of the whole body?

Ans. (1) Such matters are to be finally settled in the
presence of the church. This appears from Matt, xviii. 17;
1 Cor. V. 4, 5; 2 Cor. ii. 6-8; 1 Tim. v. 20.

(2) Such matters are to be finally settled as the act of
the whole body, Matt, xviii. 17, 18. In this passage the

420 George Muller of Bristol

act of exclusion is spoken of as the act of the whole body.
1 Cor. V. 4, 5, 7, 12, 13. In this passage Paul gives the
direction, respecting the exercise of discipline, in such a
way to render the whole body responsible: verse 7, " Purge
out the old leaven that ye may be a new lump"; and verse
13, " Therefore put away from among yourselves that
wicked person." From 2 Cor. ii. 6-8 we learn that the
act of exclusion was not the act of the Elders only, but of
the church: " Sufficient to such a man is this punishment
[rather, public censure] which was inflicted of many."
From verse 8 we learn that the act of restoration was to be
a public act of the brethren: "Wherefore I beseech you
that ye would confirm [rather, ratify by a public act] your
love towards him."

As to the reception of brethren into fellowship, this is
an act of simple obedience to the Lord, both on the part
of the elders and the whole church. We are bound and
privileged to receive all those who make a credible pro-
fession of faith in Christ, according to that Scripture,
*' Eeceive ye one another, as Christ also received us, to
the glory of God." (Rom. xv. 7.)

III. — When should church acts (such as acts of reception,
restoration, exclusion, etc.) he attended to ?

Ans. It cannot be expressly proved from Scripture
■whether such acts were attended to at the meeting for the
breaking of bread, or at any other meeting; therefore this
is a point on which, if different churches differ, mutual
forbearance ought to be exercised. The way in which
such matters have hitherto been managed amongst us has
been by the church coming together on a week-evening.
Before we came to Bristol we had been accustomed to this
mode, and, finding nothing in Scripture against it, we
continued the practice. But, after prayer and more care-
ful consideration of this point, it has appeared well to us

Appendix 421

that such acts should be attended to on the Lord's days,
when the saints meet together for the breaking of bread.
We have been induced to make this alteration by the fol-
lowing reasons:

(1) This latter mode prevents matters from being delayed.
There not being a sufficiency of matter for a meeting on
purpose every week, it has sometimes happened that what
would better 'have been stated to the church at once has
been kept back from the body for some weeks. Now, it
is important that what concerns the whole church should
be made known as soon as possible to those who are in
fellowship, that they may act accordingly. Delay, more-
over, seems inconsistent with the pilgrim-character of the
people of God.

(2) More believers can he present on the Lord's days than
can attend on week-evenings. The importance of this rea-
son will appear from considering how everything which
concerns the church should be known to as many as
possible. For how can the saints pray for those who may
have to be excluded, — how can they sympathize in cases
of peculiar trial, — and how can they rejoice and give
thanks on account of those who may be received or re-
stored, unless they are made acquainted with the facts con-
nected with such cases ?

(3) A testimony is thus given that all who break bread
are church members. By attending to church acts in the
meeting for breaking of bread, we show that we make no
difference between receiving into fellowship at the Lord's
Supper, and into church membership, but that the indi-
vidual who is admitted to the Lord's table is therewith
also received to all the privileges, trials, and responsibili-
ties of church membership.

(4) There is a peculiar propriety in acts of reception,
restoration, and exclusion being attended to when the

422 George MuUer of Bristol

saints meet together for the breaking of bread, as, in that
ordinance especially, we show forth our fellowship with
each other.

Objections answered.

(1) This alteration has the appearance of changeable-
ness.

Reply. Such an objection would apply to any case in
which increased light led to any improvement, and is,
therefore, not to be regarded. It would be an evil thing
if there were any change respecting the foundation truths
of the Gospel; but the point in question is only a matter
of church order.

(2) More time may thus be required than it would be
well to give to such a purpose on the Lord's day.

Reply. As, according to this plan, church business will
be attended to every Lord's day, it is more than proba-
ble that the meetings will be thereby prolonged for a
few minutes only; but, should circumstance require it, a
special meeting may still be appointed during the week,
for all who break bread with us. This, however, would
only be needful, provided the matters to be brought before
the brethren were to require more time than could be
given to them at the breaking of bread.*

N.B. (1) Should any persons be present who do not
break bread with us, they may be requested to with-
draw whenever such points require to be stated as it
would not be well to speak of in the presence of un-
believers.

(2) As there are two places in which the saints meet
for the breaking of bread, the matters connected with
church acts must be brought out at each place.

* The practice, later on, gave place to a week-night meeting, on
Tue»«day, for transaction of such " church acts." — A. T. P.

Appendix 423

IV. — Questions relative to the Loed's Supper.

(1) How frequently ought the breaking of bread to be
attended to ?

Ans. Although we have no express command respect-
ing the frequency of its observance, yet the example of the
apostles and of the first disciples would lead us to observe
this ordinance every Lord's day. (Acts xx. 7.)

(2) What ought to he the character of the meeting at which
the saints are assembled for the breaking of bread ?

Ans. As in this ordinance we show forth our common
participation in all the benefits of our Lord's death, and
our union to Him and to each other (1 Cor. x. 16, 17),
opportunity ought to be given for the exercise of the gifts
of teaching or exhortation, and communion in prayer and
praise. (Rom. xii. 4-8; Eph. iv. 11-16.) The manifes-
tation of our common participation in each other's gifts
cannot be fully given at such meetings, if the whole
meeting is, necesssarily, conducted by one individual. This
mode of meeting does not, however, take off from those
who have the gifts of teaching or exhortation the respon-
sibility of edifying the church as opportunity may be
offered.

(3) 75 it desirable that the bread should be broken at the
Lord's Supper by one of the elders, or should each individual
of the body break it for himself ?

Ans. Neither way can be so decidedly proved from
Scripture that we are warranted in objecting to the other
as positively unscriptural, yet —

(1) The letter of Scripture seems rather in favour of
its being done by each brother and sister (1 Cor. x. 16, 17):
" The bread which we break."

(2) Its being done by each of the disciples is more fitted

424 George MuUer of Bristol

to express that we all, by our sins, have broken the body
of our Lord.

(3) By attending to the ordinance in this way, we
manifest our freedom from the common error that the
Lord's Supper must be administered by some particular
individual, possessed of what is called a ministerial
character, instead of being an act of social worship and
obedience.

APPENDIX N

THE WISE SAYINGS OF GEORGE MULLER

Few who have not carefully read the Narrative of Mr.
Miiller and the subsequent Reports issued year by year,
have any idea of the large amount of wisdom which there
finds expression. We give here a few examples of the sa-
gacious and spiritual counsels and utterances with which
these pages abound.

THE BODY.

CARE OF THE BODY.

I find it a difficult thing, whilst caring for the body, not
to neglect the soul. It seems to me much easier to go
on altogether regardless of the body, in the service of the
Lord, than to take care of the body, in the time of sick-
ness, and not to neglect the soul, especially in an afflic-
tion like my present one, when the head allows but little
reading or thinking. — What a blessed prospect to be de-
livered from this wretched evil nature 1

HABITS OF SLEEP.

My own experience has been, almost invariably, that if
I have not the needful sleep, my spiritual enjoyment and
strength is greatly affected by it. I judge it of great mo-
ment that the believer, in travelling, should seek as much
425

426 George Mtiller of Bristol

as possible to refrain from travelling by night, or from
travelling in such a way as that he is deprived of the need-
ful night's rest; for if he does not, he will be unable with
renewed bodily and mental strength to give himself to
prayer and meditation, and the reading of the Holy Scrip-
tures, and he will surely feel the pernicious effects of this
all the day long. There may occur cases when travelling by
night cannot be avoided; but, if it can, though we should
seem to lose time by it, and though it should cost more money,
I would most affectionately and solemnly recommend the
refraining from night-travelling; for, in addition to our
drawing beyond measure upon our bodily strength, we
must be losers spiritually. The next thing 1 would ad-
vise with reference to travelling is, with all one's might to
seek morning by morning, before setting out, to take time
for meditation and prayer, and reading the word of God;
for although we are always exposed to temptation, yet we
are so especially in travelling. Travelling is one of the
devil's especial opportunities for tempting us. Think of
that, dear fellow believers. Seek always to ascertain care-
fully the mind of God, before you begin anything; but do
so in particular before you go on a journey, so that you
may be quite sure that it is the will of God that you should
undertake that journey, lest you should needlessly expose
yourself to one of the special opportunities of the devil to
ensnare you. So far from envying those who have a car-
riage and horses at their command, or an abundance of
means, so that they are not hindered from travelling for
want of means, let us who are not thus situated rather
thank God that in this particular we are not exposed to
the temptation of needing to be less careful in ascertain-
ing the will of God before we set out on a journey.

Appendix 427

CHILDREN.
CONVEESION OF CHILDREN'.

As far as my experience goes, it appears to me that be-
lievers generally have expected far too little of present
fruit upon their labours among children. There has been a
hoping that the Lord some day or other would own the
instruction which they give to children, and would answer
at some time or other, though after many years only, the
prayers which they offer up on their behalf. Now, while
such passages as Proverbs xxii, 6, Ecclesiastes xi. 1, Gala-
tians vi. 9, 1 Cor. xv. 58, give unto us assurance not
merely respecting everything which we do for the Lord,
in general, but also respecting bringing up children in the
fear of the Lord, in particular, that our labour is not in
vain in the Lord; yet we have to guard against abusing
such passages, by thinking it a matter of little moment
whether we see present fruit or not; but, on the contrary,
we should give the Lord no rest till we see present fruit,
and therefore, in persevering, yet submissive, prayer, we
should make known our requests unto God. I add, as an
encouragement to believers who labour among children,
that during the last two years seventeen other young per-
sons or children, from the age of eleven and a half to sev-
enteen, have been received into fellowship among us, and
that I am looking out now for many more to be converted,
and that not merely of the orphans, but of the Sunday-
and day-school children.

NEGLECT OF CHILDEEN-.

The power for good or evil that resides in a little child
is great beyond all human calculation. A child rightly
trained may be a world-wide blessing, with an influence
reaching onward to eternal years. But a neglected or mis-

428 George Muller of Bristol

directed child may live to blight and blast mankind, and
leave influences of evil which shall roll on in increasing
volume till they plunge into the gulf of eternal perdition.

" A remarkable instance was related by Dr. Harris, of
New York, at a recent meeting of the State Charities Aid
Association. In a small village in a county on the upper
Hudson, some seventy years ago, a young girl named ' Mar-
garet ' was sent adrift on the casual charity of the inhabi-
tants. She became the mother of a long race of criminals
and paupers, and her progeny has cursed the county ever
since. The county records show two hundred of her de-
scendants who have been criminals. In one single gener-
ation of her unhappy line there were twenty children; of
these, three died in infancy, and seventeen survived to
maturity. Of the seventeen, nine served in the State prison
for high crimes an aggregate term of fifty years, while the
others were frequent inmates of jails and penitentiaries
and almshouses. Of the nine hundred descendants,
through six generations, from this unhappy girl who was
left on the village streets and abandoned in her childhood,
a great number have been idiots, imbeciles, drunkards,
lunatics, paupers, and prostitutes: but two hundred of the
more vigorous are on record as criminals. This neglected
little child has thus cost the county authorities, in the
effects she has transmitted, hundreds of thousands of dol-
lars, in the expense and care of criminals and paupers, be-
sides the untold damage she has inflicted on property and
public morals."

TRAINING OF CHILDREN.

Seek to cherish in your children early the habit of being
interested about the work of God, and about cases of
need and distress, and use them too at suitable times, and

Appendix 429

under suitabh circumstances, as your almoners, and you
will reap fruit from doing so.

CHRISTIAN LIFE.

BEGIXXING OF LIFE, ETC.

God alone can give spiritual life at the first, and keep
it up in the soul afterwards.

CROSS-BEARING.

The Christian, like the bee, might suck honey out of
every flower. I saw upon a snuif er-stand in bas-relief, " A
heart, a cross under it, and roses tmder both." The mean-
ing was obviously this, that the heart which bears the
cross for a time meets with roses afterwards.

KEEPING PEOMISES.

It has been often mentioned to me, in various places,
that brethren in business do not stifficiently attend to the
keeping of promises, and I cannot therefore but entreat
all who love our Lord Jesus, and who are engaged in a
trade or business, to seek for His sake not to make any
promises, except they have every reason to believe they
shall be able to fulfil them, and therefore carefully to weigh
all the circumstances, before making any engagement, lest
they should fail in its accomplishment. It is even in these
little ordinar}- affairs of life that we may either bring
much honour or dishonour to the Lord; and these are the
things which every unbeliever can take notice of. Why
should it be so often said, and sometimes with a measure
of ground, or even much ground: " Believers are bad ser-
vants, bad tradesmen, bad masters " ? Surely it ought not
to be true that we, u-Tio have power with God to oUain ly
prayer and faith all needful grace, wisdom, and skill, should
be bad servants, bad tradesmen, bad masters.

430 George Muller of Bristol

THE LOT AND THE LOTTERY.

It is altogether wTong that I, a child of God, should
have anything to do with so worldly a system as that of the
lottery. But it was also unscriptural to go to the lot at
all for the sake of ascertaining the Lord's mind, and this
I ground on the following reasons. We have neither a
commandment of Grod for it, nor the example of our
Lord, nor that of the apostles, after the Holy Spirit had
heen given on the day of Pentecost. 1. We have many ex-
hortations in the word of God to seek to know His mind by
prayer and searching the Holy Scriptures, but no pas-
sage which exhorts us to use the lot. 2. The example of
the apostles (Acts i.) in using the lot, in the choice of an
apostle in the room of Judas Iscariot, is the only passage
which can be brought in favour of the lot from the New
Testament (and to the Old we have not to go, under this
dispensation, for the sake of ascertaining how we ought
to live as disciples of Christ). Now concerning this cir-
cumstance we have to remember that the Spirit was not
yet given (John vii. 39; ch. xiv. 16, 17; ch. xvi. 7, 13),
by whose teaching especially it is that we may know the
mind of the Lord; and hence we find that, after the day
of Pentecost, the lot was no more used, but the apostles
gave themselves to prayer and fasting to ascertain how
they ought to act.

NEW TASTES.

What a difference grace makes ! There were few peo-
ple, perhaps, more passionately fond of travelling, and see-
ing fresh places, and new scenes, than myself; but now,
since, by the grace of God, I have seen beauty in the Lord
Jesus, I have lost my taste for these things. . . . What a
different thing, also, to travel in the service of the Lord
Jesus, from what it is to travel in the service of the flesh I

Appenaix 431

OBEDIENCE.

Every instance of obedience, from right motives, strength-
ens us spiritually, whilst every act of disobedience weakens
us spiritually.

SEPARATION UNTO GOD.

May the Lord grant that the eyes of many of His chil-
flren may be opened, so that they may seek, in all spiritual
things, to be separated from unbelievers (2 Cor. vi. 14-
18), and to do God's work according to God's mind !

SERVICE TO one's GENERATION.

My business is, with all my might to serve my own gen-
eration; in doing so I shall best serve the next generation,
should the Lord Jesus tarry. . . . The longer I live, the
more I am enabled to realize that I have but one life to
l.ve on earth, and that this one life is but a brief life, for
sowing, in comparison with eternity, for reaping.

SURETY FOR DEBT.

How precious it is, even for this life, to act according
to the word of God ! This perfect revelation of His mind
gives us directions for everything, even the most minute
affairs of this life. It commands us, " Be thou not one of
them that strike hands, or of them that are sureties for
debts." (Prov. xxii. 26.) The way in which Satan ensnares
persons, to bring them into the net, and to bring trouble
upon them by becoming sureties, is, that he seeks to
represent the matter as if there were no danger connected
with that particular case, and that one might be sure one
should never be called upon to pay the money; but the
Lord, the faithful Friend, tells us in His own word that
the only way in such a matter " to be sure " is " to hate
suretyship." (Prov. xi. 15.) The following points seem to
me of solemn moment for consideration, if I were called

432 George M tiller of Bristol

upon to become surety for another: 1. What obliges the
person, who wishes me to become surety for him, to need
a surety ? Is it really a good cause in which I am called
upon to become surety ? I do not remember ever to have
met with a case in which in a plain, and godly, and in all
respects scriptural matter such a thing occurred. There
was generally some sin or other connected with it. 2. If
I become surety, notwithstanding what the Lord has said
to me in His word, am I in such a position that no one will
be injured by my being called upon to fulfil the engage-
ments of the person for whom I am going to be surety ?
In most instances this alone ought to keep one from it.

3. If still I become surety, the amount of money for
which I become responsible must be so in my power
that I am able to produce it whenever it is called for, in
order that the name of the Lord may not be dishonoured,

4. But if there be the possibility of having to fulfil the
engagements of the person in whose stead I have to stand,
is it the will of the Lord that I should spend my means
in that way ? Is it not rather His will that my means
should be spent in another way ? 5. How can I get over
the plain word of the Lord, which is to the contrary, even
if the first four points could be satisfactorily settled?

CHURCH LIFE.
ASSEMBLY OF BELIEVERS.

It has been my own happy lot, during the last thirty-
seven years, to become acquainted with hundreds of indi-
viduals, who were not inferior to apostolic Christians.

That the disciples of Jesus should meet together on the
first day of the week for the breaking of bread, and that
that should be their principal meeting, and that those.

Appendix 433

whether one or several, who are truly gifted by the Holy
Spirit for service, be it for exhortation, or teaching, or
rule, etc., are responsible to the Lord for the exercise of
their gifts — these are to me no matters of uncertainty, but
points on which my soul, by grace, is established, through
the revealed will of God.

FOEMALISM.

I have often remarked the injurious effects of doing
things because others did them, or because it was the cus-
tom, or because they were persuaded into acts of outward
self-denial, or giving up things whilst the heart did not go
along with it, and whilst (he outward act was not the re-
sult of the inward powerful worhing of the Holy Ghost, and
the happy entering into our fellowship with the Father and
with the Son.

Everything that is a mere form, a mere habit and cus-
tom in divine things, is to be dreaded exceedingly: life,
power, reality, this is what we have to aim after. Things
should not result from without, but from within. The
sort of clothes I wear, the kind of house I live in, the qual-
ity of the furniture I use, all such like things should not
result from other persons doing so and so, or because it is
customary among those brethren with whom I associate
to live in such and such a simple, inexpensive self-denying
way; but whatever be done in these things, in the way of
giving up, or self-denial, or deadness to the world, should
result from the Joy we have in God, from the knowledge of
our being the children of God, from the entering into the
preciousness of our future inheritance, etc. Far better
that for the time being we stand still, and do not take the
steps which we see others take, than that it is merely the
force of example that leads us to do a thing, and after-

434 George Muller of Bristol

wards it be regretted. Not that I mean in the least by
this to imply we should continue to live in luxury, self-in-
dulgence, and the like, whilst others are in great need;
but we should begin the thing in a right way, i.e., aim
after the right state of heart; begin inwardly instead of
outwardly. If otherwise, it will not last. We shall look
back, or even get into a worse state than we were before.
But oh, how different if joy in God leads us to any little
act of self-denial ! How gladly do we do it then ! How
great an honour then do we esteem it to be ! How much
does the heart then long to be able to do more for Him
who has done so much for us ! We are far then from
looking down in proud self-complacency upon those who
do not go as far as we do, but rather pray to the Lord
that He would be pleased to help our dear brethren and
sisters forward who may seem to us weak in any particular
point; and we also are conscious to ourselves that if we
have a little more light or strength with reference to one
point, other brethren may have more light or grace in
other respects.

HELPING ONE ANOTHEB.

As to the importance of the children of God opening their
hearts to each other, especially when they are getting into
a cold state, or are under the power of a certain sin, or are
in especial difficulty; I know from my own experience how
often the snare of the devil has been broken when under
the power of sin; how often the heart has been comforted
when nigh to be overwhelmed; how often advice, under
great perplexity, has been obtained, — by opening my
heart to a brother in whom I had confidence. We are
children of the same family, and ought therefore to be
helpers one of another.

Appendix 435

INQUIRY MEETINGS.

1. Many persons, on account of timidity, would prefer
coming at an appointed time to the vestry to converse
with us, to calling on us in our own house. 2. The very
fact of appointing a time for seeing people, to converse
with them in private concerning the things of eternity,
has brought some who, humanly speaking, never would
have called on us under other circumstances; yea, it has
brought even those who, though they thought they were
concerned about the things of God, yet were completely
ignorant; and thus we have had an opportunity of speak-
ing to them. 3. These meetings have also been a great en-
couragement to ourselves in the work; for often, when we
thought that such and such expositions of the Word had
done no good at all, it was, through these meetings, found
to be the reverse; and likewise, when our hands were
hanging down, we have been afresh encouraged to go for-
ward in the work of the Lord, and to continue sowing
the seed in hope, by seeing at these meetings fresh cases,
in which the Lord had condescended to use us as instru-
ments, particularly as in this way instances have some-
times occurred in which individuals have spoken to us
about the benefit which they derived from our ministry,
not only a few months before, but even as long as two,
three, and four years before.

For the above reasons I would particularly recommend
to other servants of Christ, especially to those who live
in large towns, if they have not already introduced a sim-
ilar plan, to consider whether it may not be well for them
also to set apart such times for seeing inquirers. Those
meetings, however, require much prayer, to be enabled to
speak aright, to all those who come, according to their
different need; and one is led continually to feel that one

436 George Miiller of Bristol

is not sufficient of one's self for these things, but that
our sufficiency can be alone of God. These meetings also
have been by far the most wearing-out part of all our
work, though at the same time the most refreshing.

PASTORAL VISITATION,

An unvisited church will sooner or later become an wn-
Jiealthy church.

PEW-EENTS.

1. Pew-rents are, according to James ii. 1-6, against the
mind of the Lord, as, in general, the poor brother cannot
have so good a seat as the rich. 2. A brother may
gladly do something towards my support if left to his own
time; but when the quari;er is up, he has perhaps other
expenses, and I do not know whether he pays his mouviy
grudgingly, and of necessity, or cheerfully; but God loveth
a cheerful giver. Nay, / Tcnew it to he a fact that some-
times it had not been convenient to individuals to pay the
money, when it had been asked for by the brethren who
collected it. 3. Though the Lord had been pleased to give
me grace to be faithful, so that I had been enabled not to
keep back the truth, when He had shown it to me; still I
felt that the pew-rents were a snare to the servant of Christ.
It was a temptation to me, at least for a few minutes, at
the time when the Lord had stirred me up to pray and
search the Word respecting the ordinance of baptism, be-,
cause £30 of my salary was at stake if I should be bapi
tized.

STATE CHUECHES.

All establishments, even because they are establishment!^,
i.e., the world and the church mixed up together, not only
contain in them the principles which necessarily must

Appendix 437

lead to departure from the word of God; but also, as long
as they remain establishments, entirely preclude the act-
ing throughout according to the Holy Scriptures.

FAITH.

ANXIETY.

Where Faith begins, anxiety ends;
Where anxiety begins, Faith ends.

Ponder these words of the Lord Jesus, " Only believe.'*
As long as we are able to trust in God, holding fast in heart,
that he is able and willing to help those who rest on the
Lord Jesus for salvation, in all matters which are for His
glory and their good, the heart remains calm and peaceful.
It is only when we practically let go faith in His power
or His love, that we lose our peace and become troubled.
This very day I am in great trial in connection with the
work in which I am engaged; yet my soul was calmed
and quieted by the remembrance of God's power and love;
and I said to myself this morning: " As David encouraged
himself in Jehovah his God, when he returned to Ziklag,
so will I encourage myself in God; " and the result was
peace of soul. ... It is the very time for faith to work,
when sight ceases. The greater the difficulties, the easier
for faith. As long as there remain certain natural pros-
pects, faith does not get on even as easily (if I may say so),
as when all natural prospects fail.

DEPENDENCE ON GOD.

Observe two things ! We acted for God in delaying tne,
public meetings and the publishing of the Report; but
God's way leads always into trial, so far as sight
and sense are concerned. Nature always will be tried in

438 George Muller of Bristol

God's ways. The Lord was saying by this poverty, " I will
now see whether you truly lean upon me, and whether you
truly look to me." Of all the seasons that I had ever
passed through since I had been living in this way, up to
that time, I never knew any period in which my faith was
tried so sharply, as during the four months from Dec. 12,
1841, to April 12, 1842. But observe further: We might
even now have altered our minds with respect to the pub-
lic meetings and publishing the Report; for no one knew
our determination, at this time, concerning the point. Nay,
on the contrary, we knew with what delight very many
children of God were looking forward to receive further
accounts. But the Lord kept us steadfast to the conclu-
sion, at which we had arrived under His guidance.

GIFT AND GKACE OF FAITH.

It pleased the Lord, I think, to give me in some case<3
something like the gift (not grace) of faith, so that uncon-
ditionally I could ask and look for an answer. The differ-
ence between the gift and the grace of faith seems to me
this. According to the gift of faith I am able to do a
thing, or believe that a thing will come to pass, the not
doing of which, or the not believing of which would not
he sin; according to the grace of faith I am able to do a
thing, or believe that a thing will come to pass, respecting
which I have the word of God as the ground to rest upon,
and, therefore, the not doing it, or the not believing it
would be sin. For instance, the gift of faith would be
needed, to believe that a sick person should be restored
again, though there is no human probability: for there is
no promise to that effect; the grace of faith is needed to be-
lieve that the Lord will give me the necessaries of life, if I
first seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness: for
there is a promise to that effect. (Matt, vi. 33.)

Appendix 439

SELF-WILL.

The natural mind is ever prone to reason, when we ought
to believe; to be at worh, when we ought to be quiet; to go
our own way, when we ought steadily to walk on in God's
ways, however trying to nature.

TEIALS OF FAITH.

The Lord gives faith, for the very purpose of trying it
for the glory of His own name, and for the good of him
who has it; and, by the very trial of our faith, we not only
obtain blessing to our own souls, by becoming the better
acquainted with God, if we hold fast our confidence in
Him, but our faith is also, by the exercise, strengthened:
and so it comes, that, if we walk with God in any measure
of uprightness of heart, the trials of faith will be greater
and greater.

It is for the church's benefit that we are put in these
straits; and if, therefore, in the hour of need, we were to
take goods on credit, the first and primary object of the
work would be completely frustrated, and no heart would
be further strengthened to trust in God, nor would there
be any longer that manifestation of the special and par-
ticular providence of God, which has hitherto been so
abundantly shown through this work, even in the eyes of
unbelievers, whereby they have been led to see that there
is, after all, reality in the things of God, and many, through
these printed accounts, have been truly converted. For
these reasons, then, we consider it our precious privilege,
as heretofore, to continue to wait upon the Lord only, in-
stead of taking goods on credit, or borrowing money from
some kind friends, when we are in need. Nay, we pur-
pose, as God shall give us grace, to look to Him only,
though morning after morning we should have nothing in
hand for the work — yea, though from meal to meal we

440 George M tiller of Bristol

Bhould have to look to Him; being fully assured that He
who is now (1845) in the tenth year feeding these many
orphans, and Who has never suffered them to want, and
that He who is now (1845) in the twelfth year carrying on
the other parts of the work, without any branch of it hav-
ing had to be stopped for want of means, will do so for the
future also. And here I do desire in the deep conscious-
ness of my natural helplessness and dependence upon the
Lord to confess that through the grace of God my soul
has been in peace, though day after day we have had to
wait for our daily provisions upon the Lord; yea, though
even from meal to meal we have been required to do this^

GIVING.

ASKING GIFTS, ETC.

It is not enough to obtain means for the work of God,
but that these means should be obtained in God's way. To
ask unbelievers for means is not God's way; to press even
believers to give, is not God's way; but the duty and the
privilege of being allowed to contribute to the work of God
should be pointed out, and this should be followed up with
earnest prayer, believing prayer, and will result in the
desired end.

CLAIMS OF GOD.

It is true, the Gospel demands our All; but I fear that,
in the general claim on All, we have shortened the claim on
everything. We are not under law. True; but that is not
to make our obedience less complete, or our giving less
bountiful: rather, is it not, that after all claims of law are
settled, the new nature finds its Joy in doing more than the
law requires ? Let us abound in the work of the Lord
more and more.

Appendix 441

GIVING IN ADVEKSITY.

At the end of the last century a very godly and liberal
merchant in London was one day called on by a gentle-
man, to ask him for some money for a charitable object.
The gentleman expected very little, having just heard that
the merchant had sustained heavy loss from the wreck of
some of his ships. Contrary, however, to expectation, he
received about ten times as much as he had expected for
his object. He was unable to refrain from expressing his
surprise to the merchant, told him what he had heard,
how he feared he should scarcely have received anything,
and asked whether after all there was not a mistake about
the shipwreck of the vessels. The merchant replied, It
is quite true, I have sustained heavy loss, by these vessels
being wrecked, but that is the very reason, why I give you
so much; for I must make better use than ever of my
stewardship, lest it should be entirely taken from me.

How have we to act if prosperity in our business, our
trade, our profession, etc., should suddenly cease, notwith-
standing our having given a considerable proportion of our
means for the Lord-'s work ? My reply is this : In
the day of adversity consider." It is the will of God
that we should ponder our ways; that we should see
whether there is any particular reason, why God has al-
lowed this to befall us. In doing so, we may find, that we
have too much looked on our prosperity as a matter of
course, and have not sufficiently owned and recognized
practically the hand of God in our success. Or it may be,
while the Lord has been pleased to prosper us, we have
spent too much on ourselves, and may have thus, though
unintentionally, abused the blessing of God. I do not
mean by this remark to bring any children of God into

442 George Muller of Bristol

bondage, so that, with a scrupulous conscience, they
should look at every penny, which they spend on them-
selves; this is not the will of God concerning us; and yet,
on the other hand, there is verily such a thing as propriety
or impropriety in our dress, our furniture, our table, our
house, our establishment, and in the yearly amount we
spend on ourselves and family.

GIVING AND HOAKDING.

I have every reason to believe, that, had I begun to lay
up, the Lord would have stopped the supplies, and thus,
the ability of doing so was only apparerd. Let no one pro-
fess to trust in God, and yet lay up for future wants, other-
wise the Lord will first send him to the hoard he has
amassed, before He can answer the prayer for more,

" There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there
is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to
poverty." (Prov. xi. 24.) Notice here the word " more than
is meet;" it is not said, withholdeth all; but " more than
is meet," viz., while he gives, it is so little, in comparison
with what it might be, and ought to be, that it tendeth to
poverty.

MOTIVES TO GIVING.

Believers should seek more and more to enter into the
grace and love of God, in giving His only-begotten Son,
and into the grace and love of the Lord Jesus, in giving
Himself in our room, in order that, constrained by love
and gratitude, they may be increasingly led, to surrender
their bodily and mental strength, their time, gifts, talents,
property, position in life, rank, and all they have and are
to the Lord. By this I do not mean, that they should give
up their business, trade, or profession, and become preach-

Appendix 443

ers; nor do I mean that they should take all their money
and give it to the first beggar who asks for it; but that
they should hold all they have and are, for the Lord, not
as owners, but as stewards, and be willing, at His bidding,
to use for Him, part or all, they have. However short the
believer may fall, nothing less than this should be his aim.

STEWAKDSHIP.

It is the Lord's order, that, in whatever way He is
pleased to make us His stewards, whether as to tem-
poral or spiritual things, if we are indeed acting as
stewards and not as owners, He will make us stewards over

Even in this life, and as to temporal things, the Lord
is please^d to repay those, who act for Him as stewards, and
who contribute to His work or to the poor, as He may be
pleased to prosper them ? But how much greater is the
spiritual blessing we receive, both in this life and in the
world to come, if constrained by the love of Christ, we act
as God's stewards, respecting that, with which He is
pleased to intrust us !

SYSTEMATIC GIVING.

Only fix even the smallest amount you purpose to give of
your income, and give this regularly; and as God is pleased
to increase your light and grace, and is pleased
to prosper you more, so give more. If you neglect an
habitual giving, a regular giving, a giving from principle
and upon scriptural ground, and leave it only to feeling
and impulse, or particular arousing circumstances, you
will certainly be a loser.

444 George M tiller of Bristol

" A merchant in the United States said in answer to in-
quiries relative to his mode of giving, ^In consecrating
my life anew to God, aware of the ensnaring influence of
riches and the necessity of deciding on a plan of charity,
before wealth should bias my judgment, I adopted the fol-
lowing system:

" ' I decided to balance my accounts as nearly as I could
every month, reserving such portion of profits as might ap-
pear adequate to cover probable losses, and to lay aside, by
entry on a benevolent account, one tenth of the remaining
profits, great or small, as a fund for benevolent expendi-
ture, supporting myself and family on the remaining nine
tenths. I further determined, that, if at any time my net
profits, that is profits from which clerk-hire and store ex-
penses had been deducted, should exceed five hundred dol-
lars in a month, I would give 12^ per cent.; if over seven
hundred dollars, 15 per cent.; if over nine hundred dollars,
17| per cent.; if over thirteen hundred dollars, 22| per
cent. — thus increasing the proportion of the whole as God
should prosper me, until at fifteen hundred dollars I
should give 25 per cent, or 375 dollars a month. As cap-
ital was of the utmost importance to my success in busi-
ness, I decided not to increase the foregoing scale until I
had acquired a certain capital, after which I would give
one quarter of all net profits, great or small, and, on the
acquisition of another certain amount of capital, I decided
to give half, and, on acquiring what I determined would
be a full sufficiency of capital, then to give the whole of
my net profits.

" ' It is now several years since I adopted this plan, and
under it I have acquired a handsome capital, and have
been prospered beyond my most sanguine expectations.
Although constantly giving, I have never yet touched
the bottom of my fund, and have repeatedly been sur-

Appendix 445

prised to find what large drafts it would bear. True,
during some months, I have encountered a salutary trial
of faith, when this rule has led me to lay by the tenth
while the remainder proved inadequate to my support; but
the tide has soon turned, and with gratitude I have recog-
nized a heavenly hand more than making good all past
deficiencies/ "

The following deeply interesting particulars are re-
corded in the memoir of Mr. Cobb, a Boston merchant.
At the age of twenty-three, Mr. Cobb drew up and sub-
scribed the following remarkable document :

" By the grace of God I will never be worth more than
50,000 dollars.

" By the grace of God I will give one fourth of the
net profits of my business to charitable and religious uses.

" If I am ever worth 20,000 dollars I will give one half
of my net profits; and if ever I am worth 30,000 dollars,
I will give three fourths; and the whole after 50,000 dol-
lars. So help me God, or give to a more faithful steward,
and set me aside."

" To this covenant," says his memoir, " he adhered with
conscientious fidelity. He distributed the profits of his
business with an increasing ratio, from year to year, till he
reached the point which he had fixed as a limit to his
property, and then gave to the cause of God all the money
which he earned. At one time, finding that his property
had increased beyond 50,000 dollars, he at once devoted
the surplus 7,500 dollars.

" On his death-bed he said, ' by the grace of God —
nothing else — by the grace of God I have been enabled,
under the influence of these resolutions to give away more
than 40,000 dollars.' How good the Lord has been to

446 George Muller of Bristol

Mr. Cobb was also an active, humble, and devoted Chris-
tian, seeking the prosperity of feeble churches; labouring
to promote the benevolent instiutions of the day; punctual
in his attendance at prayer meetings, and anxious to aid
the inquiring sinner; watchful for the eternal interests
of those under his charge; mild and amiable in his deport-
ment; and, in the general tenor of his life and character
an example of consistent piety.

His last sickness and death were peaceful, yea trium-
phant. " It is a glorious thing," said he, " to die. I have
been active and busy in the world — I have enjoyed as
much as any one — God has prospered me — I have every-
thing to bind me here — I am happy in my family — I have
property enough — but how small and mean does this world
appear on a sick-bed ! Nothing can equal my enjoyment
in the near view of heaven. My hope in Christ is worth
infinitely more than all other things. The blood of Christ
— the blood of Christ — none but Christ ! Oh ! how thank-
ful I feel that God has provided a way that I, sinful as I
am, may look forward with joy to another world, through
His dear Son."

GOD.

APPEOVAL OF GOD.

In the whole worh we desire to stand vdth God, and not to
depend upon the favourable or unfavourable judgment of
the multitude.

CHASTISEMENTS OF GOD.

Our Heavenly Father never talces any earthly thing from
His cMldren except He means to give them something better
instead.

Appendix 447

The Lord, in His very love and faithfulness, will not,
and cannot, let us go on in backsliding, but He will visit
us with stripes, to bring us back to Himself !

The Lord never lays more on us, in the way of chastise-
ment, than OUT state of heart makes needful; so that whilst
He smites with the one hand. He supports with the other.

If, as believers in the Lord Jesus, we see that our Heav-
enly Father, on account of WTong steps, or a wrong state
of heart, is dealing with us in the way of discipline or cor-
rection, we have to be grateful for it; for He is acting
thus towards us according to that selfsame love, which led
Him not to spare His only begotten Son, but to deliver
Him up for us; and our gratitude to Him is to be ex-
pressed in words, and even by deeds. We have to guard
against practically despising the chastening of the Lord,
though we may not do so in word, and against fainting
under chastisement: since all is intended for blessing to us.

FAITHFULNESS OF GOD.

Perhaps you have said in your heart: " How would it be,
suppose the funds of the orphans were reduced to noth-
ing, and those who are engaged in the work had nothing
of their own to give, and a meal-time were to come, and
you had no food for the children." Thus indeed it may
be, for our hearts are desperately wicked. If ever we
should be so left to ourselves, as that either we depend
no more upon the living God, or that " we regard iniquity
in our hearts," then such a state of things, we have rea-
son to believe, would occur. But so long as we shall be en-
abled to trust in the living God, and so long as, though
falling short in every way of what we might be, and ought

448 George Muller of Bristol

to be, we are at least kept from living in sin, such a state
of things cannot occur.

The Lord, to show His continued care over us, raises
up new helpers. They that trust in the Lord shall
never be confounded ! Some who helped for a while may
fall asleep in Jesus; others may grow cold in the service of
the Lord; others may be as desirous as ever to help, but
have no longer the means; others may have both a willing
heart to help, and have also the means, but may see it the
Lord's will to lay them out in another way; — and thus,
from one cause or another, were we to lean upon man, we
should surely be confounded; but, in leaning upon the liv-
ing God alone, we are beyond disappointment, and be-
yond heing forsaTcen because of death, or want of means, or
want of love, or because of the claims of other work. How
precious to have learned in any measure to stand with
God alone in the world, and yet to be happy, and to know
that surely no good thing shall be withheld from us whilst
we walk uprightly !

PARTNERSHIP WITH GOD.

A brother, who is in about the same state in which he
■was eight years ago, has very little enjoyment, and makes
no progress in the things of God. The reason is, that,
against his conscience, he remains in a calling, which is
opposed to the profession of a believer. We are exhorted
in Scripture to abide in our calling; but only if we can
abide in it " with God." (1 Cor. vii. 24.)

POTVER OF GOD.

There is a worldly proverb, dear Christian reader, with
which we are all familiar, it is this, " Wliere there is a will
there is a way." If this is the proverb of those who know

Appendix 449

not God, how much more should believers in the Lord
Jesus, who have power with God, say: " Where there is a
will there is a way."

TRUST IN GOD,

Only let it be trust in God, not in man, not in circum-
stances, not in any of your own exertions, but real trust in
God, and you will be helped in your various necessities.
. . . Not in circumstances, not in natural prospects, not
in former donors, hut solely in God. This is just that
which brings the blessing. If we say wc trust in Him, but
in reality do not, then God, taking us at our word, lets us
see that we do not really confide in Him; and hence failure
arises. On the other hand, if our trust in the Lord is real,
help will surely come, " According unto thy faith be it
unto thee,''

It is a source of deep sorrow to me, that, notwithstand-
ing my having so many times before referred to this point,
thereby to encourage believers in the Lord Jesus, to roll all
their cares upon God, and to trust in Him at all times, it
is yet, by so many, put down to mere natural causes, that
I am helped; as if the Living God were no more the
Living God, and as if in former ages answers to pray era
might have been expected, but that in the nineteenth
century they must not be looked for.

WILL OF GOD.

How important it is to ascertain the will of God, before
we undertake anjihing, because we are then not only
blessed in our own souls, but also the work of our hands
will prosper.

Just in as many points as we are acting according to the
mind of God, in so many are we blessed and made a bless-

450 George Mtiller of Bristol

ing. Our manner of living is according to the mind of
the Lord, for He delights in seeing His children thus
come to Him (Matt, vi); and therefore, though I am weak
and erring in many points, yet He blesses me in this par-
ticular.

First of all, to see well to it, that the work in which he
desires to be engaged is God's work; secondly, that he is
the person to be engaged in this work; thirdly, that God's
time is come, when he should do this work; and then to be
assured, that, if he seeks God's help in His own appointed
way. He will not fail him. We have ever found it thus,
and expect to find it thus, on the ground of the promises
of God, to the end of our course.

1. Be slow to take new steps in the Lord's service, or in
your business, or in your families. Weigh everything well;
weigh all in the light of the Holy Scriptures, and in the
fear of God. 2. Seek to have no will of your own, in order
to ascertain the mind of God, regarding any steps you pro-
pose to take, so that you can honestly £iay, you are willing
to do the will of God, if He will only please to instruct
you. 3. But when you have found out what the will of
God is, seek for His help, and seek it earnestly, persever-
ingly, patiently, believingly, and expectingly: and you
will surely, in His own time and way, obtain it.

We have not to rush forward in self-will and say, I will
do the work, and I will trust the Lord for means, this can-
not be real trust, it is the counterfeit of faith, it is pre-
sumption; and though God, in great pity and mercy, may
even help us finally out of debt; yet does this, on no ac-
count, prove that we were right in going forward before
His time was come. We ought, rather, under such cir-

Appendix 451

cumstances to say to ourselves: Am I indeed doing the
work of God ? And if so, / may not be the person to do it;
or if I am the person, His time may not yet be come for me
to go forward; it may be His good pleasure to exercise my
faith and patience. I ought, therefore, quietly to wait
His time; for when it is come, God will help. Acting on
this principle brings blessing.

To ascertain the Lord's will we ought to use scriptural
means. Prayer, the word of God, and His Spirit should
be united together. We should go to the Lord repeatedly
in prayer, and ask Him to teach us by His Spirit through
His word. I say by His Spirit through His word. For if
we should think that His Spirit led us to do so and so, be-
cause certain facts are so and so, and yet His word is op-
posed to the step which we are going to take, we should be
deceiving ourselves. ... No situation, no business will
be given to me hy God, in which I have not time enough to
care about my soul. Therefore, however outward circum-
stances may appear, it can only be considered as permitted
of God, to prove the genuineness of my love, faith, and
obedience, but by no means as the leading of His provi-
dence to induce me to act contrary to His revealed will.

MARRIAGE.

To enter upon the marriage union is one of the most
deeply important events of life. It cannot be too prayer-
fully treated. Our happiness, our usefulness, our living for
God or for ourselves afterwards, are often most intimately
connected with our choice. Therefore, in the most prayer-
ful manner, this choice should be made. Neither beauty,
nor age, nor money, nor mental powers, should be that
which prompts the decision; but 1st, Much waiting upon

452 George MuUer of Bristol

Dod for guidance should be used; 2nd, A hearty purpose to
be willing to be guided by Him should be aimed after; 3rd,
True godliness without a shadow of doubt, should be the
first and absolutely needful qualification, to a Christian,
with regard to a companion for life. In addition to this,
however, it ought to be, at the same time, calmly and pa-
tiently weighed, whether, in other respects, there is a suit-
ableness. For instance, for an educaied man to choose
an entirely uneducated woman, is unwise; for however
much on his part love might be willing to cover the defect,
it will work very unhappily with regard to the children.

PRAYER.

ANSWEES TO PKAYER.

I myself have for twenty-nine years been waiting for an
answer to prayer concerning a certain spiritual blessing.
Day by day have I been enabled to continue in prayer for
this blessing. At home and abroad, in this country and in
foreign lands, in health and in sickness, however much oc-
cupied, I have been enabled, day by day, by God's help,
to bring this matter before Him; and still I have not the
full answer yet. Nevertheless, I look for it. I expect it
confidently. The very fact that day after day, and year
after year, for twenty-nine years, the Lord has enabled me
to continue, patiently, believingly, to wait on Him for the
blessing, still further encourages me to wait on; and so
fully am I assured that God hears me about this matter,
that I have often been enabled to praise Him beforehand
for the full answer, which I shall ultimately receive to my
prayers on this subject. Thus, you see, dear reader, that
while I have hundreds, yea, thousands of answers, year by
year, I have also, like yourself and other believers, the trial
of faith concerning certain matters.

Appendix 453

AXXIETY AVOIDED BY PEATEE.

Though all believers in the Lord Jesus are not called
upon to establish orphan houses, schools for poor chil-
dren, etc., and trust in God for means; yet all believers,
according to the will of God concerning them in Christ
Jesus, may cast, and ought to cast, all their care upon
Him who careth for them, and need not be anxiously con-
cerned about anything, as is plainly to be seen from 1
Peter v. 7; Philippians iv. 6; Matthew vi. 25-34.

My Lord is not limited; He can again supply; He
knows that this present case has been sent to me; and
thus, this way of living, so far from leading to anxiety,
as it regards possible future want, is rather the means of
keeping from it. . . . This way of living has often been
the means of reviving the work of grace in my heart,
when I have been getting cold; and it also has been the
means of bringing me back again to the Lord, after I have
been backsliding. For it will not do, — it is not possible,
to live in sin, and at the same time, by communion with
God, to draw down from heaven everything one needs for
the life that now is. . . . Answer to prayer, obtained in
this way, has been the means of quickening my soul, and
filling me with much Joy.

I met at a brother's house with several believers, when
a sister said that she had often thought about the care
and burden I must have on my mind, as it regards obtain-
ing the necessary supplies for so many persons. As this
may not be a solitary instance, I would state that, by the
grace of God, this is no cause of anxiety to me. The chil-
dren I have years ago cast upon the Lord. The whole
work is His, and it becomes me to be without carefulness.

454 George MuUer of Bristol

In whatever points I am lacking, in this point I am able,
by the grace of God, to roll the burden upon my heavenly
Father. Though now (July 1845) for about seven years
our funds have been so exhausted, that it has been com-
paratively a rare case that there have been means in hand
to meet the necessities of the orphans for three days to-
gether; yet have I been only once tried in spirit, and that
was on Sept. 18, 1838, when for the first time the Lord
seemed not to regard our prayer. But when He did send
help at that time, and I saw that it was only for the trial
of our faith, and not because He had forsaken the work
that we were brought so low, my soul was so strengthened
and encouraged, that I have not only not been allowed to
distrust the Lord since that time, but I have not even been
cast down when in the deepest poverty. Nevertheless, in
this respect also am I now, as much as ever, dependent on
the Lord; and I earnestly beseech for myself and my fel-
low-labourers the prayers of all those, to whom the glory
of God is dear. How great would be the dishonour to the
name of God, if we, who have so publicly made our boast
in Him, should so fall as to act in these very points as the
world does ! Help us, then, brethren, with your prayers,
that we may trust in God to the end. We can expect noth-
ing but that our faith will yet be tried; and it may be more
than ever; and we shall fall, if the Lord does not uphold us.

B0RR0V7ING AND PEAYING.

As regards borrowing money, I have considered that
there is no ground to go away from the door of the Lord
to that of a believer, so long as He is willing to supply
our need.

COMMUNION WITH GOD IN PRATER.

How truly precious it is that every one who rests alone
upon the Lord Jesus for salvation, has in the living God

Appendix 455

a father, to whom he may fully unbosom himself concern-
ing the most minute aifairs of his life, and concerning
everything that lies upon his heart ! Dear reader, do you
know the living God ? Is He, in Jesus, your Father ? Be
assured that Christianity is something more than forms
and creeds and ceremonies: there is life, and power, and
reality, in our holy faith. If you nevex yet have known
this, then come and taste for yourself. I beseech you af-
fectionately to meditate and pray over the following
verses: John iii. 16; Rom. x. 9, 10; Acts x. 43; 1 Jolin v. 1.

CONDITIONS OF PEATER.

Go for yourself, with all your temporal and spiritual
wants, to the Lord. Bring also the necessities of your
friends and relatives to the Lord. Only make the trial,
and you will perceive how able and willing He is to help
you. Should you, however, not at once obtain answers to
your prayers, be not discouraged; but continue patiently,
believingly, perseveringly to wait upon God: and as as-
suredly as that which you ask would be for your real good,
and therefore for the honour of the Lord; and as assuredly
as you ask it solely on the ground of the worthiness of our
Lord Jesus, so assuredly you will at last obtain the bless-
ing. I myself have had to wait upon God concerning cer-
tain matters for years, before I obtained answers to my
prayers; but at last they came. At this very time, I have
still to renew my requests daily before God, respecting a
certain blessing for which I have besought Him for eleven
years and a half, and which I have as yet obtained only in
part, but concerning which I have no doubt that the full
blessing will be granted in the end. . . . The great point
is, that we ask only for that which it would be for the
glory of God to give to us; for that, and that alone, can be
for our real good. But it is not enough that the thing

456 George Miiller of Bristol

for which we ask God be for His honour and glory, but
we must secondly ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus,
viz., expect it only on the ground of His merits and wor-
thiness. Thirdly, we should believe that God is able and
willing to give us what we ask Him for. Fourthly, we
should continue in prayer till the blessing is granted; with-
out fixing to God a time when, or the circumstances un-
der which. He should give the answer. Patience should be
in exercise, in connection with our prayer. Fifthly, we
should, at the same time, look out for and expect an
answer till it comes. If we pray in this way, we shall not
only have answers, thousands of answers to our prayers;
but our own souls will be greatly refreshed and invigor-
ated in connection with these answers.

If the obtaining of your requests were not for your
real good, or were not tending to the honour of God,
you might pray for a long time, without obtaining what
you desire. The glory of God should be always before the
children of God, in what they desire at His hands; and
their own spiritual profit, being so intimately connected
with the honour of God, should never be lost sight of, in
their petitions. But now, suppose we are believers in the
Lord Jesus, and make our requests unto God, depending
alone on the Lord Jesus as the ground of having them
granted; suppose, also, that, so far as we are able honestly
and uprightly to judge, the obtaining of our requests would
be for our real spiritual good and for the honour of God; we
yet need, lastly, to continue in prayer, until the blessing is
granted unto us. It is not enough to begin to pray, nor to
pray aright; nor is it enough to continue for a time to
pray; but we must patiently, believingly continue in
prayer, until we obtain an answer; and further, we have
not only to continue in prayer unto the end, but we have

Appendix 457

also to lelieve that God does hear us, and will answer our
prayers. Most frequently we fail in not continuing in
prayer until the blessing is obtained and in not expecting
the blessing.

FAITH, PEATEE, AND THE WOED OF GOD.

Prayer and faith, the universal remedies against every
want and every difficulty; and the nourishment of prayer
and faith, God's holy word, helped me over all the diffi-
culties.— I never remember, in all my Christian course, a
period now (in March 1895) of sixty-nine years and four
months, that I ever sinceeely and patiently sought to
know the will of God by the teaching of the Holy Ghost,
through the instrumentality of the luord of God, but I
have been always directed rightly. But if honesty of
heart and uprightness before God were lacking, or if I did
not patiently wait upon God for instruction, or if I pre-
ferred the counsel of my fellow men to the declarations of
the word of the living God, I made great mistakes.

seceet peayee.

Let none expect to have the mastery over his inward
corruption in any degree, without going in his weakness
again and again to the Lord for strength. Nor -wall prayer
with others, or conversing with the brethren, make up for
secret prayer.

SNAEES OF SATAN AS TO PEAYEE.

It is a common temptation of Satan to make us give up
the reading of the Word and prayer when our enjoyment
is gone; as if it were of no use to read the Scriptures when
we do not enjoy them, and as if it were of no use to pray
when we have no spirit of prayer; whilst the truth is, in

458 George Muller of Bristol

order to enjoy fhe Word, we ought to continue to read it,
and the way to obtain a spirit of prayer is to continue
praying; for the less we read the word of God, the less we
desire to read it, and the less we pray, the less we desire to
pray.

WORK AND PRATER.

Often the work of the Lord itself may be a temptation
to keep us from that communion with Him which is so es-
sential to the benefit of our own souls. . . , Let none
think that public prayer will make up for closet com-
munion.

Here is the great secret of success. Work with all your
might; but trust not in the least in your work. Pray with
all your might for the blessing of God; but work, at the
same time, with all diligence, with all patience, with all
perseverance. Pray then, and work. Work and pray.
And still again pray, and then work. And so on all the
days of your life. The result will surely be, abundant
blessing. Whether you see much fruit or little fruit, such
kind of service will be blessed. . . . Speak also for the
Lord, as if everything depended on your exertions; yet
trust not the least in your exertions, but in the Lord, who
alone can cause your efforts to be made effectual, to the
benefit of your fellow men or fellow believers. Remember,
also, that God delights to bestow blessing, but, generally,
as the result of earnest, believing prayer.

PREACHING.

It came immediately to my mind that such sort of
preaching might do for illiterate country people, but that
it would never do before a well-educated assembly in town.
I thought, the truth ought to be preached at all hazards,

Appendix 459

but it ought to be given in a different form, suited to the
hearers. Thus I remained unsettled in my mind as it re-
gards the mode of preaching; and it is not surprising that
I did not then see the truth concerning this matter, for I
did not understand the work of the Spirit, and therefore
saw not the powerlessness of human eloquence. Further,
I did not keep in mind that if the most illiterate persons
in the congregation can comprehend the discourse, the
most educated will understand it too; but that the reverse
does not hold true.

RESTITUTION.

Eestitution is the revealed will of God. If it is omitted,
while we have it in our power to make it, guilt remains
on the conscience, and spiritual progress is hindered.
Even though it should be connected with difficulty, self-
denial, and great loss, it is to be attended to. Should the
persons who have been defrauded be dead, their heirs are
to be found out, if this can be done, and restitution is to
be made to them. But there may be cases when this can-
not be done, and then only the money should be given to
the Lord for His work or His poor. One word more.
Sometimes the guilty person may not have grace enough,
if the rightful owners are living, to make known to them
the sin; under such circumstances, though not the best
and most scriptural way, rather than have guilt remaining
on the conscience, it is better to make restitution anony-
mously than not at all. About fifty years ago, I knew a
man under concern about his soul, who had defrauded his
master of two sacks of flour, and who was urged by me to
confess this sin to his late employer, and to make restitu-
tion. He would not do it, however, and the result was that
for twenty years he never obtained real peace of soul till
the thing was done.

460 George Muller of Bristol

KEWARDS.
Christians do not practically remember that while we
are saved by grace, altogether by grace, so that in the
matter of salvation works are altogether excluded; yet
that so far as the rewards of grace are concerned, in the
world to come, there is an intimate connection between
the life of the Christian here and the enjoyment and the
glory in the day of Christ's appearing.

SIN AND SALVATION.

Humblings last our whole life. Jesus came not to save
painted but real sinners; but He has saved us, and will
surely make it manifest.

SPIRIT OF GOD.

At Stuttgart, the dear brethren had been entirely un-
instructed about the truths relating to the power and
presence of the Holy Ghost in the church of God, and to
our ministering one to another as fellow members in the
body of Christ; and I had known enough of painful con-
sequences when brethren began to meet professedly in
dependence upon the Holy Spirit without knowing what
was meant by it, and thus meetings had become oppor-
tunities for unprofitdble talking rather than for godly edify-
ing. . . . All these matters ought to be left to the order-
ing of the Holy Ghost, and that if it had been truly good
for them, the Lord would have not only led me to speak
at that time, but also on the very subject on which they de-
sired that I should speak to them.

TRUTH— PROPORTION OF FAITH.

Whatever parts of truth are made too much of, though
they were even the most precious truths connected

Appendix 461

with our being risen in Christ, or our heavenly calling, or
prophecy, sooner or later those who lay an undue stress
upon these parts of truth, and thus make them too prom-
inent, will be losers in their own souls, and, if they be
teachers, they will injure those whom they teach.

UNIVERSALISM.

In reference to universal salvation, I found that they
had been led into this error because (1) They did not see
the difference between the earthly calling of the Jews,
and the heavenly calling of the believers in the Lord
Jesus in the present dispensation, and therefore they said
that, because the words " everlasting," etc., are applied to
" the possession of the land of Canaan " and the " priest-
hood of Aaron," therefore, the punishment of the wicked
cannot be without end, seeing that the possession of
Canaan and the priesthood of Aaron are not without
end. My endeavour, therefore, was to show the brethren
the difference between the earthly calling of Israel and our
heavenly one, and to prove from Scripture that, whenever
the word " everiasting " is used with reference to things
purely not of the earth, but beyond time, it denotes a
period without end. (2) They had laid exceeding great
stress upon a few passages where, in Luther's translation
of the German Bible, the word hell occurs, and where it
ought to have been translated either " hades " in some
passages, or " grave " in others, and where they saw a
deliverance out of hell, and a being brought up out of hell,
instead of " out of the grave."

462 George Muller of Bristol

WORD OF GOD.

The word of God is our only standard, and the Holy
Spirit our only teacher.

Besides the Holy Scripttires, which should be always
THE book, THE CHIEF book to us, not merely in theory,
but also in practice, such like books seem to me the most
useful for the growth of the inner man. Yet one has to
be cautious in the choice, and to guard against reading too
much.

WORK FOR GOD.

When He orders something to be done for the glory of
His name, He is both able and willing to find the needed
individuals for the work and the means required. Thus,
when the Tabernacle in the Wilderness was to be erected,
He not only fitted men for the work, but He also touched
the hearts of the Israelites to bring the necessary materials
and gold, silver, and precious stones; and all these things
were not only brought, but in such abundance that a proc-
lamation had to be made in the camp, that no more
articles should be brought, because there were more than
enough. And again, when God for the praise of His name
would have the Temple to be built by Solomon, He pro-
vided such an amount of gold, silver, precious stones,
brass, iron, etc., for it, that all the palaces or temples
which have been built since, have been most insignificant
in comparison.

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