George Müller of Bristol, and His Witness to a Prayer-Hearing God
by Arthur T. Pierson · English · Gutenberg #26522 · 793,145 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: George Müller of Bristol, and His Witness to a Prayer-Hearing God
Author: Arthur T. Pierson
Release date: September 4, 2008 [eBook #26522]
Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GEORGE MÜLLER OF BRISTOL, AND HIS WITNESS TO A PRAYER-HEARING GOD ***
Produced by Carl D. DuBois
GEORGE MULLER OF BRISTOL
AND
HIS WITNESS TO A PRAYER-HEARING GOD
BY
ARTHUR T. PIERSON
Author of "The Crisis of Missions," "The New Acts of the Apostles,"
"Many Infallible Proofs," etc.; editor of "The Missionary
Review of the World," etc.
WITH AN INTRODUCTION
BY
JAMES WRIGHT
Son-in-law and successor in the work of George Muller
Illustrated
NEW YORK CHICAGO TORONTO
Fleming H. Revell Company
LONDON AND EDINBURGH
Copyright, 1899,
BY
THE BAKER AND TAYLOR CO.
[Transcriber's Note: George Muller's family name is Germanic in origin.
Everywhere that his name appears in the printed text, the letter "u" is
marked with two dots above it (called an 'umlaut') to show that it is
pronounced differently from the way the unmarked vowel is normally
pronounced. So his name is usually pronounced in English as Myew-ler,
not as Mool-ler or Mull-ler.]
Introduction
VERY soon after the decease of my beloved father-in-law I began to
receive letters pressing upon me the desirableness 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 Muller," 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
supplement 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. Muller'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, containing 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. Muller's career had issued from the
press within a few days after the funeral; and one (written by Mr. F.
Warne and published by W. F. Mack & Co., Bristol), a very accurate and
truly appreciative sketch, had had a large circulation; but I was
convinced by the letters that reached me that a more comprehensive
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. Moreover, I was, personally, occupied during
May and June in preparing the Annual Report of "The Scriptural Knowledge
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. Muller
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 undertake 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. Muller, with the principles on which the
Orphanage and other branches of "The Scriptural Knowledge Institution"
were carried on, and with many details of their working. I knew that Dr.
Pierson most thoroughly sympathized 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. Muller'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 authorized memoir for British as well as American readers.
To this Dr. Pierson readily assented; and now, after carefully going
through the whole, I confidently recommend the book to esteemed readers
on both sides of the Atlantic, with the earnest prayer that the result,
in relation to the subject of this memoir, may be identical with that
produced by the account of the Apostle Paul's "manner 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, 1899.
A Prefatory Word
DR. OLIVER W. HOLMES wittily said that an autobiography is what every
biography _ought to be._ The four volumes of "The Narrative of the
Lord's Dealings with George Muller," already issued from the press and
written by his own hand, with a fifth volume covering his missionary
tours, and prepared by his wife, supplemented by the Annual Reports
since published, constitute essentially an autobiography--Mr. Muller'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, because 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. Muller's life-story
without being deeply impressed with the opportunity thus afforded for
impressing the most vital truths that concern holy living and holy
serving; nor could any one have completed such a work without feeling
overawed 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. Muller's associate and knew him so
intimately.
So prominent was the word of God as a power in Mr. Muller's life that, in
an appendix, we have given peculiar emphasis to the great leading texts
of Scripture which inspired and guided his faith and conduct, and, so
far as possible, in the order in which such texts became practically
influential in his life; and so many wise and invaluable 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 Muller's
witness to a prayer-hearing God; to present, as plainly, forcibly, and
briefly as is practicable, the outlines of a human history, and an
experience of the Lord's leadings and dealings, which furnish a
sufficient answer to the question:
WHERE IS THE LORD GOD OF ELIJAH?
Table of Contents
PAGE
INTRODUCTION BY MR. JAMES WRIGHT ........
A PREFATORY WORD .....
CHAPTER I. FROM HIS BIRTH TO HIS NEW BIRTH .........
CHAPTER II. THE NEW BIRTH AND THE NEW LIFE ......
CHAPTER III. MAKING READY THE CHOSEN VESSEL ......
CHAPTER IV. NEW STEPS AND STAGES OF PREPARATION ....
CHAPTER V. THE PULPIT AND THE PASTORATE ..........
CHAPTER VI. "THE NARRATIVE OF THE LORD'S DEALINGS" ......
CHAPTER VII. LED OF GOD INTO A NEW SPHERE ........
CHAPTER VIII. A TREE OF GOD'S OWN PLANTING ........
CHAPTER IX. THE GROWTH OF GOD'S OWN PLANT ........
CHAPTER X. THE WORD OF GOD AND PRAYER .....
CHAPTER XI. TRIALS OF FAITH AND HELPERS TO FAITH .......
CHAPTER XII. NEW LESSONS IN GOD'S SCHOOL OF PRAYER ......
CHAPTER XIII. FOLLOWING THE PILLAR OF CLOUD AND FIRE ......
CHAPTER XIV. GOD'S BUILDING: THE NEW ORPHAN HOUSES .....
CHAPTER XV. THE MANIFOLD GRACE OF GOD ...........
CHAPTER XVI. THE SHADOW OF A GREAT SORROW .....
CHAPTER XVII. THE PERIOD OF WORLD-WIDE WITNESS ........
CHAPTER XVIII. FAITH AND PATIENCE IN SERVING ..........
CHAPTER XIX. AT EVENING-TIME-LIGHT .............
CHAPTER XX. THE SUMMARY OF THE LIFE-WORK ......
CHAPTER XXI. CHURCH LIFE AND GROWTH ...
CHAPTER XXII. A GLANCE AT THE GIFTS AND THE GIVERS ...
CHAPTER XXIII. GOD'S WITNESS TO THE WORK ........
CHAPTER XXIV. LAST LOOKS, BACKWARD AND FORWARD ....
APPENDIX.
A. SCRIPTURE TEXTS THAT MOULDED GEORGE MULLER ....
B. APPREHENSION OF TRUTH ............
C. SEPARATION FROM THE LONDON SOCIETY, ETC. ....
D. THE SCRIPTURAL KNOWLEDGE INSTITUTION FOR HOME AND ABROAD ....
E. REASONS WHICH LED MR. MULLER TO ESTABLISH AN ORPHAN HOUSE ....
F. ARGUMENTS IN PRAYER FOR THE ORPHAN WORK ....
G. THE PURCHASE OF A SITE, ETC. .........
H. GOD'S FAITHFULNESS IN PROVIDING ........
K. FURTHER RECOLLECTIONS OF MR. MULLER .....
L. CHURCH FELLOWSHIP, BAPTISM, ETC. ........
M. CHURCH CONDUCT ...............
N. THE WISE SAYINGS OF GEORGE MULLER ...
George Muller of Bristol
CHAPTER I
FROM 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 temporal 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 Rewarder of them that diligently seek Him."
George Muller was such an argument and example incarnated 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 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 furnished 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 Muller 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
Muller 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 obedience 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
paragraph 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.
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 characteristic features which serve to distinguish it
and make its lessons peculiarly important and memorable. For example,
the first period is that of the lost days of sin, in which the great
lesson taught is the bitterness and worthlessness 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 noticeable 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 account for the conversion of Saul of Tarsus
only by supernatural power, what would he have thought of George
Muller's transformation! Saul had in his favor a conscience, however
misguided, and a morality, however pharisaic. George Muller 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 Muller!
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 Muller had no proper parental training. His father's favoritism
toward him was harmful both to himself and to his brother, as in the
family of Jacob, tending to jealousy and estrangement. Money was put too
freely into 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 childish 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
Muller 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 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 missing
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 obliquities 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
independent of _holy_ 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 careless spirit, 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 customary "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 Muller, in
the Easter season of 1820, was confirmed 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 solemnity 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 self-reform. He was not, therefore, without at least
occasional 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 superintend sundry
alterations in his house at Heimersleben, arranging for him meanwhile to
read classics with the resident clergyman, Rev. 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 passion for a young Roman 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
indulgence. First of all, by lying to his tutor he got his consent to
his going; then came a week of sin at Magdeburg 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 Wolfenbuttel, he tried the same bold scheme again, until, having
nothing for deposit, 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, a few days later, a thief
shared: and these two held converse 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 Muller 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 return home. Yet such was his
persistent wickedness that, going from a convict's cell to confront his
outraged but indulgent 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 Muller 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 gymnasium.
He avoided Halle because he dreaded its severe discipline, and foresaw
that restraint would be doubly irksome when constantly meeting young
fellows of his acquaintance who, as students in the university, would
have much more freedom 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, 1822, till Easter, 1825.
During these two and a half years he studied classics, French, history,
etc., living with the director of the gymnasium. 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 converse
with him in Latin. At this time he was a hard student, 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 religious 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 Scriptures he
was grossly ignorant, and as indifferent to them as he was ignorant of
them. Twice a year, according to prevailing 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 refrain from some open sins; but
there was no spiritual life to act as a force within, and his vows were
forgotten 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, however, 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 honourable 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. Reformation 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 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, unable 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 backslider. Again he was taken ill. God made him to
"possess the iniquities of his youth." After some weeks he was better,
and once more his conduct took on the semblance of improvement.
The true mainspring of all well-regulated lives was still lacking, and
sin soon broke out in unholy indulgence. George Muller 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, secured money.
Forty-three days were spent in travel, mostly afoot; and during this
tour George Muller, 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 September, and George
Muller 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 devised. 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 without 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 character and conduct such as he
experienced. Twelve hundred 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
behind a profession of piety. Surely such a man, with such surroundings,
could undergo no radical change of character 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 BIRTH 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 Muller was converted to God, and the
radical nature of the change strikingly 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 serious illnesses, because divine purposes of mercy were to be
fulfilled in him. No other explanation can adequately account 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
worship, 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 depravity and iniquity.
This young man had thus grown to 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 conditions, 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 Muller was a chosen vessel for
service, moulding and fitting the vessel for His use. Every step is one
of preparation, but can be understood 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
Muller, 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 programme 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
Muller 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 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 assembly. However, he called for young Muller and took him to the
meeting.
During his wanderings as a backslider, Beta had both joined and aided
George Muller 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.
Richter, a former student at Halle, he had been made acquainted 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 Muller's history
and destiny. He found himself in strange company, amid novel
surroundings, and breathing a new atmosphere. His awkwardness made him
feel so uncertain 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 praying 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 Missionary Society--fell on his knees and
prayed for God's blessing on the meeting. That _kneeling before God in
prayer_ made upon Muller an impression never lost. He was in his
twenty-first year, and yet he had _never before seen any one on his
knees 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. When, after another
hymn, the master of the house prayed, George Muller 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
unaccountable 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 evening."
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 Muller,
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 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 Muller'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 before 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 conversion 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 unmistakable signs and
proofs of _preadaptation._ Our life-occurrences 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).
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 conditions oppose all preconcerted
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 proportioned 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 adaptation 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
occurrences to see the divine Hand shaping and building together 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 Muller'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 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 aesthetic attractions. Such
assemblies were to be so linked with the whole life, work, and witness
of George Muller 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 knees, both in secret and in such
companionship of believers,_ 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 during 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 Muller 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 must at least
begin at conversion to live a changed life. 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 Muller 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 convictions
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 significant 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 became 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 took his stand on the
side of his new Master, at the cost of reproach and ridicule from his
fellow students.
George Muller'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
salvation:
"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 philosophy 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 sufferings in Gethsemane and Golgotha made it forever needless
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 himself 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 Muller. 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 feeling 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 responded, yet
supplying a new impulse unknown before. What all his father's
injunctions, chastisements, entreaties, 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 newborn soul. He now
began to read _missionary_ journals, which kindled a new flame in his
heart. He felt a yearning--not very intelligent as yet--to be himself a
messenger 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, outweighed 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, 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 Muller a deep impression. He
was compelled to contrast with it his own 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: another
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
Muller, was acting and choosing more like that profane person Esau, when
for one morsel of meat he bartered his birthright. The result was a new
renunciation--he gave up the girl he loved, and forsook a connection
which 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 Muller 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 outflow, and so he
felt impelled to bear witness. He wrote to his father and brother of his
own happy experience, begging 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 Mullers 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 permission 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 repay 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 steadfastness, 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 unbroken to follow the Lord's leading at any cost, but he
now clearly saw that he could be _independent of man only by 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 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 Muller 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 university 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 American gentlemen,
three of whom were college professors,* being in Halle and wishing
instruction in German, were by Dr. Tholuck recommended to employ George
Muller 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 written large in the chambers of
his memory another golden text from the word of God:
"O FEAR THE LORD, YE HIS SAINTS!
FOR THERE IS NO WANT TO THEM THAT FEAR HIM."
(Psalm xxxiv. 9.)
* One of them, the Rev. Charles Hodge, afterward so well known as
professor at Princeton Theological Seminary, etc.
CHAPTER III
MAKING READY 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 Muller for the time thus
quietly to wait for divine guidance, and meanwhile 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
resorted 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 private, 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 accordingly 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 consent.
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 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 years in obscurity 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 Muller 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 immature 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 Muller 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 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 child 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 thousand perplexing
problems of work among the heathen!
Moreover the conviction grew that, could he have followed 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 ascertain, not
whether _at some period of his life_ he was to go forth, but whether _at
that time_ he was to go or stay. The whole after-life of George Muller
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 leading, when made known, was not
in this direction. He had purposed for George Muller 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 ministry.
With increasing frequency, earnestness, and minuteness, was George
Muller 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,
childlike disposition_ toward Himself. In many things he was in
knowledge and in strength to outgrow childhood and become 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 development 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 Muller 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
coworking with God. He 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 grotesque, as when, speaking to a beggar in
the fields about his need of salvation, he tried to overcome apathetic
indifference 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 conscience 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
implies the witness of experience, and that to preach another man's
sermon is, at the best, unnatural walking on stilts!
George Muller 'got through' his painful effort of August 27, 1826,
reciting this memoriter sermon at eight A.M. in the chapel of ease, and
three hours later in the parish 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 Matthew, and simply expound it. But he
had no sooner begun 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 afternoon, 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 little prayer in preparation
and too little unction in delivery, and so his labours were
comparatively barren of results.
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 furnished for poor divinity students in the famous _Orphan
Houses built by A. H. Francke._ This saintly man, a professor of
divinity at Halle, who had died a hundred years before (1727), had been
led to found an orphanage in entire dependence upon God. Half
unconsciously George Muller's whole life-work at Bristol found both its
suggestion 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 Muller 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 Muller'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, which 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 believer; 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 worshipper 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 Muller'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 delivered
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
reminded 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 conduct unbecoming a disciple, but indulging hard
thoughts of his heavenly Father. 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 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 companionships. 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 from devout books. Here young Muller 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 fountain 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 German novels; but as yet he had
not formed the habit of reading the word of God daily and systematically
as in later life, almost to the exclusion of other books. In his
ninety-second 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
uninspired 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's having condescended to become an Author,_
inspiring holy men to write the Scriptures, He would in them impart the
most vital truths; His message would cover all matters which concern
man's welfare, and therefore, under the double impulse of duty and
delight, we should instinctively 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 the 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.
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, whatever
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 knowledge 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 his deed." (Comp. Psalm i.
3; Joshua i. 8; James i. 25.)
So soon as George Muller found this well-spring of delight 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 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 declared
to be to the obedient soul "a lamp unto the feet and a light unto the
path." He who would keep up intimate 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!
CHAPTER IV
NEW STEPS AND STAGES OF PREPARATION
PASSION for souls is a divine fire, and in the heart of George Muller
that fire now began to burn more brightly, and demanded vent.
In August, 1827, his mind was more definitely than before 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 Muller's room, told him how failing health
forbade his continuing his work among Polish Jews; and at once there
sprang up in George Muller's mind a strong desire to take his place.
Such work doubly attracted him, because it would bring him into close
contact with God's chosen but erring people, Israel; and because it
would 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,
Bucharest 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 available 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 trying to the flesh, but, as it seemed right that there
should be opportunity for mutual acquaintance between committee 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 university examinations, at least one year. George Muller,
who had not served out even this shorter term, could not, without royal
exemption, even get a passport out of the country. Application was made
for such exemption, but it failed. Meanwhile he was taken ill, and after
ten weeks suffered a relapse. While at Leipzig 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
few weeks to teach German, he went, hoping at the Prussian 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 _completely 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
Captain of his salvation, he might endure hardness as a good soldier of
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 visiting 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 Testament 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 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--another 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 missionary to
Persia, _simply trusting the Lord for all temporal supplies._ This act
of self-denying trust had a strange charm for Mr. Muller, and he could
not dismiss it from his mind; indeed, 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 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 measurement 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
blemish 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 _workman_ and not in the _work:_ both the music and the
painting are in themselves just what they were, but the man is capable
of something so much better, that his standard of comparison is raised
to a higher level, and his capacity for a true judgment 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 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
without 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 there lay the mystery: she had been often overheard in
prayer confessing herself the most unworthy of sinners.
To return from this digression, Mr. Muller, 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
prosper, 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 fortnight 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 foreseeing 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 tendency 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 recovery he sought rest at
Teignmouth, where, shortly after his arrival, "Ebenezer" chapel was
reopened. It was here also that Mr. Muller 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, certain 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.*
* See Appendix B.
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 prolonged 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. Muller 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 remembrance 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 be
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 undertook 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 misgiving 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
do full justice both to Mr. Muller and the Society, his own words will
again be found in the Appendix.*
* See Appendix C.
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 Muller 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. Muller'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, without any sense of enjoyment, prayer seeming as fruitless
as the vain struggles of a man in the mire. At the usual morning meeting
he was urged by a brother to continue 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 by the want of sensible
enjoyment; in fact, it is a safe maxim that the less joy, the more need.
Cessation of communion 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 outpouring of supplication, together with
continued activity in the service of God, soon brings back the lost joy.
Whenever, therefore, one yields to spiritual depression so as to
abandon, or even to suspend, closet communion or Christian work, the
devil triumphs.
So rapid was Mr. Muller'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 overcast, 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 deeply convicted of sin and
sought his counsel.
Here we reach another mile-stone in this life-journey. George Muller had
now come to the end of the year 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 structure 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 forward. Think of a young convert, with such an
ensnaring 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
expository 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
burdens, 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; teaching 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 mysteriously 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 salvation.
Though George Muller 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 invitation, 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 indication of his duty. He felt that they doubtless looked for
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, especially 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 Teignmouth, but that Satan was acting, as usual, the part
of a hinderer, 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 often 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
indifference, if they did not exhibit an open hostility. But the Lord
stood by him and strengthened him, setting His seal upon his testimony;
and Jehovah Jireh also moved 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 season, 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
somewhat 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 another 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 Muller 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 emphatic in any direction, it was in the boldness with which he
insisted that _all pulpit teaching and Christian practice must be
subjected to one great test,_ namely, _the touchstone of the word of
God._ Already an Elijah in spirit, his great aim was to repair the
broken-down altar of the Lord, to expose and rebuke all that hindered a
thoroughly scriptural worship and service, and, if possible, to restore
apostolic 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 position 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, satisfactory, 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 characteristically 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
systematic examination of the New Testament from beginning 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 hindrance, _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 conclusion, and, as he believed, from the word of God and
the Spirit of God, that none but believers are the proper subjects 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
Romans 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 Romans equally satisfied him that
only immersion in water can express the typical 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 conscience to withhold his views when so carefully and prayerfully
arrived at through the searching of the Scriptures.
Conviction compelled action, for in him there was no spirit of
compromise; and he was accordingly promptly baptized. 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 subject 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 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 to the one test of conformity to the scripture pattern. Our
Lord sharply rebuked the Pharisees of His day for making "the
commandment 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 _authority,_ 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 modern disciples who
"reject the commandment of God that they may keep their own tradition"?
* Matthew xv. 6. Mark vii. 9-13.
This step, taken by Mr. Muller as to baptism, was only 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 _command_ so to do, the scriptural
and apostolic _practice_ was to _break 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 bestowed, seemed
to him plainly taught in Romans xii.; 1 Cor. xii.; Ephes. iv., etc.
These conclusions likewise this servant of God sought to translate at
once into conduct, and such conformity brought increasing spiritual
prosperity.
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 afford as good
sittings as the rich, thus introducing into church assemblies invidious
distinctions and respect of persons, and so encouraging the caste
spirit.
2. A fixed pew-rental may at times become, even to the willing disciple,
a burden. He who would gladly contribute to a pastor's support, if
allowed to do so according to his ability and at his own convenience,
might be oppressed by the demand to pay a stated sum at a stated 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 remembers 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 God's people._ While calmly assigning 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
acceptable, 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 intention was, that thus the act might be wholly as in God's sight,
without the risk of a sinful pride or false humility.
He further felt that, to be entirely consistent, he should _ask no help
from man,_ even in bearing necessary costs of travel in the Lord's
service, nor even state his needs beforehand 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 his "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 Muller, in finding a wife, found a good thing
and obtained new favour from the Lord. Miss Mary Groves, sister of the
self-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
appreciated 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 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. Muller there never came any such experience of even
temporary 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 _common self-denial._ Yielding literal obedience
to Luke xii. 33, they sold what little they had and gave alms,
henceforth 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 followed 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 this 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 possessions, 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 faithfulness 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 seal that God is true. If
few men have ever been permitted 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 Muller 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. Muller
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 encompassing passing but invisible
presence or atmosphere of life and strength.
On August 9, 1831, Mrs. Muller gave birth to a stillborn 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 unspiritual
frames. He especially chides himself for not having more seriously
thought of the peril of child-bearing, so as to pray more earnestly for
his wife; and he saw clearly that the prospect of parenthood had not
been rejoiced 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 certain 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 usefulness 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
offspring,--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
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, _"that your prayers be not hindered"?_ (1 Peter iii.
7.)
God used this severe lesson for permanent blessing to George Muller. 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. Muller 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 consistently followed so long as they
lived and worked together. Experience confirmed them in the
conviction that a life of trust forbids laying up treasures against
unforeseen 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 inwrought into Mr.
Muller's habit of life, was _never to contract debt,_ whether for
personal purposes or the Lord's work. 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. Muller'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 temporarily, 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 knowledge 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 afterward 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
expenses until public confidence had been almost hopelessly impaired.
Thus a life of _faith_ must be no less a life of _conscience._ 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 written by George Muller of the Lord's dealings 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 _take out_ of them a people for His
name; and concludes by two quotations or adaptations 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-sufficiency 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
beginning. 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 Muller"_?
At this narrative or journal, as a whole, we can only rapidly glance. In
this shorter account, purposely condensed 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 leisurely perusal. But for the present
purpose the life-story, as found in these pages, takes both a briefer
and a different form.
* Five volumes at 16s. Published by Jas. Nisbet & Co., London. With
subsequent Annual Reports at 3d. each.
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 observer 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 career 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 survey, classifying the leading facts, and under each class
giving 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 at 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 Institution, was often reduced to a single _pound,_
or even _penny,_ and sometimes to _nothing._ There was therefore a
necessity 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.
Muller 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 adjusting 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. Muller 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 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. Muller felt led to
_withhold_ the usual annual statement, lest some might construe the
account 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.
* For example, Vol. II, 102, 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 very account_ Mr.
Muller did not publish the report for 1847.
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 hindered its free use for God; if it
was designated for endowment purposes or as a provision for Mr. Muller'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 greater 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 became 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 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 scrupulous and punctilious exactness the
innumerable details of Mr. Muller's long experience as a coworker 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. Muller's whole
career is the more without fault because 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 confound
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, 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 Muller
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 challenge 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 mathematical 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 absolute, 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 Muller 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 confession 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 unworthiness 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.
To those who think that no man can wield such power in prayer or live
such a life of faith who is not an exception 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 interpositions he
suffered from temptations to distrust and disobedience, 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 passions 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 temptation 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 Muller alone, and the longer he lived a 'life of
trust' the less was his trust placed upon himself.
* Vol. I. 73.
Another fact that grows more conspicuous with the perusal of every new
page in his journal is that in things 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.
* Vol. I. 74.
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 accompanying His word with power, in accordance
with that positive and unequivocal promise in Isaiah lv. 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 accomplish His pleasure and its divine errand,
whatever be its apparent failure at the time. Mr. Muller, 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
services: 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. Muller 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 conspicuously 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 stomach and
lost much blood by the hemorrhage. The very day following was the Lord's
day, and four outside 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
afternoon and evening, growing stronger rather than weaker with each
effort, and suffering from no reaction afterward.
In reading Mr. Muller'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 commend, 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 consideration.
He observed that repeatedly he prayed with the sick till they were
restored, he _asking unconditionally for the blessing of bodily 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 of a bodily
infirmity of long standing, and which never returned. Yet this same man
of God subsequently suffered 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 believing 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-examination, will be found
most stimulating to faith, though often most humiliating by reason of
the conscious contrast suggested 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 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,
destruction to service if not to character. And, therefore, so far is
the writer of this memoir from desiring to displace 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 vigilance, 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 supplementary 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 Muller 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 perfectly sure that He could be safely
trusted who, "if we believe not, yet abideth faithful: He cannot deny
Himself."** God has not only _spoken,_ 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, a _perjurer,_
for it accounts Him as not only false to His word, but to His oath.
George Muller believed, and because he believed, prayed; and praying,
expected; and expecting, received. Blessed is he that believes, for
there shall be a performance of those things which are spoken of the
Lord.
* Faith's Miracles, p. 43.
** 2 Timothy ii. 13.
CHAPTER VII
LED OF GOD INTO A NEW SPHERE
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 permanent centre of his life-work is at
this point clearly indicated to God's servant by divine leading.
In March, 1832, his friend Mr. Henry Craik left Shaldon for four weeks
of labour _in Bristol,_ where Mr. Muller'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 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. Muller to join in
his work at Bristol, made such an impression on his mind that he began
prayerfully to consider 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
refused to bind himself to abide with them that he might at any moment
be free to follow the divine leading elsewhere.
On April 20th Mr. Muller left for Bristol. On the journey 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 supplies 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 preaching the Word and visits to inquiring or
needy souls, make up for the loss of aloneness with God in the secret
place. We hurry to a public service with but a few minutes of private
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 communion 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. Muller had the grace to detect one of the foremost 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
believer 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 prescription for a true prosperity. God says to Joshua, "This
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 the devout
meditative student of the blessed 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 essentially the same
blessed witness. "Whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and
_continueth"_ (i.e. continueth _looking_--meditating on what he there
beholds, lest he forget the impression received through the mirror of
the Word), _"this man shall be blessed in his deed"_ (James i. 25.)
Here then we have a threefold witness to the secret of true prosperity
and unmingled blessing: devout meditation 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 _take time_ to be alone with His word and His Spirit, that we
may truly meet God, and understand His will and the revelation of
Himself.
If we seek the secrets of the life George Muller 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. God's word is His WORD--the expression of His thought, the
revealing 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 has 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 reflection of His character and glory--the
firmament across the expanse of which He moves as the Sun of
righteousness.
On April 22, 1832, George Muller first stood in the pulpit 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 continue 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 opportunity 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 notorious drunkard. And, before the sun had set, Mr.
Muller, 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 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. Muller found opportunity for the exercise of humility, 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 enabled 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. Muller's influence was even deeper and
wider. As Henry Craik died in 1866, his own work reached through a much
longer period; and as he was permitted to make such extensive mission
tours throughout the world, his witness was far more outreaching. The
lowly-minded man who 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. Muller 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 acceded 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 according to the Lord's will; that they should not be under
bondage to any rules among them; that _pew-rents should be 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 evening at Bethesda Chapel
Mr. Muller, Mr. Craik, one other brother, and four sisters--_only seven
in all_--sat down together, uniting in church fellowship _"without any
rules,--desiring to act only as the Lord should be pleased to give light
through His word."_
This is a very short and simple entry in Mr. Mailer's journal, but it
has most solemn significance. It records what was to him separation to
the hallowed work of building up a simple apostolic church, with no
manual of guidance 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 prepared the workman and gathered the material,
the structure went on quietly and rapidly until the life-work was
complete.
Cholera was at this time raging in Bristol. This terrible 'scourge of
God' first appeared about the middle of July and continued for three
months, prayer-meetings being held often, and for a time daily, to plead
for the removal of this visitation. Death stalked abroad, the knell of
funeral-bells almost constantly sounding, and much solemnity 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. Muller and Mr. Craik laboured,
but one died of this disease.
In the midst of all this gloom and sorrow of a fatal epidemic, a little
daughter was born to Mr. and Mrs. Muller September 17, 1832. About her
name, Lydia, sweet fragrance 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-born 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. Mullers unfeigned humility, and the docility that 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
frequent appeals to this class. From this time on, Mr. Muller'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. Muller 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 bloweth 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 who seeks to know what particular implement or
instrument 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 Timothy, is a very
peculiar one ([Transcriber's Note: Greek source text for the English
phrase quoted in the paragraph immediately above appears here]). It
seems to be nearly equivalent to the Latin phrase _recte 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 argument, and seek by God's help to find the shortest, straightest,
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 Baghdad 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 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. Muller'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 instrument 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 Muller'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 Muller'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. Muller
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; personally supervised the work for over
sixty years--twice as long a period as that of Francke's personal
management--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 enterprise 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 workman 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 Franeke's life and work naturally led this man who was
hungering for a wider usefulness 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 years old, the
inward flame began to find vent in a scheme which 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. Unburdening
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 out of this plan.
The work already pressing upon Mr. Muller 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. Mullers 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 unknown 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 received 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 year's 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 less, 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 which he had thus found true of the early years
of his life of trust were marked and magnified 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.
* Vol. I. 105.
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 Husbandman was to glorify
Himself by a product of His own husbandry in the soil of Bristol.
On February 20, 1834, George Muller was led of God to sow the seed of
what ultimately developed into a great means of good, known as "The
Scriptural Knowledge Institution, 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. Muller 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 should 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 extra-scriptural,
if not decidedly anti-scriptural, and these they felt constrained to
avoid.
For example, they felt that the _end proposed_ by such organizations,
namely, _the conversion of the world_ in this dispensation, was not
justified by the Word, which everywhere 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
unwarranted 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. Muller and Mr. Craik to
sustain a _wrong relation to the world_--mixed up with it, instead of
separate from it. Any one by paying 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 appealing for aid to
unconverted persons, asking for donations simply for money's sake and
without regard to the character of the donors or the manner in which the
money was obtained. The custom of _seeking 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 unspiritual 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 testimony to
believers, by calling attention to the objectionable methods already in
use and encouraging all God's true servants in adhering to the
principles and practices which He has sanctioned.
On March 5th at a public meeting a formal announcement of the intention
to found such an institution was accompanied by a full statement of its
purposes and principles,* in substance as follows:
* Appendix D. Journal I. 107-113.
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 portions, over the
widest possible territory.
3. To aid missionary efforts and assist labourers, in the Lord's
vineyard anywhere, who are working upon a biblical basis and looking
only to the Lord for support.
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. Muller'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 manifested. 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. xxvii. 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
foundation, 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. Muller 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 itself being one of George Mullers life-mottoes. Up to
this time the families of Mr. Muller 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. Muller gratefully recognized the
divine goodness which had thus helped him to start upon its career the
work with its several departments. Looking to the Lord alone for light
and help, he had laid the corner-stone of this "little institution"; and
in October, after only seven months' existence, it had already begun to
be established. In the Sunday-school there were one hundred and twenty
children; 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 prominence before the
mind and heart of Mr. Muller: it was the thought of _making 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 account of extreme poverty; and
this little incident set Mr. Muller 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 to himself, God had set
a seed in his soul, and was watching and watering it. The idea of a
definite orphan work had taken root within him, and, like any 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 instrument for Him to work with.
Nothing is more marked in George Muller, 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.
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 Mullers 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 Muller
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 full obedience and
single-eyed loyalty to his heavenly Master.
4. Then his _taking counsel of God._ Early in his Christian 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.
5. His humble and _childlike 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 dependence 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.
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 coworkers 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 usefulness; 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 simplicity 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 light of the
holy oracles he reviewed all customs, however ancient, and all
traditions of men, however popular, submitted all opinions and practices
to the test of Scripture, and then, regardless of consequences, walked
according to any new light 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.
18. His _stress upon voluntary offerings._ While he courageously gave up
all fixed salary for himself, he taught that all the work of God should
be maintained by the freewill gifts of believers, and that pew-rents
promote invidious distinctions among saints.
19. His _surrender of all earthly possessions._ Both himself 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 utterance and of service. He
could not brook any restraints upon his speech or action that might
compromise his allegiance to the Lord or his fidelity to man.
22. His _organizing of work._ 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 evangelization 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 with 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 Halle suggested similar work at Bristol.
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,
without a feeling of wonder and awe. Every prominent feature, afterward
to appear conspicuous in the career of this servant 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, taking 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 firmness, 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
conveying 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 Muller'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, while this
conviction 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
insufficiency. It grieved him that human eyes should ever turn away from
the 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. Muller'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
German 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 confessed to the
officer his non-compliance, excusing himself only on the ground of
ignorance, and trusted all consequences with God, who graciously
inclined the officer to pass over his non-compliance with the law.
Another hindrance which still interfered with obtaining his passport,
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, Wurtemberg, Sehaffhausen,
Stuttgart, Halle, Sandersleben, Aschersleben, Heimersleben, Halberstadt,
and Hamburg. At Halle, calling on Dr. Tholuck after 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 witness to them also. But he was
especially moved to pray that he might by his whole 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!"
On June 22, 1835, Mr. Muller'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. Muller were to have no son, and
Lydia was to remain their one and only child.
About the middle of the following month, Mr. Muller was quite disabled
from work by weakness of the chest, which made necessary rest and
change. The Lord tenderly provided for his need through those whose
hearts He touched, leading them to offer him and his wife hospitalities
in the Isle of Wight, 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 bear 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 Muller.
Franke's life stirred his heart to begin an orphan work, and Newton's
life suggested the narrative 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.
CHAPTER IX
THE GROWTH OF GOD'S OWN PLANT
THE last great step of full entrance upon Mr. Muller's life-service was
the _founding of the orphan work,_ 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 conviction 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 undertake. 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 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
discover 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 objections
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 guidance, that on December 2, 1835, the
_first formal step was taken_ in ordering printed bills announcing a
public meeting 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 lxxxi. 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 gift of money--one
shilling_--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. Muller his fiery darts, and
he was very low in spirit. He was taking a step not to be retraced
without 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 carefully and
prayerfully weighed before a decision. Excitement of emotion or
kindlings of enthusiasm might obscure the vision and hinder clear
apprehension of the mind of God. 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, 1836, a supplementary statement appeared.*
* Appendix E. Narrative 1:143-146, 148-152, 154, 155.
At every critical point Mr. Muller is entitled to explain 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 o
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