Pro mises > Excerpts From "George Mueller of Bristol" compiled by Katie Stewart Web WStS  powered by Google™

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GEORGE MUELLER was a man, who, during his 92 years of life, even though himself a poor man in material substance, knew how to have power with God to get answers to his prayers. And with that ability he set forth a praying example for all time, and for all the world to hear of, and testify to, the very fact that GOD TRULY ANSWERS PRAYER!

"O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt His Name together...
O Thou that HEAREST prayer, unto Thee shall all flesh come"
(Psalm 34:3, 65:2).

With this holy demonstration, he built 5 large orphan houses, housed over 10,000 orphans, a third of whom came to love the LORD, received almost 7 1/2 million dollars, over 50,000 specific answers to prayer spread over several branches of his ministry, including the support of hundreds of missionaries, Christian publishing and distribution, and supporting educational and religious schools for all ages. Also, when most men slow down in their "twilight" years, Mr. Mueller-- between the ages of seventy to eighty-seven-- began 17 years of missionary tours travelling over 200,000 miles, in 42 countries, spreading the Gospel to 3 million people. In his life he preached well over 10 thousand sermons and read the Bible over 200 times-- on his knees. And this very humble man accomplished this all-- by placing his TRUST IN GOD ALONE.

"Were we to lean upon man, we should surely be confounded; but, in leaning upon the living God alone, we are BEYOND disappointment, and BEYOND being forsaken because of death, or want of means, or want of love, or because of the claims of other work. How precious to have learned in any measure to stand with God alone in the world, and yet to be happy, and to know that surely no good thing shall be withheld from us whilst we walk uprightly!" --from Appendix N: "The Wise Sayings of George Mueller" ---New Window

He trusted God alone. "The LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him" (Deuteronomy 32:12).

"Only let it be trust in God, not in man, not in circumstances, not in any of your own exertions, but real trust in God, and you will be helped in your various necessities... Not in circumstances, not in natural prospects, not in former donors, but solely in God. This is just that which brings the blessing. If we say we trust in Him, but in reality do not, then God, taking us at our word, lets us see that we do not really confide in Him; and hence failure arises. On the other hand, if our trust in the Lord is real, help will surely come.

'According unto thy faith be it unto thee.'

It is a source of deep sorrow to me, that, notwithstanding my having so many times before referred to this point, thereby to encourage believers in the Lord Jesus, to roll all their cares upon God, and to trust in Him at all times, it is yet, by so many, put down to mere natural causes, that I am helped; as if the Living God were no more the Living God, and as if in former ages answers to prayer might have been expected, but that in the nineteenth century they must not be looked for." --from Appendix N: "The Wise Sayings of George Mueller" ---New Window

As Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) stated it:

"That the creature should have so absolute and universal a dependence on God, provision is made that God should have our whole souls, and should be the object of our undivided respect. If we had our dependence partly on God, and partly on something else, man's respect would be divided to those different things on which he had dependence. Thus it would be if we depended on God only for a part of our good, and on ourselves, or some other being, for another part: or if we had our good only from God, and through another that was not God, and in something else distinct from both, our hearts would be divided between the good itself, and him from whom, and him through whom, we received it. But now there is no occasion for this, God being not only he from or of whom we have all good, but also through whom, and is that good itself, that we have from him and through him. So that whatsoever there is to attract our respect, the tendency is still directly towards God; all unites in him as the centre." --from "GOD Glorified in Man's Dependence" ---New Window by Jonathan Edwards ---New Window

George Mueller was born in Kroppenstaedt, Prussia (Germany), on September 27, 1805. He died March 10, 1898, while residing in Orphan House No.3, in Bristol, England. He lived a total of 92 years, 5 months and 11 days before leaving to be with his Beloved LORD. "And even to your old age I Am He; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you" (Isaiah 46:4). Mr. Mueller was a humble man, quiet and carefully spoken, but he was a mighty prince among men when praying to the Omnipotent One.

"To sustain such burdens would have been quite impossible but for faith in such a God. In reply to oft-repeated remarks of visitors and observers who could not understand the secret of his peace, or how any man who had so many children to clothe and feed could carry such prostrating loads of care, he had one uniform reply:

'By the grace of God, this is no cause of anxiety to me. These children I have years ago cast upon the Lord. The whole work is His, and it becomes me to be without carefulness. In whatever points I am lacking, in this point I am able by the grace of God to roll the burden upon my heavenly Father.'

In tens of thousands of cases this peculiar title of God, ['A FATHER OF THE FATHERLESS' [[Psalm Ixviii.5.]]] chosen by Himself and by Himself declared, became to Mr. Mueller a peculiar revelation of God, suited to his special need. The natural inferences drawn from such a title became powerful arguments in prayer, and rebukes to all unbelief. Thus, at the outset of his work for the orphans, the word of God put beneath his feet a rock basis of confidence that he could trust the almighty Father to support the work. And, as the solicitudes of the work came more and more heavily upon him, he cast the loads he could not carry upon Him who, before George Mueller was born, was the Father of the fatherless." --from chapter 10: "The Word of God and Prayer" ---New Window

"Was it not goodness and mercy that kept George Mueller ever grateful as well as faithful! He did not more constantly feel his need of faith and prayer than his duty and privilege of abounding joy and praise. Some might think that, after such experiences of answered prayer, one would be less and less moved by them, as the novelty was lost in the uniformity of such interpositions. But no. When, in June, 1853, at a time of sore need, the Lord sent, in one sum, three hundred pounds, he could scarcely contain his triumphant joy in God. He walked up and down his room for a long time, his heart overflowing and his eyes too, his mouth filled with laughter and his voice with song, while he gave himself afresh to the faithful Master he served. God's blessings were to him always new and fresh. Answered prayers never lost the charm of novelty; like flowers plucked fresh every hour from the gardens of God, they never got stale, losing none of their beauty or celestial fragrance." --from chapter 15: "The Manifold Grace of God" ---New Window

The strength and power that streamed down upon this kneeling man came from God alone.

"Mr. Mueller gratefully records...'For above fifty years I have now walked, by His grace, in a path of complete reliance upon Him who is the faithful one, for everything I have needed; and yet I am increasingly convinced that it is by His help alone I am enabled to continue in this course; for, if left to myself, even after the precious enjoyment so long experienced of walking thus in fellowship with God, I should yet be tempted to abandon this path of entire dependence upon Him. To His praise, however, I am able to state that for more than half a century I have never had the least desire to do so.'" --from chapter 18: "Faith and Patience in Serving" ---New Window

And it was to God alone that Mueller gave himself. "We ought to obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29).

"I could not conscientiously submit to being ordained by unconverted men, professing to have power to set me apart for the ministry, or to communicate something to me for this work which they do not possess themselves. Besides this, I had other objections to being connected with any state church or national religious establishment, which arose from the increased light which I had obtained through the reception of this truth, that the word of God is our only standard, and the Holy Spirit our only teacher. For as I now began to compare what I knew of the establishment in England and those on the Continent with this only true standard, the word of God, I found that all establishments, even because they are establishments, i.e., the world and the church mixed up together, not only contain in them the principles which necessarily must lead to departure from the word of God; but also, as long as they remain establishments, entirely preclude the acting throughout according to the Holy Scriptures." --from Appendix C: "Separation From the London Society for Promoting Christianity Among the Jews" ---New Window

"As regards borrowing money, I have considered that there is no ground to go away from the door of the Lord to that of a believer, so long as He is willing to supply our need." --from Appendix N: "The Wise Sayings of George Mueller" ---New Window

To assure that the LORD alone receives the Glory, and not men, God omnisciently calls His servants to their work with the Wisdom of His Own Word. "26 For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: 27 but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; 28 and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: 29 that NO FLESH SHOULD GLORY in His Presence. 30 But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, Who of God is made unto us Wisdom, and Righteousness, and Sanctification, and Redemption: 31 that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him GLORY IN THE LORD" (1Corinthians 1:26-31).

"As early as May, 1846, a letter from a brother contained the following paragraph:

'With regard to property, I do not see my way clearly. I trust it is all indeed at the disposal of the Lord; and if you would let me know of any need of it in His service, any sum under two hundred pounds shall be at your disposal at about a week's notice.'

The need at that time was great. How easy and natural to write back that the orphan work was then in want of help, and that, as Mr. Mueller was just going away from Bristol for rest, it would be a special comfort if his correspondent would send on, say a hundred and ninety pounds or so! But to deal with the Lord alone in the whole matter seemed so indispensable, both for the strengthening of his own faith and for the effectiveness of his testimony to the church and the world, that at once this temptation was seen to be a snare, and he replied that only to the Lord could the need of any part of the work be confided." --from chapter 22: "A Glance at the Gifts and the Givers" ---New Window

"In every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God" (Philippians 4:6).

Mr. Mueller's character and life, in the estimation of a self-seeking world, was certainly "foolish" in caring for the unwanted poor and helpless children that they had cast off. And the world certainly considered him "weak" in that he didn't align himself with the power players that the flesh could offer. And that the world would think George Mueller to be "base" and "despised" is absolutely sure, because this man didn't want to bring honour and praise to himself. He wanted only the Person of the LORD recognized by all that drew near. "O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt His Name together" (Psalm 34:3). And when you purpose to honour God, the LORD says, "them that honour Me I will honour" (1Samuel 2:30). And with God's honour comes the world's disrespect, because Jesus said, "ye shall be hated of all men for My Name's sake" (Matthew 10:22), "for every one that doeth evil hateth the Light, neither cometh to the Light, lest his deeds should be reproved" (John 3:20). As Mr. Mueller said himself, of the LORD, that

"He led me, in a measure, to see what is my true glory in this world, even to be despised, and to be poor and mean with Christ. I saw then, in a measure, though I have seen it more fully since, that it ill becomes the servant to seek to be rich, and great, and honoured in that world where his Lord was poor, and mean, and despised." --from Appendix B: "Apprehension of Truth" ---New Window

But wishing ONLY to "Glory in the LORD", Mr. Mueller was the perfect choice of God as a humble servant.

"To be well known, Mr. Mueller needed to be known in his daily, simple, home life. It was my privilege to meet him often, and in his own apartment at Orphan House No. 3. His room was of medium size, neatly but plainly furnished, with table and chairs, lounge and writing-desk, etc. His Bible almost always lay open, as a book to which he continually resorted.

His form was tall and slim, always neatly attired, and very erect, and his step firm and strong. His countenance in repose, might have been thought stern, but for the smile which so habitually lit up his eyes and played over his features that it left its impress on the lines of his face. His manner was one of simple courtesy and unstudied dignity: no one would in his presence, have felt like vain trifling, and there was about him a certain indescribable air of authority and majesty that reminded one of a born prince; and yet there was mingled with all this a simplicity so childlike that even children felt themselves at home with him. In his speech, he never quite lost that peculiar foreign quality, known as accent, and he always spoke with slow and measured articulation, as though a double watch were set at the door of his lips. With him that unruly member, the tongue, was tamed by the Holy Spirit, and he had that mark of what James calls a

'perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body.'" --from chapter 24: "Last Looks, Backward and Forward" ---New Window

George Mueller married Mary Groves, October 7, 1830, at St. David's Church in Exeter, God thus providing him with "an help meet for him" (Genesis 2:18) in his labours. The Mueller's were to raise only one child of their own.

"On September 17, 1832, his first child, Lydia, was born.... On March 19, 1834, a son, Elijah, was born but he died the next year, June 25, 1835, from pneumonia, leaving the Mueller's with only one child, Lydia." --from the "Christian Hall of Fame Series" (No.23) by Ed Reese

They grieved submissively when the LORD also allowed them to suffer a stillborn child. But the "Father of the Fatherless" (Psalm 68:5) had a different calling for this husband and wife, than to raise a large family of their own. Their strength and resources would be needed by other children, as they had been Providentially chosen to parent thousands of youngsters that no one else wanted. "In the daytime also He led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire" (Psalm 78:14).

"Friends who asked that they might know whether the gifts had come at a particularly opportune time were referred to the next Report for answer. To acknowledge that the help came very seasonably would be an indirect revelation of need, and might be construed into an indirect appeal for more aid-- as help that was peculiarly timed would soon be exhausted. And so this man of God consistently avoided any such disclosure of an exigency, lest his chief object should be hindered, namely,

'to show how blessed it is to deal with God alone, and to trust Him in the darkest moments.'

And though the need was continual, and one demand was no sooner met than another arose, he did not find this a trying life nor did he ever tire of it." --from chapter 22: "A Glance at the Gifts and the Givers" ---New Window

"11 THINE, O LORD,
is the Greatness, and the Power, and the Glory, and the Victory, and the Majesty: for ALL that is in the Heaven and in the Earth is Thine; Thine is the Kingdom, O LORD, and Thou art exalted as HEAD ABOVE ALL. 12 Both riches and honour come of Thee, and Thou reignest over ALL; and in THINE HAND is Power and Might; and in THINE HAND it is to make great, and to give strength unto ALL. 13 Now therefore, our God, we thank Thee, and praise Thy Glorious Name.

14 But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort?
for ALL THINGS COME OF THEE, and of THINE OWN have we given Thee"
(1Chronicles 29:11-14).

Only An Instrument

"6 He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully [as, for our example, Mr. George Mueller] shall reap also bountifully.

7 Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God LOVETH a cheerful giver [such as anyone who lives as did George Mueller].

8 And GOD is able to make ALL GRACE abound toward you [as He did towards George Mueller]; that ye, [like he] ALWAYS having ALL sufficiency in ALL things, may abound to EVERY GOOD WORK:

9 as it is written, HE [to Whom George Mueller continually ascribed ALL recognition] hath dispersed abroad; HE hath given to the poor: HIS Righteousness remaineth for ever" (2Corinthians 9:6-9).

George Mueller purposed himself, as Wisdom from God's Word had taught him, to be only an instrument in God's Hand. "Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work" (Isaiah 54:16).

"In an American city, a half-idiotic boy who was bearing a heavy burden asked a drayman, who was driving an empty cart, for a ride. Being permitted, he mounted the cart with his basket, but thinking he might so relieve the horse a little, while still himself riding, lifted his load and carried it. We laugh at the simplicity of the idiotic lad, and yet how often we are guilty of similar folly! We profess to cast ourselves and our cares upon the Lord, and then persist in bearing our own burdens, as if we felt that He would be unequal to the task of sustaining us and our loads. It is a most wholesome lesson for Christian workers to learn that all true work is primarily the Lord's, and only secondarily ours, and that therefore all 'carefulness' on our part is distrust of Him, implying a sinful self-conceit which overlooks the fact that He is the one Worker and all others are only His instruments." --from chapter 18: "Faith and Patience in Serving" ---New Window

Of the great work that was nurtured in his heart, he wanted his onlookers (those of us who are witnesses-- either then in person, or now from long distances of space and time) to know that his visible fruit wasn't created with the hands that are seen, but with the Unseen Hands of God. "For the invisible things of Him from the creation... are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made so that they are without excuse" (Romans 1:20). George Mueller had "by faith... endured, as seeing Him Who is Invisible" (Hebrews 11:27), for he saw Jesus Christ revealed in the Scriptures that he loved, and he wanted all of us to know the LORD as he knew Him, i.e., "My God shall supply ALL your need according to His riches in Glory by Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19). "Bands of love" (Hosea 11:4) for his Priceless Provider, together "with lovingkindness" (Jeremiah 31:3) for his fellow man provoked this tender servant "unto love and to good works" (Hebrews 10:24) in accomplishing one supreme goal.

"That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together,
that the Hand of the LORD hath done this"
(Isaiah 41:20).

Mr. Mueller repeatedly insisted to all that cast a glance in his direction, that he was only and ever simply an instrument in the Hand of the "Divine Master Workman" of Heaven, a wise appellation designated to our LORD by Mr. Pierson.

"Who, amid all changes of human administration, ever remains the divine Master Workman, never at a loss for His own chosen instruments." --from chapter 20: "The Summary of the Life-Work" ---New Window

With fervent resolve, Mueller would be an "instrument" to be used, used completely, hoping to cause men to beautify in praise the perfect harmony of God's composing in the hearts and lives of men. "Praise the LORD with harp: sing unto Him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings... I will sing a new song unto Thee, O God: upon a psaltery and an instrument of ten strings will I sing praises unto Thee" (Psalm 33:2, 144:9). Mr. Pierson points out,

"The humility Mr. Mueller enjoined he practised. He was ever only the servant of the Lord. Mr. Spurgeon, in one of his sermons, describes the startling effect on London Bridge when he saw one lamp after another lit up with flame, though in the darkness he could not see the lamplighter; and George Mueller set many a light burning when he was himself content to be unseen, unnoticed, and unknown. He honestly sought not his own glory, but had the meek and quiet spirit so becoming a minister of Jesus Christ." --from chapter 21: "The Church Life and Growth" ---New Window

George Mueller stayed in the background as the humble servant of the LORD Jesus Christ, who wanted nothing more in his life than to magnify his God. "I will praise the Name of God with a song, and will magnify Him with thanksgiving" (Psalm 69:30). His own life (i.e., his goals, his dreams, his passions) had value only in what glory he could direct towards Heaven and in what good he could bestow on Earth. "Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven: and come and follow Me" (Matthew 19:21).

"His own personal income varied around $12,000 a year, of which he kept for himself $1,800 giving the rest away." --from the "Christian Hall of Fame Series" (No.23) by Ed Reese

In 1876, a book of Mr. Mueller's sermons was published which also contained his picture and signature. His deep desire to keep the LORD Jehovah Jireh (literally, the LORD will Provide [Genesis 22:14]) in the forefront of everyone's minds and hearts prompted him to respond with the following:

"During the last thirty years I have been asked both verbally and in writing for my likeness, but my reply has invariably been

'As I do not wish to direct attention to myself but to my Lord and Master, I must decline to comply with your request.'

Twenty years ago I was offered 500 pounds sterling if I would allow it to be published, but the offer was declined for the reason already given." --George Mueller

Mr. Pierson reveals the opinion of Mr. James Wright (Mr. Mueller's son-in-law, and successor in the orphan work) with similar fashion concerning Mueller's desire to remain in the background-- giving God the foreground-- Mr. Pierson writes:

"Mr. Mueller's own gifts to the service of the Lord find in this posthumous report their first full record and recognition. Readers of the Annual Reports must have noticed an entry, recurring with strange frequency during all these thirty or forty years, and therefore suggesting a giver that must have reached a very ripe age:

'from a servant of the Lord Jesus, who, constrained by the love of Christ, seeks to lay up treasure in heaven.'

If that entry be carefully followed throughout and there be added the personal gifts made by Mr. Mueller to various benevolent objects, it will be found that the aggregate sum from this 'servant' reaches, up to March 1, 1898, a total of eighty-one thousand four hundred and ninety pounds eighteen shillings and eightpence. Mr. Wright, now that this 'servant of the Lord Jesus' is with his Master, who promised,

'Where I am there shall also My servant be,'

feels free to make known that this donor was no other than George Mueller himself who thus gave out of his own money-- money given to him for his own use or left to him by legacies-- the total sum of about sixty-four thousand five hundred pounds to the Scriptural Knowledge Institution, and, in other directions, seventeen thousand more. This is a record of personal gifts to which we know no parallel." --from chapter 20: "The Summary of the Life-Work" ---New Window

There was but one thing foremost in the mind of George Mueller, and that he continually tried to keep foremost in the minds of others, "Let the BEAUTY OF THE LORD OUR GOD be UPON US: and establish Thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish Thou it" (Psalm 90:17). "One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after... to behold the Beauty of THE LORD, and to inquire in HIS Temple" (Psalm 27:4).

"Two things are here plainly put before us:

first, that Elijah was but a man, of like nature with other men and subject to all human frailties and infirmities;

and secondly, that this man was such a power because he was a man of prayer: he prayed earnestly; literally 'he prayed with prayer'; prayed habitually and importunately." --from chapter 24: "Last Looks, Backward and Forward" ---New Window

His Faith Justified by God

"George Mueller cultivated faith. He used to say to his helpers in prayer and service,

'Never let enter your minds a shadow of doubt as to the love of the Father's heart or the power of the Father's arm.'" --from chapter 19: "At Evening-Time-- Light" ---New Window

Mr. Mueller's witness of God was "O Thou that HEAREST prayer, unto Thee shall all flesh come" (Psalm 65:2). God's witness of Mr. Mueller was one of justification. He was justified in believing that God answers prayer. The LORD continually upheld His servant, and before all the world, honoured Mr. Mueller with His favour and attention by answering him when he prayed. "Wisdom is justified of all her children" (Luke 7:35). And Jehovah Jireh had so magnificently exhibited Himself in these answered prayers that Mr. Mueller confidently

"felt his compensation to be both constant and abundant, and his journal, from time to time, glows with his fervent thanksgivings." --from chapter 23: "God's Witness to the Work" ---New Window

"'I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me.'

That is faith in its simplest exercise and it was George Mueller's faith. He found the word of the Lord in His blessed Book, a new word of promise for each new crisis of trial or need; he put his finger upon the very text and then looked up to God and said:

'Thou hast spoken. I believe.'

Persuaded of God's unfailing truth, he rested in His word with unwavering faith, and consequently he was at peace." --from chapter 24: "Last Looks, Backward and Forward" ---New Window

A. T. Pierson chronicled George Mueller's life of faith. He writes:

"By faith 'the elders obtained a good report,' that is, they had witness borne to them by God in return for witness borne to Him. All the marked examples of faith here recorded show this twofold testimony. Abel testified to his faith in God's Atoning Lamb, and God testified to his gifts. Enoch witnessed to the unseen God by his holy walk with Him, and He testified to Enoch, by his translation, and even before it, that he pleased God. Noah's faith bore witness to God's word, by building the ark and preaching righteousness, and God bore witness to him by bringing a flood upon a world of the ungodly and saving him and his family in the ark.

George Mueller's life was one long witness to the prayer-hearing God; and, throughout, God bore him witness that his prayers were heard and his work accepted. The pages of his journal are full of striking examples of this witness-- the earnest or foretaste of the fuller recompense of reward reserved for the Lord's coming." --from chapter 23: "God's Witness to the Work" ---New Window

His work for God was "accepted." "As a prince" had he "power with God" and "prevailed" (Genesis 32:28).

"It is the very time for faith to work, when sight ceases. The greater the difficulties, the easier for faith. As long as there remain certain natural prospects, faith does not get on even as easily (if I may say so), as when all natural prospects fail... The Lord gives faith, for the very purpose of trying it for the glory of His own name, and for the good of him who has it; and, by the very trial of our faith, we not only obtain blessing to our own souls, by becoming the better acquainted with God, if we hold fast our confidence in Him, but our faith is also, by the exercise, strengthened: and so it comes, that, if we walk with God in any measure of uprightness of heart, the trials of faith will be greater and greater. It is for the church's benefit that we are put in these straits; and if, therefore, in the hour of need, we were to take goods on credit, the first and primary object of the work would be completely frustrated, and no heart would be further strengthened to trust in God, nor would there be any longer that manifestation of the special and particular providence of God, which has hitherto been so abundantly shown through this work, even in the eyes of unbelievers, whereby they have been led to see that there is, after all, reality in the things of God, and many, through these printed accounts, have been truly converted... we purpose, as God shall give grace, to look to Him only, though morning after morning we should have nothing in hand for the work-- yea, though from meal to meal we should have to look to Him; being fully assured that He who is now (1845) in the tenth year feeding these many orphans, and who has never suffered them to want, and that He who is now (1845) in the twelfth year carrying on the other parts of the work, without any branch of it having had to be stopped for want of means, will do so for the future also.

And here I do desire in the deep consciousness of my natural helplessness and dependence upon the Lord to confess that through the grace of God my soul has been in peace, though day after day we have had to wait for our daily provisions upon the Lord; yea, though even from meal to meal we have been required to do this." --from Appendix N: "The Wise Sayings of George Mueller" ---New Window

"Every day brought new demands for continuance in prayer. In fact, as Mr. Mueller testifies, the only difference between latter and former days was that the difficulties were greater in proportion as the work was larger. But he adds that this was to be expected, for the Lord gives faith for the very purpose of trying it for the glory of His own name and the good of him who has the faith, and it is by these very trials that trust learns the secret of its triumphs." --from chapter 15: "The Manifold Grace of God" ---New Window

There were plenty of opportunities for the LORD to try the faith of His servant, and "the greater the difficulties, the easier for faith" to be tried, "for with God nothing shall be impossible" (Luke 1:37).

"One morning the plates and cups and bowls on the table were empty. There was no food in the larder, and no money to buy food. The children were standing waiting for their morning meal, when Mueller said,

'Children, you know we must be in time for school.'

Lifting his hand he said,

'Dear Father, we thank Thee for what Thou art going to give us to eat.'

There was a knock on the door. The baker stood there, and said,

'Mr. Mueller, I couldn't sleep last night. Somehow I felt you didn't have bread for breakfast and the Lord wanted me to send you some. So I got up at 2 a.m. and baked some fresh bread, and have brought it.'

Mueller thanked the man. No sooner had this transpired when there was a second knock at the door. It was the milkman. He announced that his milk cart had broken down right in front of the Orphanage, and he would like to give the children his cans of fresh milk so he could empty his wagon and repair it. No wonder, years later, when Mueller was to travel the world as an evangelist, he would be heralded as

'the man who gets things from God!'" --from the "Christian Hall of Fame Series" (No.23) by Ed Reese

Being a faithful servant, George Mueller did fulfill the deepest wish of his heart and bear witness to an unbelieving world and a disbelieving church, that God is Faithful. "For the LORD God is a Sun and Shield: the LORD will give Grace and Glory: no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly" (Psalm 84:11). He, by offering himself "a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God" (Romans 12:1), could then in turn, provide the LORD with a grand opportunity to magnify Himself to His people.

"A testimony to the faithfulness of God.

This great object Mr. Mueller always kept foremost, hoping and praying that, by such records and revelations of God's fidelity to His promises, and of the manner in which He met each new need, his servant might awaken, quicken, and stimulate faith in Him as the Living God. One has only to read these reports to see the conspicuous absence of any appeal for human aid, or of any attempt to excite pity, sympathy and compassion toward the orphans. The burden of every report is to induce the reader to venture wholly upon God, to taste and see that the Lord is good, and find for himself how blessed are all they that put their trust in Him. Only in the light of this supreme purpose can these records of a life of faith be read intelligently and intelligibly." --from chapter 11: "Trials of Faith, and Helpers to Faith" ---New Window

As "it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13), in the same way, He worked in George Mueller. His servant loved Him "with all [his] heart, and with all [his] soul, and with all [his] mind" (Matthew 22:37), and with a true servant's heart, Mr. Mueller desired earnestly to "love [his] neighbour as [himself]" (22:39). He did "bear... one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ" (Galatians 6:2).

"I HAD constantly cases brought before me which proved that one of the especial things which the children of God needed in our day was to have their faith strengthened. For instance: I might visit a brother who worked fourteen or even sixteen hours a day at his trade, the necessary result of which was that not only his body suffered, but his soul was lean, and he had no enjoyment in the things of God. Under such circumstances I might point out to him that he ought to work less, in order that his bodily health might not suffer, and that he might gather strength for his inner man by reading the word of God, or by meditation over it, and by prayer. The reply, however, I generally found to be something like this:

'But if I work less, I do not earn enough for the support of my family. Even now, whilst I work so much, I have scarcely enough. The wages are so low, that I must work hard in order to obtain what I need.'

There was no trust in God. No real belief in the truth of that word:

'Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness:
and all these things shall be added unto you.'

I might reply something like this:

'My dear brother, it is not your work which supports your family, but the Lord; and He who has fed you and your family when you could not work at all, on account of illness, would surely provide for you and yours if, for the sake of obtaining food for your inner man, you were to work only for so many hours a day as would allow you proper time for retirement. And is it not the case now, that you begin the work of the day after having had only a few hurried moments for prayer and when you leave off your work in the evening, and mean then to read a little of the word of God, are you not too much worn out in body and mind to enjoy it, and do you not often fall asleep whilst reading the Scriptures or whilst on your knees in prayer?'

The brother would allow it was so; he would allow that my advice was good but still I read in his countenance, even if he should not have actually said so,

'How should I get on if I were to carry out your advice?'

I longed, therefore, to have something to point the brother to, as a visible proof that our God and Father is the same faithful God as ever He was; as willing as ever to PROVE Himself to be the LIVING GOD, in our day as formerly, to all who put their trust in Him." --from Appendix E: "Reasons Which Led Mr. Mueller to Establish An Orphan House" ---New Window

"O fear the LORD, ye His saints:
for there is no want to them that fear Him...
they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing"
(Psalm 34:9-10).

On the streets of Bristol, for 2-3 years before the orphanages were even "substance" by faith (Hebrews 11:1), Mr. Mueller had seen the destitute waifs throughout the city. He desired to do something substantial for them, but couldn't see his way clear as to how to go about it. But when the vision came, and when the LORD's plan began to form in His servant's heart and mind, many lost and unwanted children were soon to be saved. "Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the Law, happy is he" (Proverbs 29:18). God's Law of Love for these children was at work in George Mueller, for as the vision formed he decided that

"the chief and the special end of the Institution will be to seek, with God's blessing, to bring them to the knowledge of Jesus Christ by instructing them in the Scriptures." --from Appendix E: "Reasons Which Led Mr. Mueller to Establish An Orphan House" ---New Window

"Produce your cause, saith the LORD;
bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob"
(Isaiah 41:21).

Mueller's strong reasons were emboldened with a strong faith that came by exercising it with "reason of use" (Hebrews 5:14). His faith was constantly being tried in the kiln of his Faithful Master Potter. "That the TRIAL of your faith, BEING MUCH MORE PRECIOUS than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto Praise and Honour and Glory at the Appearing of Jesus Christ" (1Peter 1:7).

"I met at a brother's house with several believers, when a sister said that she had often thought about the care and burden I must have on my mind, as it regards obtaining the necessary supplies for so many persons. As this may not be a solitary instance, I would state that, by the grace of God, this is no cause of anxiety to me. The children I have years ago cast upon the Lord. The whole work is His, and it becomes me to be without carefulness. In whatever points I am lacking, in this point I am able by the grace of God, to roll the burden upon my heavenly Father. Though now (July 1845) for about seven years our funds have been so exhausted, that it has been comparatively a rare case that there have been means in hand to meet the necessities of the orphans for three days together; yet have I been only once tried in spirit, and that was on Sept. 18, 1838, when for the first time the Lord seemed not to regard our prayer. But when He did send help at that time, and I saw that it was only for the trial of our faith, and not because He had forsaken the work that we were brought so low, my soul was so strengthened and encouraged, that I have not only not been allowed to distrust the Lord since that time, but I have not even been cast down when in the deepest poverty. Nevertheless, in this respect also am I now, as much as ever, dependent on the Lord; and I earnestly beseech for myself and my fellow-labourers the prayers of all those, to whom the glory of God is dear. How great would be the dishonour to the name of God, if we, who have so publicly made our boast in Him, should so fall as to act in these very points as the world does! Help us, then, brethren, with your prayers, that we may trust in God to the end. We can expect nothing but that our faith will yet be tried, and it may be more than ever; and we shall fall, if the Lord does not uphold us." --from Appendix N: "The Wise Sayings of George Mueller" ---New Window

• (1Corinthians 3:13) "Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is."
  
  
• (James 1:3) "Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience."
  
  
• (Romans 2:7) "To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality, Eternal Life."
  
  
• (1Peter 1:13, 4:13) "Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and HOPE to the end for the Grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ... But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when His Glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy."

Strong faith in God bears fruit that is "known and read of all men" (2Corinthians 3:2).

"His influence touched the lives of thousands, perhaps the most notable, that of J. Hudson Taylor. His most moving reunion with an orphan was on October 19, 1878 when a 71 year old widow met him, she had been his first orphan over 57 years previously. 10,023 other orphans were to follow her there and have 'Daddy' Mueller rear them. Mueller read the Bible through over 200 times, half of these times, on his knees. He said he knew of some 50,000 specific answers to prayer requests to God alone! Over 3,000 of his orphans were won to Christ through his ministry by the Holy Spirit." --from the "Christian Hall of Fame Series" (No.23) by Ed Reese

God justified the trust that His servant deposited with Him. "I have declared, and have saved, and I have showed... therefore ye are My witnesses, saith the LORD, that I Am God" (Isaiah 43:12).

"From 1848 to 1874, money came in to improve and expand the work which went from 130 orphans to 2,050 during this time and up to 13 acres. Mueller describes these days, writing in 1874:

'But God, our infinitely rich Treasurer, remains with us. It is this which gives me peace. Moreover if it pleases Him, with a work requiring about $264,000 a year would I gladly pass through all these trials of faith with regard to means, if He only might be gloried, and His Church and the world benefited. I have placed myself in the position of having no means at all left; and 2,100 persons, not only daily at the table, but with everything else to be provided for, and all the funds gone; 189 missionaries to be assisted, and nothing whatever left; about one hundred schools with 9,000 scholars in them, to be entirely supported, and no means for them in hand; about four million tracts and tens of thousands of copies of the Holy Scriptures yearly now to be sent out, and all the money expended. I commit the whole work to Him, and He will provide me with what I need, in future also, though I know not whence the means are to come.'" --from the "Christian Hall of Fame Series" (No.23) by Ed Reese

"Whom He called, them He also justified:
and whom He justified, them He also glorified"
(Romans 8:30).

His Secret

"To summarize Mr. Mueller's service we must understand his great secret. Such a life and such a work are the result of one habit more than all else,-- daily and frequent communion with God. Unwearied in supplications and intercessions, we have seen how, in every new need and crisis, prayer was the one resort, the prayer of faith.

He first satisfied himself that he was in the way of duty;

then he fixed his mind upon the unchanging word of promise;

then, in the boldness of a suppliant who comes to a throne of grace in the name of Jesus Christ and pleads the assurance of the immutable Promiser, he presented every petition." --from chapter 20: "The Summary of the Life-Work" ---New Window

"For who hath known the Mind of the LORD, that he may instruct Him? [No one teaches God.] But we have the Mind of Christ [But God teaches us.]" (1Corinthians 2:16). George Mueller's secrets with God were no secrets at all to anyone who spends much time with God in His Word. "Thy Words were found, and I did eat them; and Thy Word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by Thy Name, O LORD God of Hosts" (Jeremiah 15:16). For the mind of the LORD is shared with any child of His who comes seeking to know Him. "The Secret of the LORD is with them that fear Him; and He will show them His Covenant" (Psalm 25:14). "That I may know Him, and the Power of His Resurrection, and the Fellowship of His Sufferings, being made conformable unto His Death" (Philippians 3:10).

"To one who asked him the secret of his service he said:

'There was a day when I died, utterly died;'

and, as he spoke, he bent lower and lower until he almost touched the floor--

'died to George Mueller, his opinions, preferences, tastes and will-- died to the world, its approval or censure-- died to the approval or blame even of my brethren and friends-- and since then I have studied only to show myself 'approved unto God.'" --from chapter 24: "Last Looks, Backward and Forward" ---New Window

You cannot live to self and be "approved unto God" (2Timothy 2:15) at the same time. "No man can serve two masters" (Matthew 6:24).

"This way of living has often been the means of reviving the work of grace in my heart, when I have been getting cold; and it also has been the means of bringing me back again to the Lord, after I have been backsliding. For it will not do,-- it is not possible, to live in sin, and at the same time, by communion with God, to draw down from heaven everything one needs for the life that now is... Answer to prayer, obtained in this way, has been the means of quickening my soul, and filling me with much joy." --from Appendix N: "The Wise Sayings of George Mueller" ---New Window

As a Christian, life's giant maze becomes the LORD's Grand Occasion, "wherein He hath abounded toward us in all Wisdom and Prudence; having made known unto us the Mystery of His Will, according to His Good Pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself" (Ephesians 1:8-9). Mr. Mueller shares with us the LORD's "secrets" on prayer. "It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter" (Proverbs 25:2) for, "His Secret is with the righteous" (Proverbs 3:32).

CONDITIONS OF PRAYER.

"Go for yourself, with all your temporal and spiritual wants, to the Lord. Bring also the necessities of your friends and relatives to the Lord. Only make the trial, and you will perceive how able and willing He is to help you. Should you, however, not at once obtain answers to your prayers, be not discouraged; but continue patiently, believingly, perseveringly to wait upon God: and as assuredly as that which you ask would be for your real good, and therefore for the honour of the Lord; and as assuredly as you ask it solely on the ground of the worthiness of our Lord Jesus, so assuredly you will at last obtain the blessing. I myself have had to wait upon God concerning certain matters for years, before I obtained answers to my prayers; but at last they came. At this very time, I have still to renew my requests daily before God, respecting a certain blessing for which I have besought Him for eleven years and a half, and which I have as yet obtained only in part, but concerning which I have no doubt that the full blessing will be granted in the end...

The great point is, that we ask only for that which it would be for the glory of God to give to us; for that, and that alone, can be for our real good. But it is not enough that the thing for which we ask God be for His honour and glory, but we must

secondly ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus, viz., expect it only on the ground of His merits and worthiness.

Thirdly, we should believe that God is able and willing to give us what we ask Him for.

Fourthly, we should continue in prayer till the blessing is granted; without fixing to God a time when, or the circumstances under which, He should give the answer. Patience should be in exercise, in connection with our prayer.

Fifthly, we should, at the same time, look out for and expect an answer till it comes. If we pray in this way, we shall not only have answers, thousands of answers to our prayers; but our own souls will be greatly refreshed and invigorated in connection with these answers.

...Suppose we are believers in the Lord Jesus, and make our requests unto God, depending alone on the Lord Jesus as the ground of having them granted; suppose, also, that, so far as we are able honestly and uprightly to judge, the obtaining of our requests would be for our real spiritual good and for the honour of God; we yet need, lastly, to continue in prayer, until the blessing is granted unto us." --from Appendix N: "The Wise Sayings of George Mueller" ---New Window

"It is given unto you to know the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven" (Matthew 13:11).The dominion enjoyed in Heaven is the remedy for problems here below. "Thy Will be done in Earth, as it is in Heaven" (Matthew 6:10).

FAITH, PRAYER, AND THE WORD OF GOD.

"Prayer and faith, the universal remedies against every want and every difficulty; and the nourishment of prayer and faith, God's holy word, helped me over all the difficulties.--

I never remember, in all my Christian course, a period now (in March 1895) of sixty-nine years and four months, that I ever SINCERELY and PATIENTLY sought to know the will of God by the teaching of the Holy Ghost, through the instrumentality of the word of God, but I have been ALWAYS directed rightly. But if honesty of heart and uprightness before God were lacking, or if I did not patiently wait upon God for instruction, or if I preferred the counsel of my fellow men to the declarations of the word of the living God, I made great mistakes." --from Appendix N: "The Wise Sayings of George Mueller" ---New Window

Mr. Mueller was a special man, only in the respect, that he actually did pray the way that all Christians should pray. "Jesus answered and said... If ye have faith, and doubt not... ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done" (Matthew 21:21). Not praying the form prayers of Laodiceans, in "vain repetitions" (Matthew 6:7), or in "regard[ing] iniquity" (Psalm 66:18), but as upright Christians in honest obedience. "If any man will do His Will, he shall know of the doctrine" (John 7:17).

"Everything that is a mere form, a mere habit and custom in divine things, is to be dreaded exceedingly: life, power, reality, this is what we have to aim after. Things should not result from without, but from within. The sort of clothes I wear, the kind of house I live in, the quality of the furniture I use, all such like things should not result from other persons doing so and so, or because it is customary among those brethren with whom I associate to live in such and such a simple, inexpensive self-denying way; but whatever be done in these things, in the way of giving up, or self-denial, or deadness to the world, should result from the joy we have in God, from the knowledge of our being the children of God, from the entering into the preciousness of our future inheritance, etc. Far better that for the time being we stand still, and do not take the steps which we see others take, than that it is merely the force of example that leads us to do a thing, and afterwards it be regretted. Not that I mean in the least this to imply we should continue to live in luxury, self-indulgence, and the like, whilst others are in great need; but we should begin the thing in a right way, i.e., aim after the right state of heart; begin inwardly instead of outwardly. If otherwise, it will not last. We shall look back, or even get into a worse state than we were before. But oh, how different if joy in God leads us to any little act of self-denial. How gladly do we do it then! How great an honour then do we esteem it to be! How much does the heart then long to be able to do more for Him who has done so much for us!" --from Appendix N: "The Wise Sayings of George Mueller" ---New Window

Mr. Pierson points us to the spiritual strengths of this humble prayer warrior, the attributes which exemplify Jesus Christ and are wrought in us by the Holy Spirit. "The LORD is my Strength and my Shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped" (Psalm 28:7). All Christians can pray like prayer warriors because all Christians should exemplify Jesus Christ and have "the Exceeding Greatness of His Power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of His Mighty Power" (Ephesians 1:19).

"Three qualities or characteristics stand out very conspicuous in him truth, faith, and love. Our Lord frequently taught His disciples that the childlike spirit is the soul of discipleship, and in the ideal child these three traits are central.

Truth is one centre, about which revolve childlike frankness and sincerity, genuineness and simplicity.

Faith is another, about which revolve confidence and trust, docility and humility.

Love is another centre, around which gather unselfishness and generosity, gentleness and restfulness of spirit.

In the typical or perfect child, therefore, all these beautiful qualities would coexist, and, in proportion as they are found in a disciple, is he worthy to be called a child of God." --from chapter 24: "Last Looks, Backward and Forward" ---New Window

This child of God was very active in the LORD's service, even in his old age-- "his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated" (Deuteronomy 34:7).

"The marvellous preservation of such a man at such an age reminds one of Caleb, who at eighty-five could boast in God that he was as strong even for war as in the day that he was sent into the land as one of the spies; and Mr. Mueller himself attributed this preservation to three causes:

first, the exercising of himself to have always a conscience void of offence both toward God and toward men ;

secondly to the love he felt for the Scriptures, and the constant recuperative power they exercised upon his whole being;

and third, to that happiness he felt in God and His work, which relieved him of all anxiety and needless wear and tear in his labours." --from chapter 19: "At Evening-Time-- Light" ---New Window

"He hath put a New Song in my mouth, even Praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD" (Psalm 40:3).

George Mueller's "secret" was in his "work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our LORD Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father" (1Thessalonians 1:3). Expecting the return of the LORD Jesus at any time, Mr. Mueller increased "in labours more abundant" (2Corinthians 11:23).

"I found in the Word, that the return of Jesus, and not death, was the hope of the apostolic Christians; and that it became me, therefore, to look for His appearing... Having seen this truth, the Lord also graciously enabled me to apply it, in some measure at least, to my own heart, and to put the solemn question to myself--

'What may I do for the Lord,
before He returns,
as He may soon come?'"
--from Appendix B: "Apprehension of Truth" ---New Window

"Here is the great secret of success. Work with all your might; but trust not in the least in your work. Pray with all your might for the blessing of God; but work, at the same time, with all diligence, with all patience, with all perseverance. Pray then, and work. Work and pray. And still again pray, and then work. And so on all the days of your life. The result will surely be, abundant blessing. Whether you see much fruit or little fruit, such kind of service will be blessed... Speak also for the Lord, as if everything depended on your exertions; yet trust not the least in your exertions, but in the Lord, who alone can cause your efforts to be made effectual, to the benefit of your fellow men or fellow believers. Remember, also, that God delights to bestow blessing, but, generally, as the result of earnest, believing prayer." --from Appendix N: "The Wise Sayings of George Mueller" ---New Window

"That our God would count you worthy of this calling,
and fulfil all the Good Pleasure of His Goodness,
and the work of Faith with Power"
(2Thessalonians 1:11).

His Experiment

"If George Mueller could still speak to us, he would again repeat the warning so frequently found in his journal and reports, that his fellow disciples must not regard him as a miracle-worker, as though his experience were to be accounted so exceptional as to have little application in our ordinary spheres of life and service. With patient repetition he affirms that in all essentials such an experience is the privilege of all believers. God calls disciples to various forms of work, but all alike to the same faith. To say, therefore,

'I am not called to build orphan houses, etc., and have no right to expect answers to my prayers as Mr. Mueller did,'

is wrong and unbelieving. Every child of God, he maintained, is first to get into the sphere appointed of God, and therein to exercise full trust, and live by faith upon God's sure word of promise.

Throughout all these thousands of pages written by his pen, he teaches that every experience of God's faithfulness is both the reward of past faith and prayer, and the preparation of the servant of God for larger work and more efficient service and more convincing witness to his Lord." --from chapter 20: "The Summary of the Life-Work" ---New Window

"The second volume of Mr. Mueller's Narrative closes with a paragraph in which he formally disclaims as impudent presumption and pretension all high rank as a miracle-worker, and records his regret that any work, based on scriptural promises and built on the simple lines of faith and prayer, should be accounted either phenomenal or fanatical." --from chapter 15: "The Manifold Grace of God" ---New Window

As a life goal, the "one great experiment" that Mr. Pierson mentions below, reveals that Mueller "had set himself to prove that the prayer which resorts to God only will bring help in every crisis." "Prove Me now herewith, saith the LORD of Hosts, if I will not open you the windows of Heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it" (Malachi 3:10). Every trial of man when given to God alone is met and remedied by Jehovah Jireh, Himself; this was Mr. Mueller's life goal-- his "one great experiment"-- to prove God's constant watchcare and faithfulness to men who trust Him alone. "He is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek Him" (Hebrews 11:6).

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

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

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

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

2. It would turn the minds of saints away from dependence solely upon Him.

This man of God had staked everything upon one great experiment-- he had set himself to prove that the prayer which resorts to God only will bring help in every crisis, even when the crisis is unknown to His people whom He uses as the means of relief and help.

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

'Whilst I thank you for your love, and whilst I agree with you that, in general, there is a difference between asking for money and answering when asked, nevertheless, in our case, I feel not at liberty to speak about the state of our funds, as the primary object of the work in my hands is to lead those who are weak in faith to see that there is reality in dealing with God alone.'

Consistently with his position, however, no sooner was the answer posted than the appeal went up to the Living God:

'Lord, thou knowest that, for Thy sake, I did not tell this brother about our need. Now, Lord, show afresh that there is reality in speaking to Thee only, about our need, and speak therefore to this brother so that he may help us.'

In answer, God moved this inquiring brother to donate one hundred pounds, which came when not one penny was in hand." --from chapter 11: "Trials of Faith, and Helpers to Faith" ---New Window

• (Deuteronomy 28:12) "The LORD shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow."
  
  
• (Ezekiel 34:26) "And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing."

"George Mueller counted all as loss that men count gain, but it was for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus, his Lord. He suffered the loss of all things and counted then as dung, but it was that he might win Christ and be found in Him; that he might know Him, and not only the fellowship of His sufferings and conformity to His death, but the power of His resurrection, conformity to His life, and fellowship in His glory. He left all behind that the world values, but he reached forth and pressed forward toward the goal, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

'Let us, therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded.'

When the Lord Jesus was upon earth, there was one disciple whom He loved, who also leaned on His breast, having the favoured place which only one could occupy. But now that He is in heaven, every disciple may be the loved one, and fill the favoured place, and lean on His bosom. There is no exclusive monopoly of privilege and blessing. He that follows closely and abides in Him knows the peculiar closeness of contact, the honour of intimacy, that are reserved for such as are called and chosen and faithful, and follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth." --from chapter 24: "Last Looks, Backward and Forward" ---New Window

May George Mueller's secret and experiment be our secret and experiment, may his example in life be the example of our life, because as a man of "like passions", we CAN, by God's Grace, follow George Mueller as he followed Christ. "The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the Words of this Law" (Deuteronomy 29:29).

"My business is, with all my might to serve my own generation; in doing so I shall best serve the next generation, should the Lord Jesus tarry... The longer I live, the more I am enabled to realize that I have but one life to live on earth, and that this one life is but a brief life, for sowing, in comparison with eternity, for reaping." --from Appendix N: "The Wise Sayings of George Mueller" ---New Window

"10 Now HE [to Whom George Mueller continually ascribed ALL recognition] that ministereth Seed to the sower [Mr. Mueller] both minister Bread for your food, and multiply your Seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness; 11 being enriched in every thing to all bountifulness, which causeth through us THANKSGIVING TO GOD. 12 For the administration of this service [from God through Mr. Mueller] not only supplieth the want of the saints, but is abundant also by MANY THANKSGIVINGS UNTO GOD; 13 whiles by the experiment of this ministration [of God's through Mr. Mueller] they glorify God for your professed subjection unto the Gospel of Christ, and for your liberal distribution... unto all men; 14 and by their prayer for you, which long after you for the exceeding grace of God in you. 15 Thanks be unto God for His Unspeakable Gift" (2Corinthians 9:10-15).

"And in the wilderness,
where thou hast seen how that the LORD thy God bare thee,
as a Man doth bear his son,
in all the way that ye went,
until ye came into this Place"
(Deuteronomy 1:31).

It is hoped that these excerpts will encourage the reading of the complete biography ---New Window,
desiring to "taste and see that the LORD is Good"
and finding that "blessed is the man that trusteth in Him"
(Psalm 34:8).

See also "APPENDIX A. SCRIPTURE TEXTS THAT MOULDED GEORGE MUELLER" ---New Window.
"A kind of Scriptural biography."

The simplicity of receiving. "Believe that ye receive... and ye shall have" (Mark 11:24).

"George Mueller 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." --from chapter 6: "The Narrative of the Lord's Dealings" ---New Window

Be a "Mary", not a "Martha"-- "One thing is needful" (Luke 10:42).

"On April 20th Mr. Mueller 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." --from chapter 7: "Led of God into a New Sphere" ---New Window

The birth of the idea. "A little child shall lead [him]" (Isaiah 11:6).

"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. Mueller 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 need 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." --from chapter 8: "A Tree of God's Own Planting" ---New Window

Knowing and waiting equals glory. "If we know that He hear us... we know that we have the petitions" (1John 5:15).

"'I believe He has heard me. I believe He will make it manifest in His own good time that He has heard me; and I have recorded these my petitions this fourteenth day of January, 1838, that when God has answered them He may get, through this, glory to His name.'" --from chapter 10: "The Word of God and Prayer" ---New Window

Fellowship on High. "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4).

"Converse with the Father was an indispensable source of refreshment and blessing at all times. As J. Hudson Taylor says, 'Satan, the Hinderer, may build a barrier about us, but he can never roof us in, so that we cannot look up.'" --from chapter 10: "The Word of God and Prayer" ---New Window

Testing extreme and exact. "Walk by faith, not by sight" (2Corinthians 5:7).

"Money came in only in small sums, and barely enough with rigid economy to meet each day's wants. The outlook was often most dark and the prospect most threatening; but no real need ever failed to be supplied: and so praise was continually mingled with prayer, the incense of thanksgiving making fragrant the flame of supplication. God's interposing power and love could not be doubted, and in fact made the more impression as unquestionable facts, because help came so frequently at the hour of extremity, and in the exact form or amount needed. Before the provision was entirely exhausted, there came new supplies or the money wherewith to buy, so that these many mouths were always fed and these many bodies always clad." --from chapter 11: "Trials of Faith, and Helpers to Faith" ---New Window

Providence benefitting body and spirit. "Neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God of that which doth cost me nothing" (2Sam. 24:24).

"A 'chance remark'-- there is no chance in a believer's life!-- made by the brother at whose house he was abiding at Plymouth, much impressed him. Referring to the sacrifices in Leviticus, he said that, as the refuse of the animals was never offered up on the altar, but only the best parts and the fat, so the choicest of our time and strength, the best parts of our day, should be especially given to the Lord in worship and communion. George Mueller meditated much on this; and determined, even at the risk of damage to bodily health, that he would no longer spend his hours in bed. Henceforth he allowed himself but seven hours' sleep and gave up his after-dinner rest. This resumption of early rising secured long seasons of uninterrupted interviews with God, in prayer and meditation on the Scriptures, before breakfast and the various inevitable interruptions that followed. He found himself not worse but better, physically, and became convinced that to have lain longer in bed as before would have kept his nerves weak; and, as to spiritual life, such new vitality and vigour accrued from thus waiting upon God while others slept, that it continued to be the habit of his after-life." --from chapter 11: "Trials of Faith, and Helpers to Faith" ---New Window

Never a "what if" game. "With God all things are possible" (Matthew 19:26).

"From time to time he met those to whom his courageous, childlike trust in God was a mystery; and, occasionally unbelief's secret misgivings found a voice in the question, what he would do if God did not send help! what, if a meal-time actually came with no food, and no money to procure it; or if clothing were worn out, and nothing to replace it? To all such questions there was always ready this one answer: that such a failure on God's part is inconceivable, and must therefore be put among the impossibilities." --from chapter 12: "New Lessons in God's School of Prayer" ---New Window

Conditions and principles for prevailing with God. "As a prince hast thou power with God... and hast prevailed" (Genesis 32:28).

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

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

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

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

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

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

The importance of firmly fixing in mind principles such as these cannot be overstated.

The first lays the basis of all prayer, in our oneness with the great High Priest.

The second states a condition of prayer, found in abandonment of sin.

The third reminds us of the need honouring God by faith that He is, and is the Rewarder of the diligent seeker.

The fourth reveals the sympathy with God that helps us to ask what is for our good and His glory.

The last teaches us that, having laid hold of God in prayer, we are to keep hold until His arm is outstretched in blessing.

Where these conditions do not exist, for God to answer prayer would be both a dishonour to Himself and a damage to the suppliant. To encourage those who come to Him in their own name, or in a self-righteous, self-seeking, and disobedient spirit, would be to set a premium upon continuance in sin. To answer the requests of the unbelieving would be to disregard the double insult put upon a word of promise and His oath of confirmation, by consistent doubt of His truthfulness and distrust of His thoughtfulness. Indeed not one condition of prevailing prayer exists which is not such in the very nature of things. These are not arbitrary limitations affixed to prayer by a despotic will; they are necessary alike to God's character and man's good. All the lessons learned in God's school of prayer made Mueller's feelings and convictions about this matter more profound and subduing. He saw the vital relation of prayer to holiness, and perpetually sought to impress it upon both his hearers and readers." --from chapter 12: "New Lessons in God's School of Prayer" ---New Window

Full weight of responsibility and circumstance. "Unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required" (Luke 12:48).

"How complex are the movements of God's providence? Some events are themselves eventful. Like the wheels in Ezekiel's vision-- a wheel in the middle of a wheel,-- they involve other issues within their mysterious mechanism, and constitute epochs of history. Such an epochal event was the building of the first of the New Orphan Houses on Ashley Down... For a man, personally penniless, to attempt to erect such a house, on such a scale, without appeal to man and in sole dependence on God was no small venture of faith. The full risk involved in such an undertaking, and the full force of the testimony which it has since afforded to a prayer-hearing God, can be felt only as the full weight of the responsibility is appreciated and all the circumstances are duly considered." --from chapter 14: "God's Building: The New Orphan Houses" ---New Window

"Beyond his measure?" "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is Faithful, Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it" (1Corinthians 10:13).

"On June 18, 1849, more than twelve years after the beginning of the work, the orphans began to be transferred from the four rented houses on Wilson Street to the new orphan house on Ashley Down... By May 26, 1850, however, there were in the house two hundred and seventy-five children, and the whole number of inmates was three hundred and eight... Scarcely were the orphans thus housed on Ashley Down, before Mr. Mueller's heart felt enlarged desire that one thousand, instead of three hundred, might enjoy such privileges of temporal provision and spiritual instruction; and, before the new year, 1851, had dawned, this yearning had matured into a purpose... Would he be going "beyond his measure," spiritually, or naturally ? Was not the work, with its vast correspondence and responsibility, already sufficiently great? Would not a new orphan house for three hundred orphans cost another fifteen thousand pounds, or, if built for seven hundred, with the necessary ground, thirty-five thousand? And, even when built and fitted and filled, would there not be the providing for daily wants, which is a perpetual care, and cannot be paid for at once like a site and a building? It would demand eight thousand pounds annual outlay to provide for another seven hundred little ones. To all objections the one all-sufficient answer was the all-sufficient God; and, because Mr. Mueller's eye was on His power, wisdom, and riches, his own weakness, folly, and poverty were forgotten. Another objection was suggested: What if he should succeed in thus housing and feeding a thousand poor waifs, what would become of the institution after his death? The reply is memorable: 'My business is, with all my might, to serve my own generation by the will of God: in so doing I shall best serve the next generation, should the Lord Jesus tarry.'" --from chapter 14: "God's Building: The New Orphan Houses" ---New Window

Reasons for expansion. "Produce your cause, saith the LORD; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob" (Isaiah 41:21).

"Several reasons are recorded by Mr. Mueller as specially influencing still further advance:

the many applications that could not, for want of room, be accepted;

the low moral state of the poorhouses to which these children of poverty were liable to be sent;

the large number of distressing cases of orphanhood, known to be deserving of help;

the previous experiences of the Lord's gracious leading and of the work itself;

his calmness in view of the proposed expansion;

and the spiritual blessing possible to a larger number of homeless children.

But one reason overtopped all others: an enlarged service to man, attempted and achieved solely in dependence upon God, would afford a correspondingly weightier witness to the Hearer of prayer.

These reasons, here recorded, will need no repetition in connection with subsequent expansions of the work, for, at every new stage of advance, they were what influenced this servant of God." --from chapter 14: "God's Building: The New Orphan Houses" ---New Window

Greater "apparent risk" demanded "more implicit trust." "Who delivered us from so great a Death, and doth deliver: in Whom we trust that He will yet deliver us" (2Corinthians 1:10).

"Early in 1870, the orphan work had reached its complete outfit, in five large buildings on Ashley Down with accommodations for two thousand orphans and for all needed teachers and assistants... Between the first decision to build, in 1845, and the opening of the third house, in 1862, nearly seventeen years had elapsed, and before No. 5 was opened, in 1870, twenty-five years... [Mr. Mueller's] one supreme aim was the glory of God; his one sole resort, believing prayer; his one trusted oracle, the inspired Word; and his one divine Teacher, the Holy Spirit. One step taken in faith and prayer had prepared for another; one act of trust had made him bolder to venture upon another, implying a greater apparent risk and therefore demanding more implicit trust. But answered prayer was rewarded faith, and every new risk only showed that there was no risk in confidently leaning upon the truth and faithfulness of God." --from chapter 14: "God's Building: The New Orphan Houses" ---New Window

No change in premise or practice. "Stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the LORD" (1Corinthians 15:58).

"We have heard it said of a brother, much honoured of God in beginning a work of faith, that, when it had grown to greater proportions, he seemed to change its base to that of a business scheme. How it glorifies God that the holy enterprise, planted in Bristol in 1834, has known no such alteration in its essential features during all these years. Though the work grew, and its needs with it, until the expenses were twofold, threefold, fourfold, and, at last, seventyfold what they were when that first Orphan House was opened in Wilson Street, there has been no change of base, never any looking to man for patronage or support, never any dependence upon a regular income or fixed endowment. God has been, all through these years, as at first, the sole Patron and Dependence. The Scriptural Knowledge Institution has not been wrecked on the rocks of financial failure, nor has it even drifted away from its original moorings in the safe anchorage-ground of the Promises of Jehovah." --from chapter 15: "The Manifold Grace of God" ---New Window

Accounting for the success. "Give unto the LORD the glory due unto His Name" (Psalm 96:8).

"The common ways of accounting for its success would be absurdly ridiculous and amusing were they not so sadly unbelieving. Those who knew little or nothing, either of the exercise of faith or the experience of God's faithfulness, resorted to the most God-dishonouring explanations of the work. Some said: 'Mr. Mueller is a foreigner; his methods are so novel as to attract attention.' Others that the 'Annual Reports brought in the money,' or suggested that he had 'a secret treasure.' His quiet reply was, that his being a foreigner would be more likely to repel than to attract confidence; that the novelty would scarcely avail him after more than a score of years; that other institutions which issued reports did not always escape want and debt; but, as to the secret treasure to which he was supposed to have access, he felt constrained to confess that there was more in that supposition than the objectors were aware of. He had indeed a Treasury, inexhaustible-- in the promises of a God unchangeably faithful-- from which he admits that he had already in 1856 drawn for twenty-two years, and in all over one hundred and thirteen thousand pounds. As to the Reports, it may be worth while to notice that he never but once in his life advertised the public of any need, and that was the need of more orphans-- more to care for in the name of the Lord-- a single and singular case of advertising, by which he sought not to increase his income, but his expenditure-- not asking the public to aid him in supporting the needy, but to increase the occasion of his outlay! So far was he from depending upon any such sources of supply as the unbelieving world might think, that it was in the drying up of all such channels that he found the opportunity of his faith and of God's power. The visible treasure was often so small that it was reduced to nothing, but the invisible Treasure was God's Riches in glory, and could be drawn from without limit. This it was to which he looked alone, and in which he felt that he had a river of supply that can never run dry." --from chapter 15: "The Manifold Grace of God" ---New Window

Change the wind. "By His Power He brought in the south wind" (Psalm 78:26).

"Towards the end of November, 1857, it was found that a serious leak in the boiler of the heating apparatus of house No. 1 would make repairs at once necessary, and as the boilers were encased in bricks and a new boiler might be required, such repairs must consume time. Meanwhile how could three hundred children, some of them very young and tender, be kept warm? Even if gas-stoves could be temporarily set up, chimneys would be needful to carry off the impure air; and no way of heating was available during repairs, even if a hundred pounds were expended to prevent risk of cold. Again Mr. Mueller turned to the Living God, and, trusting in Him, decided to have the repairs begun. A day or so before the fires had to be put out, a bleak north wind set in. The work could no longer be delayed; yet weather, prematurely cold for the season, threatened these hundreds of children with hurtful exposure. The Lord was boldly appealed to. 'Lord, these are Thy orphans: be pleased to change this north wind into a south wind, and give the workmen a mind to work that the job may be speedily done.'

The evening before the repairs actually began, the cold blast was still blowing; but on that day a south wind blew, and the weather was so mild that no fire was needful! Not only so, but, as Mr. Mueller went into the cellar with the overseer of the work, to see whether the repairs could in no way be expedited, he heard him say, in the hearing of the men, 'they will work late this evening, and come very early again to-morrow.' 'We would rather, sir,' was the reply, 'work all night.' And so, within about thirty hours, the fire was again burning to heat the water in the boiler; and, until the apparatus was again in order, that merciful soft south wind had continued to blow. Goodness and mercy were following the Lord's humble servant, made the more conspicuous by the crises of special trial and trouble." --from chapter 15: "The Manifold Grace of God" ---New Window

With the world before him, his step was unabated. "As thy days, so shall thy strength be" (Deuteronomy 33:25).

"This man-- from his seventieth to his eighty-seventh year-- when most men are withdrawing from all activities, had travelled in forty-two countries and over two hundred thousand miles, a distance equivalent to nearly eight journeys round the globe. He estimated that during these seventeen years he had addressed over three million people; and from all that can be gathered from the records of these tours, we estimate that he must have spoken, outside of Bristol, between five thousand and six thousand times. What sort of teaching and testimony occupied these tours, those who have known the preacher and teacher need not be told. While at Berlin in 1891, he gave an address that serves as an example of the vital truths which he was wont to press on the attention of fellow disciples. We give a brief outline:

He first urged that believers should never, even under the greatest difficulties, be discouraged, and gave for his position sound scriptural reasons.

Then he pointed out to them that the chief business of every day is first of all to seek to be truly at rest and happy in God.

Then he showed how, from the word of God, all saved believers may know their true standing in Christ, and how in circumstances of particular perplexity they might ascertain the will of God.

He then urged disciples to seek with intense earnestness to become acquainted with God Himself as revealed in the Holy Scriptures, and carefully to form and maintain godly habits of systematic Bible study and prayer, holy living and consecrated giving.

He taught that God alone is the one all-satisfying portion of the soul, and that we must determine to possess and enjoy Him as such.

He closed by emphasizing it as the one, single, all-absorbing, daily aim to glorify God in a complete surrender to His will and service.

In all these mission tours, again, the faithfulness of God was conspicuously seen, in the bounteous supply of every need. Steamer fares and long railway journeys; hotel accommodations, ordinarily preferred to private hospitality, which seriously interfered with private habits of devotion, public work, and proper rest-- such expenses demanded a heavy outlay; the new mode of life, now adopted for the Lord's sake, was at least three times as costly as the former frugal housekeeping; and yet, in answer to prayer and without any appeal to human help, the Lord furnished all that was required.

Accustomed to look, step by step, for such tokens of divine approval, as emboldened him to go forward, Mr. Mueller records how, when one hundred pounds was sent to him for personal uses, this was recognized as a foretoken from his great Provider, 'by which,' he writes,

'God meant to say to my own heart, 'I am pleased with thy work and service in going about on these long missionary tours. I will pay the expenses thereof, and I give thee here a specimen of what I am yet willing to do for thee.'

Two other facts Mr. Mueller specially records in connection with these tours:

first, God's gracious guiding and guarding of the work at Bristol so that it suffered nothing from his absence; and

secondly, the fact that these journeys had no connection with collecting of money for the work or even informing the public of it. No reference was made to the Institution at Bristol, except when urgently requested, and not always even then; nor were collections ever made for it. Statements found their way into the press that in America large sums were gathered, but their falsity is sufficiently shown by the fact that in his first tour in America, for example, the sum total of all such gifts was less than sixty pounds, not more than two thirds of the outlay of every day at the orphan houses." --from chapter 17: "The Period of World-Wide Witness" ---New Window

The biographer instructed on the LORD's return. "Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend" (Proverbs 27:17).

"In addition to these numerous and favourable opportunities thus providentially afforded for hearing and conversing with Mr. Mueller, he kindly met me for several days in my study, for an hour at a time, for conference upon those deeper truths of the word of God and deeper experiences of the Christian life, upon which I was then very desirous of more light. For example, I desired to understand more clearly the Bible teaching about the Lord's coming. I had opposed with much persistency what is known as the premillennial view, and brought out my objections, to all of which he made one reply:

'My beloved brother, I have heard all your arguments and objections against this view, but they have one fatal defect: not one of them is based upon the word of God. You will never get at the truth upon any matter of divine revelation unless you lay aside your prejudices and like a little child ask simply what is the testimony of Scripture.'" --from chapter 17: "The Period of World-Wide Witness" ---New Window

The author's prudent memories. "Every purpose is established by Counsel" (Proverbs 20:18).

"With patience and wisdom he unravelled the tangled skein of my perplexity and difficulty, and helped me to settle upon biblical principles all matters of so-called expediency. As he left me, about to visit other cities, his words fixed themselves in my memory. I had expressed to him my growing conviction that the worship in the churches had lost its primitive simplicity; that the pew rent system was pernicious; that fixed salaries for ministers of the gospel were unscriptural; that the church of God should be administered only by men full of the Holy Ghost, and that the duty of Christians to the non-churchgoing masses was grossly neglected, etc. He solemnly said to me:

'My beloved brother, the Lord has given you much light upon these matters, and will hold you correspondingly responsible for its use. If you obey Him and walk in the light, you will have more; if not, the light will be withdrawn.'" --from chapter 17: "The Period of World-Wide Witness" ---New Window

Much and "many-sided" fruit. "I am the Vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing" (John 15:5).

"It may be doubted whether any other one man of this century accomplished as much for God and man, and yet all the abundant offerings which he brought to his Master was characterized by a heavenly fragrance. The orphan work was but one branch of that tree-- the Scriptural Knowledge Institution-- which owed its existence to the fact that its founder devised large and liberal things for the Lord's cause. He sought to establish or at least to aid Christian schools wherever needful, to scatter Bibles and Testaments, Christian books and trade; to aid missionaries who were witnessing to the truth and working on a scriptural basis in destitute parts; and though each of these objects might well have engrossed his mind, they were all combined in the many-sided work which his love for souls suggested." --from chapter 18: "Faith and Patience in Serving" ---New Window

Mueller instrumental in circulating God's Word-- for the first time-- in Spain. "I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an Open Door, and no man can shut it" (Revelation 3:8).

"When a providential door was unexpectedly opened into the Land of the Inquisition, Mr. Mueller promptly took measures to promote the circulation of the Word in Spain. In the streets of Madrid the open Bible was seen for the first time, and copies were sold at the rate of two hundred and fifty in an hour, so that the supply was not equal to the demand. The facts substantially repeated when free Italy furnished a field for sowing the seed of the Kingdom. This wide-awake servant of God watched the signs of the times and, while others slept, followed the Lord's signals of advance." --from chapter 18: "Faith and Patience in Serving" ---New Window

God is the Rich One. "He is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek Him" (Hebrews 11:6).

"All this was, from first to last, and of necessity, a work of faith. How far faith must have been kept in constant and vigorous exercise can be appreciated only by putting one's self in Mr. Mueller's place. In the year 1874, for instance, about forty-four thousand pounds were needed, and he was compelled to count the cost and face the situation. Two thousand and one hundred hungry mouths were daily to be fed, and as many bodies to be clad and cared for. One hundred and eighty-nine missionaries were needing assistance; one hundred schools, with about nine thousand pupils, to be supported; four million pages of tracts and tens of thousands of copies of the Scriptures to be yearly provided for distribution; and beside all these ordinary expenses, inevitable crises or emergencies, always liable to arise in connection with the conduct of such extensive enterprises, would from time to time call for extraordinary outlay. The man who was at the head of the Scriptural Knowledge Institution had to look at this array of unavoidable expenses, and at the same time face the human possibility and probability of an empty treasury whence the last shilling had been drawn.

Let him tell us how he met such a prospect:

'God, our infinitely rich Treasurer, remains to us. It is this which gives me peace... Invariably, with this probability before me, I have said to myself: 'God who has raised up this work through me; God who has led me generally year after year to enlarge it; God, who has supported this work now for more than forty years, will still help and will not suffer me to be confounded, because I rely upon Him. I commit the whole work to Him, and He will provide me with what I need, in future also, though I know not whence the means are to come.''" --from chapter 18: "Faith and Patience in Serving" ---New Window

Unwavering confidence in the Faithful One. "They cried unto Thee, and were delivered: they trusted in Thee, and were not confounded" (Psalm 22:5).

"Whoever has had any such dealings with God, on however small a scale, cannot even think of the Lord as failing to honour a faith so simple, genuine, and childlike, a faith which leads a helpless believer thus to cast himself and all his cares upon God with utter abandonment of all anxiety. This man put God to proof, and proved to himself and to all who receive his testimony that it is blessed to wait only upon Him. The particular point which he had in view, in making these entries in his journal, is the object also of embodying them in these pages, namely, to show that, while the annual expenses of this Institution were so exceedingly large and the income so apparently uncertain, the soul of this believer was, to use his words,

'THROUGHOUT, without the least wavering, stayed upon Gold, believing that He who had through him begun the Institution, enlarged it almost year after year, and upheld it for forty years in answer to prayer by faith, would do this still and not suffer this servant of His to be confounded.'*

Believing that God would still help, and supply the means, George Mueller was willing, and THOROUGHLY in heart prepared, if necessary, to pass again through similar severe and prolonged seasons of trial as he had already endured." --from chapter 18: "Faith and Patience in Serving" ---New Window

Burdens thrown on the LORD equal triumph. "Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and He shall sustain thee: He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved" (Psalm 55:22).

"The trials of faith did not cease even until the end. July 28, 1881, finds the following entry in Mr. Mueller's journal:

'The income has been for some time past only about a third part of the expenses. Consequently all we have for the support of the orphans is nearly gone; and for the first four objects of the Institution we have nothing at all in hand. The natural appearance now is that the work cannot be carried on. But I BELIEVE that the Lord will help, both with means for the orphans and also for other objects of the Institution, and that we shall not be confounded; also that the work shall not need to be given up. I am fully expecting help, and have written this to the glory of God, that it may be recorded hereafter for the encouragement of His children. The result will be seen. I expect that we shall not be confounded, though for some years we have not been so poor.'

While faith thus leaned on God, prayer took more vigorous hold. Six, seven, eight times a day, he and his dear wife were praying for means, looking for answers, and firmly persuaded that their expectations would not be disappointed. Since that entry was made, seventeen more years have borne their witness that this trust was not put to shame. Not a branch of this tree of holy enterprise has been cut off by the sharp blade of a stern necessity.

Though faith had thus tenaciously held fast to the promises, the pressure was, not at once relieved. When, a fortnight after these confident records of trust in God had been spread on the pages of the journal, the balance for the orphans was less than it had been for twenty-five years, it would have seemed to human sight as though God had forgotten to be gracious. But, on August 22d, over one thousand pounds came in for the support of the orphans and thus relief was afforded for a time.

Again, let us bear in mind how in the most unprecedented straits God alone was made the confidant, even the best friends of the Institution, alike the poor and the rich, being left in ignorance of the pressure of want. It would have been no sin to have made known the circumstances, or even to have made an appeal for aid to the many believers who would gladly have come to the relief of the work. But the testimony to the Lord was to be jealously guarded, and the main object of this work of faith would have been imperiled just so far as by any appeal to men this witness to God was weakened.

In this crisis, and in every other, faith triumphed, and so the testimony to a prayer-hearing God grew in volume and power as the years went on." --from chapter 18: "Faith and Patience in Serving" ---New Window

Faith in the Unchangeable One. "LORD, if it be Thou, bid me come unto Thee on the water" (Matthew 14:28).

"Faith is the secret of both peace and steadfastness, amid all tendencies to discouragement and discontinuance in well-doing. James was led by the Spirit of God to write that the unstable and unbelieving man is like the 'wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.' There are two motions of the waves-- one up and down, which we call undulation, the other to and fro, which we call fluctuation. How appropriately both are referred to-- 'tossed' up and down, 'driven' to and fro! The double-minded man lacks steadiness in both respects: his faith has no uniformity of experience, for he is now at the crest of the wave and now in the trough of the sea; it has no uniformity of progress, for whatever he gains to-day he loses to-morrow.

Fluctuations in income and apparent prosperity did not take George Mueller by surprise. He expected them, for if there were no crises and critical emergencies how could there be critical deliverances? His trust was in God, not in donors or human friends or worldly circumstances: and because he trusted in the Living God who says of Himself,

'I am the Lord, I change not,'

amid all other changes, his feet were upon the one Rock of Ages that no earthquake shock can move from its eternal foundations." --from chapter 18: "Faith and Patience in Serving" ---New Window

An instrument that inspired others. "That by my voice I might teach others also" (1Corinthians 14:19).

"It must be remembered that the provision for such children has been greatly enlarged since this orphan work was begun. In 1834 the total accommodation for all orphans, in England, reached thirty-six hundred, while the prisons contained nearly twice as many children under eight years of age. This state of things led to the rapid enlargement of the work until over two thousand were housed on Ashley Down alone; and this colossal enterprise stimulated others to open similar institutions until, fifty years after Mr. Mueller began his work, at least one hundred thousand orphans were cared for in England alone. Thus God used Mr. Mueller to give such an impetus to this form of philanthropy, that destitute children became the object of a widely organized charity both on the part of individuals and of societies." --from chapter 18: "Faith and Patience in Serving" ---New Window

Christian humility glorifies the LORD. "He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:30).

"In all this manifold work which Mr. Mueller did he was, to the last, self-oblivious. From the time when, in October, 1830, he had given up all stated salary, as pastor and minister of the gospel, he had never received any salary, stipend nor fixed income, of any sort, whether as a pastor or as a director of the Scriptural Knowledge Institution. Both principle and preference led him to wait only upon God for all personal needs, as also for all the wants of his work. Nevertheless God put into the hearts of His believing children in all parts of the world, not only to send gifts in aid of the various branches of the work which Mr. Mueller superintended, but to forward to him money for his own uses, as well as clothes, food, and other temporal supplies. He never appropriated one penny which was not in some way indicated or designated as for his own personal needs, and subject to his personal judgment. No straits of individual or family want ever led him to use, even for a time, what was sent to him for other ends. Generally gifts intended for himself were wrapped up in paper with his name written thereon, or in other equally distinct ways designated as meant for him. Thus as early as 1874 his year's income reached upwards of twenty-one hundred pounds. Few nonconformist ministers, and not one in twenty of the clergy of the establishment, have any such income, which averages about six pounds for every day in the year-- and all this came from the Lord, simply in answer to prayer, and without appeal of any sort to man or even the revelation of personal needs. If we add legacies paid at the end of the year 1873, Mr. Mueller's entire income in about thirteen months exceeded thirty-one hundred pounds. Of this he gave, out and out to the needy, and to the work of God, the whole amount save about two hundred and fifty, expended on personal and family wants; and thus started the year 1875 as poor as he had begun forty-five years before; and if his personal expenses were scrutinized it would be found that even what he ate and drank and wore was with equal conscientiousness expended for the glory of God, so that in a true sense we may say he spent nothing on himself." --from chapter 18: "Faith and Patience in Serving" ---New Window

Mr. Mueller's last annual report. "Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints" (Psalm 116:15).

"The Fifty-ninth Report, issued May 26, 1898, was the last up to the date of the publication of this volume, and the first after Mr. Mueller's death. In this, Mr. Wright gives the brief but valuable summary not only of the whole work of the year preceding, but of the whole work from its beginning, and thus helps us to a comprehensive survey.

This report is doubly precious as it contains also the last contribution of Mr. Mueller's own pen to the record of the Lord's dealings. It is probable that on the afternoon of March 9th he laid down his pen, for the last time, all unconscious that he was never again to take it up. He had made, in a twofold sense, his closing entry in life's solemn journal! In the evening of that day he took his customary part in the prayer service in the orphan house-- then went to sleep for the last time on earth; there came a waking hour, when he was alone with God, and suddenly departed, leaving his body to its long sleep that knows no waking until the day of the Lord's coming, while his spirit returned unto God who gave it." --from chapter 20: "The Summary of the Life-Work" ---New Window

Where is the LORD God of George Mueller? "And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is the LORD God of Elijah? and when he also had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither: and Elisha went over" (2Kings 2:14).

"Mr. Wright, in this report, shows himself God's chosen in the work, evidently like-minded with the departed director. The first paragraph, after the brief and touching reference to his father-in-law, serves to convey to all friends of this work the assurance that he to whom Mr. Mueller left its conduct has also learned the one secret of all success in coworking with God. It sounds, as the significant keynote for the future, the same old keynote of the past, carrying on the melody and harmony, without change, into the new measures. It is the same oratorio, without alteration of theme, time, or even key: the leading performer is indeed no more but another hand takes up his instrument and , trembling with emotion, continues the unfinished strain so that there is no interruption. Mr. Wright says:

'It is written (Job xxvi.7): 'He hangeth the earth upon nothing'-- that is, no visible support. And so we exult in the fact that 'the Scriptural Knowledge Institution for Home and Abroad' hangs, as it has ever hung, since its commencement, now more than sixty-four years ago, 'upon nothing,' that is, upon no VISIBLE support. It hangs upon no human patron, upon no endowment or funded property, but solely upon the good pleasure of the blessed God.'

Blessed lesson to learn! that to hang upon the invisible God is not to hang 'upon nothing,' though it be upon nothing visible. The power and permanence of the invisible forces that hold up the earth after sixty centuries of human history are sufficiently shown by the fact that this great globe still swings securely in space and is whirled through its vast orbit, and that, without variation of a second, it still moves with divine exactness in its appointed path. We can therefore trust the same invisible God to sustain with His unseen power all the work which faith depends upon His truth and love and unfailing word of promise, though to the natural eye all these may seem as nothing." --from chapter 20: "The Summary of the Life-Work" ---New Window

Invisible riches with eternal value. "There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing: there is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches" (Proverbs 13:7).

"Mr. Mueller had received increasingly large sums from the Lord which he invested well and most profitably, so that for over sixty years he never lost a penny through a bad speculation! But his investments were not in lands or banks or railways, but in the work of God. He made friends out of the mammon of unrighteousness that when he failed received him into everlasting habitations.

He continued, year after year, to make provision for himself, his beloved wife and daughter, by laying up treasure-- in heaven. Such a man had certainly a right to exhort others to systematic beneficence. He gave-- as not one in a million gives-- not a tithe, not any fixed proportion of annual income, but all that was left after the simplest and most necessary supply of actual wants... Mr. Mueller's own words are:

'My aim never was, how much I could obtain, but rather how much I could give.'

He kept continually before him his stewardship of God's property; and sought to make the most of the one brief life on earth, and to use for the best and largest good the property held by him in trust. The things of God were deep realities, and, projecting every action and decision and motive into the light of the judgment-seat of Christ, he asked himself how it would appear to him in the light of that tribunal. Thus he sought prayerfully and conscientiously so to live and labor, so to deny himself, and, by love, serve God and man, as that he should not be ashamed before Him at His coming. But not in a spirit of fear was this done; for if any man of his generation knew the perfect love that casts out fear, it was George Mueller. He felt that God is love, and love is of God. He saw that love manifested in the greatest of gifts-- His only-begotten Son at Calvary-- he knew and believed the Love that God hath to us; he received it into his own heart; it became an abiding presence, manifested in obedience and benevolence, and, subduing him more and more, it became perfected so as to expel tormenting fear and impart a holy confidence and delight in God.

Among the texts which strongly impressed and moulded Mr. Mueller's habits of giving was Luke vi. 38: 'Give and it shall be given unto you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over shall men give into your bosom.'

He believed this promise and he verified it. His testimony is: 'I had GIVEN, and God had caused to be GIVEN TO ME AGAIN, and bountifully.'

Again he read: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'

He says that he BELIEVED what he found in the word of God, and by His grace sought to ACT ACCORDINGLY, and thus again records that he was blessed abundantly and his peace and joy in the Holy Ghost increased more and more." --from chapter 20: "The Summary of the Life-Work" ---New Window

The fulness of serving. "Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in in his season" (Job 5:26).

"The will of Mr. Mueller contains a pregnant clause which should not be forgotten in this memorial. It closes with a paragraph which is deeply significant as meant to be his posthumous word of testimony 'a last testament':

'I cannot help admiring God's wondrous grace in bringing me to the knowledge of the Lord Jesus when I was an entirely careless and thoughtless young man, and that He has kept me in His fear and truth, allowing me the great honour, for so long a time, of serving Him.'" --from chapter 20: "The Summary of the Life-Work" ---New Window

The richest man on earth. "The fruit of the righteous is a Tree of Life; and he that winneth souls is wise" (Proverbs 11:30).

"Here was one poor man who, dependent on the help of God only in answer to prayer, could look back over threescore years and see how he had built five large orphan houses and taken into his family over ten thousand orphans, expending, for their good, within twelve thousand pounds of a round million. He had given aid to day-schools and Sunday-schools, in this and other lands, where nearly one hundred and fifty thousand children have been taught, at a cost of over one hundred and ten thousand pounds more. He had circulated nearly two million Bibles and parts thereof at the cost of over forty thousand pounds; and over three million books and tracts, at a cost of nearly fifty thousand pounds more. And besides all this he had spent over two hundred and sixty thousand pounds to aid missionary labourers in various lands. The sum total of the money thus spent during sixty years has thus reached very nearly the astonishing aggregate of one and a half million of pounds sterling ($7,500,000)." --from chapter 20: "The Summary of the Life-Work" ---New Window

Tenacious, unyielding, must be answered. "I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me" (Genesis 32:26).

"He was an unwearied intercessor. No delay discouraged him. This is seen particularly in the case of individuals for whose conversion or special guidance into the paths of full obedience he prayed. On his prayer list were the names of some for whom he had besought God, daily, by name, for one, two, three, four, six, ten years before the answer was given. The year just before his death, he told the writer of two parties for whose reconciliation to God he had prayed, day by day, for over sixty years, and who had not as yet to his knowledge turned unto God: and he significantly added,

'I have not a doubt that I shall meet them both in heaven; for my Heavenly Father would not lay upon my heart a burden of prayer for them for over threescore years, if He had not concerning them purposes of mercy.'

This is a sufficient example of his almost unparalleled perseverance and importunity in intercession. However long the delay, he held on, as with both hands clasping the very horns of the altar; and his childlike spirit reasoned simply but confidently, that the very fact of his own spirit being so long drawn out in prayer for one object, and of the Lord's enabling him so to continue patiently and believingly to wait on Him for the blessing, was a promise and prophecy of the answer; and so he waited on, so assured of the ultimate result that he praised God in advance, believing that he had practically received that for which he asked." --from chapter 20: "The Summary of the Life-Work" ---New Window

God with him and in him. "For with God nothing shall be impossible" (Luke 1:37).

"Comparing himself and his work for God to 'the Burning Bush in the Wilderness' which, always aflame and always threatened with apparent destruction, was not consumed, so that not a few turned aside wondering to see this great sight. And why was it not burnt? Because Jehovah of hosts, who was in the Bush, dwelt in the man and in his work: or, as Wesley said with almost his last breath, 'Best of all, God is with us.' ...Here is a burning bush indeed, always in seeming danger of being consumed, yet still standing on Ashley Down, and still preserved because the same presence of Jehovah burns in it. Not a branch of this many-sided work has utterly perished, while the whole bush still challenges unbelievers to turn aside and see the great sight, and take off the shoes from their feet as on holy ground where God manifests Himself." --from chapter 20: "The Summary of the Life-Work" ---New Window

A life of infinite worth. "An odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, wellpleasing to God" (Philippians 4:18).

"When we take into account the vast numbers addressed and impressed by his addresses, given in all parts of the United Kingdom, on the Continent of Europe, and in America, Asia, and Australia, and the still vaster numbers who have read his Narrative, his books and tracts, or who have in various other ways felt the quickening power of his example and life, we shall get some conception-- still, at best, inadequate-- of the range and scope of the influence he wielded by his tongue and pen, his labours, and his life. Much of the best influence defies all tabulated statistics and evades all mathematical estimates; it is like the fragrance of the alabaster flask which fills all the house but escapes our grosser senses of sight, hearing, and touch. This part of George Mueller's work we cannot summarize: it belongs to a realm where we cannot penetrate. But God sees, knows, and rewards it." --from chapter 20: "The Summary of the Life-Work" ---New Window

Reaping a full harvest. "He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing Precious Seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him" (Psalm 126:6).

"As to prayers for past seed-sowing he told the writer of this memoir how in all supplication to God he looked not only forward but backward. He was wont to ask that the Lord would be pleased to bless seed long since sown and yet apparently unfruitful; and he said that, in answer to these prayers, he had up to that day evidence of God leaving remembrance of his work of faith and labour love in years long gone by. He was permitted to know that messages delivered for God, tracts scattered, and other means of service had, after five, ten, twenty, and even sixty years, at last brought forth a harvest. Hence an urgency in advising fellow labourers to pray unceasing that God would work mightily in the hearts of those who had once been under their care, bringing to their remembrance the truth which had been set before them." --from chapter 21: "The Church Life and Growth" ---New Window

The first donation-- "inestimable worth". "He which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully" (2Corinthians 9:6).

"Mr. Mueller records the first bequest as from a dear lad who died in the faith. During his last illness, he had received a gift of some new silver coins; and he asked that this, his only treasure in money, might be sent for the orphans. With pathetic tenderness Mr. Mueller adds that this precious little legacy of six shillings sixpence halfpenny, received September 15, 1837, was the first they ever had. Those who estimate all donations by money-worth can little understand how welcome such a bequest was; but to such a man this small donation, bequeathed by one of Christ's little ones, and representing all he possessed, was of inestimable worth." --from chapter 22: "A Glance at the Gifts and the Givers" ---New Window

The best investment. "LORD, Thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more... Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy LORD" (Matthew 25:20-21).

"Another instance of turning all things to account was seen in the case of a giver who sent a box containing four old crown pieces which had a curious history. They were the wedding-day present of a bridegroom to his bride, who reluctant to spend her husband's first gift, kept them until she passed them over, as heirlooms, to her four grandchildren. They were thus at last put out to usury, after many years of gathering 'rust' in hoarded idleness and uselessness. Little did bridegroom or bride foresee how these coins, after more than a hundred years, would come forth from their hiding-place to be put to the Lord's uses. Few people have ever calculated how much is lost to every good cause by the simple withdrawal of money from circulation. Those four crown pieces had they been carefully invested, so as to double in value, by compound interest, every ten years, would have increased to one thousand pounds during the years they had lain idle!" --from chapter 22: "A Glance at the Gifts and the Givers" ---New Window

All we have is owned by God. "If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is Mine, and the fulness thereof" (Psalm 50:12).

"Enlightened believers look on all things as inalienably God's, and, even in the voluntary diversion of money into sacred rather than selfish channels, still remember that they give to Him only what is His own!

'The little child feels proud that he can drop the money into the box after the parent has supplied the means, and told him to do so; and so God's children are sometimes tempted to think that they are giving of their own, and to be proud over their gifts, forgetting the divine Father who both gives us all we have and bids us give all back to Him.'" --from chapter 22: "A Glance at the Gifts and the Givers" ---New Window

Being rich in the LORD causes no harm. "The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and He addeth no sorrow with it" (Proverbs 10:22).

"A gift of two thousand pounds on January 29, 1872, was accompanied by a letter confessing that the possession of property had given the writer much trouble of mind, and it had been disposed of from a conviction that the Lord 'saw it not good' for him to hold so much and therefor allowed its possession to be a curse rather than a blessing. Fondness for possessions always entails [a] curse, and external riches thus become a source of internal poverty. It is doubtful whether any child of God ever yet hoarded wealth without losing in spiritual attainment and enjoyment. Greed is one of the lowest and most destructive of vices and turns a man into the likeness of the coin he worships, making him hard, cold, metallic, and unsympathetic, so that, as has been quaintly said, he drops into his coffin 'with a chink.' God estimates what we give by what we keep, for it is possible to bestow large sums and yet reserve so much larger amounts that no self-denial is possible. Such giving to the Lord costs us nothing." --from chapter 22: "A Glance at the Gifts and the Givers" ---New Window

Multiplying the blessing. "Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD thy God which He hath given thee (Deuteronomy 16:17).

"One donor, formerly living in Tunbridge Wells, followed a principle of giving, the reverse of the worldly way. As his own family increased, instead of decreasing his gifts, he gave, for each child given to him of God, the average cost of maintaining one orphan, until, having seven children, he was supporting seven orphans." --from chapter 22: "A Glance at the Gifts and the Givers" ---New Window

The LORD meets all needs. "Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the LORD will deliver him in time of trouble" (Psalm 41:1).

"Money to be laid up as a fund for his old age or possible seasons of illness or family emergencies was always declined... He had settled the matter beyond raising the question again, that he would live from day to day upon the Lord's bounty, and would make but one investment, namely, using whatever means God gave, to supply the necessities of the poor, depending on God richly to repay him in the hour of his own need, according to the promise:

'He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord,
And that which he hath given will He pay him again.'
Proverbs xix.17."
--from chapter 22: "A Glance at the Gifts and the Givers" ---New Window

Save the children. "A true witness delivereth souls" (Proverbs 14:25).

"In the moral and spiritual welfare of these orphans which has been primarily sought, the richest recompense has been enjoyed. The one main aim of Mr. Mueller and his whole staff of helpers, from first to last, has been to save these children-- to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. The hindrances were many and formidable. If the hereditary taint of disease is to be dreaded, what of the awful legacy of sin and crime! Many of these little ones had no proper bringing up till they entered the orphan houses; and not a few had been trained indeed, but only in Satan's schools of drink and lust. And yet, notwithstanding all these drawbacks, Mr. Mueller records, with devout thankfulness, that

'the Lord had constrained them, on the whole, to behave exceedingly well, so much so as to attract the attention of observers.'

Better still, large numbers have, throughout the whole history of this work, given signs of a really regenerate state, and have afterwards maintained a consistent character and conduct, and in some cases have borne singular witness to the grace of God, both by their complete transformation and by their influence for good." --from chapter 23: "God's Witness to the Work" ---New Window

A "sign-board" to the "true path." "The path of the just is as the Shining Light, that shineth more and more unto the Perfect Day" (Proverbs 4:18).

"In April, 1874, a letter from a former inmate of the orphanage enclosed a thank offering for the excellent Bible teaching there received which had borne fruit years after. So carefully had she been instructed in the way of salvation that, while yet herself unrenewed, she had been God's instrument of leading to Christ a fellow servant who had long been seeking peace, and so, became like a sign-board on the road, the means of directing another to the true path, by simply telling her what she had been taught, though not then following the path herself." --from chapter 23: "God's Witness to the Work" ---New Window

Visible reminders encourage faith. "Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard" (Revelation 3:3).

"Another orphan wrote, in 1876, that often, when tempted to indulge the sin of unbelief, the thought of that six years' sojourn in Ashley Down came across the mind like a gleam of sunshine. It was remembered how the clothes there worn, the food eaten, the bed slept on, and the very walls around, were the visible answers to believing prayer, and the recollection of all these things proved a potent prescription and remedy for the doubts and waverings of the child of God, a shield against the fiery darts of satanic suggestion." --from chapter 23: "God's Witness to the Work" ---New Window

Righteousness yielding righteousness. "They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever" (Daniel 12:3).

"He had the joy of meeting scores of orphans brought up under his care. He minutely records the remarkable usefulness of a Mr. Wilkinson, who, up to the age of fourteen and a half years had been taught at the orphanage. Twenty years had elapsed since Mr. Mueller had seen him, when, in 1878, he met him in Calvary Church, San Francisco, six thousand five hundred miles from Bristol. He found him holding fast his faith in the Lord Jesus, a happy and consistent Christian. He further heard most inspiring accounts of this man's singular service during the Civil War in America. Being on the gunboat Louisiana, he had there been the leading spirit and recognized head of a little Bethel church among his fellow seamen, who were by him led to engage in the service of Christ as to exhibit a devotion that, without a trace of fanatical enthusiasm, was full of holy zeal and joy. Their whole conversation was of God. It further transpired that, months previous, when the cloud of impending battle overhung the ship's company, he and one of his comrades had met for prayer in the 'chain-locker'; and thus began a series of most remarkable meetings which, without one night's interruption, lasted for some twenty months. Wilkinson alone among the whole company had any previous knowledge of the word of God, and he became not only the leader of the movement, but the chief interpreter of the Scriptures as they met to read the book of God and exchange views upon it. Nor was he satisfied to do thus much with his comrades daily, but at another stated hour he, with some chosen helpers, gathered the coloured sailors of the ship to teach them reading, writing, etc... In a sail-loft ashore, he was compelled for two weeks to listen to the lewd and profane talk of two associates detailed with him for a certain work. For the most part he took refuge in silence; but his manner of conduct, and one sentence which dropped from his lips, brought both those rough and wicked sailors to the Saviour he loved, one of whom in three months read the word of God from Genesis to Revelation." --from chapter 23: "God's Witness to the Work" ---New Window

The sweetest of compensations. "He shall cover thee with His feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust: His Truth shall be thy Shield and Buckler" (Psalm 91:4).

"God gave His servant also the sweet compensation seeing great blessing attending the day-schools supported by the Scriptural Knowledge Institution.

The master of the school at Clayhidon, for instance, wrote of a poor lad, a pupil in the day-school, prostrate with rheumatic fever, in a wretched home and surrounded by bitter opposers of the truth. Wasted to a skeleton, and in deep anxiety about his own soul, he was pointed to Him who says, 'Come unto Me, and I will give you rest.'

While yet this conversation was going on, as though suddenly he had entered into a new world, this emaciated boy began to repeat texts such as 'Suffer the little children to come unto me,' and burst out singing:

'Jesus loves me, this I know,
For the Bible tells me so.'

He seemed transported with ecstasy, and recited text after text and hymn after hymn, learned at that school. No marvel is it if that schoolmaster felt a joy, akin to the angels, in this one proof that his labour in the Lord was not in vain. Such examples might be indefinitely multiplied, but this handful of first-fruits of a harvest may indicate the character of the whole crop." --from chapter 23: "God's Witness to the Work" ---New Window

The "unvarnished" life of faith. "He that speaketh Truth showeth forth righteousness" (Proverbs 12:17).

"There are abundant instances of the power exerted by Mr. Mueller's testimony, as when a woman who had been an infidel, writes him that he was

'the first person by whose example she learned that there are some men who live by faith,'

and that for this reason she had willed to him all that she possessed. Another reader found these Reports

'more faith-strengthening and soul-refreshing than many a sermon,'

particularly so after just wading through the mire of a speech of a French infidel who boldly affirmed that of all of the millions of prayers uttered every day, not one is answered. We should like to have any candid skeptic confronted with Mr. Mueller's unvarnished story of a life of faith, and see how he would on any principle of 'compound probability' and 'accidental coincidences,' account for the tens of thousands of answers to believing prayer! The fact is that one half of the infidelity in the world is dishonest, and the other half is ignorant of the daily proofs that God is, and is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." --from chapter 23: "God's Witness to the Work" ---New Window

Truth is undeniable. "Behold, Thou desirest Truth in the inward parts" (Psalm 51:6).

"Truth is the corner-stone of all excellence, for without it nothing else is true, genuine, or real. From the hour of his conversion his truthfulness was increasingly dominant and apparent. In fact, there was about him a scrupulous erectness which sometimes seemed unnecessary. One smiles at the mathematical precision with which he states facts, giving the years, days, and hours since he was brought to the knowledge of God, or since he began to pray for some given object; and the pounds, shillings, pence, halfpence, and even farthings that form the total sum expended for any given purpose. We see the same conscientious exactness in the repetitions of statements, whether of principles or of occurrences, which we meet in his journal, and in which oftentimes there is not even a change of a word. But all this has a significance. It inspires absolute confidence in the record of the Lord's dealings... George Mueller felt the immense importance of exact statement. Hence he disciplined himself to accuracy. Conscience presided over his narrative, and demanded that everything else should be scrupulously sacrificed to verse... He naturally weighed every word before he spoke and scrutinized every statement before he gave it form with pen or tongue. And therefore the vary quality that, to some people, may make his narrative bare of charm, and even repulsively prosaic, add to its value as a plain, conscientious, unimaginative, unvarnished, and trustworthy statement of facts...The narrative might have been more readable, but it would not have been so reliable; and, in this story of the Lord's dealings, nothing was so indispensable as exact truth. It would be comparatively worthless, were it not undeniable. The Lord fitted the man who lived that life of faith and prayer, and wrote that life-story, to inspire confidence, so that even skeptics and doubters felt that they were reading, not a novel or a poem, but a history." --from chapter 24: "Last Looks, Backward and Forward" ---New Window

Always honouring the Master. "Taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind" (1Peter 5:2).

"When large gifts were proffered, prayer was offered for grace to know whether to accept or decline, that no money might be greedily grasped at for its own sake; and he prayed that, if it could not be accepted without submitting to conditions which were dishonouring to God, it might be declined so graciously, lovingly, humbly, and yet firmly that the manner of its refusal and return might show that he was acting, not in his own behalf, but as a servant under the authority of a higher Master." --from chapter 24: "Last Looks, Backward and Forward" ---New Window

Even in his "ninety-second year." "As thy days, so shall thy strength be" (Deuteronomy 33:25).

"From May, 1892, when the last mission tour closed, he devoted himself mainly to the work of the Scriptural Knowledge Institution, and to preaching at Bethesda and elsewhere as God seemed to appoint. His health was marvellous, especially considering how, when yet a young man, frequent and serious illnesses and general debility had apparently disqualified him from all military duty, and to many prophesied early death or hopeless succumbing to disease. He had been in tropic heat and arctic cold, in gales and typhoons at sea, and on journeys by rail, sometimes as continuously long as a sea-voyage. He had borne the pest of fleas, mosquitoes, and even rats. He had endured changes of climate, diet, habits of life, and the strain of almost daily services, and come out of all unscathed. This man, whose health was never robust, had gone through labours that would try the mettle of an iron constitution; this man, who had many times been laid aside by illness and sometimes for months and who in 1837 had feared that a persistent head trouble might unhinge his mind, could say, in his ninety-second year: 'I have been able, every day and all the day, to work, and that with ease, as seventy years since.'" --from chapter 19: "At Evening-Time-- Light" ---New Window

Eternally the same, God should be trusted. "Be not afraid, only believe" (Mark 5:36).

"The great fundamental truth that this heroic man stamped on his generation was that the Living God is the same to day and forever as yesterday and in all ages past, and that, with equal confidence with the most trustful souls of any age, we may believe His word, and to every promise add, like Abraham, our 'Amen'-- IT SHALL BE SO!

When, a few days after his death, Mr. E. H. Glenny, who is known to many as the beloved and self-sacrificing friend of the North African Mission, passed through Barcelona, he found written in an album over his signature the words:

"Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and to-day and for ever."

And, like the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, quoting from the 102d Psalm, we may say of Jehovah, while all else changes and perishes:

"THOU REMAINEST";
"THOU ART THE SAME.'"
--from chapter 19: "At Evening-Time-- Light" ---New Window

George Mueller's rest from this world. "There remaineth therefore a Rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his Rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His" (Hebrews 4:9-10).

"On Sunday morning, March 6, 1898, he spoke at Alma Road Chapel, and on the Monday evening following was at the prayer service at Bethesda, on both occasions in his usual health. On Wednesday evening following, he took his wonted place at the Orphan House prayer meeting and gave out the hymns: 'The countless multitude on high.' and 'We'll sing of the Shepherd that died.'

When he bade his beloved son-in-law 'good-night,' there was outward sign of declining strength. He seemed to the last the vigorous old man, and retired to rest as usual. It had been felt that one so advanced in years should have some night-attendant, especially as indications of heart-weakness had been noticed of late, and he had yielded to the pressure of love and consented to such an arrangement after that night. But the consent came too late. He was never more to need human attendance or attention. On Thursday morning, March 10th, at about seven o'clock, the usual cup of tea was taken to his room. To the knock at the door there was no response save an ominous silence. The attendant opened the door, only to find that the venerable patriarch lay dead, on the floor beside the bed. He had probably risen to take some nourishment-- a glass of milk and a biscuit being always put within reach-- and, while eating the biscuit, he had felt faint, and fallen, clutching at the table-cloth as he fell, for it was dragged off, with certain things that had lain on the table. His medical adviser, who was promptly summoned, gave as his opinion that he had died of heart-failure some hour or two before he had been found by his attendant.

Such a departure, even at such an age, produced a world-wide sensation. That man's moral and spiritual forces reached and touched the earth's ends. Not in Bristol, or in Britain alone, but across the mighty waters toward the sunrise and sunset was felt the responsive pulse-beat of a deep sympathy. Hearts bled all over the globe when it was announced, by telegraph wire and ocean cable, that George Mueller was dead. It was said of a great Englishman that his influence could be measured only by 'parallels of latitude'; of George Mueller we may add, and by meridians of longitude. He belonged to the whole church and the whole world, in a unique sense; and the whole race of man sustained a loss when he died." --from chapter 19: "At Evening-Time-- Light" ---New Window

The orphans lose their second "father." "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the First Resurrection: on such the Second Death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years" (Revelation 20:6).

"The funeral, which took place on the Monday following, was a popular tribute of affection, such as is seldom seen. Tens of thousands of people reverently stood along the route of the simple procession; men left their workshops and offices, women left their elegant homes or humble kitchens, all seeking to pay a last token of respect. Bristol had never before witnessed any such scene.

A brief service was held at Orphan House No. 3, where over a thousand children met, who had for a second time lost a 'father'; in front of the reading-desk in the great dining-room, a coffin of elm, studiously plain, and by request without floral offerings, contained all that was mortal of George Mueller, and on a brass plate was a simple inscription, giving the date of his death, and his age.

Mr. James Wright gave the address, reminding those who were gathered that, to all of us, even those who have lived nearest God, death comes while the Lord tarries; that it is blessed to die in the Lord; and that for believers in Christ there is a glorious resurrection waiting. The tears that ran down those young cheeks were more eloquent than any words, as a token of affection for the dead." --from chapter 19: "At Evening-Time-- Light" ---New Window

Passed into Heaven and with his LORD. "Seeing then that we have a Great High Priest, that is passed into the Heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession... and His Name is called The Word of God" (Hebrews 4:14; Revelation 19:13).

"Mr. Wright spoke from Hebrews xiii.7,8.

'Remember them which have the rule over you,
Who have spoken unto you the word of God:
Whose faith follow,
Considering the end of their conversation:
Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and to-day and forever.'

He spoke of those spiritual rulers and guides whom God sets over his people; and of the privilege of imitating their faith, calling attention to the two characteristics of his beloved father-in-law's faith:

first, that it was based on that immovable Rock of ages, God's written word;

and secondly, that it translated the precepts and promises of that word into daily life.

Mr. Wright made very emphatic Mr. Mueller's acceptance of the whole Scriptures, as divinely inspired. He had been wont to say to young believers,

'Put your finger on the passage on which your faith rests,'

and had himself read the Bible from end to end nearly two hundred times. He fed on the Word and therefore was strong. He found the centre of that Word in the living Person it enshrines, and his one ground of confidence was His atoning work. Always in his own eyes weak, wretched, and vile, unworthy of the smallest blessing, he rested solely on the merit and mediation of His great High Priest." --from chapter 19: "At Evening-Time-- Light" ---New Window

A foretoken before. "He that hath an ear, let him hear... To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the Tree of Life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God" (Revelation 2:7).

"It was touchingly remarked at his funeral that he first confessed to feeling weak and weary in his work that last night of his earthly sojourn; and it seemed specially tender of the Lord not to allow that sense of exhaustion to come upon him until just as He was about to send His chariot to bear him to His presence. Mr. Mueller's last sermon at Bethesda Chapel, after a ministry of sixty-six years, had been from 2 Cor. v.1:

'For we know that,
if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved,
we have a building of God, a house not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens.'

It was as though he had some foretokens of his being about shortly to put off this his tabernacle. Evidently he was not taken by surprise. He had foreseen that his days were fast completing their number. Seven months before his departure, he had remarked to his medical attendant, in connection with the irregularity of his pulse: 'It means death.'" --from chapter 19: "At Evening-Time-- Light" ---New Window

A fitting memorial. "Blessed are the dead which die in the LORD from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may Rest from their labours; and their works do follow them" (Revelation 14:13).

"Many of the dear orphans-- as when the first Mrs. Mueller died-- wrote, asking that they might contribute toward the erection of a monument to the memory of their beloved benefactor. Already one dear young servant had gathered, for the purpose, over twenty pounds. In conformity with the known wishes of his father-in-law that only the simplest headstone be placed over his remains, Mr. Wright thought necessary to check the inflow of such gifts, the sum in hand being quite sufficient.

Further urgent appeals were made both from British and American friends, for the erection of some statue or other large visible monument or memorial, and in these appeals the local newspapers united. At length private letters led Mr. Wright to communicate with the public press, as the best way at once to silence these appeals and express the ground of rejecting such proposals. He wrote as follows:

'You ask me, as one long and closely associated with the late Mr. George Mueller, to say what I think would be most in accordance with his own wishes as a fitting memorial of himself. Will not the best way of replying to this question be to let him speak for himself?

'Ist. When he erected Orphan House No. 1, and the question came what is the building to be called, he deliberately avoided associating his own name with it, and named it 'The New Orphan House, Ashley Down.' N.B.-- To the end of his life he disliked hearing or reading the words 'Mueller's Orphanage.' In keeping with this, for years, in every Annual Report, when referring to the Orphanage he reiterated the statement, 'The New Orphan Houses on Ashley Down, Bristol, are not my Orphan Houses,... they are God's Orphan Houses.' (See, for example, the Report for 1897, p. 69.)

'2d. For years, in fact until he was nearly eighty years old, he steadily refused to allow any portrait of himself to be published; and only most reluctantly (for reasons which he gives with characteristic minuteness in the preface to 'Preaching Tours') did he at length give way on this point.

'3d. In the last published Report, at page 66, he states:

'The primary object I had in view in carrying on this work,' viz., 'that it might be seen that now, in the nineteenth century, God is still the Living God, and that now, as well as thousands of years ago, He listens to the prayers of His children and helps those who trust in Him.'

'From these words and ways of acting, is it not evident, that the only 'memorial' that George Mueller cared about was that which consists in the effect of his example, Godward, upon his fellow men? Every soul converted to God (instrumentally) through his words or example constitutes a permanent memorial to him as the father in Christ of such an one. Every believer strengthened in faith (instrumentally) through his words or example constitutes a similar memorial to his spiritual teacher.

'He knew that God had, already, in the riches of His grace, given him many such memorials; and he departed this life, as I well know, cherishing the most lively hope that he should greet above thousands more to whom it had pleased God to make him a channel of rich spiritual blessing.

'He used often to say to me, when he opened a letter in which the writer poured out a tale of sore pecuniary need, and besought his help to an extent twice or three or ten times exceeding the sum total of his (Mr. Mueller's) earthly possessions at the moment,

'Ah! these dear people entirely miss the lesson I am trying to teach them, for they come to me, instead of going to God.'

'And if he could come back to us for an hour, and listen to all account of what his sincerely admiring, but mistaken, friends are proposing to do to perpetuate his memory, I can hear him, with a sigh, exclaiming,

'Ah! these dear friends are entirely missing the lesson that I tried for seventy years to teach them,' viz., 'That a man can receive nothing except it be given him from above,'

'and that, therefore, it is the Blessed Giver, and not the poor receiver, that is to be glorified.

'Yours faithfully,
'JAMES WRIGHT.'"

--from chapter 19: "At Evening-Time-- Light" ---New Window

"For the LORD Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout,
with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God:
and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
Then we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds,
to meet the LORD in the air:
and so shall we EVER be with the LORD.
Wherefore comfort one another with these Words"
(1 Thessalonians 4:16-18).

For additional reading related to this topic, please see:

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