George Muller of Bristol Part 1

George Muller of Bristol.

by Arthur T. Pierson.

Introduction

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

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

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

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

3d. A book of, say, four hundred and fifty pages, containing the substance of the four volumes of the Narrative, and carrying on the history to the date of the decease of the founder of the inst.i.tution, would meet the desire of a large cla.s.s of readers.

4th. Several brief sketches of Mr. Muller's career had issued from the press within a few days after the funeral; and one (written by Mr. F.

Warne and published by W. F. Mack & Co., Bristol), a very accurate and truly appreciative sketch, had had a large circulation; but I was convinced by the letters that reached me that a more comprehensive memoir was called for, and _would be_ produced, so I was led especially to pray for _guidance_ that such a book might be entrusted to the author fitted by G.o.d to undertake it.

While waiting for the answer to this definite pet.i.tion, though greatly urged by publishers to proceed, I steadily declined to take any step until I had clearer light. Moreover, I was, personally, occupied during May and June in preparing the Annual Report of "The Scriptural Knowledge Inst.i.tution," and could not give proper attention to the other matter.

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

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

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

He had had exceptional opportunities twenty years ago in the United States, and in later years when visiting Great Britain, for becoming intimately acquainted with Mr. Muller, with the principles on which the Orphanage and other branches of "The Scriptural Knowledge Inst.i.tution"

were carried on, and with many details of their working. I knew that Dr.

Pierson most thoroughly sympathized with these principles as being according to the mind of G.o.d revealed in His word; and that he could, therefore, present not merely the history of the external facts and results of Mr. Muller's life and labours, but could and would, by G.o.d's help, unfold, with the ardour and force of _conviction,_ the secret springs of that life and of those labours.

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

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

"They glorified G.o.d" in him.

JAMES WRIGHT.

13 CHARLOTTE STREET, PARK STREET, BRISTOL, ENG., March, 1899.

A Prefatory Word

DR. OLIVER W. HOLMES wittily said that an autobiography is what every biography _ought to be._ The four volumes of "The Narrative of the Lord's Dealings with George Muller," already issued from the press and written by his own hand, with a fifth volume covering his missionary tours, and prepared by his wife, supplemented by the Annual Reports since published, const.i.tute essentially an autobiography--Mr. Muller's own life-story, stamped with his own peculiar individuality, and singularly and minutely complete. To those who wish the simple journal of his life with the details of his history, these printed doc.u.ments make any other sketch of him from other hands so far unnecessary.

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

No one could have undertaken this work of writing Mr. Muller's life-story without being deeply impressed with the opportunity thus afforded for impressing the most vital truths that concern holy living and holy serving; nor could any one have completed such a work without feeling overawed by the argument which this narrative furnishes for a present, living, prayer-hearing G.o.d, and for a possible and practical daily walk with Him and work with Him. It has been a great help in the preparation of this book that the writer has had such frequent converse with Mr.

James Wright, who was so long Mr. Muller's a.s.sociate and knew him so intimately.

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

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

WHERE IS THE LORD G.o.d OF ELIJAH?

George Muller of Bristol

CHAPTER I

FROM HIS BIRTH TO HIS NEW BIRTH

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

Things which are unseen and eternal seem, to the carnal man, distant and indistinct, while what is seen and temporal is vivid and real.

Practically, any object in nature that can be seen or felt is thus more real and actual to most men than the Living G.o.d. Every man who walks with G.o.d, and finds Him a present Help in every time of need; who puts His promises to the practical proof and verifies them in actual experience; every believer who with the key of faith unlocks G.o.d's mysteries, and with the key of prayer unlocks G.o.d's treasuries, thus furnishes to the race a demonstration and an ill.u.s.tration of the fact that "He is, and is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek Him."

George Muller was such an argument and example incarnated in human flesh. Here was a man of like pa.s.sions as we are and tempted in all points like as we are, but who believed G.o.d and was established by believing; who prayed earnestly that he might live a life and do a work which should be a convincing proof that G.o.d hears prayer and that it is safe to trust Him at all times; and who has furnished just such a witness as he desired. Like Enoch, he truly walked with G.o.d, and had abundant testimony borne to him that he pleased G.o.d. And when, on the tenth day of March, 1898, it was told us of George Muller that "he was not," we knew that "G.o.d had taken him": it seemed more like a translation than like death.

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

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

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

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

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

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

5. From the close of his tours to his death: 1892-98.

Thus the first period would cover twenty years; the second, ten; the third, forty; the fourth, seventeen; and the last, six. However thus unequal in length, each forms a sort of epoch, marked by certain conspicuous and characteristic features which serve to distinguish it and make its lessons peculiarly important and memorable. For example, the first period is that of the lost days of sin, in which the great lesson taught is the bitterness and worthlessness of a disobedient life.

In the second period may be traced the remarkable steps of preparation for the great work of his life. The third period embraces the actual working out of the divine mission committed to him. Then for seventeen or eighteen years we find him bearing in all parts of the earth his world-wide witness to G.o.d; and the last six years were used of G.o.d in mellowing and maturing his Christian character. During these years he was left in peculiar loneliness, yet this only made him lean more on the divine companionship, and it was noticeable with those who were brought into most intimate contact with him that he was more than ever before heavenly-minded, and the beauty of the Lord his G.o.d was upon him.

The first period may be pa.s.sed rapidly by, for it covers only the wasted years of a sinful and profligate youth and early manhood. It is of interest mainly as ill.u.s.trating the sovereignty of that Grace which abounds even to the chief of sinners. Who can read the story of that score of years and yet talk of piety as the product of evolution? In his case, instead of evolution, there was rather a _revolution,_ as marked and complete as ever was found, perhaps, in the annals of salvation. If Lord George Lyttelton could account for the conversion of Saul of Tarsus only by supernatural power, what would he have thought of George Muller's transformation! Saul had in his favor a conscience, however misguided, and a morality, however pharisaic. George Muller was a flagrant sinner against common honesty and decency, and his whole early career was a revolt, not against G.o.d only, but against his own moral sense. If Saul was a hardened transgressor, how callous must have been George Muller!

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

George Muller had no proper parental training. His father's favoritism toward him was harmful both to himself and to his brother, as in the family of Jacob, tending to jealousy and estrangement. Money was put too freely into the hands of these boys, hoping that they might learn how to use it and save it; but the result was, rather, careless and vicious waste, for it became the source of many childish sins of indulgence.

Worse still, when called upon to render any account of their stewardship, sins of lying and deception were used to cloak wasteful spending. Young George systematically deceived his father, either by false entries of what he had received, or by false statements of what he had spent or had on hand. When his tricks were found out, the punishment which followed led to no reformation, the only effect being more ingenious devices of trickery and fraud. Like the Spartan lad, George Muller reckoned it no fault to steal, but only to have his theft found out.

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