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THE
SECRET OF IT ALL
To
summarize Mr. Muller’s service we must
understand his great secret. Such a life and such a work are the result of
one habit more than all else daily and frequent communion with God. He was
unwearied in supplications
and intercessions. In every new need and crisis, the one resort was
the prayer of faith. He first satisfied himself that he was in the way of duty,
then he fixed his mind on 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. 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 from one to ten years before the answer was
given. There were two parties, for whose reconciliation to God he prayed,
day by day, for over sixty years, and who had not at the time of his death,
turned unto God; but he said, "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 three score 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, as having already received
that for which he asked.
One
of the parties for whom for so many years he had unceasingly prayed, shortly
after his departure, died in faith, having received the promises and embraced
them and confessed Jesus as his Lord.
THE
PRIVILEGE OF ALL
Mr.
Muller frequently in his Journal and reports warned his fellow disciples not
to regard him as a miracle worker, or his experience as so exceptional as
to have little application to the 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.
Muller did," is wrong and unbelieving. Every child of God 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 the thousands of pages written by his pen, he teaches that this
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, more efficient service, and more convincing witness
to his Lord.
SUPERNATURAL
POWER
No
one can understand this work who does not see in it the supernatural power
of God; without that, it is an enigma, defying solution; with that, all the
mystery is an open mystery. He himself felt, from first to last, that this supernatural
factor was the whole key to the work, and without that it would
have been to himself a problem inexplicable. How pathetically he often
compared 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."
This
simile of the burning bush is the more apt, when we consider the rapid growth
of the work. At first so very small as to seem almost insignificant, and
conducted in one small rented house, accommodating thirty orphans; then
enlarged until other rented premises became necessary; then one, two, three,
four and even five immense structures being built until three hundred,
seven hundred, eleven hundred and fifty, and finally two thousand and
fifty inmates could find shelter within them; seldom has the world seen any
such vast and rapid enlargement. Then look at the outlay! At first a trifling
expenditure of perhaps four hundred pounds for the first year of the Scriptural
Knowledge Institution, and of five hundred pounds for the first twelve
months of the orphan work, and in the last year of Mr. Muller’s
life a
grand total of over twenty-six thousand pounds for all the purposes of the
work.
The
cost of the houses built on Ashley Down might have staggered even a man
of large capital, but this poor man only cried and the Lord helped him. The
first house cost fifteen thousand pounds, the second over twenty-one thousand,
the third over twenty-three thousand, and the fourth and fifth from
fifty thousand to sixty thousand more so that the total cost reached about
one hundred and fifteen thousand pounds. Besides all this there was a
yearly expenditure which rose as high as twenty-five thousand for the orphans
alone, irrespective of those occasional outlays made needful for emergencies,
such as improved sanitary precautions.
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 work still challenges unbelievers to
turn aside and see the great sight, and take off their shoes from their feet;
for is not all ground holy where God abides and manifests Himself?
ABUNDANT
IN LABORS
In
attempting a survey of this great life work we must not forget how much of
it was wholly outside of the Scriptural Knowledge Institution; namely, all
that service which Mr. Muller was permitted to render to the
His
preaching period covered the whole time from 1826 to 1898, the year of
his departure — over seventy years;
and with an average through the whole period of probably three sermons a week,
or over ten thousand for his lifetime, which is probably a low estimate,
for, during his missionary tours, which covered over two hundred thousand
miles and were spread through seventeen years, he spoke on an average
once a day, even at his already advanced age. Probably
those brought to the knowledge of Christ by his preaching would reach
into the thousands, exclusive of orphans converted at Ashley Down.
Then
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 inadequate conception of the range and scope of the influence
wielded by his tongue and pen, his labors and his life. Much of the
best influence defies all tabulated statistics and evades all mathematical estimate
— 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 Muller’s
work belongs to a realm where we cannot penetrate. But
God sees, knows and rewards it.
A
DOUBTER’S DOUBTS
Yet
there are those who doubt or deny the sufficiency of even this proof, though
so full and convincing. In a prominent daily newspaper, a correspondent,
discussing the efficacy of prayer, thus referred to the experience
of George Muller:
"I resided in that country during most of the
seventies, when he was often described as the best-advertised man
in the Three Kingdoms. By a large number of religious people
he was more
spoken of than were Gladstone and Disraeli, and
accordingly it is not miraculous that, although he said he had
never once solicited aid on behalf of his charitable enterprise,
money in a continuous stream flowed into his treasury. Even to
non-religious persons in
"Doubtless Muller was quite sincere in his convictions,
but, by the
very peculiarity of his method, his wants were
advertised
throughout the world most conspicuously, thus
receiving the benefit of a far larger publicity than would
otherwise have obtained, and it being known that he was praying for
money, money, of course, came in to him."
"But were Muller’s
prayers answered invariably? According to a memoir
by a personal friend, which has lately been published, this was
far from having been the case, and he often felt aggrieved at what
he considered a slight on the part of the Almighty, one of whose
‘pets’
(to quote Mr. Savage) he evidently imagined himself to
be. For example, he prayed for two of his ‘unconverted’
friends for
nearly fifty years without avail. There was absolutely nothing in his
career which could not be accounted for as the result of purely natural
causes."
"If it was possible to admit that what he looked upon
as answers to his prayers were due to special interventions of
Providence in his behalf (in other Words, to favoritism), the
question ‘would inevitably
arise, Why have the prayers of thousands of other Christian
people, whose faith is quite as strong as Muller’s,
been disregarded?
What are we to think of the little band of enthusiasts who
left this country for Jerusalem a few months ago to see Christ ‘appear
in the clouds,’ and who, at
last accounts, were reported to be starving, with no
immediate prospect of a return to their homes?"
"LECTOR."
"Lector"
takes an easy way to evade the force of Mr. Muller’s
life witness. He
contends that "the peculiarity" of his method, and the great
"publicity" thus obtained, made him the "best
advertised man in the Three Kingdoms," and so money poured in upon him from all
quarters. Thus the most conspicuous testimony to a prayer-hearing God,
furnished by any one individual in the century, is dismissed with one
sweep of the pen, affirming that "there was absolutely nothing in his
career which could not be accounted for as the result of purely natural
causes."
THE DOUBTER ANSWERED
In answer I beg to
submit twelve facts, all abundantly attested:
1. For
sixty years and more he carried on a work for God, involving at times
an average annual expenditure of $125,000, and never once, privately
or publicly, made any direct appeal for money.
2. Of
all his large staff of helpers no one is ever allowed to mention to an outside
party any want of the work, however pressing the emergency.
3. Thousands
of times correspondents inquired as to the existing wants, but in
no case did they receive information, even though at a crisis of need, the object
being to prove that it is safe to trust in God alone.
4. Reports
of the work, annually published, have no doubt largely prompted
gifts; but even these cannot account for the remarkable way in which
the work has been supported. In order to show that dependence was not
placed on these reports, they were not issued in one case, for over two years,
yet there was no cessation of supplies.
5. The
coincidences between the need and the supply can be accounted for on
no law of chance or awakened public interest. In thousands of cases the exact
sum or supply required has been received at the exact time needed, and
when donors could have had no knowledge of the facts.
6. The
facts spread over too long a time and too broad a field of details to be
accounted a wide advertising system. Mr. Muller recorded thousands of cases
of prayer for definite blessings, with equally definite answers.
7. Many
interpositions and deliverances were independent of any human gifts
or aid, as when a break in the heating apparatus necessitated a new boiler.
No sooner had the repairs begun than a cold north wind set in which
risked the health and even the lives of over four hundred orphans living
in the house, which there was no other mode of heating. Mr. Muller carried
the case to the Father of the fatherless, and the wind shifted to the south
and blew soft and warm till the repairs were complete.
8. Hundreds
of cases occurred, in course of sixty-five years, when there was
not food for the next meal, yet God only was appealed to, and never but
twice was it needful to postpone a meal, and then only for half an hour! Even
direct and systematic appeals to the public could not have brought supplies
for hundreds of orphans and helpers with such regularity for all those
years.
9. Again,
the supplies always kept pace with growing wants. Mr. Muller began
on a very small scale, and the orphan work was only the last of five departments
of the work of the Scriptural Knowledge Institution. Can it be accounted
for on any purely natural basis that the popular heart and purse, without
even full information of the progress of the five-fold enterprise, responded
regularly to its claims?
10. Again,
many a crisis, absolutely unknown to contributors, was met successfully
by adequate supplies, without which, at that very time, the work
must have ceased. Once, when a single penny was lacking after all available
funds were gathered, that one penny was found in the contribution
box, and it was all there was.
11. Again,
Mr. Muller found that his relations with God always determined the
measure of his help from man; unless his fellowship with his Heavenly Father
was closely maintained, all else went wrong. The more absolute his dependence
on God, his separation unto Him and his faith in Him, the more abundant
and manifest His deliverances, so that, as he became more independent
of man, he received the more from God through man.
12. Since
his death in 1898, the work has been carried on by his successors and
helpers on the same principles and with the same results. Though his strong
personality is removed, the same God honors the same mode of doing
His work, independent of the human instruments.
Mr. Muller’s
life purpose was to furnish to the world and the Church a simple
example of the fact that a man can not only live, but work on a large scale,
by faith in the living God; that he has only to trust and pray and obey and
God will prove his own faithfulness. The reports were published with sole
reference to the work already done, and because donors were entitled to
such knowledge of the way in which their money was expended. He never
used his reports as appeals for help in work yet to be begun or carried
on. Nor was his personal presence or influence necessary, for he traveled
for eighteen years in forty-two countries, mentioning his work only
at urgent request; and during all this time the work went on just as when
at home.
A CHALLENGE TO
UNBELIEF
One thing is obvious —
there is a wide field still open for experiment. Let those
who honestly believe that so great a life work may be entirely accounted
for on a natural basis give us a practical proof. Let an institution be
founded in some of our great cities similar to that in