Part 5 (1/2)
1. An experience of frequent and at times prolonged _financial straits._
The money in hand for personal needs, and for the needs of hundreds and thousands of orphans, and for the various branches of the work of the Scriptural Knowledge Inst.i.tution, was often reduced to a single _pound,_ or even _penny,_ and sometimes to _nothing._ There was therefore a necessity for constant waiting on G.o.d, looking to Him directly for all supplies. For months, if not years, together, and at several periods in the work, supplies were furnished only from month to month, week to week, day to day, _hour to hour!_ Faith was thus kept in lively exercise and under perpetual training.
2. An experience of the _unchanging faithfulness of the Father-G.o.d._
The straits were long and trying, but never was there one case of failure to receive help; never a meal-time without at least a frugal meal, never a want or a crisis unmet by divine supply and support. Mr.
Muller said to the writer: ”Not once, or five times, or five hundred times, but thousands of times in these threescore years, have we had in hand not enough _for one more meal,_ either in food or in funds; but not once has G.o.d failed us; not once have we or the orphans gone hungry or lacked any good thing.” From 1838 to 1844 was a period of peculiar and prolonged straits, yet when the time of need actually came the supply was always given, though often at the last moment.
3. An experience of the working of G.o.d upon the minds, hearts, and consciences of _contributors to the work._
It will amply repay one to plod, step by step, over these thousands of pages, if only to trace the hand of G.o.d touching the springs of human action all over the world in ways of His own, and at times of great need, and adjusting the amount and the exact day and hour of the supply, to the existing want. Literally from the earth's ends, men, women, and children who had never seen Mr. Muller and could have known nothing of the pressure at the time, have been led at the exact crisis of affairs to send aid in the very sum or form most needful. In countless cases, while he was on his knees asking, the answer has come in such close correspondence with the request as to shut out chance as an explanation, and compel belief in a prayer-hearing G.o.d.
4. An experience of habitual _hanging upon the unseen G.o.d_ and nothing else.
The reports, issued annually to acquaint the public with the history and progress of the work, and give an account of stewards.h.i.+p to the many donors who had a right to a report--these made _no direct appeal for aid._ At one time, and that of great need, Mr. Muller felt led to _withhold_ the usual annual statement, lest some might construe the account of work already done as an appeal for aid in work yet to be done, and thus detract from the glory of the Great Provider.* The Living G.o.d alone was and is the Patron of these inst.i.tutions; and not even the wisest and wealthiest, the n.o.blest and the most influential of human beings, has ever been looked to as their dependence.
* For example, Vol. II, 102, records that the report given is for 1846-1848, no report having been issued for 1847; and on page 113, under date of May 25th, occur these words: ”not being nearly enough to meet the housekeeping expenses,” etc.; and, May 28th and 30th, such other words as these: ”now our poverty,” ”in this our great need,” ”in these days of straitness.” Mr. Wright thinks that _on that very account_ Mr.
Muller did not publish the report for 1847.
5. An experience of conscientious _care in accepting and using gifts._
Here is a pattern for all who act as stewards for G.o.d. Whenever there was any ground of misgiving as to the propriety or expediency of receiving what was offered, it was declined, however pressing the need, unless or until all such objectionable features no more existed. If the party contributing was known to dishonour lawful debts, so that the money was righteously due to others; if the gift was enc.u.mbered and embarra.s.sed by restrictions that hindered its free use for G.o.d; if it was designated for endowment purposes or as a provision for Mr. Muller's old age, or for the future of the inst.i.tutions; or if there was any evidence or suspicion that the donation was given grudgingly, reluctantly, or for self-glory, it was promptly declined and returned.
In some cases, even where large amounts were involved, parties were urged to wait until more prayer and deliberation made clear that they were acting under divine leading.
6. An experience of extreme caution lest there should be even a careless _betrayal of the fact of pressing need,_ to the outside public.
The helpers in the inst.i.tutions were allowed to come into such close fellows.h.i.+p and to have such knowledge of the exact state of the work as aids not only in common labours, but in common prayers and self-denials.
Without such acquaintance they could not serve, pray, nor sacrifice intelligently. But these a.s.sociates were most solemnly and repeatedly charged never to reveal to those without, not even in the most serious crises, any want whatsoever of the work. The one and only resort was ever to be the G.o.d who hears the cry of the needy; and the greater the exigency, the greater the caution lest there should even seem to be a looking away from divine to human help.
7. An experience of growing boldness of faith in _asking and trusting for great things._
As faith was exercised it was energized, so that it became as easy and natural to ask confidently for a hundred, a thousand, or ten thousand pounds, as once it had been for a pound or a penny. After confidence in G.o.d had been strengthened through discipline, and G.o.d had been proven faithful, it required no more venture to cast himself on G.o.d for provision for two thousand children and an annual outlay of at least twenty-five thousand pounds for them than in the earlier periods of the work to look to Him to care for twenty homeless orphans at a cost of two hundred and fifty pounds a year. Only by _using_ faith are we kept from practically _losing_ it, and, on the contrary, to use faith is to lose the unbelief that hinders G.o.d's mighty acts.
This brief resume of the contents of thousands of entries is the result of a repeated and careful examination of page after page where have been patiently recorded with scrupulous and punctilious exactness the innumerable details of Mr. Muller's long experience as a coworker with G.o.d. He felt himself not only the steward of a celestial Master, but the trustee of human gifts, and hence he sought to ”provide things honest in the sight of all men.” He might never have published a report or spread these minute matters before the public eye, and yet have been an equally faithful steward toward _G.o.d;_ but he would not in such case have been an equally faithful trustee toward man.
Frequently, in these days, men receive considerable sums of money from various sources for benevolent work, and yet give no account of such trustees.h.i.+p. However honest such parties may be, they not only act unwisely, but, by their course, lend sanction to others with whom such irresponsible action is a cloak for systematic fraud. Mr. Muller's whole career is the more without fault because in this respect his administration of his great trust challenges the closest investigation.
The brief review of the lessons taught in his journal may well startle the incredulous and unbelieving spirit of our skeptical day. Those who doubt the power of prayer to bring down actual blessing, or who confound faith in G.o.d with credulity and superst.i.tion, may well wonder and perhaps stumble at such an array of facts. But, if any reader is still doubtful as to the facts, or thinks they are here arrayed in a deceptive garb or invested with an imaginative halo, he is hereby invited to examine for himself the singularly minute records which George Muller has been led of G.o.d to put before the world in a printed form which thus admits no change, and to accompany with a bold and repeated challenge to any one so inclined, to subject every statement to the severest scrutiny, and prove, if possible, one item to be in any respect false, exaggerated, or misleading. The absence of all enthusiasm in the calm and mathematical precision of the narrative compels the reader to feel that the writer was almost mechanically exact in the record, and inspires confidence that it contains the absolute, naked truth.
One caution should, like Habakkuk's gospel message--”The just shall live by his faith”--be written large and plain so that even a cursory glance may take it in. Let no one ascribe to George Muller such a _miraculous gift of faith_ as lifted him above common believers and out of the reach of the temptations and infirmities to which all fallible souls are exposed. He was constantly liable to satanic a.s.saults, and we find him making frequent confession of the same sins as others, and even of unbelief, and at times overwhelmed with genuine sorrow for his departures from G.o.d. In fact he felt himself rather more than usually wicked by nature, and utterly helpless even as a believer: was it not this poverty of spirit and mourning over sin, this consciousness of entire unworthiness and dependence, that so drove him to the throne of grace and the all-merciful and all-powerful Father? Because he was so weak, he leaned hard on the strong arm of Him whose strength is not only manifested, but can only be made perfect, in weakness.*
* 1 Cor. xii. 1-10.
To those who think that no man can wield such power in prayer or live such a life of faith who is not an exception to common mortal frailties, it will be helpful to find in this very journal that is so lighted up with the records of G.o.d's goodness, the dark shadows of conscious sin and guilt. Even in the midst of abounding mercies and interpositions he suffered from temptations to distrust and disobedience, and sometimes had to mourn their power over him, as when once he found himself inwardly complaining of the cold leg of mutton which formed the staple of his Sunday dinner! We discover as we read that we are communing with a man who was not only of like pa.s.sions with ourselves, but who felt himself rather more than most others subject to the sway of evil, and needing therefore a special keeping power. Scarce had he started upon his new path of entire dependence on G.o.d, when he confessed himself ”so sinful” as for some time to entertain the thought that ”it would be of no use to trust in the Lord in this way,” and fearing that he had perhaps gone already too far in this direction in having committed himself to such a course.* True, this temptation was speedily overcome and Satan confounded; but from time to time similar fiery darts were hurled at him which had to be quenched by the same s.h.i.+eld of faith.
Never, to the last hour of life, could he trust himself, or for one moment relax his hold on G.o.d, and neglect the word of G.o.d and prayer, without falling into sin. The 'old man,' of sin always continued too strong for George Muller alone, and the longer he lived a 'life of trust' the less was his trust placed upon himself.
* Vol. I. 73.