Part 7 (1/2)
2. To circulate the Holy Scriptures, wholly or in portions, over the widest possible territory.
3. To aid missionary efforts and a.s.sist labourers, in the Lord's vineyard anywhere, who are working upon a biblical basis and looking only to the Lord for support.
To project such a work, on such a scale, and at such a time, was doubly an act of faith; for not only was the work already in hand enough to tax all available time and strength, but at this very time this record appears in Mr. Muller's journal: _”We have only one s.h.i.+lling left.”_ Surely no advance step would have been taken, had not the eyes been turned, not on the empty purse, but on the full and exhaustless treasury of a rich and bountiful Lord!
It was plainly G.o.d's purpose that, out of such abundance of poverty, the riches of His liberality should be manifested. It pleased Him, from whom and by whom are all things, that the work should be begun when His servants were poorest and weakest, that its growth to such giant proportions might the more prove it to be a plant of His own right hand's planting, and that His word might be fulfilled in its whole history:
”I the Lord do keep it: I will water it every moment: Lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day:”
(Isa. xxvii. 3.)
Whatever may be thought as to the need of such a new organization, or as to such scruples as moved its founders to insist even in minor matters upon the closest adherence to scripture teaching, this at least is plain, that for more than half a century it has stood upon its original foundation, and its increase and usefulness have surpa.s.sed the most enthusiastic dreams of its founders; nor have the principles first avowed ever been abandoned. With the Living G.o.d as its sole patron, and prayer as its only appeal, it has attained vast proportions, and its world-wide work has been signally owned and blessed.
On March 19th Mrs. Muller gave birth to a son, to the great joy of his parents; and, after much prayer, they gave him the name Elijah--”My G.o.d is Jah”--the name itself being one of George Mullers life-mottoes. Up to this time the families of Mr. Muller and Mr. Craik had dwelt under one roof, but henceforth it was thought wise that they should have separate lodgings.
When, at the close of 1834, the usual backward glance was cast over the Lord's leadings and dealings, Mr. Muller gratefully recognized the divine goodness which had thus helped him to start upon its career the work with its several departments. Looking to the Lord alone for light and help, he had laid the corner-stone of this ”little inst.i.tution”; and in October, after only seven months' existence, it had already begun to be established. In the Sunday-school there were one hundred and twenty children; in the adult cla.s.ses, forty; in the four day-schools, two hundred and nine boys and girls; four hundred and eighty-two Bibles and five hundred and twenty Testaments had been put into circulation, and fifty-seven pounds had been spent in aid of missionary operations.
During these seven months the Lord had sent, in answer to prayer, over one hundred and sixty-seven pounds in money, and much blessing upon the work itself. The brothers and sisters who were in charge had likewise been given by the same prayer-hearing G.o.d, in direct response to the cry of need and the supplication of faith.
Meanwhile another _object_ was coming into greater prominence before the mind and heart of Mr. Muller: it was the thought of _making some permanent provision for fatherless and motherless children._
An orphan boy who had been in the school had been taken to the poorhouse, no longer able to attend on account of extreme poverty; and this little incident set Mr. Muller thinking and praying about orphans.
Could not something be done to meet the temporal and spiritual wants of this cla.s.s of very poor children? Unconsciously to himself, G.o.d had set a seed in his soul, and was watching and watering it. The idea of a definite orphan work had taken root within him, and, like any other living germ, it was springing up and growing, he knew not how. As yet it was only in the blade, but in time there would come the ear and the full-grown corn in the ear, the new seed of a larger harvest.
Meanwhile the church was growing. In these two and a half years over two hundred had been added, making the total members.h.i.+p two hundred and fifty-seven; but the enlargement of the work generally neither caused the church life to be neglected nor any one department of duty to suffer declension--a very noticeable fact in this history.
The point to which we have now come is one of double interest and importance, as at once a point of arrival and of departure. The work of G.o.d's chosen servant may be considered as fairly if not fully inaugurated _in all its main forms of service._ He himself is in his thirtieth year, the age when his divine Master began to be fully manifest to the world and to go about doing good. Through the preparatory steps and stages leading up to his complete mission and ministry to the church and the world, Christ's humble disciple has likewise been brought, and his fuller career of usefulness now begins, with the various agencies in operation whereby for more than threescore years he was to show both proof and example of what G.o.d can do through one man who is willing to be simply the instrument for Him to work with.
Nothing is more marked in George Muller, to the very day of his death, than this, that he so looked to G.o.d and leaned on G.o.d that he felt himself to be nothing, and G.o.d everything. He sought to be always and in all things surrendered as a pa.s.sive tool to the will and hand of the Master Workman.
This point of arrival and of departure is also a point of _prospect._ Here, halting and looking backward, we may take in at a glance the various successive steps and stages of preparation whereby the Lord had made His servant ready for the sphere of service to which He called, and for which He fitted him. One has only, from this height, to look over the ten years that were past, to see beyond dispute or doubt the divine design that lay back of George Mullers life, and to feel an awe of the G.o.d who thus chooses and shapes, and then uses, His vessels of service.
It will be well, even if it involves some repet.i.tion, to pa.s.s in review the more important steps in the process by which the divine Potter had shaped His vessel for His purpose, educating and preparing George Muller for His work.
1. First of all, his _conversion._ In the most unforeseen manner and at the most unexpected time G.o.d led him to turn from the error of his way, and brought him to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
2. Next, his _missionary spirit._ That consuming flame was kindled within him which, when it is fanned by the Spirit and fed by the fuel of facts, inclines to unselfish service and makes one willing to go wherever, and to do whatever, the Lord will.
3. Next, his _renunciation of self._ In more than one instance he was enabled to give up for Christ's sake an earthly attachment that was idolatrous, because it was a hindrance to his full obedience and single-eyed loyalty to his heavenly Master.
4. Then his _taking counsel of G.o.d._ Early in his Christian life he formed the habit, in things great and small, of ascertaining the will of the Lord before taking action, asking guidance in every matter, through the Word and the Spirit.
5. His humble and _childlike temper._ The Father drew His child to Himself, imparting to him the simple mind that asks believingly and trusts confidently, and the filial spirit that submits to fatherly counsel and guidance.
6. His _method of preaching._ Under this same divine tuition he early learned how to preach the Word, in simple dependence on the Spirit of G.o.d, studying the Scriptures in the original and expounding them without wisdom of words.
7. His _cutting loose from man._ Step by step, all dependence on man or appeals to man for pecuniary support were abandoned, together with all borrowing, running into debt, stated salary, etc. His eyes were turned to G.o.d alone as the Provider.
8. His _satisfaction in the Word._ As knowledge of the Scriptures grew, love for the divine oracles increased, until all other books, even of a religious sort, lost their charms in comparison with G.o.d's own text-book, as explained and illumined by the divine Interpreter.
9. His _thorough Bible study._ Few young men have ever been led to such a systematic search into the treasures of G.o.d's truth. He read the Book of G.o.d through and through, fixing its teachings on his mind by meditation and translating them into practice.