Part 9 (1/2)

One is reminded of Moses in his intercession for Israel, of Elijah in his exceeding jealousy for the Lord of hosts, and of that prayer of Jeremiah that so amazes us by its boldness:

”Do not abhor us for Thy name's sake!

_Do not disgrace the throne of Thy glory!”_*

* Comp. Numbers xiv. 13-19; 1 Kings xix. 10; Jer. xiv. 21.

Looking back over the growth of the work at the end of the year 1837, he puts on record the following facts and figures:

Three orphan houses were now open with eighty-one children, and nine helpers in charge of them. In the Sunday-schools there were three hundred and twenty, and in the day-schools three hundred and fifty; and the Lord had furnished over three hundred and seven pounds for temporal supplies.

From this same point of view it may be well to glance back over the five years of labour in Bristol up to July, 1837. Between himself and his brother Craik uninterrupted harmony had existed from the beginning. They had been perfectly at one in their views of the truth, in their witness to the truth, and in their judgment as to all matters affecting the believers over whom the Holy Ghost had made them overseers. The children of G.o.d had been kept from heresy and schism under their joint pastoral care; and all these blessings Mr. Muller and his true yoke-fellow humbly traced to the mercy and grace of the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls.

Thus far over one hundred and seventy had been converted and admitted to fellows.h.i.+p, making the total number of communicants three hundred and seventy, nearly equally divided between Bethesda and Gideon. The whole history of these years is lit up with the sunlight of G.o.d's smile and blessing.

CHAPTER X

THE WORD OF G.o.d AND PRAYER

HABIT both _shows_ and _makes_ the man, for it is at once historic and prophetic, the mirror of the man as he is and the mould of the man as he is to be. At this point, therefore, special attention may properly be given to the two marked habits which had princ.i.p.ally to do with the man we are studying.

Early in the year 1838, he began reading that third biography which, with those of Francke and John Newton, had such a singular influence on his own life--Philip's Life of George Whitefield. The life-story of the orphan's friend had given the primary impulse to his work; the life-story of the converted blasphemer had suggested his narrative of the Lord's dealings; and now the life-story of the great evangelist was blessed of G.o.d to shape his general character and give new power to his preaching and his wider ministry to souls. These three biographies together probably affected the whole inward and outward life of George Muller more than any other volumes but the Book of G.o.d, and they were wisely fitted of G.o.d to co-work toward such a blessed result. The example of Francke incited to faith in prayer and to a work whose sole dependence was on G.o.d. Newton's witness to grace led to a testimony to the same sovereign love and mercy as seen in his own case. Whitefield's experience inspired to greater fidelity and earnestness in preaching the Word, and to greater confidence in the power of the anointing Spirit.

Particularly was this impression deeply made on Mr. Muller's mind and heart: that Whitefield's unparalleled success in evangelistic labours was plainly traceable to two causes and could not be separated from them as direct effects; namely, his _unusual prayerfulness, and his habit of reading the Bible on his knees._

The great evangelist of the last century had learned that first lesson in service, his own utter nothingness and helplessness: that he was nothing, and could do nothing, without G.o.d. He could neither understand the Word for himself, nor translate it into his own life, nor apply it to others with power, unless the Holy Spirit became to him both _insight_ and _unction._ Hence his success; he was filled with the Spirit: and this alone accounts both for the quality and the quant.i.ty of his labours. He died in 1770, in the fifty-sixth year of his age, having preached his first sermon in Gloucester in 1736. During this thirty-four years his labours had been both unceasing and untiring. While on his journeyings in America, he preached one hundred and seventy-five times in seventy-five days, besides travelling, in the slow vehicles of those days, upwards of eight hundred miles. When health declined, and he was put on 'short allowance,' even that was _one sermon each week-day and three on Sunday._ There was about his preaching, moreover, a nameless charm which held thirty thousand hearers half-breathless on Boston Common and made tears pour down the sooty faces of the colliers at Kingswood.

The pa.s.sion of George Muller's soul was to know fully the secrets of prevailing with G.o.d and with man. George Whitefield's life drove home the truth that G.o.d alone could create in him a holy earnestness to win souls and qualify him for such divine work by imparting a compa.s.sion for the lost that should become an absorbing pa.s.sion for their salvation.

And--let this be carefully marked as another secret of this life of service--_he now began himself to read the word of G.o.d upon his knees,_ and often found for hours great blessing in such meditation and prayer over a single psalm or chapter.

Here we stop and ask what profit there can be in thus prayerfully reading and searching the Scriptures in the very att.i.tude of prayer.

Having tried it for ourselves, we may add our humble witness to its value.

First of all, this habit is a constant reminder and recognition of the need of spiritual teaching in order to the understanding of the holy Oracles. No reader of G.o.d's word can thus bow before G.o.d and His open book, without a feeling of new reverence for the Scriptures, and dependence on their Author for insight into their mysteries. The att.i.tude of wors.h.i.+p naturally suggests sober-mindedness and deep seriousness, and banishes frivolity. To treat that Book with lightness or irreverence would be doubly profane when one is in the posture of prayer.

Again, such a habit naturally leads to self-searching and comparison of the actual life with the example and pattern shown in the Word. The precept compels the practice to be seen in the light of its teaching; the command challenges the conduct to appear for examination. The prayer, whether spoken or unspoken, will inevitably be:

”Search me, O G.o.d, and know my heart, Try me, and know my thoughts; And see if there be any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting!”

(Psalm cx.x.xix. 23, 24.)

The words thus reverently read will be translated into the life and mould the character into the image of G.o.d. ”Beholding as in a gla.s.s the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit.”*

* 2 Cor. iii. 18.

But perhaps the greatest advantage will be that the Holy Scriptures will thus suggest the very words which become the dialect of prayer. ”We know not what we should pray for as we ought”--neither what nor how to pray.

But here is the Spirit's own inspired utterance, and, if the praying be moulded on the model of His teaching, how can we go astray? Here is our G.o.d-given liturgy and litany--a divine prayer-book. We have here G.o.d's promises, precepts, warnings, and counsels, not to speak of all the Spirit-inspired literal prayers therein contained; and, as we reflect upon these, our prayers take their cast in this matrix. We turn precept and promise, warning and counsel into supplication, with the a.s.surance that we cannot be asking anything that is not according to His will,*

for are we not turning His own word into prayer?

* 1 John v. 13.