GEORGE MULLER, OF BRISTOL, ENGLAND
This mighty man of faith is too well known to the Christian world to need any introduction from us. We quote the following from a brief sketch of his life
“The support of his orphanage amounts to $230,000 annually. The milk-bill amounts to $10,000 yearly! He has sometimes paid out as much as $27,500 in one day. In all, Mr. Muller has received for his orphanage and other works of a Christian and benevolent kind, a total of $4,275,000; and he declares that he never asked a human being for a sixpence! He has made it his uniform rule to go in prayer to Him who has the hearts of all men in His hands, and ask Him for all needed supply and men have been moved to give it; some giving out of their abundant wealth, and some out of their poverty.
He has received as high as $45,000 in one donation, and scores of times $5,000. A principle of his has been never to contract a debt in connection with his orphanage. Often the last sixpence has been spent, and within a few hours either money must come or starvation but the money came without fail, and never were the children sent hungry to bed. Hundreds of times he has held two prayer-meetings in a day with his helpers, beseeching God to send them supplies for the next meal of food for the orphans; and in every case the Lord has graciously answered their prayer.
In eleven years, he had received five thousand answers to prayer. In the course of his life he has received some thirty thousand answers to prayer within the same day of asking; and that for some things he had been praying every day for over thirty years, and the answer had not come as yet. He mentioned these things to encourage Christians patiently to wait on God. He had received answers after waiting fifteen, twenty, and thirty years. When in the deepest poverty, he never gives any human being the least intimation of his needs, either by word or look, but always carries every matter great and small to God, and continually rejoices in the Lord.
He declares that his countenance never looks sad or anxious when in need, as he considers that would be dishonoring to God, and inconsistent with a perfect trust in Him.”He says: ‘When I first began allowing God to deal with me, relying on Him, taking Him at His word, and set out, over half a century ago, simply to rely on Him for myself, family, taxes, traveling expenses, and every other need, I rested on simple promises.’
I believed the word. I rested on it and practiced it. I ‘took God at His word.’ A stranger, a foreigner in England, I know seven languages, and might have used them perhaps as a means of remunerative employment; but I had consecrated myself to labor for the Lord. I put my reliance in the God who has promised, and He has acted according to His word. I’ve lacked nothing -nothing. I have had my trials, my difficulties, and my empty purse, but my receipts have aggregated tens of thousands of dollars, while the work has gone on all these years. ” – Shining Lights.
Milo 