An Hour with George Müller

PASTOR CHARLES R. PARSONS tells in a tract (published by D. S., One Poplar, Ashley Road, Bristol, England), of an hour’s interview with George Miller toward the close of his life. He says:

A warm summer day found me slowly walking up the shady groves of Ashley Hill, Bristol At the top there met my gaze the immense buildings which shelter over two thousand orphans, built by a man who has given to the world the most striking object lesson in faith it has ever seen.

The first house is on the right, and here, among his own people, in plain, unpretentious apartments, lives the saintly patriarch, George Miller. Passing through the lodge-gate, I pause a moment to look at House No. 3 before me, only one of five erected at a cost of $600,000.

The bell is answered by an orphan, who conducts me up a lofty stone staircase, and into one of the private rooms of the venerable founder. -Mr. Muller has attained the remarkable age of ninety-one. As I stand in his presence, veneration fills my mind. “Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honor the face of the old man.” (Lev. xix, 32.) 3

He received me with a cordial handshake, and bade me welcome. It is something to see a man by whom God has accomplished a mighty work; it is more to hear the tones of his voice; far more than either to be art dad brought into immediate contact with his spirit, and feel the warm breath of his soul breathed into one’s own.

The communion of that hour will be forever graven on my memory. This servant of the Most High opened his heart to me, counseled me, prayed with me, and gave me his blessing.

In that hour was manifested to me the source of Mr. Miller’s great spiritual strength.’ The aged saint, with all his faculties unimpaired, was eloquent the whole time, on one theme, the praise of Jehovah, the great Hearer and Answerer of his people’s prayers. My own words were few.

“You have always found the Lord faithful to His - promise?”

“Always; He has never failed me! For nearly seventy years every need in connection with this work has been supplied. The orphans, from the first until now, have numbered 9,500; but they have never wanted a meal. Hundreds of times we have commenced the day without a penny; but our Heavenly Father has sent supplies the moment they were actually required. There never was a time when we had no wholesome meal. During all these years I have been enabled to trust in the living God alone. One million four hundred thousand pounds have been sent to me in answer to prayer. We have wanted as much as £50,000 in one year, and it has all come when needed. No man can ever say I asked him for a penny. We have no committees, no collectors, no voting, and no endowments. All has come in answer to believing prayer. God has many ways of moving the hearts of men to help us all over the world. While I am praying, He speaks to one and another, on this

oper continent and on that, to send us help. Only the other evening, while I was preaching, a gentleman wrote me a check for a large amount for the orphans, and handed it to me when the service was over.”

“I have read your life, Mr. Miller, and noticed how greatly, at times, your faith has been tried. Is it with you now as formerly?”

“My faith is tried as much as ever, and my difficulties are greater than ever. Besides our financial responsibilities, suitable helpers have constantly to be found, and suitable places provided for hundreds of orphans constantly leaving the homes. Then often our funds run very low; only the other week we had come nearly to the end of our supplies. I called my beloved helpers together, and said to them, ‘Pray, brethren, pray!’ Immediately £100 were sent us, then £200, and in a few days £1,500 came in. But we have to be always praying and always believing. O, it is good to trust in the living God, for He hath said, ‘I will never leave-thee, nor forsake thee. (Heb. xiii, 5.) Expect great things from God, and great things you will have. There is no limit to what He is able to do. Praises forever to His glorious name! Praise Him for all! Praise Him for everything! I have praised Him many times when He has sent me 6d., and I have praised Him when He has sent me £12,000.” 3

“I suppose you have never contemplated a reserve fund?” ae “That would be the greatest folly. How could I pray if I had reserves? God would say, ‘Bring them out; bring out those reserves, George Müller? O no, I never thought of such a thing! Our reserve fund is

ra si AT L y N eral in heaven. The living God is our sufficiency. 1 have trusted Him for one sovereign, trusted Him for thousands, and never trusted in vain. ‘Blessed is the man that trusteth in Him.’” (Ps. xxxiv, 8.)

“Then, of course, you have never thought of saving for yourself?”

Not soon shall I forget the dignified manner with which I was answered by this mighty man of faith. Hitherto he had been sitting opposite me, with his knees almost close to mine, with clasped hands, and eyes that betokened a calm, quiet, meditative spirit. Most of the time he leaned forward, his gaze directed on the floor. But now he sat erect, and looked for several moments in my face, with an earnestness that seemed to penetrate my very soul. There was a grandeur and majesty about those undimmed eyes, so accustomed to spiritual visions and to looking into the deep things of God. I do not know whether the question seemed a sordid one, or whether it touched a lingering remnant of the old self to which he alludes in his discourses. Anyhow, there was no shadow of doubt that it roused his whole being.

‘After a brief pause, during which his face was a sermon, and the depths of his clear eyes flashed fire, he unbuttoned his coat, and drew from his pocket an old-fashioned purse, with rings in the middle separating the character of the coins. He placed it in my hand, saying: “All I am possessed of is in that purse — every penny! Save for myself! Never! When money is sent to me for my own use, I pass it on to God. As much as £1,000 has thus been sent at one time; but I do not regard these gifts as belonging to me; they belong to Him, whose I am, and whom I serve. Save for myself! I dare not save; it would dishonor my loving, gracious, all-bountiful Father.”

I handed the purse back to Mr. Müller. He told me the sum it contained, and what he had himself given to the Orphanage and the Scriptural Knowledge Institution; but these matters, with a few others, I am not at liberty to disclose.

There was a glow of holy enthusiasm in the face of this aged, faithful man as he related some of his preaching tours in forty-two different countries; and how, in traveling from place to place, in some instances thousands of miles apart, his every need had been supplied. Hundreds of thousands of men andswomen of almost every nation came to hear him, and his great themes were the simple message of salvation and the encouragement of believers to trust in the living God. He told me that he prayed more about his sermons than anything else, and often the text was not given until he ascended the pulpit, though he had been praying for it all the week.

I asked him if he spent much time on his knees.

“More or less every day. But I live in the spirit of prayer. I pray as I walk, when I lie down, and when I rise. The answers are always coming. Thousands and

ten thousands of times have my prayers been answered.

When once I am persuaded a thing is right, I go on praying for it until the answer comes. George Müller never gives up!” 3

The words were spoken in an exulting tone. There was a ring of triumph, and his countenance was all aglow with holy joy. He had risen from his seat while utterere A e, aci ing them, and had walked round to the side of the table. He went on:

“Thousands of souls have been saved in answer to the prayers of George Müller. He will meet thousands, yes, tens of thousands, in heaven!”

There was another pause; but I made no remark, and he continued:

“The great point is to never give up until the answer comes. I have been praying for fifty-two years, every day, for two men, sons of a friend of my youth. They are not converted yet, but will be! How can it be otherwise? There is the unchanging promise of Jehovah, and ` on that I rest. The great fault of the children of God is, they do not continue in prayer; they do not go on praying; they do not persevere. If they desire anything for God’s glory, they should pray until they get it. O, how good, kind, gracious, and condescending is the One with whom we have to do! He has given me, unworthy as I am, immeasurably above all I had asked or thought! I am only a poor, frail, sinful man; but He has heard my prayers ten thousands of times, and used me as the means of bringing ten thousands into the way of truth. I say tens of thousands, in this and other lands, These unworthy lips have proclaimed salvation to great multitudes, and very many have believed unto eternal life.”

` Lasked Mr. Müller whether he had any idea whereunto the work would grow when he first began? After speaking of its commencement in Wilson Street, he said:

“I only knew that God was in it, and was leading His child into untried and untrodden paths. The assurance of His presence was my stay.”

“I can not help noticing the way in which you speak of yourself,” I said, conscious that I was approaching a subject at once tender, sacred, and closely allied with his deepest spiritual moods and personal relationship to God, and I half reproached myself as soon as the words were uttered. He disarmed my fears by exclaiming, “There is only one thing George Müller deserves, and that is hell! I tell you, my brother, that is the only thing I deserve. By nature I am a lost man; but I am a sinner saved by the grace of God. Though by nature a sinner, I do not live in sin; I hate sin; I hate it more and more; and-1 love holiness; yes, I love holiness more and more.” `~

I said to him, “I suppose, through all these long years in your work for God, you have met with much to discourage you.”

“I have met with many discouragements; but at all times my confidence has been in God. On the word of Jehovah’s promise has my soul rested! O, it is good to trust in Him; His Word never returns void! “He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might, He increaseth strength.’ (Isaiah xl, 29.) This applies also to my public ministrations. Sixty-two years ago I preached a poor, dry, barren sermon, with no comfort to myself, and, as I imagined, with no comfort to others. But a long time afterward I heard of nineteen distinct cases of blessing through that sermon.”

- I told him a few of the things that had discouraged me, and expressed a hope to be used more of God than ever.

“And you shall be used of God!” he exclaimed. “Yea, my brother, God Himself shall bless you! Toil on! toil on!”

AN HOUR WITH GEORGE MULLER. I5I

“May I venture to ask you to give me some special counsel in regard to my own work for God, also that I may pass it on to other Christian toilers in the great harvest-field of souls?”

He answered: “Seek entirely to depend on God for everything. Put yourself and your work into His hands. When thinking of any new undertaking, ask, ‘Is this agreeable to the mind of God? Is it for His glory?’ If it is not.for His glory, it is not for your good, and you must have nothing to do with it. Mind that! Having settled that a certain course is for the glory of God, begin it in His name, and continue it to the end. Undertake it in prayer and faith, and never give up! Pray, pray, pray! Do not regard iniquity in your heart. If you do, the Lord will not hear you. Keep that before you always. Then trust in God. Depend only on God. Wait on Him. Believe on Him. Expect great things from Him. Faint not if the blessing tarries. Pray, pray, pray! And, above all, rely only upon the merits of our ever-adorable Lord and Savior, that, according to His infinite merits, and not your own, the prayers you offer and the work you do, will be accepted.”

I had no word to answer. Indeed, what was there to say? My eyes were filled with tears, and my heart was overflowing, and beside —

“There was the speechless awe that dares not move,

And all the silent heaven of love.”

Mr. Müller fetched from another room a copy of his life, in which he inscribed my name. His absence afforded me an opportunity of looking round the apartment. The furniture was of the plainest description, useful, and in harmony with the man of God who had been talking to me. It is a great principle with Mr. Miller that it does not become the children of God to be ostentatious in style, appointments, dress, or manner of living. Expensiveness and luxury are not seemly in those who are the professed disciples of the meek and lowly One, who had not where to lay His head. On the desk lay an open Bible, of clear type, without notes or references.

This, I thought, is the abode of the mightiest man, spiritually, of modern times — a man specially raised up ‘to show to a cold, calculating, selfish age the realities of the things of God, and to teach the Church how much she might gain if only she were wise enough to take hold of the arm of Omnipotence. `

I had been with this prince of prayer one whole hour, and only once there came a knock at his door. It was opened by Mr. Müller, and there stood one of his orphans, one of the largest family on earth, a fair-haired maiden. “My dear,” said he, “I can not attend to you just now. Wait awhile, and I will see you.” Thus was I privileged to remain uninterrupted with this father in Israel, this prevailer with God, this latter-day hero in the fight, this traveler of ninety-one years in life’s rough pilgrimage — a man who, like Moses, speaks to God as a man speaketh to his friend. To me it was as one of the hours of heaven come down to earth.

His prayer was short and simple. Bending lowly upon his knees, he said: “O Lord, bless Thy dear servant before Thee more and more, more and more, MORE AND MORE! And do Thou graciously guide his pen that he may write in regard to this Thy work and our conversation to-day. I ask it through the merits of Thy dear Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen!”