A Full Age
“”TDHOU shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like
as a shock of corn cometh in in his season.” (Job v, 26.) This promise was fulfilled to the man of God, whose long, God-loving life we have followed. The account of his death is taken from ‘The Modern Apostle of Faith,” by Frederick G. Warne, published by the Fleming H. Revell Co. Mr. Warne says:
The summons came swiftly. One looked, and he was with us; again, and he was gone. His first expression of weariness and weakness came the day before he passed away; and it seemed as if the Master sent an escort, because, in His infinite love and mercy, He would not suffer His beloved child to labor on in pain, having served Him so faithfully for seventy years; and the precious body which carried his spirit fell into the loving care of those he left, to rest where they should reverently place it.
In the summer of 1897, Mr. Müller found the heat trying, and in the autumn was laid aside for a short time by illness. He recovered, and though it was deemed necessary that he avoid regular preaching, which he had continued to that time, he was able to take his share in the conduct of the work of the Institution. His last sermon, preached Sunday evening at Bethesda Chapel, of which he had been minister for sixty-six years, was from 2 Cor. v, 1: “For we know that if our earthly house of “€ 7 yy” A FULL AGE. 159
this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”
Sunday morning prior to his death, Mr. Müller gave an address at Alma Road Chapel, Clifton. Monday evening, March 7, 1898, he attended the weekly prayer- meeting at Bethesda Chapel, and greeted all his friends in his usual hearty manner, before returning to- No. 3 Orphan House, where he resided.
Wednesday he received two friends from the National Free Church Conference, then sitting in Bristol. On the morning previous to his death he told his son-in-law, Mr. James Wright, that he felt very weak, and had to rest three times while dressing. Mr. Wright asked if he did not think it would be better to have some one in constant attendance, and he replied: “Perhaps so.” Later, Mr. Wright saw. him, and asking him as to his welfare, he replied: “The weakness has passed away; I feel quite myself again.” Mr. Wright suggested that he should take longer rest mornings; but he pointed ‘out the difficulty in the voluminous morning corespondence, which he himself always controlled.
On the evening of the same day, Mr. Muller conducted a prayer-meeting, as usual, at the Institution, and one of the hymns he gave out was:
“We’ll sing of the Shepherd that died,
That died for the sake of the flock;
His love to the utmost was tried,
And immovable stood as a rock.”
He retired to rest apparently in his customary health, and about seven o’clock the next morning, March roth, an attendant went to his bedroom with a cup of tea, and found him dead on the floor by his bedside.. For some time past, as with increasing years his strength grew less, it had been Mr. Müller’s custom to take nourishment during the night; and it is assumed that he got out of
bed for a glass of milk and a biscuit, which had been -
placed on the dressing-table. While eating the biscuit, he was seized with a fainting fit, from which he never recovered; and in falling, he myst have clutched at the table, for the cloth was disarranged, and various articles were upon the floor.
The funeral took place Monday, March 14th, and never has such a scene been witnessed in Bristol. Although all the arrangements were in the strict simplicity that he would have desired, tens of thousands gathered to witness the cortege pass from the Orphan Houses to Bethesda Chapel, and from there to Arno’s Vale Cemetery. The crowds that thronged the route were orderly, reverent, and sympathetic. Scarcely a business house in the city omitted to draw its blinds or put up black shutters, while from the Cathedral, city and suburban churches, and other buildings, flags floated at half-mast, and muffled peals were rung. Early in the morning, a service for the orphans was held in House No. 3. The plain elm coffin was placed in front of the desk in the dining-room, and Mr. James Wright gave an address on lessons from Mr. Müller’s life and death. It was an affecting scene. Conscious of the loss of their benefactor, the orphans sobbed bitterly, and as they took their places in the procession, there were few dry eyes. Many a heart was touched by the grief of the children, especially the girls, as they followed the remains of their friend and father through the city. Among those who
joined in the tribute of affection were four friends who were among the early inmates of the Institution in Wilson Street, St. Paul’s, and who remembered, in June, 1849, marching from their city home to the first Orphan House, built on Ashley Down. A lady called at the Institution, after Mr, Müller’s death, to see, for the last time, the man who befriended her in her youth, for she was one of the first orphans received into the Girls’ Home in Wilson Street.! ]
Arrived at Bethesda Chapel, Great George Street, the orphans left the procession, and after a short rest in a by-thoroughfare, returned to the Institution. The large chapel was thronged with friends, all classes and sects being represented, conspicuous among them many ministers, most of whom had referred, in their pulpits, the previous day, to the gap Mr. Miller’s departure had left. After a hymn, prayer was offered by Dr, Maclean, of Bath. Mr. James Wright followed with an address which embodied many beautiful references to Mr. Müller’s life, his text being, “Remember them who haye the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the Word of God; whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever.” (Heb. xiii, 7,8.) Mr. Benjamin Perry also delivered an address. Prayer, by Mr, J. L. Stanley and Mr. S. Arnott, and singing another hymn, concluded the service.
The procession re-formed, now including the mayor’s state coach, with eighty other carriages. It was nearly an hour reaching Arno’s Vale Cemetery, where a vast crowd had collected. The grave was an ordinary one, on the slope of the hill, under the shade of a yew-tree,
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where his first and second wives lay. The service was touching in its simplicity. It consisted of two hymns, one, “We’ll sing of the Shepherd-that died,” the last in which Mr. Múller took part; prayer by Colonel Molesworth and Mr. E. T. Davies, and an address by Mr. G. F. Bergin, from the words, “By the grace of God I am what Iam.” (1 Cor. xv, 10.) At the close of the service, the body was lowered into the grave, and many took a farewell look at the coffin, on which was inscribed, “George Müller fell asleep March 10, 1898,’in his 93d year.” Immediately the announcement went forth of Mr. Múller’s death, people began to ask: “What of the future
of the Orphan Homes? How will they be able to exist
without the magic of the name of George Müller?”
God still lives! That is the security that the work will continue to go on, supported simply by prayer and faith.
cessor in the direction of the Institution, in addition to vesting all the property, in connection with the Orphan Houses, in the hands of eleven Christian gentlemen, as trustees, the deeds being enrolled in Chancery. Mr. Wright took the earliest opportunity of referring to the subject. In his address at the funeral, he said: “I have been asked again and again, ‘Will the orphan work go on?’ I have only a few words to say: It is going on. Since the commencement of this year we have received forty fresh orphans, and this week expect more. The other four objects of the Institution, according to the ability God gives us, are still being carried on. My beloved fellow-laborers and myself believe that known unto God are all His works from the foundation of the
Mr. Müller appointed Mr. James Wright as his suc-
SA FULL AGE.” 163
world. - He Himself knows what He will do, and we ` believe it will be worthy of Himself. We don’t know much, more, and we don’t want to. I am no prophet; but when I remember the prayers my beloved mother-in-law and father-in-law offered for years for the future of this work, the prayers of his beloved daughter, my darling wife, with whom I lived for eighteen years and more in unbroken felicity, and the prayers-we together poured out to God, that He, in His way, would raise up helpers to share the responsibility of the work, I do not believe God, who has so illustrated His faithfulness in this work for sixty-four years, is going to leave those prayers unanswered. But what He does will be worthy of Himself. I would ask the prayers of believers on behalf of the group of workers at the Orphan Houses, and those fatherless and motherless children. Pray for them, for prayer is the appointed means to blessing.”