LED OF GOD INTO A NEW SPHERE
IF much hangs and turns upon the choice of the _work_ we are to do and
the _field_ where we are to do it, it must not be forgotten how much
also depends on the _time_ when it is undertaken, the _way_ in which it
is performed, and the _associates_ in the labour. In all these matters
the true workman will wait for the Master's beck, glance, or signal,
before a step is taken.
We have come now to a new fork in the road where the path ahead begins
to be more plain. The future and permanent centre of his life-work is at
this point clearly indicated to God's servant by divine leading.
In March, 1832, his friend Mr. Henry Craik left Shaldon for four weeks
of labour _in Bristol,_ where Mr. Muller's strong impression was that
the Lord had for Mr. Craik some more lasting sphere of work, though as
yet it had not dawned upon his mind that he himself was to be a
co-worker in that sphere, and to find in that very city the place of his
permanent abode and the centre of his life's activities. God again led
the blind by a way he knew not. The conviction, however, had grown upon
him that the Lord was loosing him from Teignmouth, and, without having
in view any other definite field, he felt that his ministry there was
drawing to a close; and he inclined to go about again from place to
place, seeking especially to bring believers to a fuller trust in God
and a deeper sense of His faithfulness, and to a more thorough search
into His word. His inclination to such itinerant work was strengthened
by the fact that outside of Teignmouth his preaching both gave him much
more enjoyment and sense of power, and drew more hearers.
On April 13th a letter from Mr. Craik, inviting Mr. Muller to join in
his work at Bristol, made such an impression on his mind that he began
prayerfully to consider whether it was not God's call, and whether a
field more suited to his gifts was not opening to him. The following
Lord's day, preaching on the Lord's coming, he referred to the effect of
this blessed hope in impelling God's messenger to bear witness more
widely and from place to place, and reminded the brethren that he had
refused to bind himself to abide with them that he might at any moment
be free to follow the divine leading elsewhere.
On April 20th Mr. Muller left for Bristol. On the journey he was dumb,
having no liberty in speaking for Christ or even in giving away tracts,
and this led him to reflect. He saw that the so-called 'work of the
Lord' had tempted him to substitute _action for meditation and
communion._ He had neglected that still hour' with God which supplies to
spiritual life alike its breath and its bread. No lesson is more
important for us to learn, yet how slow are we to learn it: that for the
lack of habitual seasons set apart for devout meditation upon the word
of God and for prayer, nothing else will compensate.
We are prone to think, for example, that converse with Christian
brethren, and the general round of Christian activity, especially when
we are much busied with preaching the Word and visits to inquiring or
needy souls, make up for the loss of aloneness with God in the secret
place. We hurry to a public service with but a few minutes of private
prayer, allowing precious time to be absorbed in social pleasures,
restrained from withdrawing from others by a false delicacy, when to
excuse ourselves for needful communion with God and his word would have
been perhaps the best witness possible to those whose company was
holding us unduly! How often we rush from one public engagement to
another without any proper interval for renewing our strength in waiting
on the Lord, as though God cared more for the quantity than the quality
of our service!
Here Mr. Muller had the grace to detect one of the foremost perils of a
busy man in this day of insane hurry. He saw that if we are to feed
others we must be fed; and that even public and united exercises of
praise and prayer can never supply that food which is dealt out to the
believer only in the closet--the shut-in place with its closed door and
open window, where he meets God alone. In a previous chapter reference
has been made to the fact that three times in the word of God we find a
divine prescription for a true prosperity. God says to Joshua, "This
book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt
meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according
to all that is written therein: _for then thou shalt make thy way
prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success"_ (Joshua i. 8.) Five
hundred years later the inspired author of the first Psalm repeats the
promise in unmistakable terms. The Spirit there says of him whose
delight is in the law of the Lord and who in His law doth meditate day
and night, that "he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water,
that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not
wither; and _whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."_ Here the devout
meditative student of the blessed book of God is likened to an evergreen
tree planted beside unfailing supplies of moisture; his fruit is
perennial, and so is his verdure--and _whatsoever he doeth_ prospers!
More than a thousand years pass away, and, before the New Testament is
sealed up as complete, once more the Spirit bears essentially the same
blessed witness. "Whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and
_continueth"_ (i.e. continueth _looking_--meditating on what he there
beholds, lest he forget the impression received through the mirror of
the Word), _"this man shall be blessed in his deed"_ (James i. 25.)
Here then we have a threefold witness to the secret of true prosperity
and unmingled blessing: devout meditation and reflection upon the
Scriptures, which are at once a book of law, a river of life, and a
mirror of self--fitted to convey the will of God, the life of God, and
the transforming power of God. That believer makes a fatal mistake who
_for any cause_ neglects the prayerful study of the word of God. To read
God's holy book, by it search one's self, and turn it into prayer and so
into holy living, is the one great secret of growth in grace and
godliness. The worker _for_ God must first be a worker _with_ God: he
must have power with God and must prevail with Him in prayer, if he is
to have power with men and prevail with men in preaching or in any form
of witnessing and serving. At all costs let us make sure of that highest
preparation for our work--the preparation of our own souls; and for this
we must _take time_ to be alone with His word and His Spirit, that we
may truly meet God, and understand His will and the revelation of
Himself.
If we seek the secrets of the life George Muller lived and the work he
did, this is the very key to the whole mystery, and with that key any
believer can unlock the doors to a prosperous growth in grace and power
in service. God's word is His WORD--the expression of His thought, the
revealing of His mind and heart. The supreme end of life is to know God
and make Him known; and how is this possible so long as we neglect the
very means He has chosen for conveying to us that knowledge! Even
Christ, the Living Word, is to be found enshrined in the written word.
Our knowledge of Christ is dependent upon our acquaintance with the Holy
Scriptures, which are the reflection of His character and glory--the
firmament across the expanse of which He moves as the Sun of
righteousness.
On April 22, 1832, George Muller first stood in the pulpit of Gideon
Chapel. The fact and the date are to be carefully marked as the new
turning-point in a career of great usefulness. Henceforth, for almost
exactly sixty-six years, Bristol is to be inseparably associated with
his name. Could he have foreseen, on that Lord's day, what a work the
Lord would do through him in that city; how from it as a centre his
influence would radiate to the earth's ends, and how, even after his
departure, he should continue to bear witness by the works which should
follow him, how his heart would have swelled and burst with holy
gratitude and praise,--while in humility he shrank back in awe and
wonder from a responsibility and an opportunity so vast and
overwhelming!
In the afternoon of this first Sabbath he preached at Pithay Chapel a
sermon conspicuously owned of God. Among others converted by it was a
young man, a notorious drunkard. And, before the sun had set, Mr.
Muller, who in the evening heard Mr. Craik preach, was fully persuaded
that the Lord had brought him to Bristol for a purpose, and that for a
while, at least, there he was to labour. Both he and his brother Craik
felt, however, that Bristol was not the place to reach a clear decision,
for the judgment was liable to be unduly biassed when subject to the
pressure of personal urgency, and so they determined to return to their
respective fields of previous labour, there to wait quietly upon the
Lord for the promised wisdom from above. They left for Devonshire on the
first of May; but already a brother had been led to assume the
responsibility for the rent of Bethesda Chapel as a place for their
joint labours, thus securing a second commodious building for public
worship.
Such blessing had rested on these nine days of united testimony in
Bristol that they both gathered that the Lord had assuredly called them
thither. The seal of His sanction had been on all they had undertaken,
and the last service at Gideon Chapel on April 29th had been so thronged
that many went away for lack of room.
Mr. Muller found opportunity for the exercise of humility, for he saw
that by many his brother's gifts were much preferred to his own; yet, as
Mr. Craik would come to Bristol only with him as a yokefellow, God's
grace enabled him to accept the humiliation of being the less popular,
and comforted him with the thought that two are better than one, and
that each might possibly fill up some lack in the other, and thus both
together prove a greater benefit and blessing alike to sinners and to
saints--as the result showed. That same grace of God helped Mr. Muller
to rise higher--nay, let us rather say, to sink lower and, "in honor
preferring one another," to rejoice rather than to be envious; and, like
John the Baptist, to say within himself: "A man can receive nothing
except it be given him from above." Such a humble spirit has even in
this life oftentimes its recompense of reward. Marked as was the impress
of Mr. Craik upon Bristol, Mr. Muller's influence was even deeper and
wider. As Henry Craik died in 1866, his own work reached through a much
longer period; and as he was permitted to make such extensive mission
tours throughout the world, his witness was far more outreaching. The
lowly-minded man who bowed down to take the lower place, consenting to
be the more obscure, was by God exalted to the higher seat and greater
throne of influence.
Within a few weeks the Lord's will, as to their new sphere, became so
plain to both these brethren that on May 23d Mr. Muller left Teignmouth
for Bristol, to be followed next day by Mr. Craik. At the believers'
meeting at Gideon Chapel they stated their terms, which were acceded to:
that they were to be regarded as accepting no fixed relationship to the
congregation, preaching in such manner and for such a season as should
seem to them according to the Lord's will; that they should not be under
bondage to any rules among them; that _pew-rents should be done away
with;_ and that they should, as in Devonshire, _look to the Lord to
supply all temporal wants through the voluntary offerings of those to
whom they ministered._
Within a month Bethesda Chapel had been so engaged for a year as to risk
no debt, and on July 6th services began there as at Gideon. From the
very first, the Spirit set His seal on the joint work of these two
brethren. Ten days after the opening service at Bethesda, an evening
being set for inquirers, the throng of those seeking counsel was so
great that more than four hours were consumed in ministering to
individual souls, and so from time to time similar meetings were held
with like encouragement.
August 13, 1832, was a memorable day. On that evening at Bethesda Chapel
Mr. Muller, Mr. Craik, one other brother, and four sisters--_only seven
in all_--sat down together, uniting in church fellowship _"without any
rules,--desiring to act only as the Lord should be pleased to give light
through His word."_
This is a very short and simple entry in Mr. Mailer's journal, but it
has most solemn significance. It records what was to him separation to
the hallowed work of building up a simple apostolic church, with no
manual of guidance but the New Testament; and in fact it introduces us
to the THIRD PERIOD of his life, when he entered fully upon the work to
which God had set him apart. The further steps now followed in rapid
succession. God having prepared the workman and gathered the material,
the structure went on quietly and rapidly until the life-work was
complete.
Cholera was at this time raging in Bristol. This terrible 'scourge of
God' first appeared about the middle of July and continued for three
months, prayer-meetings being held often, and for a time daily, to plead
for the removal of this visitation. Death stalked abroad, the knell of
funeral-bells almost constantly sounding, and much solemnity hanging
like a dark pall over the community. Of course many visits to the sick,
dying, and afflicted became necessary, but it is remarkable that, among
all the children of God among whom Mr. Muller and Mr. Craik laboured,
but one died of this disease.
In the midst of all this gloom and sorrow of a fatal epidemic, a little
daughter was born to Mr. and Mrs. Muller September 17, 1832. About her
name, Lydia, sweet fragrance lingers, for she became one of God's purest
saints and the beloved wife of James Wright. How little do we forecast
at the time the future of a new-born babe who, like Samuel, may in God's
decree be established to be a prophet of the Lord, or be set apart to
some peculiar sphere of service, as in the case of another Lydia, whose
heart the Lord opened and whom He called to be the nucleus of the first
Christian church in Europe.
Mr. Mullers unfeigned humility, and the docility that always accompanies
that unconscious grace, found new exercise when the meetings with
inquirers revealed the fact that his colleague's preaching was much more
used of God than his own, in conviction and conversion. This discovery
led to much self-searching, and he concluded that three reasons lay back
of this fact: first, Mr. Craik was more spiritually minded than himself;
second, he was more earnest in prayer for converting power; and third,
he oftener spoke directly to the unsaved, in his public ministrations.
Such disclosures of his own comparative lack did not exhaust themselves
in vain self-reproaches, but led at once to more importunate prayer,
more diligent preparation for addressing the unconverted, and more
frequent appeals to this class. From this time on, Mr. Muller's
preaching had the seal of God upon it equally with his brother's. What a
wholesome lesson to learn, that for every defect in our service there is
a cause, and that the one all-sufficient remedy is the throne of grace,
where in every time of need we may boldly come to find grace and help!
It has been already noted that Mr. Muller did not satisfy himself with
more prayer, but gave new diligence and study to the preparation of
discourses adapted to awaken careless souls. In the supernatural as well
as the natural sphere, there is a law of cause and effect. Even the
Spirit of God works not without order and method; He has His chosen
channels through which He pours blessing. There is no accident in the
spiritual world. "The Spirit bloweth where He listeth," but even the
wind has its circuits. There is a kind of preaching, fitted to bring
conviction and conversion, and there is another kind which is not so
fitted. Even in the faithful use of truth there is room for
discrimination and selection. In the armory of the word of God are many
weapons, and all have their various uses and adaptations. Blessed is the
workman or warrior who seeks to know what particular implement or
instrument God appoints for each particular work or conflict. We are to
study to keep in such communion with His word and Spirit as that we
shall be true workmen that need "not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the
word of truth." (2 Tim. ii. 15.)
This expression, found in Paul's second letter to Timothy, is a very
peculiar one ([Transcriber's Note: Greek source text for the English
phrase quoted in the paragraph immediately above appears here]). It
seems to be nearly equivalent to the Latin phrase _recte viam secare--to
cut a straight road_--and to hint that the true workman of God is like
the civil engineer to whom it is given to construct a direct road to a
certain point. The hearer's heart and conscience is the objective point,
and the aim of the preacher should be, so to use God's truth as to reach
most directly and effectively the needs of the hearer. He is to avoid
all circuitous routes, all evasions, all deceptive apologies and by-ways
of argument, and seek by God's help to find the shortest, straightest,
quickest road to the convictions and resolutions of those to whom he
speaks. And if the road-builder, before he takes any other step, first
carefully _surveys his territory and lays out his route,_ how much more
should the preacher first study the needs of his hearers and the best
ways of successfully dealing with them, and then with even more
carefulness and prayerfulness study the adaptation of the word of God
and the gospel message to meet those wants.
Early in the year 1833, letters from missionaries in Baghdad urged
Messrs. Muller and Craik to join them in labours in that distant field,
accompanying the invitation with drafts for two hundred pounds for costs
of travel. Two weeks of prayerful inquiry as to the mind of the Lord,
however, led them to a clear decision _not_ to go--a choice never
regretted, and which is here recorded only as part of a complete
biography, and as illustrating the manner in which each new call for
service was weighed and decided.
We now reach another stage of Mr. Muller's entrance upon his complete
life-work. In February, 1832, he had begun to read the biography of A.
H. Francke, the founder of the Orphan Houses of Halle. As that life and
work were undoubtedly used of God to make him a like instrument in a
kindred service, and to mould even the methods of his philanthropy, a
brief sketch of Francke's career may be helpful.
August H. Francke was Muller's fellow countryman. About 1696, at Halle
in Prussia, he had commenced the largest enterprise for poor children
then existing in the world. He trusted in God, and He whom he trusted
did not fail him, but helped him throughout abundantly.
The institutions, which resembled rather a large street than a building,
were erected, and in them about two thousand orphan children were
housed, fed, clad, and taught. For about thirty years all went on under
Francke's own eyes, until 1727, when it pleased the Master to call the
servant up higher; and after his departure his like-minded son-in-law
became the director. Two hundred years have passed, and these Orphan
Houses are still in existence, serving their noble purpose.
It is needful only to look at these facts and compare with Francke's
work in Halle George Muller's monuments to a prayer-hearing God on
Ashley Down, to see that in the main the latter work so far resembles
the former as to be in not a few respects its counterpart. Mr. Muller
began his orphan work a little more than one hundred years after
Francke's death; ultimately housed, fed, clothed, and taught over two
thousand orphans year by year; personally supervised the work for over
sixty years--twice as long a period as that of Francke's personal
management--and at his decease likewise left his like minded son-in-law
to be his successor as the sole director of the work. It need not be
added that, beginning his enterprise like Francke in dependence on God
alone, the founder of the Bristol Orphan Houses trusted from first to
last only in Him.
It is very noticeable how, when God is preparing a workman for a certain
definite service, He often leads him out of the beaten track into a path
peculiarly His own by means of some striking biography, or by contact
with some other living servant who is doing some such work, and
exhibiting the spirit which must guide if there is to be a true success.
Meditation on Franeke's life and work naturally led this man who was
hungering for a wider usefulness to think more of the poor homeless
waifs about him, and to ask whether he also could not plan under God
some way to provide for them; and as he was musing the fire burned.
As early as June 12, 1833, when not yet twenty-eight years old, the
inward flame began to find vent in a scheme which proved the first
forward step toward his orphan work. It occurred to him to gather out of
the streets, at about eight o'clock each morning, the poor children,
give them a bit of bread for breakfast, and then, for about an hour and
a half, teach them to read or read to them the Holy Scriptures; and
later on to do a like service to the adult and aged poor. He began at
once to feed from thirty to forty such persons, confident that, as the
number increased, the Lord's provision would increase also. Unburdening
his heart to Mr. Craik, he was guided to a place which could hold one
hundred and fifty children and which could be rented for ten shillings
yearly; as also to an aged brother who would gladly undertake the
teaching.
Unexpected obstacles, however, prevented the carrying out of this plan.
The work already pressing upon Mr. Muller and Mr. Craik, the rapid
increase of applicants for food, and the annoyance to neighbours of
having crowds of idlers congregating in the streets and lying about in
troops--these were some of the reasons why this method was abandoned.
But the _central thought and aim_ were never lost sight of: God had
planted a seed in the soil of Mr. Mullers heart, presently to spring up
in the orphan work, and in the Scriptural Knowledge Institution with its
many branches and far-reaching fruits.
From time to time a backward glance over the Lord's dealings encouraged
his heart, as he looked forward to unknown paths and untried scenes. He
records at this time--the close of the year 1833--that during the four
years since he first began to trust in the Lord alone for temporal
supplies he had suffered no want. He had received during the first year
one hundred and thirty pounds, during the second one hundred and
fifty-one, during the third one hundred and ninety-five, and during the
last two hundred and sixty-seven--all in free-will offerings and without
ever asking any human being for a penny. He had looked alone to the
Lord, yet he had not only received a supply, but an increasing supply,
year by year. Yet he also noticed that at each year's close he had very
little, if anything, left, and that much had come through strange
channels, from distances very remote, and from parties whom he had never
seen. He observed also that in every case, according as the need was
greater or less, the supply corresponded. He carefully records for the
benefit of others that, when the calls for help were many, the Great
Provider showed Himself able and willing to send help accordingly.* The
ways of divine dealing which he had thus found true of the early years
of his life of trust were marked and magnified in all his
after-experience, and the lessons learned in these first four years
prepared him for others taught in the same school of God and under the
same Teacher.
* Vol. I. 105.
Thus God had brought His servant by a way which he knew not to the very
place and sphere of his life's widest and most enduring work. He had
moulded and shaped His chosen vessel, and we are now to see to what
purposes of world-wide usefulness that earthen vessel was to be put, and
how conspicuously the excellency of the power was to be of God and not
of man.