THE SUMMARY OF THE LIFE-WORK
DEATH shuts the door upon earthly service, whatever door it may open to
other forms and spheres of activity. There are many intimations that
service beyond the grave is both unceasing and untiring: the blessed
dead "rest indeed from their _labours"_--toilsome and painful
tasks--"but their works"--activities for God--"do follow them," where
exertion is without exhaustion.
This is therefore a fit point for summing up the results of the work
over which, from its beginning, one man had specially had charge. One
sentence from Mr. Muller's pen marks the purpose which was the very
pivot of his whole being: "I have joyfully dedicated my whole life to
the object of exemplifying how much may be accomplished by prayer and
faith." This prepared both for the development of the character of him
who had such singleness of aim, and for the development of the work in
which that aim found action. Mr. Muller's oldest friend, Robert C.
Chapman of Barnstaple, beautifully says that "when a man's chief
business is to serve and please the Lord, all his circumstances become
his servants"; and we shall find this maxim true in Mr. Muller's
life-work.
The Fifty-ninth Report, issued May 26, 1898, was the last up to the date
of the publication of this volume, and the first after Mr. Muller's
death. In this, Mr. Wright gives the brief but valuable summary not only
of the whole work of the year preceding, but of the whole work from its
beginning, and thus helps us to a comprehensive survey.
This report is doubly precious as it contains also the last contribution
of Mr. Muller's own pen to the record of the Lord's dealings. It is
probable that on the afternoon of March 9th he laid down his pen, for
the last time, all unconscious that he was never again to take it up. He
had made, in a twofold sense, his closing entry in life's solemn
journal! In the evening of that day he took his customary part in the
prayer service in the orphan house--then went to sleep for the last time
on earth; there came a waking hour, when he was alone with God, and
suddenly departed, leaving his body to its long sleep that knows no
waking until the day of the Lord's coming, while his spirit returned
unto God who gave it.
The afternoon of that day of death, and of 'birth' into the heavenly
life--as the catacomb saints called it--found the helpers again
assembled in the same prayer room to commit the work to him "who only
hath immortality," and who, amid all changes of human administration,
ever remains the divine Master Workman, never at a loss for His own
chosen instruments.
Mr. Wright, in this report, shows himself God's chosen successor in the
work, evidently like-minded with the departed director. The first
paragraph, after the brief and touching reference to his father-in-law,
serves to convey to all friends of this work the assurance that he to
whom Mr. Muller left its conduct has also learned the one secret of all
success in coworking with God. It sounds, as the significant _keynote_
for the future, the same old keynote of the past, carrying on the melody
and harmony, without change, into the new measures. It is the same
oratorio, without alteration of theme, time, or even key: the leading
performer is indeed no more, but another hand takes up his instrument
and, trembling with emotion, continues the unfinished strain so that
there is no interruption. Mr. Wright says:
"It is written (Job xxvi. 7): 'He hangeth the earth upon
_nothing'_--that is, no _visible_ support. And so we exult in the fact
that 'the Scriptural Knowledge Institution for Home and Abroad' hangs,
as it has ever hung, since its commencement, now more than sixty-four
years ago, 'upon nothing,' that is, upon no VISIBLE support. It hangs
upon no human patron, upon no endowment or funded property, but solely
upon the good pleasure of the blessed God."
Blessed lesson to learn! that to hang upon the invisible God is not to
hang "upon nothing," though it be upon nothing _visible._ The power and
permanence of the invisible forces that hold up the earth after sixty
centuries of human history are sufficiently shown by the fact that this
great globe still swings securely in space and is whirled through its
vast orbit, and that, without variation of a second, it still moves with
divine exactness in its appointed path. We can therefore trust the same
invisible God to sustain with His unseen power all the work which faith
suspends upon His truth and love and unfailing word of promise, though
to the natural eye all these may seem as nothing.
Mr. Wright records also a very striking answer to long-continued prayer,
and a most impressive instance of the tender care of the Lord, in the
_providing of an associate,_ every way like-minded, and well fitted to
share the responsibility falling upon his shoulders at the decease of
his father-in-law.
Feeling the burden too great for him, his one resource
was to cast his burden on the Lord. He and Mr. Muller had asked of God
such a companion in labour for three years before his departure, and Mr.
Wright and his dear wife had, for twenty-five years before that--from
the time when Mr. Muller's long missionary tours began to withdraw him
from Bristol--besought of the Lord the same favour. But to none of them
had any _name_ been suggested, or, if so, it had never been mentioned.
After that day of death, Mr. Wright felt that a gracious Father would
not long leave him to sustain this great burden alone, and about a
fortnight later he felt assured that it was the will of God that he
should ask Mr. George Frederic Bergin to join him in the work, who
seemed to him a _"true yoke-fellow."_ He had known him well for a
quarter-century; he had worked by his side in the church; and though
they were diverse in temperament, there had never been a break in unity
or sympathy. Mr. Bergin was seventeen years his junior, and so likely to
survive and succeed him; he was very fond of children, and had been much
blessed in training his own in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,
and hence was fitted to take charge of this larger family of orphans.
Confident of being led of God, he put the matter before Mr. Bergin,
delighted but not surprised to find that the same God had moved on his
mind also, and in the same direction; for not only was he ready to
respond to Mr. Wright's appeal, but he had been led of God to feel that
he should, after a certain time, _go to Mr. Wright and offer himself._
The Spirit who guided Philip to the Eunuch and at the same time had made
the Eunuch to inquire after guidance; who sent men from Cornelius and,
while they were knocking at Simon's house, was bidding Peter go with
them, still moves in a mysterious way, and simultaneously, on those whom
He would bring together for cooperation in loving service. And thus Mr.
Wright found the Living God the same Helper and Supplier of every need,
after his beloved father-in-law had gone up higher; and felt constrained
to feel that the God of Elijah was still at the crossing of the Jordan
and could work the same wonders as before, supplying the need of the
hour when the need came.
Mr. Muller's own gifts to the service of the Lord find in this
posthumous report their first full record and recognition. Readers of
the Annual Reports must have noticed an entry, recurring with strange
frequency during all these thirty or forty years, and therefore
suggesting a giver that must have reached a very ripe age: "from a
servant of the Lord Jesus, who, constrained by the love of Christ, seeks
to lay up treasure in heaven." If that entry be carefully followed
throughout and there be added the personal gifts made by Mr. Muller to
various benevolent objects, it will be found that the aggregate sum from
this "servant" reaches, up to March 1, 1898, a total of _eighty-one
thousand four hundred and ninety pounds eighteen shillings and
eightpence._ Mr. Wright, now that this "servant of the Lord Jesus" is
with his Master, who promised, "Where I am there shall also My servant
be," feels free to make known that this donor was no other than _George
Muller himself_ who thus gave out of his own money--money given to him
for his own use or left to him by legacies--the total sum of about
sixty-four thousand five hundred pounds to the Scriptural Knowledge
Institution, and, in other directions, seventeen thousand more.
This is a record of personal gifts to which we know no parallel. It
reminds us of the career of John Wesley, whose simplicity and frugality
of habits enabled him not only to limit his own expenditure to a very
small sum, but whose Christian liberality and unselfishness prompted him
to give all that he could thus save to purely benevolent
objects. While he had but thirty pounds a year, he lived on twenty-eight
and gave away forty shillings. Receiving twice as much the next year, he
still kept his living expenses down to the twenty-eight pounds and had
thirty-two to bestow on the needy; and when the third year his income
rose to ninety pounds, he spent no more than before and gave away
sixty-two. The fourth year brought one hundred and twenty, and he
disbursed still but the same sum for his own needs, having ninety-two to
spare. It is calculated that in the course of his life he thus gave away
at least thirty thousand pounds, and four silver spoons comprised all
the silver plate that he possessed when the collectors of taxes called
upon him. Such economy on the one hand and such generosity on the other
have seldom been known in human history. But George Muller's record will
compare favourably with this or any other of modern days. His frugality,
simplicity, and economy were equal to Wesley's, and his gifts aggregated
eighty-one thousand pounds. Mr. Muller had received increasingly large
sums from the Lord which he _invested_ well and most profitably, so that
for over sixty years he never lost a penny through a bad speculation!
But his investments were not in lands or banks or railways, but in the
_work of God._ He made friends out of the mammon of unrighteousness that
when he failed received him into everlasting habitations. He continued,
year after year, to make provision for himself, his beloved wife and
daughter, by laying up treasure--in heaven. Such a man had certainly a
right to exhort others to systematic beneficence. He gave--as not one in
a million gives--not a tithe, not any fixed proportion of annual income,
but _all that was left_ after the simplest and most necessary supply of
actual wants. While most Christians regard themselves as doing their
duty if, after they have given a portion to the Lord, they spend all the
rest on themselves, God led George Muller to reverse this rule and
reserve only the most frugal sum for personal needs, that the entire
remainder might be given to him that needeth. The utter _revolution_
implied in our habits of giving which would be necessary were such a
rule adopted is but too obvious. Mr. Muller's own words are:
"My aim never was, how much I could _obtain,_ but rather how much I
could give."
He kept continually before him _his stewardship_ of God's property; and
sought to make the most of the one brief life on earth, and to use for
the best and largest good the property held by him in trust. The things
of God were deep realities, and, projecting every action and decision
and motive into the light of the judgment-seat of Christ, he asked
himself how it would appear to him in the light of that tribunal. Thus
he sought prayerfully and conscientiously so to live and labour, so to
deny himself, and, by love, serve God and man, as that he should not be
ashamed before Him at His coming. But not in a spirit of _fear_ was this
done; for if any man of his generation knew the perfect love that casts
out fear, it was George Muller. He felt that God is love, and love is of
God. He saw that love manifested in the greatest of gifts--His
only-begotten Son at Calvary--he knew and believed the Love that God
hath to us; he received it into his own heart; it became an abiding
presence, manifested in obedience and benevolence, and, subduing him
more and more, it became perfected so as to expel tormenting fear and
impart a holy confidence and delight in God.
Among the texts which strongly impressed and moulded Mr. Muller's habits
of giving was Luke vi. 38:
"Give and it shall be given unto you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken
together and running over shall men give into your bosom."
He believed this promise and he verified it. His testimony is: "I had
GIVEN, and God had caused to be GIVEN TO ME AGAIN, and bountifully."
Again he read: "It is more blessed to give than to receive."
He says that he BELIEVED what he found in the word of God, and by His
grace sought to ACT ACCORDINGLY, and thus again records that he was
blessed abundantly and his peace and joy in the Holy Ghost increased
more and more.
It will not be a surprise, therefore, that, as has been already noted,
Mr. Muller's _entire personal estate_ at his death, as sworn to, when
the will was admitted to probate, was only 169 pounds 9s. 4d., of which
books, household furniture, etc., were reckoned at over one hundred
pounds, the only _money_ in his possession being a trifle over sixty
pounds, and even this only awaiting disbursement as God's steward.
The will of Mr. Muller contains a pregnant clause which should not be
forgotten in this memorial. It closes with a paragraph which is deeply
significant as meant to be his posthumous word of testimony--"a last
testament":
"I cannot help admiring God's wondrous grace in bringing me to the
knowledge of the Lord Jesus when I was an entirely careless and
thoughtless young man, and that He has kept me in His fear and truth,
allowing me the great honour, for so long a time, of serving Him."
In the comprehensive summary contained in this Fifty-ninth Report,
remarkable growth is apparent during the sixty-four years since the
outset of the work in 1834. During the year ending May 26, 1898, the
number of day-schools was 7, and of pupils, 354; the number of children
in attendance from the beginning, 81,501. The number of home
Sunday-schools, 12, and of children in them, 1341; but from the
beginning, 32,944. The number of Sunday-schools _aided_ in England and
Wales, 25. The amount expended in connection with home schools, 736
pounds 13s. 10d.; from the outset, 109,992 pounds 19s. 10d. The Bibles
and parts thereof circulated, 15,411; from the beginning, 1,989,266.
Money expended for this purpose the past year, 439 pounds; from the
first, 41,090 pounds 13s. 3d. Missionary labourers aided, 115. Money
expended, 2082 pounds 9s. 6d; from the outset, 261,859 pounds 7s. 4d.
Circulation of books and tracts, 3,101,338. Money spent, 1001 pounds
3s.; and from the first, 47,188 pounds 11s. 10d. The number of orphans
on Ashley Down, 1620; and from the first, 10,024. Money spent in orphan
houses, last year, 22,523 pounds 13s. 1d.; and from the beginning,
988,829 pounds.
To carry out conviction into action is sometimes a costly sacrifice; but
whatever Mr. Muller's fidelity to conviction cost in one way, he had
stupendous results of his life-work to contemplate, even while he lived.
Let any one look at the above figures and facts, and remember that here
was one poor man who, dependent on the help of God only in answer to
prayer, could look back over threescore years and see how he had built
five large orphan houses and taken into his family over ten thousand
orphans, expending, for their good, within twelve thousand pounds of a
round million. He had given aid to day-schools and Sunday-schools, in
this and other lands, where nearly one hundred and fifty thousand
children have been taught, at a cost of over one hundred and ten
thousand pounds more. He had circulated nearly two million Bibles and
parts thereof at the cost of over forty thousand pounds; and over three
million books and tracts, at a cost of nearly fifty thousand pounds
more. And besides all this he had spent over two hundred and sixty
thousand pounds to aid missionary labourers in various lands. The sum
total of the money thus spent during sixty years has thus reached very
nearly the astonishing aggregate of one and a half million of pounds
sterling ($7,500,000).
To summarize Mr. Muller's service we must understand his great secret.
Such a life and such a work are the result of one habit more than all
else,--daily and frequent communion with God. Unwearied in supplications
and intercessions, we have seen how, in every new need and crisis,
prayer was the one resort, the prayer of faith. He first satisfied
himself that he was in the way of duty; then he fixed his mind upon the
unchanging word of promise; then, in the boldness of a suppliant who
comes to a throne of grace in the name of Jesus Christ and pleads the
assurance of the immutable Promiser, he presented every petition. He was
an unwearied intercessor. No delay discouraged him. This is seen
particularly in the case of individuals for whose conversion or special
guidance into the paths of full obedience he prayed. On his prayer list
were the names of some for whom he had besought God, daily, by name, for
one, two, three, four, six, ten years before the answer was given. The
year just before his death, he told the writer of two parties for whose
reconciliation to God he had prayed, day by day, _for over sixty years,_
and who had not as yet to his knowledge turned unto God: and he
significantly added, "I have not a doubt that I shall meet them both in
heaven; for my Heavenly Father would not lay upon my heart a burden of
prayer for them for over threescore years, if He had not concerning them
purposes of mercy."
This is a sufficient example of his almost unparalleled perseverance and
importunity in intercession. However long the delay, he held on, as with
both hands clasping the very horns of the altar; and his childlike
spirit reasoned simply but confidently, that the very fact of his own
spirit being so long drawn out in prayer for one object, and of the
Lord's enabling him so to continue patiently and believingly to wait on
Him for the blessing, was a promise and prophecy of the answer; and so
he waited on, so assured of the ultimate result that he praised God in
advance, believing that he had practically received that for which he
asked.
It is most helpful here to add that one of the parties for whom for so
many years he unceasingly prayed has recently died in faith, having
received the promises and embraced them and confessed Jesus as his Lord.
Just before leaving Bristol with this completed manuscript of Mr.
Muller's life, I met a lady, a niece of the man referred to, through
whom I received a knowledge of these facts. He had, before his
departure, given most unequivocal testimony to his faith and hope in the
Saviour of sinners.
If George Muller could still speak to us, he would again repeat the
warning so frequently found in his journal and reports, that his fellow
disciples must not regard him as a _miracle-worker,_ as though his
experience were to be accounted so exceptional as to have little
application in our ordinary spheres of life and service. With patient
repetition he affirms that in all essentials such an experience is the
privilege of all believers. God calls disciples to various forms of
_work,_ but all alike to the same _faith._ To say, therefore, "I am not
called to build orphan houses, etc., and have no right to expect answers
to my prayers as Mr. Muller did," is wrong and unbelieving. Every child
of God, he maintained, is first to get into the sphere appointed of God,
and therein to exercise full trust, and live by faith upon God's sure
word of promise.
Throughout all these thousands of pages written by his pen, he teaches
that every experience of God's faithfulness is both the reward of past
faith and prayer, and the preparation of the servant of God for larger
work and more efficient service and more convincing witness to his Lord.
No man can understand such a work who does not see in it the
_supernatural_ power of God. Without that the enigma defies solution;
with that all the mystery is at least an open mystery. He himself felt
from first to last that this supernatural factor was the key to the
whole work, and without that it would have been even to himself a
problem inexplicable. How pathetically we find him often comparing
himself and his work for God to "the Burning Bush in the Wilderness"
which, always aflame and always threatened with apparent destruction,
was not consumed, so that not a few turned aside wondering to see this
great sight. And why was it not burnt? Because Jehovah of hosts, who was
in the Bush, dwelt in the man and in his work: or, as Wesley said with
almost his last breath, "Best of all, God is with us."
This simile of the Burning Bush is the more apt when we consider the
_rapid growth of the work._ At first so very small as to seem almost
insignificant, and conducted in one small rented house, accommodating
thirty orphans, then enlarged until other rented premises became
necessary; then one, two, three, four, and even five immense structures
being built, until three hundred, seven hundred, eleven hundred and
fifty, and finally two thousand and fifty inmates could find shelter
within them,--how seldom has the world seen such vast and, at the same
time, rapid enlargement! Then look at the outlay! At first a trifling
expenditure of perhaps five hundred pounds for the first year of the
Scriptural Knowledge Institution, and of five hundred pounds for the
first twelve month of the orphan work, and in the last year of Mr.
Muller's life a grand total of over twenty-seven thousand five hundred,
for all the purposes of the Institution.
The cost of the houses built on Ashley Down might have staggered a man
of large capital, but this poor man only cried and the Lord helped him.
The first house cost fifteen thousand pounds; the second, over
twenty-one thousand; the third, over twenty-three thousand; and the
fourth and fifth, from fifty thousand to sixty thousand more--so that
the total cost reached about one hundred and fifteen thousand. Besides
all this, there was a yearly expenditure which rose as high as
twenty-five thousand for the orphans alone, irrespective of those
occasional outlays made needful for emergencies, such as improved
sanitary precautions, which in one case cost over two thousand pounds.
Here is a burning bush indeed, always in seeming danger of being
consumed, yet still standing on Ashley Down, and still preserved because
the same presence of Jehovah burns in it. Not a branch of this
many-sided work has utterly perished, while the whole bush still
challenges unbelievers to turn aside and see the great sight, and take
off the shoes from their feet as on holy ground where God manifests
Himself.
Any complete survey of this great life-work must include much that was
wholly outside of the Scriptural Knowledge Institution; such as that
service which Mr. Muller was permitted to render to the church of Christ
and the world at large as a preacher, pastor, witness for truth, and
author of books and tracts.
His preaching period covered the whole time from 1826 to 1898, the year
of his departure, over seventy years; and from 1830, when he went to
Teignmouth, his preaching continued, without interruption except from
ill health, until his life closed, with an average through the whole
period of probably three sermons a week, or over ten thousand for his
lifetime. This is probably a low estimate, for during his missionary
tours, which covered over two hundred thousand miles and were spread
through' seventeen years, he spoke on an average about once a day
notwithstanding already advanced age.
His church life was much blessed even in visible and tangible results.
During the first two and a half years of work in Bristol, two hundred
and twenty-seven members were added, about half of whom were new
converts, and it is probable that, if the whole number brought to the
knowledge of Christ by his preaching could now be ascertained, it would
be found to aggregate full as many as the average of those years, and
would thus reach into the thousands, exclusive of orphans converted on
Ashley Down. Then when we take into account the vast numbers addressed
and impressed by his addresses, given in all parts of the United
Kingdom, on the Continent of Europe, and in America, Asia, and
Australia, and the still vaster numbers who have read his Narrative, his
books and tracts, or who have in various other ways felt the quickening
power of his example and life, we shall get some conception--still, at
best, inadequate--of the range and scope of the influence he wielded by
his tongue and pen, his labours, and his life. Much of the best
influence defies all tabulated statistics and evades all mathematical
estimates; it is like the fragrance of the alabaster flask which fills
all the house but escapes our grosser senses of sight, hearing, and
touch. This part of George Muller's work we cannot summarize: it belongs
to a realm where we cannot penetrate. But God sees, knows, and rewards
it.