------
£399 2 11
To this is again to be added, what I have enlarged on in a former
chapter, that during the whole of this year also my daughter was, free
of all expenses, at a boarding school. This was worth about 50l.
In November, 1847, I had a most remarkable deliverance, which to the
praise of the Lord is here recorded, as it is a further illustration of
how the Lord watches over His children.
I was labouring for a little while at Bowness and Keswick in the
ministry of the Word in October and November When at Keswick, I stayed
with my dear wife in a large boarding-house, in which, however, we were
then alone, except a single gentleman. Just before we left Keswick, on
the morning of Nov. 24th, I heard that the gentleman, lodging in the
same house, had shot himself during the night, but was not quite dead.
We had not heard the report of the pistol, it being a very stormy night,
and the house large. Two days after, I received from a Christian brother
at Keswick the following information respecting the transaction.
Keswick, Nov. 25, 1847.
"Dear Mr. Müller,
The tender and Almighty care of our loving Father was never more over
you, and indeed over all of us, than in your stay at Mrs. . . . .'s.
Mr. . . . . . was quite deranged for two or three days before you left.
Without any control, he had been walking about his room for the last two
days and nights, with loaded-pistols in his hands. Furthermore he had
taken into his head that you were going to kill him. How gracious of
God, that he spread His wings over you, and over dear Mrs. Müller, so
that Satan could not break through the fence, to hurt even a hair of
your heads. Speaking after the manner of men, there was nothing to have
hindered him coming into the room, where we were all at tea, 9 and
firing amongst us; but the Lord was our refuge and fortress, and
preserved us from danger, which we knew not of. He shot himself in the
neck and the breast, but is not dead. He has a strait-waistcoat on. I
assisted in cutting his clothes off, and in other little offices, needed
at such a time, and told him of Christ's love in dying for poor
sinners. I know it,' he said. He shot himself the first time about
three o'clock in the morning, and again about seven. What a scene his
room presented. Pistols lying in gore. Bloody knives, lancets, and
razors strewed about the floor." Etc.
I add an extract from a second letter, written by the same Christian
brother, because it shows still further, how very merciful the Lord was
to us at that time, in protecting us.
"Mr. is still alive, and has been removed by his friends into
Yorkshire. It appears, insanity is in his family, his father being at
this time in an asylum. It is evident that he had the pistols in his
pockets, but of this no one knew until after the occurrence took place.
I do not know what time of night you went to bed; but I judge it was
about ten. If so, it was at ten o'clock Mr.--came down from his
bedroom, after having been there six hours. It was a mercy you did not
meet him, as it is plain that he had loaded pistols on his person."
Dec. 31, 1847. There have been received into Fellowship, during this
year, 39: and altogether, since Mr. Craik and I began labouring in
Bristol, 1157, besides the 68 whom we found in Fellowship. Of these
1225, 143 have fallen asleep, 70 are under church discipline, 78 have
left us, and 259 have left Bristol; so that there are only 675 actually
in communion.
During this year the Lord has been pleased to give me.