Whenever I hear
or see the name of George Muller, I think of him as a man of faith, a man of
prayer, and a man who trusted God to provide his daily needs. Recently, I have
been thinking about these things, and last week, I decided to read about George
Muller to find out what I may imitate from his godly characters (Hebrews 13:7).
I prefer reading an autobiography over a biography when it comes to people like
him, and George Muller has one, to my delight.
I downloaded a
pdf version of his autobiography compiled by G. Fred Bergin made available by
Monergism Books. It is 1051 pages long. I am not sure whether this pdf version
is authentic, reliable, and citable or not. It has no footnotes, no
bibliography, and it doesn’t look like a proper book that one can make any
citation. I chose to read it anyway because I was looking for my edification,
and not for an academic purpose.
It has 21
chapters, Preface, Introduction, and an Appendix. The first 3 chapters look
like an autobiography, and the following chapters look like a compilation
of Journal entries. The compiler mentioned at the start of chapter 14 (p.604)
that chapters 1-7 are the personal history of George Muller in his early days
and resumed the personal narrative in this chapter. Chapter 17 is about his preaching
tours. He had 17 tours in 17 years travelling about 2,00,000 miles with his
second wife (p.811, 998). Chapter 20 is about the death of his wife and his
death. Chapter 21 is written by Arthur T. Pierson after the death of George
Muller. The chapters and accounts are arranged chronologically.
It contains some
sermons, expositions (chp.8), and reflections. It also has several letters from
donors (p.427, 481, 534, 588, 876, 916, 973, 978, 982), orphans (p.951, 965),
and even his correspondences (around 3000 correspondences a year – p.385; 547)
to some of them. Sometimes, he would give reasons and defenses for why he did
what he did. It must also be mentioned that the often-repeated story of George
Mueller concerning a baker and milkman who happened to feed the orphans when
they had nothing to eat, just after he had offered thanks to the Lord, is not
found in this 1051-page long book.
On p.117, Muller
writes about 1 Peter 3:1, illustrating a woman who humbles her husband with her
humble submission. On p.410, he retells the story of Mr. Cobb whose worth wants
to be below 50,000 dollars. On p.466-468, he writes about a poor widow who
offered £85 and how he tried hard to dissuade her.
On p.77, he
writes about sermon preparation, which btw, I would never recommend. He went to
some meeting without a text, waiting for the Holy Spirit to impress upon his
mind.
In many pages of
this book is seen that Muller doesn’t want to influence people to give more by
telling his needs or how they meet his needs; he wants people to give freely,
willingly, and thoughtfully (p.85).
His prayers
weren’t answered immediately every time he prayed, he had frustrating moments
too (p.86, 142, 292, 374, 376, 418, 428-429, 555, 751, 853, 939, 1016).
While I was reading this pdf version of this book, I made over 150 annotations, and I would like to republish some sections or lines.
Concerning Preaching:
October 1st, 1832. A meeting for enquirers this afternoon from two to five. Many more are convinced of sin through brother Craik's preaching than my own. This circumstance led me to enquire into the reasons, which are probably these: — (1) That brother Craik is more spiritually minded than I am. (2) That he prays more earnestly for the conversion of sinners than I do. (3) That he more frequently addresses sinners, as such, in his public ministrations than I do. — This led me to more frequent and earnest prayer for the conversion of sinners, and to address them more frequently as such. The latter had never been intentionally left undone, but it had not been so frequently brought to my mind as to that of brother Craik. Since then, the cases in which it has pleased the Lord to use me as an instrument of conversion have been quite as many as those in which brother Craik has been used. May the Lord be pleased to use this as a means to lead any of His servants, who may not have acted according to these two last points, to seek to do so, and may He graciously enable me to do so more abundantly. (p.102)
Effects of exposure to profane conversations:
April 9, 1835: In the
evening we reached Brunswick, from whence we started the same night. During the
night I heard a fearfully wicked, most profligate, infidel, and scoffing
conversation between the conductor and a student, and the only testimony I gave was, complete silence all
the time. I arrived here this morning at eight, and have been here all
the morning, as the mail will not start for Hamburg until four this afternoon.
It has been far from well with me in my soul today. That awful conversation
last night has been spiritual poison to me. How very soon do we, even
unconsciously, receive evil! (p.124)
Knowing vs Feeling Concerning
Forgiveness of Sins:
I myself have now been
a believer for more than nineteen years (i.e. in the year 1845). How long it
is, since I have had no doubt whatever about the forgiveness of my sins, I
cannot tell with certainty; but of this I am quite sure, that ever since I have
been in England, which is now about sixteen years (in 1845), I have never once
had a single moment's doubt that my sins are all forgiven; and yet I do not
remember that I ever once have felt that they were forgiven. To know that they are forgiven,
and to feel that they are forgiven, are two different things—The way to
settle whether our sins are forgiven, is, to refer to the Word of God alone
with reference to it. (p.226)
How to be constantly happy in the
Lord: (Spring, 1841)
While I was staying at
Nailsworth. it pleased the Lord to teach me a truth, irrespective of human
instrumentality, as far as I know, the benefit of which I have not lost, though
now, while preparing the eighth edition for the press, more than forty years
have since passed away. The point is this: I saw more clearly than ever, that the first great and
primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul
happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not, how much I might
serve the Lord, how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into
a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished. For I might seek
to set the truth before the unconverted, I might seek to benefit believers, I
might seek to relieve the distressed, I might in other ways seek to behave
myself as it becomes a child of God in this world; and yet, not being happy in
the Lord, and not being nourished and strengthened in my inner man day by day,
all this might not be attended to in a right spirit. Before this time my
practice had been, at least for ten years previously, as an habitual thing, to
give myself to prayer, after having dressed in the morning.
(p.230)
It often now astonishes
mo that I did not sooner see this. In no book did I ever read about it. No
public ministry ever brought the matter before me. No private intercourse with
a brother stirred me up to this matter. And yet now, since God has taught me
this point, it is as plain to me as anything, that the first thing the child of
God has to do morning by morning is to obtain food for his inner man. As the
outward man is not fit for work for any length of time, except we take food,
and as this is one of the first things we do in the morning, so it should be
with the inner man. We
should take food for that, as every one must allow. Now what is the food for
the inner man? Not prayer, but the Word of God; and here again not the simple
reading of the Word of God, so that it only passes through our minds, just as
water runs through a pipe, but considering what we read, pondering over it, and
applying it to our hearts. (p.232)
Concerning Orphan Work and His Life:
But there is one point
which weighs more strongly with me than even the last mentioned one. It is
this. When I began the Orphan work more than fifteen years ago, it was for the
definite and especial purpose, that, by means of it, the unconverted might see,
through the answers of prayer that I received in connection with it, that there
is verily reality in the things of God; and that the children of God might have
their faith strengthened by means of it, and be encouraged in all simplicity to deal with God
under every circumstance, and trust in Him at all times.
(p.392)
Concerning Presumption, Plan, and
Prayer in Life:
Pause, esteemed reader!
Nearly seven years had I been, day by day, asking the Lord for the needed
means, to carry out the desire of my heart, concerning the thousand Orphans.
Not a single day had elapsed since first I began to pray for means, in which I
had not been enabled, in the full assurance of faith that it would be granted,
to bring my request before God, and generally I had prayed more than once a day
concerning this matter. When I began my request for means, viz. to entreat the
Lord to give me £35,000, I knew well what difficulty there was in the way of my
obtaining this sum, looking at it naturally. I am too calm, too calculating a
person, too much in the habit of weighing all the difficulties of a case, to be
carried away by excitement or imagination. I knew I had no ground naturally to
expect this large sum. For
months, therefore, I had not prayed at all for means for this enlargement, but
had only asked the Lord to show me very clearly whether it was His will that I
should go forward; but, having once come fully to this conclusion, on
the grounds stated, I was as certain that the Lord would give me all I needed,
as if I had had the money already in hand. (p414)
Funeral Sermon Outline: (p.622)
I. The Lord was good,
and did good, in giving her to me.
II. He was good, and
did good in so long leaving her to me.
III. He was good, and
did good, in taking her from me.
Concerning the suffering of his
wife:
Now that very ring,
which at the wedding on October 7th, 1830, I had put on her finger, needed to
be broken off. Her arm and hand became worse, and continued thus week after
week. That room, in which I had been in the habit of paying those happy visits
to my beloved wife after dinner and at other times, was now, week after week,
for a long time without her. But this was the state of my heart at that time.
When this most heavy affliction began, I said to myself, Twenty-nine years the Lord has
given me this precious wife with comparatively little illness, and shall I now
be dissatisfied, because He has been pleased to afflict her thus, in the
thirtieth year of our conjugal union? Nay, it becomes me rather to be very
grateful for having had her so long in comparatively good health, and fully to
submit myself to the will of the Lord. (p.632)
By the grace of God I
am not merely perfectly satisfied with this dispensation, but I kiss the hand which
administered the stroke, and I look again for the fulfilment of that
word in this instance, that "All things work together for good to them
that love God" (Rom. 8:28). (p.997)
His Giving:
In 1844 my income was
£207 6s. 9d., of which we gave away £100. In 1845 my income was £433 19s. 1¾d.
Do you see, dear reader, how the Lord was pleased to repay the £100, given away
in the year 1844? We saw it. We knew that word, and believed it. "There is that scattereth,
and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it
tendeth to poverty" (Prov. 11:24). And, therefore, it was our joy
and delight yet further to act according to this word, and we gave away, during
that year, £220; not indeed for the purpose of obtaining more for it, but to
glorify God with the means with which He had been pleased to entrust us,
whilst, however, we knew at the same time that He would abundantly repay.
(p.652)
I beg the reader to remember,
that I had not a single fee, nor any emolument whatever in connection with my
pastoral position. I had no fees for burials, baptisms, marriages, or anything
else. My aim never was, how much I could obtain, but rather, how much could I
give. (p.653)
In 1856 my income was
£781 0s. 7d., and we had now the joy and privilege of being able to give away
£500 during that year. In 1857 my income was £836 11s. 2¼d., and we gave away
that year £566. (p.654)
The reader of the
previous pages would be mistaken, if he supposed that, as soon as the Lord has
sent me means, my aim is, to seek to get rid of them as fast as possible, as if
it were a crime to possess a ten-pound note. That is not at all my way of
acting. All I seek after
is, to have grace, not to hold anything as my own, but as belonging to the Lord;
so that, whether I have much or little, I desire to look on the much or the
little as a steward would, and not as an owner. I seek, therefore, for grace, to be willing, to give of that
which the Lord has given to me, a part, or, if He would bid me, all.
(p.660)
From what has been
stated before, it will be seen that during the forty-three years and five
months from January 1st, 1831, to May 26th, 1874, the total of my income was
£37,523 3s. 6¾d., of which, however, more than £26,000 came in during the last
sixteen years only. The total amount which, by God's grace, I was enabled to
give away, during these forty-three years and five months, is £27,179 0s. 8d.
Of this amount, however, more than £21,700 was given away within the last
sixteen years only. Of the £27,179 0s. 8d., which we gave away from January
1st, 1831, to May 26th, 1874, £22,000 was given to the Lord's work. The remaining
£5,179 0s. 8d. was given to poor believers, or to poor unbelievers, or to
relatives who might be in need. (p.660)
One of my favourite lines in this
book:
I have no doubt that
most of the Christian readers will say, This is a blessed way! It is delightful
to be allowed to give away so much! How I should like to be able to do the
same. My reply is, Yes, it
is a blessed way! It is delightful to be allowed to give away so much. Will
you not then try this way for yourself? Give, as God prospers you.
Begin with
little,
if you have not faith enough to begin with much; only give that little, constrained
by the love of Christ, heartily, faithfully, steadily.
(p.661)
On p.342-343,
Muller appeals to the readers to consider his Narrative solemnly looking for
the hands of God in His dealing with him. I began to read this book hoping to
confirm that George Muller was a man of faith, a man of prayer, a man who trust
in the providence of God for his daily needs, and I found him to be so. Furthermore,
he was a compassionate guy who built and managed Orphan Homes to keep them away
from jail (p.383, 391), a passionate preacher, and a great giver who treasured
his wealth not in a bank or saving box but in heaven. He was a man of God, but an
ordinary guy every day, who prayed to the extraordinary God every day.