George Muller of Bristol Part 9

One is reminded of Moses in his intercession for Israel, of Elijah in his exceeding jealousy for the Lord of hosts, and of that prayer of Jeremiah that so amazes us by its boldness:

"Do not abhor us for Thy name's sake!

_Do not disgrace the throne of Thy glory!"_*

* Comp. Numbers xiv. 13-19; 1 Kings xix. 10; Jer. xiv. 21.

Looking back over the growth of the work at the end of the year 1837, he puts on record the following facts and figures:

Three orphan houses were now open with eighty-one children, and nine helpers in charge of them. In the Sunday-schools there were three hundred and twenty, and in the day-schools three hundred and fifty; and the Lord had furnished over three hundred and seven pounds for temporal supplies.

From this same point of view it may be well to glance back over the five years of labour in Bristol up to July, 1837. Between himself and his brother Craik uninterrupted harmony had existed from the beginning. They had been perfectly at one in their views of the truth, in their witness to the truth, and in their judgment as to all matters affecting the believers over whom the Holy Ghost had made them overseers. The children of G.o.d had been kept from heresy and schism under their joint pastoral care; and all these blessings Mr. Muller and his true yoke-fellow humbly traced to the mercy and grace of the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls.

Thus far over one hundred and seventy had been converted and admitted to fellows.h.i.+p, making the total number of communicants three hundred and seventy, nearly equally divided between Bethesda and Gideon. The whole history of these years is lit up with the sunlight of G.o.d's smile and blessing.

CHAPTER X

THE WORD OF G.o.d AND PRAYER

HABIT both _shows_ and _makes_ the man, for it is at once historic and prophetic, the mirror of the man as he is and the mould of the man as he is to be. At this point, therefore, special attention may properly be given to the two marked habits which had princ.i.p.ally to do with the man we are studying.

Early in the year 1838, he began reading that third biography which, with those of Francke and John Newton, had such a singular influence on his own life--Philip's Life of George Whitefield. The life-story of the orphan's friend had given the primary impulse to his work; the life-story of the converted blasphemer had suggested his narrative of the Lord's dealings; and now the life-story of the great evangelist was blessed of G.o.d to shape his general character and give new power to his preaching and his wider ministry to souls. These three biographies together probably affected the whole inward and outward life of George Muller more than any other volumes but the Book of G.o.d, and they were wisely fitted of G.o.d to co-work toward such a blessed result. The example of Francke incited to faith in prayer and to a work whose sole dependence was on G.o.d. Newton's witness to grace led to a testimony to the same sovereign love and mercy as seen in his own case. Whitefield's experience inspired to greater fidelity and earnestness in preaching the Word, and to greater confidence in the power of the anointing Spirit.

Particularly was this impression deeply made on Mr. Muller's mind and heart: that Whitefield's unparalleled success in evangelistic labours was plainly traceable to two causes and could not be separated from them as direct effects; namely, his _unusual prayerfulness, and his habit of reading the Bible on his knees._

The great evangelist of the last century had learned that first lesson in service, his own utter nothingness and helplessness: that he was nothing, and could do nothing, without G.o.d. He could neither understand the Word for himself, nor translate it into his own life, nor apply it to others with power, unless the Holy Spirit became to him both _insight_ and _unction._ Hence his success; he was filled with the Spirit: and this alone accounts both for the quality and the quant.i.ty of his labours. He died in 1770, in the fifty-sixth year of his age, having preached his first sermon in Gloucester in 1736. During this thirty-four years his labours had been both unceasing and untiring. While on his journeyings in America, he preached one hundred and seventy-five times in seventy-five days, besides travelling, in the slow vehicles of those days, upwards of eight hundred miles. When health declined, and he was put on 'short allowance,' even that was _one sermon each week-day and three on Sunday._ There was about his preaching, moreover, a nameless charm which held thirty thousand hearers half-breathless on Boston Common and made tears pour down the sooty faces of the colliers at Kingswood.

The pa.s.sion of George Muller's soul was to know fully the secrets of prevailing with G.o.d and with man. George Whitefield's life drove home the truth that G.o.d alone could create in him a holy earnestness to win souls and qualify him for such divine work by imparting a compa.s.sion for the lost that should become an absorbing pa.s.sion for their salvation.

And--let this be carefully marked as another secret of this life of service--_he now began himself to read the word of G.o.d upon his knees,_ and often found for hours great blessing in such meditation and prayer over a single psalm or chapter.

Here we stop and ask what profit there can be in thus prayerfully reading and searching the Scriptures in the very att.i.tude of prayer.

Having tried it for ourselves, we may add our humble witness to its value.

First of all, this habit is a constant reminder and recognition of the need of spiritual teaching in order to the understanding of the holy Oracles. No reader of G.o.d's word can thus bow before G.o.d and His open book, without a feeling of new reverence for the Scriptures, and dependence on their Author for insight into their mysteries. The att.i.tude of wors.h.i.+p naturally suggests sober-mindedness and deep seriousness, and banishes frivolity. To treat that Book with lightness or irreverence would be doubly profane when one is in the posture of prayer.

Again, such a habit naturally leads to self-searching and comparison of the actual life with the example and pattern shown in the Word. The precept compels the practice to be seen in the light of its teaching; the command challenges the conduct to appear for examination. The prayer, whether spoken or unspoken, will inevitably be:

"Search me, O G.o.d, and know my heart, Try me, and know my thoughts; And see if there be any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting!"

(Psalm cx.x.xix. 23, 24.)

The words thus reverently read will be translated into the life and mould the character into the image of G.o.d. "Beholding as in a gla.s.s the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit."*

* 2 Cor. iii. 18.

But perhaps the greatest advantage will be that the Holy Scriptures will thus suggest the very words which become the dialect of prayer. "We know not what we should pray for as we ought"--neither what nor how to pray.

But here is the Spirit's own inspired utterance, and, if the praying be moulded on the model of His teaching, how can we go astray? Here is our G.o.d-given liturgy and litany--a divine prayer-book. We have here G.o.d's promises, precepts, warnings, and counsels, not to speak of all the Spirit-inspired literal prayers therein contained; and, as we reflect upon these, our prayers take their cast in this matrix. We turn precept and promise, warning and counsel into supplication, with the a.s.surance that we cannot be asking anything that is not according to His will,*

for are we not turning His own word into prayer?

* 1 John v. 13.

So Mr. Muller found it to be. In meditating over Hebrews xiii. 8: "Jesus Christ the same yesterday and to-day and for ever," translating it into prayer, he besought G.o.d, with the confidence that the prayer was already granted, that, as Jesus had already in His love and power supplied all that was needful, in the same unchangeable love and power He would so continue to provide. And so a promise was not only turned into a prayer, but into a prophecy--an a.s.surance of blessing--and a river of joy at once poured into and flowed through his soul.

The prayer habit, on the knees, with the Word open before the disciple, has thus an advantage which it is difficult to put into words: It provides a sacred channel of approach to G.o.d. The inspired Scriptures form the vehicle of the Spirit in communicating to us the knowledge of the will of G.o.d. If we think of G.o.d on the one side and man on the other, the word of G.o.d is the mode of conveyance from G.o.d to man, of His own mind and heart. It therefore becomes a channel of G.o.d's approach to us, a channel prepared by the Spirit for the purpose, and unspeakably sacred as such. When therefore the believer uses the word of G.o.d as the guide to determine both the spirit and the dialect of his prayer, he is inverting the process of divine revelation and using the channel of G.o.d's approach to him as the channel of his approach to G.o.d. How can such use of G.o.d's word fail to help and strengthen spiritual life? What medium or channel of approach could so insure in the praying soul both an acceptable frame and language taught of the Holy Spirit? If the first thing is not to pray but to hearken, this surely is hearkening for G.o.d to speak to us that we may know how to speak to Him.

It was habits of life such as these, and not impulsive feelings and transient frames, that made this man of G.o.d what he was and strengthened him to lift up his hands in G.o.d's name, and follow hard after Him and in Him rejoice.* Even his sore affliction, seen in the light of such prayer--prayer itself illuminated by the word of G.o.d--became radiant; and his soul was brought into that state where he so delighted in the will of G.o.d as to be able from his heart to say that he would not have his disease removed until through it G.o.d had wrought the blessing it was meant to convey. And when his acquiescence in the will of G.o.d had become thus complete he instinctively felt that he would speedily be restored to health.

* Psalm lxiii. 4, 8, 11.

Subsequently, in reading Proverbs iii. 5-12, he was struck with the words, "Neither be _weary_ of His correction." He felt that, though he had not been permitted to "despise the chastening of the Lord," he had at times been somewhat "weary of His correction," and he lifted up the prayer that he might so patiently bear it as neither to faint nor be weary under it, till its full purpose was wrought.

Frequent were the instances of the habit of translating promises into prayers, immediately applying the truth thus unveiled to him. For example, after prolonged meditation over the first verse of Psalm lxv, _"O Thou that hearest prayer,"_ he at once asked and recorded certain definite pet.i.tions. This writing down specific requests for permanent reference has a blessed influence upon the prayer habit. It a.s.sures practical and exact form for our supplications, impresses the mind and memory with what is thus asked of G.o.d, and leads naturally to the record of the answers when given, so that we acc.u.mulate evidences in our own experience that G.o.d is to us personally a prayer-hearing G.o.d, whereby unbelief is rebuked and importunity encouraged.

On this occasion eight specific requests are put on record, together with the solemn conviction that, having asked in conformity with the word and will of G.o.d, and in the name of Jesus, he has confidence in Him that He heareth and that he has the pet.i.tions thus asked of Him.* He writes:

* 1 John v. 13.

"I believe _He has heard me._ I believe He will make it _manifest_ in His own good time _that He has heard me;_ and I have recorded these my pet.i.tions this fourteenth day of January, 1838, that when G.o.d has answered them He may get, through this, glory to His name."

The thoughtful reader must see in all this a man of weak faith, feeding and nouris.h.i.+ng his trust in G.o.d that his faith may grow strong. He uses the promise of a prayer-hearing G.o.d as a staff to stay his conscious feebleness, that he may lean hard upon the strong Word which cannot fail. He records the day when he thus takes this staff in hand, and the very pet.i.tions which are the burdens which he seeks to lay on G.o.d, so that his act of committal may be the more complete and final. Could G.o.d ever dishonour such trust?

It was in this devout reading on his knees that his whole soul was first deeply moved by that phrase,

"A FATHER OF THE FATHERLESS." (Psalm lxviii. 5.)

He saw this to be one of those "names" of Jehovah which He reveals to His people to lead them to trust in Him, as it is written in Psalm ix.

10:

"They that know Thy name Will put their trust in Thee."

These five words from the sixty-eighth psalm became another of his life-texts, one of the foundation stones of all his work for the fatherless. These are his own words:

"By the help of G.o.d, this shall be my argument before Him, respecting the orphans, in the hour of need. He is their Father, and therefore has pledged Himself, as it were, to provide for them; and I have only to remind Him of the need of these poor children in order to have it supplied."

This is translating the promises of G.o.d's word, not only into praying, but into living, doing, serving. Blessed was the hour when Mr. Muller learned that one of G.o.d's chosen names is "the Father of the fatherless"!

To sustain such burdens would have been quite impossible but for faith in such a G.o.d. In reply to oft-repeated remarks of visitors and observers who could not understand the secret of his peace, or how any man who had so many children to clothe and feed could carry such prostrating loads of care, he had one uniform reply: "By the grace of G.o.d, this is no cause of anxiety to me. These children I have years ago cast upon the Lord. The whole work is His, and it becomes me to be without carefulness. In whatever points I am lacking, in this point I am able by the grace of G.o.d to roll the burden upon my heavenly Father."*

* Journal 1:285

In tens of thousands of cases this peculiar t.i.tle of G.o.d, chosen by Himself and by Himself declared, became to Mr. Muller a peculiar revelation of G.o.d, suited to his special need. The natural inferences drawn from such a t.i.tle became powerful arguments in prayer, and rebukes to all unbelief. Thus, at the outset of his work for the orphans, the word of G.o.d put beneath his feet a rock basis of confidence that he could trust the almighty Father to support the work. And, as the solicitudes of the work came more and more heavily upon him, he cast the loads he could not carry upon Him who, before George Muller was born, was the Father of the fatherless.

About this time we meet other signs of the conflict going on in Mr.

Mullers own soul. He could not shut his eyes to the lack of earnestness in prayer and fervency of spirit which at times seemed to rob him of both peace and power. And we notice his experience, in common with so many saints, of the _paradox_ of spiritual life. He saw that "such fervency of spirit is altogether the gift of G.o.d," and yet he adds, "I have to ascribe to myself the loss of it." He did not run divine sovereignty into blank fatalism as so many do. He saw that G.o.d must be sovereign in His gifts, and yet man must be free in his reception and rejection of them. He admitted the mystery without attempting to reconcile the apparent contradiction. He confesses also that the same book, Philip's Life of Whitefield, which had been used of G.o.d to kindle such new fires on the altar of his heart, had been also used of Satan to tempt him to neglect for its sake the systematic study of the greatest of books.

Thus, at every step, George Mullers life is full of both encouragement and admonition to fellow disciples. While away from Bristol he wrote in February, 1838, a tender letter to the saints there, which is another revelation of the man's heart. He makes grateful mention of the mercies of G.o.d, to him, particularly His gentleness, long-suffering, and faithfulness and the lessons taught him through affliction. The letter makes plain that much sweetness is mixed in the cup of suffering, and that our privileges are not properly prized until for a time we are deprived of them. He particularly mentions how _secret prayer,_ even when reading, conversation, or prayer with others was a burden, _always brought relief to his head._ Converse with the Father was an indispensable source of refreshment and blessing at all times. As J.

Hudson Taylor says "Satan, the Hinderer, may build a barrier about us, but he can never _roof us in,_ so that we cannot _look up."_ Mr. Muller also gives a valuable hint that has already been of value to many afflicted saints, that he found he could help by prayer to fight the battles of the Lord even when he could not by preaching. After a short visit to Germany, partly in quest of health and partly for missionary objects, and after more than twenty-two weeks of retirement from ordinary public duties, his head was much better, but his mental health allowed only about three hours of daily work. While in Germany he had again seen his father and elder brother, and spoken with them about their salvation. To his father his words brought apparent blessing, for he seemed at least to feel his lack of the one thing needful. The separation from him was the more painful as there was so little hope that they should meet again on earth.

In May he once more took part in public services in Bristol, a period of six months having elapsed since he had previously done so. His head was still weak, but there seemed no loss of mental power.