georgemuller

George Muller: Delighted in God by Roger Steer

George Muller was a sometime missionary and longtime pastor of a church in Bristol, England, in the middle of the nineteenth century. At that time, the plight of orphans in the country was despicable and hopeless. It is the plight of these orphans that inspired so much of Charles Dickens' writing during the same period. Orphanages were of a vastly different nature than we are used to thinking. Unless a child was an orphan of a rich or well-established family, there were few options for them. Some orphanages accepted children according to recommendations; ie, if the child or some advocate could gather enough signatures affirming his character, behavior, etc., then they would accept this child. If an orphaned child had the strength and presence of mind to collect such signatures. But mostly, poor children had no option but homelessness and a rough street-life.

Muller set about to do something about that: he resolved to open and run Christian orphanages that accepted children simply on the basis of need. Indeed, he turned away any child who could be accepted at one of the more traditional orphanages. In addition, Muller set out, through the direction of the orphanages, to prove the existence and good faithfulness of God in a way that I can only compare to Elijah on Mt Carmel. He decided to rely solely and completely on God to provide the means and funds needed to run this orphanage. He did no fundraising whatsoever; moreover, he would not even make his financial needs known even to those who inquired and wished to help. He was steadfast in his determination to rely solely on God to supply His needs, and would not taint such a testimony to a doubtful world with any kind of profession of need or request for help -- not even from his own congregation in Bristol.

And God came through. Again and again, God answered George Muller's prayers, and never once was the orphanage in need. More than that, Muller was able to expand his efforts at an amazing rate: it wasn't long before four major houses were built for orphanages, housing, educating, feeding, and job-training as many as 10,000 orphans at a time. In addition, there were scripture training schools, a publishing house sending out Bibles and scriptural tracts at a very high volume (for little or no money) and heavy financial support of missionaries in other countries. All of this, all of it, without ever letting a single person know of the financial needs of all the work. All told, nearly 1,500,000 pounds were received during George Muller's lifetime from the hands of God.

There were certainly trying days. The book chronicles time and again, at times for months on end, when the orphanages ran on a shoestring budget, at times receiving the money needed to but lunch only at breakfast time. Nonetheless, there was never a single incident when they did not have what they needed.
Muller spent his latter days traveling the world, preaching in as diverse places as Israel, Russia and California(in the 1800's, still a remote corner of the earth.) Instead of boasting of the deeds he had accomplished, the expounded scripture, called on people to recognize the goodness and faithfulness of God, and to rely on Him to supply for them. He insisted that his faith, which was so renowned and talked about, was no extraordinary thing; it was simply the result of years of experiencing God's ability and willingness to meet His needs.

I do not think that Muller had any kind of doctrinal belief that fundraising was a bad thing, and so it would be a twisting of his testimony to use it against missionaries and organizations that fundraise. He simply desired to show that God is faithful and able to meet our needs -- and He did so. It was intended, by this ordinary man, to strengthen the faith of people around the world. I know that reading it has strengthened my faith, while both convicting me and giving me confidence to trust God with my needs. George Muller is an example to me, and a hero of the faith. I would encourage anyone to read more about his life and work -- and the work God did through him and for him.

That said, I must say a word about the shortcomings of this particular biography. It is incredibly tedious at times in its attention to detail. In the times of near-shortage in the orphanages, it does paint the picture well to see how sixpence came in at this hour and two pounds the next day, then three months of relative abundance, then a week in which only eight pence came in and then the day before money was needed to repair the furnace so-and-so wrote a letter including ten pounds. To some extent this is indeed helpful. But when George and wife are touring the country, I don't feel like I need to know about every train and every hotel and house and congregation they preached to. The attention to detail, though it certainly honors Muller's spirit (who was gifted with incredible attention to detail, which doubtless helped him run the houses as he did) is very tedious to read. Some sections are definitely best simply skimmed.