Page 64 - Living Epistles

I therefore judged myself bound to be the servant of the church of Christ on
the particular point on which I had obtained mercy; namely, in being able
to take God by His word, and to rely upon it.

For the previous ten years Mr. Muller had been looking to the Lord for all of
his provision, and those of a growing ministry, and he had Found Yahweh
faithful. Now he desired to stir up the body of Christ to walk in the same grace
that he had received. He continues:

All of these exercises of my soul, which resulted from the fact that so many
believers with whom I became acquainted were harassed and distressed in
mind, or brought guilt on their consciences on account of not trusting in the
Lord, were used by God to awaken in my heart the desire of setting before
the church at large, and before the world, a proof that He has not changed
in the least; and this seemed best done by the establishing of an orphan
house. It needed to be something which could be seen, even by the naked eye.
Now, if I, a poor man, simply by prayer and by faith, obtained, without
asking any individual, the means for establishing and carrying on an orphan
house, there would be something which, with the Lord’s blessing, might be
instrumental in strengthening the faith of the children of God, besides being
a testimony to the unconverted of the reality of the things of God.

This then was the primary reason for establishing the orphan house. I
certainly did from my heart desire to be used of God to benefit the bodies of
poor children bereaved of both parents, and seek in other respects, with the
help of God, to do them good for this life. I also particularly longed to be used
of God in getting the dear orphans trained up in the fear of God; but still, the
first and primary object of the work was, and still is, that God might be
magnified by the fact that the orphans under my care are provided with all
they need, only by prayer and faith, without any one being asked by me or
my fellow-laborers, whereby it may be seen that God is FAITHFUL STILL,
and HEARS PRAYER STILL.

I think it is very needful to declare here that this is not some work that George
Muller arrived at through the counsel of his own soul. As stated in his own
words, he believed that God had led him to consider this work by placing
before him so many souls who were walking in guilt due to their failure to
trust in God. Nor did George Muller enter into this work hastily. His memoirs
reveal that he patiently waited before the Father in every decision made
concerning his labors. I have been much impressed with his testimony in this