George Müller

George Müller – a short biography

The person we're going to be speaking about today takes us back to the 1800's, and takes us to two countries - we start in Germany, and then we go to England.

George Müller was born into a fairly wealthy family. He was the son of a tax collector. He was born in Prussia, which is northern Germany now, and he grew up as a bit of a wild child. He was, I guess you could say, pretty naughty. He was once, at the age of 16, out drinking and gambling all night, and little did he know that, that very night, his mother was dying, and when he arrived home early that morning, his father told him that his mother had died, and he couldn't care less. It had very little impact on him - and that's the sort of person George Müller was in his early years.

By the time he was 16, he found himself in prison for a month. What he had done was this: he booked himself a nice holiday but with no money at all to pay for it. He stayed at a fancy hotel for a week or so, and then took off without paying his bill, then booked himself into another hotel and stayed another week or so, and took off. He thought he was very clever to have gotten away with it all, but, of course, he hadn't, and he was thrown into prison. His father was very good to him, and being a wealthy man, his father bailed him out of prison and paid the fines. But none of this seemed to correct George Müller's ways. In fact, he was just sorry that he got caught. So his youth was spent cheating and lying - he even cheated his best friends - and he was involved in a lot of theft. He was a really good trickster, he tended to get his own way in the world, and he lived very much for himself.

Despite all of this, his father really wanted him - and it sounds very strange to say this - but his father really wanted him to become a pastor in a Lutheran Church! Now, not because his father was in any way hoping that this would in some way encourage him to live for the Lord, or anything like that, but it was just seen as a very good and honorable living. In fact, his father thought that if he could become the pastor of a fairly wealthy parish, then he would get a lot of money, and his father would be able to retire in a nice country cottage, and everything would be lovely. That was his Father's plan. His father intended him to go to a special university, where he would learn theology and become qualified as a pastor.

Now, George wasn't really in the mood for any of this. The idea of studying theology was pretty bland to him, but he did end up going along to this university. Unfortunately, he spent most of his time in the ale houses, where he very soon had a reputation as the life of the party, the one who would be able to down 10 beers in a minute, and so on. He was gambling and leading other students astray, not that many of the other students at the university were Christians. In fact, very few of them were, even though they were studying to become pastors.

So, one day he met of an old childhood friend at his university, this was at the university he attended, and this old childhood friend was named Beata, and George remembered him as a very religious sort of person. He was a good, moral kind of character. And despite George's wild living, there was something in him that told him that he had to change at some point - he couldn't be the pastor that was going to shepherd the flock, and be living a wild life on the side. He knew that that was not a possibility. And so he thought it would be good for him to befriend this man Beata, because he thought the good morals might rub off onto him, and he would start to mend his ways. But unfortunately, that didn't happen. It was the other way around. George was the big influence on Beata, and Beata started to follow him to the ale houses and started to gamble and so on.

But there was something about Beata that held him back, and one day he decided not to go with George. And George said to him, "What are you doing? Where are you going?" And he said, "Nowhere you'd want to go". And George said, "Excuse me, how do you know where I'd want to go, and what I'd like to do?" And Beata said, "You won't want to go here." And George said, "OK, a challenge! I'll go with you, wherever you're going, I'll go". And Beata said, "I'm going to a Bible study". And George laughed a little bit and then he said, "Oh, why do you think I wouldn't want to go to a Bible study?" Beata said, "Well, they read the Bible, and they sing songs and they pray".

Well, anyway, George had made his deal, so he went along too, and when he got there he thought he would have a bit of a laugh, and it would be a bit of a good time. But as he walked into the house - because it was a house, it wasn't a church - he suddenly felt very inferior. Here were people who prayed, and when they prayed, George heard for the first time people who genuinely meant what they were saying. When the person who was at the front was talking about the Scripture, they were looking at the Scripture, not as a literary example of nice language or anything like that, but they were looking at it as something practical that would help them live out their lives. And George suddenly realized that these people really believed in God, and wanted to live for Him. This was the first time that he'd met Christians, real Christians, like this.

Well, it had a big impact on him. And when he left, he was determined to go back again. That week, he went every day to this little Bible study that was happening in someone's house. By the end of the week, George Müller was on his knees in his little university room, and he asked the Lord to forgive him for all that he'd done in his life. He really wanted to start all over again. And so George Müller, at about 20 years old, was converted.

Now he had a huge change in character. Previously he was the life of the party, he was the instigator. And now his friends, even though his behavior changed so dramatically, were actually quite revolted. "What is wrong with you? Why are you not coming along with us? Why have you started to go to this person's house, and you're starting to read the Bible and religious books - you never had any interest before?" And it was true, George had suddenly lost all interest in all the things that he had done previously.

Within six weeks he had a great desire to be a missionary and travel to far off places that people had never heard of in those days - places in the Middle East, and maybe even China - to spread the gospel. He really wanted to do that, and he had met people who were planning on being missionaries who had a huge influence on him. He thought that he had better go to his father - their relationship was terrible and quite dysfunctional prior to this. He wanted to seek his father's forgiveness and show him that he had truly changed, and he also wanted to tell his father that he didn't want to become a pastor of a Lutheran church anymore, but he wanted to be a missionary. He thought that his father would really appreciate this. And so, when he announced it, he was quite shocked when his father became really angry, and said to him, "I have not paid for years and years of education for you to just throw it away and become something so dishonorable as a missionary". It didn't matter to his father that George had changed completely - and I don't know whether his father believed it at that time - but the idea that George would throw away his comfortable retirement and become a missionary, was unspeakable. His final words to George Müller were just, "Get out of my sight!".

So George Müller decided that he would not be able to ask for money from his father anymore. This posed a great problem. He was at university, there were fees to be paid, there were books to be bought, he was renting a little room in the university, as many students did, and so he discovered that he had no means to pay for himself at all, and he didn't want to accept any money from his father. He knew that it wouldn't be right to do that. And so he got on his knees, and said to the Lord, "I've cut ties with my earthly father in this, but I'm trusting You, my Heavenly Father to provide for me". This was one of the first occasions where he reached out in faith, and about one hour later, or less than an hour later, there was a knock on his little door - his dorm room - and one of the tutors from the university came in and said that there were two American professors who would come visiting to the university, they couldn't speak German, and everyone knew that George Müller was very good with languages and he could speak English. And so within that hour, George Müller found himself with a job translating and interpreting things, and also teaching German, and these American professors were happy to pay very handsomely for this. The money that he received was enough to cover his tuition. Not only that, but there was an orphanage across the road, and they had one little room spare that they used for students who were struggling, and they offered it to him, out of the blue. And so, George Müller, at this very young age, saw that the Lord does provide when we trust in Him completely.

Now, when he was in this orphanage, in the little room there that he was renting, he got to know the man who ran it, who was a Christian. And he invited George Müller as a student to preach his first sermon at a local church, a little countryside chapel.

And so George Müller took this really seriously, and he spent hours working on his sermon, crafting it and making sure the language was just right, and then he spent hours memorizing the whole thing, word for word with the proper expression and good emphasis on the right words. And then when he came to the chapel that morning, he stood in the pulpit, and he delivered that sermon word perfectly. Everything was right, the emphasis was good, the language was perfect. And on his way out, as he was shaking hands with all the uneducated farmers and laborers and widows in this country town, one man stopped and said, "I'm sure it was a very good sermon, sir, I couldn't understand a word". George Müller was quite shocked at this, and he thought, "What's the point of this? These people, these are uneducated people, and here I am speaking things, and they think it's good because they don't understand anything!"

And so, when he was invited to lunch, he excused himself and asked if he could take some time to think about what he would do in the evening, because he was going to speak again. And he got his sermon that he so meticulously prepared, and he threw it in the bin. And he prayed, and he said to the Lord, "I don't know now what to do! All the things that I've done at university and theological college - this is not right. I need somehow to communicate to these people." And so the Lord gave him something to say, and he spoke so differently, so simply and clearly, and many people were helped that evening, probably for the first time.

After this time, he was in touch with some other Christians and they wanted him to be a missionary. They were going to send him, not to a far off country at all, but somewhere quite nearby, although in those days, it was still seen as far off. They wanted him to go to London, and to go to London to witness and spread the gospel amongst the Jewish ghettos there. There were many Jews who lived in these communities, and there were Christians who were sent out as missionaries to go and preach to them. George Müller was very excited about this, and he overcame many obstacles to get there, and finally, he was in London, and he was studying Hebrew 12 hours a day, and in six months, he was able to speak Hebrew fluently, and read the Bible in Hebrew as well, as well as write a little bit of Hebrew.

He had worked very hard in order to do this, and he worked so hard that he became quite sick. Müller had very ill health actually, and previously had burst a blood vessel in his stomach. This flared up again, and the doctors told him, "You need to slow down, you need to stop, you need to rest". In those days, what they used to say was, "You need to go to the countryside to get some fresh air". And so, right on the brink of being able to be a missionary to these Jewish communities, he was sent to a seaside town by the name of Teignmouth.

Teignmouth was a port, a little tiny seaside town, a fishing town. He was there and he was just meant to be resting and recovering, but he met a man by the name of Henry Craik. Henry Craik was a good Christian man, and he had been serving in this little town for many years, and he also introduced George Müller to some missionaries. There was a man there by the name of Mr. Groves, who had sold everything he had, and gone to Persia to be a missionary. George Müller met this family and was really inspired by this and the idea of going to this country that nobody had really ever been to or broken into. Again, the idea of becoming a missionary was really at the forefront of his mind.

Through Henry Craik as well, George Müller learned to read the Bible. Previously, he was reading the Bible, but he was probably reading more spiritual books about the Bible than the Bible itself. Henry taught him to look at what the Lord says, and take the Lord at His word. And so George Müller started to read the Scripture very faithfully - in fact, he averaged reading the Bible through four times every year.

Now, during this time, when he returned to London, he thought, "What? Why should I just wait until I've finished studying? Why can't I just get out there now and meet people and hand out tracts and talk to people? Why do I need to wait for it to officially start?" And so he did that -he went out onto the streets, and he started to hand out tracts. And what he discovered was that it wasn't just these Jewish people that needed the Lord, in fact, everybody did, because in England at the time, although everyone was called Christian, very few people were. It was very nominal. People were labeled Christian but they really didn't understand a thing. And so he really wanted to share the gospel, not just to this one group of people, but to everybody.

He decided, and the Lord led him, not to continue with the Mission Society. He didn't think that it was the right thing for him to do, and he felt that the mission field for him was perhaps not as specific as just these Jewish people that they wanted to send him to. Henry Craik encouraged him to return to Teignmouth, and so he did, and he became the pastor of a tiny little chapel, called Ebenezer Chapel, in this seaside town. There were 18 uneducated salmon fishermen who attended this little chapel faithfully. Some people wondered why this foreigner from Germany had come all this way to serve in a chapel with 18 people, all uneducated, and he was highly qualified. People thought it was very strange. But this chapel grew, half the time because people were curious and wanted to hear his accent, but it did grow nonetheless.

And the other thing that happened here in Teignmouth was that he met a lady, the sister of the missionary, Mr. Groves. Her name was Mary. She was a bit older than George Müller, in her 30s, and she had a strong faith, and the two of them fell in love and they were married in 1830.

Now, both of them shared the idea of living as an example to their community - their community was this little fishing town. It was a very poor town, pretty simple, and Mary had brought with her, as custom would have it, all the little ornaments and little tea sets, and all of those things from her home which she set up in their little house, which George had previously had all bare, just being a bachelor there. She made it all very nice and pretty.

But when George looked around, he said to her, "No, we have to get rid of it all. We can't have all of this. We should just get rid of it and sell it. We need to live very simply, like the people we're serving." And so Mary gathered all her things, sold the lot, and they used the money to help the poor.

Not only that, but George had been reading the Scripture, and he had something that was bothering his conscience, something that was quite traditional in those days. It was called Pew Renting. Any pastor who had a church would rent out the pews to different families. You see the richer you were, the closer towards the front you could sit, and they were bigger pews and there was more space, it was more comfortable - probably you even got a cushion. Pew Renting was something that everybody did - it wasn't just some churches, it was across Europe, and this was very normal. But George really did not like this idea. He felt it contradicted the Scripture, the idea of favoritism. The rich had more say on how things went in the church, and the poor people could hardly hear because they were in the back corner squished in the pews that they could afford. And so this Pew Renting, he thought, "It's got to go". And so he spoke to Mary and said, "Dear, I want to get rid of our salary, everything". And she gasped and said, "Well, what do you mean?" And he said, "I don't want this regular income anymore through Pew Renting, I think it's wrong." And she said, "Well, how are we going to survive?" and he said, "The Lord will provide". And she said, "OK", much to her credit.

And so they gave it up. Instead they put a little box at the back of their chapel that said "Freewill donations". People were absolutely horrified at this, particularly other pastors. This was outrageous. This was changing ancient tradition. And not only that, but people didn't want to donate. What for? They could sit wherever they liked now. They weren't getting anything anymore, so why should they donate? And so George and Mary found themselves dirt poor - they had nothing. They had given up the 55 pound a year salary, and now they were relying on people dropping a few coins in the box. And people generally, well, sometimes people did, and sometimes they didn't.

But you see, George knew that what he'd done, and the decision he'd made, was right. Because he took the Lord at His word, and he knew that in the Scripture there was the promise that the Lord would provide if you honor Him and trust Him, and that He would guide you. And so he said to the Lord, "I've done this because I think this is right, and I know that You will provide for me". And the Lord did.

Sometimes George and Mary would sit down at their dinner table, and in front of them would be an empty plate, and an empty cup - they had nothing, not a penny to buy even a loaf of bread. And they would sit there and George would say grace and thank the Lord for His provision. And then, on numerous occasions, and he recorded this in his journal, there'd be a knock at the door, and someone said, "Do you need a ham?" or something like that, or somebody would say, "I couldn't sit down and eat because the Lord told me I had to come here and give you this loaf of bread". And each time George would thank the Lord and say again to Mary, "See, the Lord provides."

Now Henry Craik had moved to Bristol, and Bristol was a city, and Henry had moved there and he was wanting to serve in some chapels there in the middle of Bristol, in the middle of the city, and he wanted George to come along with him. Now, George, at this time had been in Teignmouth for quite a while, and he also felt that it was time for him to move on. So he decided that he and Henry would be co-workers and together they would serve the people in Bristol. There were two chapels, and they would take turns to preach in these, they would work together and they would get rid of the pew renting, they would live very simply by the donations of the people and so on, and that would be how they would run.

This was a very hard move for Mary because Bristol was a port town, and these were the years of the Industrial Revolution. These were the years when people were flocking into the cities. Here we had a port town - it was very dirty, it was very crowded, there were lots of industries being set up, and Bristol was hardly the place that Mary was used to. She was a country girl who lived in the lovely rolling hills of Devon and Teignmouth and those areas, and to move to the city was very difficult for her. And it was made even more difficult because, just when they got there and had moved in, there was an outbreak of cholera. Cholera is a deadly disease, it is very contagious - you would die if you got this after one or two days - and there were no cures in those days. This cholera outbreak happened just as they moved to Bristol.

This was hugely dangerous work for George because he and Henry were called to people's homes, people who'd got cholera and were dying, who wanted someone to pray for them, or a family had just lost someone, who had just passed away, and they wanted someone to come in and pray. George and Henry were exposing themselves to the disease day after day after day and putting their hands on people who were sick. Mary, at this point, was also pregnant with their first child, and she was so scared that George would die, would get cholera, and that she would be left alone with the child.

The other dangerous thing was that to their chapels, more and more people were coming, because death was staring them in the face. And people flocked to the Bethesda chapel, which was one of the chapels, and the Gideon one as well. And there were huge crowds of people, and with these huge crowds, disease could easily spread - in fact people were told to avoid crowds altogether. But they couldn't ask people to go away. And so George and Henry prayed fervently for their congregation and hoped that nobody would succumb to the illness. And in fact, after several months of this, when the outbreak had died down, they realized that only one person in those congregations had died from cholera. Lydia was their first child, and she was born during this tremendously difficult time, and she too survived, which was pretty amazing.

Now George had not given up the idea of becoming missionary - the idea of traveling to the far ends of the earth was still in his mind. He was thinking about this one day as he walked through the streets of Bristol, and a little hand tapped him on the elbow. He looked down, and there was a little girl, probably about five years old, who was piggybacking a little boy who was probably about one year old, and she was grubby, she was filthy, she had no shoes, her dress was tattered, and the kid on the back was floppy and lifeless, and also really filthy. And she stuck out a hand and said, "Please, sir, shilling, shilling". And, of course, he gave her something, and then he said, "Where are your parents? Where are you living?" And she said, "My mother died of cholera, and my father has never returned from the mine".

And just then, it was as if the Lord had tapped George on the elbow, and shown him his mission field. He knew from that tiny encounter, that his mission field would not be in Persia, or China, or those far flung places with very romantic ideals, but his mission field was right under his nose, here in Bristol.

And he soon realized that there were so many orphans now because of that cholera outbreak. So many people had lost both parents, or maybe lost a mother, and the father had taken off because he couldn't care for all the children. And so there were many kids on the streets, who were roaming the streets, begging for food. There were many families who were completely homeless, because the father had died and the mother couldn't support the children and couldn't pay the rent. And so he saw that the mission field was right there in Bristol.

Immediately, he wanted to do something. So he asked Mary to make huge batches of porridge. He would invite all the children to come for breakfast, and all the children in his area then would come, and soon more and more children were coming. There would be water outside for them to wash their hands and faces and then they would pile in and they would sit on apple crates around a long makeshift table in their dining room. Mary would dish out the oatmeal porridge and sweet tea, and then George would speak about the Scripture. He would tell them Bible stories, and sometimes he would act out parts of the Scripture. And soon adults were coming as well to see these "Breakfast Clubs" as they started to be called.

But George saw that this was nothing - this was not doing anything. This was providing one small meal for not even half the children, and he really wanted to do more. And so he decided that he would start something very radical. He wanted to start something called the Scripture Knowledge Institute, and he thought that this idea was certainly from the Lord, but he wasn't completely sure. He had the idea of having schools, and schools like day schools for all these children, the poorest of the poor, who would never be able to go to school otherwise. And then, not only schools, but Sunday Schools as well, so they could learn the Bible. And he wanted an adult school as well so that they could be trained. Then he thought, "Well, these poor people, they can't afford a Bible, so I'll buy them Bibles and distribute them to all these people". And then he thought, "Well, I want to also support missionaries who are going to other places". And so he had all these ideas, and he spoke so enthusiastically to people about the Scripture Knowledge Institute that he was going to start, and everyone laughed at him. He didn't have a penny to his name - he was sometimes stuck there, with no food, and hoping that someone would donate a shilling so he could get some bread - and he wanted to start a school! It seemed ridiculous.

Soon George also became frustrated. He had no money to do this, and he had only ideas, and, in his frustration, he fell to his knees one day, and he prayed. And he said to the Lord, "You need to show me. You need to show me if this is just me, thinking and planning, or if this is actually from You? And I want You to do something specific to show me, Lord. I want You to send me 20 pounds so that I can buy Bibles straightaway, and start giving them to these poor families".

When he got up from his knees, there was a knock at the door. And a lady was standing there with an envelope and said, "Oh, I just thought you might be able to use this". And George Müller thanked the Lord - there was an immediate answer to his prayer. He didn't even need to look in the envelope, he knew already that in that envelope there'd be 20 pounds. But to make sure, he said to the lady, "Is there anything specific you'd like me to use this money for?" And she said, "Well, sir, I don't know, and you might have some other needs, but I was thinking that perhaps you would buy some Bibles for the poor families." And so George Müller again realized that the Lord had heard, and also that the Lord was behind this - it wasn't just his idea, it was something that was from Heaven itself. And so because he was sure that this idea was from God, from Heaven, He knew that the Lord would provide everything, and he didn't worry that he didn't have a cent to his name. He knew that somehow the Lord would provide everything.

And the Lord did. Sometimes it was just a couple of pencils, some people donated a chair or a table, something like that. Some people donated money, some people donated three shillings, another 10 pounds. Everything that he received, he recorded meticulously in his books, because everything he felt was a gift from God.

At the same time as all of this was happening, the family was struck down with a lot of grief. Their second child, Elijah, had been born just a year earlier, and now, it was just after his first birthday, he became sick, and he died quite suddenly. This was a great grief to the family. But it was compounded by the fact that Mary, his dear wife, had also lost her father the very same week, and so she was arranging two funerals - for her father and for her own little boy. It was very difficult for her at this time. And then, after that, George again became very sick. And the doctor said to him, "You need to stop, you need to get away. Go to the countryside, and rest, take your little family".

And so he was removed from all of this. He really hated being away because he was leaving Henry Craik to do a lot of the work, and he prayed for him every day as he was trying to recover in the countryside. But he used this time really well - he read the Scripture a lot, and he learned to read and pray before the Lord. And the other thing he did was he read many biographies - in fact, he read John Newton's biography during this time as well. After a while he had completely recovered, and he returned to Bristol to continue the work.

His keen eye was looking down the role of the children that were enrolled in his school, because by now there were 100 children enrolled, and as he was looking down he noticed that one child had been absent. He talked to the teachers and said, "Where is this boy? Why is he not coming anymore?" And the teacher said, "His family was ordered to the workhouse", and George learned that during this time, when he was away, the laws had changed. The English government was running out of money, and so they were taking back the handouts they usually gave to the poor, and instead they were establishing workhouses. There were already some workhouses, but they made more of them, and these places were horrible - they are very well documented in history. They split up poor families who were unable to care for themselves, either because they were unemployed, or they weren't able to pay their rent, and they lived in these places. But families were split up. The men were over here, the women were over there. And they were put to really hard bone-breaking labor. In fact, it actually was bone breaking - they shattered bones to be turned into fertilizer. And they often had very little food - it was a pretty grim environment - it was very dirty, and the government didn't care because they wanted to make it a deterrent. They didn't want poor people to think, "Oh, I'd like to go over there to that workhouse, and at least I'll get fed". They actually wanted people to stay away - poverty was almost treated as a crime in the 1800's.

And so this family had become too poor, and they had been ordered to the workhouse, and now this boy was required to work - anyone over the age of seven had to work like all the other men and women.

And so George realized that this was going to happen again and again to all his children, because all the children enrolled were the poorest of the poor - their families had nothing, they couldn't send their kids to get any form of education and George was providing it - but they were all going to be ordered off to the workhouse sooner or later.

And so George Müller was upset about this, and he thought, "There's got to be a way, there's got to be something I can do to help these children and to ensure that they are educated". Now, when he went around and was visiting his congregation, he noticed this common theme, that all the people that he served were living in great poverty and in fear of these workhouses. Fathers were working excruciating hours, often trying to do two or three jobs, working 16 hour days, really hard labor, six days a week, because they didn't want their families to end up in these workhouses. They were so scared of ending up in these horrible places and that the family to be split up.

George Müller would try to encourage these people and say, "You need to spend time before the Lord, you need to read His Word", and they would laugh at him and say, "When we work six days a week, 16 hour days, we come home, exhausted, only to do it again. It's easy for you to say this from the pulpit, but it can't be our reality." George wanted people to realize that they didn't need to work so much. He said, "If you honor the Lord, He will provide, He will care for you". But so many people said, "This is too far fetched. You want us to risk our family for this?"

Müller's thoughts lead him to another radical idea. This radical idea is, for us, not hugely radical, but then it was. His radical idea was to set up an orphanage. There were only 10 in all of Britain at that time, and to be in one of these orphanages, you had to be rich, you had to have been left in inheritance. And not only that, but you couldn't be diseased, disabled, just the son of a laborer or the son of a tradesperson. So it was only the very wealthy who happened to be orphans that could live in these places, and so they catered for very few people, and there were very few across the whole of Britain.

George Müller thought, "We need something here, and I want to start an orphanage that's for the poorest of the poor, that's not just going to be a roof over their head, but that's going to give them an education, skills, apprenticeships. I want to teach them the Word of God, I want them to know that their Father in Heaven cares for the fatherless." And he wanted those children to have to pay nothing - they would come with just the rags that were on their back - that was what he wanted. And he also wanted to wait on the Lord to provide everything for them.

Now, in great excitement again, he announced this at the chapel. And, of course, everyone thought he'd gone mad. In fact, most people said, "He's foreign. He is a bit strange. And he's got some funny ideas, because he's a foreigner." But George really knew that the Lord was in this, and he really was sure that the Lord wanted him to continue this work.

Now people started asking questions and said, "Where is it going to be? Where are you going to have this orphanage?" And he would say, "I don't know". "When are you going to start?" "I don't know." "How are you going to get the appropriate furniture?" "I don't know." And every question he had to answer with, "I don't know." But one thing he did know was that the Lord was behind it in some way. And therefore, he knew that the Lord would provide all of the answers to these questions.

Now, there were some people who were moved by what George Müller had done, and the newspapers reported it more as a joke. "Foreign pastor wants to set up orphanages in the middle of Bristol, but he doesn't know where." It was seen as a bit of a lark. But there were a few people who saw that little article and heard George Müller and thought, "The Lord is in this." And sometimes he would open the door and someone would offer him some spare spoons that they had, for the orphanage. Somebody offered him 28 tin plates and six cups. Somebody offered him some handkerchiefs that they had spare, and everything he was given, he felt that it was for the Lord.

But one day he was sent, in an envelope, 100 pounds. 100 pounds was about two years wages. He knew who it was from - it was from a widow, and her father had just died and left her an inheritance, but this was her whole inheritance. She had given everything. And he thought, "I can't take this." So he went to her house and he said to her, "You are so kind, you are so good, but I cannot take your living from you. You are a widow. I can't take it all." And this woman said, "The Lord Jesus died for me. I can give everything to Him."

And George was really touched by that, because he knew that his work was not just for himself and for his own learning, but that it was going to be for everyone, and for all of us to learn from him.

Now, George Müller had one clear objective in this orphanage, and it wasn't what you expect. He wrote this in his journal. His clear objective, Objective Number 1, was that this orphanage would be an in-your-face testimony to Christians, to teach them to trust God, because he wanted to do this. He wanted to do it because he knew that God would be faithful, and he knew that this orphanage would show that God is faithful and He's a faithful God. This was going to be his testimony and his witness to the world. He didn't realize that it wouldn't just be for his age, but it would be for the age to come as well, for us here today.

His second objective was to prove that God cares for the fatherless and the unloved. He wanted to show that to these children, and he wanted to show that to the world.

Now, soon enough, there was progress. A little street came to his attention, called Wilson Street, which was a row of houses, terrace houses. And there was a little house for sale there, a three level terrace, a very ordinary terrace in the middle of Bristol. And he thought to himself, "This is it. This is the house that we're going to use."

It was a normal house, the lower level was the kitchen, then the middle level was the living room, and the top level was just some bedrooms. It was for 10 people, but in our situation, it wouldn't fit 10, it was that cramped and small. But he thought, "This is a start, and the Lord provided."

And certainly the Lord had provided many donations, whether it had been goods or money, and soon he was able to rent the place, and soon there were girls coming, booked into this orphanage, from ages 7 to 12, and starting to live there.

This was a huge step for him because from nothing, from literally nothing, he had started this orphanage and it had all come together. Sometimes he would receive 50 pounds, but there was one occasion when a little boy, who was himself an orphan on the street, held up a shilling and said, "I just got given this by a man, but maybe you take it for the girls." And so he recorded in his journal, every single little gift that he was given from the hundred pounds to the one shilling.

Twenty six girls were there that first year, and they were all crammed into this orderly, but very crowded, house. For Christmas they were sent, anonymously from the West Indies, a box of bananas and oranges - things that these girls had never ever seen. And so the Lord provided sometimes, not just their needs, but He did some little extra things for them as well.

But you see, there were more and more children. A policeman would walk down the street, and there would be these little toddlers walking down the street, who wouldn't even know their name - their parents had died in the home or something had happened - and they were just wandering around, they didn't know where they could go, they would completely homeless, and without anyone to care for them. And so George Müller knew that he needed to expand this work.

Soon enough, another house came for rent on Wilson Street, and he used that for the infants, and he got little tiny two and three year old’s, or sometimes even some newborns who parents didn't want because they might have been born out of wedlock. And so all these children were cared for. The older girls would come over to the other house and would help to care for these younger ones. But it still wasn't enough because there were those boys roaming the streets as well.

But then another house came up for rent, and soon there was a house for these boys to live in as well. And very soon there were 81 children living on Wilson Street.

Now, if we think about this for a minute, George Müller had wages of the workers - there were governesses in the homes who cared for these children, there were people who helped cook the food - and he needed to pay these workers. He also needed food for every day - milk, tea, bread, sugar, sometimes meat, potatoes, things like that. He needed coal - it was freezing in England, and if you didn't have coal you couldn't cook, and you probably would die in your own home, it was that cold. And then of course, the biggest thing was the rent for these places, not to mention that all the children need to be clothed, because they came with nothing. So all of this he committed specifically to the Lord's care, and the Lord provided - these orphans didn't miss a meal.

Now we know this because he recorded everything meticulously, and he had absolute full integrity before the Lord. If someone gave him 10 pounds and said "Please use this to buy clothes for the girls", even though they needed coal or bread or something more pressing, he would use that money exactly as the person asked, because everything he treated as a gift from heaven.

But soon, there were complaints on Wilson Street. You see the other residents didn't like the fact that they were now 120 children living on that street. Of course there was noise, and even though they tried to keep it down, there was one house, the corner one, that had a yard, and all the children would come out and take turns to play in this tiny little yard in front of the house. But the residents didn't like it, they complained about the noise - children in those days were seen as pests - they were to be seen and not heard, that was the thing. And so, with 120 children on that street, the residents were not happy.

George Müller understood this, and he also thought to himself that perhaps it would be so much better for his children to have space, so that the boys could run around, the girls could have a bit more space and not be so cramped, and it would be so much better to have fresh air as well. And so he had this idea, and it was so ambitious - he wanted to buy land in the country, outside of Bristol. And not only that, but he wanted to build something that was purpose built, not these tiny terrace houses, but something that was designed for these children, something that would be just for them. And he didn't know how to do this, because to move 120 children, to buy land, to build, you'd need tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of pounds.

Well, he did pray for months about this. It was hugely ambitious. And he prayed and he prayed. And after he prayed one day, again, he had prayed very specifically to the Lord, and he said, "Lord, You must give me a clear sign that I'm not just creating ideas here, but that this is from You." And again, the Lord answered, and there was an anonymous envelope with 1,000 pounds, a huge amount of money, many years wages - you can work that out. So this was a huge sign that this was the right thing to do. But still, that was not enough.

Then he met somebody, it was actually a relative of Mary - it was a chance meeting. Now George Müller had a principle that he would never ask anyone for anything, no matter how great his need was, he would never ask. He was talking to this person and he told this person that he was going to build a house, that the Lord had told him to do this. But he didn't say that he needed help with it, he was just saying it as a matter of fact. And the man, this relative of Mary's, said to him, "Well, I've been praying actually, and I want to use my gifts in some way to serve the Lord. Perhaps I could help." And George said, "Well, in what capacity?" and he said, "Well, I'm an architect, and I'll do it for free." And so this again was another time of God's answering his specific prayer. This man, who had been praying about this for a long time, knew that this was also his chance to serve the kingdom in some way.

Now the land around Bristol was far too expensive for the money that they had, but there was one bit of land which George Müller thought was just perfect, and there was a big landowner there, but George didn't need a lot of land, he thought just seven acres would be enough, which is quite a big plot of land already, and this person was going to sell it for 200 pounds per acre. It was going to be too much, and he certainly didn't have the money for that, and then a building as well.

And so Müller again brought this before the Lord. And the man who was going to sell it and who had in his head, "200 pounds - that's what I'm going to do," that night, when he went to sleep, could not sleep at all. It was like the Lord was poking him, keeping him awake. And the Lord said to him over and over again, "You're not selling it for 200 pounds, you're selling it for 120." And in the morning, bleary eyed and a little bit shaken, this man went to George Müller and said, "Forget the 200 pounds, it's 120 pounds per acre." And George was quite surprised, but he said, "Please, please accept, because the Lord has made that very clear, and I want a good night's sleep." And so George was overjoyed because at 120 pounds he had enough money, and he was able to buy the land. The land that he bought was called Ashley Downs.

Now, this plot of land was the beginning and, with the help of the architect, they soon had a building that was far beyond anyone's expectations. Here was a building that wasn't just going to be for the 120 children, it was a building that was built for 300. And soon people heard about this - not only people in Bristol, but other people in the neighboring cities heard about this - and soon there were orphans being dropped off at Ashley Downs from all over England.

This work expanded and soon 300 was not enough, and so there were more and more buildings required, and they designed these buildings for the children. So there was an area for the babies, there was a huge laundry, there was a huge kitchen and a massive dining room, there were rooms for sewing and study, there were rooms with pegs across the walls where all the children could hang up their things. The rooms were very orderly, and everything was designed with them in mind. They even had swing sets and things outside in the grass area for the children to play. They even had somewhere for medical help.

But despite all this, and despite the increasing work - not only did they have the one house now, but they actually had two, three, and they ended up with five different big buildings, catering for over 2,000 children, in quite a lot of comfort, they weren't crowded - despite all of this, and despite having 100 workers who had a genuine care for these children - they were believers, they were people who really saw that the Lord was in Müller's work. These people gave themselves to this work sometimes, when they ran out of bread, which still happened, despite the number, these workers would take out of their own wages to buy bread for that day for the children. So these people, were not just your ordinary workers who just wanted to do the job to get the cash, they really honored the Lord in their work. Despite all of this, or maybe, because of all of this, rumors had started to spread, and they certainly weren't good ones.

There were rumors that George Müller's orphanage was a horrible place, infested with rats, that the children were half starved and crawling with lice. There were rumors that George Müller treated the children like slaves - he had 2,000 slaves in his power - and that he was power hungry, he misused the money, he got these donations, and then he spent it on himself. All of these rumors were spreading, and people started to look on George Müller and Ashley Downs with some suspicion, and people also wrote articles about this.

Now, this came to the attention of a very famous person at that time. This person had done a lot in England to raise awareness about the plight of orphans, and the big problem in Britain with the rich being so rich and the poor being dirt poor. And this man had written stories, stories that made people sit up and take notice. One of his most famous stories, which some of you might know, was Oliver Twist.

Charles Dickens was very angry about George Müller, "How dare he have all these orphans in his control and treat them like that!" So Charles Dickens decided that he would make the journey to Bristol, go to Ashley Downs, and speak to George Müller in person.

Well, when George Müller found out that Charles Dickens, the famous author, was coming, he couldn't have been happier. He was so happy that this man had taken the time to see for himself.

And so Charles Dickens came with the attitude of someone who was going to really blast George Müller for his bad behavior. And Müller said to a worker, "Please, here are my set of keys. You take Charles Dickens everywhere. If Mr. Dickens says he wants to look in that cupboard, you open it for him. You show him into every shed, storeroom, room, everything. You let him go anywhere he wants." And so Dickens went with this worker, and three hours later he returned, and he was wide eyed, and shocked that the rumors were so wrong. He had seen order and peace. When he went into a washroom - because he went into the bathrooms and had a look - he saw on the walls pegs for all the children to hang their toiletries. He saw that the girls each had three pairs of shoes, they all had winter coats and a summer dress. The boys were not just educated in a traditional way, they were also doing things like woodwork. There was a nursery so nicely set out for the children. There were toy boxes, and each child had little pigeon holes for little toys that they liked, and they could put their toys in those pigeon holes. And they were fed so well and the workers didn't just care for these people, they loved these children. Dickens was so enraged (in a different way now) that he immediately went and wrote an article in his very famous magazine, to squash all of those rumors that were fired against George Müller.

Now, money was still required, and we think, "Oh, they must have been fine now - there were 2,000 orphans." But money was still scarce because George Müller lived by the same principle. He wanted to live in a way that would show everyone that the Lord is faithful, and that the Lord would provide. To give you an example, there was one day where, in one of the orphan houses, they had nothing, there was not a cent. They couldn't buy anything, and 300 children had filed in for breakfast. They all stood behind their table and their little chair, and they sat down, but the bowl in front of them was empty. The cup in front of them was also empty. George Müller was not in any way deterred. He said to the children, "You will see today that the Heavenly Father, your heavenly Father, cares for you, the fatherless. You are going to see it in action today." And so he gave thanks for the non-existent breakfast, and they all sat there. And as soon as he had finished giving thanks and thanking the Lord for His faithfulness and His provision, there was a knock at the door. And a baker shuffled in, a little bit embarrassed, and he went to Müller and said, "I really couldn't sleep last night. So I got up at 2am and I baked trays of bread. Maybe they could come in handy." And Müller was not surprised. He thanked the Lord, for using this man to bake the bread. And he handed out this freshly baked bread to the children and said, "See children, the Lord, He provides not only what we need, but He has now given us a double blessing, fresh bread warm out of the oven."

And then, when the baker had gone, there was another knock at the door and a very flustered milkman came in and said, "Please, Mr. Müller, have you got some of your older boys? Can they come and help me? The wheel of my cart has been damaged, I need to unload my cart, and look, if you can get rid of this milk for me, that'd be helpful because I need to unload it to fix the cart." And so these young boys traveled out, they got cans of milk, and they all had fresh milk - 300 children were provided for that morning.

Now, Henry Craik died at the age of 60, and this death was very difficult for George Müller - he lost his coworker - and it was with a very heavy heart that he conducted that funeral service. He and Mary worked very, very hard, and now they were in their 60's and it was a pretty tough schedule they kept. He preached three times a week in the chapel, oversaw the supplies and the accounts of this huge estate with 2,000 children. He also kept on with the Scripture Knowledge Institute - there were still children going to his schools and his Sunday schools. Not only that, but he had befriended, and was a huge encouragement to, a missionary in China by the name of James Hudson Taylor, and he also had done everything he could to send money to Hudson Taylor and the China Inland Mission. His principles of living by faith, and trusting the Lord, and never asking for money, were something that Hudson Taylor took to heart as well. He also met with every single orphan who was at that age where they could leave and do an apprenticeship, or maybe start work, and he met with them so that he could encourage them and ensure that they walked with the Lord.

Now Mary too worked very, very hard. And in the 21 years at Ashley Downs, she had never taken a day off. And so on one day, when she said to George, "I need to go back to bed", he immediately called a doctor - he knew she was really unwell. The doctor did come and declared that she had rheumatic fever, a serious illness. Now, George Müller, a man of faith, didn't have a word from the Lord in this situation. He knew that in the Scripture, there was no promise of healing, but there was promise of one thing, that "the Lord does not withhold any good thing for those who walk uprightly". And so he prayed and said to the Lord, "Don't withhold any good thing for me. If that means You are going to take Mary, then I'll know that that is the good thing for her and me." The Lord did take Mary, and very soon after she passed away, leaving George alone with his daughter, Lydia, and 2,050 orphans to mourn for her. Müller spoke at her funeral and he found it very difficult, but he had one verse, Psalm 119:68, "You are good, and do good; teach me your statues."

George and Mary had talked about how they would pass on the baton, and they had already selected somebody, by the name of James Wright. He had already been working with them, but little did they know that James Wright was actually in love with their daughter, Lydia. Now, James and Lydia was advanced in age - they were in their 30's - and both of them had given everything to serve in this orphanage. When they were married, it was just the perfect thing - it was the Lord's appointment. They were both so capable. They were able to run Ashley Downs so very effectively.

George himself later remarried, and then he found himself with some free time, and now the Lord put it on his heart to travel, to go to different countries - he was in his 70's mind you - and it wasn't so much to give the gospel, but he wanted to encourage other Christians to live for the Lord, and to live by faith and to trust in the Lord's faithfulness. He saw so many Christians living half lives, not quite trusting, not quite putting their faith in the Lord, and he really wanted to change that.

Traveling in those days was tough, and he was in his 70's and 80's. During that time, he traveled to China, Hong Kong, India, the Middle East. He traveled to Italy, Australia, and New Zealand, and in some of those places, I know in New Zealand, he stayed with one of the orphans who had grown up at Ashley Downs.

Now, George Müller outlived his daughter, who died suddenly in her 50's, and his second wife, and in his old age he hadn't slowed down. He moved out of his little home, and he'd come to live in in one of the orphan houses on Ashley Downs. And finally, at 92, he started to get a bit tired. He said to his son in law, James, "I'm feeling a little tired today." And James had said to him, "Well, perhaps we can get someone to care for you, maybe to help you get dressed in the morning and help you out of bed." And George said, "No, no, no, not today. We'll talk about it tomorrow." But tomorrow never came for George Müller, because that night, probably at dawn, he died and he went to be with the Lord.

One and a half million pounds passed through George Müller's hands. He cared for 10,024 orphans, 120,000 children were educated at his school and he had given out tens of thousands of Bibles to the poor.

This man's funeral was the biggest funeral that Bristol had ever seen, and perhaps will ever see. Those 2,050 orphans, all of whom could walk, followed his carriage into Bristol, orphans who lived at Wilson Street, people who had been touched by him, lined the streets as he came and the whole city came to a standstill.

The newspaper of the day wrote, "George Müller had robbed the cruel streets of many orphans. And how had he done that? Through prayer." But it's perhaps best to sum up this man's life in his own words:

"My dear Christian, will you not try this way? Will you not know for yourself the preciousness and happiness of this way of casting all your cares and burdens and necessities upon God? This way is as open to you as to me. Everyone is invited and commanded to trust the Lord and to trust Him with all his heart, and to cast his burden upon Him and to call upon Him in the day of trouble. Will you not do this, my dear brethren in Christ? I long that you may do so. I desire that you may taste the sweetness of that state of heart in which, whilst surrounded by difficulties and necessities, you can yet be at peace because you know that the living God, your Father in Heaven, cares for you."