A Narrative of Some of the Lord\'s Dealings with George Mueller

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5. You will not get the means for building and fitting up so large an
Orphan-House; and, even if you did, how will you, at the same time, get
the means for carrying on the work, which already exists? Answer:
Looking at the matter naturally, this is indeed a weighty objection.

The New Orphan-House, with its 300 Orphans only, cost about fifteen
thousand pounds to build and to fit up and furnish, and still the
expenses are not all met even now. It will in all probability cost
several hundred pounds yet. And this large sum was needed, though the
style of the building is most simple, and though the field in which it
was built was comparatively cheap. After this rate, a building to
accommodate seven hundred Orphans, with the necessary ground attached to
it for the cultivation of the vegetables used in the Institution, could
not be less than thirty-five thousand pounds. Now, looking at it
naturally, where is this great sum to come from? Though I looked at all
my friends who have given hitherto, and several have done so very
liberally, yet there is no natural prospect whatever of receiving this
amount; especially if it be kept in mind that six or seven thousand
pounds besides, every year, would be needed for carrying on that which
is already in existence. I might, therefore, well tremble, looking at
the matter naturally, and say, I shall never have the money for this
intended Orphan-House for 700 children; for where is this large sum of
thirty-five thousand pounds to come from? And even if I were to get the
money, will not persons, in giving means for such a Building-Fund, take
it away from what they might have given me for carrying on the work
which exists already? But whilst thus, naturally, there is no hope of
succeeding, I am not in the least discouraged spiritually; for by faith
in the living God I say this: He has the power to give me this
thirty-five thousand pounds, and much more, were it needed: and He has
the power, in the mean time., to give me also all the large sums
required, week after week, for meeting the current expenses for the
present state of the work. Moreover, I delight in the greatness of the
difficulty, as it respects the large sum needed for building and fitting
up such an Establishment; for I desire to be most fully assured, from
the very outset, that I go forward in this matter according to the
Lord's bidding. If so, He will give me the means; if not, I shall not
have them. Nor do I mean to apply to any one personally for pecuniary
help, but purpose to give myself to prayer for means, as heretofore.

6. Suppose now, you were even to succeed in getting this large Orphan
House built, how will you be able to provide for 700 other Orphans?
Answer: There is much weight in this objection, looking at it naturally.
I am too much a man of business, and too much a person of calm, quiet,
cool calculation, not to feel its force. And indeed, were I only to look
at the thing naturally, I should at once be ready to own that I am going
too far; for the increase of expenditure for the support of these 700
other Orphans could not be less than eight thousand pounds a-year more,
so that the current expenses of the Scriptural Knowledge Institution,
reckoning its present state, and including those eight thousand pounds,
would be about fifteen thousand pounds a-year. Now, I am free to own,
that I have no human prospect of obtaining such a sum year by year. But
while matters stand thus, looking at them naturally, I see no difficulty
at all in them spiritually. If according to the will of God I am enabled
to go about this intended second Orphan House; and if, with His help, I
shall be enabled to finish it; He will surely provide for those who are
gathered together in it, as long as He shall be pleased to enable me to
trust in Him for supplies. And here I look back upon the way in which
the Lord has led me and dealt with me. When, about seventeen years ago,
I took up, in dependence upon the living God for means, two Charity
Schools, with which the Scriptural Knowledge Institution commenced (and
this involved an expense of less than one hundred pounds a-year), I had
no certain prospect of being able to meet even that small sum; but God
so helped me, that I had shortly six Charity Schools. He helped me then
also, and enabled me to meet all their expenses. When, fifteen years
ago, I began the Orphan Work, which was connected with far heavier
expenses, I had still less prospect, according to natural reason, of
being able to meet them; but I trusted in God, and He helped me, and He
not only enabled me to meet the current expenses for thirty Orphans in
the first house rented for them, but also soon to open another for
thirty-six more, and to meet all those expenses; for as I had begun in
faith in the living God, and not by putting my trust in my brethren in
Christ, so I was not confounded. After I had gone on some time with
these Orphans in the two rented houses, about thirteen years ago the
Lord was pleased greatly to encourage me and to increase my faith by a
donation of 500l. for the Orphans; for up to that period I had never
received more than One Hundred Pounds at once. But this kind donor, a
stranger to me up to that time, suggested to me the propriety of
investing this sum and using only the interest of it, as I could not
expect to have the Orphans supported for a continuance in the way they
had been till then; for that such Institutions must depend upon regular
subscriptions or funded property, otherwise they could not go on. As,
however, this was only a friendly hint, and no condition under which the
money was given, I took this 500l. towards fitting up a third house for
the reception of thirty more Orphans. From that time the work has been
increasing more and more, till it came to what it is at present. Now,
suppose I had said, seventeen years ago, looking at matters according to
natural reason, "the two Charity Schools are enough, I must not go any
further;" then the work would have stopped there. Or, if I had had a
little more trust in my exertions or my friends, I might have taken at
the utmost one or two steps further. Instead of this, however, I looked
in no degree whatever at things according to my natural fallen reason,
and trusted not in the circle of my Christian friends, but in the living
God; and the result has been, that there have been since 1834 ten
thousand souls under our instruction in the various Day Schools, Sunday
Schools and Adult Schools; several hundred Orphans have been brought up,
and many of them from their very tenderest infancy; several hundred
thousand tracts and many thousand copies of the Word of God have been
circulated; about forty preachers of the Gospel at Home and Abroad have
been, for several years, assisted in connection with the Scriptural
Knowledge Institution; and a house has been built and fitted up for the
accommodation of 300 destitute Orphans, each of whom has neither father
nor mother. How blessed therefore it is to trust in God, and in Him
alone, and not in circumstances nor friends There is, however, one thing
which I must record here, because it has taken place since I last wrote
in my journal on this subject on January 2nd. It is this. During these
twelve days I have received for the various objects of the Scriptural
Knowledge Institution in smaller donations 64l. 15s. 6 1/2 d., also a
donation of 150l. and one of 3000l. Is not this a plain proof that God
is both able and willing to help simply in answer to prayer? Is not
human reason confounded by such instances? When I first began to write
these exercises of my mind about another Orphan House, I knew not that
on January 4th I should receive a donation of 3000l., yet I was fully
assured that God was able to support one thousand Orphans as easily as
He did the thirty whom I first received in a rented house. Does He not,
however, tell me by all this: Go forward, my servant, and I will help
thee?

7. But it might be said, suppose you were able by prayer to obtain this
large sum for building a house for seven hundred other Orphans; and
suppose you were able to provide for them during your lifetime, what
would become of this Institution after your death? Answer: I am quite
familiar with this objection, having heard it many times as a reason
against the way of obtaining the means for the Scriptural Knowledge
Institution, simply by trusting in God, without any funded property, and
without looking to regular subscribers; but my reply is this. My
business is, with all my might to serve my own generation; in doing so I
shall best serve the next generation, should the Lord Jesus tarry. Soon
He may come again but, if He tarry, and I have to fall asleep before His
return, I shall not have been altogether without profit to the
generation to come, were the Lord only to enable me to serve my own
generation. Suppose this objection were a sound one, I ought never to
have commenced the Orphan. Work at all, for fear of what might become of
it after my death, and thus all the hundreds of destitute children
without father and mother, whom the Lord has allowed me to care for,
during the last fifteen years, would not have been taken up by me. The
same argument was again and again used to Franke, my esteemed
countryman, who at Halle, in Prussia, commenced about A.D. 1696, the
largest charitable establishment for poor children that, as far as I
know, exists in the world. He trusted in God alone. He went on trusting
in God alone. And God helped him throughout abundantly. Simply by trust
in the living God the Institutions, resembling a large street rather
than a house, were erected, and about two thousand children instructed
in them. For about thirty years all was going on under his own eye,
until 1727, when it pleased God to take His servant to Himself. At his
death these Institutions were directed by his truly pious son-in-law. It
is true that, at the latter part of the last century, and during the
first part of the present, there was little real vital godliness in
these Institutions; still they were a temporal blessing to many tens of
thousands of young persons even then. So then for several tens of years
they were carried on in a truly Godly way, after Franke's death, and
when afterwards there was but little real, vital godliness found in
these schools, yet tens of thousands of children were benefited at least
for this life. Now these Institutions have existed already 150 years,
and are in existence still: and, if the Lord Jesus tarry, are likely,
humanly speaking, to exist hereafter, as they have existed hitherto.
Suppose then, that dear man of God, A. H. Franke, had listened to the
suggestions of unbelief, and said, I must not undertake this work, for
what will become of it after my death, then all the blessing which
spiritually resulted from it to thousands, and all the temporal benefits
which have resulted from it to hundreds of thousands, would have been
lost. I add, however, this. The New Orphan House has been placed in the
hands of eleven trustees, and has been properly enrolled in Chancery,
and so also, should God condescend to honour me further in building for
Him this intended house for 700 Orphans, it would likewise be placed in
the hands of trustees and enrolled in Chancery. One word in conclusion
on this subject: let every one take heed lest, in caring about what will
become of the next generation, he forget to serve his own generation.
The latter each one should seek to do with his might, and thus it should
be with each succeeding generation; then, though we be dead, yet should
we be speaking. A. H. Franke is long since gone to his rest, but he
spoke to my soul in 1826, and he is speaking to my soul now; and to his
example I am greatly indebted for having been stirred up to care about
poor children in general, and about poor Orphans in particular.

8. The last objection which has occurred to my own mind is, that by
building another Orphan House, I should be in danger of being lifted up.
Answer: I should be in danger of it indeed, and am in great danger, even
were I not in the least degree to go forward. Yea, the tenth part of the
honour which the Lord has condescended to bestow upon me, and the tenth
part of service with which He has been pleased to intrust me, would be
enough, if I were left to myself, exceedingly to puff me up. I cannot
say that hitherto the Lord has kept me humble; but I can say, that
hitherto He has given me a hearty desire to give to Him all the glory,
and to consider it a great condescension on His part that He has been
pleased to use me as an instrument in His service. I do not see,
therefore, that fear of being lifted up ought to keep me from going
forward in this work; but that I have rather to beseech the Lord that He
would be pleased to give me a lowly mind, and never suffer me to rob Him
of the glory which is due to Him alone.

Jan. 25. Great pressure of work has kept me from going on writing my
reasons for establishing another Orphan-House till now, but being more
and more convinced that it is of God I should do so, I now proceed in
writing.

Reasons for establishing another Orphan House for Seven Hundred
Orphans.

1. The many applications for the admission of destitute Orphans, which
continue to be made, I consider as a call from God upon me, to do all
that is in my power to provide a Home and Scriptural Education for a
still greater number of Orphans. Nothing but positive inability to go
forward ought to keep me standing still, whilst I have almost daily
fresh entreaties to receive Orphans. Since I began writings on this
subject in my journal, thirty more Orphans have been applied for, from
two years old and upwards. I cannot refuse to help, as long as I see a
door open, and opened by God, as I consider, to help them.

2. The moral state of the Poorhouses greatly influences me to go
forward. I have heard it again and again, from good authority, that
children, placed in the Unions, are corrupted, on account of the
children of vagrants, and other very bad young people who are in such
places; so that many poor relatives of Orphans, though unable to provide
for them, cannot bear the idea of their going there, lest they should be
corrupted. I therefore judge that, even for the sake of keeping Orphans
of poor yet respectable people from being obliged to mix with the
children of vagabonds, I ought to do, to my utmost power, all I can to
help them. For this reason, then, I purpose, in dependence upon the
living God, to go forward and to establish another Orphan House for
seven hundred destitute children, who are bereaved of both parents. When
writing thus about the Poorhouses, I do not wish it to be understood in
the way of reproof; for I know not how these matters could be altered;
but simply state the fact that thus it is.

3. In this purpose I am the more confirmed, since it is a fact, that the
Orphan Houses already in existence in the kingdom are by no means
sufficient to admit even the most deserving and distressing cases, and
far less all that it would be well to provide for. Moreover, there is
great difficulty connected with the admission of Orphans into most of
the ordinary Orphan Establishments, on account of the votes which must
be obtained, so that really needy persons have neither time nor money to
obtain them. Does not the fact that there were six thousand young
Orphans in the prisons of England about five years ago, call aloud for
an extension of Orphan Institutions? By God's help, I will do what I
can, to keep poor Orphans from prison.

4. In this purpose I am still further encouraged by the great help which
the Lord has hitherto given me in this blessed service. When I look at
the small beginning, and consider how the Lord has helped me now for
more than fifteen years in the Orphan work; and when I consider how He
has been pleased to help me through one great difficulty after another;
and when I consider, especially, how, as with an unseen hand, almost
against my will and former desires and thoughts, He has led me on from
one step to another, and has enlarged the work more and more: I say,
when I review all this, and compare with it my present exercise of mind,
I find the great help, the uninterrupted help, which the Lord has given
me for more than fifteen years, a great reason for going forward in this
work. And this, trusting in Him, I am resolved to do.

5. A further reason for going forward in this service I see in the
experience which I have had in it. From the smallest commencement up to
the present state of the establishment, with its 300 Orphans, all has
gone through my own hands. In the work itself I obtained the experience.
It has grown with the work. I have been the sole director of the work,
under God, from its smallest commencement. Now this is not an every day
case. No committee member of a society, no president or vice-president
of an institution, except they had been situated as myself, could have
this experience. Coupled with this is the measure of gift which the Lord
has been pleased to give me for such work, and for the exercise of which
I am responsible to Him. These things, in connexion with the former
reasons, it appears to me, are a call from God to go forward in a
greater degree than ever in this work.

6. The spiritual benefit of still more Orphans is another especial
reason, why I feel called to go forward. The Orphans, who have been
under my care hitherto, were almost all the children of parents who were
naturally weak in body, if not consumptive. The very fact of a child
being deprived of both parents when four, five, six, or seven years old,
shows that, except the parents lost their lives by casualty, they were
constitutionally weak. On this account young Orphans, generally
speaking, require particular care as to their health. In this respect I
desire to care for them; but there is more than that to be attended to.
I further heartily desire to keep them from the corrupting and
demoralizing effect of the lowest sort of children in the streets,
courts and Unions; but I desire more for them than mere decency and
morality. I desire that they should be useful members of society, and
that the prisons of the United Kingdom should not be filled with poor,
destitute, and homeless Orphans. We bring them up therefore in habits of
industry, and seek to instruct them in those things which are useful for
the life that now is; but I desire more than this for the Orphans. I
cannot be satisfied with anything concerning them short of this, that
their souls be won for the Lord. For this reason I long to have them
from their earliest days, yea, the younger the better, under my care,
that thus, under godly nurses and teachers, they may be brought up in
the fear of the Lord. Now as this is the chief and primary aim
concerning the dear Orphans, even the salvation of their souls through
faith in the Lord Jesus, I long to be more extensively used than
hitherto, even that I may have a thousand of them instead of three
hundred under my care.

7. 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. But if this would be answered in a measure by the state in
which the Orphan Work has been in former times, and more so by what it
has been since the erection of the New Orphan House, it would be still
more so, by the blessing of God, by my going forward in it to a far
greater degree than before. This point, even the glory of God in the
manifestation of His readiness to hear prayer, has weighed especially
and supremely with me in purposing to enlarge the Orphan Work.

8. Lastly, I am peaceful and happy, spiritually, in the prospect of
enlarging the work, as on former occasions when I had to do so. This
weighs particularly with me as a reason for going forward. After all the
calm, quiet, prayerful consideration of the subject for about eight
weeks, I am peaceful and happy, spiritually, in the purpose of enlarging
the field. This, after all the heart searching which I have had, and the
daily prayer to be kept from delusion and mistake in this thing, and the
be-taking myself to the Word of God, would not be the case, I judge, had
not the Lord purposed to condescend to use me more than ever in this
service.

I, therefore, on the ground of the objections answered, and these eight
reasons for enlarging the work, come to the conclusion that it is the
will of the blessed God, that His poor and most unworthy servant should
yet more extensively serve Him in this work, which he is quite willing
to do.

Up to this day, January 25, 1851, I have not spoken to one human being
about it. As yet even my dear wife knows not about it. I purpose to keep
the matter still for some time entirely to myself, dealing with God
alone about it, in order that no outward excitement may be in the least
degree a stimulus to me. I still pray to be kept from mistake and
delusion in this thing, not that I think I am mistaken or deluded, quite
the reverse; but yet I would distrust myself and cling to God, to be
kept from mistakes and delusions.

January 31st. For several weeks past I have had no doubt that the Lord
would have me to serve Him in the erection and fitting up of another
Orphan-House for seven hundred Orphans, and I am quite decided on doing
so, with His help, and I am now quiet about it, not because I have the
least misgiving in my own mind, but because I know that it is most
suitable that I should still for some time continue to deal quietly with
God alone about it.

March 5th. Nearly five weeks have passed away since I wrote the last
paragraph, and my mind has not been once, during this time, even for a
moment, in uncertainty as to what I ought to do. It is now about fifteen
weeks since I have been especially praying about this subject, and three
months since. I began first to write on the subject in my journal, and
about ten weeks since I have had any doubt as to what is the will of the
Lord concerning this service. I believe that, altogether unworthy though
I am of this great honour, He will condescend to use me further and more
extensively than before in caring for destitute children who are
bereaved of both parents. And this I purpose to do.

April 5th. Another month has passed away, and my mind is just in the
same state as it was when I wrote in my journal on the subject on March
5th.

May 5th. One more month has passed away, and still my mind remains
quietly assured that, utterly unworthy though I am to be allowed to go
forward in this work, and great though the difficulties are, which must
be overcome, yet that it is the will of God I should serve Him in this
way. It is now this day five months since I first wrote on this subject
in my journal, and longer even than that since it has been before rue,
during which time I have day by day prayed concerning this matter.

May 24th. From the time that I began to write down the exercises of my
mind on Dec. 5th, 1850, till this day, ninety-two more Orphans have been
applied for, and seventy-eight were already waiting for admission
before. But this number increases rapidly as the work becomes more and
more known.

On the ground of what has been recorded above, I purpose to go forward
in this service, and to seek to build, to the praise and honour of the
living God, another Orphan-House, large enough to accommodate seven
hundred Orphans.

When I published these exercises of my mind, and made known my purpose
respecting the intended Orphan-House for 700 Orphans, in the Twelfth
Report of the Scriptural Knowledge Institution, the following
particulars were added to what has been stated.

1. All this time, though now six months have elapsed since. I first
began to be exercised about this matter, I have never once been led to
ask the Lord for means for this work, but have only continued day by day
to seek guidance from Him as to whether I should undertake it or not.

2. The means requisite, to accomplish the building and fitting up of a
house, which shall be really suitable for my intended purposes, though
the building be quite simple, cannot be less than Thirty-Five Thousand
Pounds, including fifteen or twenty acres of land round the building for
cultivation by the spade, in order to obtain out of our own grounds all
the vegetables, which are so important to the health of the children.

3. I do not mean to begin the building until I have the means requisite
in hand, just as was the case with regard to the New Orphan-House. If
God will condescend to use me in building for Him another Orphan-House
(as I judge He will), He will give me the means for it. Now though I
have not on my mind any doubt left that it is His will I should do so;
yet there is one point still wanting for confirmation, and that is that
He will also furnish me, without personal application to any one, with
all the means requisite for this new part of my service. I the more need
also to my own soul this last of all the proofs that I have not been
mistaken, in order to have unquestionable assurance that, whatever
trials hereafter may be allowed to befall me in connexion with this
work, I did not at my own bidding and according to my own natural desire
undertake it, but that it was under the guidance of God. The greatness
of the sum required affords me a kind of secret joy; for the greater the
difficulty to be overcome, the more will it be seen to the glory of God,
how much can be done by prayer and faith; and also, because, when God
Himself overcomes our difficulties for us, we have, in this very fact,
the assurance that we are engaged in His work and not in our own.

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