Chapter Seven, ‘Whose is the Gold and the Silver’
Chapter Seven, ‘Whose is the Gold and the Silver’
‘December 7. To-day I received the first shilling for the Orphan-House. Afterwards I received another shilling from a German brother. December 9. This afternoon the first piece of furniture was given—a large wardrobe.’
On the evening of the 9th Muller addressed a meeting at which he outlined his proposals for the orphanage. He made it clear that the home would only be established if God provided the means and suitable people to run it. But, he said, ‘... I have been led more and more to think that the matter may be of Him. Now, if so, he can influence His people in any part of the world, (for I do not look to Bristol, nor even to England, but to the living God, whose is the gold and the silver), to intrust me and brother C —r, whom the Lord lias made willing to help me in this work, with the means’. Under no circumstances would any individual ever be asked for money or materials. There would be no charge for admission and no restriction of entry on grounds of class or creed.
All who would be engaged as masters, matrons, and assistants would have to be both true believers and appropriately qualified for the work. Only children bereaved of both parents would be received. Girls would be brought up for service, boys for a trade; they would be employed ‘according to their ability and bodily strength, in useful occupations, and thus help to maintain themselves’. The institution would be for truly destitute children and any orphans whose relatives were able and willing to pay for their maintenance would be ineligible. They would receive a ‘plain education’; and, m conclusion, Muller said that ‘the chief and especial end of the Institution will be to seek, with God’s blessing, to bring them to die knowledge of Jesus Christ, by instructing them in the Scriptures’.
When Muller had finished speaking there was purposely no collection; however, he was given 10s. A woman offered to help in the work and Muller recorded that he ‘went home happy in the Lord, and full of confidence that the matter will come to pass, though but 10s has been given.’
The following day it began to look as if this confidence would be rewarded. Muller received a letter from a husband and wife who said: ‘We propose ourselves for the service of the intended Orphan-House, if you think us qualified for it; also to give up all the furniture, etc, which the Lord has given us, for its use; and to do this without receiving any salary whatever; believing, that if it be the will of the Lord to employ us, He will supply all our need, etc.’ In the evening ‘a brother brought from several individuals three dishes, twenty-eight plates, three basins, one jug, four mugs, three salt stands, one grater, four knives, and five forks’.
Next day, Muller prayed that God would give further evidence of His favour towards the orphan-house. While he was on his knees three dishes, twelve plates, one basin, and one blanket were delivered. Muller thanked God and asked for another encouragement the same day. Not long after, he was duly given £50 from an unexpected source; he felt led by God to pray for even more that same day. In the evening, twenty-nine yards of material were sent and a woman offered herself for the work.
And so it went on. ‘December 13. A brother was influenced this day to give 4s per week, or £10 8s yearly, as long as the Lord gives the means; 8s was given by him as two weeks’ subscriptions. To-day a brother and sister offered themselves, with all their furniture, and all the provisions which they have in the house, if they can be usefully employed in the concerns of the Orphan-House.
December 14. To-day a sister offered her services for the work. In the evening another sister offered herself for the Institution. December 15. A sister brought from several friends, ten basins, eight mugs, one plate, five dessert spoons, six tea spoons, one skimmer, one toasting fork, one flour dredge, three knives and forks, one sheet, one pillow case, one table cloth; also £1. In the afternoon were sent 55 yards of sheeting, and 12 yards of calico. December 16.1 took out of the box in my room is. December 17. I was rather cast down last evening and this morning about the matter, questioning whether I ought to be engaged in this way, and was led to ask the Lord to give me some further encouragement. Soon after we were sent by a brother two pieces of print, the one seven and. the other 23d yards, 6f yards of calico, four pieces of lining, about four yards altogether, a sheet, and a yard measure. This evening another brother brought a clothes’ horse, three frocks, four pinafores, six handkerchiefs, three counterpanes, one blanket, two pewter salt cellars, six tin cups, and six metal tea spoons; he also brought 3s 6d given to him by three different individuals. At the same time he told me that it had been put into the heart of an individual to send to-morrow £100.
December 18. This afternoon the same brother brought from a sister, a counterpane, a flat iron stand, eight cups and saucers, a sugar basin, a milk jug, a tea cup, 16 thimbles, five knives and forks, 6 dessert spoons, 12 tea spoons, four combs, and two little graters; from another friend a flat iron and a cup and saucer. At the same time he brought the £100 above referred to.
When he discovered who had sent the £100, Muller was reluctant to accept it. He knew that the donor was a woman who earned about 3 s 6d a week by needlework and decided to visit her to find out whether the money had been given in a moment without thought of the cost. He discovered that the woman had been left £480 on the death of her father; on receipt of the money she had parted with a large sum to pay off some outstanding family debts, and had given her mother £100. She had then sent the £100 towards the orphan-house. Muller spoke to her at great length hoping to persuade her to reconsider. Her reply was brief:
‘The Lord Jesus has given His last drop of blood for me, and should I not give all the money I have? Rather than the Orphan-House should not be established, I will give all the money I have.’
Muller left the house not only with the £100, but another £5 for the poorer members of Gideon and Bethesda which she insisted he took. Muller commented, ‘during her life-time, I suppose, not six brethren and sisters among us knew that she had ever possessed £480, or that she had given £100 towards the Orphan-House’.
As the year 1835 ended, Muller noted that the number ‘in fellowship’ at Bethesda Chapel was now 143 and at Gideon 154. Of these nearly 140 people had been converted through his preaching and that of Henry Craik since their arrival in Bristol. He had received, in ‘salary’, nearly £300 during the year. Gifts for the orphanage had, by the end of the year, become so encouraging that Muller was able to talk in terms of opening a small home at the beginning of the following April. At first, he would confine admission to girls between the ages of seven and twelve and allow them to stay until they were ready to go into domestic service. Children would be accepted from any part of the United Kingdom.
Gifts continued to arrive in the new year. On the evening of the 5th January there was a ring at the Mullers’ house bell. The door was opened, not to a visitor but to - a kitchen fender and dish, left, no doubt, by a donor with strong views on anonymous giving. In the opening weeks of 1836 there were numerous such small gifts in money and in kind and some more substantial gifts including another of X100 in early February.
Muller prayed about every detail of his plans and requirements for the proposed home; but until this time he had never asked God to send children. He had taken it for granted that there would be plenty of applications. However, by the beginning of February, although he had publicised his willingness to receive applications, not one had been received. He therefore spent a whole evening praying for applications; next day the first was received.
Gifts now began to arrive from further afield, £5 from Sidmouth, nearly £15 and a desk from Clapham. A small girl sent 2s 6d two hundred miles to Bristol and £20 arrived from Plymouth. By this time, something would arrive every day and it became a little difficult to cope when, for instance, on the 25th March a ton of coal was delivered. Gifts from Trowbridge, the Isle of Wight and London followed and Muller was now able to set about furnishing a home.
A large terraced house, No. 6 Wilson Street, close to Gideon Chapel, had been brought to his attention as available at a low rental. It was three stories high and solidly built. After prayer and careful inspection Muller decided to rent the property for at least a year. He then began to furnish it for thirty children. Gifts continued to arrive and to be eminently suited to the needs of the moment: ‘April 2 ... six blankets, two counterpanes, four sheets, eight bonnets, five frocks, six pinafores... April 6. One dozen washing basins and one jug____a set of fire irons, a tea kettle, a coal box, a tin saucepan, a tripod, a tea pot, three cups and saucers, a wash-hand basin, three small basins, and two plates ... 22 Hymn Books.’ By early April, furnishing and fitting of No. 6 had been completed.
April nth, 1836, was the day when the first children arrived, looking pale and nervous. One of them was named Harriet—Harriet Culliford. Some of their temporary guardians, who might have expected Mr Muller to be elderly and bearded, were surprised to find a young man—he was still only thirty; the children, although they could detect a ‘no-nonsense’ look about their new father, responded to the air of kindness and calm in his expression. Muller introduced them to the smiling matron and governess whom he had engaged: no one could ever give these little girls back their parents, but here were folk who were determined to do everything possible to make up the loss.
It is unlikely that they had any illusions about the immensity of the task which lay ahead. Although they might not have used the language of modern psychology, they were well aware of the emotional difficulties which faced children who had lost both their parents. And, financially, they knew that every day, three times a day, for seven days every week there would be thirty hungry children to feed, besides the staff. Thirty pairs of feet would wear our thirty pairs of shoes; clothes would grow too worn or too small and need replacement. Muller knew that if ever the children went hungry or badly clothed, his God would be discredited. But he was not alarmed; instead, he would repeat to his family and helpers Christ’s words in Matthew 6:31 and 3 3: ‘Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? But seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.’
By early May there were nearly thirty girls in No. 6, and money and provisions were still arriving steadily. Often gifts of money would be accompanied by brief covering notes: on May 25th 1836, for instance, ‘The history of this money is: A lady was going to purchase a dress. The enclosed sum was the difference between the fashionable one, which took her fancy, and one less fashionable. So she thought, the orphans should profit by this sacrifice of her fancy.’ Some covering notes were briefer: on one occasion a sovereign was accompanied by the words, T Thessalonians 5 verse 25’ (‘Brethren, pray for us’). This gift was from a Bristol clergyman, a regular donor, whom Muller described in his diary as ‘the dear brother ... gracious devoted clergyman ... dear man of God’.
Provisions of all kinds continued to pour in, ‘twenty pounds of bacon and ten pounds of cheese_____six straw bonnets ... six night caps and 2 petticoats ... a basket of apples, and three pounds of sugar’. The friends from Teignmouth had evidently not forgotten their former pastor, for in June, Muller recorded the arrival from Teignmouth of a considerable sum of money, ‘together with a gown, a boy’s pinafore, a pair of socks, coloured cotton for three children’s frocks, two babies’ bed gowns, and five babies’ night caps’.
At the end of September a Bristol surgeon offered to attend the orphans, and supply them with medicine as necessary, entirely without charge. Muller gladly accepted the offer. On the 14th October he recorded the arrival of four and a half gallons of beer, but sadly does not tell us whether the children were allowed to indulge.
While Muller made it a firm rule that neither he nor his helpers ever asked any individual for anything ‘that the Lord’s own hand might be clearly seen’, he did not hesitate on occasions to ask God to ‘incline the heart’ of certain individuals to give towards the work. In December 1835 he had noted in his diary a prayer that a particular person known to him should give ^Tioo. Some months later the gentleman in question had sent him £50; and then on Guy Fawkes’ Day 1836 he gave a further £50. Unusually for Muller, it was some days before he remembered his prayer of the previous December. In his delight, he called on the donor and showed him the diary entry for December 12th 1835 so that they could rejoice together over the precision of this answer to prayer.
Soon after the opening of the home in No. 6 for girls aged from seven upwards it became obvious to Muller that there was a need for a home catering for children under the age of seven. In October (1836) he managed to obtain the use of No. 1 Wilson Street for an Infant-Orphan House, together with a piece of land for a playground. After much prayer a suitable Matron and Governess were engaged; the house was furnished and the first children—boys and girls—were taken on the 28th November. Some of the eldest girls from No. 6 were employed to help at No. 1 under the supervision of the Matron and Governess, and it was felt that this training in nursery work would be useful for them when they went into service—Leah Culliford was among the early occupants of No. 1.
Christmas for Muller’s children in Wilson Street in 1836 cannot have been frugal. Towards the festive season his diary recorded the arrival of a number of ducks and turkeys—and a hundredweight of treacle. Muller was pleased, too, that Christmas when a pound arrived attached to a note recalling the occasion when Jesus took a child in his arms and said, ‘Whosoever shall receive one of such children in my name, receiveth me: and whosoever shall receive me, receiveth not me, but him that sent me.’ (Mark 9:37).
In the closing minutes of 1836—the year it all began—Muller wrote in his journal, ‘We had this evening a prayer-meeting to praise the Lord for His goodness during the past year, and to ask Him for a continuance of His favours during the coming year. We continued together till half-past eleven’. Two days later the two churches at Gideon and Bethesda—those in fellowship now numbered 350—met again for prayer, and this meeting continued until half-past ten.
By April, there were sixty children in the two Orphan-Houses, thirty infants at No 1 and thirty girls at No 6. Typhus fever raged in Bristol that spring, but mercifully only two children caught the disease and both recovered.
It was in the early summer of 1837 that Muller planned to publish the first volume of his Narrative of some of the Lord’s dealings with George Muller. He had finally decided to write this only after many months of consideration, and examination of his motives; he conceded, in fact, that he had not prayed so much over any other step which he had taken in God’s service. On the one hand, he was not at all keen to add to the number of religious books on the market; but on the other hand, that which weighed more with me than any thing was, that I have reason to believe from what I have seen among the children of God, that many of their trials arise, either from want of confidence in the Lord as it regards temporal things, or from carrying on their business in an unscriptural way. On account, therefore, of the remarkable way in which the Lord has dealt with me in temporal things, within the last ten years, I feel that I am a debtor to the Church of Christ, and that I ought... to make known, as much as I can, the way in which I have been led.
By May, 1837 the manuscript was nearly ready to be sent to the publishers. But before he did so, there was one prayer in particular to which he wanted to record a complete answer: on December 5th 1835, he had asked God for one thousand pounds towards the orphan work. Since then he had repeated the prayer almost every day, and in eighteen months he had received over £900. On 21st May he ‘gave himself earnestly’ to prayer that God would send the outstanding amount, ‘for though,’ he wrote, ‘in my own mind, the thing is as good as done, so much so, that I have repeatedly been able to thank God, that He will surely give me every shilling of that sum, yet to others this would not be enough’. In May, a lady whom he had never seen called on him and gave him ^40; smaller sums arrived daily. On the 15th June a gift of £5 made up the whole sum, and Muller was delighted. Every shilling of this money, and all the articles of clothing and furniture which he had received, had been given to him as he recorded without one single individual having been asked by me for any thing. The reason why I have refrained altogether from soliciting anyone for help is, that the hand of God evidently might be seen in the matter, that thus my fellow-believers might be encouraged more and more to trust Him, and that also those who know not the Lord, may have a fresh proof that, indeed, it is not a vain thing to pray to God.
Writing recently about Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Malcolm Muggeridge has said that ‘in true evangelical style, she goes to God with her needs and difficulties, and is always marvelling at the magnificent response in meeting her every requirement, great and small. Those of us who cannot participate in such particular requests are not so much more sophisticated as less gifted with faith’.
And so it was with Muller—although he denied that he had been granted a special gift of faith. For, as he wrote some years later,
It is true that the faith, which I am enabled to exercise, is altogether God’s own gift; it is true that He alone supports it, and that He alone can increase it; it is true that, moment by moment, I depend upon Him for it, and that, if I were only one moment left to myself, my faith would utterly fail; but it is not true that my faith is that gift of faith which is spoken of in I Corinthians 12:9 ... it is the self-same faith which is found in every believer, and the growth of which I am sensible of to myself....