Chapter Nine, ‘A Bank Which Cannot Break’
Chapter Nine, ‘A Bank Which Cannot Break’
From the commencement of Muller’s orphan work in April 1836 to the end of June 1838, finances gave no cause for anxiety: there was always an excess of funds. But as the summer of 1838 drew towards its close, so Muller’s journal indicated that times were becoming difficult.
August 18,1838.1 have not one penny in hand for the Orphans. In a day or two again many pounds will be needed. My eyes are up to the Lord. Evening. Before this day is over, I have received from a sister £5. She had some time since put away her trinkets, to be sold for the benefit of the Orphans. This morning, whilst in prayer, it came to her mind, I have this £5, and owe no man any thing, therefore it would be better to give this money at once, as it may be some time, before I can dispose of the trinkets. She therefore brought it, little knowing that there was not a penny in hand, and that I had been able to advance only £4 15s 5d for housekeeping in the Boys’-Orphan-House, instead of the usual £10; knowing also, that within a few days many pounds more will be needed.
Aug. 20. The £5 which I had received on the 18th, had been given for house-keeping, so that to-day I was again penniless. But my eyes were up to the Lord. I gave myself to prayer this morning, knowing that I should want again this week at least £13, if not above £20. To-day I received ^12 in answer to prayer, from a lady who is staying at Clifton, whom I had never seen before. Aug. 23. To-day I was again without one single penny, when £3 was sent from Clapham, with a box of new clothes for the Orphans.
Muller was later to look back on the period from September 1838 to the end of 1846 as the time when the greatest trials of faith were experienced in the orphan work. They were not years of continuous trial: rather there tended to be a pattern of a few months of trial, followed by some months of comparative plenty. During the whole period, according to Muller, the children knew nothing of the trial. In the midst of one of the darkest periods, he recorded, ‘these dear little ones know nothing about it, because their tables are as well supplied as when there was £800 in the bank, and they have lack of nothing’. At another time he wrote, ‘the orphans have never lacked anything. Had I had thousands of pounds in hand, they would have fared no better than they have; for they have always had good nourishing food, the necessary articles of clothing etc’. In other words, the periods of trial were so in the sense that there was no excess of funds: God supplied the need by the day, even by the hour. Enough was sent, but no more than enough.
Muller’s journal often hints at, but rarely attempts to analyse, why it was that God allowed this period of ‘trial’. The key to his understanding of the situation is perhaps best expressed in an entry, in the autumn of 1838, commenting on a gift of money which he had received from Teignmouth. ‘It is a most seasonable help, to defray the expenses of this day, and a fresh proof, that not in anger, but only for the trial of our faith, our gracious Lord delays as yet, to send larger sums.’ Muller saw a purpose in the trial similar to that in the Old Testament story where God tested Abraham by telling him to offer Isaac as a burnt offering on the mountain in Moriah. In one sense the period was a test of Muller’s obedience, and a time when his character was moulded—prepared, in fact, for his life’s work. In the opinion of the present Director of Muller’s Homes, the years of trial were ‘designed by the Lord to deepen Mr Muller’s faith and to show him that prayer is no vain thing. Many years afterwards he faced his financial trials with scarcely a tremor. He had learned so much and really knew His God.’
From the earliest days of these trying years, it is possible to see how—in response to difficult situations—Muller never faltered from a path of almost fanatical obedience; his faith stood firm as a rock and his character fully measured up to the challenges of the day.
In the evening of Thursday September 6th Muller listened to Henry Craik preach from Genesis 12. ‘All went well for Abraham,’ said Craik, ‘as long as he acted in faith, and walked according to the will of God; but when Abraham distrusted God, all failed.’ As Muller listened, he began to apply this lesson to his own difficult situation. That morning he recalled, the order-books had been brought to him from the Infant-Orphan-House, and shortly afterwards the matron had sent him a message asking when she should fetch them. Muller knew full well that her message was a polite way of asking when she could expect the money she would need for the next few days’ provisions. He had sent a message saying ‘to-morrow’, though he had not a single penny in hand. As he listened to Craik, however, he made up his mind that despite the seeming impossibility of the situation, he would never seek his own deliverance, by means of his own ingenuity. For instance, he thought of a sum of about £220 he had in the bank which had been given him for other spheres of Christian work. It would have been easy for him to write to the brother who had entrusted him with this and say that in difficult circumstances he had taken say £20 or even £100 for the orphans. For on a number of occasions he remembered the donor saying that if ever he wanted money he was only to let him know. But, Muller thought, ‘this would be a deliverance of my own, not God’s deliverance. Besides, it would be no small barrier to the exercise of faith, in the next hour of trial’. In the event he was sent just sufficient money to meet the immediate need at the Infant Home, plus a gift of 29 lbs of salt, 44 dozen onions, and 26 lbs of groats (that is, crushed oats).
On the Saturday and Sunday no money came in at all, with the result that by Monday morning, September 10th, Muller—with a rare touch of drama— described the situation as a ‘solemn crisis’. He decided upon an unprecedented step. Until that day he had never taken any of his fellow workers into his confidence as to the state of the funds, with the exception of an obviously close assistant, referred to in his journal only as ‘brother T ...’. On this occasion, however, he broke with tradition and went to each of the Orphan-Houses in turn. He called the staff of each house together, frankly stated the financial situation and enquired how much money was needed for immediate needs. Having established the exact proportions of the problem, he announced that he still believed that God would help and led his helpers in prayer. He then gave instructions that nothing more was to be purchased than there was the means to pay for, but that the children were not to lack anything in the way of nourishing food and the necessary clothes. He would, he said, rather send the children away than see them lack anything. An investigation was ordered to discover whether they possessed any needless articles which could be sold. At half-past nine that morning, sixpence came in which had been put into the box at Gideon Chapel. Most men would not have found this a cause for great rejoicing, but Muller at least interpreted it as an earnest of greater things to come.
Muller then left the homes, and visited Henry Craik to whom he unburdened his heart putting him fully in the picture. The two men knelt together in prayer.
Soon after ten, Muller returned to his home. While he was praying in his room, a lady called and gave Mary two sovereigns (a farm worker’s monthly salary) for the children saying that she had felt herself stirred up to come, but had already delayed too long. A few minutes later, Muller entered the room where she was and she promptly gave him two more sovereigns without having any idea of the need of the moment. Very shortly afterwards, a messenger arrived from the Infant-Orphan-House to whom Muller was able to give £2 and through whom he sent £1 0s 6d to the Boys’ Home and £1 to the Girls’.
That day, Craik left Bristol to stay with a friend in the country. It had been intended that Muller should accompany his friend, but owing to the critical state of affairs at Wilson Street he did not make the trip.
Later that week, after meeting with his staff for prayer, one brother approached him with 16s saying ‘It would not be upright for me to pray, if I did not give what I had.’ Muller accepted the gift. It was not unusual in these years of trial for members of the staff to give money themselves to the work, and even to sell unnecessary personal articles, to help out at difficult periods. Muller denied that this practice represented a failure of the principles on which the homes operated. On the contrary he argued that under no circumstances could prayer for material things be expected to prevail unless there was a willingness to part with money or unnecessary personal belongings. ‘Indeed’, he wrote, ‘an Institution like the one under my care could not be carried on by any rich believer, on the principles on which we, by grace, are enabled to act, except it be that he were made willing himself to give of his own property, as long as he has anything, whenever the Institution is in real need.’
Early the following Tuesday morning, Muller took stock of the situation at Wilson Street. ‘Brother T’ had 25s in hand, he himself had 3s. He would, that day as any other day, be responsible for the well-being of about one hundred people, including staff, in the three homes.
The £1 8s enabled them to buy meat and bread which was needed, a little tea for one of the houses, and milk for all three homes. No more was needed for that day and there was bread for two days in hand. But how would God provide for the rest of the week? The funds were exhausted: all members of staff had given as much as they were able. They met as usual for prayer, but as they rose and went about the duties of the day nothing came in. A good lunch was eaten in all three homes; after lunch Muller returned to prayer. Still nothing came in. How could he face the children to-morrow and announce there was no breakfast? Muller became ‘tried in spirit’. Seven years later he was to look back on this day as the only occasion when he felt this way. ‘For the first time,’ he wrote, ‘the Lord seemed not to regard our prayer.’
But at about the middle of the afternoon there was a ring at Muller’s house bell. A lady introduced herself to Muller as having arrived four or five days earlier from London, and explained that she was staying next door to the Boys’ Orphan-House. Her daughter had given her a parcel of money for the work which she now presented to Muller. It contained £3 2s 6d; enough, at that time, to provide comfortably for all the next day’s needs. As soon as the woman had left, Muller permitted himself a rare exclamation of excitement.
I burst out into loud praises and thanks the first moment I was alone, after I had received the money. I met with my fellow-labourers again this evening for prayer and praise; their hearts were not a little cheered. That the money had been so near the Orphan-Houses for several days without being given, is a plain proof that it was from the beginning in the heart of God to help us; but, because He delights in the prayers of His children, He had allowed us to pray so long; also to try our faith, and to make the answer so much the sweeter.
As autumn gave way to winter in 1838, the needs continued to be met almost by the day. On November 21st, after a good lunch had been taken in all three homes, it was established that there were no funds left in any of the three homes. By sharing the supplies of bread between the three homes, however, it looked as if they would get through another day. But there were no means to take in any further bread. Muller left Wilson Street following prayer at one o’clock, telling the staff that they must wait for help, and see how the Lord would deliver them this time. As he climbed the hill towards Kingsdown, he began to feel bitterly cold and decided that, needing more exercise for the benefit of his circulation, he would walk home a longer way, via Clarence Place. About twenty yards from his house in Paul Street he met a brother who walked back with him, and after a short talk gave him £20. £10 was to be given to the deacons at Bethesda towards providing the poorer members of the church with coal to help them through the winter, £5 was for the work of the Scriptural Knowledge Institution and £5 was for the children. The gentleman had called at No. 21 twice while Mulller was at Wilson Street, and had he been half a minute later he would have missed him again. Muller immediately sent the £5, sufficient for several days, to the three matrons.
A week later, things again looked difficult. At twelve o’clock, November 28th, Muller met with the staff for prayer. The previous evening is had been left at No. 1, and all except 2d had now been spent. Muller heard that someone had cleaned the clock in No. 1 free of charge, and had offered to keep the clocks in all the homes in good repair. This was encouraging but it would not provide tea that day for one hundred people. There was sufficient in hand for lunch in the three homes but the Infant and Boys’ homes had not enough bread or milk for tea. As they prayed, there was a knock at the door and one of the ladies left the room. The rest continued silently in prayer for a while and then rose from their knees.
‘God will surely send help,’ Muller said as he stood up. As he spoke, he noticed a note on the table which had been brought in while they were praying. It was from Mary, enclosing another letter with £10 for the children. The previous evening, a brother had asked Muller whether the balance in hand would be as great this time, when the accounts were made up, as last time. Muller never revealed the state of the funds.
‘They will be as great as the Lord pleases,’ he had said. This was the man who had sent the £10. 10s was wanted for immediate needs and £3 19s was put by towards the rent; the same brother also gave £10 to be divided between Craik and Muller to buy new clothes.
The following day £80 arrived from Suffolk of which £30 was for Craik and Muller’s personal expenses. On the 6th December another large sum of £100 arrived of which £50 was for the School-Bible-and-Missionary-Fund.
Thursday, February 7th 1839, the funds were again exhausted. At about half-past eleven Brother T called on Muller to say that about £1 2s would be needed to buy bread for the three homes and to meet other expenses; but they had only 2s 9d. Brother T was due in Clifton where he would make arrangements for the reception of three children.
‘Please be so good as to call on your way back, to see whether the Lord might have sent any money in the meantime,’ Muller said, before he left.
There was sufficient in the three homes that day for lunch. After lunch a lady from Thornbury came and bought one of Muller’s Narratives and a copy of the latest Annual Report, and left 3 s besides. Five minutes later the baker called at the Boys’ Orphan-House; seeing him arrive, the matron of the Girls’ Home went immediately with the 6s 6d which she had just received to prevent him being sent away—knowing there was nothing in hand at the Boys’ Home. With this money, together with the few shillings in hand, she bought sufficient bread for all three homes. At four o’clock Brother T returned to Muller’s house from Clifton to find that he had received nothing. One of the assistants gave 5s of his own money. Muller had been asking God to show him a passage to speak from that evening at Bethesda and seemed to be directed to Matthew 6:19-34. Just before he left, another 5s was brought to his house.
Perhaps the saints at Bethesda detected a specially fervent note in the voice of their young pastor as that evening he read the chosen portion in his strong Prussian accent:
‘Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we clothed? ... for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.’
After the meeting he went to No. 6 for a time of prayer; on arrival he found that a box had come from Barnstaple. Besides a letter from a sister, it contained £10 of which £5 was for the children and £2 for the Bible Fund; and a separate amount from the Barnstaple brethren of nearly three pounds. Besides this, there were four yards of merino wool, three pairs of new shoes, two pairs of new socks, six books intended for sale, a gold pencil-case, two gold rings, two gold ear-rings, a necklace, and a silver pencil-case.
‘We have now again to look to the Lord for further supplies,’ Muller said to Brother T on the following Wednesday afternoon, having just given him the last of the money they had in hand.
That afternoon a lady and gentleman visited the Homes in Wilson Street. At the Boys’ House they met two ladies who were also on a visit, one of whom turned to matron and said:
‘Of course, you cannot carry on these institutions without a good stock of funds.’
Turning to the matron, the gentleman then said: ‘Have you a good stock?’
‘Our funds are deposited in a bank which cannot break,’ the matron replied, cleverly avoiding breaking the rule never to reveal the state of the funds. Tears came into the eyes of the enquiring lady.
On leaving, the gentleman left £5 at the Boys’ Home.
Until early March, supplies were sufficient to meet comfortably all demands. But on the 5th the funds were reduced to 5s. Muller knew that several pounds would be needed as, besides daily provisions, coal was running low and the treacle casks in two houses were empty. He gave himself to prayer. Whilst on his knees, he received a cheque for £7 10s; and later that day nearly two pounds was received from the sale of articles which had been given for the children.
On 23rd March, Muller received a letter from Brother T, who was spending a few days in Devon for the benefit of his health. The letter showed that his visit would not be without profit as far as the children were concerned. He had given an Annual Report to an obviously artful brother, who, having read it, devoted himself wholeheartedly to asking the Lord to lead his Christian sister to donate some of her valuable jewellery to the orphans. It was not long before his prayer was answered, and Brother T returned from Devon with a heavy gold chain, a ring set with ten diamonds, a pair of gold bracelets and a sum of £2. Muller took the valuable ring, before parting with it, and neatly scratched the words JEHOVAH JIREH (‘the Lord will provide’) on a pane of glass in his room. Many times afterwards, until he left Paul Street, his heart was cheered as his eyes caught sight of the words on the glass and he remembered the remarkable way in which he came by the ring.
Throughout the summer and autumn of 1839 supplies came in daily: rarely more than enough for a day or two at a time, but never too little. On October 19th Muller was able to record that they were comparatively rich, having enough money in hand for about eight days. Provisions, too, came in steadily—including on one Saturday in November twenty sacks of potatoes and a small barrel of herrings.
The events of the following Monday illustrated how it so often happened that just enough but no more than enough would arrive. Muller had 10s left over from the previous day. On the Monday morning he was given a further 10s. Shortly after this, he received a note from Wilson Street to say that £3 would be needed that day. While he was reading the note, he received another note from Devon—enclosing a sovereign.
On 22nd November they were again very poor. After breakfast Muller was told that there was nothing in any of the three houses for lunch, except enough potatoes to last for some weeks. At ten o’clock a large box arrived at Wilson Street from Wolverhampton. It contained £12 for the children (at this time current expenditure on food amounted to roughly £2 10s a day for all the houses) and just over thirty shillings for other purposes. Muller and his helpers then laid out the contents of the box before them: four yards of flannel, nine yards of calico, twelve yards of cotton print, four and a half yards of coloured cotton, four yards of stuff, two pairs of stockings, and three and a quarter yards of brown holland. Also, the following articles had been sent for sale: two decanters and stands, four glass salt cellars, three scent bottles, a set of cruets and stand, five beer glasses, seven chimney ornaments, three tortoise-shell combs, three fans, two silver vinaigrettes, two silver shoe-buckles, two waist buckles, two silver salt-cellars, one pair of knives and forks, with silver handles, a small silver toasting fork, nine silver coins, three gold rings, four pairs of ear-rings, three brooches, a cornelian heart, a silver seal, one pair of silver studs, one gold watch key, one silver pencil case, five pairs of bracelets, five necklaces and one urn rug!
‘The Lord knew that the orphans had no dinner (meaning lunch) and, therefore, did He now send help,’ said Muller, smiling broadly.
And as if this was not enough, that same morning, a brother sent to No. 6 to ask whether the treacle cask was empty, and if so, to send it to him by the messenger, that it might be filled.
Public meetings to speak about God’s provision for the orphans during the previous year had now been fixed for December 10th to 12th, 1839. The helpers now began to pray that when the time of the meetings arrived, they would be able to report that ample funds were in hand. They always tried to avoid giving the impression at the public meetings—the only time when the state of the funds was mentioned—that they were simply an opportunity to beg for money. On the 4th December God answered their prayer; one hundred pounds arrived for the children from the East Indies. Muller rejoiced that at the meetings he would be able to tell of God’s rich supply after a time of trial.
At the end of 1839, Muller recorded that his health and mental powers were better than they had been for years. ‘I ascribe this to God’s blessing, through the instrumentality of early rising, and plunging my head into cold water when I rise.’
The usual end-of-year prayer meeting was held on 31st December. It lasted from seven p.m. until half-past twelve. At about one o’clock in the morning, after the meeting, Muller received a sealed envelope enclosing some money for the children. He remembered, that the individual who gave it was in debt, and that she had been repeatedly asked by her creditors for payment. He therefore resolved to return the envelope unopened, being firm in the belief that no one has a right to give while in debt. He did this knowing that there was not enough in hand to meet the expenses of New Year’s day. However, at eight in the morning he received £5, followed by over £s 10s a few hours later.
Throughout January 1840, substantial stuns were received at the homes and at the beginning of February Muller was able to leave Bristol for a long awaited trip to Germany. He spent ten days in Berlin before travelling to his father’s home at Heimersleben on 21st February. He found his father very weak, and coughing greatly.
Muller stayed with his father for five days and several times spoke to him about the way of salvation. Throughout the visit, Herr Muller was very affectionate to his son, and Muller noticed that he read prayers and the Bible; but he could not say that he was a true Christian. He left Heimersleben on February 26th and said farewell to his father for the last time.
Early in March Muller boarded at Hamburg one of the earliest channel steamers bound for London. On deck, he got into conversation with two Russian Jews, who listened with great interest to all that he said, although he did not tell them plainly that he believed Jesus to be the Messiah. After he left them, Muller watched the two men talking to each other and judged from their faces that they took him to be a baptised Jew or a missionary to the Jews. After a while one of them came up to Muller and asked him what he thought of ‘that Jesus’. Muller then owned his Saviour as the true Messiah, Lord and God at which thejew began to blaspheme. From that time, the two men kept well away from Muller.
At dinner that evening, at the captain’s table, one of the passengers, who had seen Muller’s long conversation, asked him about the two Jews. Muller decided that this would be an opportunity to discover whether there was another Christian at the table and deliberately threw out the remark:
‘How remarkable it is that the Jews, in all parts of the world, can be recognised as such; and are not mixed with other nations ...’
‘This can only be explained by the Scriptures, and shows the Bible to be true,’ replied the captain.
Muller agreed with the captain and for the rest of the voyage had long and interesting conversations with this ‘true brother in the Lord’.
On his return to Bristol on March 9th Mary told her husband that during his absence they had been well supplied and that a moderate sum was actually in hand.