Chapter Eleven, Looking to his Riches
Chapter Eleven, Looking to his Riches
Indeed, so sharp were the trials of our faith for more than six months after [September, 1841]; so long the seasons when, day after day, only daily supplies were granted to us, and when even from meal to meal we had to look up to the Lord; so long had we to continue in prayer, and yet help seemed to fail; that it can be only ascribed to the especial mercy of God, that the faith of those who were engaged in this work did not altogether fail, and that they did not entirely grow weary of this way of carrying on the Lord’s work, and go, in despair of help from God, back again to the habits and maxims of this evil world ... In the midst of the trial I was fully assured that the Lord would lighten His hand in His own good time, and that, whilst it lasted, it was only in order that in a small measure, for the benefit of the church of Christ generally, that word might be fulfilled in us—‘Whether we be afflicted it is for your consolation.’
After the period of comparative plenty which ended in September, the situation did not suddenly deteriorate; it is true that by the morning of October 1st Muller had again to record that he had not a penny in hand. But help was on the way. In the middle of the morning, 10s arrived with a note which read: ‘Your Heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of these things. Trust in the Lord.’ About five minutes later Muller received £10 from an Irish sister, through her banker in London. At the same time he heard from Tetbury that three boxes, containing articles to be disposed of for the children, were on the way. Two hours later, fourteen small donations, amounting to nearly 30s, were given to him.
A month later, however, it was rare for donations as large as ten pounds to arrive:
November 23. Yesterday came in 5s for stockings, which provided to-day the means for the breakfast in the Boys’ Orphan-House. A sister sent also a gammon and some peas. Now we are very poor indeed. One of the labourers [meaning a member of staff] was able to provide a dinner in the Girls’ Orphan-House out of his own means. In this our great need came in 17s 6d by sale of Reports, which money had been expected for some months past, but which the Lord sent just now most seasonably. Besides this, 2s 6d was also received for the children’s needlework. Thus we are provided for this day also. In the afternoon the Lord gave us a still further proof of the continuance of His loving care over us, now that we are so poor; for a box arrived from Plymouth containing clothes, trinkets etc.
Early next morning one of the articles in the box from Plymouth was sold for £2 2s. This was sufficient to see them through the day, as there was a certain amount in stock in each of the houses. Prayer meetings were now held daily at Wilson Street, as a result of the urgency of the situation. When Muller arrived at this particular morning’s p.m., he heard that as the infants had taken a walk with their teacher that morning, a poor woman had approached her with two pence.
‘It is but a trifle,’ she said, ‘but I must give it to you.’
By the time Muller arrived at the prayer meeting one of these two pence had already been needed to make up the sum which was required for the bread. In the afternoon, another 9d was received and some more of the articles from Plymouth were sold for 12s.
December was the usual month when the public meetings were held to give an account of the work. But at the end of 1841, times being so unusually difficult, it was decided to delay the meetings for a while, in case there should be criticism that they had been arranged in order to expose the need; the publication of the Annual Report was delayed for similar reasons. Muller wrote,
What better proof, therefore, could we give of our depending on the living God alone, and not upon public meetings or printed Reports, than that, in the midst of our deepest poverty, instead of being glad for the time to have come when we could make known our circumstances, we still went quietly on for some time longer, without saying anything ... The Lord was saying by this poverty,
‘I will now see whether you truly lean upon me, and whether you truly look to me.’
This courageous step of faith was not instantly rewarded. On the contrary, Muller wrote a few years later that,
Of all the seasons that I had ever passed through since I had been living in this way, up to that time, I never knew any period in which my faith was tried so sharply as during the four months from December 12th 1841 to April 12th 1842. But observe further: We might even now have altered our minds with respect to the public meetings and publishing the Report; for no one knew our determination, at this time, concerning the point. Nay, on the contrary, we knew with what delight very many children of God were looking forward to receive further accounts. But the Lord kept us steadfast to the conclusion, at which we arrived under His guidance.
Throughout this period it remained true that the children neither knew of the difficulties nor lacked good food, clothes or warmth. Muller was well aware of the question that many longed to ask him and that some did:
‘How would it be, suppose the funds for the Orphans were reduced to nothing, and those who are engaged in the work had nothing of their own to give, and a meal time were to come, and you had no food for the children?’
Muller’s answer was that he believed such a situation would occur ‘if ever we should be so left to ourselves, as that either we depend no more upon the living God, or that “we regard iniquity in our hearts.” ’ ‘But so long’, he continued, ‘as we shall be enabled to trust in the living God, and so long as, though falling short in every way of what we might be, and ought to be, we are at least kept from living in sin, such a state of things cannot occur.’
One of the nearest approaches to such a situation occurred in February 1842. At midday on Tuesday the eighth there was enough food in all the houses for that day’s meals, but no money to buy the usual stock of bread (for future use) or milk for the following morning; two houses needed coal. In Muller’s view they had never been in greater poverty and he noted that if God sent nothing before nine next day, ‘His name would be dishonoured’. Late in the afternoon nine plum cakes arrived, baked by order of a kindly sister. Encouraging—and, no doubt, tasty—as these were, the situation was still grim as Muller retired to bed that night. He finished that day’s journal entry with the words: ‘Truly, we are poorer than ever; but, through grace, my eyes look not at the empty stores and the empty purse, but to the riches of the Lord only.’
Next morning, Muller walked early to Wilson Street to discover how God would meet the need, only to find on arrival between seven and eight that it had already been met. A Christian businessman had walked about half a mile to his place of work when the thought occurred to him that Muller’s children might be in need. He decided, however, not to retrace his steps then, but to take something to the homes that evening. But, as he later told Muller, ‘I could not go any further and felt constrained to go back.’ He delivered three sovereigns to the Boys’ Home. This donation, together with some other smaller sums, met the needs for two days.
Muller described the following week, too, as being ‘full of trials of faith, but also full of deliverances.’ The final deliverance itself came via a well-known but by no means wealthy deliverer. It was Saturday February 19th and although enough had come in for the day’s needs there was no money to buy in bread for Sunday, which was needed in all three houses. Muller was forced to leave the evening prayer meeting at Wilson Street early as he expected Robert Chapman to arrive at his home from Barnstaple soon after eight. He asked one of the brethren to accompany him to Paul Street so that he could return to the homes with any donations that had arrived at No. 21. Chapman arrived soon after half-past eight and shortly produced half a sovereign for the children. Muller found an excuse to leave the room and presented the money to a grateful assistant who returned quickly to Wilson Street, so that by ten enough bread had been bought for the morrow.
About a month later things were again pretty desperate. Muller left his house soon after seven in the morning to see whether there was enough money at the homes to buy in milk for the day. As he walked, he prayed:
‘Lord pity us, even as a Father pitieth his children. Lay upon us no more than we are able to bear; refresh our hearts by sending us help.
Lord, you know what would happen if we had to give up the work for want of means..
Two minutes from Wilson Street his prayer was interrupted when he met a friend on his way to work. They chatted briefly and then parted—but not for long. Muller was soon overtaken by a breathless pursuer who gave him a pound note for the work. (For many, at that time, a pound equalled a fortnight’s wages.)
‘It is worth being poor,’ Muller thought, ‘and greatly tried in faith for the sake of having day by day such precious proofs of the loving interest which our kind Father takes in everything that concerns us.’
Wednesday March 30th found Muller on the platform of the new Temple Meads station to meet a friend from Devon who was to stay with him for a few days. As they made their way back to Wilson Street, Muller’s friend told how the previous year he had allocated a piece of his land to be used for the benefit of Muller’s children. He had prayed with his family that God would bless the crop that was to be planted and many times subsequently they repeated the prayer until they were able to dig a fine harvest of potatoes. These had been sold for two sovereigns which were now duly handed over. When they arrived at No. 21 they found one of the boys waiting for some money to provide lunch and certain other needs; the boy returned to Wilson Street with the two sovereigns: it was all Muller had, but just enough for that day’s requirements.
That Wednesday was also the day when due to an acute shortage of funds for their personal use, the Mullers took lunch half an hour late. It was the only occasion when Muller ever remembered this happening, and he consoled himself that it was a good thing for him and Mary to know in a very small way the meaning of the Apostle Paul’s words in Philippians 4:12, ‘I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound; everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.’
By April 1842 Muller and his helpers had lived through six months of severe testing when week after week, with only short periods of relief, the funds had been no more than sufficient. Again and again money or supplies had arrived with only minutes to spare before the children sat down at table. Muller’s faith had at no time been more tried. How much longer would it last?
On Tuesday 12th April the need had never been greater: since the previous Saturday less than fourteen shillings had been received at Wilson Street. Early in the morning, Muller knelt in prayer:
‘Lord pity us! You know that we desperately need some oatmeal, some new pairs of shoes, money for the repair of old shoes and to replenish our stores, and some money for new clothes for the children as well as a little money which is needed for some of the lady helpers. Please send us some larger sums.’
Later that morning an envelope arrived from the East Indies: it contained one hundred pounds. Muller wrote, ‘It is impossible to describe the real joy in God it gave me ... I was not in the least surprised or excited when this donation came, for I took it as that which came in answer to prayer, and had been long looked for.’
By May, Muller thought it right to publish another Report of the activities of the Scriptural Knowledge Institution including, of course, the homes. The report had been delayed for five months on account of the period of trial, lest they should appear to be appealing for funds. At this time, however, there was no danger of such an accusation being made.
During the previous seventeen months SKI had financed, besides one hundred children in the homes, a whole number of other important activities including: (a) two Sunday Schools; (b) two Adult Schools, one for men and one for women at which on four evenings in the week nearly 350 people were taught reading and writing, their books and writing materials being supplied free of charge. The opportunity was of course taken to ‘point out the way of salvation’ at some classes; (c) six Day Schools, three for boys and three for girls. Muller’s aim was that the poorest citizens of Bristol should be able to send their children to school entirely free or on payment of one fifth or one sixth of the expenses. They were also intended to enable Christian parents of modest means to send their children to schools where the teachers were all believers. From March 1834 to May 1842 well over two and a half thousand children were taught at these schools. All these adult and children’s schools were entirely financed by Muller’s Institution.
In addition, from its foundation in 1834 SKI had circulated nearly seven thousand Bibles. In the seventeen months ending May 1842 nearly £130 had been sent to missionaries in Jamaica, Australia, Canada and the East Indies. In the same period well over twenty-two thousand short Christian books or pamphlets had been distributed, the greater part free of charge.
During those seventeen months there had been very little sickness in Wilson Street and not one child had died. Total expenditure at the homes had been just over £1337 and total income just over £1339. Mr Micawber’s happiness would have been complete.
Through periods of trial or periods of plenty, Muller never wavered in his determination that neither he nor any member of his staff should ever appeal for funds.
I do not mean to say [he wrote] that it would be acting against the precepts of the Lord to seek for help in His work by personal and individual applications to believers, (though it would be in direct opposition to His will to apply to unbelievers, 2 Corinthians 6:14-18); but I act in the way in which I do for the benefit of the Church at large, cheerfully bearing the trials, and sometimes the deep trials connected with this life of faith (which however brings along with it its precious joys), if by any means a part at least of my fellow believers might be led to see the reality of dealing with God only, and that there is such a thing as the child of God having power with God by prayer and faith. That the Lord should use for so glorious a service one so vile, so unfaithful, so altogether unworthy of the least notice as I am, I can only ascribe to the riches of his condescending grace, in which He takes up the most unlikely instruments, that the honour may be manifestly His.
It was once alleged at a public meeting in a large town that on an occasion when there was need at Wilson Street Muller had prayed publicly that God would send help for the children. When Muller heard the allegation he described it as ‘entirely false’. He commented that so far from wishing to make known our need, for the purpose of influencing benevolent persons to contribute to the necessities of the Institution under my care, I have even refused to let our circumstances be known, after having been asked about them, when on simply saying that we were in need, I might have had considerable sums... And such self-possession has the Lord given me, that at the times of deepest poverty (whilst there was nothing at all in hand, and whilst we had even from meal to meal to wait upon the Lord for the necessities of more than a hundred persons), when a donation of ^5 or £10 or more had been given to me, the donors could not have read in my countenance whether we had much or nothing at all in hand.