Chapter Twenty-Four, The Scent of Honeysuckle
Chapter Twenty-Four, The Scent of Honeysuckle
A high-light of the fifth preaching tour (September 1878 to June 1879), after Muller had held numerous meetings in France and Switzerland, was the visit to a number of the schools in Spain which for the last ten years had been entirely supported by the funds of the Scriptural Knowledge Institution. One, a school for about one hundred and fifty boys, was in Barcelonetta, a poor part of Barcelona; the Mullers found that the boys were ‘quiet and orderly’. Muller began to address them, speaking very slowly so that the English director of the schools—Mr Henry Payne—could translate: ‘My dear children,’ he said, ‘I love you all very much, and pray for you every day. I long from my inmost soul to meet everyone of you in Heaven; but, in order that you may go to that happy place, as poor, lost, guilty sinners, you must put your trust in the blessed Lord Jesus Christ, who was punished in our room and stead; for His blood alone can cleanse us from our sins.’ He went on to tell them about the boys on Ashley Down, and mentioned that some of them, about the same age as they were, had already put their trust in the Lord Jesus as Saviour. The boys’ parents were all either Roman Catholic or atheist; at the school the children were regularly taught Bible stories.
Close to the boys’ school was a school for girls, also entirely supported by SKI. After Muller had spoken similarly to these girls, and they had sung a hymn for him, ‘a pretty little girl, about six years old, with black hair and very bright eyes, was mounted on a form, when she repeated the 128th Psalm in Spanish with great ease, and apparently without missing a word’. More recitations followed before the Mullers moved on to visit a school for infant girls, who could understand the Catalan dialect only. Thus, when Muller spoke to them, Mr Payne’s Spanish translation had to be translated a second time into Catalan by the school governess. By this somewhat cumbersome process the children were told that the kind gentleman from England loved them, cared for them, and was glad to see their bright, merry, little faces. The kind gentleman and his wife then gave the children a text to carry home to their parents: ‘The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.’ The couple visited ten schools in Barcelona, all of which were entirely supported by SKI.
On December 28th they rose at five and left Barcelona station for Saragossa. At midday (before the day of the restaurant car) all passengers got out at Levida for lunch; Mr and Mrs Muller walked up and down the platform giving away gospel tracts in Spanish. They were soon surrounded by a crowd of passengers all trying to get a tract for themselves. When their stock had been entirely distributed, the Mullers returned to their compartment followed by a large crowd of so far unsuccessful applicants. Fortunately more tracts were found in the carriage and handed out, but sadly—after George and Susannah had held up empty hands to show they had nothing more to give— a number of folk went away empty handed.
Saragossa is the only city in Spain with two cathedrals; the Mullers visited both. At the first ‘some poor devotees were worshipping at the shrines, to a few of whom we quietly gave Spanish gospel tracts; and,’ Mrs Muller recorded, ‘a tract was handed also to a gowned individual, a verger or sa;ristan, with a wand of office, as he slowly wandered up and down the aisles, who looked at us gloomily, but accepted it nevertheless.’
At the Cathedral of Nuestra Senora, noticing such practices as whole regiments of soldiers coming in ‘to kneel, bow, cross themselves, and perform their devotions before the different shrines’, Mrs Muller concluded that in Spain ‘the Roman Catholic religion appears to be of a grosser type than it is in Protestant countries’. Their last remaining tract was ‘slipped into the hand of a worshipper, kneeling upon a stone step before an altar’.
This was before the packaged tour made the English a familiar sight in Spain and as they walked through the streets of Saragossa the Mullers found that ‘almost everyone turned round to have a good look at us as strangers; and occasionally some children followed close behind, desiring to have a look at the walking curiosities from a foreign country’.
At Madrid, too, Muller visited the five schools entirely supported by SKI and found them in a ‘most satisfactory state’. Muller reported that when our schools in Madrid were established and a place was opened for preaching the gospel, a sign was placed outside over the entrance announcing that this was an evangelical place of worship for preaching the gospel. After this sign had existed for a considerable time, official directions were sent to Mr Fenn [who directed all the Madrid schools run by SKI] to have it painted over, so that the announcement might be obliterated. But the painter, who had done the work, being at heart grieved at having to destroy his own work, and sorrowful also, that these schools should be hindered instead of being encouraged by the Government, painted the sign over with water colours, so that still in a measure, what had been painted before could be seen.
"With evident satisfaction Muller continued, ‘Some time after also the rain made the former painting still more visible.’ But sadly he had to record later that, ‘Now the Government sent by night their own painter, to daub the sign thickly over with oil paint’.
After leaving Spain, some months were spent in the south of France, Muller preaching many times in French. At a church connected with an institution for mentally retarded and epileptic children, the director would not hear of an interpreter because, he said, ‘Monsieur Muller est admirable.’
The Mullers spent March in Mentone and held meetings daily, at Eglise Fran9aise and the German Church. On Sunday mornings the little hall of the Free Church of Scotland was crowded, and its doors and windows left open; several people would sit outside on the balcony and listen to Muller in the spring sunshine. Among them on three Sundays was an Englishman in his middle forties, there for the benefit of his health: Charles Haddon Spurgeon.
For some years, Spurgeon had been one of Muller’s admirers. Back in December 1858, at a meeting convened ‘to hear a statement of the progress made, and to devise steps for recruiting the funds necessary for building the proposed [Metropolitan] Tabernacle, Spurgeon had said: ‘Brethren, we must pray that God will be pleased to give us the money, and we shall surely have it. If we had possessed more faith, we should have had it before now: and when this Tabernacle is built, we shall find money enough to build a dozen. Look at what Mr Muller, of Bristol, has done by faith and prayer. When this land was threatened with famine [presumably in 1846, see chapter 13] people said, “What will you do now, Mr Muller?”. “Pray to God”, was the good man’s answer. He did pray, and the result was, that he had an overwhelming increase.’ While evidently admiring Muller’s faith in God and in the power of prayer, it would appear that Spurgeon shared none of his inhibitions about appealing for funds for he concluded: ‘Do you ask, “What is required of me tonight?” Let me remind you that all you possess is not your own; it is your Master’s; you are only stewards, and must hereafter give an account of your stewardship.’ Nearly £1,000 was collected and promised that evening.
Nearly ten years later, shortly after establishing his own orphanage, Spurgeon—preaching now in the new Tabernacle—had said: ‘I hope the day may soon come when the noble example which has been set by our esteemed brother, Mr Muller, of Bristol, will be more constantly followed in all the Lord’s work; for, rest assured that, if we will but “believe to see” we shall see great things... We trusted in God, and the [Tabernacle] was built, to the eternal honour of Him who hears and answers prayer. And, mark you, it will be so in the erection of this Orphan House. We shall see greater things than these if only our faith will precede our sight.’
On several occasions, that spring, George and Susannah drove out with Spurgeon. One afternoon they drove along the Turin road leading to Castiglione, and winding slowly up a hill in an open carriage amid magnificent scenery Spurgeon said:
‘When in the midst of landscapes such as these from the crown of my head to the sole of my foot, I feel as though I could burst out into one song of praise.’ It is not known whether, in fact, he did so, or if he did whether Muller accompanied his friend.
Dr Henry Bennet was a Christian resident in Mentone and during his convalescence Spurgeon was able to come and go in Bennet’s garden as he pleased. That same spring, Spurgeon recorded that Mr and Mrs Muller spent a day with him there. ‘Dr Bennet came up,’ Spurgeon recalled, ‘and I was amused to hear Muller teaching him the power of prayer, and recommending him to pray about one of the terraces which he wants to buy, but the owner asks a hundred times its value.’
‘It is too trifling a matter to take to the Lord,’ said Dr Bennet. ‘You may very properly pray about your Orphanage, but as to this terrace, to complete my garden—I could not make out a good case about it!’
‘But,’ said Muller, ‘it encourages people in sin if we yield to covetous demands, and so I think you might pray that the owners should be kept from exorbitant claims.’
‘As ignorant peasants,’ replied Dr Bennet, ‘they are in my opinion very excusable for trying either to keep their land, or to get all they can from an Englishman whom they imagine to be a living gold mine!’
Muller smiled. Spurgeon commented later that the ‘spirit of both was good; but, of course, the simple, child-like, holy trust of Muller was overpowering. He is not a sanctimonious person; but full of real joy, and sweet peace, and innocent pleasure.’ Charles Spurgeon junior once wrote in a letter that his ‘Father declares himself far better able to “trust and not be afraid” through intercourse with Mr Miiller.’
Their journey continued into Italy, with Muller holding meetings in San Remo and Florence, arriving in Rome on March 26th. Here at the ‘Eternal City’ Muller preached many times including sermons at the Brethren’s Hall, the Oratorio Evangelico, the Tempio Evan-gelico, the Presbyterian Church, the Waldentian Church, the Sala Cristiana, the American Baptist Chapel, the Italian Free Church, a Hall in Via della Scrofa (where a service for Italian soldiers was held), the Italian Free Church, and the Wesleyan Chapel.
They visited the Catacombs, St Peter’s, the Vatican, the Coliseum and drove along the Via Appia by which the Apostle Paul entered Rome. At the Scala Santa they saw eleven penitents ascending the famous flight of twenty-eight marble steps on their knees; and recalled that some 350 years earlier Martin Luther was likewise engaged on the same spot when it occurred to him that ‘The just shall live by faith’. Before finally bidding Roma ‘arrivederci’, they also visited the Church and Monastery of the three Fountains, the Baths of Caracella, the Columbaria, the Pantheon, Trajan’s Column, the Arch of Septimus Severus, ‘some curious old aqueducts’ and the ruins of the palaces of the Caesars.
On arrival at Naples, some English seamen from Bristol—hearing that Muller was in the area—invited him to address them, which he did in the harbour aboard the Bethel Mission ship. A number of meetings were held in Naples and the Mullers found time, too, to visit Pompeii, and the ruins of Herculaneum. They climbed Vesuvius and admired the famous view.
Travelling north again, they arrived on May 8th in Venice, where, said Mrs Muller, ‘instead of an omnibus, a gondola was waiting for passengers, in which we were rowed along several canals, to the Hotel Danieli’. Muller’s service in Venice was cut short when the Italian pastor who was to have interpreted for Muller contracted a serious throat infection. On then to Milan and Turin for a series of meetings, before setting off on June 3rd for the final major event of the tour: an excursion through the Waldensian valleys. Here for centuries there had been congregations of believers calling themselves brethren, who later became widely known as Waldenses, or Vaudois, though they did not themselves accept the name. They traced their origin back to Apostolic times. In the quiet seclusion of their mountains they had remained unaffected by the development of the Roman church.
In the two principal valleys of St Martin and Luzerne ‘the members of the little churches,’ Mrs Muller wrote, are obliged to walk many miles in order to attend the meetings. These Waldensian Christians are generally very poor, and many of them live in houses roofed with rough, flat stones loosely put together, instead of slates or tiles. In the windows, too, of a few of their abodes, paper occupied the place of glass. At Pomaret some of the people were standing at their doors to gaze at us, because our visit was expected; and as we drove along ‘Monsieur le pasteur Georges Muller’ had many respectful bows and salutations.
At five o’clock we reached the house of the pastor at Villa Seche, and in the evening accompanied him to his church, a very ancient Vaudois place of worship, situated at a great height upon a mountain, many hundreds of feet above his residence. A steep, rugged, winding pathway, covered in places with loose stones, led up this mountain towards the Church; and as some rivulets streamed over the ascent, it was difficult to avoid getting ankle-deep in water. The silence and solitude of the whole region, too, were striking. At length, warm, tired, and almost breathless [Muller was now seventy-four], we reached the Church, a large’ old-fashioned building, which was crowded with a rustic congregation, who (the meeting having been announced for five o’clock, though circumstances did not allow of our getting there till seven) had been sitting there two hours, patiently waiting our arrival. The service, which was in French, was opened with singing and prayer after which Mr Muller addressed the audience for an hour, throwing himself heart and soul into their circumstances. At the close of the meeting we distributed little French and Italian books amongst the people; shook hands with many of them; and soon after nine reached the pastor’s cottage down below, a Swiss chalet, with a projecting roof, and two wooden galleries outside. In this mountain home the domestic arrangements were of the simplest, most frugal character possible, many of the comforts and conveniences of life (often considered indispensable) being wanting; but we were most kindly entertained, and greatly enjoyed our little visit.
They travelled on in a small open carriage to Perrier, La Perouse and eventually La Tour, the largest Vaudois settlement. In the evening at a school of St Jean (three miles from La Tour) Muller preached in French to a large congregation. At the close of the meeting the pastor prayed ‘que le discours excellent de notre frere soit grave sur nos coeursand another gentleman commented afterwards:
‘Monsieur Muller nous a dit precisement ce qu’il nous faut; le sermon etait admirable.’
Muller had ended his first tour of the United States with over a hundred written invitations to preach not yet accepted. Therefore, after spending ten weeks in Bristol following their return from Europe, the Mullers set sail again for the States aboard the Germanic on August 28th 1879. The passengers asked Muller to address them which he did in the saloon the day before their arrival in New York.
Sunday evening, September 14th 1879, at the Methodist Episcopal Church, South Second Street, Brooklyn, the pastor introduces their guest preacher:
‘My dear Friends, I rejoice to tell you that we are about to hear the gospel from the heart and lips of our venerable friend, who, though now aged seventy-four, has preached the gospel upwards of one thousand four hundred times during the last four years, in the various cities and countries he had visited. Hear this, you young men, and remember that he is no smoker, nor lover of alcoholic drink; but see how God can strengthen for His blessed service, those who trust in Him, and seek to live to His honour and glory. I have now great pleasure in introducing you to Mr George Muller, of Bristol, England.’
An introduction like that naturally assured Muller an attentive audience as he delivered a powerful address from Isaiah 3:10 and 11.
Besides the New York area and Newark, Muller spoke at meetings at Morriston, New Jersey, Troy, Saratoga Springs, Clifton Springs and Rochester, before travell: lg at the end of October to Hamilton in Canada. Here he spoke at Toronto, Montreal (every evening and twice on Sundays), Ottawa and Kingston where his addresses included one to an audience at a mass meeting in the City Hall, where hundreds were unable to gain admission.
From December 10th to 12th Muller was one of the speakers at a large conference in the Shaftesbury Hall, Toronto, of which the President was Vice-Chancellor Blake. On the first morning Muller spoke on ‘The Inspiration of the Scriptures’ and was followed by the Rev. W. J. Erdman of Jameston, New York, on ‘The Study of the Bible’, giving—according to Mrs Muller—‘several valuable hints’. In the afternoon, Robert Cameron of Brantford spoke on the second coming dwelling on the ‘glory’ of that period. Muller followed with another address entitled, ‘Christ in all the Scriptures’.
On the second afternoon Muller also spoke on the second coming of Christ, outlining the chief events which (in his view) would precede and accompany that event. He spoke for an hour and twenty minutes which meant that there was very little time for the Reverend Erdman to develop his subject ‘No Millennium until Jesus comes’. After the delegates had sung ‘with great animation’:
Down life’s dark vale we wander Till Jesus comes...
the meeting ended.
In the evening Muller spoke again, this time expounding at great length the seventh chapter of Daniel, and making a number of practical remarks. Once again, Muller had taken up so much time that poor Mr Erdman was only able to say a very few words on the topic allocated to him. Fortunately, however, Mrs Muller was able to record that ‘this dear brother in the Lord, possessed a gracious, Christ-like spirit’ and that he stated from the platform:
‘I rejoice that Brother Muller should take the lead, for I feel like Timothy standing by the side of Paul.’
On the final afternoon Muller publicly replied to nine written questions one of which was as hotly debated then as it is in some quarters today. The question was: ‘Are we to expect our Lord’s return at any moment, or that certain events must be fulfilled before He comes again?’ Hundreds of pulses beat a little faster as Muller rose to his feet to deliver his reply.
‘I know that on this subject there is great diversity of judgment, and I do not wish to force on other persons the light I have myself. The subject, however, is not new to me; for having been a careful diligent student of the Bible for nearly fifty years, my mind has long been settled on this point, and I have not the shadow of a doubt about it. The Scriptures declare plainly, that the Lord Jesus will not come until the apostasy shall have taken place, and the man of sin, the “son of perdition” (or personal Antichrist) shall have been revealed, as seen in 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2. Many other portions of the Word of God distinctly teach, that certain events are to be fulfilled before the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. This does not, however, alter the fact, that the coming of Christ, and not death, is the great Hope of the Church, and, if in a right state of heart, we (as the Thessalonian believers did) shall “serve the living and true God, and—wait for His Son from Heaven”.’
In the evening Muller spoke for forty minutes on ‘Walking with God’ followed by some (shorter) addresses by other speakers and the hearty singing of: ‘Till He come, oh let that word.’ Vice-Chancellor Blake then asked ‘Our dear brother, Mr Muller, to give the benediction’; and the Toronto Conference was over.
Muller’s last sermon in Toronto was delivered to an immense congregation in the great Metropolitan Church on the Sunday evening, December 14th. His subject was the indwelling and power of the Holy Spirit, and his scriptural passage (as often) was short: the words of Jesus in John 14:16 and 17, ‘And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.’
From Toronto to Buffalo where Muller spoke twice to congregations of over two thousand Germans; thence to Woodstock and London, Ontario where on the Sunday evening Muller preached to a large congregation at St Andrew’s. After this service they were introduced to the Rev. Josiah Henson ‘a venerable negro, with a pleasant expression of countenance, and white hair, who shook hands with us most cordially.’ This gentleman had been taken by Harriet Beecher Stowe as the prototype for Uncle Tom in her book Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
The Mullers then returned to the States and Muller preached at Detroit, Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor, Olivet, Kalamazoo and Chicago. Here Muller spoke several times at Moody’s Tabernacle including a number of addresses to large congregations of Germans. These meetings were a feature of the tour, and at St Paul, Minnesota, he addressed a mass meeting of Germans at the Opera House (in their native tongue of course).
While in Minnesota they were struck by the fact that ‘the harvesting machines used are so constructed that the corn is reaped, gathered into sheaves, bound into bundles and thrown aside by one single machine; and there is no ploughing by hand—at the time of seed sowing furrows, seven miles in length, are made across the prairies by ploughing machines which turn up the soil, deposit the grain in the earth, and then cover it over.’
Their journey took them on to Davenport, Iowa, Jacksonville and Bloomington, Illinois, Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Dayton. Just outside Dayton they visited the ‘Central National Soldiers’ Home’ where about three thousand soldiers who had been disabled or invalided in the Civil War were accommodated. The Mullers distributed tracts to numbers of men who were either walking or sitting about in the beautiful grounds of the Institution. From Dayton they travelled on to Cleveland, Dansville and Clifton Springs holding meetings in each place. On the morning of Saturday, June 5th they boarded the Sardinian for home. That evening Muller spoke for twenty minutes to the sailors in the forecastle, and conducted a Bible study for the passengers in the Chart Room; the Bible study was repeated on every evening of the eleven-day voyage and on the Sunday morning he preached in the saloon. During the tour Muller had preached three hundred times.
They landed at Liverpool on Wednesday June 16th, arriving at Ashley Down at half-past four the following day. The children had all been assembled to greet them and as they caught their first glimpse of the couple, noisy hearty cheering broke out. A small girl stepped forward and presented Mrs Muller with an enormous bunch of honeysuckle while Muller stood beaming. Many years later (in 1939) that same girl, now in her fifties, wrote:
I always follow the scent of honeysuckle, but have never yet found any to come near my memory of that bunch—each and every one looks smaller and much less lovely ... I’ve just returned from a fortnight’s work in Wiltshire. I did so hope to have time to visit Bristol. Perhaps it is as well as I couldn’t get time... Perhaps the dear old home would have looked changed. It was so very beautiful, and my eleven years so very happy. I’d rather keep my memories.
George and Susannah, too, were glad to be back at the dear old home.
Muller had left North America with over one hundred and fifty invitations to preach unaccepted, and therefore in September 1880, the Mullers left again for Quebec. Muller held eight meetings aboard the Sardinian, led three Bible studies and distributed about two hundred small books to the passengers and crew.
At Boston, Muller went repeatedly to a midday business-men’s meeting called the ‘Market Men’s Prayer Meeting’ and gave addresses. ‘They appeared to me,’ Muller wrote of these Boston businessmen, ‘to be earnest, simple hearted, godly men.’
One of Muller’s most interesting recollections of his stay in the Boston area that year was a visit to Plymouth where he preached at the ‘Church of the Pilgrims’ erected by the Pilgrim Fathers on arrival there in December 1620. They looked at the first house ever built in New England and ‘at the Pilgrims’ Hall we saw a number of interesting relics brought over to this country by the pilgrims in the May-flower... where they were obliged to take refuge from the persecution for Christ’s sake, by which they had been assailed in their native land’.
At the end of November the Mullers arrived at New Haven, Connecticut, where Muller spoke several times to the staff and students at Yale University. Muller described this as ‘a service in which I take the deepest interest, from having been converted myself while a student at the University of Halle.’
On previous visits to the States, Muller had spent less time than he had wished in New York, and was determined during this tour to spend as long as possible in this city of about one and half million people. The couple therefore spent the winter months from December 1880 to March 1881 in New York. That winter was the coldest known in New York for thirty years and Mrs Muller recorded anxiously that the many long drives my beloved husband took at night to Brooklyn and other places, seven, eight, or nine miles from our hotel, when the weather was most severe, were very trying, especially as it was necessary to cross a ferry, where the ice was occasionally so thick, that it was with difficulty a passage could be forced through it by steamer. Constrained by the love of Christ, however, he persevered in a service, that would have been considered, by most persons of his age, an arduous undertaking; but though he felt the cold, was not allowed to suffer from it in the least.
During the period Muller held nearly one hundred meetings including thirty-eight in German trying to reach the half-million Germans in the New York-Brooklyn area.
More meetings were held in Port Chester and Pittsburgh before on May 21st the couple embarked for England aboard the Britannic.
The main interest of Muller’s eighth missionary tour was the visit to Egypt, Palestine, Turkey and Greece. After spending some months in Europe the Mullers left Marseilles for Alexandria towards the end of October 1881. Many meetings in English and German were held at Alexandria and Cairo, and on November 9th the Mullers set off in an open carriage to see the Pyramids, and to explore the ancient burial places of Kings.
Our walk to the Sphinx was oppressively warm, for the sun shone with a brightness that was dazzling. The heat and glare too from the sandy ground on which we trod, made the atmosphere around like the hot air issuing from an oven. Troops of Bedouin Arabs congregate in the neighbourhood of the Pyramids, who flock around strangers and volunteer their services as guides.
Before leaving Cairo the couple visited the Museum of Egyptian curiosities and were intrigued by the mummies; ‘amongst them (it is said) is the mummy of that great oppressor of the Israelites, the Pharaoh, during whose reign they had so much to suffer, until delivered by Jehovah through His servant Moses’.
Aboard a Russian mail steamer bound for Jaffa, the Mullers came across about a hundred Russians on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem accompanied by their priests of the Greek Orthodox Church. ‘These pilgrims performed their religious services on deck, where they bowed, crossed themselves repeatedly, and turned their faces eastward towards the Holy Land. Each was supplied with a Bible in Russian by an Evangelist from Port Said who also acted as an agent for the British and Foreign Bible Society.’
At Jaffa they stayed at the Jerusalem Hotel, and Muller began to preach in the town to German and English congregations as well as with Arabic interpretation when neither of these languages was understood. During their walks they admired the orange and lemon plantations and the high, thick hedges of prickly pears and the varieties of cacti which flourished in the semi-tropical climate.
After twelve days in Jaffa they travelled south towards Jerusalem in an open Russian wagon, drawn by three horses. Going through the mountains of Judaea they found that the land, spoken of in the Old Testament as a ‘land flowing with milk and honey’, had grown barren, rocky and uncultivated and Mrs Muller decided that God’s curse appeared to rest not only upon the Jews but upon their land also. (It is not clear whether her husband shared this view which would be strongly contested to-day.) But, she thought, ‘at the return of the Lord Jesus, when Israel as a nation will be converted and restored, “The desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose”.’
At the Mediterranean Hotel in Jerusalem they moved into a pleasant comer room on the first floor with a fine view of the Mount of Olives; and throughout their stay in the Holy City they took daily walks on the terrace on the flat roof of the hotel to admire the splendid panorama.
Muller held numerous meetings in Jerusalem preaching in English and German with interpretation into Arabic when necessary, and twice spoke to the patients at a hospital for lepers outside the city. The population of Jerusalem at that time was less than thirty thousand and included about eight thousand Jews living in the poorest part. ‘At the present time/ Mrs Muller observed, watching for any signs of the fulfilment of biblical prophecy, ‘there is no indication whatever of any gathering of Jews on an extensive scale from other countries to their own land.’
On the afternoon of December 3rd Muller (now in his seventy-eighth year) and his wife joined a party of English friends and rode on donkeys to Bethany, a mile and a half distant, the English clergyman kindly acting as our guide. On our way we crossed the Brook Kidron, saw the Garden of Gethsemane, now enclosed by a wall; and visited the cave, hewn out of a rock where it is supposed Lazarus was buried. An old ruined house, said to have been the dwelling place of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, was also pointed out. From the summit of the Mount of Olives the view embraced a portion of the Dead Sea, twenty-five miles distant, the plain of Jordan, the well-watered plain which Lot chose for himself, the Mountains of Moab in the distance, the neighbourhood of the Cave of Adullam, and a small part of the river Jordan which flows into the Dead Sea. The weather was magnificent; after sunset the whole scene was lighted up by the full moon which shone brilliantly, and coming down the Mount of Olives, we had the finest view of Jerusalem that is to be obtained from any point. The Garden of Gethsemane, containing eight very old olive trees (considered by some, from their ancient characteristics to be coeval with the period of our Lord’s history on earth) we passed both on our way to and from the Mount.
On the morning of December 9th we rode on donkeys to Bethlehem, six miles from Jerusalem; and, after lunching in a cloister of the Latin Convent, visited a church erected on the spot, where (according to tradition) the manger stood, in which after His birth our Lord was laid. During our stay in Jerusalem, we had opportunities also of visiting the various places of interest for which the city is celebrated. The Via Dolorosa, the Mosque of Omar (built on the site formerly occupied by Solomon’s Temple), the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (erected, according to tradition, on the spot where our Lord was crucified), Absalom’s Pillar, the Pool of Bethesda, the site of Herod’s palace, the ruins of the Castle to which Paul was taken, and the Pool of Siloam, were all visited in turn.
After over nine weeks in Jerusalem the Mullers returned to Jaffa for a week’s stay before climbing into a small boat which, it was intended, should take them out to the Austrian steamship Flora, bound for Haipha and anchored some way from the shore. A heavy gale was blowing, and after riding over heavy breakers, and getting clear of the rocks, our boat was tossed about upon the waves for nearly half an hour; and, after at last we reached the ship, a favourable opportunity of getting a footing on board (to be seized just at the right moment as the boat was lifted upwards by the waves) had to be closely watched for, when one after the other, at the risk of our lives, we had to spring on to the steep ladder staircase, that led up towards the deck.
On arrival at Haipha after an experience only slightly less terrifying in another small boat, the undaunted travellers were met by some German brethren who drove them in an open waggon during torrents of rain to the Hotel du Mont Carmel. Muller’s preaching at Haipha was the means of bringing about a spiritual revival amongst the large colony of German settlers there. On February 13th 1882, they rode on donkeys to Mount Carmel, and when near its summit, alighted at a Monastery, where the monks entertained us with cups of black coffee without milk, and glasses of mulberry wine-flavoured with lemon juice. They afterwards showed us into a church containing (according to tradition) the cave in which Elijah dwelt, and finally led the way to a lighthouse standing on a rock, that we might see, from this elevated point, the magnificent prospect which extended far and wide ... Being favoured with bright sunshine, and a beautifully clear atmosphere, the whole scene was viewed under particularly favourable circumstances. The place where Elijah slew the false prophets of Baal, and by prayer brought down fire from heaven to consume his sacrifice upon the altar... and, it was upon Mount Carmel he prayed, that Jehovah would again send rain upon the earth.
Twenty-one days of busy engagements at Beirut followed before the Mullers travelled on via Smyrna to Ayaslaloup, near Ephesus, where they inspected the ruins of the Temple of Diana; ‘but the devastation there is so complete, that no trace whatever (as to form or outline) exists of the celebrated building which once occupied this site’.
On then to Constantinople where Muller preached many times, and from where they visited the barracks at Scutari, where Florence Nightingale and her helpers attended the sick, wounded and dying soldiers—victims of the Crimean war. And while walking a few minutes from their hotel, The d’Angleterre, they watched some dancing Dervishes.
There were 18 performers altogether, who wore brown mantles, and high, round caps made of felt. At a particular signal, they all fell flat upon their faces; but afterwards rose, and walked a few times round the room, with folded arms, bowing and turning slowly many times. Their mantles were then suddenly cast off, when they appeared in long, full, belt-shaped petticoats and jackets, and, after stretching out their arms to the utmost, began gravely and deliberately to dance and revolve (that is, to spin round and round like a top) for about fifteen or twenty minutes, as rapidly as possible.
Athens was the next stop on the tour, and another busy programme for Muller followed. But time was found for the couple to visit to the Areopagus, or Mars Hill, and to stand on the spot where Paul preached his famous sermon. They explored the Acropolis, and saw the ruins of the many ancient idol temples which had so stirred the heart of the Apostle eighteen hundred years earlier.
And then home they came to Ashley Down via Corinth, Rome and Florence after a journey which had lasted over nine months.