The Life of Trust by George Müller (fiction novels to read .TXT) 📖
- Author: George Müller
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2. The individual who desires to go this way must be willing to be rich or poor, as the Lord pleases. He must be willing to know what it is to have an abundance or scarcely anything. He must be willing to leave this world without any possessions.
3. He must be willing to take the money in God’s way, not merely in large sums, but in small. Again and again have I had a single shilling given or sent to me. To have refused such tokens of Christian love would have been ungracious.
4. He must be willing to live as the Lord’s steward. If any one were to begin this way of living, and did not communicate out of that which the Lord gives to him, but hoard it up, or if he would live up to his income, as it is called, then the Lord, who influences the hearts of his children to help him with means, would soon cause those channels to be dried up. How it came that my already good income still more increased so as to come to what it is, I have stated in the early part of this volume; it was when I determined that, by God’s help, his poor and his work should more than ever partake of my means. From that time the Lord was pleased more and more to intrust me with means for my own purse.
Various reasons might have kept me from publishing these accounts; but I have for my object in writing the glory of God, and therefore I delight in thus showing what a loving Master I serve, and how bountifully he supplies my necessities; and I write for the comfort and encouragement of my fellow-believers, that they may be led to trust in God more and more, and therefore I feel it due to them to state how, even with regard to this life, I am amply provided for, though that is not what I seek after.
Up to May 26, 1856, the total income for the building fund was £29,297, 18s. 11½d., so that only about £5,700 more will be required, as far as I am able to see, in order to accomplish to the full my purpose respecting the accommodation for 700 more orphans.
During the year 1855-1856, the wants of the orphans, as well as the demands of the missionary, Bible, tract, and school work, were supplied more amply than ever before, and a blessing rested upon all these departments of labor, as will appear from the following statement:—
During this year four day schools, with 203 children, were entirely supported by the funds of the Institution; and nine day schools were assisted with copies of the Holy Scriptures. Further, one Sunday school, with 158 children, was entirely supported, and eight others were assisted. Lastly, one adult school, with 158 adult scholars, was entirely supported, and two other adult schools, in Kent and Norfolk, were assisted with books. The amount which was spent during this year, in connection with these schools, was £348, 5s. 11¼d.; and the sum total expended during the last twenty-two years, in connection with the schools which were either entirely or in part supported by the funds of this Institution, amounts to £7,552, 18s. 7½d. The number of all the children who were under our care, merely in the schools which were entirely supported by this Institution, from March 5, 1834, to May 26, 1856, was 6,104 in the day schools, 2,911 in the Sunday schools, and 2,611 persons in the adult school. Thus, without reckoning the orphans, 11,626 have been brought under habitual instruction in the things of God in these various schools; besides the many thousands in the schools in various parts of England, Ireland, Scotland, British Guiana, the East Indies, etc., which have been to a greater or less degree assisted.
During this year was expended on the circulation of the Holy Scriptures, of the funds of this Institution, £496; 10s. There were circulated during this year 2,175 Bibles, 1,233 New Testaments, 119 copies of the Psalms, and 155 other small portions of the Holy Scriptures. There have been circulated since March 5, 1834, through the medium of this Institution, 16,124 Bibles, 10,280 New Testaments, 307 copies of the Psalms, and 944 other small portions of the Holy Scriptures. The sum total spent on the circulation of the Holy Scriptures, since March 5, 1834, is £3,886, 0s. 1d.
During this year there was spent, of the funds of the Institution, for missionary objects, £2,501, 9s. 1d. By this sum sixty-one laborers in the word and doctrine, in various parts of the world, were to a greater or less degree assisted.
The sum total which has been expended on missionary operations, of the funds of the Institution, since March 5, 1834, is £18,616, 9s. 6½d.
There was laid out for the circulation of tracts, from May 26, 1855, to May 26, 1856, the sum of £791, 1s. 0½d., and there were circulated 812,970 tracts and books. The sum total which has been expended on this object since Nov. 19, 1840, amounts to £3,659, 16s. 7¼d. The total number of all the tracts and books which have been circulated since Nov. 19, 1840, is 4,397,680.
At the beginning of this period there were 297 orphans in the new Orphan House. During the past year there have been admitted into it 25 orphans. The total number of orphans who have been under our care since April, 1836, is 622.
Without any one having been personally applied to for anything by me, the sum of £84,441, 6s. 3¼d. has been given to me for the orphans, as the result of prayer to God, since the commencement of the work, which sum includes the £15,055, 3s. 2¼d. which was the cost of the building, fitting up, and furnishing of the present new Orphan House, and the £29,297, 18s. 11½d. received up to May 26, 1856, for the building fund, and the £167, 18s. 11¾d., the balance of the current expenses. The total sum which has been given for the other objects since the commencement of the work amounts to £28,904, 11s. 3¾d.; and that which has come in by the sale of Bibles and tracts, and by the payments of the children in the day schools, from the commencement up to May 26, 1856, amounts to £5,145, 17s.
Dec. 31, 1855. During this year the Lord has been pleased to give me £726, 16s. 2¼d.
May 26, 1856. Yesterday evening it was twenty-four years since I came to labor in Bristol. In looking back upon this period, as it regards the Lord’s goodness to my family and myself, the Scriptural Knowledge Institution, and the saints among whom I seek to serve him, I exclaim, What has God wrought! I marvel at his kindness, and yet I do not; for such is his manner; and, if it please him that I remain longer on earth, I expect, not fewer manifestations of his love, but more and more.
Since my beloved friend and fellow-laborer and I first came to Bristol, 1,586 believers have been received into fellowship, which number, with the 68 we found in communion, makes 1,654. But out of that number 252 have fallen asleep, 53 have been separated from fellowship, 145 have left us, some, however, merely through circumstances and in love, and 510 have left Bristol; so that there are only 694 remaining in communion.
By the contributions received during the year 1856-7, the whole amount on hand for the new buildings was raised to thirty-one thousand eight hundred seventeen pounds one shilling and elevenpence. For the Bible, tract, and missionary work, and for schools, Mr. M. had the pleasure of receiving and of expending eight hundred and twenty-nine pounds more than in the previous year. For the support of the orphans all means were so abundantly provided that at the end of the year there was on hand a balance of one thousand four hundred and eighty-nine pounds.
The following incident illustrates the author’s reliance upon God for his own future support.
On Oct. 12, 1856, was sent to me a check for one hundred pounds, with the request of the donor to receive this for myself, as the beginning of raising a fund for my support when advanced in years, and for that of my family. This very kind and well-intended proposal by the donor, who since has died, appeared to me as a subtle temptation laid for me, though far from being intended so by him, to depart from the principles on which I had been acting for twenty-six years previously, both regarding myself and the orphan work. I give the account of this circumstance fully, as it may be profitable to one or other of the readers.
* * * * Oct. 11, 1856.
Dear Sir:—
In admiration of the services which you have rendered to poor orphans and mankind in general, I think it right that some provision should be made for yourself. I think it right to send you one hundred pounds, as a beginning to form a fund, which I hope many good Christians will add to, * * * * for the maintenance of you and your family, if your own labors should be unequal to it, and I hope you will lay out this as a beginning accordingly. May God bless you and your labors, as he has hitherto done everything connected with your Institutions.
I am, dear Sir,
* * * *
By God’s grace I had not a moment’s hesitation as to what to do. While I most fully appreciated the great kindness of the donor, I looked upon this as being permitted by God as a temptation to put my trust in something else than himself, and I therefore sent the following letter in reply:—
Bristol, Oct. 12, 1856.
My dear Sir:—
I hasten to thank you for your kind communication, and to inform you that your check for one hundred pounds has safely come to hand.
I have no property whatever, nor has my dear wife; nor have I had one single shilling regular salary as minister of the gospel for the last twenty-six years, nor as the director of the Orphan House and the other objects of the Scriptural Knowledge Institution for Home and Abroad. When I am in need of anything, I fall on my knees, and ask God that he would be pleased to give me what I need; and he puts it into the heart of some one or other to help me. Thus all my wants have been amply supplied during the last twenty-six years, and I can say, to the praise of God, I have lacked nothing. My dear wife and my only child, a daughter of twenty-four years, are of the same mind with me. Of this blessed way of living none of us are tired, but become day by day more convinced of its blessedness.
I have never thought it right to make provision for myself, or my dear wife and daughter, except in this way, that when I saw a case of need, such as an aged widow, or a sick person, or a helpless infant, I would use my
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