, 1877-11-11


tiyes, Mr.. Muller entered into brief history OF
his own life previous to the beginning Of his
great works. Having been educated in Prussia,
lie went to England nearly fifty years ago
and engaged in the work of Christiauizing the
Jews, but finding that he could not conscicn-
tiousy devote all his time to that work, he gave
it up, and entered the field Of general Christian
effort. he first became pastor OF church at
Pinmouth-ou-the-Sea, in Deronshirc> where,
after j short time, he gave up his stated saIary,
and announced that thereafter he would depend
for personal support entirely On the contrlbl-
tions Of Christian friends. Pew rents were thus
abolished, and as / result there are now hun
drcds OF free churches in England: From that
time, forty-seyen years, said he, l never nave
asked QUO single human being to give me
penny for my own supplies or my famliy's.
Sometimes have been without money anu re-
dueed to the last piece Of bread, tut the rciie1
has always come from the Lord.
Having found that God had work for me in
Bristol, went there. Seeing many children
lcctcd. thought if God proviucd for me aud
NV family He would provide for them, too
This thought came again ald ,aEaln INTO my
mind, but tho difficulties were great, and my
hands we're SO full that it only remained in my
mind for time. But in the year 1881 it became
SO impressed upon my mind that could no
longer put it aside, and finally founded All ILL
stitution in order to do something in this way.
The institution was exceedingly su'nil. we mad
three schools in connection wthit. The first was
to give free education to neglected children, the
second to circulate the Scriptures among the
DOOR, and the third to seek to do something for
missionary work. We had only one day-scnool
to begin with, one Sunday-sclool, and one adult
school. Yet it was Il beginning, and my hope
was that God would help us further, for de-
tcrmincu out and out that the work should be
in every way according to his mind. That seems
to he matter OF the deepest moment II Is
not enough that VIC are doing the work OF God,
but it must be out and out the "orh OF uou,
aud done III Gods way.
AS everybody sought for great, rich men to be
patrons OF their institutions, came to the con-
cluson that would give that honor to the
Living God Himself, and in writing circulars to
friends at Il distance, whose prayers ana couu-
sells asked, stated that one OF the conditions
Of tue institution, and tue first principle, was
that the Living God Himself should be onr
patron, and That no human being should DC 50
honurcu. Now the Lord has proved durln.,
t.cse 1orty-threc years and seven months that
it. IS to have Him for a patron Most abund-
antly has lie blessed the work, materially and
spiritually. He b!esses it HOW as He did ut
first, though it has grown to be 3o3 times
greater.
was cstabl,shcd-l do not mention all--'vas that
it would never 20 into debt. Though have
been iu the greatest straits amt dlfilcultles,
though for eleven years we were IN the greatest
straits and difficulties, We never went into debt,
So that there was balance in the treasury, great
or small, 1T the end Of each year. at
the cud of the first year we had six day schools
instead OF one, wc had been able to circulate
several hundred copies OF the Word ol Gou,
aud had been abc to do something for mlss1oll-
ary work. After tile institution had been III
existence eighteen months, one thing was added,
and thai was the orphan work, aud it is now
the greatest orphan institution in the world.
| was particularly led to it in this way: It
appeared to inc that it would be Of immense
brnetjt to Tue Church of Christ at large if there
were something seen eycl, i'll these days. in the
nirr,ecnth century, as to the willingness on the
part of tiod to answer PRAYER, and to show how
much. slmply through the instrumcntality OF
nrayer and faith, could be accomplished even in
this century. From all that had seen US pas
1ur OF u large church aud By correspondence
with 50 iuuuy thousands uf Christians
ali over the world, l had learned how
drenly iuuortant it was that the
Clurch Of Christ should have an Increase
of faith and that it might be clearly and dis
tinrtiv SEEN that God Is willing to do great
thiurs sin,ply III answer to PRAYER. Well, this
was continually on my mind, aud finally CAME
tn this couctusion that If l, n poor man without
any property, could simply through the ius1ru-
mentality oi PRAYER and faith, without asking
n human briu.r for assistance, support five, ten,
tity. hunIred orphans, it. would lie L proof
that God will answer prayer. knew very well
tha; tl,e word Of God ought to be enough. but
+ fho,rht that some such lroof as this might be
of assistancc to wayering mcn and women. After
having weighed the matter carefully aud probed
nv heart to see that there was no vanity in it,
and that was desirous only Of the glory of
{iod I decided that notwithstanding the
work which l had on hand, / would
ter having come to this decision, l was
sittinr one evening in MY room reading
cuusecutiyely through the Holy Scriptures as
NY habit has been Tor forty-eisht years. when
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