The Orphans' Friend
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GEORGE
MULLER, founder of the Orphan
Homes,
Bristol, wherein 16,000 orphans have been
received,
who received £1,500,000 in answer to prayer and faith
alone, was a Prussian by birth. When a student at the
University of Halle, he was careless and unconcerned
about spiritual matters.
Although he was studying with
the object of becoming a clergyman of the Established
Church, he knew nothing whatever of the saving power of
the Gospel. His
conversion came about as
follows:
Through attending meetings in a private house in Halle,
conducted by a devoted
Christian, he became deeply
interested and impressed with what he saw and heard.
The simple believers that he
came in contact with at these
services had something which he did not possess. He
longed for rest and peace to his troubled spirit, but was
ignorant how it was to be obtained. He knew of no one
who professed to be saved through
faith in
Christ's
Blood.
Things must have been at a low ebb spiritually. "I had
no Bible and had not read it for
years," he said: "I went
to church but seldom; but from custom took the Lord's
Supper twice a year. I had never heard the Gospel preached
up to the beginning of November, 1825"--the month of
his conversion. "I had never met with a person who
told
me that he meant by the help of God to
live according to
the Scriptures. In short,
I had not the least idea that
there were any persons really different from myself except
in degree."
Mr. Muller returned to the house several times, and not
long afterwards saw that Christ by His sacrificial death on
Calvary had borne sin's penalty, and died that he
might
be eternally saved. Through believing on the Lord Jesus
he became a new creature.
The Word of God became His
joy and delight, old companions were given up, and
although ridiculed and laughed at by his fellow-students,
he boldly witnessed for Christ.
George Muller established 5 large Orphan Homes on
Ashley Downs, Bristol; circulated millions of Scriptures
and books, visited many countries, and entered into rest in
1896, in his 93rd year, leaving £160 in his will.
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