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The Secret Place of George Müller

By George Müller
Verified from A Narrative of Some of the Lord's Dealings with George Müller by George Müller multiple volumes, and The Life of Trust by George Müller which condense the Narrative for wider reading, together with George Müller of Bristol by Arthur T Pierson 1899 that documents the establishment of the Scriptural Knowledge Institution, the Wilson Street and Ashley Down orphan houses, the practice of receiving no fixed salary and making no public appeals, the missionary tours from 1875 to 1892, and his death in Bristol on March 10, 1898.

George Müller was born on September 27, 1805 in Kroppenstaedt in the Kingdom of Prussia and grew up in a home where religion was a form without power and where the boy learned early how to scheme and deceive. As a youth he stole from his father, cheated at school, and lied with ease. His father intended a respectable career in public service for his son and sent him to Halle to study theology. There God found him. In 1825 a friend invited him to a small meeting in a private house where believers read Scripture, sang, and knelt in simple prayer. The quiet pierced him more than any sermon. He wrote later that he had never seen such a thing, a room full of ordinary people speaking to the living God as children speak to a father. That night he knelt and yielded his life to Christ. It was the turning point of a lifetime.

At Halle he sat under August Tholuck and began to read the accounts of August Hermann Francke and the orphan work that had grown out of faith and prayer in that city. Müller learned that God is a Father who hears, and that the promises of Scripture are not decoration but provision. He arrived in England in 1829 to labor first among Jewish people through a society in London and soon discovered that his heart could not be confined to a salary and a schedule written by others. In Teignmouth he became a pastor alongside Henry Craik. He refused a fixed stipend, believing that he ought not to be paid by pew rents but to lay his needs before God and to live on what the Lord sent through freewill gifts. In 1830 he married Mary Groves, sister of Anthony Norris Groves, whose radical trust in God's care confirmed him in the same path. The young couple learned to look to God for bread and for rent with the same simplicity as for pardon, and they kept careful accounts of every prayer and every answer.

In 1832 Müller and Craik moved to Bristol and soon formed the Scriptural Knowledge Institution for Home and Abroad. The aims were direct. To aid day schools where poor children could learn with the Bible at the center. To circulate the Scriptures. To support missionaries at home and abroad. To establish a home for orphans. From the beginning they set a principle that would astonish many and instruct many more. They would make needs known to God alone. They would solicit no funds, run no fairs, sell no seats, post no appeals, and incur no debts. They would ask their Father and keep records of His answers, so that the church might know in future days that God provides for those who trust Him.

The first orphan house opened in Wilson Street in 1836. Soon there were more houses on that narrow lane, then the work outgrew the street and God provided land on Ashley Down where five large houses rose over years of prayer and labor. The numbers rose steadily. Orphan boys and girls received food, clothing, shelter, education, and daily worship. The staff rose before the children to lay the day before the Lord and ended the day with thanks. Again and again a journal entry would record a cupboard close to empty and a prayer offered with calm faith, followed by the knock of a baker at the door or the timely provision of milk when a cart broke down just outside. Müller was careful not to turn such stories into show. He wrote them down as a witness for generations who might forget that God still listens.

He governed the house with Scripture and tenderness. He expected prompt truth telling from children who had learned to survive by lies and guided them patiently into a new way. He insisted that accounts be kept with precision and that every donation be recorded and acknowledged. He asked that no debt be incurred. If there was no money that day for a purchase, the purchase would wait while the family prayed. Meanwhile the Scriptural Knowledge Institution sent tracts and Bibles by the million, supported scores of missionaries, and helped maintain schools where the poorest learned to read the Word of God. He wrote yearly reports that read like chronicles of providence, a long ledger of prayers and answers that steadied faith in homes far beyond Bristol.

Sorrow walked beside him and did not break him. Mary died in 1870 after years of companionship in faith and labor. He married Susannah in 1871 and found in her the same quiet strength for the path. The orphan work continued with careful order while God enlarged his steps again. Beginning in 1875 he undertook extended missionary tours, preaching and teaching across Europe, North America, the Middle East, India, China, and Australia. Over seventeen years he visited dozens of nations and colonies, ministering to churches of many kinds, urging pastors to recover the morning hour with God and urging believers to test the promises of Scripture in prayer. He returned to Bristol again and again, rejoicing to find the houses on Ashley Down full of children and the accounts in order.

Müller fell asleep in Jesus on March 10, 1898 after a final day spent in prayer and ministry. By then more than ten thousand orphans had been received and reared under the roof of the work he founded, and the Scriptural Knowledge Institution had circulated Scripture and supported missions on a scale that no one could have forecast when a young pastor in Teignmouth first laid his empty purse before the Lord. Yet the scale never became the point. The point was that God can be trusted.

Key Quotes

Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it
God can be trusted
The inner chamber the workshop of every day
Stop fretting. Open the Bible. Bring God His Word

Timeline

1805
Born in Kroppenstaedt, Kingdom of Prussia
1825
Converts to Christ at Halle
1829
Arrives in England, labors among Jewish people
1830
Marries Mary Groves, becomes pastor in Teignmouth
1832
Forms Scriptural Knowledge Institution
1836
First orphan house opens in Wilson Street
1840s
Orphan work expands to Ashley Down
1870
Mary dies, marries Susannah in 1871
1875-1892
Extended missionary tours across continents
1898
Dies in Bristol, leaving legacy of trust and provision

Scripture Reference

"Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it" Psalm 81 verse 10.