CHAPTER V. THE PROOF OF THE LIVING GOD, AS FOUND IN THE PRAYER LIFE OF GEORGE MULLER, OF BRISTOL.
BY REV. ARTHUR T. PIERSON, D. D.
In
Psalm 68:4, we
are bidden to “extol Him who rideth upon the heavens by His name, JAH,
and to rejoice before Him;” and in the next verse, He is declared to be
“a father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, in His holy
habitation.”
The name, “Jah,” here only found, is not simply an abbreviation of
“Jehovah;” but the present tense of the Hebrew verb to be; and expresses
the idea that this Jehovah is the Living, Present God; and, as the
heavens are always over our heads, He is always a present Helper,
especially to those who, like the widow and the orphan, lack other
providers and protectors.
George Miiller, of Bristol, undertook to demonstrate to the
unbelieving world that God is such a living, present God, and that He
proves it by answering prayer; and that the test of this fact might be
definite and conclusive, he undertook to gather, feed, house, clothe,
and also to teach and train, all available orphans, who were legitimate
children, but deprived of both parents by death and destitute.
SIXTY- FIVE YEARS OF PROOF.
This work, which he began in 1833, in a very small and humble way, by
giving to a few children, gathered out of the streets, a bit of bread
for breakfast, and then teaching them for about an hour and a half to
read the Scriptures, he carried on for sixty-five years, with growing
numbers until there were under his care, and in the orphan houses which
he built, twenty-two hundred orphans with their helpers; and yet, during
all that time, Mr. Miiller’s sole dependence was Jah, the Living, Present
God. He appealed to no man for help; and did not even allow any need to
be known before it had been supplied, even his intimate co-workers
being forbidden to mention any existing want, outside the walls of the
institution. His aim and purpose were to effectually apply the test of
prayer to the unseen God, in such a way as to leave no doubt that, in
these very days in which we live it is perfectly safe to cut loose from
every human dependence and cast ourselves in faith upon the promises of a
faithful Jehovah. To make the demonstration more absolutely convincing,
for some years he withheld even the annual report of the work from the
public, although it covered only work already done, lest some should
think such a report an indirect appeal for future aid.
A human life thus filled with the presence and power of God is one of God’s choicest gifts to His church and to the world. Continue at
Sharper Iron
I remember my first failed relationship. I was in junior high and
enamored with a girl one year my senior. One day I mustered up the
courage to approach her and asked if she would be my girlfriend. Though
we hardly knew each other, she said yes.
