Part 23 (1/2)
PRAYING FOR A LOST POCKET-BOOK.
A contributor to _The Christian_ writes as follows:
”A few months since I lost my pocket-book, containing money and papers of a large amount--more than I felt able to lose--and which I should feel the loss of, as I was owing at that time about the same amount.
”On the day of my loss, I had been from home about a mile and a half, and it was about 9 o'clock _in the evening_, when I returned. And it was not till then that I ascertained my loss.
”My health was very poor, and the prospect of regaining the lost pocket-book was quite uncertain; it was so dark that I thought it would be impossible for me to find it. Consequently I determined to remain awake during the night, and at 3 o'clock in the morning search for it, and if possible, find it before any one should pa.s.s over the road.
”The seeming impossibility of finding it, and the reflections consequent upon the loss of the money were so unpleasant to me that I was led to make it a subject of prayer, fully trusting that in some way G.o.d would so direct that I should come in possession of it. If so, I determined to give him $25 of it.
”As soon as I had formed this purpose, all that unpleasant feeling left me, and I did not admit a single doubt but I should get it.
”Accordingly, _at 3 o'clock in the morning_ I made a thorough search, but could not find it. Yet my faith in G.o.d's guiding hand did not fail me, and I believed that my trust would be realized.
”While I was thus thinking of the certainty of the fulfillment of the promises of the Gospel to the believer, I was called on by a gentleman, a leading business man of the place, who came to know if _I had lost anything_.
”I told him I had lost my pocket-book. He wanted to know how much it contained. I told him. He said his son had occasion to pa.s.s early on that morning, and had found it in the road, and that in all probability I should otherwise have lost it, as two men pa.s.sed by immediately after it was found.
”Thus G.o.d found it and returned it to me.”
LIVES OF FAITH AND TRUST
AN EXTRAORDINARY LIFE OF FAITH AND TRUST.
For many centimes there has not been a more remarkable testimony of unfaltering trust in the faithfulness of G.o.d in supplying human wants, than is found in the life and labor of George Muller and his Orphan Home, in Bristol, England. His record is one of humility, yet one of daily dependence upon the providence and the knowledge of G.o.d to supply his daily wants. It has been one of extraordinary trial; yet never, for a single hour, has G.o.d forsaken him. Beginning, in 1834, with absolutely nothing; giving himself, his earthly all and his family to the Lord, and asking the Lord's pleasure and blessing upon his work of philanthropy, he has never, for once, appealed to any individual for aid, for a.s.sistance, for loans; but has relied wholly in prayer to the Lord--coming with each day's cares and necessities--and the Lord has ever supplied. He has never borrowed, never been in debt; living only upon what the Lord has sent--yet in the forty-third year of his life of faith and trust--he has been able, through the voluntary contributions which the Lord has prompted the hearts of the people to give, to accomplish these wonderful results: _Over half a million dollars_ have been spent in the construction of buildings--_over fifteen thousand orphans have been cared for and supported--and over one million dollars_ have been received for their support. _Every dollar of which has been asked for in believing prayer from the Lord_. The record is the most astounding in the faith of the Christian religion, and the power and providence of G.o.d to answer prayer, that modern times can show.
The orphans' homes have been visited again and again by Christian clergymen of all denominations, to feel the positive satisfaction and certainty that all this were indeed the work of prayer, and they have been abundantly convinced.
The spectacle is indeed a _standing miracle. ”A man sheltering, feeding, clothing, educating, and mailing comfortable and happy, hundreds of poor orphan children, with no funds of his own, and no possible means of sustenance, save that which G.o.d sent him in answer to prayer_.”
An eminent clergyman who for five years had been constantly hearing of this work of faith, and could hardly believe in its possibility, at last visited Mr. Muller's home for the purpose of thorough investigation, exposing it, if it were under false pretenses or mistaken ways of securing public sympathy, or else with utmost critical search, desired to become convinced it was indeed supported only by true prayer. He had reserved for himself, as he says, a wide margin for deductions and disappointment, but after his search, as ”_I left Bristol, I exclaimed with the queen of Sheba, 'The half had not been told me.' Here I saw, indeed, seven hundred orphan children fed and provided for, by the hand of G.o.d, in answer to prayer, as literally and truly as Elijah was fed by ravens with meat which the Lord provided_.”
Mr. Muller himself has said in regard to their manner of living: ”_Greater and more manifest nearness of the Lord's presence I have never had, than when after breakfast, there were no means for dinner, and then the Lord provided the dinner for more than one hundred persons; and when after dinner, there were no means for the tea; and yet the Lord provided the tea; and all this without one single human being having been informed about our need_.”
Thus it will be seen his life is one of daily trial and trust, and he says, ”Our desire therefore, is, not that we may be without trials of faith, but that the Lord graciously would be pleased to support us in the trial, that we may not dishonor him by distrust.”
The question having been asked of him, ”Such a way of living must lead the mind continually to think whence food, clothes, etc., are to come, with no benefit for spiritual exercise,” he replies: ”Our minds are very little tried about the necessaries of life; just because the care respecting them is laid upon our Father, who, because we are his children, not _only allows_ us to do so, _but will have us to do so_.
”It must also be remembered that even if our minds _were_ much tried about our supplies, yet because we look to the _Lord alone_ for all these things, we should be brought by our sense of need, into the presence of our Father for the supply of it, _and that is a blessing_, and satisfying to the soul.”
This humble statement from the experience of one who has tried and proven the Lord in little things, as well as large, conveys to the Christian that world of practical instruction which is contained in the precepts of the Bible, viz: to _encourage all to cast their cares on G.o.d_; and teaches them the lessons of their dependence upon Him for their daily supplies.
The meaning of the Lord's blessing upon the work of Mr. Muller, is to make it a standing example and ill.u.s.tration to be adopted in every Christian home. ”_How G.o.d supplies our needs, how he rewards faith, how he cares for those who trust in Him. How he can as well take care of his children to-day as he did in the days of the Prophets, and how surely he fulfills his promise, even when the trial brings us to the extremities of circ.u.mstances seemingly impossible_.”
Mr. Muller's experience is remarkable, not because the Lord has made his an exceptional case for the bestowal of blessings, but because of the _remarkable, unwavering and persevering application of his faith_, by the man himself.