respect for Brother Müller, and to separate him
from self-seeking men, who trade upon religion.
A precarious subsistence—one obtained
by living upon prayer—is a safe one in his
eyes, but it is accompanied by him with the
most energetic labour to do good work in the
world. It will be seen, too, as we tell the
main facts of his story, that whatever error
we find in his theology, his view of a
Scriptural life tallies with some of the best
precepts of worldly wisdom. Contention is
unscriptural. Giving offence to the consciences
of others is unscriptural. Debt is
unscriptural. Two bills he was once obliged to
give, payable at a future day; but he did not
give them until he had the amount of them
already in his house, and what seemed to be
most urgent temporary need afterwards
failed to tempt him to the borrowing of a
pound from that fund, for a day or two. The
delay of an hour in payment of his rent lay
on his conscience as debt. The tradesmen
who supplied the Orphan-house, compelled
him by their strong wish to accept of weekly
bills for daily service, but whenever the
supply of money ebbed, instead of covering
his day of need by help of credit, he stopped
even weekly payment, and allowed nothing
whatever to be bought that was not paid for
at the moment.

Now we will tell his story. He was born
near Halberstadt, in Prussia, in the year
eighteen hundred and five, so that he is now
only fifty-two years old. His father, when he
was five years old, removed to Heimersleben,
four miles from George Müller's native town.
He was then in government employment as
collector of excise. Of course, we are told
by Mr. Müller, bad things of his life as an
unconverted boy and youth, and it does
certainly appear that he was more unprincipled
than boys and young men usually are. He
was destined for the Church, and educated at
good classical schools, acquitting himself with
great credit as a scholar. In due time he
became a student of the University ot
Halle, and as a member of that
university was entitled to preach in the
Lutheran establishment. Halle was at
that time frequented by twelve or thirteen
hundred students, of whom nine hundred
studied divinity, and were allowed to preach.
At Halle, when twenty years old, George
Müller was taken by a fellow-student to a
prayer-meeting at the house of "a believing
tradesman." His conversion then began,
and was assisted by the arrival at the
university of Dr. Tholuck, as Professor of
Divinity. George Müller's father became
angry at the changed tone of his mind, and
at his desire to quit the regular Prussian
Church, in which only he could minister in
Prussia without danger of imprisonment.
Müller supported himself then by teaching
German to some American professors who
had come to Halle for literary purposes,
being recommended to them by Professor
Tholuck. He desired to be a missionary; but,
without his father's consent, could not be
received in any of the German missionary
institutions. Soon afterwards, at the instance
of a pious schoolmaster, he began to preach
in a village some six miles from Halle, using
the pulpit of an aged and "unenlightened
clergyman."

It was in Halle that Augustus Herman
Franké had been a professor of divinity
at the beginning of the eighteenth century,
had done charitable deeds, had shown a
very lively faith in prayer, and helped
by that faith had maintained an orphan-
house that grew almost to the dimensions
of a street. "About the time that I first
began to preach," says Mr. Müller, "I lived
for about two months in free lodgings,
provided for poor students of divinity in the
Orphan-house, built in dependence upon
God by that devoted and eminent servant of
Christ, A. H. Franké, Professor of Divinity
at Halle, who died 1727." The Orphan-house
at Halle prompted afterwards the founding
of the Orphan-house on Ashley Down; but
Franké, when he built, like most builders of
hospitals, anticipated coming funds, and sent
a box round for subscriptions. George
Müller never spent a penny till he had it
actually in his hand, and as we have
said, made it a further point of conscience
never, in a direct way, to ask for a subscription.

Vacations at Halle left George Müller free
to visit the Moravian settlement at Gnadau,
where he had communion with men who were
in very many respects like-minded with
himself. In Halle, too, he joined himself with
sundry brothers who were of his own way
of mind. When at the age of twenty-two
Brother Müller heard that the Continental
Society in England meant to send a minister
to Bucharest, to help an aged missionary,
he desired to go, and had the consent of his
father. Then there appeared to him an
opening for work as a missionary in the
conversion of the Jews, and the result of prayer
and negotiation was that, after much delay
caused by the refusal of the Prussian
government to let a young man leave the country
before he had paid his due in military
service, Brother Müller came to London. He
had been reported at Berlin unfit for military
duty. The London Society for the Conversion
of the Jews received the German student
on probation, and, good scholar as he already
was, placed him for six months at their seminary,
where he was excused from learning
anything but Hebrew. He had also to study
English. He was encouraged at that time
by hearing of a Mr. Groves, dentist, of Exeter,
who had given up a practice yielding fifteen
hundred pounds a-year to go to Persia as a
missionary. A sister of that gentleman
afterwards became Brother Müller's wife.
While at the seminary Brother Müller's energy
was not to be restrained. He began work