Brother Müller. He took charge of them all
for his orphans. Before the conditions which
would make a gift of the large premises had
been fulfilled, the good brother rented the
house which he had himself been occupying in.
Wilson Street, for the use of the orphans,
fitted it for thirty little orphan girls,
between the ages of seven and eleven, and
opened it on the twenty-first of April, eighteen
hundred and thirty-six. It began work
with six-and-twenty little girls, a matron, and
a governess. At the same time, Brother
Müller's heart was set upon the opening of a like
home for little orphan boys; but, first of all,
he would set to work upon an Infant Orphan-
house for desolate poor children of each sex
from the tenderest age up to the seventh year.
Aided by gifts, little and large—fourpence, a
gallon of dry peas, tippets, old clothes, bits of
bacon, sugar, money,—the work went on, and
before the end of the following November,
more than seven hundred pounds had been
raised without one contribution having been
asked for, in a direct way, by Müller himself,
and the Infant Orphan-house was opened.
At the end of the year sixty-six orphans
were in Brother Müller's keeping, and
seven hundred and seventy pounds had
been the income of the Orphan-houses.
Brother Müller was at work, then, for the
establishment of the third Orphan-house, that
for the boys.

At the end of the year following he has
established it, and writes, "There are now
eighty-one children in the three Orphan-
houses, and nine brethren and sisters who
have the care of them. Ninety, therefore,
daily sit down to table. Lord, look on the
necessities of thy servant!" At the same
time there are the day and Sunday schools,
with more than three hundred children in
attendance upon each. The establishment
increases, but the pressure on each day for
money to buy bread is, now and then, intense.
The children never miss their usual supply,
though sometimes, even at dinner-time,
there is no money to pay the milkman in the
afternoon, and without money no milk would
be taken; yet the money comes. When
things are at the worst, one of the teachers
has some shillings in reserve, and gives them.
At one such time every brother or sister
engaged in the Orphan-houses, had given up all
to supply the daily wants before there came
another offering to help them, from without.
Under pressure of this kind Brother Müller
writes in September, eighteen hundred and
thirty-eight:—" I have about two hundred
and twenty pounds in the bank, which, for
other purposes in the Lord's work, has been
intrusted to me by a brother and a sister.
I might take of this money, and say but to
the sister, and write but to the brother,
that I have taken, in these my straits,
twenty, fifty, or a hundred pounds for
the orphans, and they would be quite
satisfied (for both of them have liberally
given for the orphans, and the brother has
more than once told me, only to let him
know when I wanted money); but that
would be a deliverance of my own, not
God's deliverance."

In eighteen hundred and forty-one, the
consciences of Brothers Craik and Müller
found that there was spiritual assumption in
the box inscribed with their names put up
for free-will offerings in the chapel. Other
brethren were not less able to teach from
their experiences, why should they stand
apart from the rest, as if they were the only
pastors? Their names were expunged, therefore,
and they assigned to the poor all money
found in the box that was not screwed up
in paper as especially placed in it for
themselves. In their own houses, as in the
Orphan-house, there was the same system of
living, and the same occasional necessity of
selling books or furniture to obtain food.
Nevertheless, all prospered. In December,
eighteen hundred and fifty, the expenses of
Brother Müller's institution were at the rate
of six thousand a-year, and they were met.
The new Orphan-house on Ashley Down had
gathered under its roof three hundred
orphans,—three hundred and thirty-five
inmates. There were two hundred and thirty
applicants for admission. Brother Müller
had felt the extent of the desolation he is
working to relieve. He was encouraged by
the blessing on his orphan work, and so we
find him writing: "It has passed through
my mind to build another Orphan-house,
large enough for seven hundred orphans, so
that I might be able to care for one
thousand altogether."

For a time he does not speak to any human
being—not even to his wife—about this
matter; but he prays that he may act not as
one led away by ambition to do good, that
he may avoid mistake and delusion. His
mind being made up, he states his plan, and
waits on Heaven for a building fund. He will
not begin to build till he has counted the cost
and laid by the requisite provision; now it is
thirty-five thousand pounds that he requires.
In large and small sums money flows in, and
he looks upon it as some trial of faith that,
at the end of two years, he has received
towards his new object donations only to the
amount of twelve or thirteen thousand.
This fund increasing, it at last is found
prudent to begin the work by adding to the
original house for the three hundred orphans
a wing that will accommodate four hundred,
leaving the other wing for three hundred to
be afterwards supplied. The building therefore
was commenced, and will be opened, we
believe, before the expiration of the present
year. More than twelve months ago, at the
close of the volume from which we have
drawn these very curious facts, George
Müller wrote as follows:—"Without any
one having been personally applied to for
anything by me, the sum of eighty-four