George Muller was born in Prussia (now Germany) in 1805. As a young man he was a real tearaway. He was a thief, a liar, a bounder, a cad, a womaniser and a committed playboy who used and abused his friends. When his mother lay dying he was found roaming the streets in a drunken state. He was even sent to prison for six months. At the age of 20 he attended a Bible study and he was converted. He was moved by seeing people kneel to pray.
Eventually Muller moved to England where he set up an orphanage in Bristol which became home to thousands of destitute children. These orphans had lost their parents to an epidemic of cholera. In 1836 Muller had charge of 30 girls. During the next twenty five years Muller acquired five huge houses for £100,000 in Ashley Down. Now he had 2000 orphans in his care.
Muller had a burden to communicate to other Christians that God is the living God and that he always responds faithfully to those who seek first his kingdom.
But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Matthew 6:33
Famously Muller never asked for donations but prayed the money in. During his lifetime it is estimated that he received £1,460,000 from a host of different sources. Often from very poor people who gave him their hard-earned cash. It’s all been documented and there are extensive records.
There are some wonderful stories about God’s unexpected provision. One morning the plates and cups and bowls were empty. There was no food in the larder and no money to buy food. The children were standing waiting for their breakfast when Muller began speaking in his thick, German accent:
“Children, you know ve must be in time for school.” Lifting his hand he said, “Dear Vater, we thank Thee for what Thou art going to give us to eat.”
There was a knock on the door. The local baker stood there and outlined his perspective in his thick Bristolian brogue:
“Mr Muller, I couldn’t sleep last night. Somehow I felt you didn’t have bread for breakfast and the Lord wanted I to send you some. So I got up at 2 a.m. and baked some fresh bread and here it is.”
Muller smiled, received the bread graciously and thanked the man. Almost immediately there was a second knock on the door. It was the milkman who described his ‘misfortune’. His milk cart had broken down right in front of the orphanage and he wanted to give the children his cans of fresh milk so he could empty his wagon and repair it.
Even the famous novelist Charles Dickens once visited the orphanage upon hearing rumours of starvation. After inspection, he left wholly satisfied that the children were adequately fed.
Sometimes people imagine that Muller was only concerned with ‘soul winning’ and orphanages. How wrong they are. Muller had a passion for Christian day schools and Sunday schools. He educated his orphans in a very radical way. There was a rich spectrum of academic work, including Bible study. In addition to this, boys were taught to knit, sew, darn socks and scrub floors. Girls helped in the kitchens, washrooms and laundries. Muller’s interest and involvement in education is often neglected.
Not everyone approved of Muller’s philanthropy. Factory owners and mill owners became very irate. They accused Muller of stealing children from their factories and mills. Here is what one grumpy factory owner said about Muller’s excellent education for his orphans:
“There was a risk of elevating by an indiscriminate education the minds of those doomed to the drudgery of daily labour, above their condition and thereby rendering them discontented and unhappy with their lot.”
Muller was not only challenging Christians to take Mt 6:33 seriously but he was challenging the secular way of doing business. Children should not be reduced to economic objects. They were not factory ‘cannon fodder’.
During Muller’s lifetime there were children as young as 5 who worked in mines for up to 18 hours per day. Some ended up as destitute cripples. Lives that had been destroyed by greed and economic idolatry. Sadly this aggressive worship of money and economic activity is still popular today. This is how the famous footballer Robbie Fowler put it in his autobiography:
“That’s the problem with football, it’s ruthless, and so are the people involved in it…..You are a commodity and you can be treated in the most awful way if they think it can help them in the slightest way.”
We must understand the secular worldviews that shape so many peoples’ lives today. Factory owners, football managers and famous ‘celebrities’ are often ‘secular’. They live as if God does not exist.
When Muller died in 1898, his funeral procession brought much of Bristol to a standstill. Thousands of people and many former orphans gathered to thank God for his extraordinary life. We can learn so much from the life of George Muller. We can learn about prayer, faith, love, the kingdom of God and the evils of economic idolatry, factory misery and God’s longing to redeem his fallen world.
Muller was a culture shaper and a culture transformer. He proclaimed Jesus as both Saviour and King. His faith in Jesus was privately engaging and socially relevant.
Mark is a lively storyteller and the author of four books, including The Spy, the Rat and the Bed of Nails: Creative Ways of Talking about Christian Faith. His work is focused on storytelling and how this can help us to communicate the Christian faith. He has written many articles for the Baptist Times, RE Today, Youthscape, Direction magazine and the Christian Teachers Journal.
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1 Comment
Hugh Grear · July 26, 2024 at 10:07 am
Nice one, Mark! Like you, I went to Bristol University, and while I lived in Bristol I was privileged to have a meeting in George Muller’s study. I was regaled with stories of faith from George’s day, and I was inspired. God is so good and generous to those who depend on him. Every blessing, my friend.
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