Faith and Finance by W. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 24, 1910

Faith and Finance

By W. A. S.

PHILANTHROPY was not the primary motive that led George Müller, of Bristol, England, to establish his famous orphanages.

As a comparatively unknown pastor, he was distressed at the general lack of faith in God. “I longed, therefore,” he said, “to have something to point to as a visible proof that our God and Father is the same faithful God as ever he was, as willing as ever to prove himself to be the LIVING GOD.”

He was impressed that an orphanage would be used of the Lord as a means of teaching the lesson of faith. He said:—

Now if I, a poor man, simply by prayer and faith, obtained, without asking any individual, the means for establishing and carrying on an orphan house, there would be something which, with the Lord’s blessing, might be instrumental in strengthening the faith of the children of God, besides being a testimony to the consciences of the unconverted of the reality of the things of God. This, then, was the primary reason for establishing the orphan house.

This was in the year 1835. Soon the beginning was made in a small rented building. The primary aim in view, and the circumstances under which Mr. Müller believed he was brought into this work, led him to lay down as fundamental the following plan of finance: “That there would be no enlargement of the work by going into debt.”

Thus the work began. Through the years Mr. Müller and his associates pleaded with God for help in every financial need. In order that it might be evident that God was the living God, and that he directly intervened to help, those associated with the orphanage were forbidden even to tell any one outside the home concerning needs or times of shortage.

The needs were laid before God alone. Again and again, when funds were gone, and the larder was empty, individuals were impressed to send help just at the right time to provide the next meal or the next payment.

One thing stands out very clearly in the record of George Müller’s life; his determination not to enlarge the work by going into debt did not narrow down his work or repress its growth. Dr. Pierson’s summary of Müller’s life-work—as regards financial outlay—shows that his fidelity to convictions of duty was vindicated; for in sixty years he, a poor man, had been enabled,—

1. To build five of the largest orphanages in the world, in which over ten thousand children had been cared for.

2. To give to school work over half a million dollars.

3. To circulate nearly two million Bibles and portions, and three million books and tracts.

4. To give over a million and a quarter dollars in aid of missionary work in various lands.

5. Altogether, in the sixty years, this man, without personal resources, who had less than three hundred dollars in money when he died, had had put into his hands to distribute about seven million five hundred thousand dollars.

Truly the Lord helped George Müller to leave the witness, according to his desire, that God is the living God.

W. A. S.