This file is non-copyrighted material taken from the "Christian Hall of 
Fame Series" (No.23) by Ed Reese.  Copies of the pamphlet can be obtained 
from Fundamental Publishers, Glenwood, IL 60425.



                          The Life and Ministry
                                   of
                             George Mueller


BORN: September 27, 1805                      DIED: March 10, 1898
      Kroppenstaedt, Prussia (Germany)              Bristol, England

                 LIFE SPAN: 92 years, 5 months, 11 days


George Mueller has proved to the world the truth of Philippians 4:19 and 
he will always be remembered as the man who got things from God.  His 
testimony is an inspiration to Christians everywhere.  Three weeks after 
his marriage, he and his wife decided to depend on God alone to supply 
their needs--never again to approach people about them.  Now he felt led 
to relinquish his small salary as a preacher completely.  Wishing that 
all support be spontaneous, he put a box in the chapel for his needs; 
determining never to run into debt, and to get his needs supplied only by 
requests to God Himself.  This was October, 1830.  When he died, in March 
1898, 68 years later, he had obtained from God more than any one else who 
ever lived--seven and a half million dollars.

Mueller was the son of Herr and Frau Mueller.  His father was a Prussian 
tax-collector.  The family moved to Heimershleben, four miles away, in 
1810.  Soon two other sons were born.  Strangely gullible, the father 
would entrust his small sons with considerable amounts of cash to teach 
them to acquire the habit of possessing money without spending it.  This 
back-fired, for George, in particular, devised numerous methods of using 
the money for himself without being detected.  Before he was ten years 
old, he repeatedly stole from the government funds in his father's 
keeping.

Herr Mueller wanted his son to be a clergyman and make a good living, in 
order to be able to support him when he became old.  Schooling was 
obtained for George at Cathedral Classical School at Halberstadt, with 
very little supervision given him from about age ten to 16.  His mother 
died when he was 14.  George was playing cards, not even aware of her 
illness that night.  He spent the next day at a tavern with some friends.

Lutheran church confirmation classes started at this time, and it was a 
custom for candidates on the eve of confirmation to make a formal 
confession of their sins to the clergyman in the vestry.  Mueller used 
the opportunity to cheat clergyman of 11/12ths of the fee his father had 
given him for the cleric.  Confirmed the Sunday after Easter, 1820, he 
was now a religious lost person.  When George was 15, his father was 
transferred to Schoenebeck, Prussia.  The son was left at home to 
supervise some repairs and to study for the ministry.  George was up to 
his old tricks.  He collected money which the villagers owed his father 
for taxes, then took a trip which he later called "...days of sin."  He 
would stay in expensive hotels, sneaking out after a week without paying 
a bill.  However, after a couple weeks of this, he was caught and put in 
jail for 24 days.  The elder Mueller bailed his son out, and soon George 
entered school at Nordhausen, Prussia, where he stayed for two and 
one-half years.  He studied from 4 a.m. until 10 p.m. The teacher said he 
had great promise, but drinking and debauchery continued to cancel these 
acclaims.  This time (1820-1825) was also spent in contriving to provide 
himself with money for his bad habits.

In 1825, when 19 years old, he left school and entered Halle University 
as a student of Divinity.  The University had 1,260 students, including 
some 900 divinity students preparing themselves for the Lutheran Church 
ministries.  Here he decided he must reform if a parish was to ever 
choose him as pastor.  He renewed an acquaintance in a tavern with a 
fellow student named Beta, who was a backslidden Christian.  They were 
former school-fellows.  In August, 1825, Mueller, Beta, and two other 
students, pawned some of their belongings to get enough money for a few 
days of travel.  Switzerland was decided upon, and George forged the 
necessary letters from their parents with which to get passports.  
Mueller, like Judas, decided to carry the purse.  His friends unwittingly 
paid part of his expenses as a result and 43 idle days of travel 
followed.

Back at the University, Beta was stricken with remorse and made full 
confession to his father.  Beta began to attend a Saturday night 
Christian meeting in a home.  Mueller, hearing about this, became 
sincerely interested, and pressed his friend into taking him to the 
meeting.  Beta did, reluctantly, not believing George would like 
it--reading the Bible, praying, singing hymns, and listening to a sermon.  
As he sat in the Wagner residence, George saw something he had never seen 
before--people on their knees praying.  He felt awkward for being there 
and even apologized for his presence.  The host pleasantly invited him to 
come as often as he pleased.  As he walked home, he declared, "All we 
have seen on our journey to Switzerland, and all our former pleasures, 
are as nothing in comparison with this evening!" That Saturday night in 
mid-November, 1825, turned him around as Christ became his Savior.  At 
age 20 the unstable pagan found the power to overcome his moral 
weaknesses and a new life began.

In January, 1826, as he began reading missionary literature, he felt 
inclined in this direction more and more.  He wrote his father and 
brother to this end.  However, the reply from father was a furious 
objection to these plans.  As a result, George decided he would have to 
support himself at the University, rather than take funds from his 
father.  Back at Halle he obtained a well-paying job of teaching German 
to American college professors and translating lectures for them.  He 
preached his first sermon on August 27, 1826, at a village six miles from 
Halle.  During this time he lived for two months in the Orphan House 
built by August Hermann Francke, Professor of Divinity at Halle.  Here 
the seed of an idea was sown that was to come to fruition later in 
Bristol.  In 1828, he completed his University courses.

Mueller now had a desire to become a missionary to the Jews, so he 
applied to a society in London which majored in this work, which led to 
an invitation to come for a six-month probationary period in London.  He 
left home on February 10, 1829 and arrived in London on March 19.  His 
English became fluent, although he never lost his German accent.  The 
regulations and routine at seminary tempted him to give up his ideas.  
His study of Hebrew was unremitting, and soon resulted in delicate 
health.  Advised by doctors and friends, he went to the country for a 
change of air and schedule which was to change his life as well.  He 
traveled to Teignmouth in Devonshire and became acquainted with Henry 
Craik, who would become his loyal associate in the ensuing years.  Here 
he attended the reopening of a small meeting-house called Bethesda 
Chapel, where he was touched deeply by one of the speakers.  By the time 
he returned to London, he was a different man, having learned the value 
of meditation upon the Scriptures, beginning in August, 1829.

Now he began to gather some of his fellow-students from 6 to 8 a.m. each 
morning for prayer and Bible reading.  Evenings he would pray with anyone 
he could find, often until after mid-night.  During these days he felt he 
did not want to be limited to ministry amongst the Jews alone, so he 
resigned from the London Society.  Back in the Devonshire area he began 
to preach in chapels in Exmouth, Teignmouth and Shaldon.  He was then 
called upon to pastor at the Ebenezer Chapel in Teignmouth, a 
congregation of 18 people where he began in 1830.  During this year he 
became convinced of the necessity of believer's baptism, and was 
rebaptized.  In January of 1830 he undertook a monthly preaching 
engagement just outside Exeter, lodging there with a Mrs. Hake, an 
invalid.  Mary Groves, age 29, was keeping house for her.  Mueller, with 
a mature outlook on life, was greatly attracted to Mary, though he was 
only 24 years of age.  On October 7, 1830 they were joined in marriage at 
St. David's Church in Exeter.

Three weeks after their marriage, they decided to depend upon God alone 
to provide their needs as already indicated.  They carried it to the 
extent that they would not give definite answers to inquiries as to 
whether or not they were in need of money at any particular moment.  At 
the time of need, there would always seem to be funds available from some 
source, both in regards to their private income, and to the funds for his 
vast projects soon to be discussed.  No matter how pressing was the need, 
George simply renewed his prayers, and either money or food always came 
in time to save the situation.  On February 19, 1832, he records an 
instance of healing by faith.  Suffering from a gastric ulcer, he 
believed God could heal him and four days later he was as well as ever.  
In the spring of 1832, he felt he must leave Teignmouth.  Craik, his 
friend, had gone on to Bristol for a visit, and Mueller felt led to go 
there also.  On April 22, he preached his first sermon in Bristol.  A 
friend offered to rent Bethesda Chapel there for a year if the two men 
would stay and develop a work.  Agreeing not to be bound by any 
stipulation, Craik and Mueller accepted the call.  On May 25, 1832, the 
Muellers settled permanently in Bristol which became his home until he 
died.  A long association with the chapel on Great George Street also 
began.  In July of that year, Bristol was visited with a plague of 
cholera which took many lives, but none of those among whom he and Craik 
ministered.  On September 17, 1832, his first child, Lydia, was born.

It was on February 25, 1834, that George Mueller founded a new Missionary 
Institution which he called "The Scriptural Knowledge Institution for 
Home and Abroad."  It had four objectives:

1. To assist Sunday Schools, Day Schools and Adult Schools, and where 
possible to start new ones.

2. To sell Bibles and Testaments to the poor at low prices, and if 
necessary, to give them free of cost.

3. To aid missionary effort. (This was to provide financial aid to free-
lance missionaries.)

4. To circulate tracts in English and in various foreign languages.

The Orphan House became a fifth objective, and the most well known 
enterprise, yet it is right to point out that Mueller was greatly used in 
developing the other objectives as well.

On March 19, 1834, a son, Elijah, was born but he died the next year, 
June 25, 1835, from pneumonia, leaving the Muellers with only one 
child--Lydia.  The summer of 1835 found Mueller himself in very poor 
health, slowing down his pace and giving him time to write "The Narrative 
of the Lord's Dealing with George Mueller."

For some time he had been thinking about starting an orphanage in 
Bristol.  On December 9, 1835 he presented his burden at a public 
meeting.  No collection was taken, but someone handed him ten shillings 
and a Christian woman offered herself for the work.  After five days of 
prayer $300 came in and it seemed they might now have enough money to 
rent a house, equip and furnish it.  The other request was for Christian 
people to work with the children.  His basic aim was to have a 
work--something to point to as visible proof that God hears and answers 
prayer.  His heart went out to the many ragged children running wild in 
the streets, but that was a secondary reason for starting the orphanage.

He rented Number 6 Wilson Street, where he himself had been living, and 
on April 11, 1836, the doors of the orphanage opened with 26 children.  
These were girls between seven and twelve years old.

The second House was opened on November 28, 1836, to care for children 
from babyhood to seven years of age.  In September, 1837, a third house 
was opened for boys over seven years of age.

Illness plagued Mueller from time to time, and in late 1837 he was very 
weak.  This time his head provided the discomfort.  He went to Germany in 
the spring of 1838 as well as in February, 1840, when he saw his father 
for a last time.  Presumably he still had not accepted Christ as George 
noted, "How it would have cheered the separation on both sides were my 
dear father a believer."  He died shortly thereafter.  The years 1828 to 
1843 were surely years of trials for Craik and Mueller as they prayed in 
everything.  All were properly clad and everyone sat down to regular 
meals in the Houses.  Mueller never incurred a debt, and God 
supernaturally provided for everyone.  A well known story indicates the 
kind of life that was lived.

      One morning the plates and cups and bowls on the table were 
      empty.  There was no food in the larder, and no money to buy 
      food.  The children were standing waiting for their morning 
      meal, when Mueller said, "Children, you know we must be in 
      time for school."  Lifting his hand he said, "Dear Father, 
      we thank Thee for what Thou art going to give us to eat." 
      There was a knock on the door.  The baker stood there, and 
      said, "Mr. Mueller, I couldn't sleep last night.  Somehow I 
      felt you didn't have bread for breakfast and the Lord wanted 
      me to send you some.  So I got up at 2 a.m. and baked some 
      fresh bread, and have brought it."  Mueller thanked the man.  
      No sooner had this transpired when there was a second knock 
      at the door.  It was the milkman.  He announced that his 
      milk cart had broken down right in front of the Orphanage, 
      and he would like to give the children his cans of fresh 
      milk so he could empty his wagon and repair it.  No wonder, 
      years later, when Mueller was to travel the world as an 
      evangelist, he would be heralded as "the man who gets things 
      from God!"
               
By March, 1843, he felt the need for a second home for girls.  On July, 
1844, the fourth house on Wilson Street was opened--the total of his 
homeless waifs now being 130.  A letter received on October 30, 1845, 
changed his entire ministry...he was now age 40.  Basically, it was a 
letter from a local resident complaining that the noise of the children 
was a nuisance.  They were vastly over-crowded and there was not enough 
space for land cultivation, washing clothes, etc.  He gave the letter 
much thought, listing the pros and cons.  If he were to leave, he would 
have to build a structure to hold at least 300 orphans at a cost of 
$60,000.  On his 36th day of prayer over the dilemma, the first $6,000 
came in for a building program.  By June, 1848, he received all of the 
$60,000 which he needed.  He had begun to build the previous year on July 
5, 1847, at a placed called Ashley Downs as the bulk of the money had 
been sent in.  Building Number 1 was opened in June, 1849, and housed 300 
children with staff sufficient to teach and care for them.  It was a 
seven-acre site and finally cost about $90,000 as legal expenses, 
furnishings, and land purchase brought the price up higher than 
anticipated.  The old houses on Wilson Street emptied and everyone was 
now under one roof.

Mueller was becoming a well known Christian leader.  He answered some 
3,000 letters a year without a secretary.  Besides his orphanages, the 
four other objectives of his Scriptural Knowledge Institution claimed his 
attention and he continued his pastoral work at Bethesda Chapel also.

In 1850, he felt the need for a second orphanage.  Donations began to 
come in miraculously again and finally, on November 12, 1857, a second 
building housing 400 children at a cost of $126,000 was built.  Number 3 
opened on March 12, 1862, housing 450 children, and costing over 
$138,000.  It was housed on 11 1/2 acres.  Number 4 was opened November 
5, 1868, and Number 5 on January 6, 1870.  These last two cost over 
$300,000 and housed 450 each.

From 1848 to 1874, money came in to improve and expand the work which 
went from 130 orphans to 2,050 during this time and up to 13 acres.  
Mueller describes these days, writing in 1874:

     But God, our infinite rich Treasurer, remains with us.  It is 
     this which gives me peace.  Moreover if it pleases Him, with 
     a work requiring about $264,000 a year...would I gladly pass 
     through all these trials of faith with regard to means, if He 
     only might be glorified, and His Church and the world 
     benefited...I have placed myself in the position of having no 
     means at all left; and 2,100 persons, not only daily at the 
     table, but with everything else to be provided for, and all 
     the funds gone; 189 missionaries to be assisted, and nothing 
     whatever left; about one hundred schools with 9,000 scholars 
     in them, to be entirely supported, and no means for them in 
     hand; about four million tracts and tens of thousands of 
     copies of the Holy Scriptures yearly now to be sent out, and 
     all the money expended...I commit the whole work to Him, and 
     He will provide me with what I need, in future also, though I 
     know not whence the means are to come.

His own personal income varied around $12,000 a year, of which he kept 
for himself $1,800 giving the rest away.

His fellow worker, Henry Craik, died on January 22, 1866, followed by the 
death of his wife on February 6, 1870.  She was 72 and had suffered from 
rheumatic fever.  James Wright married Mueller's daughter, Lydia in 1871 
and also replaced Craik as his associate.  Mueller himself remarried on 
November 30, 1871, to a Susannah Grace Sangar, whom he had known for 25 
years as a consistent Christian.  He was 66 and she in her late forties, 
a perfect companion for him in his ministries still ahead.

Mueller decided to fulfill the many requests for his appearance around 
the world.  Turning the work over to Wright, from 1875 to 1892, Mueller 
made 16 preaching trips to various sectors of the world.  For the sake of 
historians and others interested in statistical data, they were as 
follows:

March 26 - July 6, 1875 England (Brighton, London, Sunderland, 
Newcastle).  Preached 70 times, such places as Spurgeon's Metropolitan 
Tabernacle, etc.
               
August 14, 1875 - July 5, 1876 England, Scotland and Ireland.  His five 
week stay in Liverpool had Sunday Crowds of 5,000.

August 16, 1876 - June 25, 1877 Switzerland, Germany and Holland.  
Preached 302 times in 68 places in three languages.

August 18, 1877 - July 8, 1878 Canada and the United States.  Preached 
299 times, conference with President Rutherford Hayes.

September 5, 1878 - July 18, 1879 Switzerland, France, Spain, Italy.  
Fellowship with Spurgeon in France, saw schools he supported in Spain.

August 27, 1879 - June 17, 1880 United States and Canada.  Spoke again 
299 times - in 42 places.

September 15, 1880 - May 31, 1881 Canada and the United States.  Accepted 
many invitations he had to turn down the previous tour.

August 23, 1881 - May 30, 1882 Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, 
Turkey, Greece.  Many physical difficulties were encountered, traveling 
was primitive.

August 8, 1882 - June 1, 1883 Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, Russia, 
Poland.  Suppressed in Russia, could only preach to 20 at one time.

September 26, 1883 - June 5, 1884 India. 78 years old, preached 206 times 
and traveled 21,000 miles.

August 18 - October 2, 1884 England and South Wales.  Tour cut short 
because of illness of Mrs. Mueller.

May 16 - July 1, 1885 England Tour cut short because of illness of George 
Mueller.

September 1 - Oct. 3, 1885 England and Scotland, Primary ministry was in 
Liverpool, England, and Dundee, Scotland.

November 4, 1885 - June 13, 1887 Australia, China, Japan, Straits of 
Malacca.  Ages 81 to 83 - traveled 37,280 miles around the world.

August 10, 1887 - March 11, 1890 Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, 
Ceylon, India.  Intense heat of Calcutta almost killed him.  Telegram 
that daughter Lydia had died January 10, 1890 in Bristol cut short the 
tour.

August 8, 1890 - May, 1892 Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy.  At 86 
preaching to large crowds.

George and his wife traveled 200,000 miles in 17 years of world-wide 
evangelism efforts, in 42 countries, preaching to 3 million people.

It was on January 13, 1894 that his second wife passed away after 23 years 
of marriage.  He was now 89 years old, and was living out his days in 
Orphan House #3.  He preached his last sermon on Isaiah's Vision, 
March 6, 1898 at Alma Road Chapel in Clifton.  On March 10, 1898 the maid 
went to his room, and found him dead on the floor by the side of his bed.  
The funeral in Bristol on March 14th has never been surpassed there as tens 
of thousands lined the streets.  The grief of the orphans was evident.  
He was buried by the side of his two wives.

Mueller was non-sectarian in his general outlook, and was one of the 
founders of the Brethren movement.  His influence touched the lives of 
thousands--perhaps most notable, that of J. Hudson Taylor.  His most 
moving reunion with an orphan was on October 19, 1878 when a 71 year old 
widow met him...she had been his first orphan over 57 years previously. 
10,023 other orphans were to follow her there and have Daddy Mueller rear 
them.  Mueller read the Bible through over 200 times, half of these times 
on his knees.  He said he knew of some 50,000 specific answers to 
prayer...requests to God alone!

Over 3,000 of his orphans were won to Christ through his ministry by the 
Holy Spirit.

Transcribed by 

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