A Narrative of Some of the Lord's Dealings with George Müller. Part 4Müller, George
Religion
A Narrative of Some of the Lord's Dealings with George Müller. Part 4
Müller, George
Orphanages -- Great Britain; Prayer
I began the service of caring for children who are bereaved of both
parents, by death, born in wedlock, and are in destitute circumstances,
on Dec. 9, 1835. For nearly ten years I never had any desire to build an
Orphan-House. On the contrary, I decidedly preferred spending the means,
which might come in, for present necessities, and desired rather to
enlarge the work according to the means which the Lord might be pleased
to give. Thus it was till the end of October, 1845, when I was led to
consider this matter in a way I had never done before. The occasion of
my doing so was this: On Oct. 30, 1845, I received from a gentleman, who
lived in the street, where the 4 Orphan-Houses were, a polite and
friendly letter, in which he courteously stated to me that the
inhabitants in the adjoining houses were in various ways inconvenienced
by the Orphan-Houses being in Wilson Street. He left to myself the
judgment of the case.
This letter I received on Thursday morning, Oct. 30, 1845. Being very
much occupied that week, I had scarcely any time to consider time
matter. On Monday morning, however, Nov. 3, I set apart some hours for
the prayerful consideration of the subject, and after I had besought the
Lord to guide me to a right decision, I wrote down the reasons which
appeared to me to make it desirable that the Orphans should be removed
from Wilson Street, and also the reasons against removing. As far as
they are suitable for being stated in print, they were those:
I. Reasons for removing from Wilson Street.
1. The neighbours feel themselves inconvenienced by the noise of the
children in the play-hours. This complaint is neither without
foundation, nor unjust; for many persons are very much inconvenienced by
the noise of children, and those living close by the Orphan-Houses must
be so during the play-hours, even though the noise be only of that kind,
that one could not at all find fault with the dear children on account
of it. I should myself feel it trying to my head to live next door to
the Orphan-Houses, on that account I therefore ought to do to others, as
I should wish to be done by. This point had never before appeared to me
in so serious a light.
2 The greatness of the number of the inmates in the houses has several
times prevented the drains from acting properly, and thus has a few
times affected the water in one or two of the neighbours' houses. With
reference to these two reasons, as it regards those living near the
Orphan-Houses, these words, "Let not your good be evil spoken of," Rom.
xiv. 16, and "Let your moderation (i.e. yieldingness) be known unto all
men," Philip iv. 5, seemed to me two important portions of the word of
God to be acted out in this matter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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