On June 22, 1835, Mr. Muller's father-in-law, Mr. Groves, died; and both of his own children were very ill, and four days later little Elijah was taken. Both parents had been singularly prepared for these bereavements, and were divinely upheld. They had felt no liberty in prayer for the child's recovery, dear as he was; and grandfather and grandson were laid in one grave. Henceforth Mr. and Mrs. Muller were to have no son, and Lydia was to remain their one and only child. About the middle of the following month, Mr. Muller was quite disabled from work by weakness of the chest, which made necessary rest and change. The Lord tenderly provided for his need through those whose hearts He touched, leading them to offer him and his wife hospitalities in the Isle of Wight, while at the same time money was sent him which was designated for 'a change of air.' On his thirtieth birthday, in connection with specially refreshing communion with God, and for the first time since his illness, there was given him a spirit of believing prayer for his own recovery; and his strength so rapidly grew that by the middle of October he was back in Bristol. It was just before this, on the ninth of the same month, that _the reading of John Newton's Life stirred him up to bear a similar witness to the Lord's dealings with himself._ Truly there are no little things in our life, since what seems to be trivial may be the means of bringing about results of great consequence. This is the second time that a chance reading of a book had proved a turning-point with George Muller. Franke's life stirred his heart to begin an orphan work, and Newton's life suggested the narrative of the Lord's dealings. To what is called an accident are owing, under God, those pages of his life-journal which read like new chapters in the Acts of the Apostles, and will yet be so widely read, and so largely used of God. CHAPTER IX THE GROWTH OF GOD'S OWN PLANT THE last great step of full entrance upon Mr. Muller's life-service was the _founding of the orphan work,_ a step so important and so prominent that even the lesser particulars leading to it have a strange significance and fascination. In the year 1835, on November 20th, in taking tea at the house of a Christian sister, he again saw a copy of Francke's life. For no little time he had thought of like labours, though on no such scale, nor in mere imitation of Francke, but under a sense of similar divine leading. This impression had grown into a conviction, and the conviction had blossomed into a resolution which now rapidly ripened into corresponding action. He was emboldened to take this forward step in sole reliance on God, by the fact that at that very time, in answer to prayer, ten pounds more had been sent him than he had asked for other existing work, as though God gave him a token of both willingness and readiness to supply all needs.