The Life of Trust by George Müller (novels in english txt) 📕

HUMBLE BEGINNINGS--DEVISING LIBERAL THINGS--THE ORPHANS PROVIDED FOR--A MEMORABLE DAY--MONEY “AT INTEREST”--MEANS FROM AN UNEXPECTED SOURCE--THE PROGRESS OF THE NEW ORPHAN HOUSE--MEANS PROVIDED FOR ITS COMPLETION--INEXPRESSIBLE DELIGHT IN GOD--REVIEW OF THE TWO YEARS PAST 347

PAST MERCIES AN ENCOURAGEMENT TO NEW UNDERTAKINGS--A HOUSE FOR SEVEN HUNDRED ORPHANS PROPOSED--WALKING BY FAITH--COUNSEL SOUGHT FROM GOD--THE PURPOSE FORMED--DELIGHT IN THE MAGNITUDE AND DIFFICULTY OF THE DESIGN 364

DESIRES FOR MORE ENLARGED USEFULNESS GRATIFIED--A LARGE DONATION ANTICIPATED AND RECEIVED--REVIEW OF 1851--PERSONAL EXPERIENCE--BUILDING FUND FOR THE SECOND NEW ORPHAN HOUSE--DOUBT RESISTED--WAITING ON GOD NOT IN VAIN--REVIEW OF 1852 389

EXPECTING GREAT THINGS FROM GOD--MUNIFICENT DONATION--INCREASING USEFULNESS OF THE SCRIPTURAL KNOWLEDGE INSTITUTION--ACCESS TO GOD THROUGH FAITH IN CHRIST--A VOICE FROM MOUNT LEBANON--BENEFIT OF WAITING GOD’S TIME--CAREFUL STEWARDSHIP--FAITH, THE ONLY RELIANCE--“THIS POOR WIDOW HATH CAST IN MORE THAN THEY ALL”--GREATER ACHIEVEMENTS OF FAITH ANTICIPATED--COUNSEL TO TRACT DISTRIBUTORS--A NEW AND SEVERE TRIAL OF FAITH 402

THE SITE SELECTED--SIX THOUSAND ORPHANS IN PRISON--HOW TO ASK FOR DAILY BREAD--REVIEW OF TWENTY-FOUR YEARS--“TAKE NO THOUGHT FOR THE MORROW”--INSURANCE AGAINST BAD DEBTS 426

THE HOUSE FOR FOUR HUNDRED OPENED--PRAYER MORE THAN ANSWERED--THE RESORT IN TROUBLE--AN OUTPOURING OF THE SPIRIT ON THE ORPHANS--LAND FOR A NEW BUILDING PURCHASED--“BUT ONE LIFE TO SPEND FOR GOD”--“SCATTERING, YET INCREASING”--A MEMORABLE YEAR--THE GERM OF THE IRISH REVIVAL--LETTER FROM AN ORPHAN--THE FRUIT OF SIX MONTHS’ PRAYER--THE RESULTS OF THE WORK--REVIVAL AMONG THE ORPHANS 446

APPENDIX 473

What is meant by the prayer of faith? is a question which is beginning to arrest, in an unusual degree, the attention of Christians. What is the significance of the passages both in the New Testament and the Old which refer to it? What is the limit within which they may be safely received as a ground of practical reliance? Were these promises limited to prophetical or apostolical times; or have they been left as a legacy to all believers until the end shall come?

Somehow or other, these questions are seldom discussed either from the pulpit or the press. I do not remember to have heard any of them distinctly treated of in a sermon. I do not know of any work in which this subject is either theoretically explained or practically enforced. It really seems as if this portion of Revelation was, by common consent, ignored in all our public teachings. Do not men believe that God means what he appears plainly to have asserted? or, if we believe that he means it, do we fear the charge of fanaticism if we openly avow that we take him at his word?

The public silence on this subject does not, however, prevent a very frequent private inquiry in respect to it. The thoughtful Christian, when in his daily reading of the Scriptures he meets with any of those wonderful promises made to believing prayer, often pauses to ask himself, What can these words mean? Can it be that God has made such promises as these to me, and to such men as I am? Have I really permission to commit all my little affairs to a God of infinite wisdom, believing that he will take charge of them and direct them according to the promptings of boundless love and absolute omniscience? Is prayer really a power with God, or is it merely an expedient by which our own piety may be cultivated? Is it not merely a power (that is, a stated antecedent accompanied by the idea of causation), but is it a transcendent power, accomplishing what no other power can, over-ruling all other agencies, and rendering them subservient to its own wonderful efficiency? I think there are few devout readers of the Bible to whom these questions are not frequently suggested. We ask them, but we do not often wait for an answer. These promises seem to us to be addressed either to a past or to a coming age, but not to us, at the present day. Yet with such views as these the devout soul is not at all satisfied. If an invaluable treasure is here reserved for the believer, he asks, why should I not receive my portion of it? He cannot doubt that God has in a remarkable manner, at various times, answered his prayers; why should he not always answer them? and why should not the believer always draw near to God in full confidence that he will do as he has said? He may remember that the prayer which has been manifestly answered was the offspring of deep humility, of conscious unworthiness, of utter self-negation, and of simple and earnest reliance on the promises of God through the mediation of Christ. Why should not his prayers be always of the same character? With the apostles of old he pours out his soul in the petition, “Lord, increase our faith.”

And yet it can scarcely be denied that the will of God has been distinctly revealed on this subject. The promises made to believing prayer are explicit, numerous, and diversified. If we take them in their simple and literal meaning, or if in fact we give to them any reasonable interpretation whatever, they seem to be easily understood. Our difficulty seems to be this: the promise is so “exceeding great” that we cannot conceive God really to mean what he clearly appears to have revealed. The blessing seems too vast for our comprehension; we “stagger at the promises, through unbelief,” and thus fail to secure the treasure which was purchased for us by Christ Jesus.

It may be appropriate for us to review some of the passages which refer most directly to this subject:—

“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you; for every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him.”[1]

In the Gospel of Luke the same words are repeated, with a single variation at the close. “If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him.”[2]

“I say unto you that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”[3]

“Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do that which is done to the fig-tree, but also ye shall say to this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea, and it shall be done. And all things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.”[4]

The same promise, slightly varied in form, is found in the Gospel of Mark. “Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you that whosoever shall say to this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he hath said shall come to pass, he shall have whatever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, Whatsoever things ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.”[5]

Now I do not pretend that we are obliged to receive these words literally. Unless, however, we believe the Saviour to have spoken repeatedly on the same subject, at random, and with no definite meaning, we must understand him to have asserted that things impossible by the ordinary laws of material causation are possible by faith in God. I do not perceive, if we allow these words to have any meaning whatever, that we can ascribe to them any other significance.

“Verily I say unto you, He that believeth in me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name I will do it.”[6]

“Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto ye have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.”[7]

“The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much;”[8] that is, it is a real power, a positive energy. The apostle illustrates what he means by availing prayer by the example of Elias, a man subject to like passions as we are: “He prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months; and he prayed again, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.”[9]

The conditions on which prayer will be heard are in various places specified, but particularly in John xv. 7: “If ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” That is, if I understand the passage, prevalence in prayer is conditioned by the conformity of our souls to the will of God; “if ye abide in me and my words abide in you.” On this condition, and on this only, may we ask what we will, with the assurance that it will be done unto us. Faith, in its most simple meaning, is that temper of the mind in the creature which responds to every revealed perfection of the Creator. Just according to the degree in which this correspondence exists, is the promise made that we shall have whatsoever we ask.

It is evident, from the eleventh of Hebrews, that the views of the Apostle Paul concerning faith were entirely in harmony with the passages recited above. He reviews the lives of the most eminent saints, for the express purpose of showing that the impressive events in their history, whether physical or moral, were controlled entirely by faith. He sums up the whole in this remarkable language:—

“And what shall I say more? For the time would fail me to tell of those who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens; women received their dead raised to life again; and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.” We are, I think, taught by this passage that the apostle believed faith to be a power capable of transcending and modifying every other agency, by which changes became possible which to every other known power were impossible. We see that in this catalogue of the victories of faith he includes the subjection of almost every form of what we call natural laws. The whole passage seems an illustration of the meaning of our Lord, when he says, “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard