This afternoon I want to bring a lecture on the life of one of the greatest men of modern times, George Mueller. George Mueller, who is known to many of us as the 19th century man of prevailing prayer and great faith. We do not give our times usually to lecturing on the lives of Christians, but rather to the declaration of the Word of God. But when we look to the private means of grace that God has ordained, we find Bible reading and study, prayer, and also the reading of godly literature that stirs us up through the testimony of others. The reading of biographies is extremely edifying because we are dealing with men of like passions with ourselves. People who lived imperfect lives and yet people who were greatly used of God. And it is through the reading oftentimes of such biographies that we are challenged and renewed in our faith and we are prompted to do those things that otherwise we would never attempt. Last Lord's Day we dealt very inadequately and very emotionally with the life of John G. Payton. The same thing will be true with us in our study this afternoon. The life of George Mueller. We simply cannot do it justice. But I can outline it for you and introduce you to this great man a very common man, a very humble man who is greatly used of God and bore his entire life as a testimony as to what God might do through faith and prayer. I trust it will be edifying for you and it might prompt you to find his life work. The authorized biography is George Mueller and it is by A.T. Pearson written in the late 1800s two years after Mr. Mueller's death. Mr. Mueller is known to us basically as the man who cared for over 3,000 orphans in the orphanage houses in Bristol, England. He organized these houses. He cared for these orphans for 70 years. And he did so without asking anyone for a penny. He put his desires before the Lord in prayer and his needs were met. And this was the work of his life, testimony to a prayer answering God. Actually, Mr. Mueller's ministry was much greater and broader than the orphanage houses that he established. And I trust that our study this afternoon will prove profitable as I seek, in a small way, to introduce this individual to you. In the biography, in an appendix to the book, there are about 50 passages of Scripture that were especially beloved by George Mueller and determined his whole approach to his life's work. I read only four of them for you this afternoon by way of introduction. Matthew 6.33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." Matthew 7, verses 7 and 8, Ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth. and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." Matthew 11, 24, Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. And then finally, 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 16, All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. The purpose of Mr. Mueller's entire life and ministry can be summarized in one statement and it is a statement that he made about himself. The biographer writes, One sentence from Mr. Mueller's pen marks the purpose which was the very pivot of his whole being. I have joyfully dedicated my whole life to the object of exemplifying how much may be accomplished by prayer and faith. In order to have this testimony broadcast, he began a diary entitled, The Dealings of God with George Mueller. In this diary and ledger, he kept an account of every penny that came to him as an answer to prayer and which was in turn used for the work of God. Throughout his entire ministry, he kept meticulous records of all the monies given to him that he in turn dispersed He lived and died a very poor individual depending upon God alone and not amassing any earthly goods other than for his immediate personal needs and for the needs of his wife. All the money that came to him in answer to prayer was immediately dispersed back into the work. In a period of some 69 and 70 years passing through his hands were over 37 million dollars in American money. Seven and a half million British pounds sterling after the fashion and exchange of the mid-1800s. This was figured out from his journals and from his remarkable answers to prayer. Once a year he would publish these as an encouragement to God's people. He wanted his entire life to be a witness and testimony to a prayer hearing and answering God who was approached and trusted by faith. What is outstanding about Mr. Mueller is that he thought very little of himself. In his journals, and I have a copy of one of them here from the 1800s, in his journals he freely admits his faults, his stress, his doubts, his fears, his lack of faith, his weaknesses. He acknowledges God's provision. He acknowledges his mistakes. He acknowledges the glory of God in providing for him. He was indeed a man of like passions as we are, and he does not try to hide this. But it is no secret that George Mueller was one of the greatest men of modern times, and he was known preeminently as a man of faith. And as the years passed, his faith grew. He was unable to trust God and living to his 93rd year, he said, the reason for my longevity is that God has freed me finally from all anxiety in trusting him for the smallest thing or for the greatest thing. Visiting a friend, a close friend in his study, a fellow pastor on one occasion, the man was sharpening his quill. They used quills up until the late 1800s for pens, and he was sharpening his goose quill. And Mueller says to his friend, do you pray while you're mending your quill? And the man said, no. He said, you should. God has given me great answers to prayer and increased my faith as I sought his face when mending my quill. There was literally nothing that George Mueller did not make a matter of prayer and lived a life of constant communion with God, searching the scriptures daily and from his daily Bible reading, gaining direction from God for any matter that was at hand. It sounds almost mysterious or mystical, and yet Mueller was a very practical man, and his answers to prayer were always in the realm of great practicality. He never moved apart from the Scriptures. He always sought the guidance of God, and he said the Spirit of God would never lead us contrary to His Word. As he approached the end of his life, he was able to write that he had read the Bible through over 200 times. He was literally a man saturated with the Word of God. There are seven conspicuous characteristics and qualities in the life of George Mueller. Now, Dr. A.T. Pearson, who is the author of the book George Mueller of Bristol, was not only his biographer, but was also his close personal friend. Dr. A.T. Pearson was a Presbyterian minister from the Midwestern United States. He wanted to see George Mueller badly. After having read many of his journals over the years and was not able to make the meeting but providentially God put them together in the same train car and they traveled across part of the United States together on one of Mr. Mueller's missionary tours and later they met in Bristol several times and they became very close associates and Friends he knew him well and was therefore chosen by the family to be his biographer. As we cast this last backward glance at this man of God, seven conspicuous qualities stand out in him, the combination of which made him what he was. Stainless uprightness, childlike simplicity, businesslike precision, tenacity of purpose, boldness in faith, habitual prayer, and cheerful self-surrender. His holy living was a necessary condition of his abundant serving, as seems so beautifully hinted in the 17th verse of the 90th Psalm. Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish thou the work of our hands upon us. If any man serve me, let him follow me. And where I am, there also shall my servant be. If any man serve him, him will my father honor." Mueller, of course, did not live an isolated life. He was extremely busy. He preached on the average until his nineties. once every day and three times on the Lord's Day. He was greatly affected by reading the biographies of great men. That is one of the reasons I am attempting to bring this lecture this afternoon. That we ourselves might be affected by the lives and witnesses and testimonies of those who have gone on before us. Who would find themselves a fitting place in Hebrews chapter 11 in the whole role of the faithful who have served God and their testimony stand before us. There are three biographies especially that determined his life's work. The first was the reading of the life of August Hermann Franke, the pietist who established the orphanage houses when he was professor at Hall University in Germany. Frank had an idea because of the need and the existence of many thousands of orphans in that area to establish an orphanage, to do so as an act of faith and to trust that God would supply his needs. And he took care of hundreds and hundreds of orphans, by this means, as a work of faith. And he did it in the early 1700s, a hundred years, a century before George Mueller was converted and had the same vision of a work of faith as a testimony to a prayer answering God. In the providence of God, he came across the life of John Newton. And John Newton kept a diary, and the title of this diary was God's Dealings with John Newton. And it traced his spiritual pilgrimage throughout his entire life till its long end at age 83. After reading this, George Mueller was impressed to begin a diary and a journal entitled God's Dealings with George Mueller. And he thought that periodically with his journals and the entries of the money passing through his hands, it might be published as a witness and testimony to the encouragement of God's people that they too might learn to trust God, to pray, to have faith, and to serve Him. The third biography that greatly affected him was Philip's Life of George Whitefield. Mueller saw Whitefield's success in two things, that he sought to devote his life entirely to the will of God through the scriptures, and that he prayed reverently and fervently on his knees. Thereafter, George Mueller, who was a Prussian and very military in his bearing and upbringing, and had never seen, until he was converted in a student prayer meeting, anyone fall on his knees and pray, made that his usual manner of prayer, to fall on his knees before God and to seek his face in prayer. His life was characterized with a deep reverence for the presence of God. Now having given these thoughts and sort of a survey of the character of the man and those things that motivated him, I want to give now a sketch of his life. George Muller was born in Prussia, part of what today is called Germany. Born in Prussia on September the 27th, 1805. He departed to be with the Lord in Bristol, England. on March the 10th, 1898 at age 93. Living 93 years, a man never in good health and a man who at several times in his life almost died through various illnesses brought about by his early life of criminal dissipation. The amazing things that God may do in a person's life. The amazing things that God might do in one of our lives or more simply by reading the biography of a departed saint of God who was mightily used of God and that transforming our lives and stirring us up to pray, to exercise faith, and to do those things that otherwise we simply would not do. In his early life, he was a profligate. He was dishonest. He was a criminal. He was deceitful. He was immoral. And he was a drunkard all before his 20th year, the year of his conversion. His father was a minor government official. His father had sums of money that he kept in the house that he had collected before it was handed in. George Mueller was oftentimes taken in the theft of these things. He would borrow and borrow until he was heavily in debt, and then he would abscond without paying his debts, and went to debtor's prison for it for a period of time in his late teenage years. His father finally, in desperation, for his father was not a converted man either. They were both members of the state church, which was Lutheran. His father sent him to the university to take holy orders. That is, he sent him to the university to prepare for the ministry in the Lutheran State Church. His father was not converted. His father's motivation was that his son could make a decent living and provide for his father in his old age. It was simply a pecuniary interest and attempt to stabilize young Mueller's life. Mueller himself, of course, was not converted, had never read the Bible, had no interest in the Word of God and was horribly dishonest. On the very night his mother lay dying, he was roaring drunk, wandering through the streets of his hometown, caring for nothing but himself and his immoral pursuits. We come to his conversion and his university days. He had borrowed so heavenly during the time at his university that no one would have anything to do with him. Oftentimes he had to leave because he was out of funds. And one time, yes, he did have to go to jail for non-payment of debts. He was a disreputable individual. At age 20, toward the middle of his college days, he was invited to a student prayer meeting in the home of Johann Wagner. A Christian man who opened his home to students would give them a good home-cooked meal and would lead them in the singing of hymns, prayer, the reading of the scripture, and the reading of a printed sermon. George Mueller went to that meeting. He had nothing better to do. There might be some opportunity at that meeting to increase himself or to go to his own advantage. So he went with a friend. A friend whose life was in the process of being changed by the grace of God. Mueller went to the student meeting that night and they sang some hymns. He was familiar with them. Then they read the scriptures, which were entirely strange to young Mr. Mueller. Although he was preparing for the ministry, he had no interest in the Bible, nor did he possess a copy of the scriptures. But it impressed him. Then followed a time of prayer, and for the first time in his life, he saw a man, a dedicated Christian student, fall on his knees and fervently pray to God for the conversion of the students of the university. This mightily impressed him, an impression that was never lost for the rest of his life. Mr. Mueller at times had said his prayers, but he had never prayed. Now there was someone praying from his heart, a true Christian with a right relationship with God, and he was impressed. Then a printed sermon was read. You must understand that Prussia had a state church, the Lutheran Church. and that preaching extemporaneously was forbidden unless you were licensed by the state. Therefore, all the students could do, they could not read the scripture and preach themselves. They could not bring a man in to preach. A printed sermon had to be read. And it was in the reading of that printed sermon that George Mueller was converted. The strange ways in which God comes to men. We find, do we not, John and Charles Wesley at the Aldersgate meeting when they felt their hearts strangely warmed in such a meeting as this. Or the man, a member at Oxford, who went to hear Whitfield preach and the man was a mimic. He entertained his friends by mimicking the great men of his day. Coming home from the meeting, They said, now you have heard Whitefield imitate him for us. So he jumped on a table, took the stance of Whitefield, arm raised in the air, crossed his eyes, for Whitefield was very cross-eyed, crossed his eyes and began to imitate Whitefield, fell off the table onto the floor, and was converted, mimicking Whitefield, and became one of the great preachers of the Great Awakening. God does strange things, does he not? or the son of Benjamin Keech. Elias Keech, who to escape his father's influence and Christianity, and to live an uncontrolled godly life, took shipping from England in the early 1700s and came to the colonies, to America. Unable to find a living, he became desperate. Someone met him and said, Elias Keech, Would you happen to be a relative of Benjamin Keech, the great English preacher? I said he, I'm his son. We are in need of a pastor. Would you come and preach for us? And the man was converted under his own preaching, became an outstanding preacher. God works in mysterious ways. His wonders to perform. He plants his footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm. Or the drunk atheist. Peter Conley, who was carried drunk into a meeting to hear Seth Joshua, the Calvinistic Methodist preacher, preach and was converted on March the 1st, 1920. Became one of the great evangelists of the Fisher folk revival and later a professor of theology. This is how God works. A sovereign God. A loving God. A God who chooses his instruments and outfits them in unlikely ways. After his conversion, he of course was without money and was not able to support himself in the university and was preparing to leave. At that time, a request came to him, now that he was converted, would he become a tutor in German for some American professors that were studying at the university? And he agreed. And one of his students was Charles Hodge of Princeton. So there developed the relationship between the great Charles Hodge of Princeton and young George Mueller. He studied Greek, Hebrew, and Latin, and in later life he could fluently preach in English, German, and French, and often preached in other languages through an interpreter. Immediately after his conversion, he thought himself to become a missionary to the Jews in Budapest. A call went out. There was an urgent need for missionaries at this time. He wanted to give himself to missionary service through the London Missionary Society, and was preparing to go when an insurmountable obstacle flew into his face. He was Prussian, and as a Prussian man, he had an obligation to do military service before he could leave the country. Praying about the matter with his friends, he did not know what to do. God struck him. From the days of his drunkenness and dissipation, he had a very weak stomach and he burst a blood vessel in his stomach and was seriously ill for several months. Recovering somewhat, he became ill again through another burst blood vessel in his stomach. It was a life-threatening illness and during this time he was examined for military service and exempted for life. He miraculously recovered. God restored him in health and immediately he was free to leave for England by passport and went there under the auspices of the London Missionary Society and thought to give himself then to missionary service. God was to have other plans. This shows us that even dark providences such as intense, life-threatening illnesses may be used in the providence of God to bring about great blessing in their final result. He arrives then in England and he preaches and pastors in an itinerant ministry throughout the area of London. During this time, he falls ill again. He had been preaching against the doctrine of election and particular redemption and final perseverance, being laid aside for several months of intense sickness, closed up in a room in his bed with his Bible, and after much prayer, he became what we would call today a thoroughgoing Calvinist. God was preparing him for his life's work and before he could enter into that he must have a great God with a sure and certain salvation. In one of the appendices to this book in his own words we find his struggle with the truth coming to the doctrines of grace as we love to call them. After some time in London he providentially removed to Bristol England and began a preaching and pastoral ministry with his longtime friend, Henry Crike, at Bethesda Chapel. The work began to flourish. In the first two years, through their combined ministry, over 200 people were added to the congregation. It was a time of revival. God was at work, and this work of God greatly encouraged them and enabled them to consider expanding the work be on their own local chapel and church. So this brings us to his life's work. While pastoring then at Bristol, he enters into his life's work. And what was that work? It wasn't the orphanage. He's known for the orphanages, perhaps the most famous orphanages in a Christian context that have ever existed. But what he did was establish the scriptural knowledge institution for home and abroad. The scriptural knowledge institution for home and abroad. This was to be the instrument through which his life's work would be pursued. He and Crike severed themselves from the London Missionary Society and from all other missionary societies. Now you must remember whether you can appreciate this or not, that in the early 1800s there was a great impetus for missionary work around the world. This had been going on for some 150 years. It was a post-millennial eschatology to Christianize the world and send the gospel to all nations. Pre-millennialism did not give the impetus to the great modern missionary movement It came through postmillennial theology. One of those things. You'll have to deal with that on your own. At any rate, Mr. Mueller will become a thoroughgoing premillennialist. But as they looked at all the missionary societies that were there, and there were several of them that were well known, they saw that they adopted worldly methods and they would take money from unsaved people and organizations. They therefore separated themselves from everyone else and from every other missionary organization by instituting the scriptural knowledge institution for home and abroad. They were convinced after much prayer and meditation in the scriptures that they should be completely biblical, they should never ask anyone for any financial support, they should go on entirely by faith in a prayer hearing and answering God, they should never go into debt they would never compromise the truth. They had 14 points, as is given in an extended fashion in his biography, 14 points they considered to be absolutely necessary to receive God's blessing upon their work. The Institute or the institution was for the support of missionary endeavors around the world, the distribution of Bibles and tracts, and they passed out a quarter of a million Bibles at the Paris Exposition, an international exposition in Paris, and they passed out over a quarter million Bibles to people from around the world. The distribution of Bibles and tracts and the promotion of Christian schools, and there were Christian schools throughout Europe supported by George Mueller in addition to the support that he gathered for the orphanages. The orphanages then were simply a later part of this overall work and they were begun because a poor boy in Mueller's Sunday school was forced to leave, not able to continue to attend because he was poverty stricken and he had to go to an almshouse and work as slave labor in a poorhouse. This so affected Mueller that he put it before God and through the influence of Frank's diary He believed that he should organize and start an orphanage. And the whole record of starting the orphanages is a slow process of seeking the will of God, trusting God. And at one time Mueller got down without a house for the orphans to meet in, without a penny to his name. He said, Lord, if this be your will, I pray for a thousand pounds. And in three months, Without having to ask one individual for a penny, a thousand pounds came into his care with which he rented a house and started his first orphanage. There was only one trouble. They had prayed about everything imaginably, and God was beginning to open the doors. They had no orphans. And Mueller, in great humility, said, Oh, Lord God, we have forgotten to make this a matter of prayer. Give us orphans. The need was great. There were plenty of orphans. God hadn't given him those orphans. Finally, the orphans came. And Mueller, living hand to mouth, day after day, and meal to meal, saw those houses grow until he cared for over 3,000 orphans for over 69 years. Indeed, it was Mueller's testimony that caused C.H. Spurgeon to start his own orphanages in London and the almshouses to care for the poor. Spurgeon, in one of his sermons, cried out, the God that answers by orphanages, let him be God. And Spurgeon and Mueller became quite close friends in their later lives, both in London, where Mueller preached in Spurgeon's pulpit, and oftentimes in Mentone, France, where Spurgeon had to resort for the sake of his ill health And Mueller went to visit him during his European tours quite often in his later life. He did all of this as a testimony to the God who answers prayer. And therefore, on a yearly basis, he would publish his journal and God's dealings with him to encourage the people of God around the world that God is a God who answers faithful and persevering prayers. He never asked a person for a penny, but support came in from all over the world, and usually from the most unexpected sources, and usually simply, as we would say, in the nick of time. There was a time when the orphans gathered together at the table to eat and there was no food. Three thousand orphans, there was no food. In a few minutes they would sit down, there was nothing there. Mueller and the staff were praying. A knock came at the door, a bread wagon. A man said, I've been impressed to give you this wagon load of bread. So there was bread that night, bread and tea. Oftentimes, on one occasion, Mueller said, my body was very cold. He's a very tall, slender, thin man. He said, my body was cold. I needed more exercise to get up my bodily heat. So rather than going straight to my study in the orphanage, I walked around another way and met a man whom I would have missed otherwise, who gave me a five pound note, which helped put food on the table that night for we had nothing to eat. In over 69 years, the orphans never missed a meal. Oftentimes they were down to a few pence. Oftentimes they had nothing at all, but they were always provided for and always in time. I want to speak somewhat about his later years. In his later life from 1875 to 1892, so from age 70 unto his early 80s, Mr. Mueller and his second wife traveled around the world on several world missionary tours. In his early life, he gave himself to God as a missionary, but God sent him to Bristol, England and kept him there for many, many, many years and confined his ministry to the orphanages and to preaching in that immediate area. But his prayer was later answered and requests came from all over the world that he would come and speak and preach the gospel. He would speak on faith. He would encourage the people of God. He made a tour throughout Britain. From Britain he went to Europe and on and on. He went to Australia twice. He went to India twice. He went throughout Africa. And he made four separate tours of the United States, once from San Francisco to New York, preaching to literally thousands of individuals. 14 missionary journeys, two of them encircled the entire globe, totaling over 200,000 miles. During these trips, he met many men of like mind, men who knew him, men who had heard of him through his journals, men who were encouraged by his ministry. He helped John G. Payton in the New Hebrides and devoted much finances to his cause. and they met together in Bristol. He became a good friend with C. H. Spurgeon, as we have said, both in London and in Mentone, France. During these missionary excursions, he preached on an average of once a day, from age 70 until his early 80s. A remarkable man in every way. I want to give two anecdotes that occurred during these travels. One concerns a meeting in Canada. It was late in the springtime. There were still icebergs floating in the North Sea. The steamship had left Liverpool and was steaming toward Canada. As they were nearing the Canadian coast, they were enshrouded with fog. The ship slowed down to barely making any headway in the water and lookouts were stationed on the bow. Mueller went to the captain and said, Sir, God has appointed me to be in Toronto, Canada on such and such a date. Unless we speed the ship, I will not make that appointment. And my God never fails. He said, Mr. Mueller, he said, we're enshrouded with fog. Mr. Mueller said, Captain, would you come to my room? The captain was a professing Christian and pray with me. They went into his room. He turned the key on the lock and fell on his knees. And the captain remarks that he prayed a very simple childlike prayer that a third grade boy might pray. Oh, God, you have made this meeting for me. You know that I am to be there. I pray that you would lift the fog. The captain began to pray, and Mr. Mueller put his hand on his shoulder and said, Captain, first of all, you do not believe. Secondly, God has lifted the fog. Go up to the deck and you will see there wasn't a spot of fog in the ocean. And he made his meeting. The childlike simplicity of Mr. Mueller. The other is a record that we find in B.H. Carroll's set of books, the interpretation of the English Bible. I want to read a record of Mr. Mueller coming to a prayer meeting during a time of drought. And the same thing is said that everybody said about Mueller. His prayers were very simple and childlike, but they were always answered. I shall never forget a statement made by Dr. Ford when he returned from England. Having visited Mr. Mueller, called the man of faith, When he got to the place, he was very anxious to see the most remarkable man of faith living in the world. But Mr. Mueller had gone away and had not returned. They were all assembled, and it was a time of horrible drought. Dr. Ford himself had been choked with dust getting to the place where they had called all the people together to pray for rain. About that time, Mr. Mueller himself walked in, covered with dust. One of the deacons got up and said, Mr. Mueller, we are distressed about the drought. And we thought we ought to take it to the Lord. Is it right to pray for rain? And he said, yes, let us pray. Then he stood up and prayed just like a little child. Oh, Lord, look at the dumb brutes lowing for water and perishing. See the travelers choked with dust on the thoroughfares. See the people's crops and gardens impoverished. Lord God, send rain to thy people." And before they were dismissed, the rain came and that flooded all that section of the country. Dr. Ford, in telling about it, said the most impressive thing he ever witnessed in his life was Mr. Mueller's childlike manner and the faith with which he took hold of the promises of God. It isn't great theology that causes our prayers to be answered. It is the childlike simplicity of faith. How much, indeed, we have to learn. Some lessons from Mr. Mueller's life. Mr. Mueller was very open and frank about his failings, about his spiritual struggles in some of his dealings of God with George Mueller. He mentions his anxieties, especially in his early life, his weakness of faith, his anxiousness when prayers were not answered immediately and needs were before them. He's very open about the great mistakes that he had made because he listened to men rather than to God's Word. He goes through all of these things. He shows that he was a man of like passions as we are. And that is encouraging to us because once we think that these people were different, that they were extraordinary, we will lose all hope and we will not take encouragement. He makes this statement in 1895, three years before his death at the age of 90. I never remember in all my Christian course a period now of 69 years and four months that I ever sincerely and patiently sought to know the will of God by the teaching of the Holy Ghost through the instrumentality of the Word of God, but I have always been directed rightly. But if honesty of heart and a rightness before God were lacking, or if I did not patiently wait upon God for instruction, or if I preferred the counsel of my fellow men to the declaration of the word of the living God, I made great mistakes." And then he has how to know and ascertain the will of God. Now this, of course, we do not like to hear because we want to dictate God's will to him much of the time. Sometimes we are so guided and pressed by our own circumstances and the want of our own creature comforts that we do not have the patience to seek to discern God's will. And we make great mistakes. I seek at the beginning to get my heart into such a state that it has no will of its own in regard to a given matter. Nine-tenths of the trouble with people generally is just here. Nine-tenths of the difficulties are overcome when our hearts are ready to do the Lord's will, whatever it may be. When one is truly in this state, it is usually but a little way to the knowledge of what his will is. It was his habit to take a sheet of paper, put a line down through the center, put a cross over the top, and say for and against and put down honestly before God every reason for and every reason against a certain issue. And come to the point, whatever God did, he would bow to his will. This is how he prepared himself to know the will of God. Having done this, I do not leave the result to feeling or simple impression. If so, I make myself liable to great delusions. I seek the will of the Spirit of God through or in connection with the Word of God. The Spirit and the Word must be combined. If I look to the Spirit alone without the Word, I lay myself open to great delusions also. If the Holy Ghost guides us at all, He will do it according to the Scriptures and never contrary to them. Next, I take into account providential circumstances. These often plainly indicate God's will in connection with His Word and Spirit. I ask God in prayer to reveal His will to me aright. Thus, through prayer to God, the study of the word and reflection, I come to a deliberate judgment according to the best of my ability and knowledge. And if my mind is thus at peace, and continues so after two or three more petitions, I proceed accordingly. In trivial matters and in transactions involving most important issues, I have found this message. this method always effective. Five conditions he writes for prevailing prayer. First, entire dependence upon the merits and mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ as the only ground of any claim for blessing. Coming to God in prayer on the merits of Christ alone, our acceptance in and through him. Second, separation from all known sin. If we regard iniquity in our hearts, the Lord will not hear us, for it would be sanctioning sin. Third, faith in God's word of promise as confirmed by His oath. Not to believe Him is to make Him both a liar and a perjurer. Fourth, asking in accordance with His will. Our motives must be godly. We must not seek any gift of God to consume it upon our lusts. Fifth, importunity in supplication. There must be waiting upon God and waiting for God as the husbandman has long patience to wait for the harvest. These practical issues from the writings and the life of George Mueller. God raises up men and women occasionally whom we think are extraordinary when in reality they are men and women of like passions as we are. What is the secret of their greatness with God in prayer and in receiving answers to prayer? They did not start out their experience with great faith, but oftentimes with much misgiving. As God answered their prayers, their faith was increased. They were able to be content with the will of God, whatever it might be. They prayed in faith and not in unbelief. They trusted themselves entirely to God alone. They submitted to his will and they prayed until they obtained an answer. Most of us, I fear, are too impatient. Most of us, I fear, put our creature comforts as a great priority in what we pray for. And in this day of rapidity and busyness and hurry, we do not pray until we receive and answer. May God change our lives through this man's life who gave his entire life as a testimony and an encouragement to others of a prayer hearing and a prayer answering God. Father, bless, we pray, this lecture concerning the life of George Mueller We thank you for his testimony. We pray that something of his spirit and tenacity and separateness unto you might come to us in our own spiritual pilgrimage, that we might make advancement being encouraged by the testimony and life of this dear man of God. Bless, we ask. Glorify yourself. Sanctify our prayers. Enable us to persevere. Glorify thyself. even in our lives, we ask through Jesus Christ. Amen. now that I'm off tape.