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This volume is a biographical memoir that seeks to present the life and ministry of George Müller, the 19th‑century Bristol philanthropist whose orphan homes and prayer‑centered ministry have become legendary. The work opens with a prefatory endorsement by James Wright, who explains that earlier sketches of Müller’s career, though accurate, left a need for a more comprehensive account that could draw out the spiritual lessons of his experience. The author, Arthur T. Pierson, is introduced as the chosen chronicler for an American audience, and the text proceeds to outline its purpose: to arrange Müller’s story thematically rather than strictly chronologically, emphasizing how his life testifies to a prayer‑hearing God. The opening pages also describe the extensive primary material, Müller’s own four‑volume narrative, annual reports, and personal journals, that underpins the memoir, and they set up a detailed table of contents that maps his journey from birth through conversion, pastoral work, missionary tours, and the establishment of orphan houses.
Written in the earnest, reverent style of late‑Victorian religious literature, the book combines scholarly detail with devotional reflection. Pierson’s voice is formal yet intimate, often invoking Scripture to frame each phase of Müller’s life, and the narrative is punctuated by extensive appendices that list the biblical texts that shaped Müller’s faith. Readers who appreciate historic Christian biographies, especially those interested in the interplay of personal piety, social reform, and the doctrine of answered prayer, will find this memoir rewarding. It will also appeal to scholars of 19th‑century British evangelicalism and to anyone seeking a model of faith‑driven service drawn from a well‑documented life.
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While waiting for the answer to this definite petition, though greatly urged by publishers to proceed, I steadily declined to take any step until I had clearer light. Moreover, I was, personally, occupied during May and June in preparing the Annual Report of "The Scriptural Knowledge Institution," and could not give proper attention to the other matter.
Just then I learned from Dr. Arthur T. Pierson, of Brooklyn, N. Y., that he had been led to undertake the production of a memoir of Mr. Muller for American readers, and requesting my aid by furnishing him with some materials needed for the work.
Having complied with this request I was favoured by Dr. Pierson with a syllabus of the method and contents of his intended work.
The more I thought upon the subject the more satisfied I became that no one could be found more fitted to undertake the work which had been called for on this side of the Atlantic also than this my well-known and beloved friend.
He had had exceptional opportunities twenty years ago in the United States, and in later years when visiting Great Britain, for becoming intimately acquainted with Mr. Muller, with the principles on which the Orphanage and other branches of "The Scriptural Knowledge Institution" were carried on, and with many details of their working. I knew that Dr. Pierson most thoroughly sympathized with these principles as being according to the mind of God revealed in His word; and that he could, therefore, present not merely the history of the external facts and results of Mr. Muller's life and labours, but could and would, by God's help, unfold, with the ardour and force of conviction, the secret springs of that life and of those labours.
I therefore intimated to my dear friend that, provided he would allow me to read the manuscript and have thus the opportunity of making any suggestions that I felt necessary, I would, as my beloved father-in-law's executor and representative, gladly endorse his work as the authorized memoir for British as well as American readers.
To this Dr. Pierson readily assented; and now, after carefully going through the whole, I confidently recommend the book to esteemed readers on both sides of the Atlantic, with the earnest prayer that the result, in relation to the subject of this memoir, may be identical with that produced by the account of the Apostle Paul's "manner of life" upon the churches of Judea which were in Christ (Gal. i. 24), viz.,
"They glorified GOD" in him.
JAMES WRIGHT.
13 CHARLOTTE STREET, PARK STREET, BRISTOL, ENG., March, 1899.
DR. OLIVER W. HOLMES wittily said that an autobiography is what every biography ought to be. The four volumes of "The Narrative of the Lord's Dealings with George Muller," already issued from the press and written by his own hand, with a fifth volume covering his missionary tours, and prepared by his wife, supplemented by the Annual Reports since published, constitute essentially an autobiography--Mr. Muller's own life-story, stamped with his own peculiar individuality, and singularly and minutely complete. To those who wish the simple journal of his life with the details of his history, these printed documents make any other sketch of him from other hands so far unnecessary.
There are, however, two considerations which have mainly prompted the preparation of this brief memoir: first, that the facts of this remarkable life might be set forth not so much with reference to the chronological order of their occurrence, as events, as for the sake of the lessons in living which they furnish, illustrating and enforcing grand spiritual principles and precepts: and secondly, because no man so humble as he would ever write of himself what, after his departure, another might properly write of him that others might glorify God in him.
No one could have undertaken this work of writing Mr. Muller's life-story without being deeply impressed with the opportunity thus afforded for impressing the most vital truths that concern holy living and holy serving; nor could any one have completed such a work without feeling overawed by the argument which this narrative furnishes for a present, living, prayer-hearing God, and for a possible and practical daily walk with Him and work with Him. It has been a great help in the preparation of this book that the writer has had such frequent converse with Mr. James Wright, who was so long Mr. Muller's associate and knew him so intimately.
So prominent was the word of God as a power in Mr. Muller's life that, in an appendix, we have given peculiar emphasis to the great leading texts of Scripture which inspired and guided his faith and conduct, and, so far as possible, in the order in which such texts became practically influential in his life; and so many wise and invaluable counsels are to be found scattered throughout his journal that some of the most striking and helpful have been selected, which may also be found in the appendix.
This volume has, like the life it sketches, but one aim. It is simply and solely meant to extend, emphasize, and perpetuate George Muller's witness to a prayer-hearing God; to present, as plainly, forcibly, and briefly as is practicable, the outlines of a human history, and an experience of the Lord's leadings and dealings, which furnish a sufficient answer to the question:
WHERE IS THE LORD GOD OF ELIJAH?
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