place, he had found
scarce one true disciple beside his master. The first meetings had been
literally of but two or three, and, when they had grown a little larger,
Mr. Kroll was summoned before the magistrates and, like the apostles in
the first days of the church, forbidden to speak in His name. But again,
like those same primitive disciples, believing that they were to obey
God rather than men, the believing band had continued to meet,
notwithstanding police raids which were so disturbing, and government
fines which were so exacting. So secret, however, were their assemblies,
as to have neither stated place nor regular time.

George Muller found these persecuted believers, meeting in the room of a
humble weaver where there was but one chair. The twenty-five or thirty
who were present found such places to sit or stand as they might, in and
about the loom, which itself filled half the space.

In Halberstadt Mr. Muller found seven large Protestant churches without
one clergyman who gave evidence of true conversion, and the few genuine
disciples there were likewise forbidden to meet together.

A few days after returning to Bristol from his few weeks in Germany, and
at a time of great financial distress in the work, a letter reached him
from a brother who had often before given money, as follows:

"Have you any _present_ need for the Institution under your care? I know
you do not _ask,_ except indeed of Him whose work you are doing; but to
_answer when asked_ seems another thing, and a right thing. I have a
reason for desiring to know the present state of your means towards the
objects you are labouring to serve: viz., should you _not have_ need,
other departments of the Lord's work, or other people of the Lord, _may
have_ need. Kindly then inform me, and to what amount, i.e. what amount
you at this present time need or can profitably lay out."

To most men, even those who carry on a work of faith and prayer, such a
letter would have been at least a temptation. But Mr. Muller did not
waver. To announce even to an inquirer the exact needs of the work
would, in his opinion, involve two serious risks:

1. It would turn his own eyes away from God to man;

2. It would turn the minds of saints away from dependence solely upon
Him.

This man of God had staked everything upon one great experiment--he had
set himself to prove that the prayer which _resorts to God only_ will
bring help in every crisis, even when the crisis