r Bristol; for Mr. Muller's general
sphere of work was in the city, the orphans and their helpers should be
within reasonable reach of their customary meeting-place, and on many
other accounts such nearness to the city was desirable. But such a site
would cost from two thousand to three thousand pounds.

Next the building must be constructed, fitted up, and furnished, with
accommodations for three hundred orphans and their overseers, teachers,
and various helpers. However plain the building and its furnishings, the
total cost would reach from three to four times the price of the site.

Then, the annual cost of keeping such house open and of maintaining such
a large body of inmates would be four or five thousand pounds more.

Here, then, was a prospective outlay of somewhere between ten thousand
and fifteen thousand pounds, for site and building, with a further
expense of one third as much more every year. No man so poor as George
Muller, if at the same time sane, would ever have _thought_ of such a
gigantic scheme, much less have undertaken to work it out, if his faith
and hope were not fixed on God. Mr. Muller himself confesses that here
lay his whole secret. He was not driven onward by any self-seeking, but
drawn onward by a conviction that he was doing the will of God. When
Constantine was laying out on a vast scale the new capital on the
Bosphorus, he met the misgivings of those about him who wondered at his
audacity, by simply saying, "I am following One who is leading me."
George Muller's scheme was not self-originated. He followed One who was
leading him; and, because confident and conscious of such guidance, he
had only to follow, trust, and wait.

In proportion as the undertaking was great, he desired God's hand to be
very clearly seen. Hence he forbore even to seem prominent: he issued no
circular, announcing his purpose, and spoke of it only to the few who
were in his councils, and even then only as conversation led in that
direction. He remembered the promise, "I will guide thee with Mine eye,"
and looking up to God, he took no step unless the divine glance or beck
made duty "clear as daylight." As he saw the matter, his whole business
was to wait on God in prayer with faith and patience.

The assurance became doubly sure that _God would build for Himself_ a
large orphan house near Bristol, to show to all, near and far, what a
blessed privilege it is to trust in Him. He desired God Himself so
manifestly