he guidance of it sleeps in Jesus. Whoever has had any such
dealings with God, on however small a scale, cannot even _think_ of the
Lord as failing to honour a faith so simple, genuine, and childlike a
faith which leads a helpless believer thus to cast himself and all his
cares upon God with utter abandonment of all anxiety. This man put God
to proof, and proved to himself and to all who receive his testimony
that it is blessed to wait only upon Him. The particular point which he
had in view, in making these entries in his journal is the object also
of embodying them in these pages, namely, to show that, while the annual
expenses of this Institution were so exceedingly large and the income so
apparently uncertain, the soul of this believer was, to use his own
words, "THROUGHOUT, without the least wavering, stayed upon God,
believing that He who had through him begun the Institution, enlarged it
almost year after year, and upheld it for forty years in answer to
prayer by faith, would do this still and not suffer this servant of His
to be confounded."* Believing that God would still help, and supply the
means, George Muller was willing, and THOROUGHLY in heart prepared, if
necessary, to pass again through similar severe and prolonged seasons of
trial as he had already endured.

* Narrative, IV. 389.

The Living God had kept him calm and restful, amid all the ups and downs
of his long experience as the superintendent and director of this
many-sided work, though the tests of faith had not been light or short
of duration. For more than ten years at a time--as from August, 1838, to
April, 1849, day by day, and for months together from meal to meal--it
was necessary to look to God, almost without cessation, for daily
supplies. When, later on, the Institution was twentyfold larger and the
needs proportionately greater, for months at a time the Lord likewise
constrained His servant to lean from hour to hour, in the same
dependence, upon Him. All along through these periods of unceasing want,
the Eternal God was his refuge and underneath were the Everlasting Arms.
He reflected that God was aware of all this enlargement of the work and
its needs; he comforted himself with the consoling thought that he was
seeking his Master's glory; and that if in this way the greater glory
would accrue to Him for the good of His people and of those who were
still unbelievers, it was no concern of the servant; nay, more than
this, it behooved the