follow them," where
exertion is without exhaustion.

This is therefore a fit point for summing up the results of the work
over which, from its beginning, one man had specially had charge. One
sentence from Mr. Muller'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." This prepared both for the development of the character of him
who had such singleness of aim, and for the development of the work in
which that aim found action. Mr. Muller's oldest friend, Robert C.
Chapman of Barnstaple, beautifully says that "when a man's chief
business is to serve and please the Lord, all his circumstances become
his servants"; and we shall find this maxim true in Mr. Muller's
life-work.

The Fifty-ninth Report, issued May 26, 1898, was the last up to the date
of the publication of this volume, and the first after Mr. Muller's
death. In this, Mr. Wright gives the brief but valuable summary not only
of the whole work of the year preceding, but of the whole work from its
beginning, and thus helps us to a comprehensive survey.

This report is doubly precious as it contains also the last contribution
of Mr. Muller's own pen to the record of the Lord's dealings. It is
probable that on the afternoon of March 9th he laid down his pen, for
the last time, all unconscious that he was never again to take it up. He
had made, in a twofold sense, his closing entry in life's solemn
journal! In the evening of that day he took his customary part in the
prayer service in the orphan house--then went to sleep for the last time
on earth; there came a waking hour, when he was alone with God, and
suddenly departed, leaving his body to its long sleep that knows no
waking until the day of the Lord's coming, while his spirit returned
unto God who gave it.

The afternoon of that day of death, and of 'birth' into the heavenly
life--as the catacomb saints called it--found the helpers again
assembled in the same prayer room to commit the work to him "who only
hath immortality," and who, amid all changes of human administration,
ever remains the divine Master Workman, never at a loss for His own
chosen instruments.

Mr. Wright, in this report, shows himself God's chosen successor in the
work, evidently like-minded with the departed director. The first
paragraph, after the brief and touching reference to his father-in-law,