he smallest
matter to the Lord.

* Vol. I. 74.

Again, in his journal he constantly seeks to save from reproach the good
name of Him whom he serves: he cannot have such a God accounted a hard
Master. So early as July, 1831, a false rumour found circulation that he
and his wife were half-starving and that certain bodily ailments were
the result of a lack of the necessities of life; and he is constrained
to put on record that, though often brought so low as not to have one
penny left and to have the last bread on the table, they had never yet
sat down to a meal unprovided with some nourishing food. This witness
was repeated from time to time, and until just before his departure for
the Father's house on high; and it may therefore be accepted as covering
that whole life of faith which reached over nearly threescore years and
ten.

A kindred word of testimony, first given at this same time and in like
manner reiterated from point to point in his pilgrimage, concerns the
Lord's faithfulness in accompanying His word with power, in accordance
with that positive and unequivocal promise in Isaiah lv. 11: "My word
shall not return unto Me void; but it shall accomplish that which I
please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." It is very
noticeable that this is not said of _man's_ word, however wise,
important, or sincere, but of _God's_ word. We are therefore justified
in both expecting and claiming that, just so far as our message is not
of human invention or authority, but is God's message through us, it
shall never fail to accomplish His pleasure and its divine errand,
whatever be its apparent failure at the time. Mr. Muller, referring to
his own preaching, bears witness that in almost if not quite every place
where he spoke God's word, whether in larger chapels or smaller rooms,
the Lord gave the seal of His own testimony. He observed, however, that
blessing did not so obviously or abundantly follow his open-air
services: only in one instance had it come to his knowledge that there
were marked results, and that was in the case of an army officer who
came to make sport. Mr. Muller thought that it might please the Lord not
to let him see the real fruit of his work in open-air meetings, or that
there had not been concerning them enough believing prayer; but he
concluded that such manner of preaching was not his present work, since
God had not so conspicuously sealed it with blessing.

His journal makes very