d shortly be required, toward which there was not
one penny in hand. When, one day, over four pounds came in, the thought
occurred to Mr. Muller, "Why not lay aside three pounds against the
coming need?" But immediately he remembered that it is written:
"SUFFICIENT UNTO THE DAY is THE EVIL THEREOF."* He unhesitatingly cast
himself upon God, and paid out the whole amount for salaries then due,
leaving himself again penniless.

* Matt. vi. 34.

At this time Mr. Craik was led to read a sermon on Abraham, from Genesis
xii, making prominent two facts: first, that so long as he acted in
faith and walked in the will of God, all went on well; but that,
secondly, so far as he distrusted the Lord and disobeyed Him, all ended
in failure. Mr. Muller heard this sermon and conscientiously applied it
to himself. He drew two most practical conclusions which he had abundant
opportunity to put into practice:

First, that he must go into no byways or paths of his own for
deliverance out of a crisis;

And, secondly, that in proportion as he had been permitted to honour God
and bring some glory to His name by trusting Him, he was in danger of
dishonouring Him.

Having taught him these blessed truths, the Lord tested him as to how
far he would venture upon them. While in such sore need of money for the
orphan work, he had in the bank some two hundred and twenty pounds,
intrusted to him for other purposes. He might _use this money for the
time at least,_ and so relieve the present distress. The temptation was
the stronger so to do, because he knew the donors and knew them to be
liberal supporters of the orphans; and he had only to explain to them
the straits he was in and they would gladly consent to any appropriation
of their gift that he might see best! Most men would have cut that
Gordian knot of perplexity without hesitation.

Not so George Muller. He saw at once that this would be _finding a way
of his own out of difficulty, instead of waiting on the Lord for
deliverance._ Moreover, he also saw that it would be _forming a habit of
trusting to such expedients of his own, which in other trials would lead
to a similar course and so hinder the growth of faith._ We use italics
here because here is revealed one of the _tests_ by which this man of
faith, was proven; and we see how he kept consistently and persistently
to the one great purpose of his life--to demonstrate to all men that to
_rest solely on I the promise of a faithful God_