noured even in the least
particular? Were not the half-believing church and the unbelieving world
looking on, to see how the Living God would stand by His own unchanging
assurance, and would He supply an argument for the skeptic and the
scoffer? Would He not, must He not, rather put new proofs of His
faithfulness in the mouth of His saints, and furnish increasing
arguments wherewith to silence the cavilling tongue and put to shame the
hesitating disciple?*

* Mr. Muller himself tells how he argued his case before the Lord at
this time. (Appendix F. Narrative, vol. 1, 243, 244)

In some such fashion as this did this lowly-minded saint in Bristol
plead with God for more than threescore years, _and prevail_--as every
true believer may who with a like boldness comes to the throne of grace
to obtain mercy and find grace to help in every time of need. How few of
us can sincerely sing:

I believe God answers prayer,
Answers always, everywhere;
I may cast my anxious care,
Burdens I could never bear,
On the God who heareth prayer.
Never need my soul despair
Since He bids me boldly dare
To the secret place repair,
There to prove He answers prayer.

CHAPTER XI

TRIALS OF FAITH, AND HELPERS TO FAITH

GOD has His own mathematics: witness that miracle of the loaves and
fishes. Our Lord said to His disciples: "Give ye them to eat," and as
they divided, He multiplied the scanty provision; as they subtracted
from it He added to it; as they decreased it by distributing, He
increased it for distributing. And it has been beautifully said of all
holy partnerships, that griefs shared are divided, and joys shared are
multiplied.

We have already seen how the prayer circle had been enlarged. The
founder of the orphan work, at the first, had only God for his partner,
telling Him alone his own wants or the needs of his work. Later on, a
very few, including his own wife, Mr. Craik, and one or two helpers,
were permitted to know the condition of the funds and supplies. Later
still, in the autumn of 1838, he began to feel that he ought more fully
to open the doors of his confidence to his associates in the Lord's
business. Those who shared in the toils should also share in the
prayers, and therefore in the knowledge of the needs which prayer was to
supply; else how could they fully be partakers of the faith, the work,
and the reward? Or, again, how could they fee