needle, and the boys are in school, until
bedtime, the younger children going to rest at eight, and the older, at
nine. The food is simple, ample, and nutritious, consisting of bread,
oatmeal, milk, soups, meat, rice, and vegetables. Everything is adjusted
to one ultimate end; to use Mr. Muller's own words: "We aim at this:
that, if any of them do not turn out well, temporally or spiritually,
and do not become useful members of society, it shall not at least be
_our_ fault." The most thorough and careful examination of the whole
methods of the institution will only satisfy the visitor that it will
not be the fault of those who superintend this work, if the orphans are
not well fitted, body and soul, for the work of life, and are not
prepared for a blessed immortality.

CHAPTER XV

THE MANIFOLD GRACE OF GOD

SOME one has quaintly said, in commenting upon the Twenty-third Psalm,
that "the coach in which the Lord's saints ride has not only a driver,
but two footmen"--_"goodness and mercy shall follow me."_

Surely these two footmen of the Lord, in their celestial livery of
grace, followed George Muller all the days of his life. Wonderful as is
the story of the building of those five orphan houses on Ashley Down,
many other events and experiences no less showed the goodness and mercy
of God, and must not be unrecorded in these pages, if we are to trace,
however imperfectly, His gracious dealings; and having, by one
comprehensive view, taken in the story of the orphan homes, we may
retrace our steps to the year when the first of these houses was
planned, and, following another path, look at Mr. Muller's personal and
domestic life.

He himself loved to trace the Lord's goodness and mercy, and he saw
abundant proofs that they had followed him. A few instances may be
given, from different departments of experience, as representative
examples.

The Lord's tender care was manifest as to his beloved daughter Lydia. It
became clear in the year 1843, that, both for the relief of the mother
and the profit of the daughter, it would be better that Lydia should be
taught elsewhere than at home; and in answer to prayer, her father was
divinely directed to a Christian sister, whose special gifts in the way
of instructing and training children were manifestly from the Spirit,
who divides unto all believers severally as He will. She seemed to be
marked of God, as the woman to whom was to be intrusted the responsible
task of superi