easure to which he was supposed to have
access, he felt constrained to confess that there was _more in that
supposition than the objectors were aware of._ He had indeed a Treasury,
inexhaustible--in the promises of a God unchangeably faithful--from
which he admits that he had already in 1856 drawn for twenty-two years,
and in all over one hundred and thirteen thousand pounds. As to the
Reports, it may be worth while to notice that he never but once in his
life advertised the public of any need, and that was the _need of more
orphans_--more to care for in the name of the Lord--a single and
singular ease of advertising, by which he sought not to increase his
_income,_ but his _expenditure_--not asking the public to aid him in
supporting the needy, but to increase the occasion of his outlay!

So far was he from depending upon any such sources of supply as the
unbelieving world might think, that it was in the drying up of all such
channels that he found the opportunity of his faith and of God's power.
The visible treasure was often so small that it was reduced to nothing,
but the invisible Treasure was God's riches in glory, and could be drawn
from without limit. This it was to which he looked alone, and in which
he felt that he had a river of supply that can never run dry.*

* Appendix H.

The orphan work had, to Mr. Muller, many charms which grew on him as he
entered more fully into it. While his main hope was to be the means of
spiritual health to these children, he had the joy of seeing how God
used these homes for the promotion of their physical welfare also, and,
in cases not a few, for the entire renovation of their weak and diseased
bodies. It must be remembered that most of them owed their orphan
condition to that great destroyer, Consumption. Children were often
brought to the orphan houses thoroughly permeated by the poison of bad
blood, with diseased tendencies, and sometimes emaciated and
half-starved, having had neither proper food nor medical care.

For example, in the spring of 1855, four children from five to nine
years old, and of one family, were admitted to the orphanage, all in a
deplorable state from lack of both nursing and nutrition. It was a
serious question whether they should be admitted at all, as such cases
tended to turn the institution into a hospital, and absorb undue care
and time. But to dismiss them seemed almost inhuman, certainly
_inhumane._ So, trusting in God, they were taken in and