d's loving
remembrance of his work of faith and labour of love in years long gone
by. He was permitted to know that messages delivered for God, tracts
scattered, and other means of service had, after five, ten, twenty, and
even sixty years, at last brought forth a harvest. Hence his urgency in
advising fellow labourers to pray unceasingly that God would work
mightily in the hearts of those who had once been under their care,
bringing to their remembrance the truth which had been set before them.

The humility Mr. Muller enjoined he practised. He was ever only the
_servant_ of the Lord. Mr. Spurgeon, in one of his sermons, describes
the startling effect on London Bridge when he saw one lamp after another
lit up with flame, though in the darkness he could not see the
lamplighter; and George Muller set many a light burning when he was
himself content to be unseen, unnoticed, and unknown. He honestly sought
not his own glory, but had the meek and quiet spirit so becoming a
minister of Jesus Christ.

Mr. Henry Craik's death in 1866, after thirty-four years of co-labour in
the Lord, left Mr. Muller comparatively alone with a double burden of
responsibility, but his faith was equal to the crisis and his peace
remained unbroken. A beloved brother, then visiting Bristol, after
crowded services conducted by him at Bethesda, was about leaving the
city; and he asked Mr. Muller, "What are you going to do, now that Mr.
Craik is dead, to hold the people and prevent their scattering?" "My
beloved brother," was the calm reply, "we shall do what we have always
done, _look only to the Lord."_

This God has been the perpetual helper. Mr. Muller almost totally
withdrew from the work, during the seventeen years of his missionary
tours, between 1875 and 1892, when he was in Bristol but a few weeks or
months at a time, in the intervals between his long journeys and
voyages. This left the assembly of believers still more dependent upon
the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls. But Bethesda has never, in a
sense, been limited to any one or two men, as the only acknowledged
leaders; from the time when those seven believers gathered about the
Lord's table in 1832, the New Testament conception of the equality of
believers in privilege and duty has been maintained. The one supreme
Leader is the Holy Ghost, and under Him those whom He calls and
qualifies. One of the fundamental principles espoused by these brethren
is that the Spirit of God controls