nd pattern in Francke's orphanage at Halle. The very
building where this young student lodged was to him an object lesson--a
visible, veritable, tangible proof that the Living God hears prayer, and
can, in answer to prayer alone, build a house for orphan children. That
lesson was never lost, and George Muller fell into the apostolic
succession of such holy labour! He often records how much his own
faith-work was indebted to that example of simple trust in prayer
exhibited by Francke. Seven years later he read his life, and was
thereby still more prompted to follow him as he followed Christ.

George Muller's spiritual life in these early days was strangely
chequered. For instance, he who, as a Lutheran divinity student, was
essaying to preach, hung up in his room a framed crucifix, hoping
thereby to keep in mind the sufferings of Christ and so less frequently
fall into sin. Such helps, however, availed him little, for while he
rested upon such artificial props, it seemed as though he sinned the
oftener.

He was at this time overworking, writing sometimes fourteen hours a day,
and this induced nervous depression, which exposed him to various
temptations. He ventured into a confectioner's shop where wine and beer
were sold, and then suffered reproaches of conscience for conduct so
unbecoming a believer; and he found himself indulging ungracious and
ungrateful thoughts of God, who, instead of visiting him with deserved
chastisement, multiplied His tender mercies.

He wrote to a rich, liberal and titled lady, asking a loan, and received
the exact sum asked for, with a letter, not from her, but from another
into whose hands his letter had fallen by "a peculiar providence," and
who signed it as "An adoring worshipper of the Saviour Jesus Christ."
While led to send the money asked for, the writer added wise words of
caution and counsel--words so fitted to George Muller's exact need that
he saw plainly the higher Hand that had guided the anonymous writer. In
that letter he was urged to "seek by watching and prayer to be delivered
from all vanity and self-complacency," to make it his "chief aim to be
more and more humble, faithful, and quiet," and not to be of those who
"say 'Lord, Lord,' but have Him not deeply in their hearts." He was also
reminded that "Christianity consists not in words but in power, and that
there must be life in us."

He was deeply moved by this message from God through an unknown party,
and the more as