ears
learning such advanced lessons in _renunciation:_ burning his manuscript
novel, giving up the girl he loved, turning his back on the seductive
prospect of ease and wealth, to accept self-denial for God, cutting
loose from dependence on his father and then refusing all stated salary
lest his liberty of witness be curtailed, and choosing a simple
expository mode of preaching, instead of catering to popular taste! Then
mark how he fed on the word of God; how he cultivated the habits of
searching the Scriptures and praying in secret; how he threw himself on
God, not only for temporal supplies, but for support in bearing all
burdens, however great or small; and how thus early he offered himself
for the mission field and was impatiently eager to enter it. Then look
at the sovereign love of God, imparting to him in so eminent a degree
the childlike spirit, teaching him to trust not his own variable moods
of feeling, but the changeless word of His promise; teaching him to wait
patiently on Him for orders, and not to look to human authority or
direction; and so singularly releasing him from military service for
life, and mysteriously withholding him from the far-off mission field,
that He might train him for his unique mission to the race and the ages
to come!

These are a few of the salient points of this narrative, thus far, which
must, to any candid mind, demonstrate that a higher Hand was moulding
this chosen vessel on His potter's wheel, and shaping it unmistakably
for the singular service to which it was destined!

CHAPTER V

THE PULPIT AND THE PASTORATE

No work for God surpasses in dignity and responsibility the Christian
ministry. It is at once the consummate flower of the divine planting,
the priceless dower of His church, and through it works the power of God
for salvation.

Though George Muller had begun his 'candidacy for holy orders' as an
unconverted man, seeking simply a human calling with a hope of a
lucrative living, he had heard God's summons to a divine vocation, and
he was from time to time preaching the Gospel, but not in any settled
field.

While at Teignmouth, early in 1830, preaching by invitation, he was
asked to take the place of the minister who was about to leave, but he
replied that he felt at that time called of God, not to a stationary
charge, but rather to a sort of itinerant evangelism. During this time
he preached at Shaldon for Henry Craik, thus coming into closer contact
with