George Müller
| George Ferdinand Müller | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Johann Georg Ferdinand Müller 27 September 1805 Kroppenstaedt, Kingdom of Prussia (now Saxony-Anhalt, Germany) |
| Died | 10 March 1898 (aged 92) Bristol, England |
| Nationality | Prussian |
| Education | Cathedral Classical School, Halberstadt |
| Occupation | Evangelist and missionary, Director of Orphan Houses |
| Spouse(s) | Mary Groves (7 Oct 1830 – 6 Feb 1870), Susannah Grace Sanger (30 Nov 1871 – 13 Jan 1894) |
| Children | Lydia (17 Sep 32 – 10 Jan 90); Elijah (19 Mar 1834 – 26 Jun 1835). Two other children were still-born, 9 Aug 1831 and 12 Jun 1838. |
| Parent(s) | Johann Friedrich Müller (Oct 1768 – 20 Mar 1840), Sophie Eleonore Müller (née Hasse; Apr 1771 – 16 Jan 1820) |
George Müller (born Johann Georg Ferdinand Müller, 27 September 1805 – 10 March 1898), a Christian evangelist and Director of the Ashley Down orphanage in Bristol, England, cared for 10,024 orphans in his life. He was well known for providing an education to the children under his care, to the point where he was accused of raising the poor above their natural station in life. He also established 117 schools which offered Christian education to over 120,000 children, many of them being orphans.
In 1829, Müller offered to work with Jews in England through the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews, and arrived in London on 19 March 1829. By mid-May, he fell ill, and did not think that he would survive. He was sent to Teignmouth to recuperate and, whilst there, met Henry Craik, who became his lifelong friend. Müller returned to London in September, but after ten days started to feel unwell again, blaming it on being confined to his house because of his studies. He asked the Society to send him out to preach but received no reply. By the end of November he became doubtful whether the Society was the right place for him and on 12 December made the decision to leave but to wait for a month before writing. Müller returned to Exmouth on 31 December for a short holiday and preached at various meetings whilst there. He wrote to the Society in early January, requesting that they might consider allowing him to remain with them if they would allow him "to labour in regard to time and place as the Lord might direct me". This they refused to do at a meeting on 27 January 1830, communicating this to Müller in writing, and thus bringing to an end his association with the Society. He moved from Exmouth to Teignmouth and preached several times for Craik, which led to a number of the congregation asking him to stay and be the minister of the chapel of Ebenezer Chapel in Shaldon, Devon, on a salary of £55 per annum. On 7 October 1830, he married Mary Groves, the sister of Anthony Norris Groves. At the end of October, he renounced his regular salary, believing that the practice could lead to church members giving out of duty, not desire. He also eliminated the renting of church pews, arguing that it gave unfair prestige to the rich (based primarily on James 2:1–9).
Müller moved to Bristol on 25 May 1832 to begin working at Bethesda Chapel. Along with Henry Craik, he continued preaching there until his death, even while devoted to his other ministries. In 1834, he founded the Scriptural Knowledge Institution for Home and Abroad, with the goal of aiding Christian schools and missionaries; distributing the Bible and Christian tracts; and providing Day-schools, Sunday-schools and Adult-schools, all upon a Scriptural foundation. By the end of February 1835, there were five Day-schools – two for boys and three for girls. Not receiving government support and only accepting unsolicited gifts, this organisation received and disbursed £1,381,171 – around £90 million in today's terms – by the time of Müller's death, primarily using the money for supporting the orphanages and distributing about 285,407 Bibles, 1,459,506 New Testaments, and 244,351 other religious texts, which were translated into twenty other languages. The money was also used to support other "faith missionaries" around the world, such as Hudson Taylor. The work continues to this day.
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