Your affectionate brother and servant in our Lord,
George Müller.
I add a few remarks respecting this my service on the Continent.
1. For about eight months before I left England, I had seen it to be the Lord's will, that I should go again that year to the Continent for a season, and had made my journey and service, during that period, a daily subject of prayer from Nov. 1844. I left Bristol on July 19th and returned on Oct. 11th, 1845.
2. I should have greatly preferred to preach the Gospel in the streets or in the market places in Germany; but for that there was no liberty. I did therefore what I could, in spreading about eleven hundred copies of my Narrative, and tens of thousands of tracts. In this I was particularly encouraged by remembering that that great work, at the time of the Reformation, was chiefly accomplished by means of printed publications.
3. We travelled in a hired carriage for 17 days, each day about 40 or 45 miles. I had a box, containing about thirty thousand tracts, made on purpose, behind the carriage, and in the fore-part several portmanteaus filled with tracts and copies of my Narrative in German. As we went on, my dear wife and I looked out for travellers who were coming, or persons on the road side. It was just the time when the potatoes were taken up, and thousands of people were thus either close to the turnpike road, or only a little way from it. The front of our carriage had glass windows, so that we could see all the persons before us, and on each side. As soon as the carriage was near enough, I held the tracts or a copy of my Narrative out to them, and requested them to accept them or sometimes beckoned the working people to come up to the carriage, which almost without exception they readily did, and then received a book or tract. In case of genteel persons, whom we sometimes met, I repeatedly ordered the driver to stop, and I got out of the carriage, and handed the books or tracts to them. Often also I walked up a hill, and then conversed with the persons whom I joined, or gave tracts more extensively in this way.
4. The reason why we pursued this plan of travelling was, a, that I might myself circulate as many as possible; b, that the tracts and Narratives might be scattered over as extensive a tract of country as possible; c, that I might be able to accomplish it, before the police could prevent it. On the road side, before entering villages and towns, or after we had left them, I gave away freely. Now suppose this came to the ears of the police, as no doubt in many instances it did; before any measures could be taken, we might be at a distance of 5, 10, or 20 miles from the spot; for we travelled, as I said, from 40 to 45 miles daily. This was indeed an expensive way of circulating the tracts, and wearing to body and mind more than can easily be perceived; but it was a most effectual way, and a precious service to be allowed to be engaged in for the Lord. When we had finished our journey, lasting 23 days, we were completely worn out for the time.
5. At first we sometimes threw down the tracts to persons, out of the carriage, when they were not near enough to have them handed to them. This, however, we discontinued on the second or third day; for I judged, that, as we would not throw down Bibles, Testaments, or smaller portions of the Holy Scriptures, so these tracts also, filled with the truth of God, and written for the honour of God, should not be thrown down; and that we would rather not give them at all, than in this way. I purposely notice this, as many Christians are in the habit of throwing tracts out of a carriage, as I did at first. I might put them secretly in drawers, or on the table, or under the table-cover in inns, or elsewhere, where they afterwards might be found; but I could not feel any longer happy in not treating them with all reverence, because they contain the truth of God.