1. Without any one having been personally applied to for anything by me, the sum of 24,771l. 19s. 8 ¾ d. was given to me as the result of prayer to God from the commencement of the work up to May 26, 1848. This sum includes the 11,062l. 4s. 11 1/2 d, which up to May 26, 1848 had been given towards the Building Fund. (It may be interesting to the reader to know that the total amount which was given as free contributions, for the other objects, from the commencement of the work, up to May 26, 1848, was 7,060l. 14s. 1 ¾ d.; and that which came in by the sale of Bibles and Tracts, and by the payment of the children in the day-schools, amounted to 2,373l. 3s. 7 ½ d.) 2. Besides this, also a great variety and number of articles of clothing, furniture, provisions, &c. were given for the use of the Orphans.
Matters connected with my own personal affairs, or the work of the Lord in my hands, not immediately connected with the Scriptural Knowledge Institution, from May 26, 1846 to May 26, 1848.
July 21, 1846, In very great need respecting my own personal expenses, and immediately after I had prayed respecting it, I received from a Christian gentleman of Torquay 1l.
July 23. Immediately after prayer for my own personal expenses, being in need, I received from the neighbourhood of Leeds 2l.
July 25. While I was on my knees in prayer, asking the Lord for means for myself, 1l. came to me from Bath.
Aug. 5. Being still much in need, and having asked the Lord for means, I received yesterday evening 1l. 0s. 3d., being some money due to me, and today from Teignmouth 1l. as a present.
Dec. 31, 1846. During this year there have been received into Fellowship 66.
The Lord has been pleased to give me during this year
1, Through the boxes. . . . £165 15 1 ½
2, Through believers in Bristol, not anonymously . . . . 81 13 1 ½
3, Through believers not residing in Bristol . . . . . 136 14 8
4, Through presents in articles, worth at least . . . . 15 0 0
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£399 2 11
To this is again to be added, what I have enlarged on in a former chapter, that during the whole of this year also my daughter was, free of all expenses, at a boarding school. This was worth about 50l.
In November, 1847, I had a most remarkable deliverance, which to the praise of the Lord is here recorded, as it is a further illustration of how the Lord watches over His children.
I was labouring for a little while at Bowness and Keswick in the ministry of the Word in October and November When at Keswick, I stayed with my dear wife in a large boarding-house, in which, however, we were then alone, except a single gentleman. Just before we left Keswick, on the morning of Nov. 24th, I heard that the gentleman, lodging in the same house, had shot himself during the night, but was not quite dead. We had not heard the report of the pistol, it being a very stormy night, and the house large. Two days after, I received from a Christian brother at Keswick the following information respecting the transaction.
Keswick, Nov. 25, 1847.
"Dear Mr. Müller,
The tender and Almighty care of our loving Father was never more over you, and indeed over all of us, than in your stay at Mrs. . . . .'s. Mr. . . . . . was quite deranged for two or three days before you left. Without any control, he had been walking about his room for the last two days and nights, with loaded-pistols in his hands. Furthermore he had taken into his head that you were going to kill him. How gracious of God, that he spread His wings over you, and over dear Mrs. Müller, so that Satan could not break through the fence, to hurt even a hair of your heads. Speaking after the manner of men, there was nothing to have hindered him coming into the room, where we were all at tea, 9 and firing amongst us; but the Lord was our refuge and fortress, and preserved us from danger, which we knew not of. He shot himself in the neck and the breast, but is not dead. He has a strait-waistcoat on. I assisted in cutting his clothes off, and in other little offices, needed at such a time, and told him of Christ's love in dying for poor sinners. I know it,' he said. He shot himself the first time about three o'clock in the morning, and again about seven. What a scene his room presented. Pistols lying in gore. Bloody knives, lancets, and razors strewed about the floor." Etc.
I add an extract from a second letter, written by the same Christian brother, because it shows still further, how very merciful the Lord was to us at that time, in protecting us.