Other paragraphs in the report read thus: "Received anonymously five large cheeses; received a box of dessert knives and forks, a cruet, a silver soup ladle and a silver cup; from Clifton, twelve tons house coals; from Bedminster, a monster loaf, 200 lbs. in weight, and ten feet long and twenty-one inches broad".
On 1st August £82 5s. came "from a Christian gentleman in Devon, who for more than forty-five years has from time to time helped us, though I have never seen him".
"To-day," writes Müller on 7th September, "our income altogether was about £300—a plain proof that we do not wait on the Lord in vain; for every donation we receive is a direct answer to prayer, because we never ask a single human being for anything." On 29th October Mr. Müller writes: "For several days very little has come in for the support of the various objects of the institution. To-day, again, only about £15 was received by the first four deliveries of letters; at 5:45 I had for the third time that day prayer with my dear wife, entreating God to help us, and a little after 6 p.m. came a cheque for £200 by the fifth delivery, from Edinburgh."
A gold chain and watch-key, two gold brooches, and a pair of earrings were sent to Mr. Müller, with the following comment: "My wife and I having, through the exceeding riches of God's grace, been brought to the Lord Jesus, wish to lay aside the perishing gold of the world for the unsearchable riches of Christ, and send the enclosed for the support of the orphans".
The above are from a single yearly report—that for 1893. Scores of similar donations in money and kind are recounted in the same annual statement. In that year Mr. Müller was able to speak of his conversion as having taken place nearly sixty-eight years ago. The work has been wonderfully blessed. In the report mentioned Mr. Müller stated that the total amount he had received by prayer and faith for the various objects of his institutions, since 5th March, 1834, had been £1,309,627; that no fewer than 8727 children had been under his care; and that he had room at his Homes for 2050 orphans.
A LABOURER IN THE VINEYARD.
THE STORY OF ROBERT MOFFAT.
"Oh, mother! ask what you will, and I shall do it."
So said Robert Moffat as he stood with his mother on the Firth of
Forth waiting for the boat to ferry him across.
He was sixteen years old, and having got a good situation as gardener in Cheshire was bidding farewell that day to home and parents, and about to face the world alone.