14 November 2006 - Muller's Ashley Hill orphanages have dominated our skyline for about 150 years.We find out about who founded them, as a new book on the man is published Lights out: photographs include The babies' dormitory. The children are dressed in their nightgowns ready for bed, Keeping the faith: George Muller, Muller girls dressed for an outing in about 1908, George Muller's body was carried to its final resting place in Arnos Vale cemetery in the spring of 1898, Bristol's normally bustling streets came to a standstill.
Thousands of people lined the roadside and 80 carriages followed the cortege. Muller, a man prepared to let God rule his life and who achieved everything by faith, will be remembered, like Edward Colston, as one of the city's great benefactors. His five orphanages at Ashley Hill - as austere as they looked - were part and parcel of the city's life for generations. But Muller had never set out with these intentions in mind. Far from it in fact.
Born in Germany in 1805, the son of a tax collector, the young man studied to became a preacher, a vocation which should have led to comfortable life as a Lutheran country parson. But his unsuspecting father's generous allowance was spent on drinking and gambling. Instead of studying he caroused, strummed his guitar and frequented prostitutes. Worse was to come. At 16 he stole some funds meant to pay for building work on his father's house and went off for a week with a girlfriend he was trying to impress. Three week's later - after a run of unpaid bills had upset many furious innkeepers - he was arrested and thrown into prison. His long suffering father bailed him out but George's rebel behaviour continued.
On returning from a drunken holiday in Switzerland he resolved to change his ways. But he didn't. Then, at a church service, God intervened in his life. It was a revelation. The one-time hell-raiser stopped going to taverns and cut his daily alcohol content down from 10 pints to two. Mocked by his former drinking partners, he even started to take a real interest in the bible. He then dumfounded his father - who promptly cut off his allowance - by saying that he wanted to become a missionary. Most Germans at that time were well received in this country, and so George set his sights on England Arriving in London 1829, he soon became restless, eventually settling in Teignmouth where he became a minister and travelling preacher. Then in 1832, along with his English wife, Mary, he arrived in Bristol, which, he had been informed, had 'ripe fields for harvest'. Muller and his wife decided that they would depend on God - and the power of prayer - for all their needs.
Now believing himself to be in God's good books, he was fond of saying: 'Before I was born the Lord called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name'. The couple might have gone hungry but they never starved. When there was no food in the pantry or his purse was empty, money or a meal would arrive to save the day. 'Pray and pay' became their motto. It was to be the principle on which Muller was to run his orphanages, too. He would never run up debts or accept money from non-Christians, saying: 'God alone shall be our patron' Muller began what was to be a long association with the Bethesda Chapel in Great George Street (it was blitzed in 1941), just off Park Street. He shared a house with friends before moving into Wilson Street, St Paul's, where, in 1836, he opened his very first orphanage. Houses two and three rapidly followed, as did the money to pay for them. Everything he needed was given by willing contributors. Among them was six shillings from a young boy who had died and wanted all his savings to be donated to the orphans.
This was a time of fervent industrialisation as people flocked to the cities for work; and early death left many young children parentless. Some, willingly or unwillingly, went to live with relatives, others into the dreaded workhouse. Many others became street children, thieves and beggars. Even when he was responsible for more than 100 children and carers living in four houses, Muller refused to advertise or appeal for funds. Miraculously, as the bills came in, so did the donations. One day the children were waiting hungrily for breakfast - but there was no food and no money. Muller simply prayed: 'Father we thank thee for what Thou art going to give us to eat'. At that moment, so the story goes, a baker arrived with fresh bread claiming he couldn't sleep worrying about the orphans - and a milkman, who broke down outside the orphanage, offered his load to the children so that he could mend his cart.
Some finance was raised by selling the children's needlework and knitting, but most income arrived miraculously, as and when it was needed. When the Wilson Street houses became too cramped and the noise of the children started to upset the neighbours, Muller decided to move. He started praying, and in three years had enough money to buy land on Ashley Down and build the first of his great grey houses. After a fifth house had been built, Muller found himself caring for 2,000 children. The total cost had been enormous, £109,000, but all came in without any fundraising.
Running the orphanage cost £44,000 a year, all provided by what he called 'our infinitely rich treasurer.' By whom he meant God. Mr and Mrs Muller lived very modesty and any gifts they gave away. When George died on March 10, 1898, his estate was valued at just £160. In his lifetime, he had started 117 schools, educated 120,000 children and raised, in today's terms, the equivalent of a billion pounds. His orphanages continued to feed, clothe and educate the Muller children. Theirs was a routine existence full of religious services and indoctrination and with little personal freedom or individual attention - but it gave the children a chance in life which they would not otherwise have had. Girls were usually trained for domestic service, and boys as trade apprentices. Every Good Friday, the children would walk, crocodile style, to Brandon Hill's Bethesda Chapel to hear Muller preach.
His five orphanages closed in 1957/8 and the remaining children were sent to other, more domestic, 'family group' homes in Bristol, Clevedon, Weston and Minehead. The five buildings were taken over by the Corporation and converted into the Bristol College of Science and Technology.
Robber Of The Cruel Streets - The Prayerful Life Of George Muller is by Clive Langmead. It is published by CWR and costs £9.99. For more information, email mail@cwr.org.uk, call 01252 784700 Filmed at the George Muller Foundation Museum, in Bristol, there is also an hour long docu/drama about Muller's life.
The DVD costs £14.99 and video £11.99 (plus postage and packing)
