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George Mueller is one of the men we love to cover the most on this show. His heroic and faithful work with orphans, missions, and preaching should be an example to all who seek to follow the Lord.
Listen in this episode while we hear him recount his beloved wife. Big thanks to Leigh for reading this sermon.
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00:00 --> 00:03 [SPEAKER_03]: Revived Thoughts is a production of Revived Studios.
00:08 --> 00:11 [SPEAKER_02]: This is Troy and Joel and you're listening to Revived Thoughts.
00:19 --> 00:25 [SPEAKER_01]: The reason I want to preach this funeral sermon is not simply because the late Mrs. Milner was my beloved wife.
00:26 --> 00:29 [SPEAKER_01]: It is so that I may magnify the Lord for giving her to me.
00:31 --> 00:36 [SPEAKER_03]: Every episode, we bring you a different voice from history and a sermon that they delivered today.
00:36 --> 00:44 [SPEAKER_03]: We're going back to Bristol in the year 1870, the listen to a sermon by George Mueller, one of our favorites.
00:44 --> 00:45 [SPEAKER_03]: How are you doing, Troy?
00:45 --> 00:47 [SPEAKER_02]: You know, Joel, I am pretty good.
00:47 --> 00:49 [SPEAKER_02]: Can't complain about anything, although it is a little...
00:50 --> 01:05 [SPEAKER_02]: sad and a little coincidence always sad to get to like the last episode for summer break We all we ever since I moved to Indonesia and I had a travel one summer and could not keep the show going We've been taking a couple months off during Summer break and to be honest very helpful
01:06 --> 01:09 [SPEAKER_02]: Very, it's been, it's a good time to recharge.
01:09 --> 01:16 [SPEAKER_02]: It takes a lot to get the weekly sermons and scripts and Joel and I are traveling a lot and I have found that it is a good break to recharge and be ready.
01:17 --> 01:18 [SPEAKER_02]: We don't take the complete summer off.
01:18 --> 01:24 [SPEAKER_02]: We have usually deep diers and other things that drop, but it is still, is really a good time to catch up on work.
01:24 --> 01:31 [SPEAKER_02]: And this summer you're not completely alone because we have a new podcast, Christian or not, which we've been telling you, you need to be subscribed to.
01:31 --> 01:33 [SPEAKER_02]: Those episodes will continue coming out throughout the summer.
01:33 --> 01:34 [SPEAKER_02]: So you're not abandon.
01:36 --> 01:49 [SPEAKER_02]: If, while you've caught up on Christian or not, you found out whether Isaac Newton and John Rockefeller and Charlomaine or Christian, you need to go and check out there are 300 plus episodes of Revive Thoughts.
01:49 --> 01:54 [SPEAKER_02]: So I go back and listen to all of those because I know you have not listened to all of them.
01:55 --> 01:55 [SPEAKER_02]: Well, that's not true.
01:55 --> 01:57 [SPEAKER_02]: There are a few of you who do listen to all of them.
01:57 --> 01:58 [SPEAKER_02]: But most of you have not.
01:58 --> 02:00 [SPEAKER_02]: And you say, oh, I get overwhelmed.
02:00 --> 02:01 [SPEAKER_02]: I'm too busy and then I fall behind.
02:01 --> 02:02 [SPEAKER_02]: Well, this is your chance.
02:02 --> 02:03 [SPEAKER_02]: You've got a little extra time.
02:04 --> 02:06 [SPEAKER_02]: We grant you to catch up on those episodes.
02:06 --> 02:09 [SPEAKER_02]: You've missed if you've already listened all of them, you can listen again.
02:09 --> 02:14 [SPEAKER_02]: There's no limit to how many, I promise you, there's no, you can go back and listen some more.
02:15 --> 02:17 [SPEAKER_02]: And if you like them, go on to our website, Revive Thoughts.
02:17 --> 02:23 [SPEAKER_02]: There's a map where we have created, I have over 260 different locations on that map.
02:23 --> 02:28 [SPEAKER_02]: We're all the episodes for Revive Thoughts, Mars missionaries, everything we've created has a spot we literally
02:29 --> 02:35 [SPEAKER_02]: And we have two different locations in Iran, two different locations in Russia, like we have covered that map, it's pretty cool.
02:35 --> 02:41 [SPEAKER_02]: So if you haven't, if you've listened to it on the podcast, now you have a geographical way to view the show.
02:41 --> 02:42 [SPEAKER_02]: So there's no, there's no limit, man.
02:43 --> 02:43 [SPEAKER_02]: We've got you.
02:44 --> 02:45 [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, enjoy.
02:45 --> 02:49 [SPEAKER_03]: I don't think you actually specified you heavily implied it, but so this is our break.
02:49 --> 02:52 [SPEAKER_03]: This is the last episode for our summer break.
02:52 --> 02:55 [SPEAKER_03]: So we're sending this for this is the season finale for like of a better term.
02:55 --> 02:56 [SPEAKER_03]: We're going to go into a summer break.
02:56 --> 02:57 [SPEAKER_03]: We'll be back.
02:57 --> 02:58 [SPEAKER_03]: Don't you wear.
02:58 --> 02:59 [SPEAKER_03]: We're not going anywhere.
02:59 --> 03:01 [SPEAKER_03]: We're we're solid with the Levi thoughts crew.
03:02 --> 03:07 [SPEAKER_02]: Plenty of old sermons, another Jan Hus on the way that is it is it is so good.
03:08 --> 03:22 [SPEAKER_02]: I cannot wait to bring you that one I had my students read it and several of them asked to keep a copy of it They said that was a really really good sermon So we are not done we will bring these things to you It's just it's just not ready yet So we were gonna take the summer break first.
03:23 --> 03:23 [SPEAKER_03]: That was good.
03:23 --> 03:24 [SPEAKER_03]: We have any positive feedback, right?
03:25 --> 03:25 [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, we do.
03:26 --> 03:30 [SPEAKER_02]: I kind of, because I knew this was our last episode, I threw a bunch of it down here.
03:31 --> 03:32 [SPEAKER_02]: We have, so this is funny to me.
03:32 --> 03:35 [SPEAKER_02]: Last year, we took a break on a George Mueller sermon.
03:35 --> 03:36 [SPEAKER_02]: Great sermon.
03:36 --> 03:38 [SPEAKER_02]: I believe it's called Trust in the Lord.
03:38 --> 03:40 [SPEAKER_02]: 110% recommend you go listen to it.
03:41 --> 03:45 [SPEAKER_02]: This year, very much coincidence, also ending on a George Mueller sermon.
03:46 --> 03:52 [SPEAKER_02]: And the comment on that last one, one of the positive feedbacks we had was by K-Y-W-I-W buck.
03:52 --> 03:54 [SPEAKER_02]: And yet again,
03:55 --> 04:18 [SPEAKER_02]: a year later the same gentleman who he doesn't leave like comments on every episode see these comments here and there is going to be on the featured in our positive comments against i got to kick out of that like i don't know what's happening here with these George Mueller's yeah i guess the next time when i do a George Mueller uh i know this guy's name but i won't say it but yeah k why we're gonna need you to uh to and i we haven't met personally i just we've interacted enough i know him
04:18 --> 04:20 [SPEAKER_02]: We're going to need to leave you that comment so we can keep this going.
04:21 --> 04:23 [SPEAKER_02]: But he said, wow, I have a new favorite episode.
04:23 --> 04:24 [SPEAKER_02]: Check this one out for sure.
04:25 --> 04:26 [SPEAKER_02]: Daniel Roland, he knocks at the door.
04:26 --> 04:30 [SPEAKER_02]: I, any left little hashtags, edification, convicting Bible.
04:30 --> 04:31 [SPEAKER_02]: Love that episode.
04:31 --> 04:33 [SPEAKER_02]: Daniel Roland, such a cool guy.
04:33 --> 04:34 [SPEAKER_02]: Great episode.
04:34 --> 04:35 [SPEAKER_02]: I believe that one was read for...
04:36 --> 04:37 [SPEAKER_02]: for us.
04:37 --> 04:42 [SPEAKER_02]: I'm thinking on who the reader was, but I remember they did a really great job, so all of it was really, really good.
04:42 --> 04:47 [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you to the reader who read that one, and also thank you KY for sharing that.
04:47 --> 04:51 [SPEAKER_02]: And yeah, if you haven't listened to that one, that was a that was a top or for sure for the
04:56 --> 05:03 [SPEAKER_02]: on Spotify says one of the best readers of sermons yet he's talking about Tom Sullivan who did a Daniel say the Samuel Davies sermon for us.
05:04 --> 05:04 [SPEAKER_02]: That's an older one.
05:05 --> 05:06 [SPEAKER_02]: Samuel Davies probably should have him again.
05:07 --> 05:08 [SPEAKER_02]: People recommend them all the time.
05:08 --> 05:10 [SPEAKER_02]: So we'll probably have him back on, we'll try to get him back.
05:10 --> 05:12 [SPEAKER_02]: I'm not saying that like we're going to schedule him.
05:12 --> 05:14 [SPEAKER_02]: I'm like, okay, no, Samuel Davies is busy this time here.
05:14 --> 05:15 [SPEAKER_02]: You know, he died from the 1700s.
05:15 --> 05:20 [SPEAKER_02]: So but we'll we'll we'll try to have another episode of his because he uh he's recommended a lot
05:25 --> 05:27 [SPEAKER_02]: This was on YouTube.
05:28 --> 05:29 [SPEAKER_02]: I should have kept what episode it was.
05:29 --> 05:33 [SPEAKER_02]: This person said I don't feel that people grasp, but this guy's confronting Thank you.
05:33 --> 05:38 [SPEAKER_02]: I believe this was on my church history series But it might have been on another one another.
05:38 --> 05:40 [SPEAKER_02]: I think no, no, this was Samson, Arkham.
05:40 --> 05:44 [SPEAKER_02]: This was a really really old sermon that we did a long time ago Joel Samson Arkham.
05:44 --> 05:45 [SPEAKER_02]: Do you remember him?
05:47 --> 05:48 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course you do.
05:48 --> 05:49 [SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
05:49 --> 06:00 [SPEAKER_02]: The execution of the first, like the execution of an Native American, one of the oldest writings by any Native American in history, the first sermon preached by a Native American that was recorded, really cool sermon.
06:00 --> 06:01 [SPEAKER_02]: Definitely should go listen that one.
06:01 --> 06:02 [SPEAKER_02]: He's fascinating.
06:02 --> 06:09 [SPEAKER_02]: It is actually the second writing, any native people wrote down that we have, that the second oldest one, the very first one was a letter written by his brother.
06:09 --> 06:12 [SPEAKER_02]: So these are like historical documents, pretty cool.
06:12 --> 06:13 [SPEAKER_02]: And it's a great, it's a great sermon.
06:13 --> 06:14 [SPEAKER_02]: Like it is,
06:15 --> 06:29 [SPEAKER_02]: He this guy is getting executed and he is basically preaching on them like you're gonna go to hell if you don't accept Christ right now You have you can see the news man like you you don't have time in the rest of you watching this is you if you don't accept Christ It is a great sermon
06:30 --> 06:31 [SPEAKER_02]: One word powerful.
06:31 --> 06:33 [SPEAKER_02]: This was our Henry Gretten Guinness sermon.
06:33 --> 06:34 [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for that.
06:34 --> 06:35 [SPEAKER_02]: I'm Spotify.
06:35 --> 06:42 [SPEAKER_02]: Rachel said Troy this episode is I'm going to zoom it up a bit because I made it too small Okay, Troy this episode has been so fast and informative.
06:42 --> 06:47 [SPEAKER_02]: I don't think these scenes are talked about enough today And the wisdom in this world is folly to God.
06:47 --> 06:48 [SPEAKER_02]: That was the man who destroyed the church.
06:48 --> 06:49 [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you Rachel.
06:49 --> 06:50 [SPEAKER_02]: I appreciate that.
06:50 --> 06:50 [SPEAKER_02]: I
06:51 --> 07:12 [SPEAKER_02]: wasn't sure if people would enjoy the minute destroyed the church I it was a run through of lessons I wasn't sure if it would sound good I could a lot of you really appreciate it I mentioned on the show I was singing and making a new podcast out of it you guys were really supportive of it So thank you and I do think it's important for the church to hear these things and I'm glad you guys thought the same thing Richard on Spotify said in the same episode
07:13 --> 07:14 [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you, Troy.
07:14 --> 07:15 [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for these two episodes.
07:15 --> 07:17 [SPEAKER_02]: Mammoth efforts, such an important topic and conversation to be had.
07:18 --> 07:20 [SPEAKER_02]: Carl Truman is a great as the main scaffolding for these episodes.
07:20 --> 07:21 [SPEAKER_02]: Nicely done.
07:21 --> 07:22 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I was appreciative of his book.
07:22 --> 07:23 [SPEAKER_02]: It helped me kind of put it all together.
07:24 --> 07:26 [SPEAKER_02]: Tim says, the minute he destroyed the church was excellent.
07:26 --> 07:28 [SPEAKER_02]: It prompted me to post that quote from Bertrand Russell.
07:29 --> 07:33 [SPEAKER_02]: He posted the quote, snow becomes black really great stuff on his page.
07:33 --> 07:33 [SPEAKER_02]: So thank you, Tim.
07:34 --> 07:40 [SPEAKER_02]: Ellen, thank you for all your work to bring us messages from across many generations and a wide variety of men.
07:40 --> 07:44 [SPEAKER_02]: I have listened since the early days, but never thought to re-list into your using the website, the map.
07:44 --> 07:45 [SPEAKER_02]: So there you go.
07:45 --> 07:48 [SPEAKER_02]: She is one of our patrons and is now going to be using the map.
07:48 --> 07:51 [SPEAKER_02]: She also likes our new idea for a show, Christian or not.
07:51 --> 07:53 [SPEAKER_02]: What a fantastic idea for a show.
07:53 --> 07:55 [SPEAKER_02]: I always read biographies looking forward to it.
07:56 --> 07:58 [SPEAKER_02]: So that is quite a, that was kind of like a back a lot.
07:58 --> 07:59 [SPEAKER_02]: And I even had back a lot.
07:59 --> 08:02 [SPEAKER_02]: It was just like, oh, if I don't use these now, we won't get a chance to use them again.
08:02 --> 08:06 [SPEAKER_02]: So I dropped some of the ones I've been collecting over the past two weeks all in at once.
08:08 --> 08:10 [SPEAKER_02]: All right, Joel, are you ready to talk about George Mueller?
08:10 --> 08:13 [SPEAKER_02]: My favorite, one of my favorite people we ever talked about.
08:13 --> 08:14 [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, good.
08:14 --> 08:15 [SPEAKER_03]: So good.
08:15 --> 08:22 [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I definitely think he's my primary takeaway from the Revive Thoughts era of my life is being,
08:23 --> 08:25 [SPEAKER_03]: Educated about George Mueller and learning more about him.
08:25 --> 08:29 [SPEAKER_03]: What a what a cool guy and as we're gonna learn in this episode What a cool wife?
08:29 --> 08:36 [SPEAKER_03]: You know, yeah, he had a really neat family and his wife seemed pretty pretty incredible as well.
08:36 --> 08:38 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, she was she was great lady.
08:38 --> 08:42 [SPEAKER_02]: I You know, I feel bad that in all my time studying George Mueller.
08:42 --> 08:47 [SPEAKER_02]: This is the first time I really spent any time studying her because she She seems really great and I
08:53 --> 08:53 [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, yeah, me too.
08:54 --> 09:05 [SPEAKER_03]: George Mueller born in Germany in the year 1805, and if you had met him while he was young man, you never would have guessed the story that he would go on here.
09:05 --> 09:09 [SPEAKER_03]: He was known for lying, he was known for stealing, he was known for gambling and drinking.
09:10 --> 09:20 [SPEAKER_03]: At one point, while his own mother lay dying on her death bed, George Mueller chose to stay at a party rather than visit her at her bedside.
09:22 --> 09:26 [SPEAKER_03]: Uh, pretty much the epitome of not great guy, if you ask me.
09:26 --> 09:40 [SPEAKER_03]: His behavior became so reckless that eventually landed himself in jail, and when he was released his father, uh, worried about him, not knowing quite what to do with him, worried that crime would eventually destroy him.
09:41 --> 09:46 [SPEAKER_03]: He wants his son to have a stable future, and so he pushed his son towards ministry,
09:48 --> 10:12 [SPEAKER_03]: of any spiritual concern it doesn't seem like but more so because priests had a reliable paycheck like it was a good job it was a stable job to go into his father hope that stability would help him at his life and so George enrolled in a religious school it was there that an unexpected invitation changed everything for him a friend invited him to a small Bible
10:15 --> 10:20 [SPEAKER_03]: No interest and almost like a desire to go and mock.
10:20 --> 10:25 [SPEAKER_03]: He like he wanted to go and kind of poke fun at him But instead he encountered something completely different.
10:25 --> 10:37 [SPEAKER_03]: He listened to them as they read through scripture and he watched sincerely as the levers prayed and He ended up going back to the Bible starting back to the Bible study
10:38 --> 10:52 [SPEAKER_03]: What started off as him attempting to try to make fun of him grew into a tool that God used to bring the gospel to grip his heart and before long George Mueller was genuinely converted through that small Bible study.
10:52 --> 10:56 [SPEAKER_03]: And the rest of his life became a testimony to God's faithfulness.
10:56 --> 10:57 [SPEAKER_03]: He moved to England.
10:58 --> 11:03 [SPEAKER_03]: and Mueller became famous there for founding and operating orphanages that cared for thousands of children.
11:04 --> 11:10 [SPEAKER_03]: And what made his ministry unique was his commitment to never ask people for financial support.
11:10 --> 11:19 [SPEAKER_03]: Instead, he brought everything he needed to God and prayer and recorded in his daily journal, the countless ways that those prayers were answered.
11:19 --> 11:25 [SPEAKER_03]: He kind of had this prayer journal where he went out of his way to document all of the ways that
11:26 --> 11:27 [SPEAKER_03]: the Lord provided for them.
11:27 --> 11:34 [SPEAKER_03]: Mueller's story in his life, though, isn't when everything was successful and all of his prayers were answered perfectly.
11:35 --> 11:39 [SPEAKER_03]: He has a story that also incorporates deep loss.
11:41 --> 11:46 [SPEAKER_03]: Throughout his lifetime, he buried children and even buried his beloved wife.
11:46 --> 11:48 [SPEAKER_03]: So he knew grief firsthand.
11:49 --> 11:54 [SPEAKER_03]: And through every hardship, his confidence in God's goodness remained unshaken.
11:55 --> 12:05 [SPEAKER_03]: Today George Mueller is remembered not because he built orphanages per se, but because he lived a life that consistently pointed people to a God who hears and answers prayers.
12:06 --> 12:11 [SPEAKER_02]: It is his first wife, and he does marry later on, and she also passes away before he dies.
12:11 --> 12:17 [SPEAKER_02]: So he sees all of his children, even the ones that live to adulthood, and both of the women that he marries.
12:17 --> 12:18 [SPEAKER_02]: He outlives all of them.
12:19 --> 12:22 [SPEAKER_02]: It's crazy to me, because he has so much joy in the Lord all the way to the end.
12:22 --> 12:27 [SPEAKER_02]: But if I saw that much personal loss, if I saw any of the personal loss, he saw, I think it really shaped me up.
12:28 --> 12:32 [SPEAKER_02]: But it is his first wife that he covers, and he gives the funeral for
12:33 --> 13:00 [SPEAKER_02]: this woman married meeler and i i cannot imagine i cannot imagine those who have had to give you know we talk about the revive us is kind of a tagline sees the greatest sermons in history right because like these are the ones that we have and they're by some of the best men but may i cannot imagine the strength of power um to watch somebody you know give a sermon you have to have them trusting body have to have to speak at the speak at the funeral of a close loved one let alone your own wife like meeler is going to do
13:01 --> 13:12 [SPEAKER_02]: And if you've ever read George Mueller's journal, which if you haven't required reading, if we had a required reading list, George Mueller's journal is right up there on the very tip top of that is one of the best books you can read.
13:12 --> 13:19 [SPEAKER_02]: So though, as you're listening back through all the episodes and you're listening to real Christian or not, and real time missionaries, that grab a book and read that too.
13:21 --> 13:26 [SPEAKER_02]: Um, you know that his wife Mary is a prominent and important part of his life.
13:26 --> 13:36 [SPEAKER_02]: I won't fully retell the story of George and Mary because he actually talks about this story in the funeral sermon that he's going to give, but we'll mention just a couple important parts so you can have a little bit of idea.
13:36 --> 13:38 [SPEAKER_02]: They met in 1829 while he was sick.
13:38 --> 13:42 [SPEAKER_02]: She was the sister of a man Anthony Norris Groves, who
13:42 --> 14:02 [SPEAKER_02]: actually becomes an important part of the story and see this is why all this time looking at just George's life actually missed a really important character that influenced them because I hadn't looked more at Mary and it's also crazy it is amazing to me that George Mueller is the very first episode of Revive Thoughts we ever put out we put out several other episodes of him and despite all that
14:03 --> 14:05 [SPEAKER_02]: I am still learning, really interesting things about his life.
14:05 --> 14:12 [SPEAKER_02]: And for example, he did not create the idea of living on faith and asking everything you want from God.
14:12 --> 14:23 [SPEAKER_02]: I always assumed this was like a George Mueller original idea because he's so famous for it and he did it, but actually this gentleman Anthony Norris grows the brother of his wife.
14:24 --> 14:27 [SPEAKER_02]: The brother-in-law, you know, he's the one who actually created it.
14:28 --> 14:30 [SPEAKER_02]: He's the father of what's called Faith Missions.
14:30 --> 14:34 [SPEAKER_02]: He deeply influenced Hudson Taylor with this idea, beat through George Mueller.
14:35 --> 14:37 [SPEAKER_02]: He becomes the first missionary to Arabic Muslims.
14:38 --> 14:45 [SPEAKER_02]: He settles into Baghdad while it's still the Ottoman Empire and would do missionary work in southern India before he passed away.
14:45 --> 14:53 [SPEAKER_02]: He may not have, he is probably the person that first wrote down these ideas in his own small booklet that he published in 1825.
14:53 --> 15:04 [SPEAKER_02]: It was called Christian Dividedness, and in a section dedicated to how Christians should live economically, he said, you should devote all your income to the spread of the gospel, and that you should trust God for all the rest of your money.
15:04 --> 15:06 [SPEAKER_02]: You don't have to worry about it.
15:06 --> 15:11 [SPEAKER_02]: If every dollar you make is for God, then he will take care of everything just go to the Lord about it.
15:12 --> 15:21 [SPEAKER_02]: This book was published in 1825, Mueller will meet him in 1829, and Mueller will start the faith or finish project a little bit later.
15:21 --> 15:31 [SPEAKER_02]: So this idea of just ask God if everything you need, and he will give it to you, actually probably comes from Anthony Norris Groves, which I mean, George Mueller is famous for putting that to the test.
15:31 --> 15:35 [SPEAKER_02]: George Mueller deserves all the credit, but I just always thought it was his own original idea.
15:35 --> 15:36 [SPEAKER_02]: He was reading the Bible one day, he was like, I'm just gonna try this.
15:37 --> 15:38 [SPEAKER_02]: No, it actually comes from his brother-in-law.
15:39 --> 15:45 [SPEAKER_02]: who also was reading the Bible wrote this little book and then went off to Baghdad to kind of prove his point that it could be done.
15:45 --> 15:46 [SPEAKER_02]: And he was successful.
15:47 --> 15:52 [SPEAKER_02]: He was able to live on just the same way that George Mueller was able to run his orphanages.
15:52 --> 15:54 [SPEAKER_02]: And Anthony Lawrence Grove was able to go and
15:56 --> 16:03 [SPEAKER_02]: live overseas off of his prayers to God and passed away in India due to a fever, but otherwise was trusting the Lord for everything.
16:04 --> 16:12 [SPEAKER_02]: And I've already passed this man onto my wife, Elise Frazier, who already is planning to do an episode on him for Martyrs of Missionary.
16:12 --> 16:15 [SPEAKER_02]: So I'm not going to go too much more into his life.
16:15 --> 16:18 [SPEAKER_02]: I just thought it was really cool that seven years into the show.
16:18 --> 16:21 [SPEAKER_02]: I'm still learning things about the guy we started the show with.
16:22 --> 16:26 [SPEAKER_03]: In 1830, George Mueller proposed to marry groves.
16:26 --> 16:29 [SPEAKER_03]: Their engagement is kind of wild by modern standards.
16:29 --> 16:33 [SPEAKER_03]: It lasted four days and then they were married.
16:33 --> 16:34 [SPEAKER_03]: So pretty quick turn around.
16:34 --> 16:35 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, how long was your engagement?
16:35 --> 16:37 [SPEAKER_02]: Was it like two days, three days, two or like nine months?
16:37 --> 16:45 [SPEAKER_03]: When I first read it for some reason, I thought it was saying that the marriage lasted, like the marriage ceremony lasted four days.
16:45 --> 16:46 [SPEAKER_03]: And I'm like, that's no.
16:46 --> 16:50 [SPEAKER_03]: Haired ceremony, but that's not what the last four days.
16:51 --> 16:52 [SPEAKER_01]: That's the better way to do it.
16:52 --> 16:56 [SPEAKER_03]: I'd rather have a four day engagement than a four day wedding ceremony.
16:56 --> 16:59 [SPEAKER_02]: A 100% agree with you on that.
16:59 --> 16:59 [SPEAKER_03]: For sure.
17:00 --> 17:03 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I mean, people do the shorts.
17:03 --> 17:09 [SPEAKER_02]: Shortening agents for a little bit more common back then, but even by back then, standards, that was short, guys.
17:09 --> 17:09 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
17:09 --> 17:10 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
17:10 --> 17:10 [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
17:10 --> 17:10 [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
17:10 --> 17:11 [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
17:11 --> 17:12 [SPEAKER_03]: So let's talk about it.
17:12 --> 17:13 [SPEAKER_03]: Let's talk about this.
17:13 --> 17:26 [SPEAKER_03]: This woman that would be George's partner in ministry and in faith Mary was born in the year 1767 and she received an education that was exceptional for a woman of her time.
17:26 --> 17:32 [SPEAKER_03]: She studied English grammar, geography, history, French, Latin Hebrew, astronomy, and German.
17:33 --> 17:36 [SPEAKER_03]: It's hard not to kind of smile at the thought
17:38 --> 17:41 [SPEAKER_03]: was diligently learning German as a young student.
17:41 --> 17:47 [SPEAKER_03]: She had no idea that she was being prepared to communicate with a German man that she would be marrying.
17:47 --> 17:52 [SPEAKER_03]: But Mary was far more than an accomplished scholar.
17:52 --> 18:02 [SPEAKER_03]: She was practical and capable and she knew how to manage a household well in those skills would prove invaluable in the demanding years ahead.
18:03 --> 18:04 [SPEAKER_03]: More importantly, however,
18:05 --> 18:13 [SPEAKER_03]: Mary was a woman that had a deep, ingenuine faith, and that faith was evident from the very beginning of their marriage.
18:13 --> 18:22 [SPEAKER_03]: While most newly wedds, you know, they spend their time on this vacation, this honeymoon where you get to relax and enjoy each other.
18:23 --> 18:25 [SPEAKER_03]: George and Mary chose a different path they chose.
18:26 --> 18:31 [SPEAKER_03]: to spend their honeymoon traveling to a nearby town and sharing the gospel there.
18:31 --> 18:34 [SPEAKER_03]: They went out and evangelized with their honeymoon time.
18:34 --> 18:39 [SPEAKER_03]: And it's kind of this early glimpse of the life that they would build together.
18:40 --> 18:48 [SPEAKER_03]: A marriage centered not on comfort and convenience, but of one serving price wherever and whenever he called them.
18:58 --> 19:02 [SPEAKER_02]: When George started the orphan houses, Mary was an essential part of that.
19:02 --> 19:05 [SPEAKER_02]: Her great education helped her teach, leave the orphan through the schoolwork.
19:05 --> 19:10 [SPEAKER_02]: Her excellent house running skills, met one orphans, ripped their clothes or needed something.
19:10 --> 19:13 [SPEAKER_02]: She could mend it, make sure it's fixed, everything was going good.
19:14 --> 19:14 [SPEAKER_02]: I don't want again.
19:14 --> 19:16 [SPEAKER_02]: I don't want George is going to cover George.
19:16 --> 19:16 [SPEAKER_02]: You know us.
19:16 --> 19:17 [SPEAKER_02]: We're so close to them.
19:18 --> 19:19 [SPEAKER_02]: Not even one of the second name, you know.
19:19 --> 19:22 [SPEAKER_02]: But George really will cover this in his sermon.
19:22 --> 19:27 [SPEAKER_02]: But he did not just see her as an amazing woman in the physical sense, but there was a spiritual connection there too.
19:27 --> 19:30 [SPEAKER_02]: When George had a problem, he would turn to God and prayer.
19:30 --> 19:33 [SPEAKER_02]: But he every day would also pray with his wife at his side.
19:34 --> 19:37 [SPEAKER_02]: They had a special time to set aside every day to meet together and to pray.
19:38 --> 19:42 [SPEAKER_02]: George went off to say to her, quote, God himself singled you out for me as the most suitable wife.
19:43 --> 19:46 [SPEAKER_02]: I could possibly wish to have had in quote, very sweet thing.
19:47 --> 19:51 [SPEAKER_02]: Guys, if you haven't said anything sweet to the Mrs. lately, write that one down.
19:51 --> 19:57 [SPEAKER_02]: Okay, God, give him that one and then put George Mueller and then put on the outside like your quote around that as well.
19:59 --> 20:02 [SPEAKER_02]: And he said each year of marriage was happier than the previous one.
20:02 --> 20:04 [SPEAKER_02]: Also a good light put that underneath.
20:04 --> 20:12 [SPEAKER_02]: Okay, if you missed her her the wedding anniversary or the Valentine's Day or something pretty late, but you put those quotes on there and it'll be pretty good.
20:13 --> 20:17 [SPEAKER_02]: In fact, the Mueller's, I think, gave away the secret to a happy marriage and family life.
20:17 --> 20:27 [SPEAKER_02]: Although the experience hardships, including loss of two of their six children, of the two of their four children, sorry about that wrong, they base their marriage on following God.
20:27 --> 20:31 [SPEAKER_02]: They were united in the ministry and purpose and spent every day time together praying.
20:31 --> 20:33 [SPEAKER_02]: Like, I think they had a united purpose.
20:34 --> 20:34 [SPEAKER_02]: They,
20:35 --> 20:36 [SPEAKER_02]: their lives were completely devoted to God.
20:36 --> 20:38 [SPEAKER_02]: How can we spend every hour and time of God?
20:38 --> 20:46 [SPEAKER_02]: They spent time together, every single day praying, and they had a shared vision and dream that they both were pouring into.
20:46 --> 20:59 [SPEAKER_02]: I'm not a marriage counselor, I didn't know I had that, but I do think that that is, and Mueller will talk about this in the funeral too, about how come they had such a happy marriage, but I think that if you're applying those things to your life and your marriage, I do think you will,
20:59 --> 21:01 [SPEAKER_02]: probably see it improved.
21:01 --> 21:10 [SPEAKER_02]: Again, an honorary chancellor, but that seems like as Mueller has the tip on how to live a faithful life of God as he has been a great guy on show this how to pray.
21:10 --> 21:12 [SPEAKER_02]: I think it's first sermon with this is how to pray.
21:13 --> 21:18 [SPEAKER_02]: Here we have now, I think some really good lessons to learn on marriage from him as well.
21:18 --> 21:22 [SPEAKER_02]: Joel, you have a very long part next, but I think it's a really, really cool part that I found.
21:22 --> 21:24 [SPEAKER_02]: So I'll let you share this.
21:25 --> 21:32 [SPEAKER_03]: It is really cool and it's difficult to overstate kind of the impact that Mary Mueller had on people around her.
21:33 --> 21:50 [SPEAKER_03]: They were married for almost 50 years and so along that time she served alongside George helping care for, again, thousands of orphanages over the course of their ministry and her influence was so significant that when she died in 1870, the news spread far beyond
21:54 --> 21:57 [SPEAKER_03]: the newspapers on the literal other side of the world.
21:57 --> 22:03 [SPEAKER_03]: People in Australia were reporting about Mary Mueller and her funeral.
22:04 --> 22:06 [SPEAKER_03]: It was well-documented and well-circulated.
22:06 --> 22:17 [SPEAKER_03]: And this was, you know, again, in a moment where we had before instant communication, there was no radio, there was no airplanes, you know, like it took a walk news a long time to travel.
22:17 --> 22:29 [SPEAKER_03]: but the death of Mary Mueller was considered important enough for publication to publish it in for readers all around the world miles of thousands of miles away to read about it.
22:30 --> 22:39 [SPEAKER_03]: And we have these articles that give us remarkable glimps into both Mary's life and the public's response to her death.
22:39 --> 22:42 [SPEAKER_03]: There was one paper that described her funeral unlike
22:45 --> 22:59 [SPEAKER_03]: It says, quote, rarely, if ever, has the loss of a private citizen evoked such a profound sympathy through all classes of society as to exhibit during the passing of a mournful procession through the city.
23:00 --> 23:04 [SPEAKER_03]: As Mary's funeral procession kind of moved through Bristol,
23:05 --> 23:15 [SPEAKER_03]: shops would close and homes displayed signs of mourning thousands lying the street and many joined in the procession as it made its way to the cemetery.
23:15 --> 23:19 [SPEAKER_03]: Most striking though was the side of all the children.
23:19 --> 23:25 [SPEAKER_03]: There's another excerpt here says quote, the side of hundreds of orphan children who followed
23:25 --> 23:38 [SPEAKER_03]: To her last home, the deeply lamented Christian lady who had devoted nearly half of a century of her life told at once the secret of the genuine sympathy of the multitude of the spectators.
23:39 --> 23:49 [SPEAKER_03]: And those children were Mary's legacy thousands had been fed and cloth and taught and loved through the work that George and her had done and devoted their lives to.
23:50 --> 23:58 [SPEAKER_03]: The crowd at the cemetery were so large that there was hundreds of people that clogged the entrance to the chapel hoping to get inside.
23:58 --> 24:01 [SPEAKER_03]: And there, George Mueller conducted the service himself.
24:01 --> 24:04 [SPEAKER_03]: Having just lost his wife, the wife had had served.
24:04 --> 24:07 [SPEAKER_03]: beside him for almost half a century here.
24:07 --> 24:14 [SPEAKER_03]: He delivers his speech with what people remember as remarkable composure.
24:14 --> 24:17 [SPEAKER_03]: There's a reporter that describes the scene.
24:17 --> 24:30 [SPEAKER_03]: He says there was something in his quiet but forceful eloquence in his deeply sympathetic but firm and never faltering voice which made a profound impression upon all present and carried with it the force
24:32 --> 24:42 [SPEAKER_03]: before speaking George, he simply asked the crowd, he says, quote, as a mark of respect to my beloved departed one may I request a few moments quiet.
24:42 --> 24:49 [SPEAKER_03]: All I at present mean to do is to read a few words from God's precious word and to make a few remarks.
24:49 --> 25:01 [SPEAKER_03]: And so there even in one of the deepest sorrows of his life, George's instinct was the same as it had always been to point people back to God and his word.
25:01 --> 25:06 [SPEAKER_03]: And perhaps that was the greatest testimony to Mary, his wife as well.
25:06 --> 25:17 [SPEAKER_03]: The crowds, the newspaper articles, and the hundreds of orphans who followed her casket, they all bore witness to a life spent faithfully serving Christ and others.
25:51 --> 25:55 [SPEAKER_01]: You are good and do good, Psalm 119 verse 68.
25:56 --> 26:02 [SPEAKER_01]: The reason I want to preach this funeral sermon is not simply because the late Mrs. Milner was my beloved wife.
26:03 --> 26:09 [SPEAKER_01]: Nor is it that I might have the opportunity to speak well of her, those she truly is worthy of that.
26:10 --> 26:21 [SPEAKER_01]: Rather, it is so that I may magnify the Lord for giving her to me, for allowing her to remain with me for so long and for taking her from me to himself.
26:22 --> 26:38 [SPEAKER_01]: It also seems fitting to me that since she was the first member of the church that began meeting at Bethesda in August 1832, and since her whole life from that time forward was the most blameless of character we should
26:40 --> 26:44 [SPEAKER_01]: at the passing of such a Christian on the lessons her life teaches.
26:45 --> 26:55 [SPEAKER_01]: During the six days that my beloved wife lay on her deathbed, my soul was sustained by the truth found in the word of our text.
26:56 --> 27:03 [SPEAKER_01]: whether her pain was light or severe, whether there was some hope she might be restored to me, or whether all hope had gone.
27:04 --> 27:06 [SPEAKER_01]: My soul was upheld by these words.
27:07 --> 27:10 [SPEAKER_01]: They were constantly before me, and I rested my heart upon them.
27:11 --> 27:14 [SPEAKER_01]: When it pleased God to take my dear wife to himself,
27:18 --> 27:21 [SPEAKER_01]: that I had gone out to preach that evening.
27:21 --> 27:23 [SPEAKER_01]: I would have preached from that very text.
27:24 --> 27:37 [SPEAKER_01]: Now, as God enables me, and especially for the sake of my younger fellow, believers in Christ, I want to dwell on the truth I found in these words, as it relates to my beloved wife, who has departed.
27:38 --> 27:42 [SPEAKER_01]: Number one, the Lord, was good and did good in giving her to me.
27:43 --> 27:48 [SPEAKER_01]: Number two, he was good and did good in leaving her with me for so long.
27:49 --> 27:54 [SPEAKER_01]: Number three, he was good and did good in taking her from me.
27:54 --> 27:57 [SPEAKER_01]: In giving her to me, I acknowledged the hand of God.
27:58 --> 28:04 [SPEAKER_01]: Indeed, his hand was clearly at work and my soul says, you are good and you did good.
28:05 --> 28:26 [SPEAKER_01]: At the end of 1829, when I left London to work in the Gospel of Devonshire, a brother in the Lord gave me a card with the address of a well-known Christian lady, Miss Pageit, who was then living in Exeter, so that I might call on her, I took the address, but I did not think much about visiting her.
28:26 --> 28:31 [SPEAKER_01]: For three weeks I carried the card in my pocket without making any effort to see her.
28:31 --> 28:34 [SPEAKER_01]: at last, however, I was led to do so.
28:35 --> 28:38 [SPEAKER_01]: In this way, God gave me my excellent wife.
28:38 --> 28:47 [SPEAKER_01]: Miss Paget asked me to preach on the last Tuesday in January 1830, in a room she had prepared at Pultimore,
28:47 --> 28:48 [SPEAKER_01]: a village near Exeter.
28:49 --> 28:56 [SPEAKER_01]: I went there at the time to speak and misgroves who later became my beloved wife was there.
28:57 --> 29:01 [SPEAKER_01]: I was staying at the house there where misgroves helped out.
29:02 --> 29:09 [SPEAKER_01]: My first visit led to another opportunity to preach there a month later and again I stayed at the same house.
29:09 --> 29:15 [SPEAKER_01]: That second visit led me to my preaching once a week in the chapel of in Exeter.
29:16 --> 29:24 [SPEAKER_01]: So week after week I traveled to Tinmouth to Exeter, each time staying in the home she worked at.
29:25 --> 29:32 [SPEAKER_01]: During all this time, I intended not to marry at all, but to remain free to travel in the service of the gospel.
29:33 --> 29:42 [SPEAKER_01]: After some months, however, I saw that many reasons that it was better for me as a young pastor at the age of 25 years of age to be married.
29:43 --> 29:46 [SPEAKER_01]: The question then became to whom should I be joined?
29:46 --> 29:56 [SPEAKER_01]: Miss grows was on my mind, yet the prayerful struggle was long, but I prayed again and again at last, I came to the conclusion of the matter.
29:57 --> 30:06 [SPEAKER_01]: I had reason to believe that I had awakened an affection in the heart of misgroves towards me, and therefore I felt I ought to propose marriage to her.
30:07 --> 30:11 [SPEAKER_01]: On August 15, 1830, I wrote to her and asked her to become my wife.
30:12 --> 30:18 [SPEAKER_01]: On August 19, when I went as usual to accident approach, she accepted me.
30:19 --> 30:26 [SPEAKER_01]: The first thing we did after she accepted was to kneel down together and ask the Lord to bless our intended union.
30:27 --> 30:36 [SPEAKER_01]: Within two or three weeks, in an answer to prayer, the Lord provided someone who seemed suitable to serve as a housekeeper to replace her job.
30:37 --> 30:41 [SPEAKER_01]: On October 7, 1830, we were united in marriage.
30:41 --> 30:43 [SPEAKER_01]: Our wedding was very simple.
30:43 --> 30:51 [SPEAKER_01]: We walked to the church, had no wedding breakfast, and in the afternoon gathered with some Christian friends and took communion together.
30:52 --> 30:56 [SPEAKER_01]: Then I set out on the stage coach with my beloved bride
31:02 --> 31:12 [SPEAKER_01]: Simple as our beginnings was and different from the customs of the world for Christ's sake, so it had been a godly aim to continue ever since.
31:13 --> 31:16 [SPEAKER_01]: Now consider the hand of God and giving me my dear wife.
31:17 --> 31:20 [SPEAKER_01]: First mispedience address was given to me under God's direction.
31:21 --> 31:26 [SPEAKER_01]: Second, I was finally led to visit her, though I had delayed for so long.
31:27 --> 31:39 [SPEAKER_01]: Third, she might have arranged for me to stay with another Christian friend, where I would not have met misguides, and fourth, my mind, my ultimately, have decided not to propose to her.
31:40 --> 31:44 [SPEAKER_01]: God settled the matter by speaking to me through my conscience.
31:45 --> 31:52 [SPEAKER_01]: You know that by your conduct, you have awakened the affection of the heart in this Christian sister, and therefore,
31:56 --> 32:02 [SPEAKER_01]: And now this as I was I obeyed, I wrote the letter and the result has been an unbroken stream of blessing.
32:03 --> 32:10 [SPEAKER_01]: I believe it clear that he who is good and does good gave me misgroves as my wife.
32:11 --> 32:16 [SPEAKER_01]: Let us consider briefly what I received in her has God's gift.
32:17 --> 32:21 [SPEAKER_01]: Her chief excellence was that she was truly a devoted Christian.
32:23 --> 32:26 [SPEAKER_01]: her one aim in life was to leave for God.
32:26 --> 32:33 [SPEAKER_01]: During the 39 years and four months of our marriage her steady purpose to leave for him, grew stronger and stronger.
32:34 --> 32:38 [SPEAKER_01]: As a Christian, she was also marked by a make and quiet spirit.
32:39 --> 32:48 [SPEAKER_01]: I speak to those who you hurt many of whom you hurt for 30 years or more, and who can testify to the excellence of a Christian character.
32:49 --> 32:56 [SPEAKER_01]: If all believers were like her, the joys of heaven would be found on earth far more abundantly than they are now.
32:57 --> 32:58 [SPEAKER_01]: In her,
32:58 --> 33:06 [SPEAKER_01]: God gave me a wife who never hindered me in the ways of blood, but instead strengthened my hand in him.
33:07 --> 33:17 [SPEAKER_01]: This was true, even the deepest trials, under the greatest difficulties, and when the service in which she assisted me required the greatest personal sacrifices.
33:18 --> 33:21 [SPEAKER_01]: During the years from September, 1838 to the end of 1846.
33:24 --> 33:41 [SPEAKER_01]: When we faced the severeest of trials of faith in the orphaned work, and when the needs of the children could often be met only from our own resources, even to the point of spending all that we had, that precious wife never complained.
33:41 --> 33:44 [SPEAKER_01]: Instead, she joined me wholeheartedly and prayer,
33:45 --> 33:46 [SPEAKER_01]: for help from God.
33:46 --> 33:49 [SPEAKER_01]: Together we looked for that help and help came.
33:50 --> 33:53 [SPEAKER_01]: Then we rejoice together and often wet for joy together.
33:54 --> 33:59 [SPEAKER_01]: This precious wife, God's own gift to me, was also wonderfully suited to me by temperament.
34:00 --> 34:09 [SPEAKER_01]: Thousands of times I said to her my darling, God Himself chose you for me as the most suitable wife I could ever have desired.
34:09 --> 34:12 [SPEAKER_01]: As for her education, she was everything I could have wished for.
34:13 --> 34:18 [SPEAKER_01]: She had received a very sound and thorough education and possessed the accomplishments of the lady.
34:18 --> 34:21 [SPEAKER_01]: She played well and painted beautifully.
34:21 --> 34:28 [SPEAKER_01]: Though after our marriage, not five minutes were spent at the piano or enduring our painting.
34:29 --> 34:31 [SPEAKER_01]: She had an excellent knowledge of astronomy.
34:32 --> 34:35 [SPEAKER_01]: was very well-grounded in English, grammar and geography.
34:36 --> 34:42 [SPEAKER_01]: Had a fair knowledge of history and French, had begun Latin and Hebrew and later learned German.
34:43 --> 34:54 [SPEAKER_01]: When she accompanied me in my first service to Germany in 1843 to 1845, all this cultivation of her mind was not only helpful in educating
34:56 --> 35:00 [SPEAKER_01]: but was also used by the Lord in His service for the praise of His name.
35:01 --> 35:08 [SPEAKER_01]: She was very skilled in arithmetic, which for 34 years was a great help to me month by month.
35:08 --> 35:16 [SPEAKER_01]: She carefully examined all the account books and the hundreds of bills from the patrons of the various orphan houses.
35:17 --> 35:23 [SPEAKER_01]: If any tradesmen or matron made even the smallest mistake, she would surely detect it.
35:24 --> 35:31 [SPEAKER_01]: In addition to a good education, she possessed what in our day is so rare among ladies.
35:31 --> 35:32 [SPEAKER_01]: A far enough knowledge
35:33 --> 35:42 [SPEAKER_01]: of useful needlework for every kind and an excellent understanding of the quality of materials for clothing, linen and other necessities.
35:42 --> 35:49 [SPEAKER_01]: In this way she became especially useful as the wife of the director of the orphan houses.
35:49 --> 35:56 [SPEAKER_01]: where hundreds of thousands of yards of various materials had to be ordered approved or rejected by her.
35:57 --> 36:17 [SPEAKER_01]: My beloved wife could do fine decorative needlework like other ladies and had done so in her youth, but she did not spend her time in this way except now and then when staying in the countryside for fresh air, she would knit a purse for her husband with her own de-hands.
36:17 --> 36:19 [SPEAKER_01]: Her work usually had a practical purpose.
36:20 --> 36:25 [SPEAKER_01]: She labored to prepare the many hundreds of neat little beds for the deer orphans.
36:26 --> 36:29 [SPEAKER_01]: Most of whom had never seen such beds much less slept in them.
36:30 --> 36:41 [SPEAKER_01]: She busyed herself in securing good blankets, so serving the Lord Jesus by caring for these deer, dearly, bereaved children who had no father or mother to care for them.
36:42 --> 36:49 [SPEAKER_01]: She provided countless others useful items for the orphan houses, especially in the sick rooms.
36:49 --> 36:56 [SPEAKER_01]: Day after day, except for the Lord's Day, she was seen in the orphan houses engaged in this service.
36:56 --> 37:03 [SPEAKER_01]: Knowledge that helps the needy, easers suffering, and makes women a useful wife and mother.
37:03 --> 37:07 [SPEAKER_01]: is for far more available than skill in decorative work.
37:08 --> 37:12 [SPEAKER_01]: Miss Mueller possessed and valued such useful knowledge in a remarkable way.
37:13 --> 37:18 [SPEAKER_01]: She and her dear sisters have been raised by wires and loving mother who ensured that.
37:19 --> 37:29 [SPEAKER_01]: While nothing was spared in giving them a good school education and excellent teachers, they also became skilled in practical knowledge.
37:30 --> 37:39 [SPEAKER_01]: May Christian mothers who hear me take care that their daughters receive an education that prepares them to be useful wives and mothers.
37:40 --> 37:55 [SPEAKER_01]: We had seen that God Himself gave me my beloved wife, and we had seen how well suited she was to me, in giving such a wife a strong foundation for true marital happiness was laid.
37:56 --> 37:56 [SPEAKER_01]: and we were happy.
37:57 --> 37:58 [SPEAKER_01]: Indeed we were.
37:59 --> 38:01 [SPEAKER_01]: With every passing year our happiness grew.
38:02 --> 38:08 [SPEAKER_01]: I never saw my beloved wife unexpectedly anywhere in Bristol without being delighted to see her.
38:08 --> 38:14 [SPEAKER_01]: I never met her even in the orphan house without my heart rejoicing at the side of her.
38:15 --> 38:21 [SPEAKER_01]: day by day as we met in our dressing room at the orphan houses to wash our hands before dinner and tea.
38:21 --> 38:23 [SPEAKER_01]: I was glad to see her.
38:23 --> 38:25 [SPEAKER_01]: She was equally glad to see me.
38:26 --> 38:33 [SPEAKER_01]: Thousands of times I told her, my darling, since she became my wife, I have never seen you without being delighted to see you.
38:34 --> 38:39 [SPEAKER_01]: This was true, not only in the first year of our marriage,
38:40 --> 38:47 [SPEAKER_01]: nor only in the 10th or the 20th or the 30th year, but even in the 40th year of our married life.
38:48 --> 38:53 [SPEAKER_01]: I spoke these words to her many times after October 7, 1869.
38:54 --> 39:03 [SPEAKER_01]: Further, day after day whenever possible, I spent 20 minutes or half an hour with her in her room at the orphan's house after dinner.
39:04 --> 39:05 [SPEAKER_01]: We sat on
39:09 --> 39:24 [SPEAKER_01]: when she was ill with rheumatism for about nine months, I knew it was good for her active mind and hands to have rest, and I knew that she would not truly rest unless her husband was by her side.
39:25 --> 39:29 [SPEAKER_01]: I also needed a little rest after dinner because of my weak digestion.
39:30 --> 39:32 [SPEAKER_01]: So I spent these precious moments with my dear wife.
39:33 --> 39:38 [SPEAKER_01]: There we sat side by side, her hand in mine as was our custom.
39:38 --> 39:44 [SPEAKER_01]: Speaking of a few loving words or sitting quietly, yet very happy in the Lord and in Chover.
39:45 --> 39:56 [SPEAKER_01]: So it was many times after October 7, 1869, in the 40th year of married life, our happiness in God and each other was beyond description.
39:57 --> 40:01 [SPEAKER_01]: We did not merely have a few happy days each year,
40:02 --> 40:04 [SPEAKER_01]: or a happy month each year.
40:04 --> 40:09 [SPEAKER_01]: We had 12 happy months in the year and so it continued year after year.
40:09 --> 40:20 [SPEAKER_01]: A guy and a guy and I said to my beloved wife, even in the 40th year of our marriage, my darling, do you think there is a couple in Bristol or even in the world happier than we are?
40:22 --> 40:33 [SPEAKER_01]: Why do I speak of these things to show you what a great blessing a godly wife to a husband is, especially when she's also suited to him in other ways?
40:33 --> 40:41 [SPEAKER_01]: Yet while I followed knowledge that the foundation of our true spiritual happiness in marriage was laid in this,
40:41 --> 40:48 [SPEAKER_01]: their idea of life was a genuine Christian fitted for me by God and given to me by him.
40:48 --> 40:58 [SPEAKER_01]: I am also convinced that this alone would not have sustained such real happiness for 39 years in four months without more.
40:59 --> 41:08 [SPEAKER_01]: Therefore, I had the following, by the grace of God, we both had one objective in life, and only one, and that is to leave for Christ.
41:08 --> 41:11 [SPEAKER_01]: Everything else was far less important to us.
41:12 --> 41:19 [SPEAKER_01]: However, we can imperfect we were in many ways, we did not turn aside from this single holy purpose.
41:19 --> 41:29 [SPEAKER_01]: this shared aim and our daily effort to live it out, necessarily increased our happiness and therefore our happiness in marriage.
41:30 --> 41:38 [SPEAKER_01]: If this is lacking in two Christians who are united in marriage, they should not be surprised if true happiness is also lacking.
41:39 --> 41:47 [SPEAKER_01]: We were blessed with abundant work to do and we did it by God's grace, we gave ourselves fully to it.
41:48 --> 41:52 [SPEAKER_01]: This abundance of work greatly contributed to our happiness.
41:52 --> 41:56 [SPEAKER_01]: How mornings never began with uncertainty about how to spend the day.
41:57 --> 42:00 [SPEAKER_01]: From the beginning of each day we had more than enough to occupies.
42:01 --> 42:03 [SPEAKER_01]: I consider this a special blessing.
42:04 --> 42:11 [SPEAKER_01]: It is greatly increased our happiness and made the little time we had for rest together all the more sweeter.
42:12 --> 42:21 [SPEAKER_01]: Many even sincere Christians make the mistake of desiring a position in which they may be free from work and have all their time at their disposal.
42:22 --> 42:27 [SPEAKER_01]: they did not realise that they are wishing for great harm rather than great blessing.
42:27 --> 42:33 [SPEAKER_01]: They forget that a lack of regular occupation exposes them to especially to temptation.
42:35 --> 42:40 [SPEAKER_01]: Yet great as our work was, we never allowed to interfere with the care of our souls.
42:41 --> 42:48 [SPEAKER_01]: Before beginning our daily labour, we made it our regular practice to spend time in prayer and in reading the Holy Scriptures.
42:49 --> 43:05 [SPEAKER_01]: If God's children neglect this and allow their work, even the work done for God to crowd out the cares of their own soul, they cannot remain happy in God for long and their happiness will suffer as well.
43:05 --> 43:19 [SPEAKER_01]: Lastly, most importantly of all, for many years with a 20 or 30, or more I cannot say, in addition to our times of private prayer and family prayer, we regularly had time of prayer together.
43:20 --> 43:27 [SPEAKER_01]: For many years, immediately after family prayer in the morning, my dear wife and I spent a short time praying together.
43:28 --> 43:35 [SPEAKER_01]: bringing before God the most important matters for Thanksgiving, and the most pressing concerns for prayer for the day ahead.
43:36 --> 43:49 [SPEAKER_01]: If heavy trials pressed upon us, or if our needs were especially great, we prayed again after dinner when I visited a room as mentioned earlier.
43:49 --> 43:56 [SPEAKER_01]: At times, a unusual difficulty or urgent need, this might be repeated once or twice in the afternoon,
43:58 --> 44:09 [SPEAKER_01]: In the evening, during the last hour of our time at the orphan houses, no matter how busy we were, it was understood that this hour was set apart for prayer.
44:10 --> 44:22 [SPEAKER_01]: My beloved wife would come to my room and our prayer and supplication with intercession and thanksgiving usually lasted about 40 or 45 minutes, and sometimes the entire hour.
44:23 --> 44:29 [SPEAKER_01]: At these times, we might bring 50 or more different matters or people or circumstances before God.
44:30 --> 44:36 [SPEAKER_01]: The general focus of our prayers remain much the same, except when prayer turned to praise.
44:37 --> 44:44 [SPEAKER_01]: When you concerns arose or when special mercies blessings, difficulties or trials lead to some change of emphasis.
44:45 --> 44:55 [SPEAKER_01]: We never met for prayer without having reason to give thanks, and we never came to these times without also having abundant reason to cast our burdens upon the Lord.
44:56 --> 45:03 [SPEAKER_01]: These seasons have united prayer in addition to family prayer, I especially commend to all Christian husbands and wives.
45:04 --> 45:19 [SPEAKER_01]: I believe that in our own experience, they were the great secret, not only have continued marital happiness, but of a love for each other, the grew, ever fresher and warmer than in our first years together.
45:20 --> 45:26 [SPEAKER_01]: Though we were then deeply attached to one another, I now turn to the second
45:29 --> 45:35 [SPEAKER_01]: The Lord was good and did good in leaving my precious wife with me for so long.
45:37 --> 45:48 [SPEAKER_01]: I will now try to show how clearly God's hand was seen in leaving her with me as a companion in joy, sorrow, and in service for 39 years and four months.
45:48 --> 45:52 [SPEAKER_01]: We will marry the October 7, 1830.
45:53 --> 45:57 [SPEAKER_01]: In August, 1831, my beloved wife suffered severely.
45:58 --> 46:00 [SPEAKER_01]: Humanly speaking, her life was in great danger.
46:01 --> 46:03 [SPEAKER_01]: and remain so for several weeks.
46:04 --> 46:09 [SPEAKER_01]: Two doctors visited her daily, sometimes, two or three times a day.
46:09 --> 46:23 [SPEAKER_01]: That she did not die at the time, but was raised up again and given back to me for another 38 years and six months, was from God and I believe it was an answer to my earnest cries to him for this mercy.
46:23 --> 46:29 [SPEAKER_01]: Yet from that time on my dear wife never fully regained her health and strength she had once enjoyed.
46:30 --> 46:39 [SPEAKER_01]: For second time, her life was a game humanly speaking in the greatest danger, was a four months after the our rival in Bristol.
46:39 --> 46:49 [SPEAKER_01]: On September 16th, 1832, she was in extreme danger, expecting time not in prayer, but God had mercy on me.
46:49 --> 46:55 [SPEAKER_01]: He not only spared my precious wife, but also made her the living mother.
46:56 --> 46:57 [SPEAKER_01]: of a living child.
46:57 --> 47:02 [SPEAKER_01]: Our beloved daughter was given to us on September 17, 1832.
47:03 --> 47:14 [SPEAKER_01]: In 1835, whilst staying at the home of a Christian friend in Stoke's Bishop, she was out walking when a carriage suddenly drove up and spun around into her.
47:14 --> 47:20 [SPEAKER_01]: My beloved wife was nearly killed, but in a remarkable way God preserved her life.
47:20 --> 47:22 [SPEAKER_01]: Those she was bruised when she fell while
47:25 --> 47:40 [SPEAKER_01]: On June 12, 1838, my beloved wife became ill. She suffered severely for shortly after nine in the month evening until midnight, and the pain continued after hour until 11 the next morning.
47:41 --> 47:48 [SPEAKER_01]: At that point, another physician was called in and at the request of the one already attending her.
47:48 --> 47:52 [SPEAKER_01]: Throughout the night, I prayed as much as was strength would allow.
47:53 --> 47:55 [SPEAKER_01]: At last I cried out for mercy and God heard me.
47:56 --> 48:00 [SPEAKER_01]: Humanly speaking, her life was a gain in the greatest danger.
48:01 --> 48:16 [SPEAKER_01]: Yet once more, he who is good and does good restored her to me, leaving me with her for another 31 years and six months, and making her even more useful to me and in the orphan work than ever before.
48:17 --> 48:22 [SPEAKER_01]: In 1845 my beloved wife accompanied me to Germany for the second time.
48:23 --> 48:30 [SPEAKER_01]: Soon after our arrival in Stuttgart she became very ill but God restored her then and gave her back to me.
48:31 --> 48:37 [SPEAKER_01]: In the summer of 1859 she began to complain of weakness in her left arm which gradually increased.
48:38 --> 48:44 [SPEAKER_01]: Towards the end of October, after being exposed to a draft, the week arm became extremely painful.
48:45 --> 48:49 [SPEAKER_01]: And within a day or two, it's will greatly, especially her hand.
48:50 --> 48:57 [SPEAKER_01]: This very ring that I had placed on a finger at our wedding in October 7, 1830, had to be cut off.
48:57 --> 49:01 [SPEAKER_01]: Her arm and hand grew worse and remained so weak.
49:02 --> 49:12 [SPEAKER_01]: The room where I had so often enjoyed those happy visits with my beloved wife after dinner and at other times was now for many weeks without her.
49:14 --> 49:16 [SPEAKER_01]: Yet this was the state of my heart at that time.
49:17 --> 49:20 [SPEAKER_01]: When this heavy affliction began, I said to myself,
49:21 --> 49:27 [SPEAKER_01]: For 29 years, the Lord has given me this precious wife with comparatively little illness.
49:27 --> 49:35 [SPEAKER_01]: Shall I now be dissatisfied because he, who has chosen to afflict her in the thudieth year of her marriage?
49:35 --> 49:36 [SPEAKER_01]: No.
49:36 --> 49:46 [SPEAKER_01]: Instead, it makes me deeply grateful having had her so long in relatively good health and fully to submit to the will of the Lord.
49:46 --> 49:50 [SPEAKER_01]: His grace, my soul, was enabled to do this.
49:51 --> 50:08 [SPEAKER_01]: Though I keenly felt her absence from the orphan work for almost nine months, except for a few occasions when she was driven there to give instruction, it has already recognised the hand of God in at all, and accepted it from Him, my soul remained peace.
50:09 --> 50:27 [SPEAKER_01]: Day by day, and through continued precious times of prayer, and day by day, we continued to plead with God that if it were his will, he would graciously restore the weakened arm and hand and spare her to me longer for service.
50:27 --> 50:36 [SPEAKER_01]: Last, in April, 1860, my dear wife had improved enough that our kind and attentive physician recommended she go to Cleveland.
50:37 --> 50:42 [SPEAKER_01]: and use the warm sea baths for the benefit of her arm and her hand.
50:43 --> 50:48 [SPEAKER_01]: I took her there with our daughter remaining by her side and I visited as often as I caught.
50:48 --> 51:01 [SPEAKER_01]: The warm sea baths seemed to help and progress was made when one day as she was returning from the bath as she slept while stepping off the road onto the footpath near her lodging.
51:01 --> 51:08 [SPEAKER_01]: she felt against the wall striking her head and her weakened arm, which was in a sling and unable to break her fall.
51:09 --> 51:13 [SPEAKER_01]: She appeared lifeless and our dear daughter ran to the house to get help.
51:14 --> 51:16 [SPEAKER_01]: But when she returned her mother,
51:16 --> 51:21 [SPEAKER_01]: who had been stunned, had revived, and could be carried to her bed.
51:22 --> 51:24 [SPEAKER_01]: Everything now seemed dark and discouraging.
51:25 --> 51:33 [SPEAKER_01]: Any hope of relief from the rheumatism in her arm, and hand appeared gone, and she seemed worse than before.
51:33 --> 51:42 [SPEAKER_01]: I began traveling down to Clevdham evening after finishing the day's work at Ashley down to sit with her at night.
51:43 --> 51:59 [SPEAKER_01]: For some time her suffering was great, but gradually a lesson, she returned to the condition she had been in when she first arrived, and after more than three months there, noticeable improvements were observed.
52:00 --> 52:04 [SPEAKER_01]: She then returned to Bristol and spent about six weeks at home.
52:04 --> 52:17 [SPEAKER_01]: After that, I took her and our daughter to Tinmouth for a month or so, so she might have further change of air and continue using the warm sea baths.
52:18 --> 52:27 [SPEAKER_01]: By the time we returned to Tinmouth, my dear wife had recovered enough strength in her arm and hand to resume her work at orphan houses.
52:28 --> 52:37 [SPEAKER_01]: Her hand had reduced in size enough that her wedding ring, which a jeweler had repaired, could once again be placed on a finger.
52:37 --> 52:43 [SPEAKER_01]: how good the law was in sparing her to me during that illness in 1859.
52:43 --> 52:48 [SPEAKER_01]: How good that she was not killed by that fall in Clevden.
52:49 --> 52:50 [SPEAKER_01]: I praise him for it.
52:51 --> 52:52 [SPEAKER_01]: He is good, and he does good.
52:53 --> 52:57 [SPEAKER_01]: Yet I cannot leave this path without noting one particular point.
52:58 --> 53:00 [SPEAKER_01]: My dear wife had worked very hard in 1856, 1857,
53:06 --> 53:14 [SPEAKER_01]: With the opening of the new orphan house number 2 and the preparations for number 3 there was an overwhelming amount of work.
53:14 --> 53:18 [SPEAKER_01]: Her health had declined greatly and her strength had been reduced.
53:19 --> 53:22 [SPEAKER_01]: I urged her not to work so much, but in vain.
53:23 --> 53:26 [SPEAKER_01]: She loved her work and could not bear idleness.
53:27 --> 53:30 [SPEAKER_01]: In her weakened condition, rheumatism took a deep hold.
53:32 --> 53:33 [SPEAKER_01]: but see how the Lord worked.
53:33 --> 53:54 [SPEAKER_01]: This illness painful has it was for her and distressing for me became God's instrument in preserving her for the orphans, has their true friend for her sisters as a sister, for her daughter as a mother and for her husband as a precious wife for 10 more years.
53:55 --> 53:59 [SPEAKER_01]: This very illness forced her to rest more than she otherwise would have done.
54:00 --> 54:04 [SPEAKER_01]: by October 8 and 60, she was in better health than she had been for years.
54:05 --> 54:15 [SPEAKER_01]: How true then, in this case, other words, we know that all things work together for good to those that love God, Romans 8, verse 28.
54:17 --> 54:24 [SPEAKER_01]: We have now seen how good the Lord was to me in sparing my dear wife, to me for 39 years and four months.
54:25 --> 54:31 [SPEAKER_01]: Though she might have been taken from me much sooner, it now remains lastly to show.
54:31 --> 54:39 [SPEAKER_01]: But the Lord is good and was doing good in removing the desire of my eyes.
54:39 --> 54:47 [SPEAKER_01]: Perhaps all Christians who have heard me will readily agree that the Lord was good and did good in giving me such a wife.
54:48 --> 54:55 [SPEAKER_01]: They will likely also admit that he was good and did good in leaving her with me for so long.
54:56 --> 55:17 [SPEAKER_01]: What I asked these dear Christian friends to go further and say from their hearts that the Lord was good and did good in taking that useful lovely and excellent wife from her husband another time when humanly speaking, he seemed to need her more than ever.
55:18 --> 55:21 [SPEAKER_01]: As I say this, I feel the emptiness of my heart.
55:21 --> 55:25 [SPEAKER_01]: That dear one is no longer with me to share my joys and my sorrows.
55:26 --> 55:27 [SPEAKER_01]: Each day I miss her more and more.
55:28 --> 55:33 [SPEAKER_01]: Each day I see more clearly how great her loss is to the orphans.
55:34 --> 55:39 [SPEAKER_01]: Yet without any struggle, my deepest soul rejoices in her joy.
55:39 --> 55:41 [SPEAKER_01]: Her happiness brings me happiness.
55:42 --> 55:47 [SPEAKER_01]: My dear daughter and I would not bring her back, even if it were possible to do so in a moment.
55:48 --> 55:52 [SPEAKER_01]: God himself has done this, and we are content with him.
55:53 --> 56:05 [SPEAKER_01]: During the last two or three years it became clear to my loving heart and watchful eye that my precious companion of so many years was again declining in health.
56:06 --> 56:11 [SPEAKER_01]: She not only lost considerable weight, but seemed noticeably more worn out than ever.
56:11 --> 56:18 [SPEAKER_01]: I pleaded with her to work less and to take more nourishment, but I could not persuade her in either matter.
56:19 --> 56:25 [SPEAKER_01]: When I expressed concern that she lay awake at night for two hours or more, she would say my dear.
56:26 --> 56:30 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm growing old and old people do not need as much sleep.
56:31 --> 56:41 [SPEAKER_01]: When I told her I feared her health might decline again as it had in 1859 and that I feared the worst she replied, my darling.
56:41 --> 56:50 [SPEAKER_01]: I think the Lord will allow me to see often houses number four and number five furnished and opened and then I may go home.
56:51 --> 56:57 [SPEAKER_01]: But above all, I wish that the Lord Jesus would come that we might all go together.
56:58 --> 57:01 [SPEAKER_01]: But death occurred just a month after the opening of number five.
57:02 --> 57:09 [SPEAKER_01]: her dear mind and hands remain constantly at work with so much to be done in so many different areas.
57:10 --> 57:13 [SPEAKER_01]: She was usually engaged all day long at the orphan houses.
57:14 --> 57:21 [SPEAKER_01]: In these circumstances she caught a cold early in January which led to a severe and distressing cough.
57:22 --> 57:38 [SPEAKER_01]: Only with difficulty could I persuade her to allow me to send for our trusted medical friend, for she always minimised her own illnesses, while being deeply concerned about the health of others, especially myself, her daughter and her sister.
57:39 --> 57:50 [SPEAKER_01]: I urge her with affection, to ride to and from the orphan houses, and to rest for a while on her couch after dinner as our client physician advised.
57:51 --> 57:55 [SPEAKER_01]: Still, my dear wife insisted that there was little wrong with her.
57:56 --> 58:09 [SPEAKER_01]: through medical care, avoiding the night air entirely, traveling by carriage to the orphan houses, following a more nourishing, somewhat adjusted diet, resting a little more than usual.
58:10 --> 58:12 [SPEAKER_01]: The traveling cough was almost completely removed.
58:13 --> 58:15 [SPEAKER_01]: hardly a trace of it remained.
58:16 --> 58:25 [SPEAKER_01]: My beloved was able once again to attend public worship by carriage on the mornings of January 23 and 30.
58:25 --> 58:29 [SPEAKER_01]: Though she stayed home in the evenings to prevent the cough from returning.
58:30 --> 58:40 [SPEAKER_01]: On Sunday, January 30, there was an additional reason for her not to go out in the evening as she felt pain across her lower back and he and her right arm.
58:41 --> 58:53 [SPEAKER_01]: The pain worsens somewhat on Monday, January 31, and we thought it best to send for our dear medical friend to see her if possible before we left the orphan houses.
58:54 --> 59:00 [SPEAKER_01]: But as he was already out visiting patients, my dear wife set off in a carriage for the orphan houses.
59:01 --> 59:08 [SPEAKER_01]: Our daughter, accompanying her, was cyst under direction, since it was feared the pain would prevent
59:10 --> 59:14 [SPEAKER_01]: The day pass reasonably well, though the pain increased.
59:14 --> 59:18 [SPEAKER_01]: At tea times she returned home and a carriage with her sister, Ms.
59:18 --> 59:21 [SPEAKER_01]: Gross, who had been in very weak health and with our daughter.
59:22 --> 59:26 [SPEAKER_01]: I remain behind to attend the usual public prayer meeting that evening.
59:27 --> 59:39 [SPEAKER_01]: When I returned home, I found that our dear medical friend had visited and ordered my beloved wife to bed, instructing that she remained there, and that her fire be lit in her bedroom.
59:40 --> 59:42 [SPEAKER_01]: He stated that it was a romantic fever.
59:42 --> 59:52 [SPEAKER_01]: She suffered much pain during the night that followed the next day and especially during the night from Tuesday and Wednesday, the pain grew even more severe.
59:53 --> 01:00:05 [SPEAKER_01]: One by one, her limbs became so painful that she could neither move them, nor endure being touched, except for the arm and hand that had been weakened ten years earlier.
01:00:07 --> 01:00:12 [SPEAKER_01]: When I heard the doctor's judgment that it was remade fever, I naturally feared the worse.
01:00:13 --> 01:00:19 [SPEAKER_01]: Though my heart was nearly broken because of the depth of my love for her, I said to myself,
01:00:22 --> 01:00:25 [SPEAKER_01]: all will be in keeping with his blessed character.
01:00:26 --> 01:00:30 [SPEAKER_01]: Nothing but what is good like himself can come from him.
01:00:31 --> 01:00:36 [SPEAKER_01]: If he chooses to take my dear wife it will be for good because he is good.
01:00:36 --> 01:00:44 [SPEAKER_01]: My part as his child is to be satisfied with what my father does so that I may glorify him.
01:00:45 --> 01:00:52 [SPEAKER_01]: And by God's grace, my soul, not only sought this spirit, but truly attained it, our satisfied with God.
01:00:52 --> 01:00:59 [SPEAKER_01]: A Tuesday, February 1, I was alone in my precious wife's room at the orphan's house.
01:01:00 --> 01:01:06 [SPEAKER_01]: She was a homing bed, something that had not happened for more than nine years, in her room
01:01:11 --> 01:01:16 [SPEAKER_01]: arranged for each day of the month, under the title, the silent comforer.
01:01:17 --> 01:01:27 [SPEAKER_01]: The page displayed that day contained these words, I now alert that your judgments are right, and that in faith on us you have afflicted me.
01:01:28 --> 01:01:34 [SPEAKER_01]: Psalm 119 verse 75, I read the verse again and again, and each time
01:01:37 --> 01:01:39 [SPEAKER_01]: Yes Lord, your judgments are right.
01:01:40 --> 01:01:41 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm satisfied with them.
01:01:41 --> 01:01:46 [SPEAKER_01]: You know the debts of your poor child's love for his beloved wife.
01:01:47 --> 01:01:49 [SPEAKER_01]: Yet I'm satisfied with your judgments.
01:01:50 --> 01:01:54 [SPEAKER_01]: My heart says, that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.
01:01:55 --> 01:01:59 [SPEAKER_01]: All this in keeping with the love with which you have
01:02:05 --> 01:02:12 [SPEAKER_01]: On that same sheet, we're also the words, my times are in your hands, Psalm 31, verse 15.
01:02:13 --> 01:02:16 [SPEAKER_01]: As I read them my heart answered yes, my father.
01:02:17 --> 01:02:20 [SPEAKER_01]: The times of my dear wife are in your hands.
01:02:21 --> 01:02:26 [SPEAKER_01]: You will do what is best for her and for me, with a life or death.
01:02:27 --> 01:02:30 [SPEAKER_01]: If it is your will, raise up my precious wife again.
01:02:30 --> 01:02:40 [SPEAKER_01]: You are able to do it, those she is so ill, but however you do with me, only help me to remain perfectly satisfied with your holy will.
01:02:40 --> 01:02:47 [SPEAKER_01]: Throughout the week, while my beloved wife lay on her deathbed, these lines from a cherished
01:02:50 --> 01:02:51 [SPEAKER_01]: One there is above all others.
01:02:52 --> 01:02:53 [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, how he loves me.
01:02:54 --> 01:02:57 [SPEAKER_01]: Best of blessings he will provide for us.
01:02:58 --> 01:03:00 [SPEAKER_01]: Nothing but good will ever be for us.
01:03:01 --> 01:03:04 [SPEAKER_01]: Safe to glory he will guide us.
01:03:05 --> 01:03:06 [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, how he loves us.
01:03:07 --> 01:03:11 [SPEAKER_01]: My heart continually responded, nothing but good will ever be forless.
01:03:12 --> 01:03:19 [SPEAKER_01]: My inner soul was assured that whatever my loving father chose to do with this poor child would be for his good.
01:03:20 --> 01:03:32 [SPEAKER_01]: On Wednesday, February the 2nd, when my beloved wife was comparatively free from pain, I read to her before leaving for the orphan house this verse in Psalm 84.
01:03:33 --> 01:03:36 [SPEAKER_01]: Lord God is a son and a shield.
01:03:36 --> 01:03:38 [SPEAKER_01]: The Lord will give grace and glory.
01:03:39 --> 01:03:43 [SPEAKER_01]: No good thing will you withhold from those who walk uprightly.
01:03:44 --> 01:03:51 [SPEAKER_01]: After reading it, I said my darling, we have both received grace and therefore we will receive glory.
01:03:52 --> 01:03:55 [SPEAKER_01]: And since God's grace, we walk uprightly.
01:03:56 --> 01:03:56 [SPEAKER_01]: He will
01:03:59 --> 01:04:04 [SPEAKER_01]: She was clearly strengthened by this verse because she spoke about it to our daughter later in the day.
01:04:04 --> 01:04:15 [SPEAKER_01]: It was also a great support for my own heart, I said to myself again, again, a walk up rightly and therefore my father will withhold nothing from me that is good.
01:04:15 --> 01:04:20 [SPEAKER_01]: If the restoration of my dear wife is good for me, it will surely be given.
01:04:21 --> 01:04:26 [SPEAKER_01]: If not, then I must seek to glorify God by complete submission to his holy will.
01:04:28 --> 01:04:41 [SPEAKER_01]: On Thursday, I saw how serious the doctor considered her condition to be, and Friday evening, he said, it would give him comfort if another physician could see Ms. Mueller since the case was very grave.
01:04:42 --> 01:04:50 [SPEAKER_01]: I told him that I was fully satisfied with his treatment, but that if it were his mind, he should arrange a consultation.
01:04:51 --> 01:05:05 [SPEAKER_01]: This could not take place until Sunday, February 6, because the other doctor would be out of town on Saturday, on Saturday morning I stayed home until nearly dinner time, remaining with my dear Emily as long as possible.
01:05:05 --> 01:05:13 [SPEAKER_01]: When at last I left her I said my darling, I am sorry to leave you, but I will return as soon as I can.
01:05:15 --> 01:05:17 [SPEAKER_01]: She sweetly replied, you leave me
01:05:19 --> 01:05:23 [SPEAKER_01]: When I returned home, she was about the same as when I'd left her.
01:05:24 --> 01:05:28 [SPEAKER_01]: But that night, her pain and suffering was greater than before.
01:05:29 --> 01:05:39 [SPEAKER_01]: I spent almost the entire night trying, in every way possible, to relieve her suffering, and to help her as she endured the additional trial of losing the use.
01:05:40 --> 01:05:41 [SPEAKER_01]: of one of her limbs.
01:05:42 --> 01:05:53 [SPEAKER_01]: Had last, from two until four in the morning, she was somewhat better, but the suffering of that night soon brought her to the close of her earthly journey.
01:05:55 --> 01:05:58 [SPEAKER_01]: By about ten in the morning, all hope of recovery was gone.
01:05:58 --> 01:06:01 [SPEAKER_01]: I felt my duty to tell my precious
01:06:08 --> 01:06:12 [SPEAKER_01]: I believe she meant that the Lord will return and will be reunited.
01:06:12 --> 01:06:20 [SPEAKER_01]: While there was still life, I felt it right to do everything that medical school could suggest and that love could provide.
01:06:21 --> 01:06:29 [SPEAKER_01]: At one thirty p.m. when I gave her the medicine, surely afterwards a spoonful of wine mixed with water, she had difficulty swallowing.
01:06:30 --> 01:06:33 [SPEAKER_01]: A few minutes later, she could no longer speak clearly.
01:06:38 --> 01:06:46 [SPEAKER_01]: I sat quietly before her about 15 minutes later, I noticed that her dear bright eyes had become fixed.
01:06:47 --> 01:06:54 [SPEAKER_01]: I called her daughter, and her aunt, misgroves, telling them that her loved one was dying.
01:06:55 --> 01:06:59 [SPEAKER_01]: They came at once and soon, Mrs. Manoring another sister joined us.
01:07:01 --> 01:07:08 [SPEAKER_01]: four of us sat quietly for about two and a half hours watching the final moments of that deeply loved one.
01:07:10 --> 01:07:17 [SPEAKER_01]: At about 20 minutes past four in the afternoon on Sunday, February 6th, 1870, she fell asleep in Jesus.
01:07:18 --> 01:07:25 [SPEAKER_01]: I then knelt and thanked God for her release and for taking her to himself and asked the
01:07:28 --> 01:07:39 [SPEAKER_01]: I saw a soul was so upheld and so peaceful that I had possessed a physical strength and had not pressing duties at home I could have preached immediately afterwards.
01:07:40 --> 01:07:43 [SPEAKER_01]: The passage I would have chosen would have been the text of this sermon.
01:07:45 --> 01:07:52 [SPEAKER_01]: Two years ago my daughter had found something written by her dear mother in a small notebook kept at the orphan's house.
01:07:53 --> 01:07:54 [SPEAKER_01]: I knew nothing of it.
01:07:54 --> 01:07:59 [SPEAKER_01]: Two days after her mother's death, my dear daughter showed me this precious treasure.
01:08:00 --> 01:08:01 [SPEAKER_01]: And it now lies before me.
01:08:02 --> 01:08:02 [SPEAKER_01]: The words of these.
01:08:04 --> 01:08:16 [SPEAKER_01]: Shoulder please the Lord to remove M.M., or Mary and Yula, suddenly, let no one of the beloved survivors think that it was an act of judgment, either upon her or upon them.
01:08:17 --> 01:08:25 [SPEAKER_01]: She is so often, when enjoying a conscious sense of nearness to the Lord, felt how sweet it would be to depart
01:08:25 --> 01:08:37 [SPEAKER_01]: and be forever with Jesus, that only for the thought of shock that would bring hope a loved husband and child has restrained her longing desire that her spirit might take flight.
01:08:38 --> 01:08:43 [SPEAKER_01]: Precious Jesus, you're willing this, as in all things, not hours, be done.
01:08:44 --> 01:08:52 [SPEAKER_01]: With these words before me, and knowing as I do the deepest and love of my dear wife had for the blessed one who died for us on the cross,
01:08:53 --> 01:08:57 [SPEAKER_01]: How can my innermost soul do anything but rejoice in her?
01:08:58 --> 01:09:05 [SPEAKER_01]: Now that she is forever with Lord Jesus Christ, the depths of my love for her rejoices in her happiness.
01:09:06 --> 01:09:15 [SPEAKER_01]: Remember the words about Lord, if you loved me, you would rejoice because I said I'm going to the Father, John 14, verse 28.
01:09:17 --> 01:09:22 [SPEAKER_01]: As a husband, I feel more each day, the loss of this gentle, useful, loving companion.
01:09:23 --> 01:09:28 [SPEAKER_01]: As the director of the orphan houses, I miss her and countless ways, I long miss her more and more.
01:09:29 --> 01:09:34 [SPEAKER_01]: But as a child of God and as a servant of Lord Jesus, I bow and submission.
01:09:35 --> 01:09:41 [SPEAKER_01]: I am satisfied with the will of my Heavenly Father, but fully submit to His holy will.
01:09:41 --> 01:09:43 [SPEAKER_01]: I will seek to glorify Him.
01:09:43 --> 01:09:52 [SPEAKER_01]: I kiss the hand that has afflicted me, and I also say so, I will meet her again and spend a blessed eternity with her.
01:09:53 --> 01:09:56 [SPEAKER_01]: Will all who hear me meet my precious wife?
01:09:57 --> 01:10:07 [SPEAKER_01]: Only those who have judged themselves to be guilty sinners and have placed their trust in the Lord Jesus alone for the salvation of their souls.
01:10:07 --> 01:10:12 [SPEAKER_01]: He came into the world to save sinners and all who believe in Him will be saved.
01:10:13 --> 01:10:33 [SPEAKER_01]: But without faith in the Lord Jesus, we cannot be saved, let all who are not yet reconciled to God through faith in Him, be earnest about their souls, less suddenly illness overtake them and find them unprepared, or less the Lord Jesus returned before they are ready to meet Him.
01:10:33 --> 01:10:37 [SPEAKER_01]: May the Lord in His mercy grant that this may not be so.
01:10:38 --> 01:10:38 [SPEAKER_01]: Amen.
01:10:49 --> 01:10:51 [SPEAKER_02]: there is a section in the sermon.
01:10:51 --> 01:10:52 [SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to read it to you.
01:10:53 --> 01:10:53 [SPEAKER_02]: It says
01:10:56 --> 01:11:08 [SPEAKER_02]: As I say this, I feel the emptiness of my heart that dear one is no longer with me to share my joys and sorrows, each day I miss her more, each day I see more clearly how great her loss is to the orphans.
01:11:09 --> 01:11:12 [SPEAKER_02]: Yet without any struggle, my deepest soul rejoices in her joy.
01:11:12 --> 01:11:19 [SPEAKER_02]: Her happiness brings me happiness, my dear daughter and I would not bring her back even if it were possible to do so in a moment.
01:11:19 --> 01:11:22 [SPEAKER_02]: God himself has done this and we are content with him.
01:11:23 --> 01:11:25 [SPEAKER_02]: I don't know that I have any deeper profound afterthought to share.
01:11:25 --> 01:11:33 [SPEAKER_02]: I think George Mueller's sermon is fantastic and I never met Mrs. Mueller, but 150 plus years later I can tell what a great person she was.
01:11:34 --> 01:11:41 [SPEAKER_02]: And I can also see what an amazing man George Mueller is in a world full of
01:11:42 --> 01:11:58 [SPEAKER_02]: bitterness and full of living and pain and in the full of constantly counting the things people have done against you and constantly remembering your own hurts and always it is amazing and beautiful to see George Mueller.
01:11:59 --> 01:12:03 [SPEAKER_02]: Speak so clearly that he wouldn't want his beautiful wife back as happy wife back.
01:12:03 --> 01:12:12 [SPEAKER_02]: He wouldn't want it for a moment because God is good and he misses her each day, he misses her more than the last, but he knows that the Lord is good through it all.
01:12:14 --> 01:12:21 [SPEAKER_02]: The gospel holding this man up, you can see his love for Jesus so clearly during one of the hardest moments of his life.
01:12:22 --> 01:12:24 [SPEAKER_02]: You can see him preaching to the crowd at the end.
01:12:24 --> 01:12:26 [SPEAKER_02]: You know, will you see her again in heaven?
01:12:26 --> 01:12:26 [SPEAKER_02]: I hope so.
01:12:27 --> 01:12:27 [SPEAKER_02]: Here's the gospel.
01:12:28 --> 01:12:30 [SPEAKER_02]: He made every opportunity to share Jesus.
01:12:31 --> 01:12:33 [SPEAKER_02]: He's pointing to Christ through it all.
01:12:33 --> 01:12:37 [SPEAKER_02]: And I don't think anything can do that except for the power of God.
01:12:37 --> 01:12:40 [SPEAKER_02]: And yet, here we are 150 plus years later.
01:12:40 --> 01:12:42 [SPEAKER_02]: And I think we can see very clearly God was at work.
01:12:44 --> 01:12:50 [SPEAKER_02]: and I hope that I hope you were able to see that and experience that as well as I was and yeah, what an amazing life.
01:12:51 --> 01:12:53 [SPEAKER_02]: This is a Mueller hat, what an amazing life, George Mueller had.
01:12:54 --> 01:13:00 [SPEAKER_02]: We can all hope that our own passing has even even a fraction of that kind of impact.
01:13:00 --> 01:13:02 [SPEAKER_02]: If it does, we live our life well for the Lord.
01:13:13 --> 01:13:16 [SPEAKER_03]: Thank you for listening to today's episode of Revive Thoughts.
01:13:16 --> 01:13:19 [SPEAKER_03]: City Sermon was narrative by Lee Ridgly.
01:13:19 --> 01:13:23 [SPEAKER_03]: Thanks so much for sending us out on our summer break here with this awesome George Mueller Sermon.
01:13:24 --> 01:13:31 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, Lee did great, great, great, it's a great sermon then, I was kind of a sad one, but it's also a beautiful one.
01:13:31 --> 01:13:36 [SPEAKER_02]: And we thank you all for listening, cannot wait to be back in a couple of months, bringing you more episodes, we're not gone.
01:13:37 --> 01:13:42 [SPEAKER_02]: Patreon, you will get a deep dive, I hope, dropped into your inbox here soon while we were gone.
01:13:42 --> 01:13:42 [SPEAKER_02]: And,
01:13:43 --> 01:13:55 [SPEAKER_02]: If you're looking for more advice to the as content, make sure you are subscribed over at Christian or not, our brand new show and also, uh, at least this show, Martyrs and Missionaries is still going strong as well.
01:13:55 --> 01:14:02 [SPEAKER_02]: So, uh, until we are recording again, it'll be a little wild, but this is Troy and Jolt and you are listening to Revive Thoughts.