George Müller

George Müller (1805–1898) was a Prussian, dissolute as a young man, who nonetheless enrolled to study theology at the University of Halle. In his autobiography he admits that until early November 1825, he had never once heard the gospel preached. Then, in the middle of that month, the gospel reached him — at that meeting in Wagner's home, he repented and was born again. A theology student came to know God not in a lecture hall, but at a gathering in someone's house.

During his time in Halle, he lodged for about two months, free of charge, in a room August Hermann Francke's (1663–1727) orphanage kept for poor theology students. More than a century earlier, Francke had founded that orphanage with no money at all, only an unshaken confidence that God hears prayer; in 1835, Müller read a biography of Francke and was deeply moved by it. The following year, he opened an orphanage in Bristol, England, soliciting no one for funds and telling God alone what was needed, in prayer. Over his lifetime he cared for tens of thousands of orphans, and said openly that the man he was following was Francke of Halle.

Müller's faith did not stay in England. In 1865, Hudson Taylor founded the China Inland Mission; the “faith principle” he held to was explicitly modeled on Müller, and Müller himself was one of the mission's chief supporters. A clear lineage emerges: Francke ran an orphanage in Halle by prayer; Müller was born again in Halle and followed Francke's example; Hudson Taylor followed Müller's example, and the gospel went deep into inland China with the mission he founded.

Halle never sent a missionary directly to China, but a bloodline of faith flowed out of this city and, in time, flowed into China. Today, a group of Chinese Christians prays and worships in Chinese in Halle — the line has returned to where it began. The God we trust is the very God who hears prayer.