The Preaching Tours and Missionary Labours of George Müller of Bristol. Susannah Grace Sanger Müller
afternoon (Sunday) he preached at the Anna Capelle to a large congregation, the Church being crowded to the utmost, and the staircases and doorways filled; and in the evening held a second meeting at the same place, which was also very numerously attended.
At Zürich he continued to conduct services every afternoon or evening until the 24th, when he addressed a large audience at the Methodist Episcopal Chapel in the morning, and preached in the afternoon at the Frau Münster—an immense Church—to about 1,900 persons. On Sept. 25th we went by lake steamer to Männedorf, and there were cordially welcomed by Mr. Zeller, successor to Dorothea Trudel, who conducted us to lodgings at a pretty cottage, with vines trained up against the walls, in which she used to live. After Mr. Müller had preached twice at Männedorf, and held two meetings at Wädenschwyl, a small town on the opposite side of the lake, we returned to Zürich; and on the evening of Sept. 29th he preached at Wytikon, a village four miles distant, where special arrangements for lighting the Church with lamps were necessary, because evening services were never held. During our two visits to Zürich he preached in that town and in the neighbourhood 18 times altogether.
On Oct. 1st we went to St. Gallen, and afterwards visited Hauptweil, Heinrichsbad (a small Sanatorium), Herisau, Heiden, Niederuzwyl, Mollis, Glarus, and Trogen, and on Oct. 23rd returned to Heiden. At all of these places he held meetings with great encouragement and success, except at Glarus, where the population is partly of an infidel character. Here some young men entered the Hall, evidently intending to disturb the meeting; but the service, nevertheless, was of a most solemn character. On the following evening the number of hearers at the same Hall was considerably larger, and the preacher was listened to with great attention.
From the grandeur and sublimity of their mountain scenery, Mollis, Glarus, and the whole neighbourhood for miles around, are wonderful localities. These are no places, one would think, for infidels; for here, if anywhere, the most careless even must be constrained to acknowledge that "the strength of the hills is His also." On Oct. 20th we went to Ragatz (situated in a picturesque spot on the Splugen Road, in the Valley of the Rhine), and on the following morning took a drive to Pfäffers-Bad, three miles distant, in the narrow deep gorge of the Tamina, between perpendicular cliffs of an amazing height, where, even during the summer months, the sun shines only from 10 o'clock till 4. The hot sulphur springs (temperature 94°) are reached by a road of planks at the bottom of the gorge, which has high precipices on each side of it, only wide enough apart for the Bath House to stand on the level ground between them. This Pfäffers-Bad is considered one of the most curious and remarkable spots throughout the whole of Switzerland.
On Oct. 24th we left Heiden and went to Constance, where, on the evening of that day, Mr. Müller held a meeting at a large Hall of the Insel Hotel, which is situated on an island in the Boden See, or Lake of Constance. This hotel used formerly to be a Dominican Monastery, and the Hall, just referred to, was the Church originally belonging to the building. An old tower, connected with the Monastery, in which John Huss was imprisoned, is still standing close to the hotel. During our short stay at Constance, three other meetings were held (two of them in the town), and before our departure we visited the Council Chamber at the Merchants' Hall, in which the Council sat by whom Huss was tried and sentenced to be burned at the stake. The spot—now marked by a monument near the Brühl outside, where, in the year 1416, he and Jerome, of Prague, suffered martyrdom, is also one of the interesting places in this neighbourhood.
On Oct. 28th we went to Schaffhausen, visited the beautiful Falls of the Rhine, and on the 29th, at the Johannes Kirche (an immense building), Mr. Müller addressed a congregation of about 3,000. Upon four other occasions also he preached at the same Church, with great help from the Lord. From Schaffhausen, on Nov. 3rd, we proceeded to Winterthur, and after he had held two meetings there, left for Basle on the 4th. Here, during the fortnight we remained, he addressed very large congregations every evening, either at the great Hall of the Vereins Haus, at a Hall belonging to the Moravians, or at one of the Churches. He addressed the Theological Students of the University also, and spoke for an hour and a quarter to 85 Missionary Students and their Teachers. On the 15th, at Beugen, he held a meeting at an Institution for young men who were being trained for teachers; on the 16th addressed 65 Missionary Students at Creschona, and on the 17th preached at Lehrach. On Nov. 18th we went to Mülhausen, and afterwards visited Strasburg, Stuttgart, Kornthal, Ludwigsburg, Reutlingen, Ober-Urbach, Heilbronn, Carlsruhe, Gernsbach (in the neighbourhood of the Black Forest), Heidelberg, Mannheim, Frankfort on the Maine, Darmstadt, Bonn, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Mülheim, Gladbach, Reydt, Viersen, Crefeld, Duisburg, Essen, Elberfeld, and Barmen, at all of which places important, happy meetings—generally crowded to the very utmost—were held, both at Halls and in the Churches.
At Bonn Mr. Müller addressed the Theological Students of the University; and at Barmen, spoke to the Missionary Students at the Mission House. Mülheim an der Ruhr, Barmen, and Elberfeld were found by us the green spots (spiritually) of Germany, where it was refreshing to be—on account of the great measure of spiritual life that existed there. The details, however, of all these services are not given, because it is undesirable to make this narrative too long; but it may be interesting to mention that at Stuttgart he was honoured by an interview with the Queen of Wurtemberg, who sent for him to the palace and asked a number of questions about the Orphan Work in Bristol; and on Jan. 13th, 1877, at Darmstadt, he held a drawing-room meeting at the house of the Court preacher, Mr. Bender, giving (by particular request) a short account of his life and labours to a large company of gentlemen and ladies assembled there. Upon this occasion four drawing-rooms were thrown open, and Princess Karl, (mother of Prince Louis of Hesse, husband of the late Princess Alice of England) Princess von Battenburg, and several gentlemen and ladies connected with the Court were present. The two Princesses shook hands with us very kindly afterwards, and expressed much interest in the account which had been given.
On March 24th we left Barmen for Cassel, where, on Sunday morning, the 25th, at half past 9, Mr. Müller preached at the Brüder Kirche to about 500 people, and in the afternoon, at St. Martin's Kirche—the largest Church in the city—to only between 600 and 700, a circumstance which showed how low the state of spiritual life was at Cassel compared with that of Barmen, Elberfeld, and Mülheim, where the Churches were so thronged, that, even when the rain fell in torrents, they were not large enough to contain the people who crowded to the meetings, though many had to walk to them six, eight, or ten miles. The congregations, however, increased in size continually.
Whilst at Cassel we took a drive to the Palace of Wilhelmshöhe, four miles distant, situated in a beautiful park, surrounded by extensive grounds where, in 1870, after his ignominious defeat at Sedan, Napoleon III., the late Emperor of the French, was sent as a State prisoner by the present Emperor of Germany.
On March 28th we left Cassel and went to Halle, viâ Eisenach, to visit the Wartburg (an old Castle standing on a steep hill, 1,355 feet in height, where Luther was concealed in 1521) and explored the interior of the building. The sitting-room, occupied by the great Reformer, when he translated the Scriptures into German, is shown to visitors. His chair also, and an old bedstead upon which he slept, are preserved as objects of interest. The Wartburg contains a small chapel likewise, and numerous valuable relics. At 9 in the evening we reached Halle. The next afternoon Mr. Müller spoke at the great Hall of Francke's Orphan Institution from Heb. xi. 4, and on March 30th gave an address on prayer at the same Hall, upon which occasion he made particular reference to the life and labours of Francke, because the example set by that devoted servant of Christ of founding an Orphan Institution, in dependence upon God alone for help, was a great encouragement to him when he began his Orphan Work in Bristol. Whilst at Halle we went through the Orphan Asylum, founded by Francke in 1698, and visited the different departments of the Institution. My husband called also upon his old friend Dr. Tholuck, Counsellor of the Upper Consistorium of Prussia, and Professor of Theology at the University of Halle, who was then living.
On March 31st we left Halle for Berlin, and on the way there went to Wittenberg, a fortified town on the Elbe, to visit the Schlosskirche, which contains the tombs of Luther and Melancthon. Here, too, we saw the Church doors upon which, on Oct. 31st, 1517, Luther's 95 Theses against the doctrine of Indulgencies were posted up, introducing the Reformation; and at an old Monastery were conducted to the room where he lived as an Augustine Monk, and shown the cup out of which he used to drink.