orphan

I LOVE TO STEAL AWHILE AWAY

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I love to steal awhile away
From every cumbering care,
And spend the hours of closing day
In humble, grateful, prayer.

I love to think on mercies past,
And future good implore,
And all my cares and sorrows cast
On God, Whom I adore.

I love by faith to take a view
Of brighter scenes in heaven;
The prospect doth my strength renew,
While here by tempests driven.

Thus, when life’s toilsome day is o’er,
May its departing ray,
Be calm at this impressive hour,
And lead to endless day.

About the writer: Phoebe Hinsdale Brown was born in 1783 in Canaan, New York. Being left an orphan when only two years of age, her early life was one of want, hardship, and drudgery. At the age of nine she went to live with a relative who kept a county jail. “These were years of intense and cruel suffering,” wrote her son. “The tale of her early life is a narrative of such deprivations, toil, and cruel treatment as it breaks my heart to read.” Not until she was eighteen years of age did she escape from this bondage and find a home among kind and sympathetic people. Her education was limited to three months in the public school where she learned to write. She made at this time a profession of faith in Christ and joined the Congregational Church. She died in 1861. “Despite all her disadvantages,” wrote her biographer, “Mrs. Brown’s talents and work are superior to those of any other early female hymnist of America.”

Key Verse: Afterward he went up into the hills by himself to pray. Night fell while he was there alone. –Matthew 14:23

Müller, George

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George Müller (1805-1898) was an English preacher and renowned advocate of the power of prayer. Müller was born in Germany but later became a naturalized British subject. Educated in Germany, he went to London in 1828 to seek a commission from a missionary organization. In 1830, however, he gave up the idea of missionary work and became the minister of a small congregation in Devonshire. He believed that the temporal, as well as the spiritual needs of life, could be supplied entirely by prayer, and on this principle, he refused to take a fixed salary. After two years here, Müller moved to Bristol where he spent the rest of his life. He devoted himself particularly to the care of orphan children. He began by taking a few into his care, but soon their number increased to over 2,000. He built five large houses at Ashley Down, near Bristol. The money required for building and maintaining the orphanage was voluntarily contributed. When he was over seventy he and his wife started on a preaching mission that lasted nearly 17 years and included Europe, America, India, Australia, and China. Together they traveled over two hundred thousand miles and preached to more than three million people. When Müller died his possessions were valued at less than a thousand pounds although he had handled millions during his lifetime – all secured solely through faith and prayer. His triumphant life, recounted in his widely circulated book The Narration of Some of the Lord’s Dealings with George Müller, was a testimony to the power of prayer and inspired many Christians to undertake great causes on faith alone.