A Narrative of Some of the Lord's Dealings with George Müller, Written by Himself

The famous stories of George Müller — the orphanages funded by prayer alone — come from Müller himself. A Narrative of Some of the Lord's Dealings with George Müller is his own firsthand record of answered prayer and provision.

It's the primary source the retellings draw on, here in a clean modern edition with the original linked free.

A Narrative of Some of the Lord's Dealings with George Müller is Müller's own account of his life and ministry, written by himself and first published in 1837, with further parts following in 1841, 1845, and 1856. It opens with his dissolute youth in Prussia, including habitual lying, theft, and time in prison, and moves through his conversion as a student to the central work of his life: the founding and running of orphanages in Bristol, England.

The Narrative's defining feature is its detailed record of answered prayer. Müller resolved never to ask anyone directly for money and never to go into debt, instead making his needs known only to God. The book reads in places like a ledger of provision, noting specific gifts that arrived, often at the last hour, to feed and house the children in his care. His stated aim in publishing was to offer evidence that God hears prayer and can be trusted for daily needs.

Across its parts the Narrative documents the growth of the Ashley Down orphan houses and Müller's wider work in Christian education and missions support. It remains a widely read primary source on a ministry that, over Müller's lifetime, cared for more than ten thousand orphans.

George Müller (1805-1898), born Johann Georg Ferdinand Müller in Prussia, was a Christian evangelist and the director of the Ashley Down orphanage in Bristol. By his own account he was a wayward young man, a thief and a liar who was even imprisoned briefly, before studying divinity at the University of Halle. Over his life he cared for more than ten thousand orphans and helped establish schools that educated many thousands of children.

Müller dated his conversion to mid-November 1825, when a friend named Beta invited him to a small gathering at the home of a Christian tradesman named Wagner. There he saw believers kneeling to pray, read the Bible, and sing, something he had not witnessed before, and he came away convicted and changed. He returned to the house in the following days to keep reading scripture, and from that point his life turned toward ministry, eventually settling in England and beginning the orphan work for which he is remembered.