A Narrative of some of the Lords Dealings with George Müller | Page 7

of the conversion of a gentleman, whose
believing wife had prayed many years on behalf of her husband. He
was a Roman Catholic and a great drunkard. But though he had been a
Roman Catholic, he was truly made to rest upon the Lord Jesus alone
for salvation; though he had been a great drunkard, the power of the
Gospel was seen in his case, for he forsook his evil ways; and though
his wife had had to continue to pray for him many years, yet at last the
Lord answered the cries of his afflicted handmaid, and gave her the
desire of her heart.
As I know it to be a fact, that many children of God are greatly tried by
having unconverted relatives, I relate here, for the encouragement of
believers who are thus exercised, two precious facts, the truth of which
I know, and by which the Lord manifested His power in converting,
two of the most unlikely individuals, so far as natural appearance is
concerned. Between forty and fifty years ago it pleased the Lord to
convert the wife of a farmer at Ashburton in Devonshire, whose
husband in consequence became her bitter opposer. This opposition
was greatly increased when he had reason to believe that she was going
to be baptized. The wife, however, thought that, on account of his great
enmity, she would choose a time for being baptized when he was from
home. A time was therefore chosen when he was to be absent at a fair
in Exeter. The farmer went to the fair; but having learned on Thursday
that his wife was to be baptized at eleven o’clock the next morning, in
haste to return he rose early on Friday morning, to put a stop to the
proceeding. After he had rode several miles, he said to himself, "No, I
will not go; let her do what she pleases, I will not care about her at all:"
and he therefore rode back again towards Exeter. But after awhile he
altered his mind again and said to himself, "Nay, I will go, she shall not
have her way;" and he rode again towards Ashburton. He pursued his
way, and then changed his mind a third time, and turned towards Exeter;
but not long after this, a fourth time he had different thoughts, and
determined to ride borne. Now, however, he remembered, that, on
account of his having thus gone backwards and forwards, and that for
several miles, he had wasted so much time, that he could not possibly
be at Ashburton by eleven o’clock, a distance of more than twenty
miles from Exeter. Enraged by this thought, he dismounted from his

horse on Haldon Common, between Exeter and Teignmouth, cut a large
stick out of the hedge and determined to beat his wife with that stick, as
long as a part of it remained. At last he reached his home, late in the
afternoon, and found his wife had been baptized. In a great rage he now
began to beat her, and continued to do so, till the stick in his hand was
actually broken to pieces. Having thus most cruelly treated her, her
body being full of bruises, he ordered her to bed. She meekly began to
undress herself, and intended to go to bed, without saying a word. But
when he saw her about to go, he said, "You shall not sleep in my bed
any more. Go to the children’s bed." She obeyed. When now on the
point of lying down on the children’s bed, he ran into the kitchen,
fetched a piece of wood, threw her down on the bed, and was about to
begin again to beat her, when suddenly he let the piece of wood fall,
and went away without saying a word. The poor suffering wife saw no
more of him that evening or night. On the next morning, Saturday,
before she had risen, her husband left the house, and was absent all day
till the evening. In the evening the wife gave him to understand when
retiring for the night, that, according to his wish, she was again going to
sleep in the children’s bed, when he meekly said to her, "Will you not
sleep in your own bed?" She thought he meant to mock her, and would
beat her again, if she did go into her own bed. As, however, he
continued in a meek and kind way to desire her to lie down in her usual
bed, she did so. All night from Saturday to the Lord’s day he lay
groaning by her side, turning about in the bed, but having no sleep. On
the Lord’s day morning he rose early. After awhile he came to her and
said, "My dear, it is