The Old Man Who Wouldn't Stop Bearing Fruit

George Müller of Bristol had already lived what most would consider a full life. By age seventy, he had housed over ten thousand orphans, built five large orphanages by prayer alone, and handled millions of pounds in charitable funds without ever making a public appeal for money. Most men would have retired. Müller was just getting started.

At seventy, he launched a second career as a missionary preacher. Over the next seventeen years, he traveled to forty-two countries, preaching to three million people on nearly every continent. He crossed the Atlantic multiple times, endured grueling ship voyages, and spoke in languages translated through interpreters — all while maintaining his daily rhythm of Scripture reading and prayer that had anchored him since his conversion in 1825.

When asked the secret of his vitality, Müller pointed not to his constitution but to his communion. "I look upon the whole of my life as one of the greatest proofs that there is a God who answers prayer," he said. He died at ninety-two, still active, still giving thanks, still bearing fruit.

The psalmist wrote that the righteous "still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green." Müller's life was a living commentary on those words. Planted deep in the house of the Lord, nourished by decades of faithful praise and morning devotion, he flourished like a cedar that simply refused to stop growing. The secret was never his strength. It was his roots.