Thursday, February 6, 2025

*** This is a rough transcript of today’s show ***

It is the 6th of February 2025. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

We start today’s show with two notes. The first concerns the wide-ranging cast of characters we hear about on this show.

Part of the scandal of Christianity is that it is for EVERYBODY. ALL CAPS, underlined. But the way in which we have organized our societies and recorded our stories has tended to emphasize certain stories and characters over others.

I only say this to note that far too often, it is easy to overlook the quieter partners—the spouses, the dedicated office staff who really get the work done, etc. We all know that sometimes some people get overlooked, and on this show, I try to spread the net far and wide.

Today, we have the story of the woman behind the man- both remarkable, but he was German, and this leads to the second note. He was George Müller, or Muller, or Mueller. You know that thing I say about pronunciation? English doesn’t have an umlaut (the two dots)-so- you can ignore it. Or you can add an e next to the vowel that had the umlaut. Whatever, but historians and archivists get to struggle with it all (like having a preposition in your last name that is neither capitalized nor used for alphabetizing).

He was George Müller, and she was Mary Groves, born in 1796 in Hampshire, England, and baptized into the Church of England. By her own account, she began to take her faith more seriously after the death of her parents and coming to live with her brother- a dentist but one who would soon become a missionary in the Middle East.

She was working as a personal nurse for a convalesced patient near Exeter in 1830 when she met George, who was called to a local church as a minister- the two were married and began the ministries associated with George- especially the orphanages over which Mary would have considerable responsibility. The story is often told- he ended up with 5 orphanages that taught and housed some 10,000 children. And with a small staff, it was Mary who took the lion-share of the work- as George was the face of the mission, it was Mary who was doing much of the manual labor.

And this is where we get into something of a dilemma with historical documents- unlike George she didn’t keep a diary that was left for posterity. Unlike George, she was not in constant correspondence with others, which gives us an insight into her thoughts or how she would like to be seen.

Instead, we get much of our knowledge about Mary from inference and from what George says about her- but he is effusive in his praise: “Our happiness in God, and in each other, was indescribable. We had not some happy days every year, not a month of happiness every year; but we had twelve months of happiness in the year, and thus year after year. Often did I say, ‘My darling, do you think there is a couple in Bristol, or in the world, happier than we are?’”

Mary was 9 years his senior and not gifted with his strong constitution- she was struck with an illness in early 1870 that took a turn for the worse on the morning of February 6th of that year- she would die 155 years ago today. George would preach her funeral (as he would for his second wife and all of his children)- he took the text from Psalm 119:68, "You are good, and what you do is good,” and preached that God was good to give Mary to him for almost 40 years in marriage, to bring together two people with a similar desire and passion for the faith and God was good, he preached, in bringing her home to him.

It’s unlikely that the orphanages, and thus the work of Muller, would have been done if it wasn't for his happy marriage to his wife- Mary Groves Muller, born in 1796 and died on this day in 1870- she was 73 years old.

The last word for today from the daily lectionary and Acts 19:

Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus. 20 At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. 21 All those who heard him were astonished and asked, “Isn’t he the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on this name? And hasn’t he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?” 22 Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Messiah.

23 After many days had gone by, there was a conspiracy among the Jews to kill him, 24 but Saul learned of their plan. Day and night they kept close watch on the city gates in order to kill him. 25 But his followers took him by night and lowered him in a basket through an opening in the wall.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 6th of February 2025, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who remembers a similar escape in Ron Howard’s Willow- he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who should give Willow another watch- a solid offering from 1988- I’m  Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.