Wealth & Money Quote by George Muller

Muller lands the punch with a simple power move: he collapses ambition into disloyalty. “One Master” is not pious decoration; it’s an ownership claim. If you serve God, you don’t get a second employer called Status. The phrasing “ill becomes” is genteel on the surface, socially lethal underneath. He’s invoking the etiquette of faith: chasing riches while wearing the badge of discipleship isn’t merely tacky, it’s a category error.

The subtext is aimed at a very modern temptation in Victorian clothing: turning religion into upward mobility. In 19th-century Britain, respectability was a civic religion of its own, and religious leaders could easily become moral administrators for the middle class. Muller refuses that deal. By contrasting “rich, and great, and honored” with “poor, and mean, and despised,” he makes Jesus not just a savior but a benchmark that embarrasses comfort. The accumulation of adjectives works like a tightening vise: every new status word adds another layer of self-indictment.

Context sharpens the credibility. Muller, famous for founding orphan houses and for a radical posture of relying on prayer and unsolicited donations, isn’t scolding from the balcony; he’s defending a way of life built on visible dependence. His point isn’t that poverty is holy by itself, but that Christian leadership becomes incoherent when it mirrors the world’s reward system. The intent is disciplinary and protective: keep devotion from being domesticated into a career, keep the church from confusing influence with faithfulness.