thus have
his faith strengthened.

4. The last important point for the strengthening of our faith is, that
we let God work for us, when the hour of the trial of our faith comes,
and do not work a deliverance of our own. Wherever God has given faith,
it is given, among other reasons, for the very purpose of being tried.
Yea, however weak our faith may be, God will try it; only with this
restriction, that as, in every way, he leads us on gently, gradually,
patiently, so also with reference to the trial of our faith. At first,
our faith will be tried very little in comparison with what it may be
afterwards; for God never lays more upon us than he is willing to enable
us to bear. Now, when the trial of faith comes, we are naturally
inclined to distrust God, and to trust rather in ourselves, or in our
friends, or in circumstances. We will rather work a deliverance of our
own, somehow or other, than simply look to God and wait for his help.
But if we do not patiently wait for God's help, if we work a
deliverance of our own, then at the next trial of our faith it will be
thus again, we shall be again inclined to deliver ourselves; and thus,
with every fresh instance of that kind, our faith will decrease; whilst,
on the contrary, were we to stand still in order to see the salvation of
God, to see his hand stretched out on our behalf, trusting in him alone,
then our faith would be increased, and with every fresh case in which
the hand of God is stretched out on our behalf in the hour of the trial
of our faith, our faith would be increased yet more. Would the believer,
therefore, have his faith strengthened, he must, especially, _give time
to God_, who tries his faith in order to prove to his child, in the end,
how willing he is to help and deliver him, the moment it is good for
him.

I now return, dear reader, to the Narrative, giving you some further
information with reference to the seventeen months from Dec. 10, 1840,
to May 10, 1842, as it respects the Orphan Houses, and other objects of
the Scriptural Knowledge Institution for Home and Abroad, besides the
facts of which mention has been already made.

During this period, also, 1. Two Sunday schools were entirely supported
by the funds of the Institution. 2. There were two adult schools, one
for females, and one for males, entirely supported during these
seventeen months, in which on two evenings of the week the males, and on
two evenings the females, were instructed, qui