able and willing to provide
the means for it. 2. But not only so, he will also provide the means _at
the time when they are needed_. I do not mean that he will provide them
when _we think_ that they are needed; but yet that when there is real
need, such as the necessaries of life being required, he will give them;
and on the same ground on which we suppose we do trust in God to help us
to pay the debt which we now contract, we may and ought to trust in the
Lord to supply us with what we require at present, so that there may be
no need for going into debt. 3. It is true, I might have goods on
credit, and to a very considerable amount; but, then, the result would
be, that the next time we were again in straits, the mind would
involuntarily be turned to further credit which I might have, instead of
being turned to the Lord, and thus faith, which is kept up and
strengthened only by being EXERCISED, would become weaker and weaker,
till at last, according to all human probability, I should find myself
deeply in debt and have no prospect of getting out of it. 4. Faith has
to do with the word of God,--rests upon the written word of God; but
there is no promise that he will pay our debts. The word says rather,
"Owe no man anything;" whilst there is the promise given to his
children, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee," and, "Whosoever
believeth on him shall not be confounded." On this account we could not
say, _upon the ground of the Holy Scriptures_, Why do you not trust in
God that he will supply you with means to pay your debts which you
contract in his service for the necessities of the orphans? 5. The last
reason why we do not take goods on credit is this: The chief and primary
object of the work was not the temporal welfare of the children, nor
even their spiritual welfare, blessed and glorious as it is, and much
as, through grace, we seek after it and pray for it; but the first and
primary object of the work was, _to show before the whole world and the
whole church of Christ, that even in these last evil days the living God
is ready to prove himself as the living God, by being ever willing to
help, succor, comfort, and answer the prayers of those who trust in
him_: so that we need not go away from him to our fellow-men, or to the
ways of the world, seeing that he is both able and willing to supply us
with all we can need in his service.

From the beginning, when God put this service into my heart, I had
anticipated