Should Satan seek to whisper into your ears, Perhaps the matter is made
known, after all, when there is need (as it has been once said about me
at a public meeting in a large town, that when we were in want I prayed
_publicly_ that the Lord would send help for the orphans, which is
entirely false); I say, should it be said that I took care that our
wants were made known, I reply: Whom did I ask for anything these many
years since the work has been going on? To whom did I make known our
wants, except to those who are closely connected with the work? Nay, so
far from wishing to make known our need, for the purpose of influencing
benevolent persons to contribute to the necessities of the Institution
under my care, I have even refused to let our circumstances be known,
after having been asked about them, when, on simply saying that we were
in need, I might have had considerable sums. Some instances of this have
been given in the former part of this Narrative. In such cases I refused
in order that the hand of God only might be manifest; for that, and not
the money, nor even the ability of continuing to carry on the work, is
my especial aim. And such self-possession has the Lord given me, that in
the times of the deepest poverty, whilst there was nothing at all in
hand, and whilst we had even from meal to meal to wait upon the Lord for
the necessities of more than one hundred persons, when a donation of
five pounds or ten pounds, or more, has been given to me, the donors
could not have read in my countenance whether we had much or nothing at
all in hand. But enough of this. I have made these few remarks, beloved
reader, lest by any means you should lose the blessing which might come
to your soul through reading the account of the Lord's faithfulness and
readiness to hear the prayers of his children.

March 8. On Oct. 25, 1842, I had a long conversation with a sister in
the Lord, who opened her heart to me. On leaving me I told her that my
house and my purse were hers, and that I should be glad if she would
have one purse with me. This I said because I judged that at some future
time it might prove a comfort to her in an hour of trial, having at the
same time, to judge from a circumstance which had occurred two days
before, every reason to believe that she had not five pounds of her own.
This sister, after I had said so, readily took me at my word, and said,
I shall be glad of it, adding presently that she had five hundred
poun