l, and my faith so weak, that I shall
greatly need your prayers still. Will you, then, if the Lord
enables you, pray that I may never offend my Father by
regretting in the _least_ measure this act of obedience, which
he has by his grace inclined me to carry out? _Before I ever saw
you_ I had asked the Lord to make me willing to give this little
sum into your hands, if it were his will I should; but his time
to make me willing had not then come; even then I had in a
measure given it to you, having written a paper, desiring in
case I should fall asleep in Jesus, that you might get
possession of it. I had it signed by two witnesses, and I always
carried it about with me when I travelled, sealed, and directed
to you. When I wrote this, I little thought what grace the Lord
had in store for me. You will forgive my being thus tedious, but
I am sure you will praise the Lord with me for his gracious
dealings with me, etc.

At the end of this letter, which was finished on Dec. 16, the sister
tells me that unexpectedly a hindrance had arisen to her having
possession of the money, so that it was not likely it could be paid over
to me till about the end of January, 1843.

When this letter came, it would have been _naturally_ a great
disappointment to me, as the sister had told me in a previous letter
that the money should be paid into my hands, and as just at that time in
a variety of ways it was desirable that I should have considerable sums.
The Lord, however, enabled me to immediately lay hold on that word, "We
know that all things work together for good to them that love God," Rom.
viii. 28, and my soul was in peace, though we had only enough money in
hand to provide for one or at the most for two days the necessary
provisions in the Orphan Houses. It was but the next day, Dec. 19, 1842,
when I received one hundred pounds from A. B., and on Dec. 22, I
received fifty pounds from a brother in Bristol, besides other
donations; so that within one week after I had had grace to delight
myself in the will of God, he gave me about two hundred pounds, whereby
I was able to meet all the heavy expenses of replenishing the stores,
etc., on account of which I should _naturally_ have been tried in the
payment of the money being delayed.

In reply to the letter which I received from this sister on Dec. 18, I
wrote another on Dec. 31, 1842, of which I give an extract on this
subjec