in no degree whatever at things according to my natural fallen reason,
and trusted not in the circle of my Christian friends, but in the living
God; and the result has been, that there have been since 1834 ten
thousand souls under our instruction in the various Day Schools, Sunday
Schools and Adult Schools; several hundred Orphans have been brought up,
and many of them from their very tenderest infancy; several hundred
thousand tracts and many thousand copies of the Word of God have been
circulated; about forty preachers of the Gospel at Home and Abroad have
been, for several years, assisted in connection with the Scriptural
Knowledge Institution; and a house has been built and fitted up for the
accommodation of 300 destitute Orphans, each of whom has neither father
nor mother. How blessed therefore it is to trust in God, and in Him
alone, and not in circumstances nor friends There is, however, one thing
which I must record here, because it has taken place since I last wrote
in my journal on this subject on January 2nd. It is this. During these
twelve days I have received for the various objects of the Scriptural
Knowledge Institution in smaller donations 64l. 15s. 6 1/2 d., also a
donation of 150l. and one of 3000l. Is not this a plain proof that God
is both able and willing to help simply in answer to prayer? Is not
human reason confounded by such instances? When I first began to write
these exercises of my mind about another Orphan House, I knew not that
on January 4th I should receive a donation of 3000l., yet I was fully
assured that God was able to support one thousand Orphans as easily as
He did the thirty whom I first received in a rented house. Does He not,
however, tell me by all this: Go forward, my servant, and I will help
thee?

7. But it might be said, suppose you were able by prayer to obtain this
large sum for building a house for seven hundred other Orphans; and
suppose you were able to provide for them during your lifetime, what
would become of this Institution after your death? Answer: I am quite
familiar with this objection, having heard it many times as a reason
against the way of obtaining the means for the Scriptural Knowledge
Institution, simply by trusting in God, without any funded property, and
without looking to regular subscribers; but my reply is this. My
business is, with all my might to serve my own generation; in doing so I
shall best serve the next generation, should the Lord Jesus tar