that God would continue to me _faith_ and
_patience_. If he shall be pleased to help me in faith and patience to
continue to wait on him, help will surely come.

Dec. 24. No further donation yet. But my hope in God is unshaken. He
most assuredly will help. I have on purpose not issued any circular in
connection with this matter, in order that the hand of God may be the
more manifest. To some persons residing in or out of Bristol I have
spoken about my intention of building, when conversation led to it.
Through this, if the Lord please, he can make it known to others, and
thus send means for the building fund. Or he can send in such an
abundance of means for the work which is already in existence, that
from that abundance there might be a rich surplus towards the building
fund. But howsoever God may help, I do desire to see his hand made most
manifest. There will be, no doubt, many trials connected with this
enlargement of the field of labor (for if with the one hundred and
thirty orphans there has been so much trial of faith, what is to be
expected when the number is three hundred); and therefore I desire to
see as clearly as daylight that God himself is leading me onward.

Dec. 29. This is the fifty-sixth day since I came to the conclusion to
build, and the fifty-fifth since I have been day by day waiting upon God
concerning it. Only that one donation had come in till this evening,
when I received fifty pounds. This donation is exceedingly precious to
me, not only because I am sure it is most cheerfully given, nor even
because of its largeness, but because it is another precious proof that
God will bring about the matter, else he would not give me these
earnests. All _my_ business therefore is, to continue in faith and
patience to wait upon God. My assurance has been more and more
increasing that God will build for himself a large Orphan House in this
city, to show to the inhabitants, and to all who may read and hear about
it, what a blessed thing it is to trust in him. Of late I have seen, by
God's grace, more and more how entirely unworthy I am of being used by
God for this glorious and honorable service, and I can only say: "Lord,
here is thy servant, if thou art pleased to use such a one as I am."

Dec. 30, 1845. This morning I came, in course of my reading, to the
commencement of the book of Ezra. I was particularly refreshed by the
two following points contained in the first chapter, in applying them to
the bu