s pleased to intrust me with means, so again he sent further
supplies before all was gone. It is a point of great importance in the
divine life not to be anxiously reckoning about the morrow, nor dealing
out sparingly on account of possible future wants which never may come;
but to consider that the _present_ moment to serve the Lord only is
ours, and that the morrow may never come to _us_.

April 20, 1851. During the whole of the current year, up to this date,
the Lord has so abundantly supplied me with means that there came not
one single case before me in which it would have been desirable to help,
according to the measure of light given to me, or to extend the work,
without my having at the same time ample means for doing so. In the
midst of the great depression of the times, which was so generally felt,
and on account of which, humanly speaking, I also might have been
exceedingly tried for want of means, I, on the contrary, at no period of
the work for the seventeen years previous had a greater abundance of
means. I do on purpose lay stress upon this because I desire that it may
become increasingly known that there is no easier, no better, and no
happier way in the end than God's way, and this in particular also with
regard to the obtaining of means _simply in answer to prayer, without
personal application to any one_.

At the beginning of the year I had more in hand for the orphans than for
many years before, under similar circumstances, the balance for current
expenses on May 26, 1850, being one hundred and fifty pounds seven
shillings tenpence. Yet, much as this was in comparison with what the
balance had generally been before, how small was the amount in reality!
About three hundred persons were connected with the new Orphan House,
who day by day were to be provided with all they needed, besides several
apprentices who also were still to be supported. On this account the one
hundred and fifty pounds in hand would only furnish that which was
needed for about fifteen days, as the average expenses of the orphan
work alone were about ten pounds daily. Place yourself, therefore, dear
reader, in my position. Three hundred persons daily at table, and one
hundred and fifty pounds in hand! Looking at it naturally, it is enough
to make one tremble; but trusting in the living God, as by his grace I
was enabled to do, I had not the least trial of mind, and was assured
that God would as certainly help me as he had done four