, but also I had no natural prospect of being able to provide for
the necessities of the three hundred orphans already under my care.
Three years have elapsed since then, and I have had all I needed for
them, amounting to about L10,500; and L17,816, 19s. 51/4d. I have
received for the building fund. May I not well trust in the Lord for
what is yet needed for the building fund? By his grace I will do so, and
delight in doing so; for I know that at last all my prayers will be
turned into praises concerning this part of the service.

There is one point which is particularly an encouragement to me to go on
waiting upon the Lord for the remainder of the means which are required,
viz: applications for the admission of orphans _continue_ to be made. On
May 26, 1853, there were 480 orphans waiting for admission. Since then
181 more have been applied for, making in all 661. These children are
from three months old and upwards, and all bereaved of both parents by
death.

During the year now under review I received the following donation for
the missionary laborers, under circumstances of peculiar interest.

On Aug. 9, 1853, I received a letter from a Christian brother,
accompanied with an order for eighty-eight pounds two shillings sixpence
on his bankers, of which three pounds two shillings sixpence were the
proceeds of an orphan box in a meeting-place of believers, and
eighty-five pounds from a poor widow who had sold her little house,
being all her property, and who had put ninety pounds, the total amount
of what she had received, into that orphan box two months before, on
June 9, 1853. In this box the money had been for some time, without its
being known, till the orphan box was opened, and the ninety pounds with
a few lines without name were found in it. As, however, the fact of her
intending to sell the little house, and her intention of sending me the
money for the Lord's work, had been known to the brother who sent me the
money, he did not feel free to send it to me without remonstrating with
her through two brethren, whom he sent with the money, offering it again
to her; for he knew her to be very poor, and feared that this might be
an act of excitement, and therefore be regretted afterwards. These
brethren could not prevail on her to receive back the money, but they
did _persuade_ her to receive back five pounds of the amount, and then
the brother referred to felt no longer free to keep the money from me,
and hence se