nt me the eighty-five pounds.

On the receipt of this, I wrote at once to the poor godly widow,
offering her the travelling expenses for coming to Bristol, that I might
have personal intercourse with her; for I feared lest this should be an
act of excitement, and the more so, as she had received back five pounds
of the sum. This sister in the Lord, a widow of about sixty years of
age, came to Bristol, and told me in all simplicity how that ten years
before, in the year 1843, she had purposed that if ever she should come
into the possession of the little house in which she lived with her
husband, she would sell it, and give the proceeds of it to the Lord.
About five years afterwards her husband died, and she, having no
children, nor any one having particular claim upon her, then sought to
dispose of her little property, as had been her mind all those years
before. However, one difficulty after another prevented her being able
to effect a sale. At last she felt in particular difficulty on account
of her inability to pay the yearly ground-rent of the little house and
garden, and she asked the Lord to enable her to sell the property, in
order that she might be able to carry out her desire which she had had
for ten years, to give to him the proceeds of this her possession. He
now helped her. The house was sold, the money paid, and she put the
whole ninety pounds into the orphan box for me, being assured that the
Lord would direct me how best the money might be used for him. I still
questioned her again and again, to find out whether it was not
excitement which had led her to act as she had done; but I not only saw
that her mind had been fully decided about this act for ten years
before, but that she also was able to answer from the word of God all
the objections which I purposely made, in order to probe her, whether
she had intelligently and from right motives acted in what she had done.
At last I was fully satisfied that it was not from impulse, nor under
excitement, that she had given the money. I next stated to her something
like this: "You are poor, and you are about sixty years old, therefore
decreasing in strength, and may you not therefore keep this money for
yourself?" Her reply was, as nearly as I remember, something like this:
"God has always provided for me, and I have no doubt he will do so in
future also. I am able to work and to earn my bread as well as others,
and am willing to work as a nurse, or in any other