way." What could I
say against this? This is just what a child of God would say, and should
say. But the greatest of all the difficulties to the accepting of the
eighty-five pounds remained in my mind, and I state it, as I relate the
whole for the profit of the reader. It was this. The house had been sold
for ninety pounds. The whole amount had been put into the box, but, on
the persuasion of those two brethren who were requested to remonstrate
with this widow, she had been induced to take back five pounds out of
the ninety pounds. I therefore said to myself, might she not be willing,
after a time, to take back the whole ninety pounds; how, therefore, can
I feel happy in accepting this money? On this account I particularly
laid stress upon this point, and told her that I feared she might regret
her act altogether after some time, as she had taken back this five
pounds. I now learned the circumstances under which she had been induced
to take back this five pounds.

The two brethren who had called on her for the purpose of pointing out
to her the propriety of receiving back again the ninety pounds, or part
of it, told her that Barnabas sold his land, but afterwards lived with
others on that which he and others had thrown into the common stock,
and that, therefore, she might receive at least part of the ninety
pounds back again, if she would not take the whole. She then said to
herself that, "as a child of God, she might take the children's
portion," and, as she had given to God this ninety pounds, she might
receive five pounds back again. She told me that she considered the
brethren had shown her from the Holy Scriptures what she might do, and
therefore she had taken this five pounds. I did not myself agree with
the judgment of those brethren who had said this (as there is no
evidence that Barnabas ever was supported out of the common stock, the
proceeds of the sale of houses and lands, out of which the poor were
supported); but I purposely said nothing to the widow, lest she should
at once be induced to give me this five pounds also. She had, however,
this five pounds untouched, and showed it to me; and before she left she
would make me take one pound of it for the benefit of the orphans, which
I did not refuse, as I had no intention of keeping the eighty-five
pounds. She also gave me a sixpence for the orphans, which some one had
given her for herself, a few days before.

I now asked her, as this matter concerning the