you
prefer father and brothers before Me, you are not worthy of Me."
Then I say, "What will you have me do?" God says, "Give Me the
money; I'll see they have all that is necessary." I dare not
disobey. I don't want to disobey. I am so much exercised over the
spiritual well-being of the boys, that I gladly do anything that
will make them in any sense more specially proteges of God. I am
alarmed at the fate of some missionaries' children who have not
turned out godly men. Preserve the boys from this!

'This is no sudden resolution. I have thought and prayed much over
it. I can delay this step no longer without feeling I would be
refusing to follow God's guidance. I feel, too, that God has so
many ways in which He can bless the lads and me, that in making
this arrangement I am running no risk. The only thing I am not
quite clear about is the detailed disposition of the money.
Meantime, it seems to me that I can best use it for God in this
mission here. I mean to bank it in Peking, in the first instance,
and use it for renting or buying premises.

'As to the general principle of having money for ourselves or
children, I do not think God asks us all to put all we may have or
get thus in His keeping, or asks me even to put _all_ into His
keeping in this especial manner. You know the money was originally
saved from the salary given by the mission, and in this sense is
peculiar. Money that I had earned by trade, or otherwise come by, I
do not think God would ask me to dispose of it so. But His voice
seems very plain in this present case.

'My salary I shall still have paid to me, and the children's
remittances shall come as usual. If I live I guess this will be
enough for the education of the lads. If I die, the lads are not
destitute. Even in a worldly sense, and quite apart from this sum
which I am banking with God, and which I am sure He'll repay with
compound interest when needed, if left orphans they would be in
some sense provided for by the London Missionary Society, which,
though it gives no pensions to any one, yet yearly raises funds and
gives money to broken-down old missionaries, widows, and orphans. I
don't suppose it is much or enough, but it is something. I say this
that you may not be troubled should your faith be weak or waver.