he children of God
are often in greater trial than ever, just before help and deliverance
comes. Immediately after family prayer it was found, that by the
morning's post not one penny had come in for the work of the Lord in
which I am engaged, though we needed much, and though but very little
had come in during the three previous days. Thus I had now to remember
Exodus v, and to practise the truths contained therein. In the course of
the day nothing was received. In the evening I had, as usual, a season
for prayer with my dear wife, respecting the various objects of the
Scriptural Knowledge Institution, and then we left the New Orphan House
for our home. When we arrived at our house, about nine o'clock, we
found that 5l. and also 5s. had been sent from Norwich in two Post
Office Orders for the Building Fund, and that 8l. 3s. 11d. had been sent
in for Bibles, Tracts and Reports, which had been sold. This called for
thanksgiving. But a little later, between nine and ten o'clock, a
Christian gentleman called and gave me 1l. for the Orphans and 200l. for
foreign missions. He had received these sums from an aged Christian
woman, whose savings as a servant, during her whole life, made up the
200l., and who, having recently had left to her a little annual income
of about 30l., felt herself constrained, by the love of Christ, to send
the savings of her whole life for foreign missions. This gentleman
stated to me at the same time, that she had never had more than 5l. or
6l. wages a year, during her whole life. Moreover, out of this she has
sent me, year by year, 1l. or more for the benefit of the Orphans, for
many years; though I never knew her circumstances till now, as she
resides at a distance, and I have never seen her. What various ways has
the Lord to supply us with means! I add the following remarks: 1, For
several months past no donation as large as 200l. has been received, a
circumstance which has not occurred for about ten years past. 2, Now an
aged servant is used by the Lord to send this donation as the fruit of
her earnings, from about fifty years' service. 3, Our especial prayer
had been again and again, that the Lord would be pleased to send in
means for missionary brethren, as I had reason to believe they were in
much need of help; and only at eight o'clock this evening I had
particularly besought the Lord to send help for this object. By the last
mail I had sent off 40l. to British Guiana, to help seven brethren t