rch at large, everything that has to do with the
temporal and spiritual prosperity of the Scriptural Knowledge
Institution, etc. Dear reader, do not think that I have attained in
faith (and how much less in other respects!) to that degree to which
I might and ought to attain; but thank God for the faith which He has
given me, and ask Him to uphold and increase it. And lastly, once
more, let not Satan deceive you in making you think that you could
not have the same faith, but that it is only for persons who are
situated as I am. When I lose such a thing as a key, I ask the Lord
to direct me to it, and I look for an answer to my prayer; when a
person with whom I have made an appointment does not come, according
to the fixed time, and I begin to be inconvenienced by it, I ask the
Lord to be pleased to hasten him to me, and I look for an answer;
when I do not understand a passage of the word of God, I lift up my
heart to the Lord, that He would be pleased, by His holy Spirit, to
instruct me, and I expect to be taught, though I do not fix the time
when, and the manner how it should be; when I am going to minister
in the Word, I seek help from the Lord, and while I in the
consciousness of natural inability as well as utter unworthiness,
begin this His service, I am not cast down, but of good cheer,
because I look for His assistance, and believe that He, for His dear
Son's sake, will help me. And thus in other of my temporal and
spiritual concerns I pray to the Lord, and expect an answer to my
requests; and may not you do the same, dear believing reader? Oh! I
beseech you, do not think me an extraordinary believer, having
privileges above other of God's dear children, which they cannot
have; nor look on my way of acting as something that would not do for
other believers. Make but trial! Do but stand still in the hour of
trial, and you will see the help of God, if you trust in Him. But
there is so often a forsaking the ways of the Lord in the hour of
trial, and thus the food of faith, the means whereby our faith may be
increased, is lost. This leads me to the following important point.
You ask, How may I, a true believer, have my faith strengthened? The
answer is this

I. "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh
down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither
shadow of turning." James i. 17. As the increase of faith is a good
gift, it must come from God, and therefore He ought to