self to meet all the many difficulties which
continually occur in my business, He would be pleased to guide and
direct me, and to supply me with the needful wisdom; and then I have
to believe that God will do so, and go with good courage to my
business, and expect help from Him in the next difficulty that may
come before me. I have to look out for guidance, I have to expect
counsel from the Lord; and, as assuredly as I do so, I shall have it,
I shall find that I am not nominally, but really in partnership with
the Father and with the Son.--Another instance: There are a father and
mother with seven small children. Both parents are believers. The
father works in a manufactory, but cannot earn more than ten
shillings per week. The mother cannot earn any thing. These ten
shillings are too little for the supply of nourishing and wholesome
food for seven growing children and their parents, and for providing
them with the other necessaries of life. What is to be done in such a
case? Surely not to find fault with the manufacturer, who may not be
able to afford more wages, and much less to murmur against God; but
the parents have in simplicity to tell God, their partner, that the
wages of ten shillings a week are not sufficient in England to
provide nine persons with all they need, so as that their health be
not injured. They have to remind God that He is not hard master, not
an unkind being, but a most loving Father, who has abundantly proved
the love of His heart in the gift of His only begotten Son. And they
have in childlike simplicity to ask Him, that either He would order
it so, that the manufacturer may be able to allow more wages; or that
He (the Lord) would find them another place, where the father would
be able to earn more; or that He would be pleased somehow or other,
as it may seem good to Him, to supply them with more means. They have
to ask the Lord, in childlike simplicity, again and again for it, if
He does not answer their request at once; and they have to believe
that God, their Father and partner, will give them the desire of
their hearts. They have to expect an answer to their prayers; day by
day they have to look out for it, and to repeat their request till
God grants it. As assuredly as they believe that God will grant them
their request, so assuredly it shall be granted.--Thus, suppose, I
desired more power over my besetting sins; suppose, I desired more
power against certain temptations; suppose I desired