ld not be adhered to; but every new step was taken with care
and prayer, that it should not be in the energy of the flesh, or in the
wisdom of man, but in the power and wisdom of the Spirit. How often we
forget that solemn warning of the Holy Ghost, that even when our whole
work is not imperilled by a false beginning, but is well laid upon a
true foundation, we may carelessly build into it wood, hay, and stubble,
which will be burned up in the fiery ordeal that is to try every man's
work of what sort it is!

The first house had scarcely been opened for girls when the way for the
second was made plain, suitable premises being obtained at No. 1 in the
same street, and a well-fitted matron being given in answer to prayer.
On November 28th, some seven months after the opening of the first, this
second house was opened. Some of the older and abler girls from the
first house were used for the domestic work of the second, partly to
save hired help, and partly to accustom them to working for others and
thus give a proper dignity to what is sometimes despised as a degrading
and menial form of service. By April 8, 1837, there were in each house
thirty orphan children.

The founder of this orphan work, who had at the first asked for one
thousand pounds of God, tells us that, in his own mind, the thing was
_as good as done,_ so that he often gave thanks for this large sum as
though already in hand. (Mark xi. 24; 1 John v. 13, 14.) This habit of
counting a promise as fulfilled had much to do with the triumphs of his
faith and the success of his labour. Now that the first part of his
Narrative of the Lord's Dealings was about to issue from the press, he
felt that it would much honour the Master whom he served _if the entire
amount should be actually in hand before the Narrative should appear,
and without any one having been asked to contribute._ He therefore gave
himself anew to prayer; and on June 15th the whole sum was complete, no
appeal having been made but to the Living God, before whom, as he
records with his usual mathematical precision, he had daily brought his
petition for _eighteen months and ten days._

In closing this portion of his narrative he hints at a proposed further
enlargement of the work in a third house for orphan boys above seven
years, with accommodations for about forty. Difficulties interposed, but
as usual disappeared before the power of prayer. Meanwhile the whole
work of the Scriptural Knowledge Institu