and the main object of this work of
faith would have been imperilled just so far as by any appeal to men
this witness to God was weakened.

In this crisis, and in every other, faith triumphed, and so the
testimony to a prayer-hearing God grew in volume and power as the years
went on. It was while as yet this period of testing was not ended, and
no permanent relief was yet supplied, that Mr. Muller, with his wife,
left Bristol on August 23rd, for the Continent, on his eighth long
preaching tour. Thus, at a time when, to the natural eye, his own
presence would have seemed well-nigh indispensable, he calmly departed
for other spheres of duty, leaving the work at home in the hands of Mr.
Wright and his helpers. The tour had been already arranged for, under
God's leading, and it was undertaken, with the supporting power of a
deep conviction that God is as near to those who in prayer wait on Him
in distant lands, as on Ashley Down, and needs not the personal presence
of any man in any one place, or at any time, in order to carry on His
work.

In an American city, a half-idiotic boy who was bearing a heavy burden
asked a drayman, who was driving an empty cart, for a ride. Being
permitted, he mounted the cart with his basket, but thinking he might so
relieve the horse a little, while still himself riding, lifted his load
and carried it. We laugh at the simplicity of the idiotic lad, and yet
how often we are guilty of similar folly! We profess to cast ourselves
and our cares upon the Lord, and then persist in bearing our own
burdens, as if we felt that He would be unequal to the task of
sustaining us and our loads. It is a most wholesome lesson for Christian
workers to learn that all true work is primarily the Lord's, and only
secondarily ours, and that therefore all 'carefulness' on our part is
distrust of Him, implying a sinful self-conceit which overlooks the fact
that He is the one Worker and all others are only His instruments.

As to our trials, difficulties, losses, and disappointments, we are
prone to hesitate about committing them to the Lord, trustfully and
calmly. We think we have done well if we take refuge in the Lord's
promise to his reluctant disciple Peter, "What I do thou knowest not
now, but thou shalt know hereafter," referring this 'hereafter' to the
future state where we look for the solution of all problems. In Peter's
case the hereafter appears to have come when the feet-washing was done
and Christ expl