Answer: If the Lord were to leave me to myself, the tenth part of the difficulties and trials, which befall me now in connexion with the various objects of the Scriptural Knowledge Institution for Home and Abroad, would be enough to overwhelm me; but, whilst He is pleased to sustain me, I am able day by day to pass on peacefully, and am carried through one difficulty after the other: and thus, by God's help, even with my present measure of faith, if continued to me, should be enabled to bear up under other difficulties and trials; but I look for an increase of faith with every fresh difficulty, through which the Lord is pleased to help me.
2. Would it not be going beyond my measure naturally with reference to mental and bodily strength? Answer: Of all the objections against establishing another Orphan-House, there is none that weighs more with me than this; I might say, it is the only real difficulty. This, however, too, I am enabled to put aside and to overcome thus: By husbanding my strength, by great order, by regular habits, by lightening the work as much as possible, and by using every help that I can, I have been enabled to get through a vast quantity of work. My immense correspondence of about 3000 letters a-year, I have been enabled to accomplish without a secretary. The entire management and direction, and the whole vast correspondence of the Scriptural Knowledge Institution has devolved upon myself alone these sixteen years and ten months, and I have been thinking that, by seeking for an efficient secretary, an efficient clerk, and an inspector of the schools, I might, with God's help, accomplish yet more, though much of what I have been doing hitherto would need to be done by others. There have been several other arrangements brought before my mind, since I have been exercised about this matter, whereby, with the blessing of God, the work might be lightened. I should certainly need efficient helpers to carry out the plans before me; but with such, I, as director, might be enabled, by God's help, to accomplish yet more.
3. There must be a limit to my work and service. Answer: That is true, and if I were quite sure that the present state of the Scriptural Knowledge Institution were to be the limit, I would at once lay aside this thing; but I am not sure that I am come as yet to God's limit. All these sixteen years and ten months, the work has been constantly progressing, and the Lord has helped me continually; and now my mind is just in the same way exercised, as when fifteen years ago I began the Orphan Work, and as when thirteen years ago it was enlarged, and as when seven years and nine months since it was still further enlarged, and as when five years and two months since I was led to decide on building the New Orphan-House. Under these circumstances, having been helped through all these difficulties, and seeing such a vast field of usefulness before me, and having so many applications for the admission of very destitute Orphans, I long to be used still further, and cannot say that as yet the Lord has brought me to His limit.
4. Is it not like "tempting God," to think of building another Orphan-House for seven hundred more orphans? Answer: "Tempting God" means, according to the Holy Scriptures, to limit Him in any of His attributes by His grace I do not wish to limit His power or His willingness, to give to me, His poor servant, simply in answer to prayer, all the means, and every other help and blessing which I shall need to build another large Orphan-House.
5. You will not get the means for building and fitting up so large an Orphan-House; and, even if you did, how will you, at the same time, get the means for carrying on the work, which already exists? Answer: Looking at the matter naturally, this is indeed a weighty objection.
The New Orphan-House, with its 300 Orphans only, cost about fifteen thousand pounds to build and to fit up and furnish, and still the expenses are not all met even now. It will in all probability cost several hundred pounds yet. And this large sum was needed, though the style of the building is most simple, and though the field in which it was built was comparatively cheap. After this rate, a building to accommodate seven hundred Orphans, with the necessary ground attached to it for the cultivation of the vegetables used in the Institution, could not be less than thirty-five thousand pounds. Now, looking at it naturally, where is this great sum to come from? Though I looked at all my friends who have given hitherto, and several have done so very liberally, yet there is no natural prospect whatever of receiving this amount; especially if it be kept in mind that six or seven thousand pounds besides, every year, would be needed for carrying on that which is already in existence. I might, therefore, well tremble, looking at the matter naturally, and say, I shall never have the money for this intended Orphan-House for 700 children; for where is this large sum of thirty-five thousand pounds to come from? And even if I were to get the money, will not persons, in giving means for such a Building-Fund, take it away from what they might have given me for carrying on the work which exists already? But whilst thus, naturally, there is no hope of succeeding, I am not in the least discouraged spiritually; for by faith in the living God I say this: He has the power to give me this thirty-five thousand pounds, and much more, were it needed: and He has the power, in the mean time., to give me also all the large sums required, week after week, for meeting the current expenses for the present state of the work. Moreover, I delight in the greatness of the difficulty, as it respects the large sum needed for building and fitting up such an Establishment; for I desire to be most fully assured, from the very outset, that I go forward in this matter according to the Lord's bidding. If so, He will give me the means; if not, I shall not have them. Nor do I mean to apply to any one personally for pecuniary help, but purpose to give myself to prayer for means, as heretofore.
6. Suppose now, you were even to succeed in getting this large Orphan House built, how will you be able to provide for 700 other Orphans? Answer: There is much weight in this objection, looking at it naturally. I am too much a man of business, and too much a person of calm, quiet, cool calculation, not to feel its force. And indeed, were I only to look at the thing naturally, I should at once be ready to own that I am going too far; for the increase of expenditure for the support of these 700 other Orphans could not be less than eight thousand pounds a-year more, so that the current expenses of the Scriptural Knowledge Institution, reckoning its present state, and including those eight thousand pounds, would be about fifteen thousand pounds a-year. Now, I am free to own, that I have no human prospect of obtaining such a sum year by year. But while matters stand thus, looking at them naturally, I see no difficulty at all in them spiritually. If according to the will of God I am enabled to go about this intended second Orphan House; and if, with His help, I shall be enabled to finish it; He will surely provide for those who are gathered together in it, as long as He shall be pleased to enable me to trust in Him for supplies. And here I look back upon the way in which the Lord has led me and dealt with me. When, about seventeen years ago, I took up, in dependence upon the living God for means, two Charity Schools, with which the Scriptural Knowledge Institution commenced (and this involved an expense of less than one hundred pounds a-year), I had no certain prospect of being able to meet even that small sum; but God so helped me, that I had shortly six Charity Schools. He helped me then also, and enabled me to meet all their expenses. When, fifteen years ago, I began the Orphan Work, which was connected with far heavier expenses, I had still less prospect, according to natural reason, of being able to meet them; but I trusted in God, and He helped me, and He not only enabled me to meet the current expenses for thirty Orphans in the first house rented for them, but also soon to open another for thirty-six more, and to meet all those expenses; for as I had begun in faith in the living God, and not by putting my trust in my brethren in Christ, so I was not confounded. After I had gone on some time with these Orphans in the two rented houses, about thirteen years ago the Lord was pleased greatly to encourage me and to increase my faith by a donation of 500l. for the Orphans; for up to that period I had never received more than One Hundred Pounds at once. But this kind donor, a stranger to me up to that time, suggested to me the propriety of investing this sum and using only the interest of it, as I could not expect to have the Orphans supported for a continuance in the way they had been till then; for that such Institutions must depend upon regular subscriptions or funded property, otherwise they could not go on. As, however, this was only a friendly hint, and no condition under which the money was given, I took this 500l. towards fitting up a third house for the reception of thirty more Orphans. From that time the work has been increasing more and more, till it came to what it is at present. Now, suppose I had said, seventeen years ago, looking at matters according to natural reason, "the two Charity Schools are enough, I must not go any further;" then the work would have stopped there. Or, if I had had a little more trust in my exertions or my friends, I might have taken at the utmost one or two steps further. Instead of this, however, I looked in no degree whatever at things according to my natural fallen reason, and trusted not in the circle of my Christian friends, but in the living God; and the result has been, that there have been since 1834 ten thousand souls under our instruction in the various Day Schools, Sunday Schools and Adult Schools; several hundred Orphans have been brought up, and many of them from their very tenderest infancy; several hundred thousand tracts and many thousand copies of the Word of God have been circulated; about forty preachers of the Gospel at Home and Abroad have been, for several years, assisted in connection with the Scriptural Knowledge Institution; and a house has been built and fitted up for the accommodation of 300 destitute Orphans, each of whom has neither father nor mother. How blessed therefore it is to trust in God, and in Him alone, and not in circumstances nor friends There is, however, one thing which I must record here, because it has taken place since I last wrote in my journal on this subject on January 2nd. It is this. During these twelve days I have received for the various objects of the Scriptural Knowledge Institution in smaller donations 64l. 15s. 6 ½ d., also a donation of 150l. and one of 3000l. Is not this a plain proof that God is both able and willing to help simply in answer to prayer? Is not human reason confounded by such instances? When I first began to write these exercises of my mind about another Orphan House, I knew not that on January 4th I should receive a donation of 3000l., yet I was fully assured that God was able to support one thousand Orphans as easily as He did the thirty whom I first received in a rented house. Does He not, however, tell me by all this: Go forward, my servant, and I will help thee?
7. But it might be said, suppose you were able by prayer to obtain this large sum for building a house for seven hundred other Orphans; and suppose you were able to provide for them during your lifetime, what would become of this Institution after your death? Answer: I am quite familiar with this objection, having heard it many times as a reason against the way of obtaining the means for the Scriptural Knowledge Institution, simply by trusting in God, without any funded property, and without looking to regular subscribers; but my reply is this. My business is, with all my might to serve my own generation; in doing so I shall best serve the next generation, should the Lord Jesus tarry. Soon He may come again but, if He tarry, and I have to fall asleep before His return, I shall not have been altogether without profit to the generation to come, were the Lord only to enable me to serve my own generation. Suppose this objection were a sound one, I ought never to have commenced the Orphan. Work at all, for fear of what might become of it after my death, and thus all the hundreds of destitute children without father and mother, whom the Lord has allowed me to care for, during the last fifteen years, would not have been taken up by me. The same argument was again and again used to Franké, my esteemed countryman, who at Hallé, in Prussia, commenced about A.D. 1696, the largest charitable establishment for poor children that, as far as I know, exists in the world. He trusted in God alone. He went on trusting in God alone. And God helped him throughout abundantly. Simply by trust in the living God the Institutions, resembling a large street rather than a house, were erected, and about two thousand children instructed in them. For about thirty years all was going on under his own eye, until 1727, when it pleased God to take His servant to Himself. At his death these Institutions were directed by his truly pious son-in-law. It is true that, at the latter part of the last century, and during the first part of the present, there was little real vital godliness in these Institutions; still they were a temporal blessing to many tens of thousands of young persons even then. So then for several tens of years they were carried on in a truly Godly way, after Franké's death, and when afterwards there was but little real, vital godliness found in these schools, yet tens of thousands of children were benefited at least for this life. Now these Institutions have existed already 150 years, and are in existence still: and, if the Lord Jesus tarry, are likely, humanly speaking, to exist hereafter, as they have existed hitherto. Suppose then, that dear man of God, A. H. Franké, had listened to the suggestions of unbelief, and said, I must not undertake this work, for what will become of it after my death, then all the blessing which spiritually resulted from it to thousands, and all the temporal benefits which have resulted from it to hundreds of thousands, would have been lost. I add, however, this. The New Orphan House has been placed in the hands of eleven trustees, and has been properly enrolled in Chancery, and so also, should God condescend to honour me further in building for Him this intended house for 700 Orphans, it would likewise be placed in the hands of trustees and enrolled in Chancery. One word in conclusion on this subject: let every one take heed lest, in caring about what will become of the next generation, he forget to serve his own generation. The latter each one should seek to do with his might, and thus it should be with each succeeding generation; then, though we be dead, yet should we be speaking. A. H. Franké is long since gone to his rest, but he spoke to my soul in 1826, and he is speaking to my soul now; and to his example I am greatly indebted for having been stirred up to care about poor children in general, and about poor Orphans in particular.
8. The last objection which has occurred to my own mind is, that by building another Orphan House, I should be in danger of being lifted up. Answer: I should be in danger of it indeed, and am in great danger, even were I not in the least degree to go forward. Yea, the tenth part of the honour which the Lord has condescended to bestow upon me, and the tenth part of service with which He has been pleased to intrust me, would be enough, if I were left to myself, exceedingly to puff me up. I cannot say that hitherto the Lord has kept me humble; but I can say, that hitherto He has given me a hearty desire to give to Him all the glory, and to consider it a great condescension on His part that He has been pleased to use me as an instrument in His service. I do not see, therefore, that fear of being lifted up ought to keep me from going forward in this work; but that I have rather to beseech the Lord that He would be pleased to give me a lowly mind, and never suffer me to rob Him of the glory which is due to Him alone.
Jan. 25. Great pressure of work has kept me from going on writing my reasons for establishing another Orphan-House till now, but being more and more convinced that it is of God I should do so, I now proceed in writing.