4. During this period 64,021 tracts were circulated, and the sum of £63, 1s. 5d. was expended on this object of the funds of the Institution. The total number of tracts circulated from Nov. 19, 1840, to May 26, 1848, amounted to 163,668.
5. There were received into the four Orphan Houses, from May 26, 1846, to May 26, 1848, 51 orphans, who, together with those who were in the four houses on May 26, 1846, made up 172 in all.
On May 26, 1848, there were 122 orphans in the four houses. The number of the orphans under our care from April, 1836, to May 26, 1848, was 264. The total amount of expenditure in connection with the support of the orphans from May 26, 1846, to May 26, 1848, was £3,228, 5s. 11d.
I notice, in connection with the Orphan Houses, that without any one having been personally applied to for anything by me, the sum of £24,771, 19s. 8¾d. was given to me as the result of prayer to God from the commencement of the work up to May 26, 1848. This sum includes the £11,062, 4s. 11½d., which up to May 26, 1848, had been given towards the building fund. It may be interesting to the reader to know that the total amount which was given as free contributions for the other objects, from the commencement of the work up to May 26, 1848, was £7,060, 14s. 1¾d.; and that which came in by the sale of Bibles and tracts, and by the payment of the children in the day schools, amounted to £2,373, 3s. 7½d.
V. PERSONAL HISTORY.
Dec. 31, 1846. During this year there have been received into fellowship 66. The Lord has been pleased to give me during this year £399, 2s. 11d. To this is again to be added, what I have enlarged on in a former chapter, that during the whole of this year also my daughter was, free of all expenses, at a boarding-school, worth about fifty pounds.
In November, 1847, I had a most remarkable deliverance, which, to the praise of the Lord, is here recorded, as it is a further illustration of how the Lord watches over his children.
I was laboring for a little while at Bowness and Keswick in the ministry of the word, in October and November. When at Keswick, I stayed with my dear wife in a large boarding-house, in which, however, we were then alone, except a single gentleman. Just before we left Keswick, on the morning of Nov. 24, I heard that the gentleman, lodging in the same house, had shot himself during the night, but was not quite dead. We had not heard the report of the pistol, it being a very stormy night and the house large. Two days after, I received from a Christian brother at Keswick the following information respecting the transaction.
Keswick, Nov. 25, 1847.
Dear Mr. Müller: