1857-1860 (4)

The total amount of the funds of the Institution which has been spent on missionary operations since March 5, 1834, is £34,495, 3s. 4d.

There has been laid out for tracts and books, from May 26, 1859, to May 26, 1860, the sum of £1,650, 11s. 4¾d.; and there have been circulated within the last year 2,562,001 tracts and books. The sum total which has been expended on this object, since Nov. 19, 1840, amounts to £8,064, 12s. 6½d. The total number of all the tracts and books which have been circulated since Nov. 19, 1840, is 11,493,174.

During the past year there were again circulated 676,600 tracts and books more than during the year before. The great number of laborers for God who have been raised up for service within the last two years in various parts of the world, and the mighty working of the Spirit of God, which has created in multitudes a desire gladly to receive tracts and books, account for this. Nor is there in these two particulars a decrease, but a continual increase. So great has been the call for tracts that of late we have sent out repeatedly 100,000 in one week, for gratuitous circulation, and sometimes even more than this. When the mighty working of the Spirit of God commenced in Ireland, I sought from the beginning to send very large supplies of tracts to Belfast and elsewhere, in order that thus the holy flame might be fanned, as it were, and that in the very outset the simplicity of the gospel might be set before the young converts. About two millions of the tracts and books circulated during the past year were given away gratuitously. Hundreds of believers have been engaged in spreading them abroad, not merely in many parts of England, Scotland, and Ireland, but in various other parts of the world.

At the commencement of the last period, there were 672 orphans in the new Orphan Houses No. 1 and No. 2. During the past year were admitted into the two houses 70 orphans. On May 26, 1860, there were just 700 orphans under our care, our full number in the two houses, i. e. in No. 1, 300, in No. 2, 400. The total number of orphans who have been under our care since April 11, 1836, is 1,153.

Without any one having been personally applied to for anything by me, the sum of £133,528, 14s. has been given to me for the orphans, as the result of prayer to God, since the commencement of the work, which sum includes the amount received for the building fund for the houses already built and the one to be built. It may also be interesting to the reader to know that the total amount which has been given for the other objects since the commencement of the work amounts to £51,777, 14s. 11d.; and that which has come in by the sale of Bibles, since the commencement, amounts to £2,530, 4s. 5½d.; by sale of tracts, £3,546, 19s. 1¼d.; and by the payments of the children in the day schools, from the commencement, £2,304, 18s. 9d. Besides this, also, a great variety and number of articles of clothing, furniture, provisions, etc., have been given for the use of the orphans.

Day after day, and year after year, by the help of God, we labor in prayer for the spiritual benefit of the orphans under our care. These our supplications, which have been for twenty-four years brought before the Lord concerning them, have been abundantly answered in former years in the conversion of hundreds from among them. We have also had repeated seasons in which, within a short time, or even all at once, many of the orphans were converted. Such a season we had about three years since, when within a few days about sixty were brought to believe in the Lord Jesus; and such seasons we have had again twice during the past year. The first was in July, 1859, when the Spirit of God wrought so mightily in one school of 120 girls, as that very many, yea, more than one half, were brought under deep concern about the salvation of their souls. This work, moreover, was not a mere momentary excitement; but, after more than eleven months have elapsed, there are 31 concerning whom there is full confidence as to their conversion, and 32 concerning whom there is likewise a goodly measure of confidence, though not to the same amount as regarding the 31. There are therefore 63 out of the 120 orphans in that one school who are considered to have been converted in July, 1859. This blessed and mighty work of the Holy Spirit cannot be traced to any particular cause. It was, however, a most precious answer to prayer. As such we look upon it, and are encouraged by it to further waiting upon God. The second season of the mighty working of the Holy Spirit among the orphans, during the past year, was at the end of January and the beginning of February, 1860. The particulars of it are of the deepest interest. A very profitable pamphlet might be written on the subject. I have prayed again and again for guidance how to act, and have at last come to the decision not to relate the details, lest the dear children, who would recognize themselves in the description, should be injured; for my experience of laboring twenty-six years among children, and of having had to deal with so many very young believers, has led me to the full conviction that it is injurious to make them prominent. If God makes them prominent by using them as evidently he is using children in these days, we have only to admire and to praise; but this is very different from ourselves making them prominent. I must therefore content myself by stating that this great work of the Spirit of God in January and February, 1860, began among the younger class of the children under our care, little girls of about six, seven, eight, and nine years old; then extended to the older girls, and then to the boys; so that within about ten days above 200 of the orphans were stirred up to be anxious about their souls, and in many instances found peace immediately, through faith in our Lord Jesus. They at once requested to be allowed to hold prayer meetings among themselves, and have had these meetings ever since. Many of them also manifested a concern about the salvation of their companions and relations, and spoke or wrote to them about the way to be saved. Should the believing reader desire to know how it has been with these children since the end of January and the beginning of February, our reply is, we have, in most cases, cause for thankfulness. The present state of the 700 orphans, spiritually, is, that there are 118 under our care, regarding whose conversion we have full confidence; 89 regarding whom we have also confidence, though not to that full degree as concerning the 118; and 53 whom we consider in a hopeful state. To these 260 are to be added the 14 who were sent out as believers, and the three who died in the faith during the past year. It is to be remembered that very many of the children in the Orphan Houses are quite young, as we have received them from four months old and upward. During no year have we had greater cause for thanksgiving on account of the spiritual blessing among the children than during the last; and yet we look for further and greater blessing still.