March 9. The new Orphan House is now nearly ready. On this account we have to get in large supplies for the children's clothes. Within the last few days I have ordered thousands of yards of material for this purpose, and thousands more will need to be ordered, besides providing a stock of many other things. For this large sums are needed. Under these circumstances I received to-day a donation of three hundred pounds, to be used for the building fund, or the current expenses of the various objects, just as it might be most required. As I judge that we have all that is needed for the fitting up and furnishing of the house, and as there is more in hand than usual for the missionary objects, the circulation of Bibles and tracts, and for the various schools, and as we have only about sixty pounds for present use for the orphans, towards meeting all the heavy expenses before us, I took the whole of this donation for the orphans, as the donor has kindly left the disposal of the money entirely to me. This donation coming in just now has been an exceedingly great refreshment to my spirit; for it is at the commencement of the great increase of our expenses, in connection with the three hundred orphans, instead of one hundred and twenty, like an earnest from God that he will supply us also with means when the demands for the three hundred will be more than twice as great as they are now. Through this donation I have means to meet all the expense which will be incurred in getting in for the new establishment the stores of provisions, soap, material for clothes, haberdashery, and of the many other articles of which it would be desirable to buy our supplies on wholesale terms. The Lord be praised for his kindness!
June 18. To-day, as the fruit of the prayers of three years and seven months, the children began to be moved from the four Orphan Houses in Wilson Street, Bristol, into the new Orphan House.
June 23. Saturday Evening. This has been indeed a week of great and many and peculiar mercies. All the orphans with their teachers and overseers have been moved into the new Orphan House during Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday; so that there are now about one hundred and forty persons under one roof. The Lord has most signally helped. As I had for more than three years sought the help of God concerning all matters connected with the new Orphan House, I did expect his help in this particular also; but he has done beyond my expectations. Though only the day before yesterday the last children were moved in, there is already such a measure of order established in the house, by the help of God, as that things can be done by the minute hands of the timepieces. His name is to be praised for this, and my soul does magnify him for his goodness! Also with regard to temporal supplies for the dear orphans, the Lord has been exceedingly kind. On the second day of receiving the children, there was sent twenty pounds. On the third day, an individual who walked with me through part of the house said, "These children must consume a great deal of provisions," and, whilst saying it, took out of his pocket a roll of Bank of England notes to the amount of one hundred pounds, and gave them to me for the orphans. On the same evening I had also sent for the orphans a very large cask of treacle, and for their teachers and overseers six loaves of sugar. Also a cooper made gratuitously two large new casks for treacle. On the next day I received information that about one thousand pounds of rice had been purchased for the orphans, which should be sent. Besides this, several small donations have come in. So bountifully has the Lord been pleased to help of late, that I have not only been able to meet all the extraordinary heavy expenses connected with moving the orphans from Wilson Street into the new Orphan House, filling the stores of the new Orphan House, etc.; but I have more than five hundred pounds in hand to begin housekeeping in the new Orphan House. How true that word that those that trust in the Lord shall not be confounded! After all the many and long-continued seasons of great trial of faith within these thirteen years and two months, during which the orphans were in Wilson Street, the Lord dismisses us from thence in comparative abundance. His holy name be praised for it!