Observe two things! We acted _for God_ in delaying the public meetings and the publishing of the Report; but _God's way leads always into trial, so far as sight and sense are concerned. Nature_ always will be tried _in God's ways._ The Lord was saying by this poverty, "I will now see whether you truly lean upon me, and whether you truly look to me." Of all the seasons that I had ever passed through since I had been living in this way, _up to that time,_ I never knew any period in which my faith was tried so sharply, as during the four months from Dec. 12, 1841, to April 12, 1842. But observe further: We might even now have altered our minds with respect to the public meetings and publishing the Report; for _no one knew our determination, at this time,_ concerning the point. Nay, on the contrary, we knew with what delight very many children of God were looking forward to receive further accounts. But the Lord kept us steadfast to the conclusion, at which we had arrived under His guidance. GIFT AND GRACE OF FAITH. It pleased the Lord, I think, to give me in some cases something like the gift (not grace) of faith, so that unconditionally I could ask and look for an answer. The difference between the _gift_ and the _grace_ of faith seems to me this. According to the _gift of faith_ I am able to do a thing, or believe that a thing will come to pass, the not doing of which, or the not believing of which would not be sin; according to the _grace of faith_ I am able to do a thing, or believe that a thing will come to pass, respecting which I have the word of God as the ground to rest upon, and, therefore, the not doing it, or the not believing it _would be sin._ For instance, _the gift of faith_ would be needed, to believe that a sick person should be restored again, though _there is no human probability: for there is no promise to that effect; the grace of faith_ is needed to believe that the Lord will give me the necessaries of life, if I first seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness: for _there is a promise to that effect._ (Matt. vi. 33.) SELF-WILL. The natural mind is ever prone _to reason, _when we ought _to believe;_ to be _at work,_ when we ought to be _quiet;_ to go our own way, when we ought steadily to walk on in God's ways, however trying to nature. TRIALS OF FAITH. The Lord gives faith, for the very purpose of trying it for the glory of His own name, and for the good of him who has it; and, by the very trial of our faith, we not only obtain blessing to our own souls, by becoming the better acquainted with God, if we hold fast our confidence in Him, but our faith is also, by the exercise, strengthened: and so it comes, that, if we walk with God in any measure of uprightness of heart, the trials of faith will be greater and greater.