“You know, when Jesus came from heaven, He did not settle Himself in a grand house, and have a number of people to wait upon Him; but He, as the reputed son of a carpenter, worked as you do for the supply of His own wants, and spent a great deal of time, besides, in helping those who wanted help. However poor or neglected you may be, you cannot be more so than Jesus was. I do not know of anything so likely to cheer you in your daily toil, as to remember that God cares for you; that He is watching you, and inviting you to come to Him, weary and heavy laden as you are, and He will give you rest. I wish you would come to this kind Friend every day, and ask Him to make you wise to know how to manage your worldly affairs aright; and ask Him to make you holy, that your worst enemy, sin, may not triumph over you. Ask Him to make you fit for that ‘beautiful world He has gone to prepare;’ so that when you have accomplished, as an hireling, your day, and finished the work He has given you to do, you may find an entrance into that kingdom, which is not meat and drink, ‘but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.’
“I hope to meet many of you at the Infant Schoolroom, Princes’ Place, on Saturday, the 1st of May. I intend to be there about a quarter before eight o’clock; and if I can help you in this or in any other way, it will give me much pleasure.
It did not surprise me at all, that for some weeks this letter seemed to be taken no notice of. I went regularly to the place appointed, but no one came. Among other reasons, no doubt the calamities of the past winter had involved in debt nearly all of those to whom I had written, and the money for the first few months after they obtained work went to pay off old scores. But the principal obstacle was, that where people have been so little accustomed to think and reason, any new proposition would, in the first place, take some time to be comprehended; and then, as the safety of their money was involved in the plan, it would require to be received with great caution. When a month had passed, a few began to bring me small sums. I had no large depositors during the summer, and the whole of my receipts did not amount to more than £25. This, however, was a beginning; and as the men received their money back again in the winter, several of them remarked that it was “all as if it was given them; the bits of money would all have been gone, if they had not been saved up in this way.”