This institution was the outgrowth of his
truly practical and beneficent character; and from his day to the
present, it has stood a monument of his strong faith and great humanity.
Its origin was entirely providential. It was already a custom in Halle
for the poor to convene every week at a stated time, and receive the
alms which had been contributed for their support. Francke saw their
weekly gatherings, and resolved to improve the occasion by religious
teaching. But their children were also ignorant, and there was no hope
that the parents would be able to educate them. So he resolved to do
something also in this direction, and secured some money for this
purpose. But yet the parents did not thus apply it; whereupon he placed
a box in his own dwelling, that all who visited him might contribute. He
knew that then he would have the personal distribution of such funds.
During three months one person deposited four thalers and sixteen
groschen; when Francke exclaimed, "That is a noble thing--something good
must be established--with this money I will found a school.
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