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20 THE
Ecclesiastical
MINISTERIAL RELIEF ENDOWMENT
FUND.
By Rev. Henry H. Sweets, Secretary.
The General Assembly, meeting in
Little Rock in 1901, after expressing its
well defined judgment, based upon careful
investigation, that in caring for out
disabled ministers and their families, we
are far behind other churches, and that
we come sadly short of what we ought
to do in this respect, made provisions
in the scone of the work of Ministerial
Relief for Ihe acceptance of gifts and
bequests to be permanently invested,
and only the income thereof used, together
with the annual offerings, for
the assistance of the faithful veterans,
and needy widows and orphans of our
ministers.
In May, 1905, this Endowment Fund
had reached the sum of $25,000. At that
time, Mr. Hugh T. Inman, an elder of
the First Church, Atlanta, Ga., made the
proposition to the Executive Committee
that if we would raise $125,000 within
the next three years, he would give
$100,000. The Committee went to work
along carefully laid plans, and without
the employment of financial agents,
secured the hearty co-operation of' pas
tors, laymen and the women of the
church. Long before the time designated,
the amount necessary to receive
this large gift had been secured.
The fund has continued to grow and
the following statement reveals its condition
March 31, 1909:
Amount on hand May, 1905 ....$25,000.00
Amount previously reported
Sept. 1, 1908 135,802.18
Premium on Bonds 3,994.10
John Barr Andrew Memorial .. 350.00
Angus Johnson Memorial 1 14.00
Received since September 1, 1908:
Prom Churches 7,012.90
From Sabbath schools 232.57
From Societies 123.15
From Individuals ? -,770.55
Received from Mr. Hugh
T. Inman 100,000.00
Total amount now invested . . $274,429.4L
We gratefully acknowledge our appreciation
of Mr. Inman's stimulating gift,
of the many self-denying gifts of Ood'u
people all over our church and of the
hearty assistance rendered us by pastors
and people. We have made a fine
beginning; let us thank God, take
courage, and determine to care for God's
faithful and now needy servants, as
befits their self-denying service to
Christ and his church.
The General Assembly urges the
Church to make the Endowment Fund
$500,000 as soon as possible, and especially
commends it to our people of
wealth for their gifts and legacies. We
greatly need this amount.
The considerations of justice, gratl
nine, expediency, anu religion require
the Church to care for the enfeebled
veterans, who have been on the firingline
with insufficient support, fighting
against many obstacles in the mission
fields of our Church, and to provide for
the needy widows and fatherless chll
r r"
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SOUT!
dren who have shared the privations of
those who have fallen in the strife.
Have you remembered this Christlike
work in your will? Better stil!,
have you done what von could, now, for
Christ in ministering to these his
brethren in need?
Send all money to John Stites, Treasurer,
Executive Committee of Ministerial
Education and Relief. 110 Fifth street,
Louisville, Kv.
FOREIGN MISSION COMMITTEE'S
DOTS AND DASHES.
Mrs. C. C. Owen writes from Mokpo:
"One woman left her husband and family
of young children and walked twentyseven
miles to study two weeks in my
class. Several walked ten miles and
brought their rice. In the few days of
class these women learned to recite the
chronological order of events in the first
two years of Christ's life and could tell
the passage where found." "Hungering
and thirsting after righteousness." Shall
we not see that they are filled?
The" Year Book of Prayer la useful in
the family, as well as in the society. A
Georgia friend says, "I have found that
the little Prayer Calendar used in my
daily family worship keeps me in closer
sympathy and touch with the work than
almost anything else." Her church is
one of our most substantial helpers,
financially. The Year Hook is printed
in two colors on heavy paper, with silk
cord for hanging, illustrated, size 5 1-4
inches by 7 1-2 inches, price ten cents.
A Generous Donation: On Dr. Iteavis'
recent visit to our Cuba mission he was
asked to speak in the Cardenas church.
A woman who works at the orphanage
for four dollars a month and her board
was so impressed with Dr. Reavis* talk
on Africa that she brought six dollars and
fifty cents and handed it to our Rev. R.
L. Wharton for work in Africa. Mr.
Ellis says, "The curse of your life and
my life is its littleness."
Inquirers' Classes: Rev. T. B. Grafton.
in the Bi-Mon^hly Bulletin for January-February,
tells about his inquirers'
class of nearly 300, and says there was
a woman sixty years old that had walk 2d
thirty miles to attend the class. Rev.
J. L. Stuart tells of a number attending
a training class; coming from a distance
they furnish their own rice and bedding.
Many of them, he says, slept on
straw, spread on the ground, for their
beds, and expressed themselves as highly
gratified at the privilege they had
enjoyed. The Bi-Monthly Bulletin costs
only forty cents a year and keeps one
in touch with the work of our missionaries
in China.
On May 23 would you like to help provide
the funds for the much needed
school in Mexico? Arranged program,
suitable music, responsive read inc. mite
boxes, etc., will be sent free of charge
postpaid, on request.
Thirteen Thousand subscribers to The
Missionary is a good circulation, but why
should it not be 130.000? The Missionary
not only furnishes fresh news from
the fields, but provides much helpful material
for missionary societies. One
friend writes. ' We find the Missionary
full of interesting matter. One who
reads it can not fail to want to take
part in the great work."
H. April 21, 1909.
A VISIT TO MEXICO.
By Rev. E. D. Brownlee.
It has recently been my privilege to
visit our mission stations in .Mexico, and
it is enough to till anyone with wonder
to see how wonderfully God nath wrought
with the few missionaries who have gone
out from our Southern church to Mexico.
I have come home praising God that
though we have been giving little heed
to the spiritual needs of our neighbors
across the Rio Grande, He hath been wonderfully
using those who have gone. It
will inspire any child of God to see what
a visitor to our missions there sees and
lu ucbi n iiiti ue .nears.
My first night in Mexico, it was my
privilege to attend the Presbyterian
church in C. Victoria, at the close of
which eight came before the session and *
were received into the church on profession
of taeir faith in Christ. That was
a fine beginning for my itinerancy, an-1
filled me with gladness to see how Gon
was gathering people un.o himself in
Mexico. The next day we were present
at the S. S., with possibly 80 present. 1
shall never forget that singing. It leads
me to speak of the singing of the Mexican
Christians in general. It was noticeable
in the services at all the stations.
They seemed to sing from the heart,
there was fire and feeling in it. Almost
all of them sing, from the youngest to
tlifi nlHoal1 T oV* r? 11 ?-?4l* -
vmw ov. X OI1UII iitvri lUi^i'L lilt Sluging
of a little band of ch.idren out on a
rEnch which I visited with Mr. Shelby,
children surely not more than five years
old knew the songs by neart and sang
with a vim. It does one good to hear
i^ose old iamiliar tunes, sucn as "There
is a Fountain Filled with Blood," swelling
from the hearts of those congregations
in their strange tongues. I thought as I
looked into their faces and saw the joy
that was shinine- frnm thorn r?Vi t If
at home who have oeen sacrificing for the
work of Christ in Mexico could only see
and hear these uiings, and know#that but
for their sacrifice they would never have
unown that there is a Fountain filled with
Blood, in the joy of what they have been
used of God in doing, they would forget
the sacr.fice?it would no longer be a sacrifice!
The Lord hath opened the hearts of
those people and they are ready and anxious
to hear the gospel, and as in many
other places they are pleading for some
one to preach to them. If we could only
station a man there, or even give them
proper visiting, there would soon be a
strong church there. To illustrate the
kindly feeling towards us there and elsewhere,
our carriage wheel broke down
witn us about a mile from the town and
when the mayor of the town heard of our
trouble he came to us and volunteered to
let us have his carriage for the return
trip to Linares. They see and recognize
the result of the Gospel in the lives of
men and even where they will not accept
it themselves, they are glad others do
so.
God hath opened the dodr of opportunity
in Mexico, and may grace be given
us to enter in that door and take the
Good News of Salvation to a waiting
people.
Atlanta. Ga.