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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.