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78 THI
I Contributed j
THE REPROACH OF THE CHURCH.
The pittance doled out under rules of
Assembly for invalid ministers and widows
of ministers.
The average for each family is one
hundred ($145) and forty-five dollars per
year. Twelve dollars and eight cents
per month to a family! Forty cents a
day to a family for food, clothing, medi:
cines, fuel and rent!
This for those who have given body
and soul for the Church and gospel!
This for ministers' widows, some of
them with little ones under ten years of
age! This in the light of the immense
increase in the cost of living! A provision
of forty cents a day for a family
to live upon at present prices!
Thlc whon Hin r^hnrnh from nil r A
ports, has so greatly increased in wealth
and in the means of ease and luxury!
This when the livings of most of our
ministers is already too pitifully small
for actual present needs to make possible
any suitable provision for the infirmities
of age!
This when past middle life they are
less fitted to grapple with the problems
of poverty than when during their youthful
vigor they were denying themselves
that the Church might have their wholehearted
service!
This one writing tracts, that one writing
pamphlets and urging them in the
despair of self-respect upon reluctant
purchasers! And this with the plain
teaching of Scripture before the Church
that not to provide for one's own is to
deny the faith itself, and be worse than
those who make no such profession! And
this when corporations, government civil
service, and civilized peoples generally,
more and more suitably provide' for
their own!
"What Do Ye More Than Others?"
Is the Church satisfied because our
dear afflicted ones do not cry out? Do
we expect them to deny the faith they
have professed and preached by uttering
their laments through the press in pitiful
appeals?
We rejoice at the swelling amounts
flowing into our missionary treasury for
the heathen. Are we to continue our neglect
of those who have made such gifts
possible? When every minister and minister's
wife and active church member;
when field secretaries and hundreds of
societies; when magazines and special
missionary propaganda are focalizing the
attention 01 me unurcn upon iinssiuuury
effort and beneficence; shall those who,
next to her Lord himself, should be the
heart of the Church's heart, be left with
$12.08 per month per family, wltn no othei;
than the existing means employed to
express needs as deep as pity itself, but
which the sufferers are too unselfish and
too refined to voice for themselves?
Is th6re not a reproach upon the
Church? R. A. Robinson.
Norfolk, Va.
S PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SOI
MOVING IN CHINA.
(Extracts from private correspondence
of Rev and Mrs. J. W. Vinson?who moved
from Suchien to Haichow, November,
1909.)
I got into Suchien from Haichow via
Tsingkiangpu Saturday afternoon. You
have doubtless heard of Peary's dash for
the Pole. Well, his dash was not in it
compared with mine for Suchien, for he
was only going to the North Pole, where
they have nothing but ice and snow, and
I was going to my wife and baby boy.
You might like to hear something of my
trip to Haichow. On the first one Mr.
Graham and I succeeded in re-renting the
property Mr. Rice occupied last year
and that without difficulty, and on about
the same terms. After making all arrangements
about the house, I took boat
again back to T. K. P. for rny household
goods and Dr. Morgan's.
If you ever feel you need a lesson in
patience, just come out to China and
try to move. You have heard of the perversity
of a "critter" called in common
parlance "mule", but however highly he
may have his "stubborn bump" developed,
he is "not in it" with the ordinary
Chinese barrow man. Some of my boxes
looked big, but were really about empty.
All the barrow men wanted to carry the
light boxes or rather one light box.
(There was no other way of carrying my
goods to the boat than by wheel barrow.)
If a box was a little bit heavy the
man would want. two men's money for
carrying it. I worked around lor three
days getting forty barrows loaded on the
boats and then I called in a Chinaman to
bid on the job of transferring the rest of
my things to the boats. I got away from
T. K. P. with 140 barrow loads on five
boats. I left T. K. P. on Thursday; stopped
on the way for Sunday and made
Haicliow (one hundred miles) on Monday
night.
I had learned my lesson; at H. I immediately
called a Chinaman and made
a bargain with him to transfer my goods
from boat to house and so had .no trouble
whatever. When this was done I
took boat again for Suchien and my wife
and baby instanter. I wanted to go
across by Hoy-Yang, which would be
much nearer than by T. K. P. but low
water in the canal and a sick headache
cut that out, as with the last on, I was
not fit for a barrow ride across. I broke
the record for speed?left Haichow Tuesday
and got to T. K. P. on Thursday?
one hundred miles?left T. K. P. Friday a.
m. and arrived Suchien at 3 p. m. Saturday
?by hiring extra boatmen to help make
time. I hardly knew my baby boy, Eben,
he had gotten so well and strong and
grown so much. We had him baptized on
Sunday.
(Mrs. Vinson writes about the boat
trip from Suchien to T. K. P.)
Our boat was a little two-roomed afTair
about six feet wide and say fifteen or
twenty long. The inner room had no
window and the boat people had pasted
up all the cracks with paper. In addition
we hung up curtains all around to
keep out the wind, so it was nice and
JTH January 19, 1910.
dark in there. The outer room was occupied
by the two Chinese women whom
we were taking with us as servants and
helpers. They had plenty of light, but
as we had a head wind, this front room
was cold and draughty. Poor little threemonths-old
Eben had a hard time of it
except when asleep. It was so dark in
the back or inner room he would not be
content in there when awake, and so
cold and windy in the front room that
there he had to be so bundled up you
could hardly find him among the wrappings
and that made him tired and cross
so he fretted all the time he was awake.
He slept well at night though and some
in the day time, so we had much to be
thankful for. I did the cooking, with the
Chinese woman to keep up the charcoal
fire and wash dishes, and we managed
niceiy out were so cramped and crowded
we could hardly turn around.
We got in to Yang Gia Djwang, where
he had to leave the boat, about nine and
sat there and waited and waited and waited
for wheel barrows. I'd packed up all the
kitchen things and all the baby's milk
except two feedings, thinking we would
get right off, and at last he'd eaten up
his last feed before we could get started.
We'd tried to get a chair as quicker and
more sheltering from the wind and the
men kept saying "it is just coming," but
at last Mr. Vinson fixed me a wheel barrow
and I was starting when taey said
that barrow was not a good one, so we
changed the bedding (which we use to
make the sitting softer and more comfortable)
to another and I was just start
ing orr again witn Baby Eben in my arms
when here came the chair! But such a
sight! ! Such a chair! ! ! A loose jointed
tumbled down rack of bamboo with
flimsy blue cloth curtains, which they
adjusted after it came. But by that time
I wanted anything?just anything that
would get Eben over quickest before he'd
howl his head off for some dinner. We
got in here to Mr. Talbot's quickly and I
got some condensed milk, and I wish you
could have seen the look of bliss on
Eben's face when I took off all his wrappings
and gave him his bottle in a nice
warm bright room. He has taken a miserable
cold on the boat.
Dr. and Mrs. Morgan have arrived
from the mountain and we will go on to
Haichow on Monday. They have been
delayed by some medical work and now
stop over till Monday to help Dr. Woods
in his hospital, etc. The Morgans and
ourselves will for the present keep house
together, as being temporarily the best
arrangement, as well as cheaper.
Dr. Wood's little William has a mild
case of diptheria, so no one is going
there. Dr. Wood used antitoxine on the
rest of the family and none have taken
the disease. Mr. and Mrs. Talbot are
delightful hosts. I have scratched off
this letter at all sorts of times, so excuse.
Queen Wilhelmina of Holland conducts
a service of family prayer every morning
which every member of the royal
household is expected to attend.
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