Newspaper Page Text
August 16, 1911]
sued by the Committee in sending out
missionaries has been to send only
thobe whose salaries have been pledged
by individuals or churches, and whose
outfit and travelling expenses have been
provided by contributions given especially
for that purpose. But when a new
missionary is sent to the field it becomes
immediately necessary to provide
him with a home to live in, with equipment
for the work which he is expected
tb do, and also With funds for many
unfortunate contingent expenses that
invariably have to be incurred. In this
way me increase or expense of the work
has outrun the Increase of contributions,
with the inevitable result of increasing
instead of diminishing our debt from
year to year.
Another thing that has had much to
do with the accumulation of the debt
Id the fact that so large a proportion of
our contributions have come to us designated
for special objects Which were
outside of the regular work laid out by
the missions and provided for in our annual
appropriations. This has been es- '
pecially the case with most of the larger
individual gifts that have come into
our treasury. Within the fiscal year,
which closed March 31st, $91,465 of
such special gifts were received, or reported
and charged to our account by
the Missions, in addition to the annual
appropriations for the year. All these
special gifts have been used for work
that has been approved by the Committee
and by the Missions. None of them
have been squandered on unimportant
and useless enterprises. If those who
made them, however, had been content
to have them applied to the work which
the Missions and the Committee had
judged to be of first Importance, namely
the work that was provided for in the
missionary estimates and the committee
appropriations, the size of our present
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exact amount of these special gifts.
It is now a fair question to ask, why
did the Committee send out the 130 new
missionaries referred to above, with the
result of Involving the work in the embarrassment
of the present heavy debt,
instead of pursuing a more conservative
policy? While it may not be possible
to justify the business management
of the Committee in this matter (this
statement is not being made for that
purpose,) there are one or two things
that the good of the cause, it seems to
me, demands should be said about it.
In the first place the Committee had
upon Its books pledges from churches
and individuals of over $340,000, which
it assumed to be good and reliable, and
which it believed were a sufficient basis
upon which to plan for the enlargement
of the work which has been actually
made. At the close of business on
the 31st of March, there remained on
our books an unpaid balance of these
Dledsres of S147.000. Many of these
pledges have not been repudiated and
will ultimately be paid, but the delay of
the churches and individuals In paying
them is one of the things that now
accounts for our debt. Some of these
pledges were given by boards of church
officers, without being based upon individual
pledges taken In the every member
canvass of the congregation. This
was especially true of ninety-three
pledges reported by the young men
working in the Forward Movement in
the follow up campaign connected with
a series of Laymen's conventions held
last year. In one of the cities where a
convention was held, the writer was
present at a conference of the officers
of the church, at which they declined
to allow the every member canvass to be
taken at that time, but said "You can
nevertheless count on this church coming
up to the standard of $4.00 per member
during the present year." This
would have meant a contribution of $3,
THE PRESBYTER!
600 from this church. As a matter of
fact they sent us a contribution of $2,200.
There were $116,624 of pledges of
this kind on which we relied during
the past year, on which there was an
unpaid balance at the close of the
year of $50,357.
As a matter of course the Committee
must necessarily be more conservative
in the future in the matter of increased
obligations based upon church pledges,
and especially upon those not based on
individual pledges. This is a lesson,
however, which could only be learned
by experience.
In the second place, while the debt
una ueen reported 10 tne ueneral Assembly
each year, accompanied by a request
for instructions as to our policy
In sending out missionaries, no Assembly
until the last one has advised a
policy of retrenchment. Approval and
appreciation has been expressed of the
great and glorious work being done by
ollf missionaries In the foreign field,
and the church has been urged to come
'forward and sustain the work, and not
to consider any thing in the nature of a
retrograde movement. The answer of
the Assembly of 1907, to which we reported
a debt of $27,000, was the adoption
of a Missionary Platform, assuming
responsibility for certain territory In
seven different foreign countries supposed
to contain a population of 25,000,000
souls, and urging the church to begin
Immediately a systematic effort to
bring up its contributions to the standard
of $4.00 per member for the support
of this work. That Assembly also
appealed to the young men and women
of the church "To give themselves to the
work in sufficient numbers to meet the
demand that is made upon us to do our
part as a church of Christ toward the
evangelization of the world in this generation."
As the flower of the youth in
our schools and seminaries have been
responding to this call, the Committee
of TTnrel^ti Ml anion a hna f?1t that It
would be a serious matter to refuse to
let them go when they have offered to
do so. If, therefore, we have erred in
sending out too many missionaries, as
perhaps we have, the church should
now remember the call which It made
through its chosen representatives In
the General Assembly, and Judge us
with the Judgment of charity. There is
no time nor space left to set forth the
additional pressure the Committee has
been under from the appeals that have
been pouring In upon us continually
from every mission field many of which
would melt a heart of stone.
We cannot refrain from closing this
communication by propounding another
question to the church in regard to our
foreign mission debt. What have we
to show for the money that has been
expended and which Is now represented
by the debt? We have of course, lhe
work done by the missionaries who were
sent ont and have been sustained by this
money In their work.
We have the report of this work
showing that more than 3,800 souls have
been brought by their labors out of
the darkness of heathendom to the
knowledge of Christ, during the past
year. Many of these are to be credited to
the work done by the 130 missionaries
sent out during the past five years. If
the question were put to the vote
whether as a church, we would prefer
that these redeemed souls should now
he rejoicing In the knowledge of their
new found Savior, with our foreign missionary
treasury encumbered by this
nresent debt of $121,000, or whether they
should all be back in the darkness and
misery of their heathen condition, with
our treasury full to overflowing, and no
debt owing either to the missions or to
the bank with which we deal In Nashville,
how would tha? question be decided?
OF THE SOOTH
Nevertheless, the Committee of Foreign
Missions does not believe in debt,
and is trying to profit by the lesson of
experience so as to prevent its further
accumulation and avoid it in future.
We have adopted the policy of assigning
missionaries to churches for
support hereafter only on a pledge of
$1,000, instead of $600 as heretofore,
and of sending only those whose entire
support, outfit and travel to the
feld are provided over and above the
previous contributions of the supporters.
Other conservative plans are being considered
which there is no space to describe.
What planB have we on foot to liquidate
the debt? Only to beg and implore
our people wno love unrlst and the
souls of the people for whom he died
in seven mission fields, and for whom
we have declared ourselves before God
and man in our Missionary Platform to
be responsible, to come forward quickly
and give the money with which to pay it.
We appeal to our Forward Movement
churches who may have fallen behind to
rally and bring up that which is behind
of their pledges made to the cause. We
ask the good women to come once more
to the rescue as they have so often done
before. And especially do we appeal to
those whom God has blessed with abundant
means, to show themselves worthy
of the trust reposed in them by applying
their trust funds to the help of the Master's
cause in this hour of its dire need.
Gifts of 11,000, $2,000, $5,000 and $10,000
are now in order. Who will be the first
to begin the good work of sending them
in?
THE AFRICAN RELIEF EXPEDITION.
By Rev. Edward E. Lane.
In the year 1884 the Soudan was the
center of the world's interest. General
Gordon wtas shut up in Khartoum by the
forces of the Madhi. Long, weary months
of trial, famine and sickness were being
appointed the greatest Christian of the
age,, while the world was presented
with the amazing spectacle of the solitary
soldier standing at bay and the
most powerful kingdom on the earth?
the nation whose wealth is as the
sands of the sea, unable to reach him.
True the English government had organized
a relief expedition but only after
long delays fand waste of time that could
never be regained were the depots of
military stores gathered and steamers
for the passage of the cataracts procured;
then men began to move slowly
up the Nile.
On October 21, 1884, the expedition
was six hundred miles from Khartoum
struggling with congested trtansport^
lack of coal, and a broken down railway.
Gordon was being more and more closely
pressed by the Arabs. December
opened and relief had not come. All
the long threads of threatened disaster
had gathered into close cordon of
doom about the heleagued city, while
the relief corps still moved at a snail's
pace.
January 28, 1885, the last cataract
was paaocu auu xuo uuaus ruuuueu Lilt?
bend of the river from which Khartoum
can first be seen. Every glass was
raised to distinguish the ensigns floating
over the city, but no flag was flying
and the Madhl's guns soon opened Are.
The relief expedition had reached Khartoum
two days late. Gordon had fallen.
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i-'cioj auu luciiivitjuuy ui ttUIIHIill* tration
claimed las their price the blood of
Rngland's greatest hero. "Somewhere
far out in the immense desert whose
sands so often g?*e him rest in life, or
by the shores of that river which was
the sceene of so much of his labors, his
ashes now add their wind swept atoms
to the mighty waste of the Soudan."
The tragedy of Khartoum may be repeated
in striking form at Luebo if the
[' (783) 15 '
Southern Presbyterian Church is not
awakened to her duty. Our missionaries
on the Congo are besieged with toil,
heat and fevers, foes as deadly as the
forces of the Madhi. They are telling
the Churoh that strength of body and
soul is being strained to the breaking
point.
Dr. Morrison's statement of "The
Crisis in the Congo," published in the
current number of the Missionary, does
not overdraw the situation.
The volunteers are waiting to go. The
Assembly has ordered that all funds be
kept for the purposes designated by the
aonors. ine money given for Africa will
therefore be used solely for that field.
It will not be applied to the debt. The
Secretary of Foreign Missions has kindly
consented to publish in the church
papers the names of the donors and
their gifts to help save the beleagued
African missionaries. All money should
be sent to Rev. S. H. Chester, Nashville,
Tennessee. Let the southern Presbyterians
then pour out their wealth as an
offering to Christ and immediately make
available the funds for the "Afrh?an
Relief Expedition." The question of the
hour is, Will the Southern Presbyterian
Church send out the "African Relief
Expedition?" Great Britain spared
neither money nor men to save Gordon
at Khartoum, only the effort was made
too late. Will the Church give the
money to save the missionaries at Luebo,
and will it be given soon enough?
Or will history repeat itself, and as the
"Lapsley" rounds the bend of the river
at Luebo with the relieving force on
board, will it be to find Morrison or
Martin or some other, fallen at his post,
because the help was slow In coming?
Ohristlansburg, Va.
The Southern Baptists gave for Foreign
Missions for the year ending May
1, 1911, $510,008, or twenty-three cents
per member. Georgia led all the States
with a contribution of $74,970; Virginia
next, with a total of $61,703; Texas
third, with $59,705. The Woman's Missionary
Union raised during the year
$217,900.
The best prayer that friends can offer
is this: L?ord enlarge our hearts
that those who love us may have
more to love.
A Day of Best and Worship is an attractive
volume by William B. Dana,
brother of the noted scientist and editor
of The Financial and Commercial Chronicle.
The book is a justification of and
plea for Sabbath observance. It is based
upon Divine authority and the dictates
of wise human expediency. Its arguments
are convincing beyond retort,
brlends of the Sabbath can find an armory
here. Fleming H. Revell, Publisher,
lis otten said \
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^jtk your time-tried
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