Newspaper Page Text
vdryi-xr^
ijpl
VOL. III. RICHMOND.
ti t-1
i ne r oreigr
Dear Mr. Editor: The state of our Foreign
Mission affairs, and of our missionaries, has
weighed upon me to such an extent that I feel
constrained to write to you, and beg that you
will in your paper give these affairs the most
prominent place. When a frightful tragedy
occurs the whole wTorld knows it in twelve
hours; but our missionaries are suffering great
privations, suffering for the necessities of life,
and so are their dependent native helpers, and
just a few, comparatively, of our people are
beginning to awaken to the fact. I know the
facts have been published lately, but not prominently,
and I beg you to put on your first page,
with big headlines, the state of affairs. Make
if Til air> 4-V?o4- ? ? ? 1?' *
j/xi>.u mat Liiui^a are nu Dccier since tne
October collection; make it plain that the debt
means starvation, for it does, but the people
don't know it. Even now you hear some one
say, "What is the debt aboutt" And they do
THE CHRISTMAS MONEY WILL MAKE
THE DIFFERENCE IN THE FOREIGN
MISSION DEBT.
Let us look this fact in the face and then do
- what is right.
If we Southern Presbyterians just go along
and spend our money, as we ordinarily do, for
Christmas gifts to family, kinsfolk, and friends,
the chances are that the debt will still loom up
against the horizon at the end of the year. Let
us recall: Mr. Raymond, our Foreign Mission
treasurer, in report rendered October the 3d,
said: "We must receive between now and
January 1st not less than $100,000 over and
above the ordinary receipts in order that the
work of the field may not be seriously impaired
and perhaps some of it abandoned; many of
our missionaries are actually suffering great
privations in order that they may provide for
the native helpers."
It would seem a good idea if Mr. Bedinger's
article, "What Can It Mean," published in the
"Standard" of November 15th, could be repeated
in our various church papers until it
claims the attention of all our people. He says:
"Think of this, men and women of the Southern
Presbyterian Church! The missionaries denying
themselves food for love of the work and
we?What? We are accustomed to making
gifts at this season. Make your Saviour a loving
thank-offering. And remember, delay will
be fatal. In the spring will be too late."
So there has been sounded the note of individual
responsibility and actual self-denial.
"The Missionary Circles" give the price of
y the winter hat.
. In the "Open Letter" to the women of the
* Southern Presbyterian Church the chord is
struck with no uncertain sound and there is a
plea for a practice of habitual Bclf-denial, es?
0 pecially in dress. The writer puts the question
. p\ plainly, "What are we going to dot"
NEW ORLEANS, ATLANTA, DECEM1
i Mission Dt
not take in that it is not notes in bank that
are not paid, but the living wage of our missionaries.
I have a sister in China, who is
going to live with her children in a dirty, dark,
unsanitary Chinese hovel this winter, because
the Committee can not send the money promised
them. But she is better off than others,
for she has a little fund at home, with which
she can buy food, and some of the others
haven't. Out there with nothing, and the Committee
has had to tell them not to draw anv
? - %r
more! Oh! it is fearful! What will they do?
Starve?it seems so, if we don't do something.
Oh, can I rouse you and get you to rouse
the people! The ministers need rousing, too,
for they must rouse the people; but who but
the Church papers can rouse the ministers?
How do you think it would do to suggest wholesale
self-denial in regard to Christmas presents?
Think of the thousands that could be raised in
This thing we can do, and by God's grace we
will do it: Men, women, young people, let us
all give the Christmas money to the debt.
For little children, old people, and shut-ins,
make it the usual happy Christmas, calling into
play all our ingenuity to make it so for these
at the least expense.
But for us who are well and happy and
O? ?? ??? ...
?fje jfflpsterp
Isaiah 9:6.
! BY MARGARET H. BARNETT. !
The child is born in Bethlehem,
Long foretold, the promised King;
"Glory be to God on high,
Peace on earth," the angels sing.
Tell the story o'er and o'er,
Everywhere that man hath trod;
A child is born in Bethlehem,
A child is born?the mighty God. ; |
abundantly provided with all we need, it would
be wanton selfishness this year to give and receive
books and pictures and jewelry and
trifles.
Money in small or large amounts can only
fill one place at one time. The greater number
of our people have not a bank account unnn
which they can draw for two or three kinds of
spending at the same time, and if the smaller
number who can do this should give a special
offering to the debt and their Christmas gift
money besides, it would be none too much in
(Continued on page 2.)
'* s| *!
SHAM
yesternpresbyter/am
al Presbyterian c
"hern Presbyter/a a/
BER 20, 1911. NO. 51.
kWhat Shall Be Done
About It?
that way! 1 will tell you what our society of
about twenty active members has done, and
because we had a president who is roused. We
agreed to try to double our contributions, and
to try to get others to contribute. So the members
of the church who are not members of any
society were divided among us, and we saw
them all, and asked them to join our society;
or if not, to contribute through our society at
the present time. The result is that we have
raised, in two months, what we generally do
in six. Can't you suggest that to others?
Now, I'm not a little girl, but I don't want
my suggestions and requests to go into the
waste-basket. Put them on your first page, and
make it startling, for it is startling. Please
pardon such a long communication, but this
matter lies so heavily on my heart, I had to
pass the burden on to you.
WHERE MONEY AND LIFE COUNT MOST.
EGBERT W. SMITH, D. D.
When we stand before God to render an account
of our stewardship of life and means, we
shall be held accountable not only for using
them, but for so using them as to secure the
greatest possible good to the greatest possible
number.
I saw in print recently a statement which i
1 believe to be true. It ran thus: J
"If there is a God, if he is a Being of infinite
justice and compassion, if he has given his onlybegotten
Son that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish but have everlasting life, if 1
the knowledge of that Son gives deliverance I
from sin, adds dignity and power to human life,
and fits for eternal companionship with God,
then the noblest task to which man can give ^
his life or his means is to make known that 3
faith to those who have never heard it.
"We do not undervalue the importance of H
Christian work at home. There is much to be 9B
done in our native land; but the preaching of
the Gospel to those who have heard it from infancy,
the development of work alreadv well
under way, the joining of oneself to the already
mighty host of Christian workers, cannot com- 1
pare in importance with the consecration of -?S
one's life and means to the millions in un- j^S
evangelized lands who have not heard the ,-M
Gospel and who but for us may never hear it."
In this country there is one minister to every
546 people and one doctor to every 650. In the
riL - -i!? ' i " * -
iiun-onnsuan woria mere is one minister to
nearly 200,000 and one doctor to two and a half
millions. If the same proportion held good
among us, thirteen states of the sixteen in our
Southern Presbyterian Church would have but j
a fraction of a doctor a piece, and not even 1
Texas would have two. I
With the missionary physicians and their
' < M