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THE EVERY MEMBER CANVASS.
Many churches have adopted this plan which
has been frequently approved by the General
Assembly. "We have not heard of one of them
that has not found it beneficial in helping to
solve its financial problems.
Many of these churches will repeat this
canvass before the end of the ecclesiastical
year on March 31st. Every church using this
plan should repeat the canvass each year, rath
er than let the pledges go over from one year
to another. This is important for new mem
bers have been received into the church, who
ought to be enlisted in systematic giving, for
their own sake as well as for the sake of the
church. There are some of the old members
whom God has prospered, and who have real
ized something of the pleasure and profit of
giving regularly. They ought to be given the
opportunity of increasing their gifts. Then
there may be some who have met with mis
fortune, and arc not able to give as much
as they have been giving. They ought to be
given the opportunity to revise their pledge.
Any church that has not adopted this plan
ought to do so at once. Here are some of
the reasons why this should be done :
It introduces business methods into the
financial affairs of the church. This will be
of great help to the church and to the con
tributing member. For the very heart of this
plan is that it requires regular, systematic
giving, which is the Scriptural plan.
It enlists all the members and gives them
the opportunity, the privilege and the bless
ing of sharing in the support of the Lord's
work. "Where this plan is not adopted, al
most invariably there is a comparatively small
portion of the membership of the church
which gives practically all that is raised by
the church for its Avork. The result is that
there are many members who have very little
interest in the work of the church. There is
scarcely anything that will awaken a man's
interest in any cause as his putting some mon
ey into it. It should always be remembered
that giving is an act of worship, that brings
its blessing just as really as the worship of
prayer or song. The church should see that
none of its members are deprived of this bless
ing. The officers of some churches are re
sponsible for the loss of this blessing to the
members of their church. The result is that
the church fails greatly in being what it ought
to be, and in doing the work that it is intend
ed to do. A church with about 300 members
went to Presbytery with a call for the ser
vices of a pastor, who was to give them one
sermon a month, and for which they promised
to pay $150 a year. The elder who presented
tho call said that was all the church could
raise. But it developed that about a dozen
of the officers had been in the habit of pay
ing the pastor's salary, and had never given
the other members the opportunity of helping
at all. The result was that the whole con
tribution of the church for all causes did not
amount to one dollar per member. Had the
Every Member Canvass been made, the church
could easily have paid the salary of a pastor
for his whole time.
Another advantage of this plan is that it
will give the deacons and others who engage
in it the opportunity to do a definite work
for the Master, that will bring to them rich
blessings individually.
Most churches make this canvass in March.
But it is not a hit too soon now to begin to
make preparation for it. If you are not fa
miliar with the plan write to Rev. R. L. Walk
up, Jackson, Miss., and he will give you all
the information you need.
One of the first tilings to be done is for the
elders and deacons in joint session to go over
the financial afTairs of the church and see
just how much money will probably be needed
for its own expenses during the coming year.
This estimate should include pastor's salary
and all other congregational expenses. To this
should be added the apportionments made up
on the church by the Presbytery and any oth
er benevolent funds which the church expects
to raise. This may all be presented to the
church as one sum to be raised, or it may be
presented as two amounts, one for the sup
port of the church, the other for outside benev
olences.
Next, see that there is an accurate roll of
the members of the church with their ad
dresses. (Select enough committees of two
each to visit the whole congregation on some
one afternoon selected for the purpose. Let the
Session or the Deacons appoint these commit
tees. It will not usually do to depend upon
volunteers. Divide the congregation up into
as many parts as there are committees, and
give each committee its list long enough be
fore t lie canvass is to be made to give it time
to study it and become familiar with it.
Fix the day upon which the canvass is to
be made, probably some Sunday afternoon.
For several Aveeks before that time have the
pastor to preach on stewardship and wor
shipping God with our substance. Have one
or more of the officers to make talks, explain
ing the canvass, what it means and what is
desired.
Have envelopes printed that will suit for
the plan you adopt. See that each subscriber
receives a package. "When the time comes for
the canvass, the committees should just go
out and make it in the time agreed upon, find
ing out what each one will give, and then re
port at the church at once to show what has
been done. If any members are not seen at
that time, look them up just as soon as pos
sible.
If this plan were adopted by all the churches
a great blessing would come to them and the
Lord's work would prosper as it never has in
the past.
THE DECADENCE OF THE PRAYER
MEETING.
As we are just entering upon another new
year, with the feeling that we are surely in the
closing years of the age, it may well be thought
advisable to consider the universal decadence
of the mid-week service of prayer.
This affects not only the quantity but the
quality of the service. Does any one know of
a live, active, spiritual, well-attended and con
tinuous mid-week prayer meeting?
One who has given the subject considerable
thought has affirmed with no uncertain em
phasis that the species is extinct. Says he, "I
heard of one church that had live, spiritual
prayer meeting and had had it for years. I
traveled half way across the State to be present
and found thirty-six persons present on a
pleasant evening, and everything in a dreary
rut of commonplace."
Some have compared the prayer meeting to
the heart which is not expected to be a large
body; but the comparison breaks down in this
particular, that the heart is the most con
tinuously active part of the body, which can
not be said of the mid-week service. It is an
indirect statement of the failure of this part
of the church life of to-day.
What are the causes of this universal fact
of the Church f
There are two very opposite reasons given:
"We know that as nations advance in civi
lization, which is the goal of national life, that
certain customs slough off and become obso
lete.
The blood feud or the Vigilance Committee
may have been the crude way of defending
the life of a community, but the orderly pro
cesses of justice supersede them in the growth
of a nation.
This is true of the progress of the kingdom
of God. Perhaps it was necessary to the life
of the early Church that it should observe both
the Sabbath and the Lord's day * that it should
express its personal loss and love in celebrating
the Supper every Lord's day.
Surely no one woulckclaim that it is a proof
o? the decadence of religion that the seventh
day ceased to be observed at all, and the Sup
per less frequently. AVe see symptoms of this
same progress presented to us in the full
fruition of the kingdom of God as presented
to us in Revelation. "VVe read, "There was no
temple there." The church building ceases not
only to have a holy place in the mind of peo
ple, but any place at all. "There is no sun."
Material light is not needed. And why? Be
cause the people of God have progressed so
far that they do not need material things to
lead up to spiritual heights. "The Lord God
is the Temple and the Light."
Is it true that the prayer meeting is de
cadent because the Church ip its spiritual de
velopment has gotten beyond a need for it?
This is what is diffidently affirmed by some.
, On the other hand, many think the decadence
of the prayer meeting is a symptom of lowered
spiritual life. A falling away of the bulk of
the Church to lower levels of devotion. And
there is much \to bear one out in the view.
Traveling along the valleys of our land we
can see where the stream once had a larger
and bolder flow of water by the ledges which
once marked the edge of the water. Scientists
affirm that the rainfall of the valleys draining
into this river was much larger, and more con
tinuous. There is a lowered rainfall, hence a
lowered river bank.
The condition of the prayer meeting, high
and dry, is an indication of a larger spiritual
flow through the Church and a greater spiritual
fall upon the people of God.
The remarkable mid-week prayer meetings
of the Korean and African Church may be
explained on both theories. That the Church
is in an undeveloped stage and needs this
weekly or daily meeting for united prayer or
that in the fervor of their first love they arc
putting the home church to shame.
If it is true that the prayer meeting marks
the high-water stage* of the full spiritual life,
then we need to seriously consider the condi
tion of the Church. If the trouble of the
prayer meeting lies in the low spiritual state
of the people, then we should beseige the throne
of grace unceasingly for the renewal of thi*
gracious period, when the meetings will hi^
crowded and the pulse of the Church beat
high.
No more alarming symptom could be found.
When even ministers prefer the jocularity of
the hotel parlor to the assembly of the ser
vice of prayer; when children have to be
dragged even from distasteful studies; when
the presence of half the elders of some
churches in attendance would startla the min
ister; when, should lightning destroy the whole
prayer meeting at one fell swoope, the Board
of Deacons of many a church would meet in
tact on the following Sunday; when the mo
notony and drowsiness of many a meeting is
mistaken for religious impulses, it is time the
church was waking up' to ask what is the mat
ter!