CONTENTS. ......... COMMITTEE OF HOME MISSIONS.-Why Should the Work Cease?-Missionary BOARD OF EDUCATION.-Spirit of the Recent Synods-Too Late-What a Minister Suffered to get an Education-Kind Words from Correspondents-Renewals of Candidates-The Presbyterian Paralysis-Receipts... BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS.-Recent Intelligence Serious Change at Tung- chow-Anti-Foreigner Movement in China-"The Morning Cometh "-Population and Evangelical Ministers-Periodicals of the Board-Notices of Corisco and Benita Work-A Call for Help from France-Donations..................... BOARD OF PUBLICATION.—The Synods-Sabbath-school Lessons for 1871-Do- BOARD OF CHURCH ERECTION.-Donations......... RELIEF FUND FOR DISABLED MINISTERS.-Contributions received in Septem- Why Should the Work Cease?-Nˤ. vi. 3. During the last two months this journal has conveyed to its readers information 'concerning the straitened circumstances of our Treasury. We are burdened with a large and growing debt. At the re-union there was a debt of about $11,500 left on our hands in the Freedmen's Department, which the Freedmen's Committee at Pittsburgh has not yet assumed; $25,000 more have been borrowed by members of the Committee to pay the missionaries, and they are unwilling to make themselves personally liable for a larger sum, and about $25,000 more are due to missionaries which we have no means to pay at present. It is well known that very few of the large churches take up their annual collections in May, June, July, August, or September, and consequently a debt at this time of the year is neither surprising nor alarming. But such a debt as has just been named may well cause prudent men to pause and deliberate. Some of the Committee say that such a state of things is not business-like, and ought to be provided against in future years by a balance on hand at the end of the year, much larger than we had at the end of last year ($65,000), and that we must begin to make our calculations for it at once. It has also been suggested that we reduce the appropriations made to missionaries to the lowest amount allowable in the circumstances of the case. But this we have always attempted to do, and have done it to such an extent that many a missionary has read his commission with a pang to see how much less it promised than he had expected. So there is no saving at this point. It has also been suggested that we refuse, for the present, to do more than renew commissions to those who were in commission before. But it has been said on the other hand, that those for whom commissions are now sought, for the first time, have taken possession of new and weak points, where aid from us is indispensable to success, and that in many instances they are now burdened by a debt incurred in moving from some other field, and that if we can cut down expenses we might better decline to recommission a hundred old missionaries than refuse to commission a hundred new ones. Besides, to refuse to grant any new commissions is to check our work on the frontier. What a shock such a resolution would give our feeble churches and little Christian communities in all the new states of the West! What a shock would it give the whole of our denomination, nay, the whole church in this country and throughout the world! What a comment this would be on our re-union! Then the question recurs, Why should the work cease? If we refuse to go forward, must we not, must not the churches which we represent and for which we are acting, be able to go before the world and say that the field is growing less, or our ability to carry on the work is diminished? But our field is not growing less, it is still enlarging; the demand for help was never more imperative; the prospect for success was never brighter. The population of the country has increased nearly a million a year for the last ten years. The movement of people to some parts of the West, during the last year or two, has been something wonderful, if not unparalelled. A missionary in Southern Kansas writes as follows: "This country is being settled and improved with unprecedented rapidity. A little over three years ago it was the home of the Indian, now, according to the recent census, there is a population of 10,000 in this county alone." To show what has been done in three years, and what might be done in'such time, it may be stated that the Presbytery of Neosho was organized three years ago, and Humboldt Presbytery one year later, with five members each. Now there are within its bounds thirty-one ministers and forty-one churches, and a membership not far from one thousand. In like manner the great State of Missouri, which is being crossed in all directions by railroads, has fifty-three counties in which we have not a single church ; but to show how open is the field and how ripe the harvest it is only necessary to quote from the report of the Osage Presbytery, in whose bounds now we have over fifteen hundred members where five years ago we had less than one hundred. Notwithstanding the large number of missionaries sent into these two States they are still crying for more. The same cry also comes from the other Western States. Says a missionary in Western Iowa, who has been instrumental in the organization of eleven churches during the last two years :-" More territory might have been explored and more churches formed if missionaries could have been obtained for them." But the greater part of the increase in the membership of those Western Presbyteries consists of persons who have. gone from Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois and other more Eastern States, thereby rendering necessary renewed or additional missionary appropriations to the churches they left behind. The field then is still enlarging, the work is successful and most encouraging. Never was there a more inauspicious time to have the work cease than the present. But is our ability to carry it on diminished? Must it cease because the churches are unable to support it? To attempt to answer such questions is preposterous. What! a church proposing to raise a memorial offering of $5,000,000 during the year and yet unable to meet the ordinary demand for Home Missions! Think what the people did of their own free will during the war in which our churches took a conspicuous part. Think of our hoarded wealth, our luxurious living! What if it be harder to raise money this year than some others? what if the donation we propose to make costs something-is made at a real sacrifice, would it be less acceptable to Christ who gave his life for us? Every thing then seems to point forward. The advancing kingdom of our Lord seems to forbid that we should stand still or go backward. We have reached the Red Sea of our difficulties, but the enemy is behind; we cannot retreat without shame or disaster. We wait to hear the voice of the Lord. We cannot advance if the churches withhold their aid. But if they send back cheering responses to our appeals. If they speedily give us assurances, not mere words, but such assurances as are good at the bank, then most joyously will the Committee say now "WE GO FORWARD!" Missionary Boxes. Benevolent ladies in many of our churches are offering to supply boxes of clothing for missionary families that may need such aid. The missionaries who desire it are requested to forward to the Secretaries a statement of their wants in this regard—give the age and name of every child in the family, the address of the box to reach them most speedily, and any other important particulars bearing on the case. If any such ladies should open a correspondence with the missionaries they are requested to reply promptly, fully, and wisely. RECEIPTS FOR HOME MISSIONS IN OCTOBER, 1870. Pby of Albany-Rockwell's Falls ch Pby of Chester-Waynesburg ch 174; Darby 2d ch 20 66; Downingtown Central ch from Mr P Tutton 62 50 257 16 $55.00 Pby of Allegheny-Scrub Grass ch 50; New Salem Poy of Clarion-Licking ch 25 13 Pby of Alton-Trenton ch 50, of which Rev G W Pby of Buffalo-Buffalo Central ch 109 87; Spring- Ply of Brooklyn-Throop Are ch, add'l, 20 61; Classon Ave ch 288 87; Brooklyn 1st ch, add'l, (Henry St) from F H Lovett 100, J Wilson 20 120 Pby of Butler-Plain Grove ch, from Fem Miss'y Ply of Detroit-Birmingham ch Pby of Elizabeth-Westminster ch, add'l, 27; 145 12 429 48 Pby of Bloomington-Reading ch Poy of Hudson-Scotchtown ch 111 85; Middletown 1st ch, Ladies 150 Pby of Huntingdon-One-half Presby Col 261 85 23 36 750 Lon33 50 Pby of Kittanning-Smicksburg ch 4 50; Middle 65 50 3 50 Pby of Cedar-Princeton ch 6; Union ch 2 Pby of Cincinnati-Cincinnati 6th ch 7 30; coln Park cb, Cin 10 8 00 Pby of Lyons-Newark ch Sab-sch 92 30 47 12 Lin 17 30 Pby of Champlain-Essex ch 11 40; Malone ch Pby of Lehigh-Brainerd ch, Easton 4 59; Sum- 47 00 Phy of New York-First eh. N Y, in part 8000; ch 15 152 00 4 30 1 55 4 69 40 00 Lima ch 208 92 Phy of Ontario-Danville ch 72 10; Pby of Platte-Westminster ch. St Joseph Pby of Peoria-Lewistown ch 59 95 25 25; 37 05 31 73 5 05 Pby of Rochester-Nunda 1st ch 56 63; Pittsford ch 16 24: Ogden ch 16 71; Rochester Brick ch from Edmund Lyon 100; Victor ch, add'l 5; Mendon ch, in part 70 Poy of Rockaway-Hanover 1st ch Thy of Rock River-Sterling ch 100; Newton ch 108 00 8 Fby of Syracuse-Syracuse 1st ch 755 85, of which Sab-sch 150, Robert Gere 75; Syracuse 4th ch Sab-sch 100 Pby of Steuben-Naples ch Phy of S Minnesota-Rochester ch 5 Phy of Wabash-Effingham ch 20; Newburg ch 5 Pby of Washington-Lower Ten Mile ch, Mrs Ruth Dodd 1; West Alexander ch 156 50% Wheeling 1st ch 39 27; New Cumberland ch 68 Pby of Wisconsin River-Madison ch 264 77 Pby of Westminster-Leacock ch 55; Chestnut Level ch 45 25 17.00 100 25 Total received from churches, LEGACIES. From Rev G Scott, D.D, a part of the paternal inheritance of his dec'd wife-her dying bequest MISCELLANEOUS.-A Friend. Penna 3650; Rev A L Chapin and wife, Galesburg. Il 10; "RAB." Brooklyn. N Y 10; A F" Atkinson, II 5; A Friend, Petroleum Centre, Pa 10: Trustees Presbyterian House, Phila 625; D G." Detroit Mich 10; Rev JS Walton. Pana, Ill 5; A Lady, Minn 5; Wm F Murdoch 10; Dr Simpson 5; JC 2; Rev Edmund Garland and wife, Granville, Ohio 20; H H Johnson, Kankakee, III 20; A member of the Synod of New York, through Rev Dr Hatfield 25; Dee 20; Mrs Con taut 1; A Friend, Phila 1 264 58 1 box from the Ladies' Missionary Society of 122 69 Lawrenceville N J, valued at 78 00 1 box from the ladies of Saratoga Springs ch, NY, valued at 150 00 1 box from the ladies of Morristown 1st ch N J, valued at 350 00 1 box from Neshanic Sab-sch, Copper Hill N J, valued at 120 00 |