American Missionary | Page 3

that purpose? Here is
where the miracle wrought on the shore of Galilee needs to be repeated.
Our Lord and Master is not here now in bodily presence, and he
entrusts to his church the duty of multiplying the bread of life for these
vast perishing masses. The churches of the North must awake to this
great duty. If done at all, it must be done promptly. Present means are

wholly inadequate. Every individual Christian at the North should feel
his personal responsibility and should respond by a great increase of his
contributions for this purpose. It is not too much to say that the
religious influences sent from the North in school, in industrial training,
in the preparation of Christian ministers and teachers, and in the
planting of Christian churches, will well-nigh constitute the pivotal
point of the whole movement. A loss now can never be regained, but
the achievements of the present should be a stimulus for the future. The
North withheld neither treasure nor blood to save the Union and to free
the slave. Treasure and toil will now save the South and the Nation.
* * * * *
SOME CURIOUS AND SUGGESTIVE FACTS.
What proportion of the funds contributed by living donors to
missionary societies comes directly from church collections? We
presume the answer from a large majority of the contributors would be,
three-fourths or four-fifths. But the curious fact is, that, for the three
years, 1886, 1887 and 1888, the average contributions to the American
Missionary Association from church collections are forty-seven per
cent., from Sunday-schools seven per cent., from Woman's Missionary
Societies five per cent., from individual donors forty-one per cent. It
thus appears that less than one-half the total sum comes from
collections in the churches. Another curious fact is, that these receipts
directly from the churches are uniform, not differing to the extent of
three per cent. in the past three years. So that, with all the importunity
and pressure, the plate collections in the churches have not increased.
Another curious fact is, that one-third of the amount donated by
individuals is for special objects, mainly for the increase of plant, and
thus adds to the cost of running expenses, and is so far forth a burden
and not a relief on regular appropriations for current expenses.
What, therefore, is the stable reliance of missionary societies on which
to make annual appropriations? It cannot be on legacies. It cannot be on
the special contributions of individuals. It ought to be based on church
collections. These should carry current expenses, and the additional
plant should come from outside sources. If this be so, and the societies
are to increase their work at all from year to year; if, indeed, they are to
meet the additional cost of the new plant given by individuals, then the
church collections should be increased proportionately.

Are we not, therefore, making a legitimate appeal, when we urge upon
every church member the duty of increasing his individual gift put into
the plate when the collection is taken? A vote of the National Council
or of the Annual Meeting of a missionary body, or of a State
Conference, that a society should receive an increase of funds amounts
to little, unless the individual donor in the church will increase his gifts.
A little increase here aggregates much. If every member will add five
per cent. or ten per cent., it will be little to each, but will be great in the
total. May we ask our readers to lay this to heart with the query of each
to himself, "Is it not my duty to increase my individual contribution?"
* * * * *
PARAGRAPHS.
We have many appeals by letter and in person from colored people in
the South, for help from the Hand Fund, to aid in sustaining enterprises
which these people are endeavoring to carry forward. Some of these
schools are heavily in debt. Others are greatly lacking in necessary
facilities, buildings, furniture and teachers. Others are crippled for want
of means to meet current expenses. Many of these institutions are
unwisely located, others have no adequate financial basis to warrant
their existence, and some seem to lack the necessary provision for
supervision and responsibility. Taken all together, they furnish
additional warnings to the people of the North against contributing to
individual or local enterprises in the South without most careful
scrutiny into the facts in each individual instance.
* * * * *
A colored missionary teacher in one of the most desolate parts of North
Carolina writes us as follows:
"In making out my bill, you will perhaps not understand what I mean
by the amount to be 'deducted.' I desire to give one-tenth of all my
earnings to God. Of course it is His