Writing to Our Missionaries
THE following letter regarding correspondence with our missionaries will be read with interest. Surely no one should be so thoughtless or negligent as to fail to comply with the reasonable suggestions made:— “As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.” Prov. 25:25. Especially is this true in the case of the foreign missionary when the ‘far country’ is the homeland. How eagerly missionary folk listen for the coming of the postman! In some places his lantern is seen and his welcome voice is heard late at night. But who would object to being called out of bed for a bundle of letters from friends and loved ones far away? Surrounded by people of a different race, who cannot enter into one's deeper feelings, the home thoughts, the sweet messages, the encouraging words, the good news, that these letters contain are truly ‘as cold waters to a thirsty soul.’ “But frequently the fact that a letter to a foreign country requires five cents instead of two is overlooked, and there is a deficiency of postage. On such letters, the writer, and every other worker in the same field, must pay the postman double the amount of the deficiency. In that way many a six cents has gone to the government that might have been used in the Lord's work. “Adding this frequent deficiency of postage to the missionary's already large expense of correspondence, the amount is considerable for a small salary. As an inevitable result, he must reduce the amount of correspondence, send fewer reports home, and forego to a large extent the joys of receiving letters. A little remembering of the golden rule on the part of the missionary's friends will greatly mitigate the difficulty.”