Biennial Report of the Atlantic Union Conference
By H. W. Cottrell
THE organization of what is now known as the Atlantic Union Conference was effected at the General Conference, April 16, 1901. It embraces the local conferences of Maine, Vermont, Central New England, Southern New England, Greater New York, New York, New Jersey, Eastern Pennsylvania, Western Pennsylvania, Chesapeake, Virginia, and West Virginia. Its area is 248,778 square miles; its population is 26,300,754; and its denominational constituency is 8,516. Every phase of our work is supposed to be evangelical, and is prosecuted in various ways. The evangelical minister, with Bible in hand, takes his position on the frontier in the open field. The Bible worker goes from home to home, planting seeds of truth, which alone can endure the spiritual dearth of this age. Everywhere, like leaves of autumn, the canvasser and colporteur scatter the printed page containing the10message, while the publishers continue to supply the demand made upon them for the gospel literature. The Sabbath-school, the day-school, and the young people’s work are important departments of the one great whole for fitting the young for service in the message. The sanitariums, treatment rooms, and hygienic restaurants in the conference are in position to do noble work as entering wedges, by breaking down prejudice, restoring many to physical health, and giving the vast throng of people who visit them an opportunity to hear the third angel’s message. While we, together with others, have found and accepted the Lord’s ideal message for the last generation of men, we can but report that the Lord’s high spiritual ideal is not seen in its fulness, but the body of believers as such, by way of individual connection with the divine One, are treading the path of the just, which “is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” The legal organization of the conference which was incorporated Jan. 9, 1902, under the laws of the commonwealth of Massachusetts, known as the Atlantic Union Conference Association of Seventh-day Adventists, has done much good work during the biennial term in making safe to the cause of the Lord, at the request of various property holders, real estate and other property. In the year 1901 five thousand dollars of the General Conference Association indebtedness was apportioned to the Atlantic Union Conference Association. For this amount the latter conference executed an interest-bearing note in favor of the General Conference Association, to run ten years from March 2, 1902. We are glad to be able to state that the principal of this note has been paid to approximately seven hundred and fifty dollars, with interest paid up to April 26, 1905. We are making a strong effort to collect the unpaid amount due from local conferences, and we hope and confidently expect soon to be able to pay the remainder due on the note. There are 299 regularly organized churches, with a membership of 7,898, besides forty-two companies of believers with a membership of 300, which have not yet been organized into churches, and 318 isolated Sabbath-keepers. The total number of adherents to the faith is 8,516, a gain of 151, despite the apparent falling off in the church lists, revealed in recent years by the apportionment of the book, “Christ’s Object Lessons.” During the conference term the actual increase in the church-membership by new converts to the faith has been several hundred, but this does not appear in the report on account of the former condition of the local church records. There are 343 Sabbath-schools, with a membership of 6,956. A large number of this band are active Bible students, and many of them through this means, will be fitted to fill important places in the Master’s work. The general financial condition is good, and the policy safe, for it is cash. However, there are some departmental financial conditions that should be greatly improved. The people gladly share in the financial burdens to the extent of their ability, but the large majority of the people stand strongly for a clean financial sheet, and a safe, aggressive policy in every branch of our work. TITHE PER CAPITA
Atlantic Union Conference ........$ 9 27
Central New England Conf. ....... 10 43
Chesapeake Conference ........... 5 70
Eastern Pennsylvania Conf....... 10 95
Greater New York Conference..... 16 14
Maine Conference ................ 6 68
New Jersey Conference ........... 12 31
New York Conference ............. 7 22
Southern New England Conf....... 12 60
Vermont Conference .............. 7 11
Virginia Conference ............. 5 87
West Virginia Conference ........ 4 93
Western Pennsylvania Conf...... 11 42 The question may be asked: Is the tithe per capita as large as it should be in view of the great work before us as a people? To this I must answer: I think that it is not; for there are people who do not return to the Lord his own; and, further, if each paid a tithe of his income, there would be an abundance of money in the treasury to carry forward every department of the work of the Lord to a successful end, even if there were no income from any other source. The people should be more fully educated on the subject of the privilege of paying tithe to the Lord, and thus acknowledge in God’s material way that we are in partnership with the Lord in soul saving. The total number of ordained ministers who receive credentials is seventy-two. Nine receive ministerial license. There are thirty-seven licensed Bible workers and ninety-two canvassers. These make a total of two hundred and fifty active gospel workers. The Vermont Conference supports Elder W. A. Westworth in Scotland and the New York Conference, B. E. Connerly in Porto Rico. Total amount of tithe received ........$162,751 88
Total amount of tithe received previous term .... 149,296 58
Net gain ..........$ 13,455 30
Per cent of gain 9 8-10.
Total amount of Sabbath-school offerings received..$ 11,923 23
Annual offerings to foreign missions ............ 12,571 41
Weekly offerings ................................. 8,385 28
Miscellaneous .................................... 5,369 49
Sabbath-school offerings to missions ............ 7,099 12
Total amount of offerings $ 33,425 30
Tithes appropriated outside conference .... 11,963 32
Total amount of offerings during term ....$ 45,388 62 Total amount of tithes and offerings received in the union conference during term ........$196,177 18
Tithe retained ............ 150,788 56
Sabbath-school offerings retained ............ 4,824 11
Total amount of tithe and offerings retained during term ................ 155,612 67
Retail value of books sold .. 73,841 61 There is one academy and twenty church-schools, with thirty-two instructors, and a total enrolment of four hundred and sixty-six students. The academy has done most excellent work during the term of two years. We have erected a boys’ dormitory in connection with the academy during the term, at an expense of ten thousand dollars, which was paid for in cash solicited for that purpose. The total number of copies of “Christ’s Object Lessons” sold to conferences and individuals for the financial relief of schools was 31,691. Value, $38,973.93. Cash received, $43,537.48. Expenses in freight and postage, $1,983.03. Discounts allowed, $439.95. Remainder due the academy from conferences, $4,316.22. The value of “Christ’s Object Lessons” sold during the term was $6,723.00. The remaining liability on the old debt account is $22,785.31. Some of the conferences have long since sold their entire quotas, and I am sure the remainder of books could be readily sold if those in each conference would take hold of the work with a will to see it accomplished. Plans are in operation to close out the present academy stockholders’ corporation, and to form one strictly denominational, that the property may always be held and the work directed by the denomination, and it is hoped to complete this work in the near future. The Melrose Sanitarium met a great calamity by fire, destroying the larger part of the building. Although the structure was only a shell, it will take a considerable sum of money to supply a similar number of rooms. The building was carrying a small insurance, which was collected. A new building is greatly needed that the work may be successfully carried forward. It has been decided by the sanitarium corporation to close out the present one, and re-incorporate, and thus connect the institution directly with denominational, conference work. They have an obligation of forty-five thousand dollars. The Philadelphia Sanitarium Board came to the conclusion that their former building on Wallace Street was not sufficiently large to enable them to meet its current expenses, so they have secured a larger building, where they hope to be enabled to care for a richer class of patients, as well as a large number of those in ordinary circumstances, and thus make the institution self-supporting, as every institution should be. Their assets, including real estate, furniture and equipment, and accounts receivable, are approximately $63,250; liabilities, including11mortgages, accounts and bills payable, $61,650. The Buffalo Sanitarium is reported as self-supporting, and is doing good work. The policy that should be adopted in this conference, and vigorously carried forward in each local conference in its territory during the coming term, is a return to the “first love,” that enjoyed by the early promotors of the faith, when the laborers, and even believers in the third angel’s message, were few; we should go with faith to the people, declaring in no uncertain tones the clear, plain truths of the message, preaching it in its simplicity as it is written in the Word, and leaving the speculative idea and the questioning about words for such persons to handle as have no message to preach. We should “preach the word.” This sort of preaching is what brought you and me into the truth, and established the many churches of the denomination, and if entered into again with vigor, and in the spirit of Christ, will greatly multiply our constituency and glorify our Heavenly Father. The Lord entrusted us with this solemn message of truth that we might preach it. The way to accomplish in the shortest time the work he has entrusted to us is to preach the message. The character and spiritual life of each supposed promotor of the message should be in actual accord with the character and spirit of the message itself. The Lord in his mercy has enabled us to see and accept the truths of the third angel’s message. The mind to give that was in the Master should be in us: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” He gave us the message, and in it, for it is the “everlasting gospel,” he gives himself. He gave all. When we give ourselves to Christ, we give all, and when this condition is met in our lives as Christians, the entire financial problem that is so distressing to-day will be solved. On account of the great need of the work in fields beyond, it is my opinion that such sums of money as have heretofore been appropriated by the union conference to assist local conferences in the union, should hereafter be appropriated to the Mission Board for the extension of the work in distant fields. H. W. COTTRELL,
President.