What the Envelopes Have Done
THE following from the elder of one of our city churches needs no comment:— I wrote you a letter some weeks ago telling you that we had adopted the envelope plan for weekly offerings to missions in our church at this place, and I am sure you will be glad to know the result as compared with the old plan. So I will give the amount of offerings each month from Jan. 1, 1902, to Dec. 1, 1902, and you will see at once the result of a systematic use of the envelope plan. For January the offerings were 96 cents; February, 75 cents; March, $3.05; April, $1.17; May, 93 cents; June, 98 cents; July, 4 cents (I am ashamed to write it); August, 63 cents; September, $6.98 (envelope plan introduced); October, $7.55; November, $8.90. For the first eight months of the year the offerings amounted to $9.01, just eleven cents more than our offerings for November. And those who are giving tell me that they feel just as rich financially as they did before: in fact, it is not missed by us, as the amount each gives is so small. Yet if all our churches and people would adopt this system, how wonderfully it would swell the volume of missionary offerings! I find those who make the greatest sacrifice for the cause of God to be the happiest members of the church. Truly, it is more blessed to give than to receive.