The little mission envelopes, furnished free by the Mission Board to all our churches which desire them, for making weekly offerings to missions, are valuable. Wherever they have been used, the result has been seen in a marked increase in donations to missions. If they were generally used by all our people throughout the world, a large, steady stream of funds would flow into the Lord’s treasury in weekly free-will offerings. There is nothing like united, regular, and systematic effort in accomplishing great results. The continual dropping of so soft and frictionless a substance as water will wear away a stone.
But the envelopes are valueless unless used, and they will not be used unless the people receive them. To distribute these each week, and then collect them again each week, is quite a task in our larger churches. If, where we have church buildings, the envelopes could be placed in little pockets or receptacles on the backs of the seats where every one could simply reach in front of him and get one, the distribution part of the program could be dispensed with. The admirable system devised for systematic weekly offerings through the use of the little envelopes, is hardly complete, it seems, without some such arrangement as the one here suggested, especially for our larger churches.
A reduced picture of a suitable inexpensive little pocket for the envelopes is here given, with directions for making it.
How to Make the Pockets
Cut sheets of medium weight tin into squares 4 7-8 x 3 7-8 inches. From the top or lengthwise of the squares, turn15down flat 3-16 of an inch. Out of each of the two lower corners, cut a square piece 1 1-8 x 1 1-8 inches. Then on the right, left, and bottom portions, turn upward at right angles a flange 5-16 of an inch in width. Inward from this angle 13-16 of an inch, but in opposite direction, turn a right angle on each of the three portions mentioned. Carefully square up all angles, to make joints fit perfectly and give neat appearance. With an awl, over a piece of lead or hard wood, punch two small holes in each side flange, and one in center of bottom flange, for tacking the pockets onto the seats, wall, door-posts, or elsewhere, and the pockets are made. They may however be painted, if desired, with one or two coats of paint of the same color as that of the seats or other woodwork to which they are to be attached. When ready, nail them up with small tacks or brads.
This makes a very neat and handy receptacle for the envelopes, and if kept filled by the janitor, librarian, or some other officer of the church, dispenses with the necessity of distributing the envelopes each week and is in harmony with better order and decorum in the house of God. Each pocket will hold about twenty-five or thirty envelopes, and so, if there are a good number of the pockets in the church, they will need to be filled only occasionally.
A sufficient number of the pockets should be placed on the back of each seat in the church to enable every one to obtain an envelope by reaching but a short distance for it. They should not be more than four or five feet apart. In the College View church, where the writer was an elder for the past year and a half, we put up over one hundred and fifty of these little pockets a year ago. This, of course, is a large church. Smaller churches would not need so many.
With the foregoing directions, any tinsmith can make the pockets; and they should cost not more than from three to five cents each (exclusive of painting), the price, varying, of course, somewhat with the number of pockets ordered. They will generally more than pay for themselves in increased donations the first Sabbath they are used.
But neither the pockets nor the envelopes will amount to much unless the officers of the church, the elders or the pastors especially, frequently call attention to the little envelopes, and where they may be found, report occasionally at least the amount the church is contributing by this means, and see that a collection of the envelopes containing the weekly gifts of the people is taken up each Sabbath. This is essential.
For the seven months previous to August, 1903, the College View church had contributed in weekly offerings to missions but $18.67. During just one year from that time, under the ten-cent-a-week envelope and envelope-pocket plan, it gave, as was reported in the last number of the REVIEW, $670.67. The first two Sabbaths’ collections amounted to more than seven times the amount the pockets cost. We found that the church was ready and willing to adopt the system as soon as the church officers had the courage to introduce it.
We are glad that so many of our churches and conferences are already practising this system, and we hope that it may very soon become general through the denomination. It is a good system.
If any are scrupulous about making offerings of this kind on the Sabbath, let them read the ninety-sixth Psalm, noting especially the eighth verse: “Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come into his courts.”
If any say they are not able to give ten cents a week, let them be informed that the system does not contemplate or require that every one shall give just ten cents each week, but that as a whole, the church shall endeavor to give an amount equal to an average of ten cents for its entire membership. Some can give more, some less. The idea is that all give something, and the full amount given by the church averages ten cents a week per member.
Any church officer who would like a marked and creased paper pattern of the little pockets will receive one by writing for the same to the Mission Board, 222 North Capitol St., Washington, D. C.
