THE COST OF LIVING IN RELATION TO MISSIONARY GIVING
It is admitted that in many foreign fields the cost of living is increasing, and the mission board is confronted with the problem of raising the increased sums necessary to keep in the field the laborers already there, to say nothing of the demand for more workers. The problem is all the more difficult because the cost of living in America is also on the increase, and the tendency is to decline in donations to the missionary cause. The secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, writing on this subject in the Missionary Review, says: “Our pastors are supposed to live as the middle class of their people do, but of late years, with the great rise in prices, they are living below the middle class.” Poverty, and sometimes temptation, is the result of such straitened circumstances, not only in India, but elsewhere. Another instance mentioned is that of a Chinese pastor who was trying to support a wife and five children on five dollars a month. He is said to have greatly injured his influence by trying to supplement his scanty income by helping in law-suits. Referring to the difficulty of increasing the society’s funds, the secretary further says:— Moreover, the average Christian worker and laborer in America is feeling the same strain himself. The so-called “era of prosperity” has given more steady employment to the mechanic and unskilled laborer, has given better markets to the producer, and has enormously increased the wealth of many who are already rich. But the men on fixed salaries, who form the bulk of our church membership, find that “prosperity” has greatly increased the cost of living without proportionately increasing salaries. Consequently, hundreds of thousands of American church-members are worse off than they were in “hard times.” Tables presented to the arbitration committee which investigated the grievances of the employees of the Union Traction Company in Chicago in 1902, showed that the price of thirty-seven necessary articles had gone up, and fifteen had decreased, while the street-car employees had worked for the same wages for sixteen years. The average advance in the cost of living was given thirty per cent in five years. Percentages vary in different localities, but after making all reasonable allowances, the fact remains that the expense of living in America has seriously increased. In such circumstances it is clearly out of the question for the Christians of the United States to meet these enlarged demands for the support of their own families, and in addition meet them for multitudes of Christians in Asia. If, then, the problem of the increased cost of living in Asia can not be solved by increased gifts from America, what other solutions are possible? As an experienced missionary says: “To ask for more from America seems like a step backward; but to leave matters as they are, is to see our churches seriously crippled.” But those who really love the coming of the Lord, and know that “this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations: and then shall the end come,” will not be discouraged by the outlook. They will continue to sound “to earth’s remotest bound” the proclamation, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight.” When the Babylonian exiles returned to rebuild Jerusalem, and to re-establish the worship of the true God in Palestine, they became very much discouraged because of hard times, and because of bitter opposition from their enemies. Then the rebuke of the Lord came upon them that caused the oppression of the people; but the plea of poverty was not accepted as an excuse for not going ahead with the building. Notwithstanding the hard times, the greatest obstacle in the way was personal sin, and a lack of faith in the Lord’s work. When these matters are rectified on the part of the people, the way will be opened for the means. “If there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.” And the widow’s mite, being all that she had, was recognized as more than all the gifts of the rich, who contributed of their abundance. When the hearts of the people are given to the Lord, and they have done all that they can in a real spirit of sacrifice, the Lord will make the means to increase, even as did the bread and the fishes in the hands of the Saviour. The obstacles of hard times and increased expense of living may be overcome by faith just as any other test that may come to us. “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof,” and the cause of salvation is His. The commission to His people is itself an encouraging assurance of support: “All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” What more assurance could any people ask?