The Cost of Vanity Versus Missions
The following figures are astounding! Read carefully and then ask yourself to which sum you contribute most: "We spend annually for saving 700,000,000 blood-bought heathen souls, the sum of not more than $2,500,000, while the total contributions of all the churches in America for all causes do not exceed $77,000,000. For intoxicating drinks on the other hand, we spend $900,000,000 every year. For tobacco, $80,000,000! For ladies' foreign dress goods, about $125,000,000! New York City alone spends for theater going and other amusements three times as much as our whole country gives for foreign missions. The kid gloves it imports alone cost ten times as much. The ladies of America actually spend more for artificial flowers every year than do all the churches for the spread of the gospel! How does this seem to the conscience? For Christ, $77,000,000." For vanity, liquor and tobacco, $1,105,000,000.—Moravian.