To the Brethren in Illinois.
By R. F. Andrews
DEAR BRETHREN: There are some matters pertaining to the cause in our Conference that we wish you seriously to consider. You will see by the report of our Conference that we have become responsible for all due the Publishing Association on our periodicals. This, we believe, is as it should be. Now let us make an earnest effort, as individuals, to come up to the work, and pay for our papers, and not oblige the Conference to pay our just debts for us. We would recommend that elders and leaders, in the several churches, take this matter in hand, and see that tardy subscribers be invited to pay their indebtedness, and also one year in advance. This paper is No. 16, Vol. 38. Now look on the paper right by your name, and if it says anything less than 38-16, you are in debt, and should immediately remit. But we find that quite a number are two or three volumes behind, and some even six or seven. Now this is not as it should be. Let us awake to this matter, in good earnest, at once. If any have become tired of our periodicals, there is an upright and honorable way of getting rid of them, and that is, to pay up past indebtedness, and notify the Association to discontinue them. As we look over the list, we are astonished to find some so far behind. We shall be under the necessity of writing to individuals or calling upon them personally for their indebtedness, unless they pay up at once. Please save us this unpleasant duty, and unnecessary trouble. Now a word with reference to our financial standing. Our Conference has grown some within the last year, for which we thank the Lord. Still we are very weak financially, and must put forth a united effort if we meet the demands of the cause in all its branches. You will see by the REVIEW that the following resolution was unanimously adopted at our late Conference: “Resolved, That the balance of the means raised to purchase the tent be applied for the use of the Conference.” Now you will remember, that when the appeal was made through the REVIEW, for means to purchase the tent, it was stated, that should there be more means raised than necessary, it would be put into the “book fund.” There were $551.80 pledged for the tent. There has been paid of this $521.80, leaving $30.00, yet unpaid. Our tent cost $420.80. This leaves $101.00 after paying for the tent, besides the $30.00 unpaid. As the greater part of the brethren that raised this means were present, and saw the want of means to meet the claims against the Conference, they expressed their wish unanimously to have it thus appropriated. This was also the judgment of Brn. Littlejohn and Canright. This enabled the Conference to pay nearly all its debts, but the treasury is entirely drained. There should be at least from one to two hundred dollars in the treasury, to meet the present wants of the cause. There are many brethren in our Conference, and some of them able, that do comparatively nothing in sustaining the cause financially. If all would take hold unitedly, it would be an easy matter to sustain the cause. Come, brethren, let us, while we render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar’s, be careful that we render to God the things that are God’s. Soon the opportunity to use our means for the advancement of the precious cause of truth will be passed. Then the rich, selfish and covetous, and their hoarded means will perish together. May the Lord help us to realize it; and may we now, while we have opportunity, make to ourselves friends [out] of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when we fail [here] they may receive us into everlasting habitations. One word to the friends of truth, that are outside of the limits of our churches: We hope that you will not be idle spectators in the cause. Your being isolated and alone does not free you from responsibility. God has not given you the truth to put it under a bushel or bed, but that you may put it on a candlestick, that all around may see the light. It is your duty not only to exemplify the truth in your lives, but to do all in your power to assist in getting it before others. If the unfaithful minister will have his garment stained with the blood of souls, how will it be with the individual that has withheld from the Lord’s treasury its due, and selfishly appropriated it for his own personal benefit or comfort, instead of using it to get the truth before those that are in darkness, and thus give them the opportunity to flee from the wrath to come? Oh! that we might see this just as it is, in its true light. If ever we needed your help, brethren, it is now. The Publishing Association needs assistance in erecting its new building; the Health Institute also. At our Conference there were over $700.00 pledged for these institutions. We should raise this sum to at least $1000.00 immediately. We have all the time during the present year to pay these pledges. Come, brethren, send in your names to the REVIEW Office, with the amount you propose giving for these enterprises, or better still, send with your names the cash. Ten dollars secures a share in the Publishing Association; and twenty-five in the Health Institute. If you have not adopted the plan of “Systematic Benevolence,” we earnestly request you to do so at once. As a Conference we have done nothing for the cause outside of our own limits the past year. The General Conference has claims upon us as also the missionary cause. The $50.00 donated to the General Conference by us this year, will do no more than meet the expenses of the help sent us by that Conference; so that we have not increased the funds of the General Conference in the least. Ivory Colcord, Coleta, Whiteside, Co., Ill., is our Conference Treasurer. Systematic Benevolence funds and donations to the Conference should be sent to him. I will close this appeal with a quotation from James: “What doth it profit my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? Can faith save him? . . . Show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works.” May the Lord help us to show, by the assistance that we render the cause of our Redeemer, that we do truly love it.