p. 156 | The Condition of the Kan. & Mo. Conferences

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 18, 1875

The Condition of the Kan. & Mo. Conferences.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

IT was my privilege to attend the camp-meeting of the Missouri and Kansas Conference, held at Mound City, Kansas, Sept. 9–13, 1875. I found all the preachers and most of the leading brethren in these two States at this meeting, besides some three hundred brethren and sisters gathered from all parts of the Conference. From these I learned the financial condition of the cause in that new Conference. I felt very much distressed at their destitution, and promised to do my utmost to help them. I therefore waited anxiously for Bro. White to say something on the subject through the REVIEW; and was glad that he called attention to it in No. 18, of present volume. He was there himself last spring and knows something of their circumstances.

The brethren there feel that Bro. White has done his whole duty by them, and they are thankful for the means that have been sent them in the past by brethren generally; but still the preachers are in pressing need of money with no possible way of raising it.

In the first place, both these States are new. Money is always scarce in newly settled countries. The brethren have been consumed by the drought one year, and entirely eaten out by the grasshoppers twice. Still they had to live, pay their taxes, buy their clothing, &c. This has necessarily involved many of them in debt. This season they have raised an abundant crop, much larger than usual, so that they will not suffer for food. But what they have raised is so exceedingly cheap that they can raise no money with it to speak of. The finest peaches I ever saw sold for twenty-five cents per bushel. We bought corn on the camp-ground at the rate of about ten cents a bushel. Other things are in proportion, so that the chances for raising money are very poor.

There are about a dozen preachers in these two Conferences, and nearly all of them have families. I looked over their accounts for the last season, and I cannot see how, with the strictest economy, they have managed to live on what they have had. But nearly all of them wore the cheapest clothing, and with several of them this was faded, threadbare, and patched. At first the auditing committee decided to pay, as the highest wages, six dollars per week, and the lowest, five dollars, for time actually spent in the field. But even these figures run several hundred dollars above what there was in the treasury, or what there was any probability of raising for months to come, so we cut them down again all around from twenty-five to fifty per cent. This seemed hard, but it was no use to make a pretense of giving them what we had not to give. Then we paid out the last cent in the treasury, raised about a hundred dollars among the more fortunate brethren, and borrowed over one hundred dollars out of the bank to pay even these small allowances. Yet, with all these discouragements, the cause has been rapidly gaining in these two Conferences.

I have visited no part of the field where labor has been more successful than here. God has evidently blessed the spirit of sacrifice with which these brethren have labored. There were preachers among them who had given their whole time to the work for a year, receiving only from twelve to sixteen dollars per month, who could have earned from thirty to thirty-five dollars per month teaching school.

Now, brethren and sisters, what shall be done for these needy preachers? Must they be compelled to leave the work for want of means to sustain their families this winter? I often think of them as I see in other places the abundance, and even luxuries, with which many of our brethren and sisters are surrounded in their comfortable homes. We appeal to these friends to open their hearts and divide with those who are just now in such urgent need of even the very necessaries of life. Do not put it off for weeks and months. What you do, do now. What is done should be done immediately.

What you wish to contribute, perhaps can best be sent to the REVIEW Office and forwarded from there. While at the camp-meeting, I gave ten dollars to aid these preachers. Myself and wife now forward twenty-five dollars more for the same purpose. There are quite a number of brethren and sisters in Kansas and Missouri who have not been eaten out by the grasshoppers. Some of them are in very comfortable circumstances. These friends should feel a special responsibility at this time in this matter to raise their S. B. fully up to the Bible plan, and then pay up promptly. If they do not, God may visit them next.

D. M. CANRIGHT.

Vassar, Mich., Nov. 6, 1875.