TO THE FRIENDS OF THE CAUSE IN KANSAS.
By Smith Sharp
Dear Brethren and Sisters: A sense of duty prompts me to offer a few thoughts for your consideration. First, I call your attention to the coming camp-meetings, the appointment for the first of which appears in this paper. We regard these four meetings, situated as they are within the reach of every one, as very favorable opportunities for the accomplishment of much good in our State. But the meetings will be a failure unless our brethren attend. Many did not attend the spring meeting on account of a press of business and the great distance they lived from it. These meetings will be held after the hurry of farm work will be over, and they will be within reach of all. We expect efficient help from other States at all of these meetings, and we shall be much disappointed if we do not see large gatherings on each camp-ground. Although the receipts to the S. B. treasury have been greater than usual for the time, yet they have been but little above the running expenses of the Conference. We confidently expect that much more will be paid in at the close of the present quarter. Church treasurers can bring the means they have on hand to the camp-meetings, as they come so soon after the close of the quarter. Please make an effort to collect all that you can before starting to the meetings. Although we have not seen all the prosperity desired in the labors of those who are out in the field, yet considerable has been accomplished. At least twenty who were strangers to the truth have embraced it since the May camp-meeting. Again I will call attention to our permanent camp-meeting fund. There are only about $80 of unpaid pledges to this fund, and this is not yet due. Some expense will necessarily attend these meetings, and some provision must be made to meet it. This can easily be met by each one doing a little, and no one need be burdened. Let the brethren who have not pledged to this fund either make pledges immediately to their church or T. and M. officers, or come to the meetings prepared to make a donation to it. Our T. and M. society is in debt $1100.00; but we have over $400.00 worth of publications on hand, and enough of unpaid pledges which are due in October to pay off the debt. We propose to make a special effort to pay this debt immediately. In looking over librarians' books at different places, I have ascertained that much of this debt is for the REVIEW that is being sent to old subscribers. Let the librarians see these members at once, and collect the full price for the paper. Then let all that have taken subscribers see that the paper is paid for. Then let those of us who have pledged for the reserve fund pay our pledges when due, and those who have not pledged do so at once, and our society will be on a solid financial foundation. Eld. Haskell expects to visit our State this fall or winter, in the interests of the T. and M. society and other branches of the work; and we want to do all we can to have things in readiness for his coming, so that a mighty impetus may be given to the work. SMITH SHARP.