FINANCES | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 24, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 49.

FINANCES.

Committee on Finances reported as follows:—

Your Committee on Finances, after collecting all the information at our command, and carefully considering the wants of the cause in its different branches, would report that we find an urgent and pressing need of funds to carry forward our work. The treasuries of the European and Scandinavian missions are empty, and these missions are in debt to the Review office several thousand dollars. The English and Australian missions need additional funds to carry forward their work successfully. The funds of the International Tract Society are exhausted; and this Society, which has done such a noble work in the past in sending out rays of light and truth to all parts of the world, and has by this means brought the light of truth to many that were in darkness, and opened new fields that could not otherwise have been reached, is now, for lack of funds, powerless to occupy the field of usefulness which it has held among other agencies for the spread of the Third Angel's Message. There is also great need of a fund to support city missions outside of organized Conferences.

It is evident to the minds of your Committee, after careful and candid consideration, that funds must be raised, or the work we have begun must be abandoned, an idea which no true believer in the Third Angel's Message can entertain for a moment.

We would therefore recommend—

1. That $15,000 be raised for the Central European Mission, $15,000 for the Scandinavian Mission, $5,000 for the English Mission, $5,000 for the Australian Mission, $10,000 for the International Tract Society, and $10,000 for the support of city missions.

2. That our people everywhere be requested to make Christmas donations to the European and Scandinavian Missions, to relieve them as much as possible from their present embarrassment. And we would further recommend that the week between the holidays, including the Sabbath, January 2, be set apart as a week of prayer; and that the General Conference Committee suggest suitable subjects for consideration each day, and also prepare addresses to be read at the beginning of this week of prayer and at suitable intervals during the week. We would urge all presidents of Conferences, ministers, and church elders to give this matter their immediate and faithful attention, and see that every church, and as far as possible every individual, is informed of the nature and object of this week of prayer; and that all join in humbling ourselves before God and pleading with him for a deeper conversion, that his blessing may rest upon the work that is begun, and that he may open the hearts of those that have means, to use this talent which God has given them to send the truth to the nations of the earth, to gather out of them a people for his name.

3. That the General Conference Committee use the best means at their command to raise the above mentioned funds to sustain the work already begun, either by themselves visiting men of means, and laying the wants of the cause before them, or by appointing suitable persons to do this work, or in any other way that may seem to them most feasible.

4. In view of the fact that the College buildings are entirely too small to accommodate the students already seeking the advantages of instruction, we recommend that $40,000 be raised to pay the present indebtedness of the College, and to erect such additional buildings, and provide facilities for fully instructing those who seek its aid in preparing themselves to do more efficient work in the cause of truth, that the College may fill the position which the Lord has shown it should occupy.

We believe the work in which we are engaged is the work of God, and that he has a special care for it. And we believe that in the hours of trial which may be permitted to come upon us to test our fidelity to him and his cause, we should trust in God and move forward, believing that to the faithful will come the victory.