The General Conference Committee Council
By W. A. Spicer
EACH autumn it is necessary for the General Conference Committee to gather in council in order to receive the estimates and calls from the mission fields, and to make appropriations for the following year. The auditing of laborers' reports is also attended to, with such other business as naturally accumulates in the expansion of the work. The council opened in Takoma Park, Washington, D. C., September 18. It was agreed that efforts should be made to push the work to a close on the twenty-sixth. The meetings of the council were held in the chapel of the Foreign Mission Seminary. Members present: A. G. Daniells, L. R. Conradi, W. T. Knox, S. N. Haskell, E. T. Russell, H. S. Shaw, W. B. White, B. G. Wilkinson, C. B. Stephenson, M. N. Campbell, S. E. Wight, C. W. Flaiz, Allen Moon, E. E. Andross, G. F. Watson, Chas. Thompson, U. Bender, O. A. Olsen, W. W. Prescott, Dr. Geo. Thomason, M. E. Kern, H. R. Salisbury, A. J. Haysmer, N. Z. Town, C. H. Jones, E. R. Palmer, G. B. Thompson, W. A. Spicer. It will be noted that a majority of the members in North America were in attendance, and that L. R. Conradi, of the European Division, and U. Bender, president of the West Indian Union, were present from abroad. A meeting of the publishing-house managers at this time in Washington enlarged the attendance at the council, and conference brethren from near-by points also attended a portion of the time. In addition to the members of the committee, the following were listed as present:— G. A. Irwin, R. A. Underwood, M. C. Wilcox, R. Hook, F. F. Byington, W. W. Eastman, S. N. Curtiss, S. Kime, W. J. Stone, R. T. Dowsett, Meade MacGuire, T. E. Bowen, F. M. Wilcox, A. J. S. Bourdeau, D. W. Reavis, Joel C. Rogers, J. L. McElhany, W. L. Burgan, J. A. P. Green, Dr. H. C. Menkel, J. N. Anderson, I. G. Bigelow, I. A. Ford, C. M. Snow, C. Sorenson, A. R. Sandborn, F. C. Gilbert, F. W. Paap, H. E. Rogers, W. H. Green, W. H. Heckman, J. H. Schilling, C. S. Longacre, Dr. D. Paulson, Dr. D. H. Kress, Dr. H. N. Sisco, G. W. Chase, E. L. Richmond, R. T. Baer, L. A. Hansen. It was agreed that the daily program should be as follows: 9:15 A. M. to 12 M.; 3 P. M. to 6 P. M.; 7 P. M. to 8:30 P. M.; the time between sessions being open for committee work. Recommendations of the council concerning various items of general interest may be reported as follows:— The location of the next General Conference came up for first consideration, and information was set before the council concerning the facilities offered in various places, with invitations from the Columbia, Southern, Southeastern, Lake, and Central Union Conferences. As a result of the study of this question, the following action was taken:— Voted, That it is the sense of the council that the next General Conference be held in Takoma Park, Washington, D. C. As to the time of the next General Conference, it was voted that the dates should be from the evening of May 15 to June 8, 1913. The importance of the coming week of prayer season, and arrangements for it, were discussed, and it was voted that the readings for the week of prayer should be published in the REVIEW. The following address to the brethren and sisters concerning this important occasion was adopted by the council:— Our week of prayer is to be held this year December 9-16. What will it be to us? 1. We need not say that God will not keep that appointment with his people, or that appointment which his people make with him. It is his own commandment to his children to seek his face, and it is his own word that where two or three meet together in his name, there he will be in their midst. 2. Our need demands the seeking of God. We are utterly lost without him. Many of our people are drifting into sin. The spirit of commercialism, pleasure, and worldliness, is crowding out the Spirit of God. We are a weak people, and few. Our learning, our wealth, our numbers, our organization, anything that we are of which we fain would boast, commends us not to him; but our great need does appeal to his heart of infinite pity. He asks us to do a great work. His must be the power, as is his the glory. Let us ask great things of God; let us expect great things from him. 3. We need God ourselves to lift the cloud of condemnation, that the sunlight of his love may shine into our sin-cleansed hearts. Our families need him. Some of many families are out of God's ark of safety. Among these may be our own children, our own wives and husbands, our own fathers and mothers, our brethren's children. Let us seek God for them. It11may be the last opportunity for many of us thus to seek him. It may be the last opportunity for many of them to make him their choice. Our neighbors need him. Their souls may be demanded of us in the great day of reckoning. Seek God for them. The great world needs God; and we are its debtors, debtors to the Jew and the Greek, to the American and the Chinese, to the Japanese and the East Indian. How shall we discharge this awful responsibility to God without his help? 4. What a demand is all this for separation from sin and separation unto God! What a demand for consecration, whole-hearted consecration of self for the sake of our loved ones, our relatives and neighbors, the world's burden of dying souls,—a consecration for Christ's sake. 5. While our God always hears the sincere prayer of the individual heart, he has ever especially honored with great blessing the united and whole-hearted seeking of Israel. Before united prayer, the hosts of Moab and Ammon were overthrown, and the plea for succor was turned into songs of praise. 2 Chronicles 20. Before the earnest pleading with God, Sennacherib, with his mighty army, despite his proud boasting, was turned back to destruction. 2 Kings 19. By fasting and prayer by the river Ahava, the helpless band of Israelites passed safely through the dreaded land of robbers. Ezra 8. "The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek him; but his power and his wrath is against all them that forsake him. So we fasted and besought our God for this: and he was entreated of us." It is his word to the remnant, "Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, . . . seek righteousness, seek meekness." 6. Let us seek God that his exceeding great and precious promises may be fulfilled in us. He waits to be gracious. Do not disappoint him. Let conference officers, union and local, the "ministers of our God," and church elders, unitedly do all in their power to make this week of prayer all that God wishes it to be to his people. "Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you." The council gave some time to a discussion of the lessons of the camp-meeting season just past. The following action was taken:— Voted, That a committee of three be appointed to prepare a specific statement on the arrangement and conduct of camp-meetings, to be presented in printed form at the next General Conference for consideration by that body. F. M. Wilcox, G. B. Thompson, and R. A. Underwood were named as this committee. W. L. Burgan, secretary of the Press Bureau, made a report as to the splendid work done since the organization of this department in getting reports of meetings into the public press, and in keeping before the people general information concerning the progress of our work. Various members spoke of the importance of this work. By means of the press, the facts presented in a meeting attended by only a few persons may be spread before millions of readers. It was,— Voted, That we invite each union to designate some person as press agent within its territory, not necessarily to give all the time to press work, but to keep in touch with the General Conference Press Bureau, working under direction of the union. The treasurer, W. T. Knox, presented the financial statement of the General Conference for 1911, as follows:— Financial Statement of the General Conference for Year Ending Dec. 31, 1911
RESOURCES
Cash on hand in bank . . . . . . $ 99095.43
Accounts receivable . . . . . . 10464.24
Bills receivable . . . . . . 7060.00
General Conference library. . . 1393.77
Tract society and conference. . 4933.39
Publishing houses . . . . . . 13399.00
Inventories . . . . . . . . . 2539.96
Correspondence School . . . . 1611.59
Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . $140497.38 LIABILITIES
$300,000 Fund . . . . . . . . . $ 79384.48
Sustentation Fund . . . . . . 4393.28
Specific donations . . . . . . 1434.59
Trust funds in holding for mission work . . . . . . . . 3590.94
Mission fields on appropriation 2350.11
Gen. Conf. Association . . . . 11787.82
Gen. Conf. Corporation . . . . 17166.68
Accounts payable . . . . . . 2773.45
Treas. credit checks . . . . . 1812.33
Hunt estate . . . . . . . . . 2098.97
Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . $126792.65 Resources in excess of liabilities . . . . . . . . . . $ 13704.73
1910 liabilities in excess of resources . . . . . . . . $ 9234.72
1911 resources in excess of liabilities . . . . . . . . 13704.73
Gain for 1911 . . . . . . . . . $22939.45 The report of the auditor was read, certifying to the accuracy of the statement, and the treasurer's report was adopted. The treasurer also set before the council a statement of various funds during the eight months of 1912 to August 31. The receipts and disbursements of the General Conference during the eight months showed $323,520 receipts, and $305,572 disbursements, leaving a surplus of $17,947 for the eight months. The autumn season is, however, the time for additional workers to be sent into the mission fields, and this extra expense will easily consume this surplus. A statement of the receipts and disbursements of trust funds for the eight months showed $166,132 received, and $106,697 disbursed, leaving $59,438 still to be passed on, the larger part of this being on the $300,000 Fund. By the end of the year this fund will be practically all passed on to the field, except possibly for Japan's portion, our brethren in Japan still being delayed in their plans while endeavoring to conclude arrangements with the authorities for holding properties on the basis desired. The treasurer read a statement of the eight months' receipts on the Fifteen-cent-a-week Fund, showing a total of $228,258. This is a most encouraging showing, making the highest mark ever reached; but it falls short of the full fifteen cents a week per member by $96,330. Two unions, however, have passed the fifteen-cent-a-week standard for the eight months' period, the North Pacific having exceeded that mark by $1,918, and the Western Canadian by $1,988. Representatives from all parts of the field spoke of the fifteen-cent-a-week mark as a point essential to reach in order to keep pace with the needs of the rapidly growing work, and the brethren believed that by united effort and agitation the goal would be achieved. A statement and appeal was adopted concerning this matter as follows:— As we are entrusted with giving the final gospel message to the world in this generation, and since urgent calls are being pressed continually upon us which can be answered only by sending more workers into the field, and as it will be impossible for the General Conference to supply the necessary funds with which to support them without increased liberality on the part of our people; therefore,— We urge all our people to remember the world-wide work by generous gifts; and we further urge conference and church officers to use great diligence in bringing these offerings up to an average each week of fifteen cents per member, by encouraging liberal Sabbath offerings, a general Harvest Ingathering rally, and generous gifts during the week of prayer and on other special occasions. Further report must be left over for next week. W. A. SPICER, Sec.