The Midsummer Offering,
By W. T. Knox
During the past ten or twelve years the work of God has been rapidly expanding throughout the earth in both Christian and heathen lands. The messengers of truth, notwithstanding the many difficulties that have beset them, have met with encouraging success. During that period the Lord has opened the doors of many nations to the truth, and as rapidly as our limitations would permit, these openings have been occupied. In 1900 the denomination had really only begun its work among the heathen. Today the work is well established in sixty-eight non-Christian and Catholic lands, and the record of each year has been one of steady and gratifying progress. This constant expansion has created a constant demand upon us for a corresponding increase in workers, resulting in a continual exodus of our young men and women from America to China, Manchuria, Korea, Japan, India, Africa, and in fact to every portion of the earth. Their labor, blessed by God, is in turn creating new demands upon us. From an ever-increasing territory the Macedonian cries are coming to us, but for the past year the condition of the General Conference treasury has been such that the committee has been obliged to turn a deaf ear to all these appeals, for only such advancement can now be made as will be warranted by the gifts of the people. Encouraged by the steady and rapid increase in the gifts of the denomination to foreign missions during recent years, the General Conference has greatly increased its work in foreign lands, until its responsibilities now call for an annual outlay of $500,000. Much anxiety and perplexity has come to the Mission Board this year on account of the serious shrinkage in our mission receipts, the first four months of the year showing a deficit of about $110,000 on our Twenty-cent-a-week Fund. This shortage affects the foreign mission funds to the extent of $53,000. This, if permitted to continue through the year unchecked, will mean a deficit of $160,000. The seriousness of this outlook can be appreciated fully only when it is understood that our present volume of work requires the full amount asked for in the appeals of the General Conference. Any shortage, therefore, can only result in suffering and distress to our brethren whom we have sent out to these distant lands, and unless corrected, eventually curtailment of our work. This condition is not one that is peculiar to our denomination, as is shown in the following clipping taken from a recent publication:— The New York Sun has been gathering some statistics and information as to the condition of the treasuries of the missionary boards and societies, which are not entirely cheerful. They reveal large shortages in not a few instances. The total of deficits will not be much below one million dollars if the information had is reliable. The Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions began the year with a deficit of $65,300. It fell short this year $226,800 more, making a total deficit reported at Chicago this month of $292,100. The Presbyterian Board of Home Missions fell $138,000 behind its appropriations. This is its first deficit in fifteen years. The Episcopal General Mission Board has a deficit approaching $300,000. The board began the year $197,000 behind. Ten years ago the board appropriated to its fields $676,000 a year; last year, $1,333,700. The Baptist Foreign Missionary closes the year with a debt of $182,000, the sum being an accumulation of previous years. The Home Society began the year $31,000 behind and ended it with a deficit of $72,000. Presbyterians South, handling about $800,000 a year, come out more nearly even; but the Congregationalist is the only denomination closing its year of home work without debt. It did so because of large personal gifts obtained at the last moment. The Reformed Church boards, both Dutch and German, are closing the year about even. The general financial conditions prevailing throughout the country doubtless have to some extent contributed to this situation, but this or any other explanation fails to relieve the situation in which we find ourselves. But the church should arouse to instant action looking toward remedying the unfortunate condition. We have asked our brethren to go in our stead to preach to the nations this gospel of the kingdom. We are in duty bound to properly sustain them. In "Acts of the Apostles," pages 338, 339, we have the following:— As God's work extends, calls for help will come more and more frequently. . . . Men are tempted to use their means in self-indulgence, in the gratification of appetite, in personal adornment, or in the embellishment of their homes. For these objects many church members do not hesitate to spend freely, and even extravagantly. But when asked to give to the Lord's treasury, to carry forward his work in the earth, they demur. Perhaps, feeling that they cannot well do otherwise, they dole out a sum far smaller than they often spend for needless indulgence. They manifest no real love for Christ's service, no earnest interest in the salvation of souls. What marvel that the Christian life of such ones is but a dwarfed, sickly existence! He whose heart is aglow with the love of Christ will regard it as not only a duty, but a pleasure, to aid in the advancement of the highest, holiest work committed to man,—the work of presenting to the world the riches of goodness, mercy, and truth. . . . The spirit of liberality is the spirit of Heaven. This spirit finds its highest manifestation in Christ's sacrifice on the cross. In our behalf, the Father gave his only begotten Son; and Christ, having given up all that he had, then gave himself, that man might be saved. The cross of Calvary should appeal to the benevolence of every follower of the Saviour. The principle there illustrated is to give, give. "He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked." Sabbath, July 4, the day set by the General Conference for our Midsummer Offering, is an occasion when vast sums of money are foolishly spent, much of it literally burned up. It is a day, also, given over to pleasure seeking of every conceivable kind. The people of God should at this time remember his needy cause. They should place restraint upon the desires of self, and show their appreciation of God's blessing, and their responsibility, by making this by far the largest Midsummer Offering in the history of the denomination. The heavy deficit in the mission funds demands that this should be so.