To the Churches in Michigan.
By Uriah Smith
In accordance with a statement in No. 20, last volume of Review, the Mich. Conf. Committee would again call the attention of the churches in this State to the subject of Systematic Benevolence, and the condition of the Conference fund. We find by looking over the account of labor bestowed within the Conference up to the present time, that we have not funds enough to meet present liabilities into between one and two hundred dollars. Besides this, labor is to be provided for, for the remainder of the Conference year, and the pledge of the Mich. Conference to the Gen. Conference of $500, is to be redeemed. We presume the brethren have, as recommended, carefully considered the article on Systematic Benevolence, by Bro. White, published in No. 1 of this volume. Your committee would take this occasion to publicly endorse the positions set forth in said article, and earnestly recommend their adoption by all the churches. Should this be done, the custom of churches' appropriating only a certain percentage of their s. b. funds for conference uses, will be done away with, as we desire to see it, and the whole amount, save the small fraction necessary in some instances to meet the expenses of their regular meetings, can be placed in the hands of the Conference treasurer to be appropriated to the wants of the cause by the committee chosen for that purpose. In this way the funds will be kept in their proper channel, and there be no lack in the treasury. To meet the present wants of the fund, we would request the different churches to send in through their treasurers, the amount of s. b. funds they have on hand. Second, we would request the different treasurers to make efforts to have systematic benevolence matters all brought up square, and closed up at the end of the year. The new year comes in on Sunday. We recommend that on that day, the churches hold their annual meeting, see that the past is all squared up, and arrange their figures, in the love of the truth and the fear of the Lord, for the coming year, in accordance with the suggestions of the article above referred to. The church in Battle Creek sets a good example in this matter, as will be seen by this week's receipts, by putting two hundred dollars into the Conference treasury. U. SMITH,
JNO. BYINGTON,
R. J. LAWRENCE.
\left. \begin{matrix} \text{Mich.} \ \text{Conf.} \ \text{Com.} \end{matrix} \right}