Your ShelfYour Projects

Review and Herald, Vol. 88, No. 7.

The Commonplace
Earlier text: Fruit, Not Leaves Alone

The Moving Pillar

WHEN once the people of Israel had cut loose from Egypt, there was no place to settle down until they reached the promised Canaan. Many a heart, no doubt, grew weary with the unsettled, wandering life. But the wilderness was not their home, and no time was given for building permanent foundations in the lands where they were to be but strangers. As the record says:—
“At the commandment of the Lord the children of Israel journeyed, and at the commandment of the Lord they pitched: as long as the cloud abode upon the tabernacle they rested in their tents. . . . And so it was, when the cloud abode from even unto the morning, and that the cloud was taken up in the morning, then they journeyed: whether it was by day or by night that the cloud was taken up, they journeyed. Or whether it were two days, or a month, or a year, that the cloud tarried upon the tabernacle, remaining thereon, the children of Israel abode in their tents, and journeyed not; but when it was taken up, they journeyed. At the commandment of the Lord they rested in the tents, and at the commandment of the Lord they journeyed: they kept the charge of the Lord, at the commandment of the Lord by the hand of Moses.” Num. 9:18, 21-23.
So had it been with Abraham, a life of pilgrimage. Called of God to forsake home and kindred, “he went out, not knowing whither he went.” He did not need to know just where the Lord would lead him, or what the next step might be. He only knew that God had called, and it was for him to follow. Whether he met famine in Canaan, or trouble in Egypt, he believed the promises of God, and counted himself only a pilgrim and a stranger here, while he looked forward to settling down at last in that city “which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” So was it with all the heirs of the promise; and so may it be with us.
Our work is ever moving on. The pillar of fire and of cloud, the signals of God’s providence and the calls to go forward, never give us time to pause long at any point. We are a people on the march. Thank God it is so, for it means that we are nearing the eternal Canaan. The urgency of the growing work keeps us ever under pressure. One call follows another, and no sooner is there a moment of breathing-space at the accomplishment of some enterprise than new demands arise, and again we are stretching forth to things before. But this is the very condition that cheers every believing heart. It shows that we are in the good old pilgrim pathway leading to home and heaven; and the nearer we get to the end of the way, the more lightly equipped we should be, ready for quick marches and response to sudden calls.
The evangelistic worker who really cuts loose and takes the field knows something about it. A Colorado worker, responding to a call to another State, wrote, the other day: “It is true that we sometimes feel like settling down, but I am glad for the privilege of moving with the cause of God, and for the promise of rest yonder by and by.” Many a family knows how naturally, over the question of the purchase of some needed article of furniture, the question arises as to how long the worker may expect to remain where he is, and how soon the call will come to pass on with the advancing work. As this matter was being discussed recently by a few workers in Europe, one minister of the Latin field remarked that he had moved thirty times in fifteen years. But there is joy in following the call of God in the pathway along which have pressed the feet of the heirs of the promise through all the ages.
Enlistment in the service of this third angel’s message means a call to the pilgrim life. Paul’s exhortation to young Timothy still holds good: “Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.” 2 Tim. 2:3, 4. This world is merely the place we are passing through, and from now until the coming of the Lord we may know that it is to be battling and marching. But there is victory in every conflict, and joy in every step forward, for we know it brings us nearer to the end. And we sing with glad hearts as we journey:—
“God bids his people on the earth, Before he comes and calls them hence, To live unknit to home and hearth, Like far-bound travelers—in tents.
“He’d have us rear no stately towers, Sink no foundation walls of stone, But camp each night a few short hours, And ere the morrow’s dawn move on.
“O brother, whatsoever chain Binds us to fleshly lust and strife, Here let us rend it in God’s name, And live, henceforth, the pilgrim life.”
Let every plan in life and in our work advertise the fact that we are pilgrims, and do not expect to remain long in this earthly country.

A Great Conspiracy

By C. M. S.

We are now a nation of a hundred million people. The returns of the census enumerator make many an American instinctively ask himself, “What is there that a progressive nation of a hundred million souls can not do?”
When Americans have asked themselves that question, and no one has risen to dispute their greatness, contest their possessions, or question their progress, the questioners settle down at ease, feeling that the battle of liberty has been fought, the necessity of vigilance is past, the danger of foreign aggression is gone by forever, and all they need now to do is to look out for their own interests.
Right there is America’s danger. The founders of the nation saw it, and warned us against it. The prophecy of Thomas Jefferson is ringing in our ears to-day. Said he:—
The spirit of the times may alter, will alter. Our rulers will become corrupt, our people careless. A single zealot may commence persecution, and better men be his victims. . . . From the conclusion of this war we shall be going down-hill. It will not then be necessary to resort every moment to the people for support. They will be forgotten, therefore, and their rights disregarded. They will forget themselves, but in the sole faculty of making money, and will never think of uniting to effect a due respect for their rights.—Notes on Virginia.
On every hand are demonstrations of the truthfulness of Jefferson’s forecast. Vast multitudes of the people have forgotten what struggles our liberties cost; have forgotten what were the principles for which the nation’s founders contended; and have thrown themselves body and soul into the great maelstrom of commercialism, as if in the amassing of wealth lay the assurance of peace and prosperity and all that the heart of man could wish.
The moment of full assurance is always the moment of greatest danger. Then the walls are undefended, and the sentries asleep; and that is the enemy’s moment to attack.
The vast majority of the people of the United States seem to feel that there is no danger now of the loss of their liberties. It is a vain assurance. A gigantic campaign to destroy the very groundwork of our freedom has been already inaugurated; the plans of operation have been definitely laid; the forces now mobilizing for the attack are numbered by the millions. The object of the attack is to destroy the guaranties of our liberties, as expressed in the Constitution of the United States. Were the people awake to the danger, there would be no assurance of the success of their undertaking. But they are not awake. They take it for granted that no harm can come, not realizing that the same feeling of settled security has come also into the hearts of legislators that has come into their own hearts, and that the principles which “made and preserved us a nation” are little known and little appreciated by many a sworn representative of the people. Men in high position have declared those principles to be nothing more than a mass of glittering generalities, and a “jingle” of words. In the hands of such persons the liberties based upon those principles are not safe. To them the clamor of an unthinking multitude is more authoritative than the voice of an angel from heaven.
At such a time, when the sense of danger is not present in the minds of the vast majority of the people, there enters the arena a powerful organization, a confederation of influential forces, which has set for itself no less a task than the complete transformation of the foundation upon which American law and liberty rest.
The beginning of that movement as an organization dates from the year 1863; but the movement has greatly outgrown the body in which it had its birth. It has become one of the actuating principles of the greatest religious organization in the country.
The National Reform Association came into being at Xenia, Ohio, in July, 1863, and began at once an earnest effort to have incorporated into our fundamental law the principles of the church-and-state governments of the Old World and of the old colonial governments of the New World—in a word, to transform the government from a purely civil institution to a religious institution. In furtherance of that aim, it was proposed so to amend the national Constitution as to recognize God as the source of all power and authority in government, Jesus Christ as the ruler of nations, and his revealed will as of supreme authority. In that way, say they, the nation would declare its faith as a Christian nation. But a Christian nation must have Christian officials; so the association is working for the elimination from the Constitution of the declaration that “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.” They propose that the Constitution shall provide for a religious test for all who seek employment in any branch of the public service.
The Constitution now guards against the union of church and state by declaring that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” They propose to accomplish what that forbids by joining religion and the state, and having the government authoritatively declare that this is a Christian nation, and “lay its hand on” any religion that does not conform” to the “standard which they erect. With the nation legally declared Christian, there is no question about what religion they would seek to join to the state. It would be the Christian religion; but the government would have to determine what denominational expression of Christianity it would adopt. That would necessitate the settlement of numerous religious controversies by human law, and result, as of old, in selecting one branch of the Christian church, and outlawing all others. The result of that in the early centuries of the Christian church gave us the Dark Ages. Is America ready for such an epoch in her history?
The Constitution guarantees freedom to worship God as one’s conscience may dictate. The National Reform Association declares that “uniformity is essential both to peace and progress. The opinion of the majority must be decisive. Even in the matter of men’s consciences, a degree of uniformity is necessary.”—Rev. S. F. Scovel, president National Reform Association. If that be true, then all the oppression of conscience this world has ever seen has been necessary; the attempts of all church-and-state governments in all epochs of this world’s history to compel men to think alike or suffer the penalty, have been right, and the cruel means taken to bring this about were necessary, and ought to be in force at the present moment. Are Americans ready to welcome that condition in which men must think in accordance with established law, or suffer in purse, in personal liberty, or in the loss of life itself? If conformity is essential, and is made a matter of law, then the ultimate penalty is certainly involved. Uniformity in matters of conscience demands law to bring it about. Law is compulsion; the compulsion is obtained by penalty; and the ultimate penalty takes hold on life. Uniformity in matters of conscience, therefore, involves the taking of life; and that would bring the world again into the distressing experiences of medievalism and of the days of the colonial theocracies. Are Americans ready for this?
The National Reform Association is opposed to the principle of majority rule in civil matters. Said the national superintendent of the organization, at a public institute held at Winona Lake, Ind., in August, 1910:—
This association proposes that there shall be a recognition made in our nation’s fundamental law that the law of God, as revealed through Jesus Christ, and not the will of the majority of the people, is the supreme law of the land.
That would put an end to the rule of the people, and put the nation at once under ecclesiastical control. No law could then be enacted except such as was authorized by the clergy, who style themselves the “spokesmen” of God. It is high time for Americans to awake to the great conspiracy against their liberties. From a government of the people we would then be transformed into a government by the ecclesiastical overlords of the people, who would utter their desires as the decrees of the Almighty, enforceable without pity or compassion, as in days of old. And are Americans ready for this also?
Multitudes scoff at the idea that such propositions would ever be entertained by the majority of the American people. It is not necessary that they should be. The people do not make the laws. The legislators do that; and they are very sensitive to political pressure from influential organizations. Such organizations are now formed, and ready to exert the necessary pressure. The great Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, representing eighteen million communicants, has already declared its purpose to create a force that lawbreakers and lawmakers will respect and heed. That indicates a purpose to bend legislatures into harmony with their designs. It was in view of just such contingencies, and against just such a combination, that the Congress of the United States warned the people in 1829. Said that body then, by its acceptance of a report of one of its committees:—
Extensive religious combinations to effect a political object are, in the opinion of the committee, always dangerous. . . . All religious despotism commences by combination and influence; and when that influence begins to operate upon the political institutions of a country, the civil power soon bends under it; and the catastrophe of other nations furnishes an awful warning of the consequences.—Report of the Committee on Post-offices and Post-roads, communicated to the Senate, Jan. 19, 1829.
The Federal Council of Churches is the most “extensive religious combination” ever effected in America, and its avowed object is to cause the civil power to “bend” under its influence. The power of its mighty influence is now being exerted in the interest of National Reform objects,—the securing of religious legislation in States and nation. That influence is even now operating upon the political institutions of our country; the civil power is bending under it; and our representatives refuse to see in the “catastrophe of other nations” any lesson we need to heed. Are we not a nation of a hundred million souls? Can we not do as we please?
The increasing willingness of legislators to yield to the demands of this element for religious legislation, and the increasing power and influence of the hosts who are making the demands, show that the people are careless of the lessons of history, careless even of their own liberties. They have placed their priceless heritage in an open boat, and cut the painter that held it to the shore. It is high time for Americans to awake to the great conspiracy against their liberties.
C. M. S.

True Seeking of God

By Francis McLellan Wilcox

True seeking of God involves something more than mere supplication. The blessing of God is promised on certain conditions. The prophet tells us to seek the Lord while he may be found, and to call upon him while he is near; and the conditions of seeking are clearly pointed out: “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord.” If the seeker does this, then the Lord promises that “he will have mercy upon him,” and that “he will abundantly pardon.”
With too many the seeking of the Lord is a mere sentiment. The blessing of the Lord is measured by the shedding of a few tears or by some happy feeling of exaltation. It is indeed true that, when the Spirit of God comes into the hearts of his children, it will often bring sorrow, and the heart will be melted to tenderness. That Spirit will sometimes bring the deepest joy, leading the believer in songs of lofty praise to pour out his thanksgiving to his Maker. But let not these feelings alone be trusted as evidences of the Lord’s blessing. We have known some who could apparently shed tears of contrition, some who could apparently shout for joy; yet their hearts were not right with God, and in their lives were sins which the Spirit of God pointed out, and which they had failed to put away.
When the believing child of God can come to him with a conscience void of offense toward God and man, with the witness of his own heart that he has earnestly sought, and, so far as in him lies, is fulfilling the will of his Master, then it is his privilege to take hold of that sweet assurance of confidence and trust which will bring the blessed spirit into his heart as an abiding presence. Having entered into the fellowship of communion with his Master, he can enter, as a result, into the joy of communion.
There is a marked tendency in the world to-day to profess faith in Christ, and allow mere sentiment and emotion to supplant the deep movings of the Spirit of God, while at the same time sins are ignored, and the path of obedience is avoided for personal convenience. Let us guard against such an experience. We can not afford to possess any such superficial experience in God. We need that daily conversion which will permeate every fiber of our being, which will transform our life and plans, mold and shape our purposes, and bring under the control of the Spirit of God every emotion and impulse of the heart. The recognition of sin will be the signal for its surrender, and Christ will reign supreme in all the heart’s affections. This is surrender to God; this is consecration; and it is only this complete consecration that will bring the fulness of the Spirit’s leading. But O, when one gives himself thus fully to God, what may he not expect in Christian experience? He holds fellowship with God, and the Spirit becomes his guide.
This surrender to God and this reception of his Spirit does not mean that the Spirit is to become our servant, but rather that we are to become the servants of God. It does not mean the possession of the Spirit for exhibition or show, or for self-exaltation. It means such surrender to God, such self-abnegation, such crucifixion of the flesh, such self-forgetfulness, that we shall be willing to follow whithersoever he leads; and though his footsteps are marked with blood, and the way leads through Gethsemane, we shall follow on, all forgetful of self, all mindful of the One who goes before as our perfect example.
Dear reader, let us seek for this oneness with God, for this complete consecration which will bring into our experience the fulness of his daily divine leading. F. M. W.

Famines and Pestilences

JUST now China is again the field where dread calamities, signs of the coming end, are reaping their destructive harvest. A few years ago India was the land of the plague and the famine; and indeed India has not been wholly free from the bubonic plague since the outbreak of a dozen or fifteen years ago. In spite of sanitary science the dread visitants of plague and pestilence hold on their way.
Not long ago Elder W. A. Westworth reported scenes in South China, where our work has been going on amid a devastating plague. Now reports come of famine in Western China, and of bubonic plague in North China. The center of the plague seems to be Harbin, Manchuria, the same Harbin from which our newly organized Russian church sent us their greetings last week of prayer. May the Lord protect and bless our brethren as they endeavor to work for him and for the perishing amid the perils of the last days. The press despatches from Harbin said last week:—
Nearly six thousand bodies of victims of the plague have been burned or buried on the outskirts of Harbin. Of these forty-eight hundred were from the Chinese town, and a thousand from the Russian quarter. Sixteen stacks of coffins and seven pits filled with bodies and oiled logs blazed outside the town yesterday. The mortality among the doctors and hospital attendants is high, considering the means taken for their protection. The sanitary authorities hope soon to test serum of their own manufacture from the Manchurian bacilli, as the foreign importations have proved ineffective.
The happenings in Europe in the seventeenth century, when the black death swept through, are being repeated here. At first the Chinese defied medical officers, and kept their sick and dead hidden, in order to conduct the ancient funeral rites. Now it is brother against brother, father against son. Stricken ones are forced into the streets to starve or freeze or perish from the plague. Passers-by avoid them; but sometimes those engaged in sanitary work, masked and bandaged, reach them before they die, and cart them to the pest-house or their bodies to the funeral pires. Not infrequently an outcast is to be seen kneeling and making his last obeisance before the grave of an ancestor, in sight of a pile of bodies on which his is soon to lie.

Christian Union

By F. M. W.

UNDER this head the Western Recorder of January 19 makes the following sensible remarks regarding the efforts being made by many churchmen toward so-called Christian unity:—
Following the trend of commercialism, many are clamoring for Christian union, by an amalgamation of the various denominations. It might be well for us to inquire if a combination of the denominations would produce a desirable union or unity. For example, suppose the several denominations of our city should come together and form one church, and call it the church of God, — would not the Methodist still believe in apostasy, and the Presbyterian still believe in infant sprinkling, and the Campbellite still believe in immersion for the remission of sins? Would their coming together, and calling themselves by the same name, in any wise change their convictions of truth? The only possible union, as we see it, that such a complex organization could claim, would be a union in name, and this, of course, would only be a nominal union. Indeed, such an organization would present a picture of unparalleled hypocrisy. Such an aggregation, though formed in the name of brotherly love, would deceive neither God nor man. If Christians ever unite, there must be a “unity of the faith” and not a compromise and crucifixion of the faith. For our part, candor compels us to say that we would love to see every Christian on earth a member of a Baptist church, provided they all held the truth as believed by Baptists. Could we get them on any other condition, we would respectfully decline to take them. We are much inclined to believe that a large majority of those who are making so much fuss about union, would like to have it on about the same terms that we desire it, though they possess neither the candor nor the courage to assert it.
Should all the denominations get together, after the similitude of the dreams of the unionists, we would have something like the image of Nebuchadnezzar — iron, brass, clay, etc. Certainly the Smithsonian Institution would be interested in such a specimen. Any denomination that does not believe that it is God-ordained, and therefore necessary to the welfare of the world, is committing a crime against Christ and humanity in perpetuating its existence. Let those, if such there be, who do not believe in the necessity of their organization, immediately disband. This would be at least one step toward the consummation of a coveted but criminal compromise. “But as for me and my house,” we will continue to serve the Lord in the good old Baptist way.
As the Recorder suggests, those who raise the cry of Christian union need to apologize for their existence as a church. Any church which holds to what it believes to be the vital truth of God, will not consider for one moment the idea of subordinating that truth in any union which may be proposed. The fact is, a great many so-called Christians to-day have lost all conscientious scruples regarding religious belief. Christianity is becoming a form, and its vital truths are being regulated by personal convenience and social standing. The church in too many cases is regarded after the character of a social club, rather than the repository and conservatory of religious faith and Christian teaching.
F. M. W.

Our Aim a Completed Work

By W. T. Knox

There is an old proverb that “Well begun is half done.” If the opposite of this is true, the writer fears that the denomination has not made a very good beginning with the “Ministry of Healing” campaign.
This work was definitely planned for at the General Conference Council at College View in October of 1909. The plan then adopted involved the sale, by each member of the denomination in the United States, of at least two copies of the book “Ministry of Healing,” and five copies of the journal Life and Health, each year for the next succeeding three years; the net proceeds from the sale of these books and journals, after paying for their production, to be devoted to the relief of our sanitariums.
Some of the results accruing from this work, if it is fully carried out, will be the placing of at least one hundred eighty thousand copies of an excellent and greatly needed book in the homes of our neighbors and friends, and the distribution of about nine hundred thousand copies of Life and Health, thereby accomplishing the very work to which the Lord has called us,—the giving to the people of a message of salvation. While accomplishing this wide circulation of our literature, we shall, without any loss to ourselves, gather almost five hundred thousand dollars above the cost of producing the books and journals, this half-million dollars to be turned to the relief of our sanitariums.
When we think what this would mean to these institutions; the relief it would bring to many of them; the better work they would be able to do, the question will present itself, Why has not more been accomplished in this work during the past year? The truth is, there has been comparatively little accomplished. During the past summer, some of the conferences did a preliminary work in securing some orders for books, and made some sales to our people at camp-meetings, but few have carried forward the work aggressively. Without doubt, the answer to the foregoing question is that the work was not “well begun.”
While the campaign plan is simplicity itself, yet to realize success, there must be, from the very first, thorough and careful planning and organization. The objects sought and made possible by this plan merit the most thorough co-operation and support of all union and local conference officers and laborers. While the actual time consumed in the campaign need not be great, the results that can be obtained by thorough work justify the outlay of the painstaking effort required for proper organization of forces, districting of the field, and suitable leadership. Without the hearty leadership of conference workers, much need not be expected from church-members. If left to themselves by union conference men, not all local conference officers may rally to the work as they would if led by the union conference president.
The most favorable season of the year for this work is fast passing. Just now the work can be accomplished, in most sections, with less inconvenience and loss than at any other season of the year. It is greatly to be feared that if winter and early spring are allowed to pass without having accomplished definite results in this campaign, another year will have been lost.
The Columbia Union is making a good beginning. Its officers have thrown themselves heartily into the work. Arrangements have been made with the publishing-house for a good supply of books. Every available worker has been pressed into the campaign to assist in organizing the local conferences for a strong and persistent effort to complete the work. For the campaign a good portion of February and March has been allotted.
If this carefully planned campaign is responded to as it is hoped it will be, it will mean much in relieving the very embarrassing situation in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference in regard to the Philadelphia Sanitarium. What comfort and satisfaction are found in viewing a task accomplished—in being able to say, “I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do.”
Why not let us all, if we have not done so before, arise to our opportunities, and make a good beginning at this work, with the determination to see it through, and disposed of? Why not do this now?
W. T. Knox.

The $300,000 Fund

By W. T. Knox

The accompanying report shows the total amount received by the General Conference Treasury on the $300,000 Fund up to Feb. 1, 1911, totaling $70,092.21. This money is now being sent forward to the different mission fields as rapidly as possible, and is proving a great blessing to the workers in those distant lands. This will mean much to them, to the extent that it can be made to cover their pressing needs. No one can have read of the terrible plague now devastating China and Manchuria with its frightful toll of death, without greatly regretting that we are not now at once able to furnish to all our brethren in these unhealthful and plague-infected countries the money to supply themselves with sanitary homes.
The reports reaching us concerning this particular plague in China, are to the effect that foreigners are not generally subject to it, if they are living in sanitary surroundings; but, alas, this statement does not afford us much comfort when we think of the conditions in which some of our brethren are situated. We can only hope that the Lord will protect his children, and that in the meantime, every effort will be put forth to hasten the gathering of this money for its designated purpose.
As this report covers the year 1910, and one month of 1911, a little consideration will reveal the progress made by each conference in this work. The general result reveals that no union conference has raised its proportionate amount for 1910; and that the total result, instead of being in excess of $100,000, as it should be, is but $70,000. This means that for 1911 and 1912, $230,000 must be raised, in order to meet the needs of the fund.
The reports received from many conferences have encouraged us to believe that provision has already been made for a large portion of this amount. The situation in many of the mission fields is such that the need of money is just now very urgent. If plans for the securing of the remainder of the fund have not yet been made by conference officials, these should be formulated at once, and earnest effort put forth to provide for the finishing of this task to which our people have shown such willingness to respond.

Statement of the $300,000 Fund to Feb. 1, 1911

Atlantic Union Conference Central New England ................ $2,420.19 Greater New York ................. 1,279.08 Maine ............................... 228.00 New York .......................... 1,098.58 Northern New England .............. 840.13 Southern New England .............. 390.73 Western New York ................. 1,057.61 Total ............................. 7,314.32
Canadian Union Conference Maritime ........................... 194.95 Ontario ............................ 827.05 Quebec ............................ 317.50 Total ............................. 1,339.50
Central Union Conference Colorado ........................... 135.70 East Kansas ....................... 1,375.27 Nebraska ........................ 4,021.04 North Missouri .................... 564.92 Southern Missouri .................. 320.74 Western Colorado .................. 514.86 West Kansas ....................... 185.54 Wyoming ........................... 945.39 Total ............................. 8,063.46
Columbia Union Conference Chesapeake ........................ 529.05 District of Columbia ............... 682.50 Eastern Pennsylvania ................ 693.08 New Jersey ....................... 1,319.80 Ohio ............................. 1,672.99 Virginia .......................... 355.05 West Pennsylvania .................. 496.06 West Virginia ...................... 277.00 Total ............................. 6,025.53
Lake Union Conference East Michigan .................... 2,643.15 Indiana .......................... 2,638.19 Northern Illinois ................ 1,129.67 North Michigan .................... 427.88 Southern Illinois .................. 782.45 West Michigan .................... 3,060.77 Wisconsin ......................... 1,557.80 Total ............................ 12,239.91
Northern Union Conference Iowa ............................. 2,098.24 Minnesota ........................ 4,284.94 North Dakota ..................... 2,069.13 South Dakota ..................... 1,577.00 Total ............................ 10,029.31
North Pacific Union Conference Montana .......................... 1,025.15 Southern Idaho ................... 1,313.38 Southern Oregon .................... 529.54 Upper Columbia ................... 2,340.81 Western Oregon ................... 2,115.99 Western Washington ............... 2,195.75 Alaska ............................... 2.15 Total ............................. 9,522.77
Pacific Union Conference Arizona ............................ 360.83 California ........................ 2,176.31 Southern California ............... 4,211.17 Utah ............................... 113.30 Total ............................. 6,861.61
Southeastern Union Conference Cumberland ........................ 1,216.93 Florida .......................... 1,600.38 Georgia ............................ 567.90 North Carolina ..................... 329.34 South Carolina ..................... 212.55 Total ............................. 3,927.10
Southern Union Conference Alabama ............................ $ 118.40 Kentucky ........................... 183.50 Louisiana .......................... 143.25 Mississippi ........................ 226.18 Tennessee River ..................... 332.42 Southern Union Mission ............... 5.00 Total ............................. 1,008.75
Southwestern Union Conference Arkansas ............................. 65.34 New Mexico ........................... 75.43 North Texas ........................ 155.50 Oklahoma .......................... 1,065.28 South Texas .......................... 67.08 West Texas ........................... 39.40 Total ............................. 1,468.03
Western Canadian Union Conference Alberta ............................. 450.20 British Columbia ..................... 280.05 Manitoba ............................ 560.25 Saskatchewan ........................ 267.00 Total ............................. 1,557.50
Miscellaneous Germany ............................... 5.00 West Indian Union ..................... 1.00 India ................................ 29.72 New Zealand ........................ 102.27 European subtreasury .................. 2.43 England ............................. 490.00 Canal Zone ........................... 13.00 Miscellaneous ........................ 91.00 Total ............................... 734.42
Grand total ........................ $70,092.21
W. T. Knox, Treasurer.

Ten-Cent-a-Week Fund

By W. T. Knox

THE accompanying report of the Ten-cent-a-week Fund will, without doubt, be read with much interest by all our people. This report gives in full the results, for the year 1910, of the efforts of the people to supply funds for the carrying forward of our mission work throughout the world. An examination of this report will reveal that of our twelve union conferences, five have exceeded the amount aimed at of ten cents a week a member. Of the remaining seven, there is one that lacks but a few dollars of attaining the object in view. Of the seventy local conferences recorded, there are thirty that have reached the mark that has been held before our people in these financial efforts. One noticeable feature of the report is that it shows that the principal shortage is found in the strongest conferences.
The year 1910 has been an exceedingly trying one to the Mission Board, by reason of the lack of sufficient receipts to carry on the work that has been undertaken by them. This lack became so serious that it was the principal consideration in the General Conference Council in November. Great distress has been created in some of the mission fields during the closing part of 1910, on account of our inability to keep them properly supplied with money. To remedy this, the council devised the plan of a general division of the tithe of the American conferences. This plan is being indorsed and adopted by the conferences in a very gratifying manner, and although all have not yet been heard from, still it is expected that the final returns will show unanimous approval of this step.
However, careful estimates of our receipts from this new source reveal the fact that they, with our regular mission offerings, will not give to the General Conference any excess over our present requirements. We can not reduce our expenditures in mission fields. In fact, every field is requesting an additional appropriation for 1911; but basing our operations for the present year on the same scale as that of 1910, the tithe coming from the local conferences, and the Ten-cent-a-week Fund, provided every conference meets its full requirement, will not be any too much for the demands made upon the treasury.
The mistake made by many of the local conferences the past year was the postponement until the close of the year of any special effort to bring their churches up to the required amount. It is hoped that a lesson has been learned from this, and that already earnest efforts are being put forth to educate the people to a systematic giving that will bring to the treasury of the Mission Board an amount even in excess of that which has been aimed at in this fund. It will be the aim of the Treasury Department to keep constantly before the people information concerning the condition of the treasury, and the receipts from each local conference.
W. T. KNOX, Treasurer.
Continue reading: Comparative Statement of the Ten-Cent-a-Week Fund by Union and Local Conferences