The American Missionary – Volume 43, No. 06, June, 1889
American Missionary Association
PRESIDENT, Rev. Wm. M. Taylor, D.D., LL.D., N.Y.
Vice-Presidents.
Rev. A.J.F. Behrends, D.D., N.Y.
Rev. Alex. McKenzie, D.D., Mass.
Rev. F.A. Noble, D.D., Ill.
Rev. D.O. Mears, D.D., Mass.
Rev. Henry Hopkins, D.D., Mo.
Corresponding Secretaries.
Rev. M.E. Strieby, D.D., 56 Reads Street, N.Y.
Rev. A.F. Beard, D.D., 56 Reade Street, N.Y.
Recording Secretary.
Rev. M.E. Strieby, D.D., 56 Reade Street, N.Y.
Treasurer.
H.W. Hubbard, Esq., 56 Reade Street, N.Y.
Auditors.
Peter McCartee.
Chas. P. Peirce.
Executive Committee.
John H. Washburn, Chairman.
Addison P. Foster, Secretary.
For Three Years.
J.E. Rankin,
Wm. H. Ward,
J.W. Cooper,
John H. Washburn,
Edmund L. Champlin.
For Two Years.
Lyman Abbott,
Chas. A. Hull,
Clinton B. Fisk,
Addison P. Foster.
For One Year.
S.B. Halliday,
Samuel Holmes,
Samuel S. Marples,
Charles L. Mead,
Elbert B. Monroe.
District Secretaries.
Rev. C.J. Ryder, 21 Cong'l House, Boston.
Rev. J.E. Roy, D.D., 151 Washington Street, Chicago.
Rev. Rev. C.W. Hiatt, Cleveland, Ohio.
Financial Secretary for Indian Missions.
Rev. Chas. W. Shelton.
Field Superintendents.
Rev. Frank E. Jenkins,
Prof. Edward S. Hall.
Secretary Of Woman's Bureau.
Miss D.E. Emerson, 56 Reade St. N.Y.
Relating to the work of the Association may be addressed to the Corresponding Secretaries; letters for "THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY," to the Editor, at the New York Office; letters relating to the finances, to the Treasurer.
In drafts, checks, registered letters, or post-office orders, may be sent to H.W. Hubbard, Treasurer, 56 Reade Street, New York, or, when more convenient, to either of the Branch Offices, 21 Congregational House, Boston, Mass., or 151 Washington Street, Chicago, Ill. A payment of thirty dollars at one time constitutes a Life Member.
NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS.—The date on the "address label," indicates the time to which the subscription is paid. Changes are made in date on label to the 10th of each month. If payment of subscription be made afterward, the change on the label will appear a month later. Please send early notice of change in post-office address, giving the former address and the new address, in order that our periodicals and occasional papers may be correctly mailed.
"I bequeath to my executor (or executors) the sum of – dollars, in trust, to pay the same in – days after my decease to the person who, when the same is payable, shall act as Treasurer of the 'American Missionary Association,' of New York City, to be applied, under the direction of the Executive Committee of the Association, to its charitable uses and purposes." The Will should be attested by three witnesses.
EDITORIAL
FINANCIAL OUTLOOK
Our receipts for seven months to April 30th are, from donations, $118,051.25, estates, $20,308.09, incomes, $4,829.21, tuition, etc., $22,719.89, United States Government for Indians, $9,540.87; total, $175,449.31. Our payments to April 30th are $203,777.45. Debt balance, $28,328.14.
These figures mean a debt—growing at the rate of $4,000 a month. In passing "through the dark valley and shadow of"—debt, we walk with a goodly company. It is said that nearly every missionary society in Christendom reports a deficit this year. A common cause must underlie so broad a fact, and no one society deserves special censure.
A missionary society cannot make its expenditures as a man provides for his family—from day to day—but must lay out its plans for the year. The missionaries, the teachers, the matrons and all employés must be engaged for that length of time. The appropriation must be made on the general expectation of receipts, with some allowance for added growth. Every prosperous business firm plans for enlargement. Shall the Lord's business only lack enterprise and growth? Must it move on a dead level, or on a declining grade? The churches would not long endure that, and the word of the Lord is: "Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward."
This cannot be done near the close of the year by dismissing the ministers and shutting up the schools. These self-sacrificing workers are dependent on their salaries, and the teachers, some of whom out of their small pittance are helping to sustain an invalid mother or sister, and in not a few cases are aiding needy students, and should not be deprived of their wages. Repudiation of such debts is not the relief for a missionary society.
The only way, therefore, that we can see is, to throw ourselves upon the benevolence of the churches, whose agents we are in doing their work, and ask them to come to the rescue by increased donations. A little from each will make it easy for all.
VOICES FROM THE FIELD
We wish our friends to see as we see and hear as we hear from the field, as to the need of enlargement and the difficulty of closing schools prematurely, and hence we present some condensed facts as specimens.
McINTOSH, GA.—One hundred and nineteen in a single room and with only one teacher. No boarding department and scores must be turned away.
FLORENCE,
