Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1878-10-09

the womans board contributed Sol,Soo'
The debt Of the society was reduced, during
the year, from $4,000 to less than $4,000.
The special contributions, for the payment
of the debt, came from twenty-oDe localities;
Kansas contributing the smallest and Mas
sachusetts the largest sum. The amounts
range from IS to sl65S0
From Langdon s. Wards report it APP
pears that the expenditures the past year
have been; Cost of missions, sil0.s5s; cost
of agencies, s9,375; cost Of publications,
s2,546 cost of administration, S16,005
total expenditures, $43S,7S7; debt Septem-
Der 1, 1877, s47,9s5. Receipts donations
received within the year, s37O,sO3; legacies,
S104, $3.50 interest on the general permanent
fund, $4,000 interest from the Ashley fund,
$50; total receipts, siS2,204; deficiency
August 81, 1878, si,56S.
Rev. N. G. Clark, foreign secretary, re-
ported that ten missionaries have died dur
ing the past year eighteen names have
been dropped from the rolls, of those not ex-
pecting to resume foreign work; eighteen
have visited this country for rest and re-
cuperation of health twenty-one have re-
turned to different fields Of labor; and three
others leave in few weeks--leaving less
foreign missionaries at home connected with
the board than for many years. Nineteen
new missionaries have gone out during the
year, including FIVE representatives of the
womans board. The mission work every
where is reported in prosperous condition,
with urgent calls for more help. The press
ing needs of the board at the present time
can only be met by an enlargement OF the
missionary force now in the field and by the
addition of not less than 100000 to our
current appropriations.
The report of the prudential committee
specifies and classifes the churches that
contribute to the funds of the Board
thus OF the one hundred and ninety-seven
Congregational churches of Vermont, one
hundred and sixty-one contribute. Of its
thirty-six non-contributing churches, sixteen
have less than twenty members Of the re-
naming twenty, eight are assisted by the
Vermont Home Missionary Society, none
having membership of fifty. OF the forty
five churches assisted by the Vermont Home
Missionary Society all but eight contribute
to the American Board" Similar state
ments are made in regard to the other New
England States and of the whole field.
These are statements of facts relating to
the gifts of the churches. They are III
tended doubtless to stimulate all the churches
to give to the American Board and to the
building up of Christ's kingdom in the
world through it, and in all available ways.
As such they are legitimate and commend
able. We are to provoke one another to
love and good works. And for this purpose
love must be shown, and good works properly
proclaimed We rejoice in the facts here
stated as showing the spirit of benevolence
that pervades our churches, and the sacri-
fees they are making to honor Christ and
make known his salvation to the ends of the
earth. We would that every church in
Vermont, and each individual in them could
have been included in these facts, and that
hort all to aspire after such privilege and
honor. All the churches of Vermont giving
and sacrificing not to support themselves
merely but to carry the light and the life to
all, that all may be made alive in Christ !
But there is another light in which the
aim and influence of such facts may be re-
guarded. In this light they are to be dep
recated and guarded against. The limited
numbers of church, or class of churches,
is sometimes, and not unfrequently, held
forward as an excuse for their failure and
neglect to give at all for the specific objects
of benevolence, and generally to build up
the kingdom of Christ at home and abroad.
When the small numbers of church, or its
poverty and weakness, are held up for such
a purpose, it shows want of clear ideas and
blindness to the obligations to give to Christ
and his cause. These obligations rest upon
all, and each one in particular. They show
also ignorance and insensibility to the bles-
sedness of giving that comes to the one that
freely gives-that of which our Lord speaks
|
than to receive"
The obligation and the rule of giving I'M
der the Old Covenant " TENTH" lay equally
upon each one at all times. No one could
excuse himself because of short crops, fall
ing markets or small means. Our Lord
now came not to destroy the law or the
prophets, but to fulfill,-not to relax any
obligation to give to Christ and his re-
deemed, but to perfect all and show how all
is to be filled out from love- His commands
and encouragements "look not every man
on his own things but every man also on
the things of Others "give freely" the
Lord loveth the cheerful giver,"-all these
surely reach as far as did the law of Moses
The rule, too, which the Apostle lays down
that each give as the Lord has prospered
him, is as highly practical as it is equally
Just and generous. 1t reaches to each
church and individual at all timee as really
as did the requirement of the tenth.
Or if we consider the subject in another
light we shall see how deep is the interest
and how urgent the need that each church
the weak as well as the strong, adopt thu
: precepts and follow the example of Christ
give constantly, give variously, and widely
give freely, and most to carry the knowledge
, of Christ where he has not been heard o
or known. If we consider it in the light o
the intelligence and increasing and satisfy
ing information and knowledge which tn