The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1886-08-14
''It gives a light to every age:
1t gives, but borrows none"
THE CONVENTION CoLLEC-
TIONS.

We print this week the acknowl-
edgments Of the Secretary Of the Cen
eral Convention for the month of July.
1t will be seen from this that the re-
ceipts from parishes foot up total of
81, 439.90. This is about the amount
received for last year, that is, to the 1st
of October. Thus, in ten months of the
present year, we reach the amount COZ
tributed in twelve months of 1885. So
far this is encouraging: but it does not
indicate that there is any probability
that the SIS, 900 voted at Brooklyn will
be raised. Probably $4,000 will be
contributed by the end of the twelve
months, less than one-half Of the sum
voted. This is fully as much as those
who have had experience in such mat
ters anticipated, and it shows that the
judgment based on experience is more
valuable when it comes to voting"
to raise specified sums, than the judg-
ment that natures rapidly under the
enthusiasm of Convention debates.
An analysis of the moneys received
this year will no doubt reveal the fact
that a few parishes have, in former
years, regularly paid in their share of
SIS 700. Some ,abundantly able, will this
year, as formerly, contribute nothing.
Where the minister is opposed, or cold,
nothing comes. Where there is no
minister, nothing comes. Where the
minister is favorable, sometimes he is
overborne by influential members of
the parish. At other times he can
secure collection, which does not
come up to the measure. The great
est number of failures undoubtedly
will be among those assessed" SIS
or $40; struggling parishes, with per-
haps earnest people, only among the
poor. Undoubtedly also, one of the
reasons of not reaching higher sum is
procrastination. Some pastors prob
ably reply to the call, YES" in the
spring or summer or fall; and then it
sometimes happens that the minister
has left-gone to new place where
he will not want TO ask for money,
because it is his first year Many post
pone to September or even October;
and if the money does not come before
the Convention they don't send it at all.
In this way much money is lost to the
Convention. If the parishes would
make it a point to raise the money
early, it would be easier for the par
ishes and more available to the Trus-
tees. These are few of the obstacles
that are encountered in attempting to
raise Convention funds. They are I'M
derstood by those who have +" summer
ed and wintered the annual collec-
ton; but they are not always under
stood by those who advocate large
figures in the Convention and who
sometimes succeed in putting the
amount to be raised beyond all reason
able probabilities in the case.
One fact, however, should be clearly
borne in mind with reference to this
matter of the annual collection. The
amounts paid into the treasury Of the
General Convention do not show the
missionary generosity of our people.
The annual collection represents only
a small fraction of what our people are
doing in this line. In various ways
the church is contributing large sums
apart from this collection for the bene-
fit of the body at large. The Amer
lean Unitarian Association reports $44,-
900 contributed by the Unitarians last
year for missionary purposes. The
report of our Trustees at Brooklyn |
shows $50 900. When it was said in
Brooklyn that the UniveIsalist Church
had contributed only 81, 400 for mis-
sionary work, the speaker had not &C
quainted himself with the facts, and had
skipped one of the emphatic state
ments of the Trustee report. The
disagreeable inference was drawn from
a survey of the annual collection, which
is only one section of the generosity
of the people. There is no doubt that
the annual collection might be largely
increased and in time brought up to
$4,000 year. But in order to do this
we must have more attention to the
matter and more system in our meth
DDS than has heretofore been the rule.