In the November MISSIONARY of last year, the financial statement bore
the simple and joyous heading "FREE." This year we are compelled to
prefix two qualifying words. Our books closed September 30, with a
balance of $5,641.21 on the wrong side. While we regret that there
should be any debt, we rejoice that it is no larger.
The receipts applicable to current expenses fell off somewhat during
the year, while the expenditures, owing to general growth and some
special demands were greater than last year. The first of September,
therefore, found us confronting an impending debt. The appeal which we
felt constrained to make for September, and which was made under some
special disadvantages as compared with last year, was met with so
hearty a response in gifts and in expressions of interest in our work,
as to move us to gratitude to God and thankfulness to our friends. A
few of the donors gave $1,000 each, but the larger share of the
responses contained remittances of less than $100. Many of the sums
were quite small, and some of them indicated great self-sacrifice on
the part of the donors. A few brief extracts, all that our limited
space will allow, from a small portion of the letters received, will
be found below.
We thank God and take courage. We believe that our friends who
remembered us in the past will not forget us in the future, and that
our wants in October, and in all the following months, will not be
forgotten because they were so well remembered in September. One
thousand dollars a day represents our needs for carrying on the work
in its present development.
_Encouraging Responses to our Appeal._
"I would like to send you more, but I send you the last dollar I have
($71.00,) and must trust the Lord for means to support us until my
next month's payment, and for means to go to the meeting of the
A.B.C.F.M., in case I attend."
"Twenty-five cents of this money was from a woman 82 years old. She is
almost helpless. The family in which she lives is very poor. She has
not a penny that she calls her own. She said to me, 'Here is the
widow's mite. I prayed that the Lord would send me something to give
away. You please take it and send it where it will do the most good.'
I send it to you trusting that with her prayers of faith, it may be
useful."
The writer of a letter enclosing a donation of $10 adds in a
postscript in regard to the donor: "Mrs. A---- was born May 5th, 1787,
and is an _old contributor_."
"I have expended all my appropriation for charitable purposes this
present year, yet I can, perhaps, curtail in some directions and so
remit to you $20 as a small tributary to swell the stream for meeting
indebtedness. I hope your appeal will accomplish the results desired.
"Through abounding grace, my wife and I are once more permitted the
joyful privilege of sending for the general work of the American
Missionary Association, $100 enclosed herewith in draft to your order.
(Their third contribution this year. Ed.) Say to the dear brethren in
the work of the Master: 'Be of good courage, fear not, for I am with
you'; _His_ own words enduring forever."
"Enclosed, please find check for $100. I am always glad to be
remembered on special appeals when they are necessary, even if I
cannot help. I do not know that I enjoy anything more than what I am
able to give to the A.M.A. I trust your appeal will find many generous
responses."
"Your kind and thoughtful letter of the 13th, received. It affords me
real pleasure to respond to your call for our Association. The good
Lord has more or less blessed me with opportunity and ability to
acquire money, and may He forbid that I should turn his blessings into
curses by hoarding the gifts of his providence, when the cry of the
poor and down-trodden is heard. I enclose my check for $100 for the
cause."
"It is a small contribution, but it comes from a small church.
Certainly it represents a genuine interest in the work of your society
and is accompanied with prayers for its success."
An executor, in remitting a legacy of $500 says: "It is not due
according to the terms of the will till next spring, but you may find
it useful at this time to help out the year."
We have received from Oaks, North Carolina, towards the extinguishment
of our debt, a contribution from forty-nine different persons,
amounting to $5.66. This represents a degree of sacrifice, not
surpassed, perhaps, by any who have contributed. Seventy cents of it
were in cash; sixty-six cents were value in fodder; one dollar and
thirty-four cents in potatoes and corn; one dollar and one cent in
work.
The missionary who is ministering to these very poor people says: "If
all who love the A.M.A. would do as well, according to their ability,
your treasury would be filled."