The result of this irrepressible growth, fostered by the kind
providence and loving care of the Master for whom the service has
been done, was for the Directors, in their management of the
Society's affairs, embarrassment, difficulty, and debt. That
embarrassment commenced with the year 1866, when the accounts were
closed with a balance of 7450 pounds against the Society, which was
paid from the legacy fund reserved for such a contingency. During
the entire year the Directors had the difficulty in view, and adopted
a series of measures to meet it. Special Meetings were held with the
London ministers and officers of churches, to lay before them the
growing needs of our Foreign Missions. Papers were published by the
Home Secretary, showing the growth of those missions, with the
increased claims they present for agency and help; and urging that
an addition of at least 10,000 pounds a year is needed to the
Society's permanent income. In the autumn Auxiliary meetings the
missionary Deputations were urged specially to make the facts known.
In February a solemn and impressive meeting for prayer was held by
a hundred and twenty of the London ministers and Directors.
But these measures did not at once remove the difficulty. In numerous
instances old friends of the Society, and churches which have ever
been its chief supporters, not only expressed hearty sympathy with
these efforts, but increased their contributions and rendered
substantial help. Various consultations ensued, and a Special
Committee was requested, to indicate the course which, in their calm
judgment, the Directors ought to take, to meet the difficulties of
their position.
Their Report pointed out various defects in the Society's system of
account, and in the audit of details in the expenditure which is
incurred abroad. It noted especially that since--on the system till
then in force--the initiative in that expenditure had been placed
to a large extent in the hands of the missionaries themselves, the
Board did not possess sufficient and effective control over its
growth and its specific application. And it recommended that, as in
some other Societies, a system of annual appropriations should be
adopted, by which the available income of each year might be made
to sustain existing schemes of usefulness, without bringing the
Society into debt. Further, the Committee recommended that, as the
expenditure had greatly increased in recent years, on the one hand,
in consultation with the missionaries, that expenditure should be
carefully revised; and, on the other, all available efforts should
be made to increase the Society's income. After full and earnest
consideration of this truly valuable Report, the Board adopted the
following RESOLUTIONS, which gave special satisfaction to the
Delegates and country Directors, and met with the marked approval
of all the Society's friends:--
"1. THAT, this Board approve the proceedings of the Special Finance
Committee, in securing the services of a competent Accountant to
examine the system on which the SOCIETY'S ACCOUNTS are kept, with
a view to the introduction of all practicable improvements; and in
instructing their own Accountant to give the details of the principal
Stations, and show the items on which the outlay has taken place.
"2. THAT, with a view to secure a more complete control over the
Society's funds, an ANNUAL ESTIMATE be desired in advance from every
Station and Treasurer abroad, as well as from the Home Secretary,
of all the expenses anticipated for the coming year; that the Board
may sanction, for that year only, such amount as its probable income
may enable it to meet; and THAT all payments be strictly forbidden
unless that definite sanction has been first accorded.
"3. THAT the ACCOUNTS be kept, at home and abroad, on a COMMON SYSTEM;
and that each of the Foreign Committees in the Mission House be
requested to appoint a small AUDIT BOARD, whose duty it shall be to
audit the accounts of the Stations under its charge, and to see that
the expenditure is strictly confined to the sums which the Board have
sanctioned.
"4. THAT all the efforts already carried on for some time to increase
the knowledge, the interest, the contributions, and the prayers of
the Society's friends throughout the country, be continued, and,
where practicable, increased.
"5. THAT the Board regard with the most serious concern the rapid
increase in the expenditure of the various Missions; and, desiring
to see that expenditure not only placed under firm control, but
applied in all respects in the wisest way, they instruct all their
Committees most carefully to REVISE THE ENTIRE EXPENDITURE under
their superintendence, and, in accordance with the Resolution passed
on May 6th, specially to keep in view a judicious reduction of that
expenditure in the case of prosperous churches in districts largely
Christianized."