SUNG-YAWG-HSIEN

[s. 729] : A town in Che-kiang, China, situated 25 miles W. of Chu-chau- Station of the CIM (1896), with (1903) 2 mi ionaries, 4 native worlcers, 3 outstations, 2 places of worship, and 20 profe ed Christians. Some write the name Song-yang. SUNTH A town in Bombay, India, situated in the district of Rewa, Kantha, about 75 miles E. by N. of Ahmadabad, Station of the PCI (1899), with (1900) 1 mi ionary and his wife and 1: ’ orphanage. SUPPORT OF MISSIONS; Principles and Methods used: It is proposed in the first place to indicate the total and per capita contributions of the churches for foreign mi ions; second, to partially account for the smallne of the contributions; third, to suggest an effective financial system and describe the working of the same in a local church fourth, to discu the policy of the support of specific objects which has been adopted by many churches in a number of leading denominations and which has been endorsed by some of our largest and most representative Mi ionary Boards. /. The Contributions of the Churches: The most recent, reliable and complete exhibit of the contributions of the churches of Christen dom for foreign mi ions is the compilation of the Rev. James Dennis, D.D., in his remarkable encyclopedic work entitled Christian Mi ions and Social Progre . From this exhibit it appears that at the close of the century the annual income from home sources of the 537 denominational and independent societies and their auxiliaries was $17,284,363, a little more than three and one-half million pounds sterling. It is next to impo ible to ascertain the per capita gifts represented by this amount, but they are not far from 30c. a year. The per capita gifts of American Christians are more certainly ascertainable because our church census returns are more complete than those of most countries. The annual income from home sources of all American Mi ionary Societies at the close of the century was $5,199,497. The total membership of the Evangelical Churches of the United States in the year 1900 was 17,837,147, from which it appears that after a century of mi ionary appeal the average American Christian has become interested in the greatest work in the world only to the extent of an investment of 29c. per year. He is still settling his mi ionary obligations in small silver and copper coin. This pitiable showing would be rendered even more pitiable were we able to compile the large gifts of a small number of generous wealthy persons with the legacies and the product of endowment funds, and then compare this total with the total gifts of the rank and file of our church membership. Another illustration of the low scale of mi ionary giving is furnished by the following table of the contributions of the living members of four of our greatest and wealthiest American denominations during the twenty five years closing with 1901: Per Year. Capita. $0.27.27.23 Sumatra Support of Mi ions Support of ^li ionN Sasa ninety-nine times out of a hundred, whereas if he had been given a fair opportunity, such as is given men every day in busine and otlier philanthropies to make a pledge to be discharged in instalments, or even in one payment six months or a year hence, he would very likely have pledged The time the $5.00, and probably much more. fails to fully discu this method in an encyclopedia article; it is sufficient that it be judged by its fruits, that is, by the depleted treasuries of the churches and the failure of the Church after a hundred years of modern mi ions to get more than one-tenth of the way around the population of the non-Christian world. ///. The Succe ful Syatem: It is that which is elastic enough to adapt itself to the great variety of people who compose the membership of any single congregation. Such a system must take account of those who meet their benevolent financial obligations upon the same principles which daily characterize their commercial dealings, who do not hesitate to “promise to pay;” who will, in other words, make a pledge. It must also adapt itself to those who wish to meet their pledges in instalments semi-annually, quarterly, monthly or even weekly. It must also recognize those who will not at the outset consent to be troubled with instalment payments, but who insist upon paying their pledges in one lump sum some subsequent time. It must also reckon with those who “will not make a pledge from Erinciple” (notwithstanding they do it daily in usine ), or will not make a pledge because they are ashamed to put down in black and white the small sum they intend to contribute and therefore insist on making a cash contribution. Moreover, the system must have regard for all the various lines of beneficence which run out from the church and it must not push one cause to the detriment of others. Furthermore, it must satisfy those who prefer to apportion their own contributions, and also those who magnify the policy of supporting specific persons or objects on the home and foreign mi ion fields; also those who know so little or care so little about the mi ionary enterprise in detail that they prefer for this or some other reason to have a committee apportion their gifts. In a word, the system must be as many sided as po ible. Such a system as the above is in succe ful operation in a well-known suburban church, and it is worth remarking in describing the system that it has increased the city, home and foreign mi ion contributions of the church over tenfold. The method is as folat lows: (1) The Church Committee decides to raise a minimum amount during the year, say definite $10,000. (2) On the first Sunday in December the pastor announces the budget recommended by the Committee and urges the people to give universally, weekly and proportionately. He urges the nece ity of some large gifts like $20, or $10 or $5 a week. This is Scriptural, see I. Cor. xvi., 1-2. Pledge cards are put into the hands of the people immediately and all are asked to make definite pledges to be paid in weekly instalments through the year. Fully three-quarters of the people are now using the pledge card. (4) Envelopes are placed in the people’s hands and are returned every Sunday with the contri(3) butions. (.5) The Chvirch Committee recommends a sj’Stem of apportionment to those who prefer not to 712 make their own apportionment, but concedes to each person this privilege. (6) Every month a special free-will offering is taken over and above the foregoing contributions. A special envelope handsomely embo ed is distributed the preceding Sunday with the object printed thereon. These monthly collections are devoted to the various church boards and a few other important causes. In this way the person who will not make a pledge but will make an annual contribution has his opportunity. Moreover, many persons who have made pledges, but who, because of increased prosperity or other reasons, wish to make a special thank offering have the opportunity to do so. (7) Once a year a specific foreign mi ionary appeal is made for the support of the church’s mi ionary in the Philippines. The appeal is made the Sunday before the offering and special envelopes are furnished for use on the following Sunday. This offering constitutes the third opportunity given the church to contribute to foreign mi ions, inasmuch as one of the monthly offerings is devoted to this cause, and 25 per cent, also of the money collected in the weekly envelopes. cash is contributed (8) Considerable loose every Sunday. On the annual mi ionary day this is applied to the church’s mi ionary; on freewill offenng day, once a month, it is devoted to that cause; the balance of the Sun days it is added to the fund composed of the weekly instalment contributions. (9) A collection is never taken for a special cause the day the appeal is made, but on the following Sunday. While an immediate collection may enlist more from those who are easily stirred by an appeal, experience has shown that those who give after reflection and prayer more than offset what is lost from the former cla . Would not the universal adoption of this system fill the mi ion treasuries, fill our fields with mi ionaries and overfill our church members with the ble ing of giving, which is more ble ed than that of receiving? IV. The Support of Specific Objects: More than fifty years ago President Way land warned the churches against a peril which to-day a ails the foreign mi ion enterprise, when he declared “the tendency will be more and more for churches to turn over their mi ionary obligations to societies, for societies to turn it over to boards, for boards to turn it over to executive committees, and executive committees to secretaries, so that in the last result the chief responsibility for the great work will rest on the shoulders of a dozen men.” The late Rev. Dr. A. J. Gordon, one of the foremost mi ionary pastors of his generation, corroborated the opinion of President Way land when he said: “The greatest problem that confronts us for the opening century is that of distributing the mi ionary responsibility which has become congested in official centers.” That this peril and problem are actually upon us no one will deny who is engaged in trying to rally the churches and their individual members for the discharge of their obligation to the mi ionary cause. The discovery of a method which will create a spirit of individual obligation for the succe of mi ions will constitute the capital event in the final era of world evangelization. There is ground for hoping that such a method is in sight. The method is simply this: That every church which is able to do so extend its parish boundary 713 SO as to embrace a definite section of some mi ion field and support a mi ionary there wlao shall sustain to the home pastor the relation of a ociate or co-pastor; in other words, let the church have its foreign mi ion and sustain its foreign mi ionary, just as many churches have their own city mi ion and sustain their own city misThis method has been a distinguishing sionary. feature in the splendid work which the women of Every on the supported by several leading denominations are doing. one of the nearly 200 unmarried women Congregational mi ion field is funds specifically pledged. The same is true of practically every woman, both single and married, connected with the mi ion fields of the Presbyterian Church of the United States. This policy has been adopted by several of the leading mi ionary societies in Great Britain, the Dominion of Canada, and the United States. This method is one of the most notable features which characterize the marvelous advance movement which the Church Mi ionary Society made Fully during the last decade of the 19th century. four hundred mi ionaries were specifically pro families, and churches, individuals, for by vided societies in response to the appeal of that mi ionary society. The Board which follows closest upon the record of the Church Mi ionary Society is that of the Presbyterian Church of the United States, which has approximately 650 of its force of 800 mi ionaries supported by funds specifically contributed by churches, young people’s societies, Sunday schools, women’s auxiliaries, and individuals. The Congregational Churches of the United States and Canada are supporting a larger proportion of ordained mi ionaries by specific After test funds than any other denomination. ing the method for years in several representative churches the American Board unanimously recommended the adoption of the policy as a permanent educational and financial measure at its annual meeting in Grand Rapids, Mich., in 1898, and appointed a committee which it empowered to elect representatives to exploit the movement throughout the denomination. The reports of the committee have led the Board for four succe ive years to recommend the continuance of the policy. It is an interesting fact that not a single Congregational Church in which the representative of the Board has had a suitable opportunity to present the method has failed to subscribe money sufficient for the salary of a mi ionary. The third most notable illustration of this policy is furnished by the Mi ionary Committee of the Southern Presbyterian Church, under whose over 75 salaries were provided by churches within a year, and over 100 other churches made pledges for the support of specific phases of work in the different foreign mi ionary fields occupied by the denomination. The Mi ionary Society of the Canadian Methodist Church has also endorsed the policy and commended its Young People’s Movement, whose work has largely consisted in enlisting young people’s societies in the support of misdirection specific sionaries. Among other notable endorsements of the may be mentioned that of the American policy Baptist Mi ionary Union, as well as the action certain congregations of the Church of the Disciples, the United Brethren, etc. of Support of Mi ions Susa Experience has fully shown that the churches which have their own representatives on the foreign fields are better informed than the average church concerning the work of mi ions, this information being secured from correspondence and also by the home visits of the mi ionary. It is perfectly obvious that this policy enlists a church in a uming and maintaining a specific obligation. Long experience and extended inquiry have failed to discover a better method of persuading a church which is giving $100 or $200 a year, and is well able to give S800or $1,000, to give the large sum and renew it annually. The financial significance of this policy is. forcibly set forth in the last report of the Forward Movement Committee of the American Board. In the report a comparison is made between the increased contributions of the 144 churches which the committee had enlisted in a uming the salaries of mi ionaries or the expenses of other special objects on the one hand, and the increased contributions of all the balance the denomof the contributing churches in in at i on on the other. This comparison shows that the Forward Movement churches contributed in 1902 $32,988 more than in 1898, the year before the Movement was launched, whereas the balance of the churches, about $24,372 3,400 in number, only contributed more in 1902 than in 1898. In other words, the Forward Movement churches, which constitute contributing of all the one-twenty-fourth churches, made an increase of over $7,000 above the increase of the remaining twenty-tbreetwenty-fourths of the churches; the average increase of the 144 Forward Movement churches was $229, whereas the average increase of the balance of the contributing churches was only $8, or one-twenty-seventh of the average in This exhibit is con crease of the former. sidered a final argument in favor of contribution* In the light of this report for specific objects. the question may well be raised whether or not every church should not constitute itself a mi ion station and support its own outstation. 731