CHURCH ERECTION. "JEHOVAH-JIREH." Our readers will recall a letter in the January number from one of our missionaries upon the Pacific coast, in which he described the means by which the "one hundred dollars shortage" upon the subscription list for the new church was made up, the missionary himself giving up "his luxurious salary from the people, amounting to fifty dollars," and facing the need of his own household with the words, "Jehovah-jireh." We are happy to say that kind friends have made up that fifty dollars, and at their request we forwarded it to Brother Weekes. His letter acknowledging the receipt contains such vivid and, it may be added, amusing pictures of his experience in that far-away field that we give from it liberal extracts. The $50 contributed by kind, generous friends in New York, to make good deficiency in salary, received. I am deeply grateful. I feel unable to express an iota of my sincere gratitude for this most needed and valued gift. May the divine, all-beneficent Father abundantly reward the esteemed donors. Please convey to them my heart's sincere gratitude. I might add here that my financial experiences in this peculiar mission have been very unique. For the first three years-during the joint occupancy of the islands by the British and United States governments, and previous to my being taken under the care of the Home Board-my income consisted mainly of vegetables and some general produce, about enough to exist upon, with an occasional dollar for furnishing salt, etc., to make the vegetables palatable, but insufficient to enable me to buy even a suit of clothes during the entire three years the members of Brother Rev. John R. Thompson's congregation, of Olympia, Wash. Ter., taking pity on me at the end of the third year, and furnishing a brand-new suit. Then our valued Board of Home Missions took charge of the field, and have stood faithfully by it ever since. Oh, how many struggling mission fields, as this, would have to be abandoned were it not for the generous and blessed aid contributed and dispensed by this Board! May the funds of its treasury be largely augmented this centennial year. Whatever duties I was called upon to perform (in past years especially), whether preaching, attending marriages or funerals, my pay would usually be in vegetables. I have repeatedly travelled fifteen miles or so to a wedding, and packed home my marriage fee-a sack of fine cabbages, etc.-on my back. I have often been asked to return the sack. The first collection taken up here amounted to $1.75. At the close of the service a sparse-appearing man approached the desk and thus addressed me: "Parson, I want you to give my money back." I asked, "What money?" He replied, "The money I put into the collection plate." He then fingered the few dimes and quarters over, taking out of the plate two five-cent pieces, putting them into his pocket, saying, "These belong to me, sir; I put them in." I asked why he put the money in but to take it back. His reply was, "I only put it in for example's sake." Some time ago, at the close of the year, on Lopez Island, a young man came to me after service, presenting the year's list of contributions toward my support, as follows: One sucking pig, one turkey (all ready for fattening), two roosters, five young ducks (that died en route), a roll of butter, one ham, three sacks of turnips, two sacks of potatoes, and $7.50 cash. OUR INDIAN CHURCHES. We are sure that the following extracts from letters from the Rev. John P. Williamson, for many years a missionary of our Foreign Board, will greatly interest our readers. We remember hearing Mr. Williamson say that since he has been laboring among the Dakota Indians he has stood upon a little eminence near the site of the present flourishing town of Aberdeen and seen herds of buffaloes, in number sufficient to feed New York city for a year, file by him. When we remember that he and others now living in Dakota can easily remember the settlers of that country and of Minnesota fleeing from the Indians, whose children are now praying for gospel teachers, we realize how rapidly a Christian civilization transforms and elevates those to whom it comes. The appeal for a log parsonage, to cost beyond the work of the people $100, is touching. It is doubtful whether the form. of our charter will permit such a gift from our regular fund. Is it too much to hope that some one who reads these lines will feel moved to send a special offering to meet this very peculiar case? The statement of the condition of the manse fund in the February number of THE CHURCH is forbidding to an applicant; yet I come asking for a crumb. Two years ago the Board of Church Erection, by their aid, secured a beautiful house of worship for the Indians at Devil's Lake. It is I called Wood Lake Church. That house has indeed been a light in a dark place. Large congregations have heard the word every Sabbath, and many souls have been converted from heathenism; so the church now numbers nearly one hundred. The Indian pastor is Rev. W. O. Rogers; and now the people are working with him to build a parsonage. Their ideas accord with their circumstances, and they propose to build a double log cabin, with floors and roof. They already have the logs and some lumber. They need $100 to complete it, and I ask the Lord through you for this crumb. You may better understand the condition of the people when I tell you $250 a year is considered sufficient salary for the pastor, of which the people can only raise $100; $150 being given by our Home Board. A very interesting work of the Spirit has manifested itself among the Indians of Lower Brule agency. In most cases the gospel must be carried to the heathen unsought. Joppa and Macedonia were exceptional cases, and we can report few such as this among the Indians. Some five years ago a delegation of heathen Indians came ninety miles, from the mouth of White river, Lower Brule agency, to ask me for a Christian teacher. I could do nothing for them; indeed, I was suspicious of their motives. Two years passed, and the request had been repeated several times by letter, without success. Then they heard of our mission meeting, which convened here three years ago, and sent another delegation to lay the request before the meeting. The next winter we sent a teacher to them for two months, the next winter for three, and this winter for five months. The second winter over twenty professed Christ. Last June the presbytery organized them into White River Church, which now numbers over forty members-converted heathen. Now they want a church building. They can raise very little-perhaps $100 in money and some work. The other Indian churches will help $200 or $300. But they should have a building worth $1000 or $1200. Can you raise for them $500 or $700? It will have to be an exceptional case, like Wood Lake Church, to which your Board gave $750 two years ago, as no title can be given to land on an Indian reservation. $10,000 CHURCHES. Within a month we have received four or five requests for plans of churches costing from $10,000 to $20,000. To correspondents making such inquiries we have replied that when it is proposed to build edifices so expensive, it is, in our judgment, wiser and in the end more economical to put the matter in the hands of a competent architect, asking him to prepare a design with special reference to the site whereon the building is to be erected and to the conditions it is desired to meet. The plans provided by the Board are for the most part adapted to the needs of smaller congregations who expect to limit their expenditure to from $1000 to $4000. Such are the great majority of the churches that apply to the Board for aid, and naturally and properly the Board provides for them architectural designs which experience has proved to be adapted to their requirements. For buildings of the size and character needed by them the actual oversight of an architect is not generally needed. The plans are simple, and have been prepared by competent and generally by well-known architects. The working plans and details can be easily understood by good mechanics, and by their use unnecessary expense and delay are avoided. But in the construction of larger and more elaborate buildings the case is different; and although we send such designs as we have, we prefer to introduce the building committee to the architect. FROM THE FIELD. FROM BRITTON, DAKOTA. Enclosed find receipt for the five hundred dollars granted us by the Board. I am exceedingly rejoiced that we have a house of worship free from indebtedness; and that we are no longer compelled to hold services in the upper room of the schoolhouse, which was unplastered. It would have been impossible in this severe climate. Our church is very neat and comfortable, and all are delighted. We expect to dedicate it on Christmas morning. It is my earnest prayer that we may see a revival of religion here this winter, and many souls may be born anew into the kingdom in our new edifice. In behalf of our people I wish to express their gratitude. You cannot imagine how glad they were when they received your assistance. I hope the good work begun may be the earnest of greater things. FROM WAYNE, NEBRASKA. Your communication regarding the $600 loan for our manse, dated January 24, 1888, has been received. The trustees informed me this morning that they were ready to make the necessary papers. We ask you, therefore, to please forward the blanks for mortgage and insurance, and we will attend to the matter at once. I cannot tell you how happy we all were, and especially myself and family, to receive the promise of a loan of $600. It practically saves the parsonage scheme from getting wrecked. It is difficult for you in the East to understand how necessary it is in this western country to have a parsonage for the minister and family. Not only that suitable houses are scarce and rents high, but owners of houses are continually selling out and buying and building other houses. People are speculative and restless here all over the West, and the renter does not know whether he can stay in a house rented a year or a week. Now we have a house in which we and our successors can stay. Many thanks for your promised loan. FROM ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA. DEAR BROTHER:-Your letter received to-day has occasioned much joy in the drooping hearts of Goodrich Avenue Church. I ran to the nearest telephone and called up one of the elders, who is also a trustee and church treasurer, and told him the news. He called back, "Praise the Lord!" I imagined that I could feel the wires tingle in sympathy with us. You may be sure that the new year will be a happy one to us all, and that the whole congregation will send up, with the treasurer, a hearty "Praise the Lord!" when I announce next Sunday morning what the Board has done. This will give us a better grip on the Christian purses here, for we can now say, "We have the last $1000, now help us get the rest." We are going to make a desperate struggle to get free July 10, 1888. Let me extend to you the sincere thanks of the church, which I know would be given were I to ask for it, and in behalf of them and myself wish you a "Happy New Year." THERE IS STILL TIME. There is still time for those churches that have sent no contribution to make good the deficiency. The fiscal year of the Board closes upon the thirty-first of March, but our books remain open until April tenth to receive belated offerings intended for the current year. It is the experience of this Board, and we presume of all the others, that many churches postpone making their contributions, or at least sending them, until the last month of the year. We have learned to depend upon this certainty, and do not hesitate, even when our treasury is exhausted, to make grants, the payment of which must depend upon our expectations being realized. We have little fear that we shall be this year disappointed, but we nevertheless venture this friendly hint to our lagging friends. In response to our circular with reference to the Wilson Memorial Manse Fund, we have received a number of promises of contributions before April 1. The promises have not been as many as we had hoped, nor for as large amounts; but they have been at least sufficient to encourage us to persevere. Perhaps next year will be just as good for us in this respect as if it were to be a "centennial" year. MINISTERIAL RELIEF. THE CENTENNIAL FUND. The Centennial Committee of Allegheny Presbytery (Rev. Joseph B. Turner, chairman) have published in pamphlet form an address recently delivered in the First Presbyterian Church of Allegheny, by the pastor, the Rev. Isaac N. Hays, D.D. It is a most earnest and forcible plea on behalf of the memorial fund of $1,000,000 proposed by the General Assembly to be raised this centennial year for ministerial relief. Dr. Hays presents two pictures drawn, as he says, not from his imagination, but from real life, and they forcibly illustrate the need of such an agency in the church as the Board of Relief. The first represents a large number of those upon our rollpastors who are broken down in the prime of life. The blessed ministry of the Board has brought many comforts to these homes of sickness and suffering. Very often its modest appropriations in such hours of need have been the means of restoring the sufferer to health and to long years of usefulness in the church. I. THE SICK MINISTER. Here is a young man of unusual promise, who, after having spent every dollar of his patrimony, entered the ministry. His presbytery predicted for him a very bright future, and would have willingly recommended him as a worthy candidate for any of our city pulpits. He, however, felt called upon and preferred to go to the far West, and for a few years wrought mightily for his Master; but just when he saw the field beginning to ripen for the harvest, his health failed him, and in a short time he was compelled to come back to the old home an utter physical wreck. What was he to do? He had no capital with which to begin business; and if he had, he had had no such business training as would fit him for a business pursuit; and then, in addition to both these difficulties, there was that utter lack of physical force and energy so essential to business success, and, last of all, he knew that the very fact that he was an ex-minister would be reckoned as just so much against him. Again I ask, what was he to do? It was not death he feared. Death, without dishonor or the sad consequences which it would bring to his family, would have been simply a triumph. But as he laid his weary head upon his pillow, and looked into the face of that angel who sat beside his bed, fanning his fevered cheeks and trying to calm his troubled breast, and every now and then wiping away the big unbidden tear which would steal down his cheeks, and then thought of those dear little ones sleeping in yonder crib, is it any wonder if he did break into tears and in bitter agony cried, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Are thy mercies clean gone forever? Is there no help for me and mine in this our time of need?" Christian mothers, suppose that young man was your son, on whom you had bestowed everything you had but life itself, would you think that the great Presbyterian Church had done her whole duty to allow his sun thus to set amid clouds and darkness? The other case given by Dr. Hays represents those upon our roll whom the church should ever regard with a peculiar and tender interest. II. THE AGED MINISTER. Take another illustration. He is an octogenarian, a grand old soldier of the cross, who has worn himself out in the Master's service, and now stands looking toward the setting sun, waiting the call of the Master. When I knew him first, he was equal to any in his presbytery -learned, instructive and eloquent; but as years rolled on, his acceptability as a preacher diminished. By and by that mysterious dead line was crossed, and he was crowded out in order to give place to a younger man. Under stress of circumstances some of his children had been scattered in the far West, and others had died, and his home was left desolate. The scanty meal-tub was seldom replenished, and the hungry wolf often stood at the door. What is he to do to keep the old tabernacle from going to pieces before God was ready to call him up higher? I will tell you what he did do. The last time I saw him he was leaning upon his staff and peddling books from house to house, in the hope that he might have a little with which to gladden the heart of that |