The last extract I shall give is from the letter of an aged minister who is not upon our roll. But please notice the first sentence, and, reading between the lines, you will see the same "keen anguish" as expressed in the previous letter at the thought of his services no longer being wanted even "in a minor field," though he is "able and glad to work." He is the pastor of a feeble church whose "financial ability to support the gospel is almost beyond recovery." Enclosing two dollars for the treasury of the Board-" one dollar from a birthday gift upon his eightieth birthday, and one dollar for my seventy-ninth birthday, though lacking several weeks of the day"-the patriarch says:

I have done my best to keep from dependence on the Relief Board to live. I am about twenty years over the "dead line," but I don't propose to put off the working harness as long as I am wanted in a minor field. I wish I had the means to help the Board as I have the heart to do it. But if I had the means I might not have the heart. I am in the fiftieth year of my ministry, and all I possess is outside of any salary saved-the gift of friends.

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Yes; the last line of this letter tells the old story. What little the writer possesses in his old age is " the gift of friends." Nothing has been saved-nothing could have been saved-out of his modest salary as the King's ambassador for fifty years!

Once before (October, 1888) I quoted a sentence from an editorial in THE CHURCH AT HOME AND ABROAD, which, in describing for children the work of the various boards, compressed the whole argument for the existence of this Board into less than three lines. I must beg Dr. Nelson's permission to quote this sentence again as I close :

The salaries of most of our ministers are not more than enough for the needs of their families from year to year.

And is it not true, as the Occident says, that he who fails to see Christ in these aged and infirm servants of the Master has failed to understand the spirit of our Christ? Are they not, in a special sense, the brethren of him who has said, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me"?

A SPECIMEN HISTORY. The last report of this Board introduced a new name into the list of institutions that had received special relief by the Board's application of personal gifts. The recital stands on page 17 in this form:

Thirty-five hundred dollars is given for clearing a debt of that amount upon a valuable new property at Brookfield, Mo., which has hitherto been known as Brookfield College, but which the Board thus aids upon the understanding that it is henceforth to be graded as a collegiate institute or academy.

This case, besides being very interesting in itself, makes such clear illustration of

the Board's principles and methods that it may properly be set forth with some detail.

The first formal address made by "Brookfield College" to this Board was received at the end of January, 1887, in a letter of Dr. Finley, whose important relations to the institution very plainly appcar in the subjoined article, "Brookfield College." This letter explained that the writer had started an academy in Brookfield in 1880, and that, in the summer just past-of 1886-the citizens of Brookfield had obtained a college charter. Account was given of the good prospect of erecting a suitable building; of the large attendance of students; of the

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course of study; of the provision made for securing on just and easy terms Presbyterian control of the property, and of the manifest bearing which the institution was already having on the preparation of youth for the ministry. The letter then asked whether help from the Board of Aid in a moderate amount, which was specified, could be expected for the next year. The great personal worth of Dr. Finley and the singleness of his aims entitled his inquiry to the most respectful answer. But while good hope was held out that the Board would aid an academy at that point, his hope of aid for a college was distinctly discouraged, on the ground that the "Board is much opposed to the establishment of more colleges than are clearly necessary." From the date of that reply, February 9, 1887, no request for aid came to the Board from Brookfield until Rev. Mr. Leonard, who is named below, wrote, under date of February 7, 1889, reciting the death of Dr. Finley, which had very lately occurred, his own acceptance of temporary care of the institution, and his great desire that the Board would help to clear it from a dangerous debt and to place it under the control of the presbytery. The photograph which he sent of the really beautiful building, with its little army of scholars grouped in front, his statement of the great preponderance of value over debt, together with his account of the large and interesting region which would be served by a Christian school at Brookfield, made it plain without a word of debate that the property ought to be saved to our Church; provided only that it be put to its needful use as an academy, and be not loaded with the pretensions and costliness of a college. Upon this point the letter itself was entirely reasonable and clear. But the point was important enough to be most carefully guarded, as it has been; first, by further correspondence; afterward by formal recorded action of the Board of Trustees, such action being set forth as the ground of the Board's assistance in removing the debt; and still further by the form of the mortgage which the Board has taken on the property. Perfect understanding

[September,

being thus had that the institution, if rescued, should be graded not as a college but as a collegiate institute or academy, the effort was heartily made on the Board's part to clear the debt. The issue is described in the communication from Brookfield which follows this notice.

The entire payment, which thus cleared the property, gave it over to the presbytery and gave the Board its first lien upon it, was of $3642.87, some interest being added in; concerning which payment the reader is requested to observe some things:

1. Neither the Board nor the local friends of the school could have made it alone. But when Mr. Leonard learned that the Board's officer had secured $2000 toward paying the debt, the smaller half looked manageable; and it was managed with energy and promptness, thanks to the Missouri pastors and people who met the devoted Brookfield pastor as he deserved! But shall not those helpers in Missouri and the youth that shall be taught in that established school and all warm-hearted readers of this story also say, Thanks to that Providence which had raised up in our Church an agency whose manifested interest and trusted word brought the eastern help to encourage the western, and so saved this Christian school?

2. Will the reader also observe that the western help as well as the eastern passed through the treasury of this Board? The result is that the amount of the Board's lien on the saved property is not the $2000 that was given at the East, but the entire $3500 of the prior mortgage that was cleared off. The Board bulks scattered gifts into an inclusive security. Wise men will judge

whether or not that makes giving safer.

3. Nota Bene: This Board of Aid for Colleges and Academies is not an agency for producing needless and weakling colleges.

BROOKFIELD COLLEGE.

Brookfield College, Brookfield, Mo., was founded by the late Rev. J. P. Finley, D.D. On graduating from Princeton Theological Seminary he declined a call from a flourishing church in Ohio, and with the advice of

up a new and substantial building. Dr. Finley gave his consent, and in 1886 gave up his church after a faithful pastorate of twenty years.

The new building was completed and entered November, 1888. It is a beautiful and substantial brick building with stone foundation. It contains a chapel, two society halls, a library and reading-room, seven recitation-rooms, and two large halls on the first and second floors. The building is handsomely finished throughout, and the property is worth fully $15,000.

The past year has been the most prosperous in the history of the institution, there having been 146 students in attendance.

It was the hope of the friends of the school that the life of Dr. Finley, the noble, selfforgetful and self-sacrificing founder of the institution, would be long spared; but on the 25th of January, 1889, he was called to his rest after a brief illness of seven days.

At the unanimous request of the board of trustees, Rev. A. S. Leonard, who succeeded Dr. Finley in the pastorate in 1886, consented to take temporary charge of the school. The charter of the college provides that as soon as one fourth as much money is raised outside of the county as in it, the Presbytery of Palmyra, or the Synod of Missouri, may assume entire control of the property and appoint the trustees. As soon as he took charge of the college, Rev. A. S. Leonard began the work of raising the $3500 needed to free the property from debt and place it in the control of the presbytery. The Board of Aid came to his relief with $2000 raised at the East. The remainder was secured by Mr. Leonard in Missouri, the generous Presbyterians of St. Louis and Kansas City giving $1265. At a late meeting, the Presbytery of Palmyra assumed control of the property, in accordance with the provisions of the charter and with the hearty and unanimous consent of the board of trustees.

While the institution is chartered as a college, it will only aim to do the work of a collegiate institute or high-grade academy, preparing students for the sophomore class in our best colleges. It will also be its pur

[September,

pose to give those unable to go through a complete college course, a thorough preparation, mental, moral and spiritual, for the duties and responsibilities of life. The board of trustees have been fortunate in securing the services of Rev. Duncan Brown, D.D., late president of Highland University.

Brookfield is a growing town of 5000 inhabitants, on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad, 124 miles east of Kansas City. It is surrounded by high, rich and rolling prairie. The Presbyterian church has a membership of 198. There are six Presby terian churches in the county, all connected with the northern Assembly. Presbyterian farmers who think of moving west should inquire concerning lands in this fertile and healthful region of Missouri.

TO APPLYING INSTITUTIONS. The Board's annual meeting for action upon applications for current aid is held on the Tuesday after the second Sunday of November, which for this year falls on the 12th. Blanks for application are furnished by the Board, and no application is considered that is not presented on the Board's blank; inasmuch as matters of information which the Board requires and other matters of mutual understanding between the Board and the institution are sure to be overlooked when the blank is not used. Blanks for the current year have already been sent to such institutions as have expressly asked for them; and also to all institutions that were aided last year, excepting only those to which the Board gave information that the aid then afforded was exceptional. In those cases, as in those of application entirely new, blanks will not be sent except upon request addressed to the Board's room. It is important that the Board, in making dis tribution of its still moderate income, should have before it at the same time all the applications of the year. The late date that is fixed for its meeting allows time not only for making up details of the application after the opening of the fall sessions of the schools, but for forwarding the applications so long before the day of meeting that

opportunity can remain for any explanatory correspondence that may be found necessary. Trustees who send in their application on the heels of the Board's meeting take the risk of suffering by any obscurity that may have been left upon a point which a brief question and its answer might have cleared to the Board's satisfaction. Institutions whose cases are not before the Board at its November meeting will be regarded as intending to make no application during the current year of 1889-90.

In addition to the blanks for application there have been sent out already to all institutions which the Board regards as on its list, a new set of blanks provided for by the Board's action of last November as reported in the June number of this magazine. The object of these is to secure to the Board a full understanding of the financial condition. and tendency of each institution. Trustees and treasurers will be sure to think that the Board has already shown abundant interest in that direction. Its interest, indeed, has not been small, and its inquiries have been regularly made, and with such skill as a new experience developed. But by this time the Board's responsibility as distributor of the means entrusted to it defines itself more exactly than it could at first; for the risks to which its investments are exposed become, if not more manifest, more distinct. A great part of the Board's recent concern, more than half of the care and labor of some of its officers and of its importunity with its helpers have turned upon the peril into which valuable properties have come. In most cases such peril has developed out of obligations dating from the creation of the property. But sometimes yearly management has added to the original debt. For such yearly management the responsibility lies primarily upon each board of trustees; and the Board, accordingly, has charged itself chiefly with watching, by means of the returns which it requires, the yearly administration of each institution and with giving such cautions as seemed to be required. But the action lately taken will, in this regard, make a marked advance upon the Board's past policy. The returns now re

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quired will bring to the Board's office (and not with the fall application, but many weeks in advance of it) a complete statement of the financial condition of the institution, a complete exhibit of the income and outgoes of the last scholastic year, and a statement of any addition which it proposes to make to the last year's scale of expense, "together with the reasons for it, and an explicit showing of the resources on which reliance is had for ability to meet the proposed increase."

The Board is intent on these connected things:

On saving valuable properties, even if they be in debt, when the debt is small in comparison with the value.

On preventing new debt by keeping every institution's expenses within its receipts. And thus

On making every institution under its care a growth, bearing yearly proportion to the means put into it.

To this end appeal will be made for all the means with which the churches and sympathizing friends will entrust us. But in order to their trust we ask the institutions to enter fully and promptly into this new arrangement for the Board's complete understanding of their financial condition and policy. The returns which are to serve this purpose will lie upon the Board's table at its November meeting; and the blanks have been devised with a view to the plainest possible showing of totals and balances. They will be sure to go from hand to hand while the respective applications shall be under discussion. They will then be preserved on file. The treasurer who will give time and pains to the preparation of his returns in the completest, neatest and most legible shape will do good service to his institution.

WHAT CHEER?

For two or three months this Board has been making, by the denominational papers and by this magazine, a very anxious call for the means of saving some institutions of great value and promise from imminent