A SPECIAL APPEAL.

It is not often that the Board of Church Erection makes a special appeal, but unusual circumstances call for unusual methods.

It is absolutely essential to the fulfillment of the trust committed to this Board that there should be a large and immediate increase of its resources. There has been no noticeable falling off in the receipts to its treasury thus far this year; but the work of church building all over the land has made such a sudden and unexpected advance that a crisis is upon us which must be met by a large outlay, or disappointment, and possibly disaster, will ensue.

It is evident that last year was one of extraordinary activity in very many of our presbyteries, and the hundreds of new churches organized throughout the great West are now appealing through this Board to the Church at large to fulfill its implied promises and aid them in securing church homes. Never in the history of the Board have so many applications poured in upon it in the early months of the year. Between the middle of April and August 26 more than ninety formal applications were received, to say nothing of almost as many more letters of inquiry in regard to needed aid. Nor is this all. For reasons which it is not difficult to understand, the applications have been upon the average for larger amounts than have ever been known before. It is evident that under divine inspiration, for which we may well be thankful, our beloved Church is experiencing a great revival in enthusiasm and is girding herself as never before for aggressive work. In one presbytery alone of California we are informed that more than thirty churches were organized last year. And the advance has been along the entire line.

But, brethren, these young churches, which are the proof of God's blessing and which should be our joy, cannot live if they have

not homes to shelter them. These homes they can in no wise provide without assistance. This Board is your hand held out to guarantee them sympathy and safety. But we can only give what you bestow. And now the calls far surpass our ability to respond. At the July meeting of the Board applications were received asking for more than $16,000, while there remained unappropriated in our treasury less than $2000.

In the name of these hundreds of infant churches, born into the family of our be loved Presbyterian Church, we appeal to their elder sister churches, and ask for an immediate and marked advance in contributions to meet this grand emergency. If the congregations that last year did nothing will add their gifts; if those who gave will make an advance of not less than twenty-five per cent., we may be able to meet, in sufficient measure to prevent disaster, the coming demand. But if this appeal is unheeded, then we fear that a year which promises more brightly than any since the reunion for the progress of the Church will fall far short of the glorious results which its opportunities offer, and scores of churches organized in the name of the Master will be left to languish, and it may be, to perish.

Brethren, what answer shall the Board, as your mouthpiece, return to these young and hopeful churches that are confidently turning to it for the aid they need?

A TYPICAL CASE.

We publish the following letter just received, because it is typical of scores that reach us from the field. It is the old story repeated again and again. No possibility of obtaining a house; no rooms to be rented; no place to board; no hope of remaining unless means can be obtained to build a manse.

-, August 23, 1889.

DEAR BROTHER:-In this our hour of pressing need we earnestly ask if your Board can

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render our little church any assistance in securing a manse. To explain our situation and need, would state that is a town of five or six hundred inhabitants. It has been a town about ten years, and though not rapidly yet is steadily growing, being considered one of the best places for business between and

There are but two churches in the town Presbyterian and Catholic-with no prospect for another soon. The Presbyterian church has been organized two years. We have a comfortable frame church costing all furnished, everything complete, $2200. The history of the trials, sacrifices and discouragements of this little weak band, mostly women, would fill a volume. Suffice it to say, that that church is all paid for and has been dedicated to the worship of God free from debt. This little band, between twenty and thirty in number, have done this by themselves, together with the outside aid received from friends, without asking a cent from the Board of Church Erection; but, in their efforts to buy a lot, build and furnish their house of worship, some have done all, while a few have really done more than they were able to do. In March last they called me to this field; and seeing that it was indeed one in a thousand, so far as an opportunity for building up the Master's kingdom was concerned, it appearing to be such a grand opening for great and glorious results-there being but the one Protestant church for the town, and a large and thicklysettled region of country-I promptly accepted their call, moved my family and household goods over three hundred miles, from the extreme southern part of Indiana, and am now their first settled minister.

The Lord has already greatly blessed us in the matter of ingathering at our first and only communion service thus far. When I agreed to come there was but one house, a new one just completed, that could be secured; this they rented for six months, a fact that I knew nothing of until a few days since. When I had occupied the house three months, the owner, a farmer living in the country, notified one of my elders that he would want his house at the end of the six months, which will be November 20, as he expected to move to town. So we must get out at that time. Houses are in demand, there being not one in town for rent; not even rooms, many families living above the store rooms, etc.

Thus there is no way for me to remain and carry on the work in this field, that promises so much, unless our people can build a manse

[October,

on their own lot adjoining the church or buy some dwelling now occupied; and to do either they are wholly unable without assistance from your Board. Although they have done so much in building and furnishing their church, they are still willing to do all they can toward building the manse, but this time they cannot-are not able to assume or try to carry the whole burden. Then, since they have already asked their friends far and near to help them build their church-and they responded most generously-they are not willing to request further aid from them. Now what can be done? In less than three months myself and family must give up this house; winter is coming; what we do must be done immediately. Our lot on which the church stands is large enough for a dwelling beside the church, and our trustees have a clear title to it with no incumbrance of any kind. A comfortable house large enough for my family will cost at least $1000.

Now, dear brother, how much, if anything, can we expect from your Board, either in the form of a gift or loan? The matter is urgent. The lack of a suitable house has prevented this field being regularly supplied until I came. A minister with a family, however desirous of coming, could not do so.

Since writing the above, the committee appointed to inquire have reported that there is no dwelling for sale, and therefore we will have to build, which we will do immediately if we can get the aid asked from the Board. Truly yours.

THE VALUE OF "THE HOME MISSIONARY'S HOME."

From an exellent article in the Church

building Quarterly we quote several sentences bearing upon the influence and value in missionary work of a Christian home.

We know every home missionary's first need in a new town will certainly be a home. Hereafter in opening up new fields let the home missionary superintendent be the man to board the "prairie schooner," and stake out a "corner lot" for a home missionary parsonage. Napoleon said, "The secret of success is to follow up advantages." Experience shows that where a minister has a home provided for him he can command the respect of the community better than a transient supply. Bringing his family argues the man has come to stay. When the missionaries first went to the Sandwich Islands, some said, "They have come to conquer

1889.]

We

Says the Advance of April 25: "During five days of last week 10,000 emigrants sailed from Liverpool, and as many more from Antwerp, Hamburg and other ports. Home missionary work is just begun, and we must profit by the mistakes of the past. We cannot afford to have our home missionaries any longer homeless men. What a sarcasm is the very thought! Many of the immigrants swarming to our country come from Catholic countries. In Christian America these foreigners first meet the idea that Protestant priests are not celibates. do not want our clergy living like bachelors. The home life of the Christian pastor is a feature of Protestant civilization. Let us present it in an attractive form before these in-coming socialists and nihilists and Roman Catholics. In Wisconsin an Austrian gentleman became interested in a home missionary family. Before leaving town he said to the missionary's wife, 'Your husband, with his beautiful family around him, has made me a convert to Protestantism. In Austria I was the companion of Catholic priests. I saw them professing purity and secretly breaking the commandments. I despised religion. I have watched your husband. It is not his words but his home life that converts me to Protestantism.'"

Even in Europe woman is not honored as in Christian America. The home missionary's wife is to many foreigners a new species of womankind. From the parsonage lessons of thrift, culture and Christianity have been taught, whose influence has been felt in lands across the ocean. Secretary proposes to visit the theolegical seminaries and advise students to go into home missionary work as bachelors if parsonages are not built. We must prevent him, for woman's presence is needed at the front, and parsonage building will prove a paying quantity in political as well as Christian economy some day.

The daughter of an India missionary came to this country to be educated. She had inherited alike her father's beautiful spirit and fragile health. A girl beloved by both Christian and heathen natives. Speaking the language fluently, the missionaries anxiously awaited her return to India. She was a bright scholar and won many friends. You couldn't blame that theological student for falling in love with her, could you? They married, and her husband talked about going as a foreign missionary. His young bride pined for the bright sunshine of her tropical home, Amer

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ican relatives said, "There is so much to do at home; why go to a heathen land?" A home missionary field was urged and undertaken. That cultivated woman, so much needed in India, after many hardships, died from cold and exposure in a newly-plastered building, the only home they could find. A costly sacrifice!

The memory of trials experienced in uncomfortable homes does not make missionary life alluring to our sons and daughters. Said an eminent judge, "My father had to abandon home missionary life and take a farm. Our home experiences when we were boys drove us all into other pursuits." A noted infidel shed tears of anger when a boy over the grave of his mother, an overworked home missionary's wife. "I'll pay these Christians for letting my mother suffer." How he has kept that vow the world knows by the bitterness of his attacks upon Christianity. We need these home missionary children in our frontier towns. The children of foreign missionaries are recruiting the foreign fields. How many home missionaries' children are in training for home missionary service? There ought to be enough missionaries' sons to more than supply ministers for the vacant fields. But will the boy who has moved from house to house, suffering in his home experience, naturally return to such a life? Not if he is a boy of spirit. What home missionary families have suffered in unhealthy homes from sickness and discouragement and exposure, it must make the recording angels weep to write. It is not Christian economy to allow our beautiful, educated daughters to marry home missionaries and suffer such misery during the trying years of motherhood, when a few hundred dollars will give them homes and enable them to uplift the communities in which they dwell.

GRATIFYING TESTIMONY.

MONTE VISTA, COL.

DEAR SIR:-Find a draft on New York for eleven dollars, being contribution of the Monte Vista Presbyterian Church, Pueblo Presbytery.

There is no contribution of this people more gladly made than that to the Board of Church Erection. They have ocular demonstration of the utility of this and home mission and Sabbathschool work, which needs no long argument to enforce the claim. Would that our ability were up to the great need. vineyard,

Yours as a co-worker in the
REV. WILLIAM KEIRY.

QUICK, JAMES-born, Royal Oak, Oakland county, Mich., August 26, 1829; graduated, University of Michigan, 1854, Union Theological Seminary, 1856; ordained by the Presbytery of Peoria and Knox, April 12, 1857; home missionary, Albany, Ill., 1856-57; foreign missionary, Jaffna, Ceylon, 1858-68; Birmingham, Mich., 1870-71; stated supply, Reading, Mich., 1871-72, Bliss

field, Mich., 1872-74, Bryan, O., 1874-78, Hicksville, O., 1879-81, Pemberville, O., 1882-85, Kingston, Tenn., 1885-86; an invalid from 1885; died, Pomona, Cal., June 16, 1889. Married Miss M. E. Thatcher, July 2, 1857. Of five children four daughters survive; one son was instantly killed by lightning sixteen years ago.

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CINCINNATI, OHIO, July 31, 1889.

NEW NOTES FOR BIBLE READINGS, by S. R. Briggs. This book, published by Fleming H. Revel, New York and Chicago (cloth, $1, flexible, 75 cents), contains "selections from D. L. Moody, Major Whittle, Rev. E. P. Marvin, John Currie, Rev. W. J. Erdman, F. E. Marsh, Dr. L. W. Munhall and others; also a brief memoir of the late S. R. Briggs by Rev. J. H. Brookes, D.D." For the mode of associated and prayerful study of the Bible, for which it is intended, it seems well adapted. In the biographical sketch Dr. Brookes remarks of Mr. Briggs, that "the spring of his activity and zeal, as he more than once said to his intimate friends, was his practical faith in the personal and pre-millennial coming

of the Lord. It threw the interests of time into the background of his contemplation." That this happy effect of devout expectation of our Lord's second advent depends upon the belief that it will be premillennial is an assumption to which we do not assent. There are many believers in Christ who expect his millennial spiritual reign to precede his second "personal" advent, to whom "the interests of time" are as insignificant as to their "pre-millennialist" brethren. This difference in opinion need not prevent them from using together this book, and they may be equally benefited by its excellent presentation of the essential and saving truths of the Bible.