“I BEQUEATH to my executor (or executors) the sum of —— dollars, in trust, to pay the same in —— days after my decease to the person who, when the same is payable, shall act as Treasurer of the ‘American Missionary Association,’ of New York City, to be applied, under the direction of the Executive Committee of the Association, to its charitable uses and purposes.” The Will should be attested by three witnesses.
We have reached the half-way turning point of our fiscal year. With March the first six months of our year ended. Our mission stations are all manned. Churches and schools, with all their multitudinous outshoots of work, are taxing the energies, abilities and devotion of our workers. Never in the history of this Association was the work more manifestly blessed of God, or more imperative in its calls for vigorous prosecution. Our schools are crowded. Multitudes of students are turned away because there is no room to receive them. The calls pour in upon us from every quarter for more dormitories and recitation buildings—for more help for worthy and needy students, for more missionaries, preachers and teachers, to go into regions most destitute and urgent for relief. Whole counties are reported in which there is neither a church nor a school; whole sections of country in which there are thousands and tens of thousands of people for whose souls no one seems to care. Revivals are reported in connection with nearly all our churches, and the evidence is overwhelming that great harvests are waiting the reaping in almost every direction. What are we to do? What would the churches have us do? We are their servants; we report to them the outlook; we send out to them the call; we impatiently await their authoritative response. That response must be in money.
Our financial situation is this: At the present writing we have paid out $14,555.84 more than we have received the current year. This, with the debt coming over from last year, makes us $20,339.55 in arrears. It is impossible either to arrest or cut down the work at this point in the year so as to secure relief. But even if we could, would we be justified in doing it? Our total receipts last year were $335,704.20. Our appeal for the current year is $350,000. Our total receipts up to March 31st were $127,605.47. Our readers can very easily figure out for themselves whether any blame can rightfully be charged to those who have the management of the Association in hand, and also whether, in view of the facts, the thought of curtailment should be cherished for a moment.