Vol. 18.

No. 12.

Pub. Monthly by W. R. M. I.

THE TREASURY.

The total receipts for the year just closed were $77,631. 88, which includes all contributions for regular work and home expenses, for Famine Relief and Armenian Orphans, money given for special objects and gifts to the Century Fund.

More than $16,000 and more than onefifth of the year's receipts passed through the hands of Branch Treasurers after October 8th. Knowing that apportionments were not met, they were eager to receive and to forward every dollar. Work so exhausting could have been avoided. by earlier in-gatherings on the part of auxiliaries. As books were kept open till the last moment, there was no time for correction and revision, and the Board Treasurer's report was completed only after the auditor had arrived. An earlier and final date for the closing of books was voted at the recent annual meeting.

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Only sad hindrances to our work, chiefly in China, so that money voted for educational, evangelistic and medical work has not been drawn, prevents our being in debt. The same causes which have limited expenditure, must increase it for the current year. We are already in correspondence with our besieged and exiled missionaries of the North China mission to ascertain what sums will be needed to supply clothing, furnishings. and equipments absolutely essential. The Women of the Interior will rejoice to express their sympathy in this practical way. There will be need for extra giv

ing to meet the emergency. We cannot leave our workers to face a northern winter half-clothed nor to go on without implements while we wait for indemnities to be arranged and exacted. No special fund will be opened, but every offering, given out of abundance or out of selfdenial, will be welcomed.

MRS. E. M. W.

NOTES

FROM THE ANNUAL MEETING.

As yet we are only playing at Christian missions.

We need a revival of systematic benevolence. A mighty uplift, a spiritual uprising may be before us.

Children taught to give, taught to pray, as they grow up will not depart from the

habit.

Put the children into the Wee Folks Band and you need not worry about the older societies.

Religion that does not take hold of the heart is worse than nothing.

Do we not long to give a than koffering that God has raised up such women as were in China and that just those women were there?

In Micronesia we deal, not with numbers, but with primeval humanity.

One says, "this missionary work is too heavy a burden, why do you try to carry it?" and we answer, "Why do you not take hold and help carry?"

One of the glories of Christianity is

that it makes saints and heroes of everyday men and women.

Light is coming very fast our way during these closing days of the century.

The victories of the church come by the way of the cross.

The day of small things in the work of the Board is past, we must lay plans for years in advance.

What we don't know about missions would fill volumes.

There is only one absolutely indispensable person in the Board and that is the individual giver.

What will it be to look back from other worlds and see the work in which we had no share?

Our girls are robbed of their birthright if we, their mothers, do not lead them. into a world-wide view. We must mother them into it.

In the mission field one can multiply her life. She can influence ten there to one here.

According to its constitution this organization is not exclusively foreign, but while this is its main object, it aids home fields as ability permits. In the home field we cite increasing progress among Japanese, Chinese, and Portuguese, and among native Hawaiians and in the leper settlements.

Our co laborers in the Pacific Islands, have abundant opportunities. Among the foreign work we notice these items, blind children in China, Mrs. Gulick's school in Spain, work in New Zealand, Kusaie Girls' School. Mrs. Gulick says,

in her report, that there are 60,000 Japanese in the Islands, of whom 22,000 have been brought in within the year. Many of these people are in relief camps at a distance from organized churches. Bible women and evangelists are sent to them and kindergartens opened. Our sisters. of the Hawaiian Islands do not lack for work and we send them heartfelt congratulation upon their excellent organization. E. K. C.

A CALL TO PRAYER. THE Woman's Board of the Interior has appointed Friday, December 14th, as a Day of Prayer at the Missionary Rooms for the treasury and for China and its great needs. Other lands will also be held in remembrance. In the days of stress, when the debt seemed hindering the work at every step, God heard and answered. He will do so now, when the needs are equally pressing, and we are not in debt because we leave undone the things that ought to be done.

It is difficult, even for those who are in close touch with China, to understand what the wholesale destruction of everything means to the missionaries and the Christian Chinese. Homes, furniture, bedding (they slept on the floor during the siege), clothing, dishes, books,-the accumulated little comforts of all the years they have been in China-gone! Why cannot this meeting for prayer be also a time for free-will offerings from us who have homes and comfortable furnishings, warm clothing for winter, books for our help in all good things? Will it not bring a blessing to our own souls to share with those who have suffered the loss of all?

THE ALLIANCE CALL.

The Evangelical Alliance has issued a stirring call to prayer in which it asks Christians of all denominations to join, on the ground that "at the close of the last century a concert of prayer was held by