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take over their own pastors and so free the mission from that much. I cannot even have the meeting now. If the famine really comes, and it seems to me there is every prospect of it, our work will be hindered, at least so far as self-support is cóncerned, for several years. A Christian teacher has just come in from a village and says that the Sudras are requesting the Christians to come to their homes to pray, as they fear a famine. In these parts, the great famine brought the outcastes to God. Another famine may bring the caste people."

But rains have come! How great the change we do not know in our land of frequent showers. Only the sublime imagery of the Psalmist and of Isaiah can describe the blessing of rain upon the parched earth. We can join with Dr. Boggs of Secunderabad in his praises of God as he writes, November 26:

A WATER SELLER OF INDIA.

"It is now with a very grateful heart that I report a most marked change which will bring hope to millions. Good rain has fallen within the last few days, and it has been very widespread. From far and near, north, south, east and west, we hear of bountiful showers. It is impossible to estimate the results of this. Growing crops will be revived and saved; fresh sowings will go on all through the land; pasturage will spring up and myriads of cattle be saved from starvation; water supplies will be replenished; prices of grain will fall; and hope will be regained by multitudes who were on the verge of despair as they saw gaunt famine and probable starvation staring them in the face. We praise God for this inestimable blessing. 6 Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving; who covereth the heaven with clouds, who prepared rain for the earth.' Psalm 147:8."

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DR. HOVEY ON OLD TESTAMENT TITHES

T the extremely interesting Conference on Systematic Christian Beneficence held in the First Baptist Church, Boston, November 17 and 18, the first paper, and one of the most important, was that of Dr. Hovey on "The Christian Teaching of Old Testament Oiter.ngs." It was the freshest, most careful and most satisfactory treatment of the subject we have ever known. Probably this valuable paper will be printed in some form, but we hasten to give a résumé of the conclusions for the benefit of the readers of the MISSIONARY Magazine.

Dr. Hovey first stated that he used the word offerings to express any devotion of property to the service of God. He did not include under this term gifts to friends, to the poor, or the payment of taxes to the State, and he did include under "offerings " Old Testament tithes, because while in the Old Testament tithes are not usually called offerings, yet the tithe was a devotion of property to the service of God, and so came under the term as he intended to use it in this paper. After a careful review of the subject of Old Testament tithes Dr. Hovey came to the conclusion that the Word of God teaches that the Israelites gave at least one and one-half tenth of their income to the service of God, and in addition to this made other gifts to the poor, etc. After the beginning of the reign of the Davidie kings, and in accordance with the prophecy of .Samuel as to the burdens which would be laid upon the people should a king be given them, it was the opinion of the speaker that not less than one-third of the income of the Jews was devoted to religion and the State. The offerings to religion were not increased, but the burdens of the State became more onerous.

In the opinion of the speaker the duty of Christians cannot be said to be less than the duty of the Jews. The Jews devoted seventy-five dollars out of every five hundred of income, or $150 out of every thousand to purposes of religion. This was given for the support of religion in their own land. Christians have larger opportunities and correspondingly larger duties. The coming of Christ did not lower the standard of Christian duty. The death of the Son of God did not weaken God's claims upon His people. And while Dr. Hovey did not hold that the law of the tithe can be said to be binding upon Christians, yet he believed that reason and obligation and love teach that a tenth of the income was the least which a Christian could rightfully devote to the service of God. This is a good and scriptural average proportion for persons in moderate circumstances. Others to whom large means have been given should give much more than this.

Dr. Hovey made a strong and impressive point that the intention of God in requiring of the Jews a tenth at least was to promote systematic giving, and observation shows that, among Christians, the giving of a tenth of the income is promotive of the highest Christian graces. Considered as stewards, Christians have no right to lay up property for themselves, but will best show their love to God and their sense of His claims upon them by giving to His service a tenth of their income.

At the conclusion of the address an opportunity was given for informal discussion, which took the form of questions to Dr. Hovey. The questions were numerous and extremely interesting, and showed great interest and thoughtfulness on this subject on the part of the large audience that was present. In reply to these questions Dr. Hovey reiterated his belief that at least one-tenth should be given solely to religious purposes, and all taxes, gifts to the poor, gifts to needy friends, as well as other secular claims should come out of the other nine-tenths of the income. In reply to a question as to the promise of worldly prosperity to those who devoted tithes to the service of God, Dr. Hovey was doubtful whether the Old Testament promises of prosperity could be literally applied to Christian times, but he had no doubt but that proportionate and systematic giving to the service of God brings large spiritual blessing, and usually large temporal blessing also. In connection with this question, Rev. M. H. Bixby of Providence gave an impressive testimony. He said that, twenty-five years ago, when his church was young and small, he impressed upon the minds of his young men the duty and privilege of giving at least a tenth of their income to the service of God, and a number of them adopted this principle and have adhered to it through all these years. All these young men have been prospered in business, and to-day nearly all are wealthy and have continued to be large and liberal givers to the church and to the cause of Christ throughout the world.

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A PRAYER THAT WAS ANSWERED

T the Boston Conference on Systematic Beneficence one of the most interesting services was the Open Parliament, in which testimonies were called for from those who had experienced the blessings of systematic and proportionate giving. Among others Hon. Chester W. Kingsley of Cambridge, Massachusetts, was called upon. Mr. Kingsley said that it had long seemed to him that the weakest point in our Christian life was the lack of systematic and proportionate giving and as a result, our great religious and missionary societies are cramped for the means necessary to carry on and extend their work. When he was a young man working for a salary of $250 a year, and with a wife and family to support, he was impressed with the needs of the cause of God in all the earth. It was difficult for him to see how he could give anything out of his small salary, and he was troubled about it, and that others who could, did not give more; and he made a prayer, "Oh, Lord, give me a hand to get and a heart to give." Mr. Kingsley said that he had offered this prayer, he supposed, more than a thousand times, and, as is well known, the Lord has answered the prayer in both directions, prospering his servant in business affairs and at the same time giving him a heart to provide generous things for every department of the Lord's work. This is a prayer which the Lord has been pleased to answer. It is a good prayer for young business men to adopt "Lord, give me a hand to get and a heart to give."

THE MEANING OF THE COMMISSION

BY REV. HENRY C. MABIE, D. D., HOME SECRETARY OF THE MISSIONARY UNION

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HE Commission on Systematic Christian Beneficence, formed at Asbury Park last summer, not the Commission to disciple all nations. This Commission sprang up almost spontaneously. It was the outcome of the latent conviction in many minds that coördination of kindred missionary interests was demanded; that better methods should be sought and recommended to the churches, and that a solid basis for the varied Christian giving, on which the rising membership of our churches might be trained, should be found and stated.

The essential principle of the movement is the development of Christian stewardship. From the origin of our respective general benevolent societies each has gone on in its own independent way, and apart from certain friendly arrangements in connection with the anniversaries, the methods of each society have been as independent as if no other department of work existed. With the birth of this movement the secretaries of all the societies represented upon it began to see, as they had not before, that they must more generously esteem other departments of work than their own, so as to be able to embrace all interests in their future plans.

Out of this has been begotten a new fellowship, a mutual sympathy, a holy love, which we believe is a signal token of the Holy Spirit's guidance and a presage of good things to come. Each one, beginning to study, plan and act for the interests of another's work-all departments of our Lord's one work-we have awakened to a new realization of love for the whole work, which welds us into a unity not realized before.

With this realization comes new responsibilities. By the action of our brethren we have been thrust into the van of a movement of a higher order than previously contemplated. We feel as if entrusted once more, as were the priests of old, with the Ark of the Covenant. Hence many are looking to us for the ordering of the rela tions between the respective interests of varied benevolent enterprises, and for specific plans whereby the churches may be advised to properly study and support all departments of work equitably; and we are especially chargeable with the presentation of a motive which shall prove fruitful of a higher spirituality. Should this ark which we bear be defiled by the touch of our garments, or should it fall into the hands of the Philistines, we fear for its effect upon the camp. If we may, by God's grace, be enabled to bear this ark aloft, following the pillar of fire and cloud, new hope and courage will be born, and great triumphs will be won. Surely we need the prayers of all who feel that they have any stake in this movement.

The task of this Commission is varied, but we conceive the following to be some of the chief directions in which its work should lie. It will be called upon to emphasize the fundamental Christian relation in which all individuals and churches stand to the various departments of the one Kingdom of our Lord. Heretofore, obligation to the "society" has been made perhaps too promiment. It needs to be shown that the Christian is fundamentally related to the many departments of the one great work. These relations are organic and constitutional to the Christian. It is impossible for any Christian to be properly related to any one of these departments, and, if intelligent, not to be correspondingly related to all the other departments of the work.

The Commission is to reassert the Christian use of money. This calls for a restudy of the Scriptures on the subject and a deeper apprehension of the spirit of Biblical teaching, both in the Old Testament and New. It would be yet premature to intimate just what the specific plans for giving, which the Commission recommends, are to be; indeed it is not yet fully known what they will be, but it will be safe to say that when they are announced, they will call not for a less but for a larger responsibility and labor on the part of pastors and the entire educative force in all our churches. No mechanical system of giving by mere percentages in one decisive act at the beginning of the year can be inadequate if we would see an increase of offerings and a corresponding growth in grace on the part of givers. Giving must be intelligent. I am sure, also, that it is the sense of the Commission that during particular periods in which a cause is under consideration in a church all parties should combine to study, labor and pray for that one department of work. This will avoid confusion and produce unity.

The chief end which the Commission will have in view will be to develop such a type of Christian giving as will result in cor responding increase of grace in the giver. The Apostle Paul pleaded not because he

desired the gift, but that fruit might abound to the account of the giver. It is amazing how large sums of money may be devoted to religious purposes of one kind and another without there being necessarily any increase of spirituality or true religion. The myriad temples of India, China and Japan are in evidence of the spiritual fruitlessness of mere devotion of money superstitiously, or under false constraint. The great cathedrals of the old world, reared under the auspices of Rome, instead of resulting in a corresponding development of religion, have proven a blight and an incubus to it. In order that the devotion of money should result in grace to the giver, Christ must be seen in the object to which the gift is devoted. We are told in all these things to do, to give, in the name of Christ, for His sake. And what do we mean by this? Surely nothing less than these two things: (1) We should act and give as if we were Jesus Christ Himself, and. in the next place, we should act towards the recipient of our bounty as if he were Christ. In the account of the last Judgment in the Gospel of Matthew the principle on which the line was drawn between those on the right hand and those upon the left was this, "Inasmuch as ye did it, or did it not, unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye did it, or did it not, unto me."

UNGK

DAWNING OF THE DAY IN CHINA

NGKUNG, a city of China about sixty miles in the interior from Swatow, was opened as a mission station in 1892 by Rev. J. W. Carlin, D. D., and Mrs. Carlin. They have spent the greater part of each year in Ungkung, although compelled to go to the sea coast in the hottest months of the summer. At the first Dr. Carlin was providentially able to secure premises admirably adapted for gospel work, located near the thoroughfares of travel, and the preaching services have always been well attended. The method of labor has been purely evangelistic. Persistent, pungent and practical preaching of the good news of salvation has filled the hours and days of the missionary and his helpers. Tours into the country round about have been taken as opportunity offered. Mrs. Carlin has visited in the homes of many of the leading families of Ungkung. But the great centre of labor has been the Mission Chapel. At times it has been thronged. Thousands of residents have attended

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