MONTHLY REPORT.
When Livingstone, at the age of twenty-seven, had accomplished his task of fitting himself for a missionary, had taken his medical diploma, and was ready to start for Africa, “a single night,” says his biographer, “was all that he could spend with his family, and they had so much to speak of that David proposed they should sit up all night. This, however, his mother would not hear of. ‘I remember my father and him,’ writes his sister, ‘talking over the prospects of Christian missions. They agreed that the time would come when rich and great men would think it an honor to support whole stations of missionaries, instead of spending their money on hounds and horses. On November 17th we got up at five o’clock. My mother made coffee. David read the 121st and 135th Psalms, and prayed. My father and he walked to Glasgow to catch the Liverpool steamer.’”
How fitting the setting of this prophetic talk of David and his father—the completed hard labor and sterner sacrifice of preparation, the hurried visit by night, and the long walk in the November dawn! No wonder, with their inspiration, that these two “agreed that the time would come when rich and great men would think it an honor to support whole stations of missionaries.”
The autumn is here and a new year of work begins. We are all promising ourselves redoubled efforts and larger success, each in his sphere, for the coming season. But what can we do new, what can we do more, what fresh successes can we plan for missions, and for home missions? This is one of the questions for us all to ask. Can I start a new auxiliary? I will not neglect the opportunity nor lose time. Can I myself make a larger contribution to the funds this year than last? Then I will, and if I have to give something of less value in exchange for the privilege, so much the better. Shall I read more regularly the news that comes from missions, and so help myself and others to become more interested in the work by the knowledge of what is being done? Yes, I will make a point of this. Can I pray more sincerely for the progress of the cause, remembering with affection and sympathy those who labor in the Lord in the more toilsome parts of the vineyard?
Are not these questions which we may ask and answer in the interest of our W. H. M. A.? We are anxious to do a much larger work this year than last. Would that we might multiply it tenfold! So we must have corresponding purpose and energy in each spoke of the wheel. Our missionaries already in the field have resumed their labors after their summer’s rest. Mrs. Babcock has returned to her work in Washington; Mrs. Steele begins anew in Chattanooga, Tenn.; Miss Rose M. Kinney is to be supported by our Association in Dorchester Academy, McIntosh, Ga.; Miss Sarah E. Tichenor, sister of Miss Lydia M. Tichenor, who has been in Hooper, Utah, has begun her teaching among the “poor whites” in Greenbrier, Tenn. She writes: “I think the prospects are that we shall have a pleasant opening, as they are anxious to have school. I would like a globe and charts very much, and we shall need text books for some who are not able to buy.” Miss Alice E. Carter, who has been our missionary in Nashville, Tenn., this last year, has been detailed from that work to present the cause of the W. H. M. A. to the churches. Auxiliaries wishing to have her address them can make application to the Home Secretary. Under the New West Commission we send out Miss Snyder again to Albuquerque; Miss Elizabeth Keyes to Bingham; Miss Emily S. Robinson to Stockton; and Miss Annie E. Shepardson to Salt Lake City, (the three last named places in Utah).
We are ready to send out more, to double the number of missionaries at once, and the fields are standing ripe. Does not some one desire the “honor” of supporting, not “whole stations of missionaries,” but—a whole mission station? Does not some new auxiliary desire to undertake the support of a new mission?
The annual meeting of the Association will be held in Boston, October 26. We expect the cause of the New West and that of the South to be presented by those personally acquainted with the matter, and we hope for a large attendance.
Receipts of W. H. M. A. from August 27 to September 26, 1881:
| From | Aux. | $ 38.00 |
| “ | Don | 258.10 |
| “ | L. M. | 20.00 |
| “ | A. M. | 11.00 |
| —-—- | ||
| $327.10 |
Boxes sent:
| From | Auxiliary in Monson, Mass., to the West | $150.00 |
| “ | Ladies in Central Ch., Boston, second-hand clothing to Michigan sufferers | 8.90 |
Correction.—In report of W. H. M. A. for September. In Miss Wilson’s diary read, “2d, sent soup,” not soap; and in the last part of the same paragraph read “lunch,” not land, given.