WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT.
We have received many cheering words since our Annual Meeting at Norwich, through the press and by letters from the long-tried friends of this Association.
The following, from our honored Vice President, Col. G. C. Hammond, is a good illustration of the appreciative and hopeful tone exhibited by the many of those who give bountifully and prayerfully for our work.
“Dear Brother: I was anxious to be at your anniversary at Norwich, and disappointed that my health prevented. You may well suppose with what relish I have devoured the last ‘Missionary.’ I feel constrained to write you a word of congratulation, not intended to tax your valuable time for a reply, but to assure you that, so far as I can judge, the papers presented to you at that time, and now printed, by far exceed any heretofore presented within my recollection. The obstacles that lie in your path, the encouragement to work, and the plans and principles which govern the Association in their labors, are laid down so plainly, and so commend themselves to the appreciation of Christians, that it would seem that means must flow into the treasury in no stinted measure. But, alas, how true it is that the love of money shuts out even from Christian souls the just appreciation of the Saviour’s claims. My prayer is that God will, by His spirit, make His children appreciate the great joy of giving. How much they would gain by liberal giving!”
ARTHINGTON MISSION—A SIGNIFICANT ANSWER TO PRAYER.
It will be remembered by our readers that a little more than a year since, the Executive Committee of this Association voted that on receipt of £3,000 from Mr. Arthington and a like amount from the British public, raised through the efforts of Dr. O. H. White, it would undertake the establishment of a new mission in Eastern Africa. Dr. White has been laboring patiently with fair success, and from present indications we judge he will be able to secure the balance needful during the coming season.
The following extract from a recent letter from him is very significant. “A gentleman in London, who heard me preach six months ago in Scotland, came to our office and said, ‘I will give £100 to your Arthington Mission on condition that some other person will give another £100.’ So I went in to find the person. After seeing some, and writing to others, I found a man who also heard me in Edinburgh, and he gave the £100. I then saw the first man and told him I had the money, and he said, ‘I will not give in the money just now, but I will pledge another £100 on the same condition.’ But I had called on so many in the past year, that really I did not know which way to turn. So I laid the case before God, and had in that connection the most direct answer ever given to me.