We shall not be able to make the stirring appeals to provide for the exigent demands of our great work which our readers have been wont to recognize as coming from the heart of Dr. Powell, who had the oversight and burden of the collecting fields.
Never was our work more critical, never more urgent and never more hopeful.
The winter months, on which we must chiefly rely, are here, and are fast moving into the past. The work has been laid upon us and it would seem faithless to our sacred trust to sacrifice any part of it. But we must not take on a debt. We can only be saved from putting the knife to our work or of trying to do what we cannot pay for, if the faithful pastors of the churches will give their very present help. If the pastors who believe in the work, which includes the education and salvation of the needy among four races, will give their churches and Christian stewards a good chance to know how great the cause is and what its honest appeals are, we are confident that the Lord will deliver us from impending trouble.
We will gladly furnish every pastor, and others who will send to us for them, such facts and figures as may be helpful in representing the work. Surely we can depend upon those who love God and their country for thoughtful remembrance and ready response.
The Rev. C.J. Ryder who has been assigned to the District Secretaryship of the Eastern district for the collecting field in New England, will, upon his return from a supervisory tour in the extreme South, succeed our friend, Dr. Woodworth, in the Boston office.
It is well known to our readers that Superintendent Ryder, two and a half years ago, was induced to assume the laborious work then demitted by Rev. Dr. Roy upon a similar transfer of Dr. Roy from the Field Superintendency to the District Secretaryship of the West, with his office in Chicago. To those who have read the "Notes in the Saddle" from the South, in our magazine, written by Supt. Ryder, we need add no word of introduction. Nor need we say that he will carry into his new department of our common work the same energy, zeal and interest which has characterized the past. With his presentations of the work, and with his personal knowledge and experience of the field, and of every part of it, we anticipate for the new District Secretary a hearty welcome and co-operation on the part of our pastors and churches. The work in the South will be temporarily supervised, and arrangements have been made for this by the New York office.
In retiring from his long-time trust, the Rev. Dr. Woodworth bears with him the thanks of multitudes of God's poor in the South, and the high regard of all who have been associated in co-operative work with him. It is not impossible that he may yet see his way to add to his record of many years, still further service in another department of this varied work.