ment, it would be unjust to expect them at one stroke to transform a situation which is as old as Christianity and which reaches down into fundamental defects of the church. Let us rejoice in what has been done and expect larger things in the future, but in all our plans and expectations let us seek a steady progress upward rather than a sudden transformation.

3. Do we need any more evidence to show that men are more interested in the concrete than in the abstract, that interest tends to localize itself, and that an ideal, when associated with or hidden behind an attractive proposition, stands a much better chance than one left in the air? If any new evidence along this line is needed, it is not being sought in the Rooms of the American Board. The investigation and experience of the past five years point clearly to the advantage of making the foreign missionary appeal definite and concrete. The demand of the time is for a real connection between the donors and the work. Lord Alfred Russel Wallace remarks in one of his books that the ordinary man is incapable of taking in the thought of a million objects the number is so vast; that to talk millions to such a man is to make less of an impression than to use a smaller figure. He says few can realize in terms of responsibility what it means to own a million dollars; and that even our wisest statesmen are not educated up to the realization of what it means to expend ten million dollars on a single battleship. If this is so, can we wonder that the average man in the pews does not become excited over the needs of hundreds of millions of human beings on the other side of the globe whom he never has seen and never will see? As for us, we have ceased to expect the impossible or to attempt to finance the Board on the basis of a millennium already achieved. If a man prefers to be interested in a certain missionary or group of missionaries, or in a certain section of the work, rather than to distribute his interest equally over all the Board is doing, we stand ready to meet him on that ground. We do more than that; we go out and seek men and churches who will form such connections, believing that when once they are brought into the glorious fellowship of this work it will be a comparatively easy matter to develop their interest. We follow the line of least resistance.

Having reached this conclusion from the study of human nature, we are not surprised to find that the interests of the Board lie in the same direction. The more individuals we can find who will support sections of our work, the more stable becomes our income. It should be possible eventually to have our entire salary account

and the appropriations for our general work subscribed in advance. The Apportionment Plan of benevolence takes up this principle as applied to churches, and by suggesting definite sums to be raised enables us to assign workers or shares in stations with easy grace. The Apportionment Plan and the Station Plan make excellent partners. They offer much

hope for the future.

4. Missionary people, by the nature of the case, are idealists. They should be on their guard lest they become impracticable idealists, arguing about missionary measures from their own mental states and nobility of character, rather than from a comprehensive view of human nature. It is easy for us to demand a quality and degree of interest in others which it is not reasonable to expect when we take into consideration their antecedents and education. The problem of the Board, on the home side, is to understand the mental and spiritual attitudes of a large mass of people - the great Congregational constituency, centering in a church membership now numbering over 700,000, scattered in all parts of the country, of many types, and of divergent local interests. In adapt

ing our measures to this complicated constituency, our standpoint should not be the ideas and preferences of the few who are already deeply interested in the work, but of the great mass who care for none of these things. Our problem is not the one-tenth who give to the Board, but the nine-tenths who do not give. Too often we have

studied the problem as though all Congregationalists were New Englanders, born and brought up in the atmosphere of foreign missions. Alas! we cannot even count upon New Englanders in these days of changing populations and races. There is a new New England as truly as there is a New West. In each generation the work must be done over again in the light of human nature as it then exists, not as we would like to suppose it to be. In planning for advance let us keep true to every high ideal, but let us have our feet on the ground. Let us strive to know the people of our churches in their own world of thought and interest, and so adapt our missions to actual rather than to imaginary conditions.

Giving in Four Figures

We propose as one of the leading lines of work for the new year the building up of a list of persons who will make an annual contribution to the Board of $1,000 or more. The idea of "The Four Square League" which was developed at the St. Louis convention of the Laymen's Missionary Movement last winter is full of possibilities. Without encumbering ourselves with any new machinery, but simply utilizing our present agencies, by quiet work throughout the year we should be able to secure such a list of large and regular contributors as will materially advance our receipts. Already we have a goodly number of such persons, and we can say from accurate knowledge that these men and women who are able to give in four figures are obtaining a large degree of satisfaction from the arrangement. Most of them are supporting a missionary family or are standing behind some particular institution or branch of the work. We stand ready to make assignments for $1,000 donations, or of smaller sums, and we guarantee to the donor a close, personal touch with the workers. There is joy, there is profit in this arrangement, and we earnestly hope that at this centennial meeting a number of friends may come forward and offer to place their names on the subscription list for generous amounts. A score of such persons will accomplish as much for the finances of the Board during the coming year as perhaps a thousand churches making an increase in the usual way. We must have, of course, enlarged giving on the part of the many through the church offering, but the times and the requirements of the work also call for men and women who will do large things in a personal way. Let the centennial meeting be noteworthy as starting such a movement and it will inaugurate the new century

in a most worthy manner. We recommend that the Board take some appropriate action at this meeting looking to increasing the number of large individual contributors, and we would express the hope that the Corporate Members themselves will coöperate earnestly with the officers of the Board in making this effort a success.

APPENDIX

Missionary Appointments

South Africa Mission: Rev. John P. Dysart, Sidney Dart (sailing delayed).

West Central Africa: Miss Janette E. Miller (W. B. M. I.).

Western Turkey: Rev. Charles H. Holbrook, Miss Nellie A. Cole (W. B. M.), Dr. and Mrs. J. K. Marden (Mrs. Marden reappointed). Central Turkey: Miss Edith Cold (W. B. M. I.), Dr. and Mrs. Cyril Haas, Rev. Darwin A. Leavitt, Dr. and Mrs. F. D. Shepard, Dr. Caroline F. Hamilton.

Eastern Turkey: Rev. and Mrs. Ernest Riggs.

Marathi: Miss Gertrude Harris (W. B. M.).

Madura: Rev. Lawrence C. Powers.

Foochow: Rev. Fred P. Beach, Rev. Leonard J. Christian, Miss Irene Dornblaser (W. B. M.), Miss Mary B. May (W. B. M., sailing delayed), Miss Gertrude Blanchard.

South China: Miss Ruth Mulliken (W. B. M. I.).

North China: Rev. and Mrs. Robert E. Chandler, Rev. Murray S. Frame, Rev. and Mrs. Harry S. Martin, Miss Isabelle Phelps (W. B. M.), Miss Edith C. Tallmon (W. B. M. I.), Miss Edith Davis (W. B. M.), Miss M. E. Vanderslice (reappointed), Dr. O. H. Love. Shansi: Miss Grace McConnaughey (W. B. M. I.), Rev. and Mrs. W. F. Tyler (sailing delayed).

Ceylon: Miss Lulú G. Bookwalter (W. B. M.).

Mexico: Miss Lora F. Smith (W. B. M. I.).
Japan: Miss Edith Curtis.

In addition to the above regularly appointed missionaries we are sending out for a limited term of service the following: Mr. Robbins Barstow as tutor at Mardin, Eastern Turkey; Miss Sophie S. Holt (W. B. M.), at Adabazar, Western Turkey; Miss Grace Kellogg (W. B. M.) as teacher to Gedik Pasha, Constantinople, and Mr. Carl Scheibel as business assistant to Mr. W. W. Peet at Constantinople; Miss Mary D. Uline (W. B. M. I.), Erzroom; Mrs. Alice

Inman (W. B. M. I.), Kobe College; Miss Rachel Coan (W. B. M. I.), Bombay; Miss Laura McDowell as nurse to Van, Eastern Turkey; Miss Mary Mathewson as nurse to Philippine Islands. The missionaries returning to their respective fields have been as follows:

South Africa: Miss Martha E. Price.

West Central Africa: Miss Diadem Bell.

Western Turkey: Miss Mary L. Graffam, Miss J. L. Jillson. European Turkey: Rev. and Mrs. T. T. Holway, Mrs. G. D. Marsh.

Eastern Turkey: Miss Mary A. C. Ely, Miss Grace H. Knapp, Miss Mary Riggs.

Central Turkey: Dr. Caroline F. Hamilton, Rev. and Mrs. J. E. Merrill.

Marathi: Rev. and Mrs. William Hazen.

Madura: Rev. and Mrs. W. W. Wallace.

Foochow: Rev. and Mrs. Edward H. Smith, Rev. and Mrs. Lewis Hodous.

North China: Miss Mary E. Andrews, Miss Grace Wyckoff, Dr. and Mrs. D. Z. Sheffield.

Shansi: Mrs. Alice M. Williams, Dr. and Mrs. E. L. Bliss, Mrs. G. M. Newell.

Japan: Miss Alice P. Adams, Dr. and Mrs. Otis Cary.

Philippines. Rev. and Mrs. Robert F. Black.