B. L. AGNEW, D.D., CORRESPONDING SECRETARY Failure of the Real Estate Trust time and their best talents, their energies and Company Some of the annuitants of the Board of Relief, we learn, are anxious to know whether their payments will be delayed, or cut down, on account of the closing of the doors of the Real Estate Trust Company of Philadelphia. We are glad to be able to assure them that neither of these dreaded things will take place. All payments will be made in full during the year, and all payments will be made promptly. By far the larger part of the Permanent Funds of the Board of Relief are in the hands of the Board itself. Although our "Strong Box" is kept in the vault of the Real Estate Trust Company, no persons are ever allowed to have access to it but members of the Board. The mortgages kept there are all in the name of the Board of Relief, and the few bonds owned by the Board are all Registered, and neither mortgages nor bonds are negotiable without a vote of the Board, and they are all now safe and intact in its custody. The Board happened to have a large deposit of money in the Trust Company when it failed. We always have to keep about $25,000 in bank to meet our monthly payments, but when the bank suspended payment, we had $48,000 deposits there. A large part of this sum the Board had already promised to loan on mortgages and two checks were drawn for the amounts asked, but before the persons were ready to meet all the conditions of these loans, the Trust Company closed its doors. Will this money be lost? No, we are happy to say, for we are assured that the depositors will all be paid dollar for dollar in the near future. The Directors of the Board of Relief to whom you have committed the sacred trust of receiving and distributing the offerings made to God for Ministerial Relief, have watched over these funds under a deep sense of their responsibility and with a warm-hearted interest in their sacred trusteeship. They love the work and they consecrate unsparingly their their business knowledge and experience to the interests of the Board. They feel in the very depths of their souls that they are engaged in a Godlike mission, as they carry on the quiet work of showing to the needy and deserving the Church's love for her faithful servants in the most delicate way in which it is possible to administer the sacred trust of fathering the fatherless, mothering the motherless, husbanding the widow, and relieving the burdened hearts of the aged men of God, who are cut off from all income, as their weary souls oftentimes make them listen eagerly for the sound of their own footfalls on the border land as they are nearing their journey's end, anticipating their eternal release from all the anxieties and cares of an insufficiently provided for old age. Funds in the Hands of the Trus tees of the General Assembly On the 1st of April, 1906, the Trustees of the General Assembly held in trust for the Board of Relief $350,539.85. As the dead President of the Real Estate Trust Company was Treasurer of the Board of Trustees and had charge of all the securities of the Board, it was feared that a large part. of these securities might have been hypothecated for his individual indebtedness. Access has been given to the Committee on Accounts to visit the vaults of the Trust Company, and all the mortgages held by the Trustees were found in their proper place, and all the nego tiable securities, stocks and bonds, were also found in the safe, except two sets of bonds purchased for $29,775. Vollum, Fernley and Vollum, Certified Public Accountants of Philadelphia, examined the accounts of Frank K. Hipple, Treasurer of the Trustees of the General Assembly, up to March 31, 1906, and certified that they approved the same as "correct in all particulars." They found a cash balance of $3,900.50 duly deposited to the credit of the Trustees in the Real Estate Trust Company; and they also certified that they had examined all the securities, bonds and mortgages and other evidences of property. belonging to the Trustees, and found them as set forth in the Treasurer's Report amounting to $960,056.39, deposited in the vaults of the Trust Company. The accumulated interest since April 1st, 1906, increases the deposit to $19,000. When the Committee on Accounts examined the securities of the Trustees since the closing of the doors of the Trust Company they found everything in the vaults as above certified, except the bonds which were purchased for $29.775. From the foregoing statements, if the depositors are paid in full as we are reliably assured they will be, the loss to the Trustees will not be more than about $30,000. There is still a hope that this loss may be considerably decreased. The Trustees of the General Assembly have authorized the following general statement to be made to the Church. STATEMENT. In order to answer many inquirers, and to relieve the anxiety of the Church, the "Trustees of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America," have authorized the undersigned members of the Board to make the following statement: Careful examination shows that the great bulk of the investments of the Trustees. amounting to $963,000, is intact. The entire loss through the malfeasance of the late Treasurer is not likely to exceed $30,000. The suspension of the Real Estate Trust Company has involved the deposit account of the Trustees, amounting to $19,000, the whole of which, at the present time, it is hoped will be saved. The utmost caution that experience can suggest, is being used to protect and preserve all the securities in the hands of the Trustees. In behalf of the Board of Trustees. HENRY C. MCCOOK, Philadelphia, Sept. 7th, A. D. 1906. God's Financial System The Church of Christ would make a tremendous advance on its present benevolence if her communicants could be induced to give one-tenth of their income to all the objects of Christian beneficence; but under the Mosaic law the church members were required to give one-tenth of their increase to the ministers of religion alone, besides what they gave to other Church benevolences. In comparison with the church members of the olden time what a small portion of their increase church members give to clergymen to-day in order that they may be free from worldly cares and avocations to devote themselves wholly to prayer and the ministry of the Word! So far as we can discover, the law stands unrepealed that the tenth is the Lord's. Under the heading of "God's Financial System," The Churchman published the following beautiful and significant stanzas: One-tenth of ripened grain, From ten-tenths rain and shine. One-tenth of lowing herds That browse on hill and plain, One-tenth of bleating flocks For ten-tenths shine and rain. One-tenth of all increase From counting room and mart, One-tenth that science yields, One-tenth of every art. One-tenth of loom and press, One-tenth of glowing words That glowing dollars hold, One-tenth of written thoughts That turn to shining gold. One-tenth! and dost Thou, Lord, But ask this meagre loan, When all the earth is Thine, And all we have Thine own? JOHN F. HILL, D.D., COR. SEC. PERMANENT COMMITTEE Official Anti-Drink Posters The promoters of intemperance have long industriously utilized the bill-board. Now they are finding their guns turned upon themselves. In some parts of this country the bill-board is being used to proclaim the truth regarding the nature and effects of beer and whiskey, instead of the usual lies with which the brewer and the distiller have deceived the people. Across the Atlantic this movement has made much greater progress, and is not confined to philanthropic societies or individuals, but is being prosecuted by many municipalities. by order of the Government, are published in order to carry out the recommendation of the Committee, and to bring home to men and women the fatal effects of alcohol on physical efficiency. (1) Alcoholism is a chronic poisoning, resulting from the habitual use of alcohol (whether as spirits, wine or beer) which may never go as far as drunkenness. (2) It is a mistake to say that those doing hard work require stimulants. As a fact no one requires alcohol as either food or tonic. (3) Alcohol is really a narcotic, dulling the nerves like opium, but it is more dangerous than either, in that often its first effect is to weaken a man's self-control while his pas sions are excited; hence the number of crimes which occur under its influence. (4) Spirits, as usually taken, rapidly produce alcoholism, but milder alcoholic drinks as beer, and even cider, drunk repeatedly every day, produce after a time alcoholic poisoning with equal certainty. (5) The habit of drinking leads to the ruin of families, the neglect of social duties, disgust for work, misery, theft and crime. It also leads to the hospital, for alcohol produces the most various and the most fatal diseases, including Paralysis, Insanity, diseases of the stomach and liver, and dropsy. It also paves the way to consumption and frequenters of public houses furnish a large proportion of the victims of this disease. It complicates and aggravates all acute diseases: Typhoid Fever. Pneumonia, Erysipelas are rapidly fatal in the subject of alcoholism. (6) The sins of alcoholic parents are visited on the children; if these survive infancy they are threatened with idiocy or Epilepsy, and many are carried away by Tuberculous Meningitis, or Phthisis (Consumption.) (7) In short, alcohol is the most terrible enemy to personal health, to family happiness and to national prosperity. By order of the Health Committee, FORBES ROBERTSON MUTCH, M.D, THE ASSEMBLY HERALD Vol. XII NOVEMBER No. 11 The Assembly Herald and HE ASSEMBLY HERALD holds a peculiar relation to Thanksgiving Day. The HERALD is the family paper of the Presbyterian Church. Its sole reason for existence is to record the work of the children who acknowledge as their spiritual father the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. It is peculiarly appropriate that these several members of the one Presbyterian household should gather on Thanksgiving Day around the family hearthstone and record the goodness of the Lord. The purpose of this Thanksgiving number of the HERALD is to set before the whole Church her causes for gratitude, to give a vision of the greatness of the work done, and to awaken new desires for still larger service in the year to come. The country has been blessed with great temporal harvests, so has the Church been enriched with spiritual blessings. The The Assembly Herald and Thanksgiving Day Union with the Cumberland Church consummated during the year is the prophecy of the greater unity yet to come between the various branches of the Presbyterian family. It is in the air. It is already an assured fact in the foreign field. Witness India, China, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Brazil. Union with the Cumberland Church means increased burdens for the Boards of Church Erection, the College Board, Education, Ministerial Relief, Home Board-possibly all the Boards, but it spells also increased opportunity. Praise the Lord for it! With Union has come the largest increase in converts at home or abroad in many a year. In the foreign field alone nearly ten thousand added on confession of faith. There has also been increase along many lines. The College Board shows contribution of $1,600,000, the largest in its history; the Board of Ministerial Relief rejoices that "Whilst the roll of the Board is constantly increasing, the contributions received enable the Board to pay all the appropriations fully and promptly and in advance"; while the Board of Church Erection, with pardonable pride, affirms that on this Thanksgiving Day "at least two hundred congregations among Presbyterians will for the first time hold their festival service in their own church homes." What a record for a single year! Pastors and parents have also shown a greater interest than formerly in the deeper things of the Kingdom. The "More laborers for the harvest" seem to be on the way to the fields. The Board of Education has been compelled to call in "extra clerks and stenographers to keep abreast of the work." New applications come in every mail from young men with the ministry in view"a bran' new lot of them, eager for service." All of which calls for increased prayer and increased offerings, but also for increased thanksgiving. The splendid coöperation shown by the College men in the cause of education, by the members of the Evangelistic Committee, and by pastors and elders in the work of soul saving, the expansion of the tent work in many cities, all evidence the rising tide of spirituality in the Church, for which devout thanksgiving should be offered. There is great need. The incoming tide of "New Americans |