COMMITTEE OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL ON REV. EDWARD HAWES, D.D., field secRETARY, HARTFORD, CONN. To the National Council of the Congregational Churches of the United States. Fathers and Brethren: For the first time since the formation of your Committee on Ministerial Relief, its report will be made with a new voice. For seven years Dr. N. H. Whittlesey was its representative. With what unsurpassed devotion to the work in hand, with what ardor and with what success he labored, our churches know. Sympathetic, cheerful, tactful, enriched with power of effective utterance, he was your messenger to the churches throughout the country. In a very real sense he gave his life for those whom in their time of need he carried on his heart. Few, if any, know in how many homes of poverty and sorrow he will be held in lasting and affectionate remembrance. Broken in health, because he tried to do too much, and did it, for months he waited and hoped for renewal of strength, but early in this year God took him to serve elsewhere. The following is the report of his work since April 30, 1898. "Dr. Whittlesey travelled in the interests of the Ministerial Relief Fund during the following 18 months about 27,000 miles, addressing and taking collections in 135 churches and 31 associations, besides visiting many of our honored beneficiaries, speaking in ministers' meetings, prayer-meetings, and Theological Seminaries. During this period he went West four times, including the trip to the Pacific coast when he read his last report before the Council. While in California he preached in nearly every important church in that State. The value of these semiannual journeys through the various Western States, meeting the pastors at associations, securing their interest and preaching in their pulpits, is fully attested by the steady stream of contributions which flow into the Ministerial Relief Fund treasury from these sources. Previous to his illness he addressed in six weeks, in Minnesota and Iowa principally, 26 churches and associations. In 1 Page 22. October, 1899, he had a second attack of aphasia which was followed by sixteen months of nervous prostration. In December of the same year, he sent out a brief and earnest appeal which was followed by an unusual number of invitations to preach, and by contributions from 82 new churches in 1900. While on his way home from North Carolina, greatly improved, as was supposed, in health, he was suddenly stricken with acute Bright's disease in Washington, D. C., where he died Feb. 20, 1901." During Dr. Whittlesey's illness and since his death, his office work, corresponding with beneficiaries, and distribution of literature has been carried on by members of his family. Since October, 1900, Rev. Edward Hawes has occupied the place of Field Secretary, and Mrs. N. H. Whittlesey that of Corresponding Secretary for the Ministerial Relief Committee. Since the present Field Secretary took up the work, in addition to statements sent to the papers, he has prepared a circular letter, of which 2500 copies were sent to pastors, and an 8-page leaflet, of which 3000 copies have been distributed. He has spoken in 45 churches, and has addressed one association in Massachusetts. Contributions in places where he has spoken amount to about $3,000. The sum contributed for ministerial relief from April 30, 1898, to July 31, 1901, is $27,030.87. The number of beneficiaries helped in 1898-1899 was 59; in 1899-1900, 61; in 1900-1901, 58. Of these 25 were ministers, 31 were widows, and two were orphans. total number of persons or families to whom grants were made from April 30, 1898, to July 31, 1901, was 89-51 ministers, 36 widows, 2 orphans. The oldest among those aided was 96, and the youngest was 27 years of age. The largest grant made during the past. three years was $202.29, and the smallest was $5. Altogether the amount was $17,418.87. The amount of literature printed and distributed from 1898 to 1901 is as follows: Seventy-five hundred National Council Reports for 1898, 15,000 collection envelopes, 29,000 leaflets, 30,000 hymn cards, and 8800 circulars. To the list of contributing churches 295 have been added. The total salaries and expenses have been $13,593.10. The The amount of the National Fund, as it stands to-day, is $125,135.07. A bequest of $5,000 has recently been made. With this added, the increase of the fund since the last meeting of the Council has been in round numbers $20,000. With regard to the use of its income your committee desire to say that the duty has been constantly recognized of exercising great care in the distribution made to applicants for aid. Letters from pastors and others to whom the condition of those in need has been known furnish abundant proof that this has not been lacking. Evidence has been repeatedly given also of reluctance on the part of those who were poor and suffering to ask for help. In a letter from one who knows the facts, he says: 66 A sad case at hand. Can you help her? She is alone, friendless, poor, and with greatly impaired health. A serious heart trouble, together with her worry and absolutely penniless condition, make her indeed an object of tender pity." One in such condition of sore need writes herself: 'God knows I hate to ask for more help now, but I don't know where to turn." A minister trying to live on $8 per month writes: "I am still helpless, and if I could get a little more it would be a godsend to me. It is very humilating for me to be thus dependent, but I try to be as reconciled as possible." One afflicted woman speaks for many in saying: "The dear Lord has permitted that mine should be the ministry of suffering. Be assured that it would be more desirable to minister to others than to receive help." The heart must be hard that is not touched by the words of an old minister, one of the more recent applicants for aid, who was a missionary among the Indians for forty years, and who is now more than eighty-five years of age, one of whose daughters is an epileptic and requires constant care, while her sister is in danger of breaking down under the weight of the burdens upon her. Among his own words are these: "I want to say that if it is not inconvenient I would be much obliged if the committee could grant me $50, first instalment. I am behind some, despite our utmost economy. I only say if it is not inconvenient." Another writes: "Your letter found me sick with a severe attack of La Grippe. My wife is an invalid and has been the most of the time in bed for six years past. I am totally blind in one eye and the other is going fast. I have tried to make a living by keeping bees and chickens, but the honey crop is an utter failure this year. As you say, the calls are very many and urgent, and no doubt there are some more needy than myself. I rather withdraw my request and trust to the Lord." Another writes: "In my large necessities I began to fear that the Society had forgotten me, but am glad they have not. They would deem it out of place to apologize because I continue to live; but living, my mouth craveth bread." Concerning another worn-out minister one writes: "It is two years and a half since he was stricken with paralysis, and has not been able to do anything, or earn one dollar, during that time. He has used up all his means, and lost some. He will never be able again to do any kind of labor." In answer to inquiries he wrote himself: "I am in great need, am practically deaf in both ears, can't speak above a whisper, am helpless and miserable. God pity me! What the future has for me God only knows." A letter written in a sanitarium comes from a minister, who says: "I have taken collections for the cause for years, and had a heart for the brethren who had fallen in the work, but I never thought I should need help. My family consists of a wife, who is very frail, a son, and an aged father-in-law. My salary stopped in March, but expenses have doubled, and my life depends on staying here for a time. I am anxious for my family, and anxiety is my worst hindrance in getting well, for I do not know how we shall get through the coming year." A widow writes concerning a promise made by Dr. Whittlesey, that she should receive $150 during the year, and adds: "He sent a draft of $75. I have since received a letter from him in which he says it is not certain that the society can furnish me with any more during the year. I do not know how we can live without it. You cannot know what this is to me. It is bread when we are hungry, and fire when we are cold. I have a young granddaughter living with me whose mother died last March. I have a son who is in the South for his health, and can do nothing for us.". This widow's husband was a pioneer worker in the West. He took a prominent part in raising money and selecting the site for the buildings of Fargo College. For ten years, he was one of its trustees. The record is that in one town he paid off a large debt on the church. In another he raised money and built a parsonage and church, dedicated free of debt. In still another he did the same thing. Then he lived the life of an invalid till God made him whole and gave him immortal strength. Surely such as he, whose sacrifice and service in preaching the gospel and in planting Christian institutions have, under God, determined the destiny of the nation, and those who have shared their toils and privations, deserve somewhat at the hands of those whose servants, for Christ's sake, they have been. The appeal on behalf of those whose way can be made smoother and whose burdens can be lightened is not based upon the fact of individual privation and suffering. It is made to the sense of justice that ought to characterize the thinking and the conduct of those who profess to believe the truth that they who preach the gospel shall live of the gospel. "Even so," says the apostle, "did the Lord ordain." And they may preach most effectively by their patience and their trust when their voice is no longer heard in the pulpit. Your committee thankfully recognize the value of the work done in behalf of our needy ministers and members of their households by different organizations in nineteen States, and earnestly desire that the measure of it may be increased until in any of these households there shall be no painful anxiety with regard to the supply of physical necessities. At the same time we raise the question, What about those in all the other States who do well if, with strictest economy, they keep out of debt, and whose salaries cannot enable them to lay up anything for the future? Certainly, if there be reasons why there should be a source of ministerial relief for those who are in one part of the country, there are reasons why there should be such a source for those who are in any part of it. By all means let those who are in want, within the limits of any State, be suitably cared for by the churches within the same limits, if this be possible. But the practical denial of the duty of the stronger, in view of the needs of the weaker, would be the negation of essential Christianity. Whatever the kind of activity may be, it can never be enough to be mindful simply of home interests. The work of the Congregational churches, in caring for their aged and disabled ministers, is one whose sweep, in the very nature of the case, is national. Bear with us, brethren, if we seek to stir up your pure minds, by way of remembrance. Nothing can be more familiar than these truths. (a) The Church of Christ, by reason of its teaching and the deeds which embody in some measure the spirit of its living Head, is, under God, the source of influences whose perfect working will transform the world and make all things new. Upon the exertion of these influences depend the safety and the glory of the nation. (6) Furthermore, involved in the existence of the church, are the presence and the service of those who are set apart for the special work of administering its sacraments and expounding and enforcing the truth of which it is the ground and pillar. This, of course, is a mere axiom. |