The Congregational Home Missionary Society has three main sources of income. Legacies furnish, though very irregularly, approximately forty-eight per cent., or $120,000 annually. To avoid fluctuation, when more is received, it is placed in the Legacy Equalization Fund. Investments furnish nine per cent., or about $23,000 annually. Contributions from churches, societies and individuals afford substantially forty-three per cent., or $108,000 annually. For all but eighteen states the treasurer of The Congregational Home Missionary Society receives and expends these contributions. In those eighteen states, affiliated organizations administer home missionary work in co-operation with The Congregational Home Missionary Society. Each of these organizations forwards a percentage of its undesignated receipts to the national treasury. To each of these national treasury forwards a percentage of undesignated contributions from each state respectively. The percentages to The Congregational Home Missionary Society in the various states are as follows: California (North), 5; California (South). 5; Connecticut, 60: Illinois, 25; Iowa, 25; Kansas, 5; Maine, 10; Massachusetts, 33 1-3; Michigan, 15; Minnesota, 5; Missouri, 5; Nebraska, 5; New Hampshire, 50; New York, 10; Ohio, 13; Rhode Island, 20; Vermont, 33; Washington, 3; Wisconsin, 10. CATCHING UP The net increase of nearly fifteen hundred dollars for the month of November over the average of the past three years, is an occasion for encouragement, despite the fact that it still leaves sixteen hundred dollars to the bad for the eight months. We shall look for the wiping out of that figure in December. Do not fail us. Have you thought of the soaring of the cost of living as it affects the seventeen hundred home missionaries? There is no increase in their salaries, unless it be the exceptional case where someone takes the initiative in bringing it about. (Why not be that one in your church?) The Home Missionary Society cannot increase its aid unless the contributions increase. Moreover, the salaries were down to rockbottom, before prices began to rise. There are 1,696 churches in the United. States whose pastors receive less than $800 and parsonage. Many of these receive less than $600, and an equal number who receive larger salaries in dollars are equally inadequately paid because of the surroundings in which they must live. Not less than $50,000 should be added to the home missionary appropriation for pastors' salaries immediately. What ought we to do about it? Address suggestions to the General Secretary. CHURCH BUILDING SOCIETY Office: 287 Fourth Avenue, New York. Charles E. Burton, D.D., General Secretary Church Extension Boards, Charles H. Richards, D.D., Church Building Secretary Charles H. Baker, Treasurer Church Efficiency Secretary, William W. Newell, D.D., 19 So. La Salle St., Chicago, Ill. Field Secretaries, John P. Sanderson, D.D., 19 So. La Salle Street, Chicago, Ill.; William W. Leete, D.D., Room 611, Congregational House, Boston, Mass.; Rev. H. H. Wikoff, 417 Market Street, San Francisco, Cal.; Assistant Field Secretary, Mrs. C. H. Taintor, Clinton, Conn. Happy New Year to all our people! May it be a year of peace and plenty in our country! May it be a year in which the devotion, self-sacrifice, and high Christian purpose of every church member shall shine out with a finer luster than ever! May it be a year of prosperity in all our churches, with a great increase of members, and great achievements in social betterment! May it be a year in which through the practical fellowship of the churches, many a struggling sister church shall be able to secure a house of worship, and many a pastor and his family be housed in a good home! WHAT YOUR MONEY WILL DO In The Congregational Church Building Society $25,000. given to our First Payment Fund for initial work in cities will enable us to double our work at the great danger points of America. $10,000. will create a Named Memorial Fund, named by the donor, interest to be added to principal till the Fund is doubled (in less than fifteen years); this will be a perpetual loan fund. $10,000. given to our Church Loan Fund will help to complete two great churches in cities now seeking our aid; and after repayment, in constant rotation will help to build many others. $8,000. given to our Grant Fund would complete four churches in impor $ 6,000. tant centers. given to our Parsonage Loan Fund would complete twelve parsonages for ministers and their families eagerly waiting for our aid; and later will help build many other parsonages. $ 5,000. will pay last bills, half grant and half loan, on a beautiful new church in a University city of the Middle West, a most strategic point. $ 4,000. $ 3,000. $ 2,500. will complete two excellent churches in important towns at the heart of the country. will help three foreign-speaking churches of New Americans to secure their church homes. will help two important California churches to finish greatly needed houses of worship. $1,000. will give three parsonages to three churches earnestly appealing for our aid, whose pastors and their families are in distress and anxiety till we can help them. $ 1,000. will help complete a first-rate parsonage for a devoted missionary in Montana. $ $ $ $ 700. will pay last bills on the house of worship for a young church, four years old, in South Dakota. 600. will help an excellent colored church in Texas complete a comfortable home for its pastor. 500. will pay the grant asked by a very promising church in California. 400. will pay a parsonage loan to any one of seven churches now appealing for help to shelter the pastor. Will you take one as your own? $ 350. $ $ $ $ $ 300. will pay the grant on a $2,000 church in Minnesota where there is no other church. will enable an earnest German church in Colorado to secure a home for its pastor. 250. will give a good parsonage to one of our best ministers in California. 200. 125. 100. will enable us to come to the rescue of a struggling church in the Texas Pan-handle. will help a little church in Alabama to give a satisfactory home to its minister. sent to us by each of ten donors will enable us to pay last bills on three parsonages. What a grand opportunity this offers to "wise and willing hearted" men and women who would like to help the struggling pastors, and their heroic and self-sacrificing co-workers! Checks may be sent to Charles H. Baker, Treasurer of the Congregational Church Building Society, 287 Fourth Avenue, New York City. A CHURCH ETIQUETTE S long as there are churches, there will be a church etiquette, and very many who would not think for a moment of offending at a social function, do not seem at all concerned when attending a sacred service. The following rules form a good foundation: 1. If possible, be in time. You need at least five minutes, after coming, to get warm or cool, to compose your body and mind, and to whisper a prayer before the service begins. 2. Never pass up the aisle during prayer or Scripture reading. If you do, your presence will distract the minds of many in the audience. 3. Be devout in every attitude. All whispering should be studiously avoided. Find the hymn, and sing it if you can. Share the book with your neighbor. If in a strange church, conform to its customs of worship. 4. If the sermon has begun, take a seat near the door, no matter if you are "at home." 5. Be thoughtful for the comfort of others. Take the inside of the pew if you are the first to enter, and leave all vacant space at the end next to the aisle. 6. Speak a bright, cheery word to as many as possible at the close of the service. If you are a stranger, ask one of the ushers to introduce you to the pastor or to some of the church officers. This will always insure you a hearty welcome. 7. Never stoop for your hat during the closing hymn, do not throw the song-book on the floor, and do not make a rush for the door immediately after the benediction is pronounced. There should be no loud talking and jesting after the service is concluded. They are as much out of place in the house of God as at a house of mourning.-Presbyterian Journal. AGES Do you know what we are doing for ministers and their families in the far northwest? Look at this trio of parsonages, anyone might be happy to live in one of these attractive homes. The one at the top of the page is in Hardin, Montana, that state of magnificent distances, great ranches, and enterprising people. We helped the church first to build its church, and then its manse. The next one is in Colfax, Wash., about fifty miles south of Spokane, where we also helped to complete the church. The lower one is in Salem, Oregon, where our "Forefathers Fund" helped to complete the church more than half a century ago. EDUCATION SOCIETY Office: 14 Beacon Street, Boston, Mass. President, Clarence F. Swift, D.D.; Vice-President, Charles R. Brown, D.D.; Secretary, Rev. Frank M. Sheldon; Assistant Secretary, Rev. Edward S. Tead; Treasurer, Samuel F. Wilkins. GIRLS' DORMITORY, WARREN HALL way twenty-seven miles north. We had entered the home missionary field in 1891, and it seemed imperative to us to educate the bright boys and girls we found near our four preaching stations. The first class taught was started when the first shovelful of earth was dug for the foundation and has con over lumber?" Ans. "Chairs and tables." "Must plaster necessarily cover walls?" Ans. "Not at all; building paper will do." "What are the essentials of a bedstead?" Ans. "Springs and legs to raise them from the floor." "How can you heat a four-story |