246 MONEY AND THE KINGDOM. 



Of course a great deal of money was given to various 

 benevolences of which there could be no record, but 

 $6,717,000 represents approximately what was given 

 through the regular denominational channels for home 

 missions, which is an average of fifty-six cents per 

 member. If, however, we include the several hundred 

 thousand church members whose denominations report 

 no home missionary contributions, and bear in mind that 

 a considerable portion of the above sum was given 

 by chvirch-goers who were not church-members and that 

 another large portion was made up of legacies — the gifts 

 of the dead — we may fairly say that the home mission- 

 ary contributions of the evangelical church-membership 

 in 1890 did not average more than fifty cents per caput. ^ 

 But many thousands give a dollar each, which means 

 that as many thousands more give nothing. There are 

 some thousands who give ten dollars; and for every 

 thousand of this class there are nineteen thousand who 

 do not give anything. Dr. Cuyler says he once had a 

 seamstress in his church who used to give a hundred 

 dollars a year to missions. Not a few out of larger 

 means, give as much ; and, for every one of them, there 

 are one hundred and ninety-nine who give nothing. 

 Some give five thousand dollars ; and for each of them 

 there are ten thousand church-members who do not give 

 one cent to redeem this land for which He, with whom 

 they profess to be in sympathy, gave His life. There are 

 hundreds of churches that do not give anything to home 

 or foreign missions ; and of those that do many members 

 give nothing. A church in Hartford gave eleven hun- 

 dred dollars to home missions. One lady said to 

 another: "Didn't we do well this morning?" "No; not 

 as a church," was the reply; "for one lady gave six 



of small denominations which, so far as I can learn, have no regular denom- 

 inational channels through which they give to home missionary objects. If 

 the gifts of these denominations to missions could be ascertained, they 

 would not very materially change our total. 



1 This is a decided advance on ten years before, when home and foreign 

 missions together received only about fifty cents for each church-member. 



