HOW TO MANAGE CHURCH FINANCE.

No. XII.-Methods of getting rid of Chapel Debts.

BY A "LIVE" DEACON.

EXPERIENCE is the only qualified teacher as to the best methods of accomplishing so desirable a result as the emancipation of the house of God from the oppressive burden of debt. Sound principles any ordinarily reflective mind may suggest; but the details of "the way of doing it" should be framed by one who has presided over their actual working, and seen the effects of their operation. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I have only a slender stock of experience; fortunately, or unfortunately, it rarely happens to a deacon, whose propensities for roving are weak, to officiate in connection with more than one "operation" for setting the oppressed free. And therefore I am reduced to the necessity of citing the experience of others.

Certain plans are obvious. For example, borrow as large a sum as you can from some fund that lends money free of interest, and requires regular and methodical payment of stipulated amounts. The so-called Building Funds, which ought to be called the Chapel Debt Removing Funds, are amongst the best institutions we have; and were they not necessarily so homely, mechanical, and matter-of-fact in their movements, and could get the appreciation they deserve, they would rouse more enthusiasm than missions at home and abroad. This is hardly likely to be the case. Churches and Associations, like nations, are not governed by logic; and a work that deals with plain, obvious, ringing pounds, shillings, and pence; merely saves interest, and facilitates the removal of a debt; makes no appeal to sentiment or imagination; must be content with doing immense good; and let other organizations rejoice in the applause of excited crowds and the warm praise of fervid orators. Nevertheless, a deacon with a debt to remove cannot do better than go, cap in hand, to the Committee of such a Fund, say, as our Union Baptist Building Fund, and abstract a loan as large as he can get.

Next come Bazaars, Christmas Trees, and the like; of course, honestly conducted, and with strict regard for fairness, justice, and integrity. Handsome sums have been "wiped" off by "plying the needle and thread," or setting in motion a congregation of "Wilcox and Gibbs", for the production of garments useful and ornamental; garments for children, who, by wearing out some things and growing out of others, are always needing new clothes; garments for young men and maidens, and indeed for everybody. Woman's power in the church is set to fine issues when it lifts £500 weight off a chapel. Not a few deacons, bowed down with the burden of chapel debt, have regained the perpendicular under this nimble-fingered and cheerful ministry.

One of the oldest ways of dealing with a debt is that of special appeals for promises of sums to be paid within a given time: and our experience suggests this to be one of the best for churches having a large proportion of members not of the weekly wage-earning class, and who can afford to give at one stroke, sums ranging from a sovereign and upwards. This method is commended by its simplicity, its quietness, and its effectiveness. It is not necessary to have more than two meetings about it; and those may be made of a most joyous and helpful character.

Another method is of issuing collecting cards; organizing an army of Christian maidens, placing them under skilled captains, and gathering weekly or monthly payments from every one who is willing to give. For gathering small sums with regularity from persons in receipt of weekly wages, this is the most effective method possible. A paper in this year's Congregationalist contains so good a "case" in point, that I take the liberty of citing it, merely remarking that a "live" deacon would want to know how the ordinary and, so to speak, house-keeping" expenses went on meanwhile. Had this church a pastor? If so, did he suffer, and to what extent? Had the church fund a deficit at the end of the year? I know it is not desirable to be too anxious about such things;

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but it is important that arrangements for removing debts from chapels should be so made as not to saddle one on churches.

But to the case. The writer says,—

"Not long ago we were called in to advise with regard to the reduction of a debt of £600. It was a heavy burden upon a people who were not rich, and who had already exhausted themselves by their liberality. We proposed that the balance should be liquidated by a special subscription of £100 a year fairly distributed over the people. The deacons shook their heads. 'Can you find,' we asked, 'two of your number who will give to this object say half-a-crown a week?' 'Oh, yes.' 'And three who will give two shillings? 'Yes.' 'And three who can give eighteenpence, and three fifteenpence, and ten a shilling, and twenty sixpence, and ten twopence, and ten a penny ?' 'Oh yes, I think we can manage that.' 'Well, that's all that is needed,' we replied; that's £100 a year.' 'Nonsense,' exclaimed a sceptical deacon, smiling; 'that will never make £100 a year. We could raise that easily enough, but we couldn't raise £100 a year.' 'Well,' we rejoined, 'let us work out this little sum, and as, according to the accepted theory, we ministers are never men of business, and you deacons always are, you will be able to show where the error lies.' So, sitting down to a school-room desk, we set to work, our friend the deacon being sure that there must be a mistake somewhere.' And thus it stood:

:

Yearly.
£12 0 0
14 8 0
10 16 0

900

24 0 0
24 0 0

3 11

1 18 0

£100 1 0

"The only inaccuracy,' we remarked, 'in this estimate is that it brings in a shilling too much; and in the fact that by the proper estimate of fifty-two weeks in a year instead of forty-eight, a still larger sum would be realised.' 'Well,' replied our friend the deacon, as he scrutinised and rescrutinised the figures, 'I confess I am surprised. I have no doubt we can find the required number of contributors, and for the required amounts; but I should never have supposed that by comparatively so small an effort so large a result could be secured.' Our friend had, however, his recompense. He took his colleagues one by one into counsel; found them at first equally unbelieving, and then vanquished them as he had been vanquished, by the cogency of the arithmetic. Elated with the discovery that what had appeared to be impossible was really practicable, we went to the meeting of church and congregation which had been summoned, launched our little scheme, carried the day, secured the required promises, and went our way homewards rejoicing. A year afterwards we had a garden party' in the grounds of a principal contributor, and it was announced that the sum actually received during the twelve months was considerably in excess of the amount expected."

A method of liquidating debts, combining the last-mentioned with the loan principle-only creating, so to speak, a loan fund inside the church,-is that of issuing debentures in the name of the trustees for the amount of the debt; getting them taken up, and paying them off by weekly contributions, and so at once stopping all the interest, and gradually paying off the principal. Here is a case from the same authority, the like of which might easily be multiplied. The debt was £2000, interest £100.

A friend made the following proposal. Suppose, he said, instead of paying this £100 a year in interest, you can borrow the money for a limited period without interest; and that during that period you devote all your energies to the removal of the principal. Merely to obtain release from the interest, say, for seven years, would be worth £700, and that would of itself go a long way towards paying off the principal; while the fact that during that period the church would be relieved from its burden of interest would serve as a powerful

stimulus to liberal effort for the cancelling of the whole. Let debentures be issued. Let weekly contributions be obtained to the amount, say, of about £5 10s. a week; and in seven years the thing will be done.

Accordingly, 200 debentures were prepared in the following manner :—
TRINITY CHURCH DEBENTURES.

No..........

(Name of Town and Date.) We, as Trustees of Trinity Church, do hereby promise to pay to Mr....... or order, the sum of Ten Pounds, without interest, on or before the 24th day of June (date seven years forward).

A meeting was held, the plan was submitted, and the debentures were issued. Many of these were taken up by the members of the congregation, others by friends at a distance, and eventually all were got rid of, and the mortgage was paid off. Meanwhile the contributions of the members of the church and congregation were invited for the regular discharge of the debentures; and so cordial was the appreciation of the plan that within three days after its promulgation £1600 were promised, and within a week nearly the whole amount was undertaken. The Sunday offerings averaged £70 a quarter; and as quarter after quarter ended seven debentures were cancelled. The occasion of cancelling these shares was very interesting. Usually a tea meeting was held; and in the course of the evening the ballot-box was produced. This was provided with two locks and keys, which were kept by two gentlemen, and when it was opened its contents were still concealed by a brown holland bag, fitted into the sides of the box, and drawn together at the top with a string, but having an orifice through which a hand could be passed. In this bag were originally two hundred counters, the numbers of which corresponded with the numbers on the debentures in circulation. Some young gentleman was now invited to come forward and draw one of the counters. He puts his hand through the neck of the bag, draws out a counter, the number of which is, we will say, “ninety-four,” reads the number to the audience, and hands it to the secretary. The secretary refers to his book, and announces that the debenture numbered "ninety-four is held by Mr. So-and-so; and that that debenture will be paid off and cancelled. Six others are drawn in a similar way; the debentures are perhaps then and there produced and cancelled, and the money paid. And thus, quarter by quarter, to the great satisfaction of all the parties concerned, the liabilities of the congregation are steadily liquidated; and the whole remaining debt would have been discharged in the course of two or three remaining years; but happily some special circumstances led to special effort, and the debt came to a close earlier than had been anticipated even by the most sanguine.

A VILLAGE CHURCH.

A REMINISCENCE AND AN APPEAL.

A LETTER I have received to-day carries my thoughts back twenty-three years, when, on a beautiful summer's Sunday afternoon I set out from Beeston to the village of STAPLEFORD, distant a little more than three miles, to try to preach. I was but a lad, with only village experiences, and in much fear and trembling the tremendous task was undertaken. I had twice before battled my way through a discourse in the presence of a public assembly; and with much more ease and courage accomplished a similar work in the hearing of four or five young men. The special horrors of a preaching visit to Stapleford sprang from the fact that it was a journey to the unknown, and who could tell what might be there?

The small room located in an out of the way back yard, reached by means of a back street, is photographed in distinct lines on my memory. The wood-work answering the purpose of a pulpit is in one corner, and when the preacher is in it, the ceiling is so conveniently near that he may use it as a "white" board and score upon it his illustrations, if he has nerve and skill enough. Forms without backs sustain the bodies of some twenty adults; and other forms of like sort are placed to render a similar office for about twoscore of shifty, fidgetty children. The singing is hearty, strong, even vehement, and not overdone with the marks of artistic culture. A good ringing "Amen" breaks the monotony of the one-voiced prayer, and fires the timid speaker with new courage. The sermon is on "faith without works is dead." It is fully written out, and is as fully read. There is no looking round the little room on the part of the speaker, no eye for the audience; the steadfast gaze is on the MS.; and great is the relief when, in a hot perspiration, he utters the customary "Amen," and proceeds to announce the hymn which is to conclude the service.

The sermon was heard in quietness by the patient people. How much we ministers owe to the good folks who listened, or went to sleep, as we gave vent to our slender reading, inexperience, and ambition! I summon hundreds of faces whose owners dwelt in the villages round Nottingham before me as I sit in my study to-day, and as I look at you all I bow my profoundest thanks to you, and marvel that I should ever had the temerity to open my lips to you.

Whether my Stapleford audience went to sleep or not I cannot say. I think they ought to have done so; but certainly they did not vocally assist in the sermon as one did a year and a half afterwards in the neighbouring village of Sandiacre. Then I was fully established as a "local," and had my "appointments." Gradually the amount of written paper for a sermon had been diminishing; and on this occasion I was talking without a fully written discourse about the interview of Christ with Niccdemus, and unfortunately called the latter Nathanael, and instantly a generous soul shouted out at the top of his voice, "Thou mean'st Nicodemus, lad!"

Of course I did; but surely it was not necessary to bellow in that startling way and call everybody's attention to the blunder. Why Canon Liddon himself would be in danger of losing his self-command if a voice like the one I heard that afternoon were to ring through St. Paul's summoning his attention, and that of his audience, to a passing slip. Fortunately for me my little success in preaching had given me enough conceit to drive out the pulpit fever, and so I accepted the correction with a degree of coolness that not only quite surprises me, but I fear would be impossible now.

The visit to Stapleford was repeated again and again, and the little room finds to-day, by reason of hallowed association, a warm place in my memory. The friends of those days formed one of the many branches of Stoney Street, Nottingham. A very slender branch indeed it was; but still a branch with some life in it. Subsequently it was cut off the parent tree and grafted on to the stem of a church nearer-that of Queen Street, Ilkeston. And now, at length, it is a tree separately planted, and healthily growing in the soil of Stapleford.

It consists of thirty-two members, and has several candidates for baptism and church fellowship. It is received into the Association. £150 have been

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paid for an eligible site, £75 being realized by a bazaar in October. A chapel is to be built to seat some 350, for about £800 or £1000: but a start is not to be made till £200 are in hand. The brave people are doing their utmost, and they deserve all the help that it is possible for us to give them. "Never," says my correspondent, "did our villages more require the assistance of our towns than they do now; never were they fighting a harder battle, for priestcraft is in earnest." There is a population of 5,000-i.e., a population larger than not a few southern towns. Here is a good work for us to do. Who will lend a hand? Donations may be sent to Mr. J. Fletcher, Orchard Street, Stapleford, Notts., or Mr. W. Smith, Market Place, Ilkeston, Derbyshire. To receive aid for our friends will be a special pleasure to JOHN CLIFFORD.

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