been convinced that it would be wise for it to do so; but it prefers to make no final report to the Assembly at this time, and asks for another year in which to give the matter further consideration and investigation.

In the Summer of 1906, the Board addressed to the various Missions a communication on the Distinct Missionary Responsibility of the Presbyterian Church on the foreign field, in which an attempt was made to define in general terms the measure of the obligation of our Church, and to suggest the various practical considerations which must be kept in mind in working out a comprehensive missionary policy. This letter and the replies of the Missions have been printed in a paper book for the information of the Board and the Missions and the Church. What action should be taken upon them can only be determined by the Board after further consultation with the Missions and the most careful and prayerful consideration. It is clear that boundless opportunities for world evangelization are before the Church at the present time; that these opportunities constitute grave responsibilities; that while the precise number of missionaries that will be needed to discharge these responsibilities cannot be exactly calculated, and while no emphasis on the number needed should be allowed to obscure the importance of our laying full responsibility upon the native churches and developing the native agents, who must be the chief forces in the evangelization of their own people; nevertheless many more missionaries of the highest character and ability must be sent, and immediate enlargement of the missionary contributions of the Church is required, if the men and women are to be sent and the institutions are to be developed which will raise up the men and women on the field who will coöperate with us, and with whom we must coöperate, in order that the whole world may hear of Him in whom life was provided for all mankind.

There are many and grave problems of Mission policy and administration awaiting solution by the Board and the Missions, but no problem is more pressing or more grave than the problem of a more adequate support of the work-a problem whose solution rests chiefly with the individual pastor and the individual member of the Church.

TREASURER'S REPORT.

More money was contributed this year for Foreign Missions through this Board than during any previous year in its history, the total amount, including legacies, being $1,314,213.51. Of this sum churches gave $586,923.78, or an increase of $91,147.62 over 1906-07, and $237,738 more than they gave five years ago. This gain is exceedingly gratifying, since the churches must always

be considered the main reliance of our work.

The expenditure for the entire work of the Board for the present year, 1907-08, amounted to $1,455,017.03, and the total receipts and credits were $1,347,265.20, leaving a deficit of $107,751.83. Of the amount appropriated $40,000 was spent in the work taken over from the Cumberland Church, while there has been received from former Cumberland churches to apply in this work a considerably less amount. This accounts for a part of the deficit. There has been received from the legacy account, always a more or less uncertain source, about $29,000 less than last year, and this has increased the deficit. But the main reasons for appropriations running $107,000 ahead of receipts is that approximately $200,000 was received which had to be applied for various special purposes in the foreign field by direction and insistence of donors.

The year 1906-07 closed with a surplus of receipts over expenditures. However, there was carried over from 1904-05 and 1905-06 a deficit amounting to $92,146.65, against which a net credit was applied amounting to $64.85, leaving a net deficit, carried over, of $92,081.80. ́ ́Adding this to the deficit of the year just closed, we have a deficit of $199,833.63. In addition to this deficit there existed a number of old and doubtful accounts that had been carried on the books in the hope of recovery; these items have now been written off, under authority of the Board, and have increased the deficit by $18,214.20, making the deficit $218,047.83. By the same authority the General Reserve Fund, amounting to $47,316.28, has been eliminated as a liability, since it has already disappeared, having been absorbed in the deficit. By this action the deficit is reduced by the amount of the Fund, the net deficit standing at $170,731.55.

An analysis of the expenses of the year will be found in Schedule 5 of the Report. The percentage of disbursements in New York on account of Mission work to the total sum received for the work are as follows: