will hail with delight this unity of effort in the great missionary and benevolent work of our Church, which belongs, by right, to all. This great forward movement includes as well an effort to secure a more permanent and adequate support for the local church. The joint Executive Committee of the Board and the Executive Commission is prepared to aid the various Committees in carrying through to a successful issue this great cooperative plan. The primary end to be obtained, is to secure not only the active cooperation of every member of the Presbyterian Church in supporting in a proper and adequate manner the local church with which each one may be connected, but also the proper support of all causes for which the Presbyterian Church stands committed. This clear recognition of obligation upon every member of the church is independent of the size of the local church with which each one may be connected. To make the detailed canvass of all the members of the Presbyterian Church, as easy and as thorough as possible, the joint Executive Committee have prepared a series of subscription blanks, which can be had in such quantities as may be desired, free upon application. FIRST. A subscription blank for the missionary and benevolent work of the Church to be used by those churches that have already a sufficient and successful method of raising all the money that is necessary for their own local support. These subscription blanks are known as Single Budget Blanks. SECOND.-A subscription blank for those churches which have neither a sufficient and adequate method of Church support, or one that meets the claim of our great Missionary undertaking upon the entire membership of the Church. For these we have a Double Subscription Blank, which can be used by church officers and committees in bringing the entire claim of the local and world-wide work to the attention of every church member and securing their support. THIRD.-A Quarterly Statement Blank, used as a card of information to all subscribers, as to the promptness with which they have met the obligations of the quarter. When properly used, this method is an important contributing factor to correct business habits FOURTH.-The Reminder Blank, to be sent before or after each communion to all new members of the Church, calling their attention to one of the ordinary duties of Church membership, namely the supporting of the Church with which they have connected themselves, and also the supporting of the work for which the Church as a whole stands. FIFTH.-An Annual Subscription Blank, used in place of a yearly canvass. Its special value being to prevent subscribers, through neglect, from falling below their last year's pledge to the support of the Church and for the cause of Missions. SIXTH.-Duplex Envelopes-numbered and dated for each week of the year, arranged consecutively and furnished in multiples of twenty-five, at a nominal expense of 5 cents per package. As the envelopes are kept in stock for immediate supply, the name of the local church is omitted, and these envelopes can only be furnished to begin the quartersJanuary, April, July and October. Monthly or bi-monthly envelopes, or for part of the year, are all at the uniform rate of 5 cents per package. Cartons for containing a package of the envelopes will be furnished at I cent a carton. Expressage or freight is to be met by the church ordering the envelopes. SEVENTH.-Single envelopes, numbered and dated for each week of the year, are furnished for the Missionary and Benevolent Offering at the same terms as the Duplex Envelopes, namely, 5 cents per package. EIGHTH.-Treasurer's Record Sheets, for keeping records of weekly contribution for local support, as well as for benevolences, are furnished free to those churches using the above envelopes. NINTH.-The Budget for the year ending March 31, 1912, with an apportionment blank to be filled out with the several amounts expected from the local church for the various causes. TENTH.-A leaflet, entitled The United Forward Movement, defining the movement and outlining suggestive policies for presbyteries, by Rev. A. H. McGarrat. Any information concerning the Budget System or supplies will be cheerfully furnished by addressing the Secretary, Rev. W. H. Hubbard, D.D., Secretary of the Joint Exe POST THIS NOTICE IN THE Vestibule of the Church. THE MINIMUM BUDGET Expected from the Churches for the Boards and Permanent Agencies of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. for the year ending March 31, 1912. by the Executive Commission or Systematic Beneficence Committee of this Presbytery. (The form of Home Mission Apportionment is necessarily determined by local conditions, therefore fill out accordingly the proper blank or blanks.) It is hoped that each church will deem it a privilege to do its just share in order that the entire budget may be raised. JOHN F. CARSON, Moderator General Assembly and Chairman of the Joint Executive T The Budget and Persia HE Budget number of the Assembly Heraid is a sign of the times. The Presbyterian Church is sensing the spirit of the age. Federation, consolidation, unification, enable modern business men to surpass all records in efficiency, in extraordinary achievement, in bringing the material comforts of life to the door of the humblest toiler. The Church must unify its forces; the Budget Plan aims to do this. It proposes to secure from every member an annual subscription based on a weekly offering for all the causes representing the varied activities of the Church at home and abroad. "It is time we ceased to be a beleaguered garrison, and become an invading army," writes a missionary from Persia. This is true of the work in Persia, and of the whole Church at home and abroad. Never was there such a call from the Foreign Mission field for an all-pull-together effort. In the four months of the present fiscal year the Board has appropriated as much money within ten thousand dollars as was spent during the twelve months of the previous fiscal year. The work demands it. An Every Member Campaign for all the Boards is needed for the sake of the individual church and the large spiritual blessing which will result. It is needed for the sake of the home church since the forces of evil in the home land were never more aggressive than at the present time. It is needed for the worldwide mission of the Presbyterian Church. The 1030 missionaries, the 1700 educational institutions, the 143 hospitals and dispensaries in which were treated last year 487,820 patients, the hundreds of thousands of adherents, make a mighty army of occupation. An aggressive campaign needs a large commissariat. The situation in Persia, while not peculiar, well illustrates the strategic opportunity of the Presbyterian Church in non-Christian lands. A few extracts from recent letters will render this clear. From Teheran: "As to the size of the wonderful opportunity that is now ours there can be no question. As to the extent to which we shall meet that opportunity, there is very great question. It is a question which we pass on to the Board and the home Church. . "The hope of all patriots and friends of Persia is the arrival of the American financial advisers who have come at the request of the Persian government to reorganize the finances of the country. They have been well received, the Majless (congress) has granted them almost unlimited powers, and there is a widespread demand on the part of the Persians that all officials heartily co-operate with them. If there is real co-operation, there is good prospect of something effective being done. Mr. Shuster and his associates impress us as men who intend to do things. Their arrival has helped swell the rising tide of things American-especially American schools. In passing it is worthy of note that the choice of Americans, rather than some other nationality, was due to the activity of young men in the Majless and outside of it, formerly pupils in our school. . "The self-supporting boarding department for boys opened last fall has proved more popular with the Persians than anticipated. Owing to lack of room we have been compelled to refuse about 40 applicants, a number of them from the very foremost families of Persia-the sons of Kajar princes, cabinet officers, governors, members of the Majless, wealthy merchants and middle-class men of moderate means, who were willing to sacrifice and pay the full rates for their sons, turned away because there was no room in the school for them. The 16 boys received come from six of the largest cities in Persia, and applications have been received from a number of other cities, but a full half of them all have becn from Teheran. It sounds wonderful to hear these Persians say, as they almost always do 'We want to get this boy away from the influences of the home, and under your care.' If we had had the room and been prepared for more boarders we probably could have had a hundred or more, as every one admitted has one or more friends to whom he has detailed the advantages of the Boarding Department, and who therefore would like to be admitted. . "The commencements of the two schools both passed off in a most satisfactory manner. That of Iran Bethel was held June 9th, when four young women received diplomas, and a fifth who had not quite completed the course was given a certificate. They all acquitted themselves with honor before an audience that filled the chapel to overflowing. Two of the five are Armenians, one the daughter of a Christian Jew, and an Armenian mother, another the daughter of an Armenian father and a Moslem mother, the fifth the daughter of Moslem parents, her father being a Sayid (descendant of Mohammed) of considerable standing in Teheran. It is widely known that the daughter has become a Christian, and her speaking before a mixed audience, her face covered with only a thin veil, marks a mile stone in the education of women and in the progress of modern ideas. "The Commencement of the Boys' School was held May 19th, a month before the close of the term, in order to avoid the great heat of mid-June, and also to catch the people who would be leaving the city for the foot-hills soon after that time. As last year, we permitted only a fourth of the boys to attend, and they filled one-third of the ground floor of the chapel. The 'Iran-e-No,' the leading paper of Teheran, in reporting it, said 'Most of the nobility and great ones of Teheran were present.' That, of course, is Persian hyperbole, but a number of the greatest were there, including twenty or more members of the Majless, among whom were two of our former pupils, both of whom are among the most influential members of that body, one of them possibly the most influential of all. The seven graduates and the one special-six Moslems and two Armenians-delivered orations in three languages, and all acquitted themselves with honor. The Persian speeches were so good that they have been printed in the 'Iran-e-No.' "Tangible results were not wanting. Next morning before I was up, a Persian gentleman, formerly minister to Washington, appeared at the door with his 12-year-old son whom he wished to enter in the school immediately, and have his name enrolled on the waiting list of the Boarding Department. Today I received a letter from Bourojird, a nobleman, who had seen the account in the Iran-e-No, and wrote to inquire about terms for entering his son in the Boarding Department." From Tabriz: "The past months have been full of varied experiences. With the beginning of these months great joy was brought to us by the application for admission into Church membership which was voluntarily made by six pupils of the Girls' School, four Armenian, one an Armenian-Nestorian, and one a Moslem. They have now successfully passed their two months of probation, and with the exception of one who returned to her home in Urumia and will be received in the fall upon her return, were admitted to the Lord's Supper the first Sunday in July. It was an event to see a Moslem girl openly confess Christ. "In the second and third weeks of June fell the closing of the Girls' and Memorial schools, respectively. The Girls' School had two exhibitions again this year, the first on Thursday afternoon, June 15th, from four o'clock on for the Moslem department. It was with great joy that we could close the school this year with 54 Moslem names on our rolls, and we hope that next year may see this growth continued. Over a hundred Moslem women, including some of the most important ladies of the city, listened attentively to a varied program of recitations, songs and dialogue, in English, French, Persian, Turkish and Armenian, presented largely by the Moslem pupils themselves, with but little assistance from the Armenian girls. On Friday afternoon was the Armenian exhibition, when, as usual, our room was filled beyond comfort. This year five sweet girl graduates were presented with diplomas, having successfully finished the nine-year course. Each of these girls read an essay which she had composed herself and committed to memory. Four of these girls will probably remain with us next year as teachers." From Hamadan : "Mohammedans have put into our hands 1500 tomans for a new school. It is simply another evidence that the country is open to us if we will only go in and possess it. It certainly means something when several Musselman Khans, including a Mollah or two, will collect 1500 tomans to open a school which shall be entirely self-supporting, and ask that Christian teachers be given them for the school, and in addition give full liberty to teach the Bible and the principles of Christianity; not only giving permission to teach them, but rather asking that they be included in the curriculum. It surely seems that our prayers are being answered, for here are both the reinforcements and with them the new openings." Авчал Abram Woodruff Halvy A "Shulukh" in Persia REV. S. G. WILSON, D.D. LL interested in Persia should make the acquaintance of its much talkedof enemy "shulukh." Let me introduce you. It is a word which our English vocabulary in the near East uses to describe the present condition of Persia. It means "disorder," "confusion." In the first place we have political and civil shulukh. All the provinces are in disorder and the central authority fails to repress it. In the government, ministry supplants ministry and governor succeeds governor. Parliamentary parties are in confusion and legislative policies undefined. The constitutional machinery is not well greased. One city or province has its Assembly or Council (Anjuman), another has abolished it, another never has inaugurated it. The Anjumans and the governors and the departments dispute as to their functions. Rivalry with the local nobility, often reactionary, is carried to the point of bloodshed, the chief of police is handed his resignation on a gun-barrel, a powerful lord is shot in am bush on the highway, a reactionary Muj tihid is condemned by the revolutionary committee and in revenge their leader falls a victim. Again an assassin shoots down the Minister of Finance, an able and experienced man, and while handcuffed throws himself into the sea and is drowned. There is shulukh on the king's highways which are infested by bands of robbers. This is specially so in the south, on the routes from the Persian Gulf to Shiras and the interior, which have been unsafe for caravans and travelers. Even Englishmen have been robbed and beaten and left naked on the road. In consequence of this Great Britain has threatened to take the policing of the roads into her own hands. There is also shulukh in military matters. Even Fidais have fought with Fidais (devotees). Ephraim, the leader of the victorious army, which deposed Mehmet Ali Shah and dispersed his supporter Rahim Khan, turned his guns on and wounded Sattar Khan, the leader of the defense of Tabriz for the constitutional party. Parts of the country are |