isi- ~YV\ Getting The Missionary’s Point gf View THE REAL MEANING OF RETRENCHMENT by Howard B. Grose, D.D. American Baptist Foreign Mission Society Ford Building, Boston, Mass. HE Missionary sat in deep thought. The look on his face was sad beyond expression. In his hand he held a letter which he had just been reading. Evidently it had brought him disquieting news. Many minutes he sat motionless. Sud¬ denly he fell upon his knees and began to pray: ‘ ‘ O God, Merciful Father in Heaven, have pity upon my poor people I Help me for their salves to bear this stroke. Teach me whal to sap to them. O God, spare them this trouble. Open the way. Send Thy Spirit upon the homeland, that this great sor¬ row may not engulf us. How long, O Lord, how long? ’' When he rose, the lines of care were deepened, and the buoyancy of manner was gone. He acted like an old man stricken with palsy, yet he was in middle age and fullness of his powers. He had come to the crisis in his faith. Yes, after all these years of Christian belief and life and service in the mission field, he was now meeting his hardest spiritual test. The confidence he had reposed in the church seemed slipping from beneath his feet. More than that, the confidence he had known as a servant of God — the reality of his own personal faith — seemed shaken by this new experience. It was the critical hour. What had brought it upon him? What was in the letter received that hour from the Rooms of the Foreign Society in Boston that had stricken him as swiftly and pitilessly as a jungle fever or the plague ? The letter was full of tenderness and sympathy, of personal regard, of brotherly kindness. The Secretary had done everything in his power to soften the stroke. But he was com¬ pelled to say that the Baptists had not given enough to meet the budget, that the debt was now very heavy, and that Retrenchment was inevitable. The Board recognized the justice of his plea for a helper, but not only must refuse that, but did not see how his own work could be maintained while he was on leave. Perhaps he could suggest a way, etc. * * * * So this was the outcome of his long years of self-sacrifice. Worn out, ab¬ solutely needing change of climate, he must leave his field without a leader, when the demands were greater than ever. The pleas from the out-stations had been so pitiful that they had taken his last ounce of nerve force. He had dreamed of reenforcement, and awakened to RETRENCHMENT! The fateful word burned itself into his brain. Oh, if only the church members at home could know what that word meant to the missionary on the field, surely they would never allow it to be heard again ! Had they ever practiced Retrenchment? The last report said sixty-four cents a year per member for foreign missions — yet the field work must be crippled! His people must be left — HIS PEOPLE! That was the crushing thought. It was not merely that they should be left without a shepherd ; but HOW COULD HE EXPLAIN TO THEM ? What could he say for the Baptists of America, living in the Christian land of liberty and light ? How could he save the faith of his people in Christian¬ ity, when Christians knew how mil¬ lions of the heathen were dying without knowledge of a Saviour, yet could not give one hundred cents a year to send the gospel to them ? Again he sank on his knees: "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do!" * * * * They found him as he had fallen. Providence spared him the humiliation of explanation. His death might save his people’s faith. For him it was not Retrenchment but Enlargement! — Reprinted from "Missions ” for March, 1912. 1004-1 Ed.-25M-Jan., 1913. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed ? and how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard ? and how shall they hear Without a preacher ? And how shall they preach, except they be sent ? — Romans 10: 13 • 15. maaSad ... •.