For other objects other plans, but in every case the way should be prepared for intelligent giving.

It has sometimes resulted favorably to secure, at the beginning of the year, pledges for some definite, well understood object, as a teacher’s or missionary’s salary, or a share in one, which should apparently but not really exhaust the resources of the society, and have the payments made as early in the year as practicable.  Then pursue intelligent study of the other fields until the time is ripe for proposing generous aid to the one which appeals most strongly to the combined judgment and sympathy.  And so on through the year, in which time the six benevolences can all be reached.  This somewhat irregular method of procedure has perhaps no better defence than that it has been known to produce good results.  A society the intelligence and consecration of whose members could be relied upon would doubtless find the plan of monthly pledges, to be divided according to some accepted schedule, much easier.  No special labor would have to be expended to make the need apparent, or to awaken sympathy for the object, or to choose the best means of attaining it.  Gifts would be systematic and uniform throughout the year and could be counted upon.

The machinery, well oiled at the start, would run smoothly and quietly, and woman’s work would not be made unpleasantly prominent.  But it seems doubtful whether as many gifts would flow into the treasury and whether the gifts would be accompanied by as much interest, sympathy and prayer.

The hints concerning management thus far presuppose a Home Missionary Society organized on the modern basis of a programme of devotional exercises and various mission studies, and do not apply to those cases in which such exercises have been engrafted upon a sewing society with a long line of Dorcases as Presidents, and antecedents too respectable to be ruthlessly set aside.  How shall a sewing society be so modified as to best subserve the present home missionary needs?  Do not create friction by attempting a sudden and complete revolution.  Propose that the brief devotional exercises with which such gatherings sometimes close be placed a little earlier than usual, that there may be time for some interesting missionary letter or some inspiring leaflet, or other selection, or better still, an original paper on some live topic.  When about the usual season for beginning the missionary box arrives, prepare a symposium on the subject of boxes.  Select and distribute brief paragraphs from the magazines concerning missionary debts, from missionary letters concerning unpaid salaries, and lead gradually up to the question whether if we were missionaries we would rather receive a box or a check for an unpaid salary.  Which would best enable a minister to look his creditors, who are also his parishioners, in the face—­the new pulpit suit or cash to pay off accumulated bills?  In trying to decide between box and salary, the society