Our Work: Our Missionary Work

None should be admitted below the age of fourteen, the minimum age at which members may be admitted, according to the ruling of the general superintendency. We urge this, not because we are not interested in the boys below the age of fourteen, but because we want to see our organizations kept up to the highest point of efficiency, and accomplish the particular work assigned to them, and we suggest that efforts be made to secure a membership of young men, "running to neither extreme as to their age;" not only young men in their teens, but young men from twenty to forty, of which latter class the bulk of our associations ought to be formed, because the number of young men of that age doubtless preponderates in our community; and a strong effort should be made to enlist them in the work of mutual improvement, that their influence may give character to the organization; and that the idea may be established that our societies constitute a band of earnest young men bent on spiritual, moral, and intellectual development; and not associations of boys meeting together for amusement.

OUR MISSIONARY WORK.

Be not satisfied, rest not content, until every young man professing the name of saint in Zion is enrolled in the cause of Mutual Improve' ment. — Instructions of general superintendency, Oct., 1880.

By the time this number of the Era reaches its patrons it is expected that the missionary work authorized by the last general conference of the societies will have been inaugurated. A commencement, at least, will have been made in that work. It is no light undertaking to send missionaries into all the stakes and wards of the church, and we call attention to the fact in order that in this work we may enlist the earnest co-operation of both stake and ward officers, and all interested in the cause of mutual improvement. It is desired that our missionaries this winter shall be brought in contact with those who stand in need of their services, that is, with those who have no interest in our work of mutual improvement, and who are careless and indifferent in respect of the gospel. Now, as of old, it is the sick who need the physician, not those who are well. We shall expect our missionaries to search out this class in every community and labor among them. In bringing the missionaries in contact with this element, local officers and members can be of very great service. In fact, presidents and other officers of associations should now carefully note those who have no interest in mutual improvement work, and who have no faith in the gospel, with a view of bringing them and our missionaries together when the latter shall come among them. If the plans that are formulated are carried into effect, there will be conversational as well as public meetings held by the missionaries, and at the former those who have doubts of the truth will have an opportunity of making those doubts known that the difficulties may be cleared away and faith take the place of doubt. We further bespeak for our missionary breth ren who will come among the members of the associations, the most con

EDITOR'S TABLE. 139

siderate treatment. They are coming without purse and scrip, dependent upon the kindness of the saints, and chiefly upon the members of our associations, for food and lodging, and transportation from place to place. We therefore call upon the members of the associations to treat them with becoming hospitality, and render them every possible assistance in the prosecution of their labors. Open your homes to them, invite in the friends you would like our missionaries to meet, we mean those among your friends whom you have been unable to interest in mutual improvement. Spend a few hours during the precious days that the missionaries are with you in introducing them to the young men you can never get to your meetings, and in bringing such indifferent characters to the conversational meetings. In a word let there be a united effort to carry out the instruction: — -

Be not satisfied, rest not content, until every young man professing the name of saint in Zion is enrolled in the cause of Mutual Improvement.

And, let us add, there will be no objection if efforts are made to interest in our work those who do not profess the name of saints. There is no reason why the gospel of mutual improvement should not be presented to the stranger within our gates as well as to the children of the kingdom. The church of Christ sends hundreds of elders abroad every year to preach the restored gospel of the Son of God to the world. Surely then the strangers within our gates should not be neglected, and allowed to remain in ignorance of our faith. So if members of the associations have friends not of our faith, they should invite them to attend our meetings and especially the meetings of the mutual improvement missionaries.

Let it be understood, too, that this missionary work is no new enterprise; it is simply a renewal of past missionary labors, undertaken in pursuance of the instruction given by the general superintendency in October, 1880, and which is quoted at the head of these remarks. From our reports of last year it appears (Manual p. XI.) that while there is an enrolled membership of nearly seventeen thousand in our associations, there are also above eight thousand young men of improvement age who are not enrolled! Surely in the face of these facts it is time that the pure minds of our brethren engaged in mutual improvement work be stirred up by way of remembrance to the instruction given upon this subject of missionary work. It should be the ambition of every earnest worker to materially reduce, during the coming winter, that large number of young men of improvement age in our community who have no interest in a work so splendid as ours. Come then, let us have a united effort to wipe out this standing reproach to our associations