Our Work: Uses of the Improvement Fund

him, in whose character were united every element of the sublime? I know men, and I tell you that Jesus Christ is not a man. Everything in him amazes me. His spirit out-reaches mine, and his will confounds me. Comparison is impossible between him and any other being in the world. He is truly a being by himself. His ideas and his sentiments, the truth that he announces; his manner of convincing; are all beyond humanity, and the natural order of things. His birth and the story of his life; the profoundness of his doctrine, which overturns all difficulties, and is their most complete solution. His gospel, the singularity of his mysterious being; his appearance; his empire; his progress through all centuries and kingdoms — all this is to me a prodigy, an unfathomable mystery. I see nothing here of man. Near as I may approach, closely as I may examine, all remains above my comprehension — great with a greatness that crushes me. It is in vain that I reflect — all remains unaccountable! I defy you to cite another life like that of Christ."

USES OF THE IMPROVEMENT FUND.

The following is the body of a note recently received from one of the presidents of an association.

"It is hard to convince all of the necessity of the Improvement Fund. Please tell us in the next number of the Era for zuhat purposes it is used.'"

The Improvement Fund, namely, the sum made up by the payment of fifty cents a year by the members of the associations, was established to meet the expenses, local and general, necessarily attendant upon the work of the associations. Of whatever amount is collected the ward association where it is collected takes out ten per cent of it to pay for fuel and lights; for association minute books, stationery, etc. The balance is sent to the stake treasurer who deducts fifteen per cent of the amount received by him to meet the expenses of the stake superintendency and his board of aids — that is, in supplying stationary, etc., and, where expense is incurred in visiting the various settlements under their jurisdiction, in meeting those expenses, or any other outlay that may legitimately arise in the prosecution of their labors. After these deductions are made by the ward and the stake officers from what is collected, the balance is to be forwarded to the general treasurer of the associations — Wm. S. Burton, Salt Lake City, Utah — who pays it out on the orders of the general superintendency and the general board of assistants, who pass upon every item of expense incurred and make appropriations to cover the same at their regular weekly meetings, which convene on Wednesday evenings. We refer the officers and members of the associations, and especially those who are unconverted to the necessity of the Improvement Fund, to the list of the names of the men who make up this general superintendency and board of assistants, as a guarantee both of the necessity, the wisdom, and the honesty of those expenditures. The names

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of the general superintendency and board of assistants will be found in the

Manual for 1897, page vii.

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The uses to which the part of the fund which comes to the general treasurer is put are as follows: stationery, the rent of office, the employment of a secretary, all of which are imperative necessities in our work. In addition to this the general superintendency find it necessary to send representatives to various stakes of Zion to assist in carrying on the work they have in hand; usually this representative is a member of the board of assistants, and as it often happens that he has no transportation over the railroads, his traveling expenses have to be paid out of the Improvement Fund, as in all good conscience it cannot be expected that the brethren engaged in this work can give their time to it and in addition to that pay their own traveling expenses. Heretofore the amount collected for this fund has been insufi&cient to meet the necessary expenditures of the general board, and stakes receiving visitors from headquarters have been under the necessity of paying the traveling expenses of their visitors. This, however, has not been done lately, and we hope the necessity for it will never arise again, but trust that there will be enough means in the treasury to meet such expenses.

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This is what the Improvement Fund is used for now, that is, what little there is of it. If it was more generally paid, so that the general board had it on hand, there is much more that could oe done with it. For example, if the means had been on hand in the treasury, tracts and books suitable for free distribution could have been supplied our M. I. Missionaries now traveling among the associations, and these placed in the hands of careless or indifferent young men, so that the written word as well as the oral word could have been employed to bring to pass the conversion of the wayward and indifferent of our youth. O, there are uses enough to which this fund can be applied, and all of which are essential to the full development of our work among the young men of the church.

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Apropos these questions about the purposes for which the fund is used, we remember that collection week for this year was the third week in November; and the general conference in July decided that all funds collected this year should be forwarded by the first of January to the general treasurer at Salt Lake City. We call attention to this matter here in order to remind the superintendents of stakes and stake treasurers that the first of January has arrived; and that they should give this matter their immediate attention. Much inconvenience and annoyance has been occasioned by ward and stake treasurers failing to forward promptly the funds they have collected, sometimes holding moneys collected for months without making any report of the same — a mistake, worse than a mistake, positively bad business procedure, which we hope will be avoided during the present year. Presidents of ward associations, as well as superintendents of stakes should see to it that it is not done this year. One of the best lessons in improve-