Editor’s Table: The Era’s First Enterprise

EDITOR'S TABLE. 291

God. It is rather to be believed, on the contrary, that such blessings are the direct results of God's goodness to his children, not because they belong to the true church, but because they are his children, and he loves them and blesses them in spite of their errors in matters of faith and doctrine.

Let it be known, then, that so far as the Latter-day Saints are concerned, there is nothing in the new dispensation of the gospel which they have received, that requires them to believe that God does not bless his children who have not yet received that gospel. He may have given to some of them a testimony as to the truth of some of the isolated principles of truth to be found in their respective systems of religion; or, if living up to the best light they possess, they may have received assurances that they, as individuals, are accepted of him; or, in answer to the prayer of faith, they may have received some blessing from God. It is not the prerogative, and certainly not the disposition, of the Latter-day Saints to deny that the goodness of God extends to his children in all these particulars. And so far as the Saints proclaim the world to be in error, the creeds of men vain and rejected of God, and their churches not the Church of Christ, it must be understood that they do not as men, equally weak and fallible with their fellow men, sit in judgment upon them and condemn them and their churches, but they are compelled to receive what God has revealed on that subject, because overwhelmed with the truth of it — with the evidence of it. But it is God's pronouncements that condemn the world, not the Latter-day Saints.

THE ERA'S FIRST ENTERPRISE.

The Era will be sent free to all the missionaries in all the world. The secretary of the general board has written to all the presidents of missions asking them to send the names and addresses of all the elders traveling in their respective missions, that the Era may be sent to them direct from its office. This means that we shall send out free to the traveling elders about fifteen hundred copies of the Improvement Association's magazine.

It is only proper that a statement be made to the members of the associations telling how so great an achievement as this has been accomplished in the first three months of the magazine's existence. First of all, then, the credit of this enterprise is due to the young men who make up the membership of the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Associations; for it was the hearty response which they gave to the appeal of the general board of this organization that made the Era a possibility. Their liberal patronage, and that of their friends outside, soon assured the business management of the magazine's financial success for the present volume; and as the publication of the Era is not a private enterprise, but one that was undertaken purely in the interests of the Mutual Improvement cause, and as most of those on missions were members of the Improvement Associations, it occurred to the management and to the general board that it would be a good thing to announce to the saints that they would make a one dollar rate to missionaries, and in this way have the subscribers to the magazine donate from fourteen to fifteen hundred dollars to send it free to our brethren abroad. This done the editor and business manager addressed personal letters to a number of brethren (who, in their judgment, were able and would be glad to assist in such a work if they but knew of it), informing them of what was being done by the young men, and soliciting their assistance. Such was the liberal and prompt response made to this appeal that such an amount to send the Era free to missionaries was raised that the general board feel warranted in saying that the magazine will be sent free to all our brethren engaged in the foreign ministry; and hence free Eras for our missionaries is an accomplished fact.

This is the first enterprise undertaken by the associations through the medium of the Era, but it is not by any means to be the last. The good that may be accomplished by a united effort on the part of our young men through the Improvement Associations may not now be estimated. It can, however, be seen from what has already been done that all that is needed is union of purpose, organization of effort, and the way to be pointed out in order to accomplish great things;