Our Work: A Word with Officers

OUR WORK. 299

And may God continue to bless your missionaries, and greatly increase their number, because their labors are much needed. "

A WORD WITH OFFICERS.

In the past, too many of our officers have been of the passively good kind; that is, it has never occurred to many of them that there was anything more for them to do than to accept the office to which they had been appointed, attend the meetings of the associations, preside over the same in a formal manner, and after the meeting is dismissed take no further thought of the work until the association meets again, when they repeat the same formal procedure to be followed with the same neglect. Of course it is only here and there that such officers have been found. We realize that most of our brethren have done the best they could in the past; and in the main, have done a good work of which we are proud; but we would see them do better, and still better work, until our associations come up to the limit of their capacity for doing good. Hence we call attention to the lethargy and inability that in some instances have been manifested in the past, not for the purpose of complaining of present officials, but only that such corrections in present methods may be made as are necessary to obtain the very best results. The crying need in our association work is that the officers put more thought into their work; that they think of it oftener than once a week and at other times than when the association is in session. To encourage this it has been suggested in the instructions given heretofore by the General Superintendency (see preface to Manual for 1897, pages 3-6, and which we ask officers to read again), that frequent counsel meetings of the ward officers should be held with the view of creating and maintaining an interest in mutual improvement work; and we trust that the suggestion is not being neglected. Officers will find an abundance of work to do in these counsel meetings. One excellent thing to consider would be the lessons in the Manual for the ensuing week. The officers could with profit both to themselves and to the associations, carefully go over the lesson that they might be prepared by their thorough acquaintance with the subject matter not only to answer any questions that might arise in connection therewith, but also would be able to invest the subject of the lesson with an interest that otherwise will be impossible. And they ought not only to study the lesson of the Manual, as here proposed, but should also study the members of the association, that they may be the better able to assign to each the work he is most competent to do, that from each member may be obtained his best effort.

The results of each officer's work will be, we think, in strict proportion