Our Work: Do Counselors Go Out of Office with Presidents?; New Stakes and Superintendencies; Officers, Notice This; New Member of the Board

472 IMPROVEMENT ERA.

Every boy envies The Man in the Conning-Tower when he sees him off duty, driving through cheering crowds to a hundred-dollar-a-plate banquet, or when he hears that he has unlimited credit at the tailor's. And every boy that is worth his salt straightway resolves to travel the road that leads to banquets and unlimited credit, without understanding that Dewey spent half his life learning to obey that he might be fit to command; and that the first dollars of a million are often made by seeing that the old man's desk is carefully dusted in the morning and his errands run with neatness and dispatch. Saturday Evening Post.

Some discontented ones will tell you, young man, that, the more labor-saving devices human intelligence produces, the smaller grow your chances of success. Let me tell you that, the more labor-saving devices we have, the greater becomes the field for the brain, and the brain makes abundant work for the hands, and the hands are the only things on this earth that can relieve idleness of its horror. It was con-

sidered a labor-saving device to build the steamship, but the steamship has brought the world into four very close and compact corners. It was considered a labor-saving device to build the locomotive, but the locomotive takes you to the open plains, the fertile valleys, and the mountain sides, so you can reach the harvests of the Almighty, which, had you relied on your tired legs, could never have been gained. It is for

you, who are just beginning, to think what a wonderful world this is,

to study well the achievements of the past, and to see in what manner you can improve them for the future. C. M. Depew.

Have you a mother? If so, honor and love her. If she is aged, do all in yourpower to cheer her declining years. Her hair may have bleached. Her eyes may have dimmed. Her brow may contain deep and unsightly furrows; her cheeks may be sunken, but you should never forget the holy love and tender care she has had for you in years gone by. She has kissed away from your cheek the troubled tears, she has soothed and petted you when all else appeared against you. She has watched over and nursed you with a tender care known only to a mother. She has sympathized with you in adversity; she has been proud of your success. You may be despised by all around you, yet that loving mother stands as an apologist for all your short-comings; with all that disinterested affection, would it not be ungrateful in you, if in her declining years you fail to reciprocate her love and honor her as your best friend? We have no respect for a man or woman who neglects an aged mother. If you have a mother, love her and do all in your power to make her happy. Selected.

IN LIGHTER MOOD.

A traveler relates the following in Current Literature: — A teacher was questioning the class on the meaning of the word "brittle," and obtained the answer, "Things easily broken." Examples of such things were asked for, cups, slates, chalk, etc., being given. One boy of eight years was particularly eager to answer, therefore I questioned him, and to my utter surprise received the answer, "The Ten Commandments."

J. M. Barrie's story of how a telegraph editor, receiving a dispatch that the Zulus had "taken umbrage," headed the news "Capture of Umbrage by the Zulus" has been paralleled by an editor in the west. Shortly after the anti-Semitic riots in Austria, a slight shock of earthquake was felt in the vicinity of Vienna, and a cable despatch put it tersely that there had been "seismic disturbances" near the capital. He headed the item, "Down with the Jews!" * * *

An eastern paper says that the energy of one of the oldest inhabitants of a Massachusetts town is a byword among his neighbors and a trial to his grandchildren, who have not inherited their full share of his

active temper. His grandson John, in particular, suffers from the old man's untiring industry, for John is his assistant in the little grocery shop where everything, from codfish to brooms, may be found. A purchaser of gingersnaps lingered one day to hear the noontime address delivered to poor John by his grandfather. "Now, Johnny, I'm a-going home for my dinner," said the old man briskly, "and on the way I'll carry up these pails to Mis' Manson, and

fetch back her kerosene can. I shall be gone up'ards of half an hour. You'll have plenty of time to eat your luncheon, and whilst you're resting after it, I wish you'd saw up that little mess of wood that lays out by the back door, and split it up for stove kindling, for the weather's turning sharp a'ready. "Most likely I'll be back 'fore you get out o' work, and anyways I

don't want to keep you at it all the time; so if there's a few extry minutes, jest set down and make out a bill or two; the fust of the month'll

be upon us 'fore we know it!"

OUR WORK

DO COUNSELORS GO OUT OF OFFICE WITH PRESIDENTS?

We agree fully with the sentiments, in the following note from Elder Joseph E. Taylor, and print his letter, lest some may have misunderstood the answer formerly given. It is well understood that coun-

selors, as counselors, have no further authority to preside after the presiding officer is removed, but in the case of Y. M. M. I. A. officers, the General Board, who stand at the head of the organization, decided to authorize counselors to continue until a new presiding officer is

appointed. This authority to continue the work of the presiding officer has often been given temporarily to counselors in the priesthood, by the proper stake or general authority. It was in this sense we stated: "these officers are exactly similar to the counselors to officers in the regular Church organization." Brother Taylor writes:

In your issue of February, page 316, in answer to the question: "When a superintendent or president of Y. M. M. I. A. is released or removed for any cause, do his counselors remain in office and become the counselors of his successor, or do they go out of office with the president?" the following appears: "This question, having been submitted by several persons, was considered at a meeting of the General Board on Wednesday, January 9, and the Board unanimously decided that: when a superintendent or president is released for any cause, the assistants or counselors continue to preside over the organization, until a new presiding officer is appointed, and then he chooses his own counselors with the approval of the stake presidency in the case of a stake superintendent, and the bishop of the ward, in the case of a ward president. In this respect, these officers are exactly similar to the counselors to officers in the regular Church organization." It is the last sentence I wish to notice, which, if construed according to the language used, and as it would be generally interpreted, might mislead many of your readers. In my judgment, it is perfectly proper for the General Board to

OUR WORK. 475

establish such rules as in their wisdom may be deemed the best in reference to any and all vacancies created by death or otherwise, because the Y. M. M. I. A. is not essentially an organization of the priesthood. But in all organizations of the priesthood, there is no rule that can be established to govern the same, other than those established by God himself. While counselors to a president in any organized quorum or council of the priesthood are important, yet a counselor has no separate life, or, in other words, any life apart from his president. He exists only by virtue of his president: and should he die or be removed, the president retains his position undisturbed so far as his authority is concerned. He can exercise the functions of a president without a counselor, and time can be taken to make choice of and set apart another, or others, to act as counselors. This has been demonstrated many times in the history of The Church. With the death or removal of a president, the case is vastly different. Subsequent to the death of the Prophet Joseph, all claims of his first counselor, Sidney Rigdon, to exercise any presiding authority were justly ignored. And why? His president was dead. After the death of President B. Young, no attempt was made by either of his counselors to exercise authoritative power. This was also the case after the death of President John Taylor, as also after the death of President Wilford Woodruff. I am not aware that any attempt was ever made or claim set up to exercise the right of presidency by any counselor in a stake of Zion, or any organization of priesthood therein, or in any ward in a stake, when the president or bishop had died or had been removed. But I do know of several cases where presidents and bishops have outlived several counselors without their positions being in the least disturbed thereby. If any such authority was exercised by a counselor, after the death of his president, itwas by virtue of appointment by the proper authority and not by virtue of the former relation of counselor. The wording of the appointment of the presidencies of the various quorums in the priesthood, by the Lord, as recorded in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, section 124, verses 125, 126, is very significant: "I give unto you [The Church] my servant Joseph, to be a presiding Elder over all my Church, to be a translator, a revelator, a seer, and prophet. I give unto him for counselors my servant Sidney Eigdon, and my servant William Law/ The twelve are then named and given to you [The Church] with Brigham Young as the president over the twelve traveling council. This is also

the case with the high council whose names were mentioned as given to The Church.