Editor's Table: How to Celebrate; Missionary Work

EDITOR'S TABLE. HOW TO CELEBRATE. One of the features of the celebration of the 24th of July this year, the 60th anniversary of the settlement of Salt Lake Valley, was the organization of a society of the Sons and Daughters of Utah Pioneers. As explained at the meeting, the main object, aside from its social features, is to encourage fitting celebrations of Pioneer Day throughout the Church. Doubtless the central organ- ization will hold model celebrations. It is also announced that the organization will encourage the preservation of prominent and interesting facts and incidents connected with the early history of the Church. Senator Reed Smoot was by acclamation elected president of the society. That such an organization with such purposes in view should be established is both pleasing and commendable. There is cer- tainly great need of a change in our method of celebrating the day. It is to be expected that the new organization, besides en- gendering enthusiasm among the venerators of the pioneers, to make the 24th a holiday in very deed, will also create a sentiment among them to have the holiday celebrated in such manner as its significance demands. Every business establishment should be closed. It should be a day for rest and contemplation. The ob- ject uppermost in the minds of the pioneers in coming here, should be held in view. That appears to be altogether forgotten now, in many of our celebrations. We celebrate to obtain per- sonal pleasure and gratification, on this day, rather than as we should, to instruct ourselves and our children with the value and magnitude of the undertaking of the fathers and mothers who set- tled these valleys. We seek the spirit of pleasure rather than

EDITOR'S TABLE. 913 that of the gospel, and think of our own enjoyment rather than the grand mission of the Church, which actuated every movement, every thought, desire, hope and ambition of the pioneers. It should be remembered that it was a religious movement which caused the Church to come out into the wilderness to settle the dreary wastes which have since been made to teem with abund- ance. Every onward step was made in faith. Every advance forward was actuated by religious impetus. was not money, It adventure, prospects of financial advancement, gold and plenty, which impelled them to traverse the dreary plains or penetrate the mountain fastnesses. It was faith in the servants and the revela- tions of the Lord. These pointed the way to relief and freedom, in the untrodden west, from the plunder, persecution and oppres- sion which forced their exodus. It was a strong religious move- ment which underlay the settlement of Utah. Our fathers who settled here did not come as colonizers in other states, seeking fortunes, and enjoying adventures; but they came because they were forced by necessity, like the Pilgrim Fathers, to seek an asylum from oppression. This asylum was found, and under the beneficent laws of our country, we, their children, enjoy the inesti- mable blessings of religious peace and freedom; and in fulfilment of the words of the Savior, our fathers having sought first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, all other things have been added unto their children, in the way of temporal blessings. We should follow their example so that the promise may also be unto us and our children. In view of these facts, the celebration of Pioneer day should be in keeping with this spirit. Religious freedom, faith in God, the origin and destiny of the Church, and kindred themes should be dwelt upon in the congregations of the people. The speeches and orations should appropriately hold forth these topics to the youth of Zion so that they may learn the true significance of the day. There is danger of their forgetting the history of the Church, its origin, its movements in New York, Ohio, Missouri, Illinois, and the true meaning of the migration of the Pioneers to present home in the mountains. Let the 24th, therefore, be our devoted to teaching these truths; and to calling attention to the real reasons of the movement of the Pioneers to this then forbid-

914 IMPROVEMENT ERA. ding desert. The country contained, it is true, the elements of growth in agriculture and pastoral pursuits, as well as the mineral wealth in the everlasting hills; but, as stated, the purpose of the Pioneers was, not that they might enrich themselves with material blessings, but that they might freely and without molestation wor- ship the living God according to the dictates of conscience, and enjoy more liberally freedom from oppression and persecution. The 24th should be a day of peace and rest. Its celebration should be in complete contrast to the practices generally observed both on the 4th and 24th — when shooting and other war demonstra- tions frequently endanger property and life, and injure many in body and limb. In short, they should be observed in a becoming manner, in order that the real objects for which the Pioneers as well as the Pilgrim Fathers made their journeys, and so heroically purchased their freedom, might be made plain, so that love of liberty, the preservation of religious toleration, and hatred of the domination of tyrants, may be kept alive and uppermost in the hearts of the people. With such principles and historical facts in view, these glorious days should be commemorated in an intelligent manner instead of in the foolish way now so generally adopted. If the organization of the Sons and Daughters of Utah Pioneers shall tend to accomplish these desirable results, and end in having Pioneer Day commemorated in a sensible manner, and in the spirit of the important occasion, and with a view to publicly emphasizing the purposes, faith, history and objects of the Pioneers, in settling the valleys of the Rocky Mountains, it will have ac- complished a splendid mission, and shown a valid reason for its existence. But whether or not the society succeeds in this, the leaders in our community should unitedly work to accomplish the desired results. Joseph F. Smith. MISSIONARY WORK. I take the liberty, without direct permission from the author to publish, from a private letter of a kinsman, addressed to his brother, extracts which I think will be interesting reading for

EDITOR'S TABLE. 915 many of the missionaries now in the field, and such as may in the near future be called out for missionary labor; and, I may suggest, also to many of the bishops with whom rests the responsibility of suggesting young men for missionary work. The author of the letter from which I make the excerpts is now absent from his home engaged in business, but, as will be seen, he takes an inter- est in the branch of the Church where he is employed. The extract from the letter follows. Joseph F. Smith. We are still conducting our Sunday School and Mutual with interest unabated, and I tell you we have some mighty interesting sessions. We expect to have two elders with us permanently after the first of September. There are undoubtedly some few people in these parts who would accept the gospel, if they had the op- portunity of hearing it. It is deplorable that there are not two or three times as many missionaries at command, and then some of those they have would be bene- fitted by a little more experience and study. It seems to me that they will not be able to overcome these drawbacks until they lengthen the missionary term to three instead of two years. The first year about fifty per cent of them are prac- tically useless. And the second year, when the experience is beginning to do them some good, they spend a good part of their time counting the days until they are to be released. Some day our young men will come to realize the fact that if they are to be successful missionaries, they will have to attend Church schools and pur- sue a methodical and complete course in theology and spiritual philosophy. Of course, first principles are generally to be preached ; but the more intellectual class now-a-days require something more than first principles and mere scriptural authority to overcome their distinct agnostic tendencies; and for one, I cannot see but that the soul of an intellectual man is just as precious as of an unedu- cated and ignorant one. You cannot reach every man with first principles alone. The gross errors in the creeds, from a philosophical standpoint, have forced many honest souls to reject them; and the next step, because of the interpretations placed on the scriptures by the several sects, is to acquire the impression that the scriptures are not only not infallible, but distinctly faulty. When a man is just in that frame of mind, a gospel founded in truth,— truth scriptural, truth scientific and truth philosophical— and backed by the claim of divine authority, if the presented plainly and thoroughly, will appeal to him with power. It is just thing he is looking for. To such a man the scripture is merely scripture, nothing more. But show him that the gospel is not only scriptural, but distinctly scien- tific,and in accordance with sound philosophy, and he asks no more. I hope to of people, but they will see the day when our missionaries can reach this class never be able to do it in all the world until they have first had a technical train- work. I would like to see ing in those studies which will qualify them for that their standard a great deal, and pay somewhat more at- the Church schools raise useless to say that they will tention to the higher principles than they do. It is No intelligent, clear-thinking, honest-minded young take care of themselves.

. 916 IMPROVEMENT ERA man but finds it necessary in some way to make these higher principles agree with the experiences of life, and the truths which are revealed from him on every hand in the great book of nature; and unless he has the plain truth of the matter plainly before him, the glaring inconsistencies are not going to add any- thing to his stock of religious faith and fervor. I do not like to be considered a pessimist or a knocker, and still less would I want to be thought weak in the faith; but, I tell you frankly, the missionaries they send out here in this part of the world are not all the choicest. They can do some good, of course. They are full of faith, if some somewhat shy on works, and think they are doing their best. If they would supplement their faith by burning a little midnight oil instead of spending so much time at "sociables" and similar functions, they would be able to make up a great deal for what they lack in experience and education. One elder who has visited with us^here on several occa- sions, — and he is really a bright young man, too, —gave us the same and identical sermon on every occasion, delivering with much force and elocutionary effect. Imagine my surprise, sometime after he made his last trip here, at finding his "star" sermon, word for word, in John Morgan's tract, The Plan of Salvation. For a young man of the brightness and natural ability to speak, which this elder possessed, isn't it pretty hard to find a satisfactory excuse for such methods? He was so sure that the gospel is true that he did not have to study at all, and to go to the trouble of learning to preach a sermon of his own was beyond his ambi- tion. This same elder could have made a mark for himself by just a little hard work, and perhaps enough honest inquiry to keep him interested in the revela- tions of truth which that work would have brought him. As it is, he returns to his home with practically no knowledge, as compared with what it was possible for him to acquire. I am sure there are better missionaries in other parts, and I would like to see some of the better ones sent here, and in the surrounding states. I would rather see representative elders in the states than in the foreign missions Of course, our elders are sincere, good-hearted, and in every way good men, and we like to have them come and visit us, and the meetings we have are surely most interesting and enjoyable. We think the world of them, and they appear to think as much of us, and we would not hurt their feelings for the world. But the truth remains, they are not as studious and industrious as they might be.