How About It?

How About It? Are you reading the Book of Mormon? Elder Junius F. Wells, supported by the . executive officers of the M. I. A., in a personal communication, under date of August 7, to the board members, urged them to read the Book of Mormon and to report that they have com- pleted the reading by September 22, the one-hundredth anniversary of the delivery of the plates to the Prophet Joseph Smith. Many of the members have already reported progress; some are reading six- teen pages a day, a very interesting and invigorating exercise between six and seven o'clock in the morning. We shall probably hear that a great majority of the one hundred members of the General Boards have**completed the task when they report on September 21. Elder Joseph Fielding Smith, in his statement in this number of the Era, calculates that the translation of the Book of Mormon was completed in the first week in June, 1829, a few days before the copy- right was obtained, and that, according to the best historical facts, the total time occupied in actual translation was about sixty days. This being the case, is there any member who will say that the Book of Mormon can not be read, and that with fair results, in the same length of time? May we. suggest that stake and ward M. I. A. officers make arrangements, and decide that the Book of Mormon shall be read in the next sixty days by all of them, and if not that early, then on or before the close of the year. A date should be set for a report in each ward and stake. In this way the officers will be an example for the membership, who should be encouraged to do the same. One hour a day means about sixteen pages; one-half hour, eight pages. There are 522 pages: hence, the book can be read, taking one hour a day, in about thirty-three days; or taking half an hour, in about sixty-six days. Such reading will reveal the spirit of the book and give general and necessary vision of its contents, whetting the appetite for ' more careful study at each perusal thereafter, in which new revelations and truths will delight the soul. "We believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God," reads one of our Articles of Faith. Our religion being first and fore- most in our lives, what shall be said of those who neglect to read the word of God — the Scriptures? We are also commanded to search the scriptures for instruction, but we are prone to neglect this counsel. Orson Pratt, away back in 1856, in a Tabernacle sermon, said that the Saints were careless and neglectful in reading the scriptures. We fear this applies today, and that many are under condemnation because they have neglected to read the Book of Mormon. If we read it, we shall then get original knowledge, not second-hand, of a book which is to the Latter-day Saints of more value than any other except the holy Bible. But we should know it for ourselves, Understand-