--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Anderson, James H. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 32 number: 11 published: 1929-09 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: "James H. Anderson, “Advice to M. I. A. Workers—and Others,” *Improvement Era* 32, no. 11 (September 1929): 905–907." source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera32011unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera32011unse start_page: 905 end_page: 907 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1929-09) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera32011unse publication_year: 1929 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1929, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Advice to M. I. A. Workers—and Others Advice to M. I. A. Workers — and Others Extracts from an Address Delivered by Elder James H. Anderson in the Ogden Stake. WHENEVER a Mutual Improvement Association achieves actual success, it recognizes two fundamental, vital factors: First, that it is promoting a righteous cause. Second, that its officers and members, having a definite purpose in view, put energy, courage, sincerity and faith into their combined efforts. The expression, "combined efforts," as here used, means, so far as practicable in the Association, "Everybody at work, and working right." In achieving this desired result, enlivening songs, in which everybody can join, at least in feeling, play an important part. I give you a text, the thought of which I believe it is well to remember. Ages ago, when a king of the House of Judah, in dire straits, obtained a wonderful success in a portion of his reign, the historian makes this record of him; and it is the text which I bring. It is in the Bible, in 2 Chronicles 31st chapter, 21st verse: "And in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, and in the law, and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart, and prospered." "He did it with all his heart, and prospered." There is the record of cause and effect. It is a lesson to apply in the verbal pre- sentation of every subject in the Mutual Improvement Association meetings. Failure to apply it, too often is the chief cause of failure to make our programs worthy of our active Association membership. In presenting a subject to your class or to your audience, speak clearly. The human voice is used to convey a message or an idea. But unless that method of conveyance has such a measure of force and earnestness as to awaken thought in the mind of the auditor, the message or idea is not conveyed, and the messenger becomes a failure to the extent that he has not impressed his audience with an essential fact: namely, that he knows what he is talking about, and also knows how to tell it. We should learn also to utilize the blackboard or the picture. Visual instruction is a vital and popular means of conveying information. But to make the lesson deeply impressive, the sound of the human voice to the ear also is vital. Shakespeare says: "Speak clearly, if you speak at all: Carve every word before you let it fall.' 908 IMPROVEMENT ERA Sep,.. 1929 That is good advice. Clearness of voice and clearness of enun- ciation are positively demanded in a successful speaker. Then his hearers know that his suggestions in the lesson or instruction he) would convey are up to them. His correct example in this regard will show his audience that courage, energy, and persistence in a good cause are winners in the end. It will give them confidence in him and faith in the cause he represents. There is a world of illustration for the necessity and value of earnest, vigorous action to be found in concise notes that may be taken from biographies of men who have been successful workers in mechanics, literature, etc., and even in present personal experi- ence, if one's eyes are open to contemporary achievement. There also are incidental rules to follow, one of which is to be tactful, by pleading and leading, and thereby avoid driving or giving offense. The percentage of participants attained during the season from your regular membership will register your measure of success in putting over the series of topics presented. This percentage includes inter- ested hearers and inquirers as well as interesting talkers. To suc- ceed, keep at work persistently. In the old dispensation, Moses was a great worker, as was Paul in the new dispensation. They kept at work persistently. Every boy and girl in the rear seats in the hall is entitled to a knowledge of just what you are saying. You owe it to them, when they have come to the meeting. Set the example of power in your own voice, to reach the entire audience. I repeat, that is what your voice is for. You fail when you do less. "Talking right out in meeting" makes a "hit." A speaker has no right to waste the time of a half or a third of his audience by not speaking clearly so they can hear distinctly. Biographies of successful men in the ordinary vocations of life are lessons of encouragement to old and young. When crisply and concisely pointed out, everybody learns something. Energy, courage, and persistence in dealing with a task, bring gratifying results: without them, no circumstances, no opportunities, will make a two-legged creature a man. It takes what we sometimes desig- nate as "Pep" to drive that lesson home; but when driven it ? rouses enthusiasm for work in your hearers. Don't be afraid of the Bible. It is the Book of books that has helped most in business. Using a modern form of expression. Moses was the greatest salesman of his day. His sale was, "There is one true and living God." Convincing his people of God's special care for them, he took twelve tribes who had been slaves to the Egyp-, tians for generations, and transformed them into a dominating na- tion; from degradation to a compact, conquering national life, — all Sept.. 1929 ADVICE TO M. I. A. WORKERS 909 in the lifetime of a single man! That was a big job of salesmanship. Moses laid out for his people a health program in minute detail; science now is discovering little by little that there was a scientific! reason behind that program. Moses stood for one day a week in| rest from daily toil; modern science is proving that a man's nervous powers absolutely require Sunday's rest to recuperate. We boast of discoveries to increase human efficiency, and going back find that Moses looked to their application nearly four thousand years ago. Nobody knows, perhaps nobody cares, where Moses was buried; but the results of his work have persisted through the ages. Note the tactfulness of a man named Paul. He appeared in ancient Athens, ragged, weary, and on foot because he did not have carfare. He had a new religion for the sophisticated Greeks. He did not say so in those words, or they would have hooted him out of town, for they had barrels of religions. He had noted their erection of an altar to "The Unknown God." He complimented them on their variety of religions, and announced, "That is the very God whom I represent." Then everybody wanted to hear him. One will find it difficult to cite a better human examplar of "honest- to-goodness" work than this same Paul, whose chief mental quality was that of a persistent, straightforward, resolute, and earnest man, battling with hunger, thirst, privations, and dangers of all kinds, still pursuing his mission of love, till he made the name of Christ, the Redeemer of mankind, ring throughout Europe, from the Helles- pont to the British Isles; turning armies and nations from paganism to Christianity. Biblical quotations drip like dew from the trees from all the great masters of English — Addison, Steele, Burke, Franklin, Web- ster, Lincoln, and others. Patrick Henry's inspiring patriotic speech which carries the slogan, "Give me liberty, or give me death," and the warning, "Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace, but there is no peace," are merely paraphrases of God's call of repentance to the Jews through the Prophet Jeremiah. "The harvest is great and the laborers are few." The M. I. Association where only the officers do the work hasn't even started toward success. The corps of officers who have "Pep" to put to work, and have them working right, sixty, seventy-five, or even ninety per cent of their Association's regular membership, and who do it, are worthwhile leaders. It has been done, and can be done again and again. To love and win is the best thing: to love and lose the next best. — William Makepeace Thackeray-