GUIDE WORK.

(a). TESTIMONY MEETINGS.

President Martha H Tingey.

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As Sister Nystrom has said, I feel very grateful to my Heavenly Father to see so many of our sisters assembled together this morning. earnestly trust that the few moments I occupy you will give me the benefit of your faith and prayers, that I may speak under the influence of the Spirit of God, for I know that we, as His daughters, have a right to that Spirit, and that He will not withhold it from us if we seek to live for it.

We have had reports from many organizations that their testimony meetings are not as successful as they could be, while in others we learn that they are the most successful meetings that they hold. We do desire with all our hearts to hear the reports from every stake in Zion that the testimony meetings are more appreciated and are more interesting than any other meetings we have; for we feel and know that the power of the Latter-day Saints consists in the testimony of the Spirit of God that burns within their hearts. We are told that knowledge is power. That means that the knowledge of the truth, the knowledge of God and His revealed plan is a power to everyone who possesses it. The revelations of God also tell us that to know God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent is life eternal, and that life eternal is the greatest gift of God to man. It is for this reason that we do so earnestly desire that every young Latter-day Saint should gain this testimony in his or her own soul. Lord has said "seek and ye shall find," and we must not fail. We must tell our young girls that they cannot expect our Heavenly Father to give unto them this testimony unless they seek to Him earnestly to obtain it. And one of the very best ways to gain this testimony is to supplicate Him in humility and prayer that He will pour out his Spirit upon them and give them this testimony. In addition to that we must do what we can ourselves. Let us teach our girls to do their daily duties as they understand them in the principles of the Gospel. Let the Gospel be their standard of right living. Let them guide their actions by the standard

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of the Gospel, and if they will do this, the Lord will bless them with His Spirit and give unto them this testimony.

Now, it is not expected that our testimony meetings be conducted just along the lines of the regular church fast testimony meetings, because we realize and know that our young girls have not this strong testimony and knowledge of the truth that they can rise and bear it in those meetings, as can the veterans in the Church. But the idea is, in our testimony meetings, that our girls may have the spirit of standing on their feet and expressing themselves in regard to their love for the Gospel, their ideas of life, their aims and ambitions in their lives; and in this way they will gain confidence, and their hearts will be drawn out on this subject. We all know that every time we express a good thought or a good desire, it is a stimulant to try to carry that out in our lives and to live it a little more closely than we have ever done before.

Officers, don't allow the idea to gain ground in your associations that there is no need of preparation for a testimony meeting. There is great need of preparation, and I wish that you would impress this upon your girls. The week before, tell them of the coming testimony meeting, that you want them to talk with their parents, to talk with experienced people in the Church and get them to relate certain incidents in their lives that are faithpromoting; to read the Faith-Promoting Series; history of our leading men, -of Parley P. Pratt, Heber C. Kimball, the Prophet Joseph,and all of those leading men; to read something of such lives before that meeting, and that they will then come prepared to say something or to relate something that will be faith-promoting; because in this way, with the addition of humility and prayer, we hope to get the spirit of the Gospel in the hearts of our girls. I trust that every officer and worker in the Mutual Improvement Association has a testimony of this work in her own heart, and if she has not received this. that she will use all her efforts to gain this light and understanding for herself. Then it burn in her heart, and she will have an earnest desire that every girl under her care shall receive this great blessing.

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Whenever a class leader or the president, or any officer of the Mutual takes charge of the testimony meetings, she should be prepared in her own talk to throw out some important principle that the girls can grasp, and in this way they may feel, "why, I can say a few words upon that topic, I can say a few words upon another topic," and in this way we help our girls. We must encourage them to always try to add a few words to their last testimony when they arise.

Those who attended the funeral of our late President, Sister Elmina S. Taylor, will remember that President Joseph F. Smith, in his beautiful remarks on that occasion made this wonderful remark: "Sister Taylor lived by a light which was within herself. She did not depend on other people for her light, for her guide, for her understanding, because she had the light of the Spirit of God in her own soul and she needed not to depend on anybody else for light." Now, this is what we want every Latter-day Saint to possess, this inward light, this knowledge, this understanding of the great truths of God, that they may know for themselves the right course for them to take; no matter what the whole world may do. This is why we desire our testimony meetings. As I said before, this knowledge and testimony is a power in itself.

I believe I have before expressed this thought, but possibly it will not be out of place to again express it. President Young said, when he organized the Young Ladies Association, "our girls are being taught everything but their religion. I want them to take up this branch of study that they may gain a testimony of the truth for themselves." I believe there is nothing, there is no power that can enable the youth of Zion to withstand the temptations and the trials and the opposition with which they have to contend today except this testimony of the Spirit of God, the companionship of the Holy Spirit. I believe it is this power and influence that is possessed by our young boys when they go into the mission fields. They seek for this testimony and it gives them knowledge and power, that they can go among the corrupt and associate with those who are unclean and corrupt and yet they can be pure; they can maintain their manhood.

And what is it that gives them this power but the witness of the Spirit of God to their souls? Now, officers, let us try to impress this thought upon our young girls, that it is the most important thing in their lives, to know whether Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God, whether the Lord did reveal His mind and will in this day and age in which we live; whether the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ are from God. And if they will seek to Him, do their duty, perform their part in obedience to the laws of the Gospel, as far as they understand them, each one as it becomes known to her understanding, and seek to the Lord diligently for this testimony, He will not withhold it from them.

Now, officers, I trust that you will be so full of this testimony yourselves, that it will be the aim and object of your lifes to help our girls to gain this same witness. And that the Lord may bless you with His Spirit, and inspire you, that you may be able to make your testimony meetings the most enjoyable of all the year's meetings, is my sincere prayer, in the name of jesus, Amen.

(b). THE APOSTACY.

Emily C. Adams.

For next season we have outlined three subjects for the consideration of the Mutual Improvement workers and members. Notwithstanding the fact that a number have asked that the work be made easier, we have for this year five separate courses. The junior and senior classes will each take up the subject of the Apostacy. Then there will be two lessons provided for each month which will come under the general heading of the Home, a lesson for the seniors and a lesson for the juniors. In the Literary department there will be two lessons,-one for the juniors and one for the seniors. While we have apparently given you more work, it has been the aim of those who have had this matter in charge to make it easier, that there will not be required the research required in the past, and to be more presentable in the Mutual Improvement organizations. This has been our aim, and while it may appear that we have provided more work to do, it will be really easier to handle than it has been in the past.

In the Theological department we have provided for you only one lesson for the month. As Sister Tingey said here this morning, the chief purpose of the organization is to teach our young sisters the Gospel, to teach them what it means to be members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints; to give them a testimony of the divinity of this Church to which they belong and of the divinity of the Gospel which teaches it. While we have listened to suggestions to the extent that we have cut down the time devoted to theological study, we still want to keep in mind the main purpose of this organization, and to devote our best efforts to the study of theology. We hope the time will never come when there will be a request or a desire on the part of any one to eliminate the study of theology or the study of the Gospel from our associations.

During the past four years we have been studying the Gospel as established by Christ. We took up the life of Christ and devoted three years to it. This last year we have devoted to the consideration of the Apostolic age, the establishing of the work given to us by Christ and His Apostles, and we have learned that the Gospel of Christ was fully and completely established upon the earth. In order to mantain our professions that the Gospel has been restored to the earth, it is absolutely necessary to show that that Gospel established by Christ and his apostles was taken away from the earth. Otherwise our whole founIdation is swept away. So that the Young Ladies Mutual Improvement Associations offer for your consideration the subject of the Apostacy. So far as I know (and I have been told by others it is a fact) there has never been a course outlined upon this subject alone, though it has been introduced incidentally in other courses in different departments of our Church auxiliary organizations. It has come in without being given the full consideration that we hope to give it. True, we have only eight lessons outlined, but we hope in them to convince you that the Gospel has been taken from the earth and that it was absolutely necessary that it be restored, and to prove to you that it has been restored. Now this will be taken up, first, from the standpoint of proph

ecies, the prophecies of the ancient prophets foretelling great events of the future, and foretelling the conditions which should come before the final drifting away from the Church of Christ, and that the authority of the Gospel would be taken from the earth.

Then there will be some lessons devoted to the consideration of our interpretation of scriptural facts which go to establish the declarations of the ancient prophets. These lessons are being prepared by one eminently fitted to prepare them,-one of the best that we could secure in the Church-and they will be given to you fully. We recognize when it comes to the consideration of the historical parts of the lessons, that the effort should be to obtain the best informed members for these subjects, that the lessons may be given in the most instructive and entertaining manner. Of course, we urge you to encourage further investigation along these lines, and to provide your associations with the best material you possibly can for such investigation to add to a better understanding of these things. We hope to give sufficient in the Journal to make these lessons comprehensible, that they may be taken up and considered from the matter in the Journal alone if necessary, though it will be of additional interest to have access some of the other books in the wards.

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The lessons in the past have been worth our consideration, and while perhaps they have not always been given to you in the best possible arrangement, still the subject has been worth your considertaion. I believe that where they have failed to bring the results we hoped for, it has been due to the fact that we have put these matters into the hands of incompetent teachers. The weakness did not lie wholly in the work outlined. There are persons in our communities well qualified to handle these matters, and so we urge you stake officers to instruct your local officers to select from the members those who are able to take up these lessons and to make them interesting. They must have some qualifications, either by training or nature. We must put greater consideration into this matter, and provide more competent teachers than we have generally had in the past.

Now, I hope we have been understood in this matter. And I ask the stake officers to require of the local officers that they see to it that the lessons are handled in the best possible way; that where a member does not have interest in her work, that she be given to understand that her work is not altogether satisfactory. We must encourage; I would not discourage. But I would not allow 25 or 50 or 60 girls, who come to our organizations expecting to be taught, to be disappointed because of the incompetency of one or two who are in charge. Give them to

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that you expect their best efforts. Don't discourage them because they cannot do as well as some others, but if they do their best recognize their efforts, appreciate their work. But if there be some who are competent to prepare the lessons better than they do, give them to understand that their work is not as satisfactory as they were expected to perform it.

I speak for myself alone now: If I were selecting the teachers, I would try to select one who was not engaged in any other work. If she has work in some other organization, possibly it would hinder the work she is doing in the Mutual Improvement organization. She is not losing anything; in fact, she is training herself in systematic special work by devoting herself entirely to one line of work. Perhaps this is not possible, but generally I believe it will succeed. There is a feeling that one or two persons can do the work in our associations. I will be glad when the time comes that it will not be expected of one person to do more than one thing in our organizations, and to do that one thing well; and when e come to that condition, there will be a general uplift.

May the Lord bless us, and may all that I have said come to you in the spirit that I intended to convey, that there will be no misunderstanding, I ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.

(c). THE HOME.

1. Senior Course. Augusta W. Grant.

We propose to take up this subject from the standpoint of the ideal home, the ideal household for the Latterday Saints, the perfect home. We

may not be able to accomplish this. We are not perfect, but our work is improvement and we want to follow this out especially in this line,home.

You will find the outline in your June Journal for the work this year. The first lesson is the house, the building of the house, the selection of the location. We want to understand something about the health and the hygiene of the home,and this comes in very particularly in the selection of the location for our home,-whether it is well drained, whether we will get good sunshine, sunlight and air, and the various conditions for health. Then we consider the locality in reference to our occupations, whether it is near to our business or far away, and how we can get to and from our work; whether it is in the city or in the country; whether it would suit our conditions as a family better to live in the city or in the country, and all of these things. Then we will take up the home decoration. We have something already on this line. I

heard one lady say a little while ago (she didn't know that we were considering the subject at all, and she was speaking about what we had already had,) she said, "those lessons are very good, but they are not practical. They are for wealthy people, but they have nothing to do with poor people. They tell us to not have certain things in our houses; they are out of date, and not according to the rules of art, she said, "I have numbers of things in my house that might not come under the heading of good art, but," she added, "I cannot throw them away; I cannot afford to buy others." Well, we want to consider these things. It doesn't take new things to be artistic. Sometimes the very oldest things are most artistic and the most highly prized. And we want our own individuality in our home, that when we meet together in that home people may be able to say "it is a good home." Some people may live in an elegant mansion and we don't feel that it is a good home, an artistic home. Everything is new and shining, but it will not be artistic.

I have in mind a home. It is quite an old house. They have scarcely any of the modern conveniences that some people think we must have. They haven't any hard wood floors. They

are moderately weathy people, but they prefer carpets, rugs and linoleum instead of hard wood floors. That home is one of the most artistic that I have ever been in, and one of the most comfortable. They don't have to possess these things to make them comfortable.

I have in mind another home of a widow lady. She is not wealthy, but her home is artistic, and it is just like herself, one of the most homelike, cozy, and pleasant places that you would ever go to spend an hour to be entertained. She is very hospitable, always has company about her, always entertains her friends, and there is no place you would like better to go. The other day she was saying that she would like a grate in her dining room. She said, "I don't want a new grate, one of these new styles that everybody likes now and that we are expected to have; it wouldn't suit my house. My house is an old house, and I want an old fashioned grate to make it harmonize with the rest of the house.

Then there is another family that I know who live in the country. They are not wealthy; they are farmers, and they haven't any of what we call the new fangled ideas or notions in their home, but it is comfortable and cleanly. That is the foundation of everything, to have our homes cleanly and healthful in this regard. We all know the old saying, "cleanliness is next to godliness," and we may follow this by the saying "that dirt is a sin." There is no question about it. It is just as much a sin to have dirt as to have any other evil. This home, I said, is in the country. The lady has no daughters. She has five sons, and she has to make use of their help in a measure, and it is a happy home, and a very pleasant place to go. The house itself is not anything wonderful. It is comfortable, large, and airy, and they have a beautiful lawn outside, and trees, and in the summer they spend most of their time out doors, and this is healthful as well as pleasant.

Then we wish to consider the household management,-how we can plan our work to save labor, and also make the home pleasant for our families. We want to understand cooking, serving, and the easiest ways and the most helpful, most economical, most hygienic way of life for our

health and happiness. And further than that, I think the most important of all is the religious atmosphere over all from the standpoint of the Latterday Saints. We must understand that women have more to do, I think, than men in the religious as well as in the domestic management of the home. Very often the young people are married; the husband has not been accustomed to having family prayers. He is quite backward to begin with when he first is married and has a home of his own, and it is really the place of the young wife to indicate that she would like family prayers and family devotions. And very often it would have a wonderful effect on the husband. He would be glad to do it. The young man perhaps has not been accustomed to it and he would be perhaps glad to do it if his wife would give him to understand that she expects it and would be pleased to have it; and it would not be out of place at all. Mutual Improvement workers are usually accustomed to praying in their meetings, and I think it would not be a very hard task for us to join in our family prayers and to take our places with our husbands and to teach our children in that way.

It is perfectly wonderful to think of the influences thrown over us in this regard. Our fathers and mothers were not always trained to these things, but our children are trained to take part in the home. In the first place they are trained to take part in asking the blessing, and in prayer; and they say "it is my turn to pray," "it is my turn to ask the blessing," and it is no trial for them at all. But I know men in this Church, men who are over seventy years old, that scarcely ask a blessing, and they cannot engage in family prayers; yet they are good men, men in good standing in the Church, and have faith, and all that, but they have never been accustomed to it and they really are not able to do it. I have seen gentlemen in my home, over seventy years of age, when they have been asked to engage in family prayers and there was no other man present, they could not do it, and some of the ladies would have to lead in family prayers, and it was all because of the way they had been trained. I have also seen a case very recently where