do our own; and if you will hold your meetings regularly together, and plan your work together, you will find good co-operation, and you will find splendid results coming from it.

In the discussion which followed, Prest. D. H. Morris, of St. George Stake explained their difficulty in getting ward officers to attend monthly meetings on account of great distances to be traveled.

Elder Anthony W. Ivins of the Quorum of the Twelve answered that they could nevertheless hold monthly conjoint Stake Board meetings which would do a great deal of good, to which President D. H. Morris assented.

PRELIMINARY PROGRAMS.

Address by Lottie Paul Baxter, President Y. L. M. I. A. Liberty Stake.

It would be useless to try to have a successful preliminary program unless the Young Men's and the Young Ladies' officers of local associations have met and planned it, and each one taken the responsibility that belongs to him. There are three very important offices in the Mutual Improvement associations; they are the organist, the chorister, and the class teacher. If you have an organist and a chorister on whom you can depend, who will be in the meeting-house at 7:20 with hymn books distributed, hymns selected and the names written upon a piece of paper ready to hand to the presiding officer, you have a very successful beginning, and you will have an excellent meeting. There may be other gaps which will have to be filled in by the ingenuity of the presiding officers, that will never be felt, if they are tactful; but if the meeting is called to order five or more minutes late; if you have a hymn poorly selected and poorly sung, without time or pitch, you certainly have lost at least one half of your opportunity of the evening for a successful meeting. It will not matter if your class work later on is quite successful; you have lost your opportunity of impressing the boys and girls that you have planned your meeting and that you came there prepared.

The preliminary program has a two

fold object: first, to entertain, instruct, and inspire those who are present; and, second, it is to develop the latent talent in the boys and girls, which otherwise might remain dormant. To entertain those present some of the very best talent available must be secured to make that part of the evening's entertainment attractive and artistic. But the boy or girl who has never appeared in public will shrink from appearing on the program the same night that one who is talented does; therefore, the persons who are planning the preliminary program must be very discreet in seeing that the trained and the untrained appear in entirely different lines, so no unfavorable comparison can be made. In order to accomplish any permanent result in the work of the members, it is necessary that they, first, be attracted to the work, and, second, that they develop a sentiment in its favor that amounts to a real enthusiasm. The preliminary program is the most available means for, first, converting, and, second, inspiring the members of the association. This program, then, should be addressed to the emotions and higher sentiments. It should be always beautiful and should contain as much of the true and good as the talent of those who present it makes possible. It should never consciously attempt to address itself to the intellect of the audience, but to the emotions and sentiment to the heart, we might

say.

In other words, it should not be merely instructive or didactic, but always emotional, artistic, and inspirational. This does not mean that the mere arousing of feelings is in any way superior to the discipline and culture of the intellect, since such a proposition would be manifestly false; it only means that for the purpose for which the preliminary programs are given, the appeal to the emotions, and to the artistic and dramatic sentiments is more effective than any direct attempt to reach the intellect, at such a time, could possibly be. You take the young boys and girls as they come frolicking in from the streets, and immediately begin to give them something that is deep and requires thought which would tax their intellects, and they are not interested. You must give them this relish of preliminary program, that is artistic and beautiful, and that will

stir their emotions, before you can interest them in anything else you have to do. It is a well known psychological law that interest precedes learning of any kind, and this seems to be especially true of theological learning. You must interest before you can instruct; you must inspire with zeal and with a desire to know, before you can get the average young person to undertake seriously a lesson on scripture, on home sanitation, or duty to parents; and a preliminary program has been instituted for this very purpose. It has been set at the beginning of the meeting because the regular program was incomplete, in that it appealed to only one side of human nature-the intellectual. The only direct appeal to the emotional nature in the past has been the opening hymns and prayer; and when these have consisted of music or words that have grown familiar by repetition and long use, it has not infrequently resulted that they contain no appeal whatever to the emotional susceptibilities of the audience, and the boys and girls either do not take part in singing or they do it in a listless way, and do not know what they are doing. Here is one of the largest fields for the presiding officer to instil into our boys and girls a deep interest, and love, and respect for the hymns contained in our hymn book. I believe that here is an opportunity to have at least one successful preliminary program every month in the year.

Select someone who is attractive as a narrator, who can tell a story well, and have this person look into the history of the conditions that brought forth the wonderful poems in our hymn book, and relate this in an interesting way to the boys and girls. Arouse their interest, if you can, seize and rivet their attention upon these sacred things, and then have that very same hymn sung as a solo.

I will give you only one instance, a hymn that you will find in that book of beautiful hymns and there are hundreds of them whose history can be looked up.-Over sixty years ago, a band of pilgrims, full of faith, but weary afoot, started westward. After traveling some distance they camped upon the bank of the turbulent and mighty Missouri. It was nightfall, and the fires were kindled. The women, as they gathered their weeping

babes around them, refused to cross the river. They said, “We cannot find the place." Then that wonderful leader President Brigham Young, turned to Brother William Clayton, a man of rare ability, and he said, "Brother William, is there anything you can say, is there anything you can write to cheer these heartbroken women?" Brother Clayton sat down, under the protection of the spreading branches of the trees on that muddy river bank, and wrote that wonderful and inspirational hymn, that thrills me every time I sing or recite it:

"Come, come, ye Saints, no toil nor labor fear,

But with joy wend your way; Though hard to you this journey may

ing in its first stages, rather than a belief; it becomes a belief later, and finally ripens into knowledge; but its origin is due to action of impulses, moved by ideas that appeal to the emotional side of our nature. Το make the mind ready for intellectual work, we must first excite some sort of emotion, say admiration, or curiosity, or emulation, the desire to be like the one who renders an artistic piece, and the ambition to reproduce some fine creation of the artist. Instil these feelings in the hearts of the boys and girls, and you have their interest aroused. These preliminary programs, if conceived and executed in the spirit of true art, whether they be dramatic, literary, musical, or concrete illustrations of anything that is beautiful, appeal to the boys and girls as nothing else can; and it behooves the officers to make these little every day things attractive to the boys and the girls. As is well known, the emotions of youth are much stronger than their knowledge. They are capable of deep feeling rather than deep thought. A preliminary program, therefore, that is artistic and beautiful strikes home with young people. It rivets their attention, arouses their admiration, stimulates their desire to do likewise. They are then ready for the heavy intellectual work of the class room; and will be all attention, when they pass into the class room. A preliminary program that is not soul-stirring and emotion producing is a failure as a preliminary. It may be good as a sermon, as an exhortation, as an essay, but if so, is only a good thing out of place. All preaching, all sermonizing, and especially all scolding is to be avoided in the preliminary program. When the mind is not ready for these good things, they are likely to be dry and distasteful. But when the mind has its emotions stirred, as by a fine story, well told; a fine poem, well recited; a good song, well sung; a quartette, given with perfect intonation and harmony, a musical selection that stirs the heart strings, and they vibrate in unison-these are the things that first seize upon the attention and fix the mind of youth upon the higher ideals of which these are representatives the good, the beautiful, the right, the noble, and the true in human conduct and action. These are the ideals, and these are the only ideals, that the preliminary program,

rightly used, should arouse, in the minds of the boys and girls. These programs, if properly thought out and executed, will not only feed and nourish the "ninety and nine," that are within the fold, but will go after and find the one that is lost.

I was asked to give a suggestive outline of preliminary programs, but I am infringing on some one else's time. These are suggestive preliminary programs, and I take them just for the first three months of Mutual work: September and October I combine as the harvest months, and thought of several excellent hymns that typify this beautiful season of the year. I also selected Longfellow's "Blessing the Corn-fields;" the beautiful Indian legend in which the bride steals forth alone at midnight, to walk. around the corn-fields, weaving a spell of magic which was to protect them from destruction and blight. But the cornfields were not left wholly to the magic spell, but traps were set, and scare-crows, again proving the time worn truth that faith without works is dead. Whittier's "The Huskers,' and the "Corn Song:" these poems keeping alive the quaint customs of our forefathers of the husking bee. These poems are not chosen alone for their beauty and appropriateness to the season, but also because they are written by American poets who wrote them with the object in view of keeping alive in the hearts of the people the old American customs, fallen into disuse, but embodying the spirit of a bygone era of our own people. I think these are beautiful things to keep before the boys and girls. The songs suggested for these two months, September and October, would be "Harvest Home," and the "Harvest Moon;" "There is a Place in Utah that I Remember Well," by Brother Willis; "Let the Mountains Shout for Joy," by Brother Stephens; "Earth with her Ten Thousand Flowers," and many others.

November, the dreariest month of the year, can be made extremely attractive, officers, by using it for a great thanksgiving, not only using it in the old sense of being thankful for a bounteous harvest, but thankful for our beautiful mountain homes, for our free country, our liberty, and the principles of our glorious and beautiful Gospel. Impress this upon the boys and girls. I would suggest Mrs. Hemans' "The Pilgrim Fathers,"

very beautiful, and easily read; also Alice Carey's "November," beautiful in its description of the apparently lifeless trees, so desolate now in appearance, bursting forth, at the call of spring, into new life and added beauty, symbolizing the resurrection and the uprising of the soul at the Father's call. The last stanza will prove to you how beautiful and simple it is:

"So, when some dear joy loses

Its beauteous summer glow,
Think how the roots of the roses
Are kept alive 'neath the snow."

Such hymns as "Praise Ye the Lord,' "Song of Praise," "A Thanksgiving Hymn," "Sweet is the Work," "Meditation," and many others.

During the month of December, you can celebrate in your preliminary programs, the two great events, the birth of the Savior and the latterday prophet, Joseph Smith. Our books everywhere are replete with poems and songs of these two great events, and these programs can be made very interesting for the boys and girls. The following selections would be appropriate and instructive: Whittier's "The Star of Bethlehem," "APoor Wayfaring Man of Grief," "What Was Witnessed in the Heavens?" "Christmas Carol," "Joseph Smith's First Prayer," and others.

Singing "Christ is Risen,"-Farmer's Ward Ladies' Chorus, (Granite Stake) led by Miss Bradford.

"ORDER"

my

Address by Elder George H. Brimhall. My brethren and sisters,-I feel almost out of place at this moment. I have been thinking of what I once saw upon a book, "Here's to brothers, Tom and Bill, who stood back and let me pass." I do not know but some of the girls will have to send their brethren a book like that. It seems to me that some of us are standing back and letting our sisters pass. In my visits to high schools in the State, recently, I found there were from two to three graduates among the girls, or young women, to one of the boys or young men. I always feel embarrassed when I am called upon to follow an exercise given by one of our sisters. They seem to be so painstaking and more finished in their work than we are. Perhaps it is unfair for me to include my

other brethren in this. Now, as to order-whether this is the right order of evolution, or not, I am not prepared to say, but it appears to be the order or the way things are going.

Order is said to be heaven's first law. I think that is right; and obedience is, perhaps, the first practice of that law. Order means everything in its best place, doing its best. I was very much impressed by what Brother Morris said, and it fits right in here, that some way or other, we take more interest in carrying out our own plans than we do carrying out the plans of any one else; and that is true; that is psychologically true; it is theologically true. It would appear the Lord, the Father of Jesus Christ, understood that, for He called upon the Savior to suggest a plan, and He gave permission to another intelligence to draft a plan for the education and development of the human race. The Gospel is the plan drafted by the Savior Jesus, and His Father approved of it; then there came about co-operation. Now, counsel is the highest privilege of government. Counsel is far above the privilege of Detition. Counsel means the co-operation of intelligences, and that principle lies at the base of the first condition of order, because the first condition of order is preparation; and in our associations, preparation must be the result of counsel of the presidency, the general superintendency, the general board, or the stake board, joint and separate, all the way through, to the ward presidencies, joint and separate; that is the first condition of order. The thing must be arranged mentally, and intelligently blocked out; and then we can proceed along the line illustrated in the remark of that great teacher David Starr Jordan, who said: "For the man that knows where he is going, the world steps aside and lets him go." To the presiding officer who knows what he is going to do and how he is going to do it, the audience, or the class, whatever it may be, will respond in an orderly way. I repeat now, the first condition of order, in the line of execution, is preparation; and one of the elements-the indispensible element of preparation, from the heavens down, is counsel. There is the order of condition, and preparation is the main part of it.

Now, there is order of positionYou see it manifest in our buildings

here; you see illustrations of it in our gatherings-with the brethren in their seating before us. The priesthood is one of the most beautiful object lessons of the order of position. This order of position, in its effect, is marked, is inviolable. For instance, in the gathering at a certain family altar-I am not going to presume to say that this is right, but I saw it and it was most beautiful-there is a brother who arranges his family this way, at the family devotion: the mother kneels at the right of the father, then the eldest child at his left, then the next oldest; that is the place always, at prayer, and then the next, and the next; and finally it brings the little babe, three years old, right around by the mother. They all knew their place, and came to it; there was order of family position. I don't know that it was based upon any special principle, but it was beautiful, and it taught order to the children. There was also order of procedure in that, too; each one taking his turn, as they learned to pray in that family circle. I had a wonderful lesson in that a few evenings ago, when a dying patriarch made such a request of his children. He could just muster breath enough to say, "Get in order." He did not say it aloud like that, but just a guttural tone-"In order, my children;" and they were arranged there in the order of their seniority; and he was dedicated to the Lord to go, the testimony that he had filled his mission. I thought what a beautiful thing this order of position is.

Then there is the order of procedure. One of the general principles of the order of procedure is laid down by the apostle Paul. "Let one speak at a time." I have been exceedingly embarrassed on the rostrum, where we have had our devotional exercises; I always feel that I ought to get up and apologize to the student body if I am compelled to communicate with my counselors on the rostrum. There we sit, in our order; that is proper, and the order and procedure requires that there should be deliberation, that we should know what we are going to do, when we take our positions, and then do it with as little disturbance as possible.

Then, under the first heading, as I have said, the first condition of order is preparation. The second condition of order is push. You want to avoid

hitches; have things running smoothly, and let every person who has an appointment at a meeting understand: Now, if you are not here next time, there will be a jar in the whole machinery, and you cannot afford to disappoint us. If you find you will be unable to be here, you will surely send me word, telephone me, write a note, or in some way advise me, so that a temporary substitute can be put in that place, someone who can fill that position. If, therefore, there is push, there will be interest, and we can't instruct without interest, and one of the great things that interests people is to feel something on their shoulders-just to feel that they are responsible. That is what made the Greek such a warrior. His mother taught him that, "On your arm today hangs the fate of Greece," and he fought that way. Oh there is nothing that will hold a little boy or girlmuch less a young person-steady more than to feel the weight of responsibility. In proceeding, along this line of push, you must establish authority by appointment, and then let all things be done by common consent. Lay the matter right squarely and fairly before your class, or your organization, like this: Now boys, you know there can't be two heads to any one thing, and it be successful. There must always be one little head; who do you want to manage this class, or manage this meeting; do you want the president to do it? Why, they will invariably vote to sustain you as the executive. You will come into office by virtue of your appointment there, and then you will have common consent to govern that organization. When anybody gets out of order, it I will not be understood that they are in conflict with your authority, or especially with your personality, but that they are in conflict with the rules of that house. Now, in pushing matters, I would say here, Proceed not in the midst of confusion. I have to refer back to mowing hay, as good an illustration as I can get-whenever a bolt gets loose in the machinery, don't drive on, and say, I will go to the end before I try to tighten up that bearing. That will not do, because the farther you go, the louder the rattle and the greater the mischief you are doing. Hence, when there is any irregularity, just stop, pause, wait! The young persons, may be, who are disturbing, have such a tremendous