joint statehood of Arizona and New Mexico was defeated by the adverse vote of Arizona. A Correction.-Elder Rudger Clawson desires to correct a wrong report of his statement at the late semi-annual conference, in which it is said: "During this season 105 car loads of peaches were shipped out of Brigham City alone, from which over $100,000 were realized." What he said in substance was: "from which about $50,000 were realized, with another $50,000 for berries and other fruits, making a total of about $100,000." The wrong statement has appeared in several prints, and in an article on "Peach Day" in the November ERA. Central States Mission.-During the time that Elder James G. Duffin pre sided in the Central States Mission, the following work was done and changes made. This embraces a period of six and a half years, and does not include six months that he labored in the State of Texas as a traveling elder and president of a conference, before taking charge of the mission. The work done as expressed by statistics, for the six and a-half years, is as follows, as given by Elder Duffin at the late semi-annual conference, and later in a report to the First Presidency: Families of strangers visited for the first time in presenting the gospel, 709,314; families revisited, 55, 226; visits to members of the Church, 64,994; gospel conversations, 738,879; tracts distributed, 1,146,848; books disposed of, 54,349; books loaned, 14,807; meetings held, 43,036; attendance at the meetings, 944,798; baptisms performed, 1,808; and children blessed, 1,576. The smallest number of pages of reading matter contained in any tract distributed is sixteen, all other tracts contain from thirty-two to forty-four pages with neat, illustrated cover. Of the sixteen-page tracts, 46,848 have been distributed, which would leave 1,100,000 tracts of thirty-two and forty-four pages, or a total pages of tract literature distributed of 35,949,568. The smallest number of pages contained in the books distributed is 102, and they range from this up to 1,000. Taking an average of book pages distributed, we get 24,500,000, which, added to the pages of reading matter contained, in the tracts distributed, gives a grand total of 60,449,000 pages of reading matter distributed in the mission, during the period of six and a half years. In addition to this, thousands of copies of the Deseret News, Improvement Era, Juvenile Instructor, Young Woman's Journal, Elders' Journal, and other publications, have been distributed.. Since January, 1901, there have been published by the mission the following number of books: Book of Mormon, 11,500; this was the first edition published by the missions in the United States. Voice of Warning, 20,000; Cowley's Talks on Doctrine, 5,980. Tracts published, 1,923,000, one half million of which have been sent to other missions; 250,000 Article of Faith cards. The number of missionaries laboring in the mission, during the above period, was 515; of this number two remained in the mission one month, one remained two months, three remained three months, three remained six months, two remained four months, and three ten months, the balance served from fifteen to thirty months in the mission field. Of the missionaries that returned home under the time that might be called a full missionary term, but two deserted their fields of labor, and not one returned home by reason of impropor association while in the mission field. Failing health of the missionary himself, or sickness or death of loved ones at home, have been the principal causes of their early return home. In October, 1900, the states of Missouri and Louisiana were added to the mission, and, in December of the same year, the headquarters of the mission were removed from St. John, Kansas, to Kansas City, Mo. The mission now embraces the states of Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, and Oklahoma including Indian Territory. In The following buildings are now owned by the Saints and the Church, in the mission. Two good meeting houses in the state of Kansas, two in Indian Territory, three in Texas, two in Louisiana, and two in Arkansas. Seven of these have been built since 1901, without cost to the Church. There has been secured for Church purposes real estate in the states of Kansas, Missouri and Texas. Texas a strong colony has been established, at which point, Kelsey, Upshur Co., a town was laid out in November, 1902, by Elders Owen A. Woodruff and James G. Duffin. At this place there are now about three hundred and fifty members of the Church. A good day-school with two competent teachers, Sunday School, Mutual Improvement Association and Relief Society, are in good working order. In East Kansas, another flourishing branch has been established, which now has a membership of between seventy and eighty. The Sunday school work is in good condition throughout the mission, there being now something over twenty schools in successful operation. A very important work accomplished during the past four years has been the revising of all the records of the mission, genealogical, historical, and statistical. To complete this work took three years of time. These records are as follows: CONFERENCE RECORDS. 8 Genealogical records in use at present time, 8 Historical records in use at present time. 8 Statistical records in use at present time. 6 Sunday School records. MISSION RECORDS. 1 Genealogical record in use at present time. The North Pole.-Commander Robert E. Peary, of the U. S. Navy reached Hopedale, Labrador, on his return from a search for the North Pole, November 2, and Sandy Point, N. F., November 20. He left July 26, 1905, in the steamship Roosevelt, sailing from Sydney, Cape Breton. While he did not reach the pole, he achieved the distinction of reaching 87 deg. 6 min. north latitude, which is the farthest north reached by any explorer, and is within 203 statute miles of the pole. The Duke of Abruzzi's expedition, in 1900. stands next with 237 statute miles. IMPROVEMENT ERA. VOL. X. JANUARY, 1907. No. 3 THE TEST OF SECTION SIXTY-SEVEN. BY OSBORNE WIDTSOE, A. M., LATTER-DAY SAINTS' HIGH SCHOOL. Whatever Joseph Smith was or was not, he was certainly fearless in all his assertions of divine inspiration. At a time when high religious excitement proclaimed belief in an immaterial God, and in the actual unity of an immaterial trinity, the boy-prophet declared that he had beheld a vision in which the Father and the Son had appeared to him, as two separate beings, and as beings of material existence in the form of man. Greatly elated over this incomparable vision, the young boy hastened to communicate the things he had learned to a distinguished friend, a sectarian minister; but to his utter astonishment, the boy was ridiculed and called a fool, then maligned and persecuted. Yet he had seen a vision, and fearlessly he remained true to that assertion. Again, not many years after, an angel visited him. Angels were, in Christian theology, however, supernatural beings of a bygone age. No one believed in them when Moroni came to Joseph. Yet, Joseph declared in soberness that an angel had visited him, and had restored the gospel of Christ. And for that fearless assertion, the young man was further persecuted. He Then Joseph published a book in his young manhood. called it the Book of Mormon, and said it was a translation of certain ancient American records, revealed to him by divine power. The world stood aghast at his audacity. It tried to prove the book of spurious authorship. It tried to prove the book merely a feeble effort of a literary quack. It tried in every way to throw discredit upon the book. But Joseph Smith remained undaunted. The world could not intimidate him, and so it persecuted him. Then, in his maturity, this remarkable man declared himself to be a prophet of God. He claimed to hold divine communion with the Creator of the world, and issued revelation upon revelation to the Church and to its individual members. Unbelievers laughed in derision; enemies protested indignantly against such blasphemy; and even followers of the daring prophet began to doubt his inspiration. But intrepid as ever, the prophet maintained that he was divinely called, and fearlessly gave to all the world an infallible test by which his revelations could be tried to the uttermost. It was in the year 1831. A conference had been convened to consider the advisability of compiling and publishing the numerous revelations-professedly given by God to Joseph Smith—which had hitherto been preserved only in manuscript form. The conference deemed it proper, and even necessary, to publish these revelatiors; but a discussion arose concerning the language in which they were expressed. Joseph Smith was not a master of elegant English. His education had not trained him in artistic expression. There were some men in the Church far better educated than the prophet. They criticized his language, and thought, apparently, that the revelations ought to be revised and expressed in a more nearly correct, and certainly a more lofty, style. Then the prophet again declared that he had received divine direction from God. 'And now I, the Lord," said the great I Am, “give unto you a testimony of the truth of these commandments which are lying before you. Your eyes have Deen upon my servant, Joseph Smith, Jr., and his language you have known, and his imperfections you have known; and you have sought in your hearts knowledge that you might express beyond his language; this you also know. Now seek ye out of the book of commandments, even the least that is among them, and appoint him that is the most wise among you; if there be any among you that shall make one like unto it, then ye are justified in saying that ye do not know that they are true; but if ye cannot make one like unto it, ye are under condemnation, if ye do not bear record that they are true." It was a daring revelation to give to a body of enlightened followers. It was even a hazardous thing to throw such a gauntlet before men like Oliver Cowdery, Sidney Rigdon and William E. M'Lellin. Think of Joseph Smith-the poor son of an impoverished farmer, who had learned in school little more than to read common print and to write his own name-daring William E. M'Lellin-who had taught school successfully in five states of the Union, and who was noted for a ready flow of good language-to write a single section like the least of the revelations in the book of commandments! Was it unparalleled conceit and presumption that prompted such fearlessness, or was it implicit confidence in the unique quality of the revelations dictated by divine inspiration? Would not so bold a declaration tempt even men of superior wisdom to pit themselves against the reputed man of God? Certainly, one man, at least, was brought low in the dust of humiliation because he presumed to apply the test and write a revelation in the name of the Lord: "After the foregoing was received," writes the Prophet, "William E. M'Lellin, as the wisest man, in his own estimation, having more learning than sense, endeavored to write a commandment like unto one of the least of the Lord's, but failed; it was an awful responsibility to write in the name of the Lord. The Elders and all present that witnessed this vain attempt of a man to imitate the language of Jesus Christ, renewed their faith in the fulness of the Gospel, and in the truth of the commandments and revelations which the Lord had given to the Church through my instrumentality; and the elders signified a willingness to bear testimony of their truth to all the world." Thus was the test applied in the lifetime of Joseph, and thus was his declaration of divine inspiration vindicated. No one since the day of William E. M'Lellin has seen fit to make an attempt like his. Yet, the test was not for M'Lellin's day only. When the book of Doctrine and Covenants was finally printed, in 1835, the revelation prescribing the divinely appointed test was included as Section Sixty-seven. And the section has retained its place from that day to this. Not a word has been changed; not one element of the meaning has been altered. As a test, it is just as |