benefit a desperate element in society to the injury of the simple.

Our friend is wrong also when he states that as many men sink into despair and commit suicide through business failures as through losses at the gaming tables. Take into account the number of men engaged in business life and the sucides that result from complications and failures, and compare them with the percentage of suicides among gamblers, and we do not hesitate to say that the former will be found insignificant in comparison with the latter. This must be so from the very nature of things. The man who fails in business, unless that failure results from dishonesty, has his character left, his reputation, his business experience, and may hope to rebuild the fortunes which disaster threw down. But the gambler who fails has nothing of this to support him. He is conscious he has no respectable standing in society. The known gambler is everywhere distrusted and is a marked man in society and business circles. His pursuit of gambling has robbed him of all inclinations to honest endeavor that calls for toil or careful pains-taking; he feels himself unfitted for the stern affairs of life; the strumpet, Chance, has gone against him; nothing is left him, and he throws away his life. At Monte Carlo it is estimated that there is a suicide for every day of the gambling season. There gambling reaches its highest refinment, and it is supposed to be conducted on the fairest principles possible to gambling; yet this is the result! But not all the result, for wealth is drawn thither from the uttermost parts of the earth, and sacrificed, along with character and good name, for the benefit of a shrewd, fattening horde of private speculators. The proprietors netting several millions of dollars a year in dividends.

In conclusion let us say, that although nothing may be found in holy writ which expressly condemns gambling, yet something is due to the enlightened sentiment of mankind on a question of morals, especially when that sentiment is based upon an extensive experience, as it is in the verdict against gambling. This is its verdict even when gambling is carried on in its most respectable phases, how much more just is that verdict when applied to the common dives of our larger cities so frequently run under the name of club-rooms, where outright trickery and fraud are practiced, and the unwary robbed?

Society has never been too harsh in its denunciation of these dens of infamy, and young men who are tempted to enter them will do well to pause before crossing the threshhold and ask if they can afford to sacrifice reputation and standing in society to gratify a mere passion for play which means ruin in the end, even if successful. Cannot our young men see then even if successful it must be a losing game?

NOTES.

"READING HAS this great advantage over conversation, that we can always select our companions, and obtain such as are accessible in no other way. Nor need we restrict ourselves to the society of the living, but may listen to the best thoughts of the best minds of every age."

"HE IS A VERY wise and sagacious man who has learned to test and try his beliefs, so as to hold them with more or less tenacity, according to their probability. It is indeed one of the marks of a man's intelligence and culture when he modifies his expressions of assurance to the degree in which they may be justified."

"ALL CENSURE, however justly merited, is most efficient when preceded or accompanied by praise and appreciation that can be sincerely given. The pleasant relations thus established, and the pleasant feelings thus awakened, form the best safeguard against resentment, and afford a powerful motive to retain the esteem of the faithful well-wisher."

"IT is generally wiser to concentrate our thoughts upon one particular pursuit than to allow them to wander from one subject to another without any definite object in sight. A great many have failed to achieve success because they have not been thorough in the work attempted. Whatever we start to do we should see to it that our energies are directed to the one thing in contemplation."

"IT TAKES AWAY much of the favor of life to live among those with whom one has not anything like one's fair value. It may not be mortified vanity but unsatisfied sympathy which causes this discomfort. See how happy a man is in any office or service who is acknowledged to do something well! How comfortable he is with his superiors! He has his place. It is not exactly a satisfaction of his vanity, but an acknowledgment of his useful existence that contents him."

"IN OUR fond attachment to the idea of independence we

forget how very little there really is of it in the world.

Boast as we may of being self-centered and free from control, there is not one among us who is not dependent upon others for much that he has, and is, and does. Especially is this true as regards character and conduct. Those with whom we mingle are constantly moulding us into mental and moral forms resembling their own, and no possible effort or determination on our part can prevent it."

"TO RECOGNIZE the true limits of one's power and to work faithfully within those limits, is a far more clear, definite, and hopeful condition than to close the eyes to real obstacles and attempt the impossible. A few sincere convictions gained by intelligent toil and research, and a great deal of honost doubt in other quarters, are far better than the unthinking and confident assurances that deal only with certainties and find no room for suspense or consideration. For, as Bishop Butler says, "To us probability is the very guide of life."

"TO UNDERSTAND HOW TO REST is of more importance than to know how to work. The latter can be learned easily; the former it takes years to learn, and some people never learn the art of resting. It is simply a change of scene and activities. "Loafing" may not be resting. Sleeping is not always resting. Sitting down for days with nothing to do is not restful. A change is needed to bring into play a different set of faculties, and to turn life into a new channel. The man who works hard finds his best rest in playing hard. The man who is burdened with care finds relief in something that is active yet free from responsibility."

"SELF BLAME is often awarded in a crude and unjust manner, from the present rather than the past standard. Just as we often misjudge others by not appreciating their point of view, so are we sometimes unjust to our own past selves by estimating them according to our present mental attitude. For example, a year, a month, even a week ago we may have done something with good intentions and with entire selfapproval. Meanwhile we have grown a little in moral stature,

and would not now approve it or do it.

self-reproach.

We may be glad that

Here is no cause for

we see more clearly

or feel more keenly; but it is not what we think of the act now, but what we thought of it then, that should form the basis of our judgment."

*

"LYING IS too often treated locally," says a contemporary, "when it should be constitutionally treated. There are almost as many different sorts of lies as there are different sorts of fevers. For example, exaggeration which comes from excess of imagination is to be cured by teaching accuracy of observation. Make the child count all the objects in the room. Make him hold steadily to proven facts in everything. Then there is the lie of egotism, which is always claiming everything for itself. Ignore the story. Make it seem not worth his while. The lie which denies is the fault of other people. Punishment has been given arbitrarily. That is to be corrected in the guardian. The hardest fault to correct in a child, or in any one else, is the deep lie of jealousy, the malicious lie. It always comes from jealousy, and seems to be difficult to remedy."

"TO TONE up the system and refresh the wearied mind we need seasons of blessed abandonment, of entire freedom, where every care is thrown off and every burden dropped, and mind and body have the chance to recover from their fatigue and regain their wonted power and elasticity. It is not a new set of diversions that is needed for this good purpose. Almost every one now in vogue can be followed in such a way as to secure it, or in such a way as to frustrate it. All games and sports, the concert and the theater, friendly converse and the social gathering, the dance or the interesting volume, may be used in so simple, so moderate, so healthful a way as to ensure true recreation and invigoration;, or they may be made the means of labor, excitement, burdensome care, fatiguing strain, and wearing risk. The question which it shall be is no light or trifling matter, but one worthy of the grave consideration of all who desire to be self-respecting and valuable members of the community."

OUR WORK.

REPORT OF M. I. A. MISSIONARY LABOR, 1897-8.

President Wilford Woodruff, Assistants, and General Board of Aids of the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Associations.

Brethren:-At the last general conference of the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Associations, held in July, 1897, a plan of missionary work among the young men of the church was submitted, having for its object the awakening of an interest in the cause of Mutual Improvement, the conversion of the unbelieving among our youth to the faith of their fathers, and the establishment of a higher moral and spiritual life among them. The plan was accepted by the conference, and the work of carrying it into effect was entrusted, as you are aware, to the undersigned, who herewith submit to you the following report of their labors and the labors of those called in to aid in the work.

When we began choosing men to engage in this mission to our youth we hoped, because of our wide acquaintance with the young men of the church, to be able to make up a force of workers who would be personally known at least to one or the other of us; but as we entered upon the labors we soon found that the work was so extensive, and so many of those we hoped would be able to join in it were so situated that they could not accept the call, that we were under the necessity of abandoning the idea of calling only men personally known to us, and with the approval of so many of the General Superintendency as could be reached at the time, the following letter was sent to the Stake Superintendents of the several stakes of Zion.

COPY OF LETTER ASKING THAT NAMES OF MISSIONARIES BE SUGGESTED.

"Dear Brother:-During the officers' meetings of the Y. M. M. I. A. Conference, held on the 17th, 18th and 19th of July, in which twenty-five stakes were represented, a resolution was passed and unanimously sustained, to the effect that a thorough missionary work similar to that adopted in preaching the gospel in the world be inaugurated, for the conversion of our young people in the stakes of Zion.

It is our purpose to call from sixty to one hundred young men to this labor, and as we are not personally acquainted with so large a number of