| 76 Resolved, That should the Saints of the Pacific Slope Mission deem it wise to establish a permanent headquarters for the president of that mission, we see no impropriety in their so doing by any action which they in conference assembled may deem advisable, and we heartily consent thereto.-The Saints' Herald, vol. 21, p. 628.
By resolution it was provided "that the Society Islands be provided with missionary labor by the Australian Mission, if practicable."
The following comments on the conference and incidents connected therewith were expressed by the Herald editor, October 15:
The semiannual conference for 1874 convened on the 19th of September just past, in a drizzling rain, which began some days before, and which did not cease for clear weather until the evening of the 21st.
It seemed at the outset, as though we would be under the necessity of adjourning, and abandoning the sylvan shades of the conference grounds to the all-pervading dampness; but with brave persistence the Saints stuck to their tents and the ground, and though meeting in the storm, they parted in sunshine.
Our fears, however, hastened the business; for feeling that some parts of it must be done, ran or shine, we presented, and the conference considered, what was most pressing at the opening on Monday morning, so that if forced to adjourn, we would have no regrets over urgent calls.
Fourteen years the Saints have met in conference in the west of Iowa, in the fall of the year, and have not up to the present year lost a session by reason of rain. They have, on some few occasions, suffered some from the cold; but generally the weather has been good. This immunity from elementary disturbance has doubtless made the Saints a little boastful, thinking themselves so much the favorites of Him who rules the elements, that they may claim fair weather at their conferences, as of right. A rebuke is wholesome, and it will do us all good, if we profit by this fall's experience.
The progress reported at our session just past is very encouraging; and the evidences of moral improvement more and more manifest is assuring. No people can make successful progress, whose standard of moral excellence and worth is not a high one; and hence, having inscribed upon one of our banners of reform, "Ye are as a city set upon a hill," our standard of excellence is only to be measured by the best good to which man may possibly attain. Every step taken by any one of the vast host in any direction other than upward towards the standard, is a step lost to them and a hindrance to the grand army itself, more or less detrimental, as the one thus wandering is or is not energetic and useful.
We can not afford to lower the standard. The praise of the people we should care little about; but the approval of the Master, and the recognition
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