| 132 closed April 9; D. S. Mills and H. P. Brown presiding, G. N. Davidson and Jacob Smith clerks. The business was mostly of a routine character. Russell Huntley was ordained an elder, and by adoption of a committee report it was decided that Elder S. Hubbard was "not at present considered to be a proper representative of the cause."
The committee appointed on building a house for the president of the mission was discharged.
In April, 1876, the editor of the Herald mentions the departure of Elder Oliver from the office as follows:
Bro. Milton B. Oliver, who has been for the past two years associated with us as assistant editor, and who has been so faithful in his care of the Hope, left the sanctum of the Herald Office, on the 5th of April, to engage in other duties at Burlington, Iowa.
Bro. Oliver's connection with the Herald Office and the branch at Plano, has confirmed and strengthened the trust reposed in him; and his going away to engage elsewhere is but the result of circumstances which demand it at his hands. His release from the duties of the office is an honorable one to him; and we beg to assure the Saints that wherever he may go he carries with him the assurance of the esteem and fellowship of his office comrades and the Saints at Plano. For our sake receive him as a brother in Christ, and for his own you will trust him, when you know him.
On April 15, 1876, the Quorum of Twelve issued an epistle giving instruction on financial and other matters. 1
1 EPISTLE OF THE TWELVE.
To all the Saints: In the discharge of our duties, and in obedience to the promptings of judgment and conscience, as well as that of the Holy Spirit, we address unto you this greeting:
Peace be with you and remain for ever, is our prayer in this behalf. And that it may remain, and that you may abound in every good work, it is needful that your "pure minds be stirred up" in respect to some things-duties undischarged, hopes deferred, which maketh the heart sick, and the whole body to languish.
The increase in our numbers in all the fields of missionary labor has been steady, but slow; too slow, for want of laborers; for the field is ready for the harvest, but the laborers are few.
To remedy this the following instructions were given:
"In order to place the church in a position to carry on the propagation of the gospel, and as a means of fulfilling the law, the Twelve will take measures, in connection with the Bishop to execute the law of tithing, and let them, before God, see to it that the temporal means so obtained is truly used for the purposes of the church, and not as a weapon of power in the hands of one man for the oppression of others, or for the purpose of self aggrandizement by any one, be he whomsoever he may be. As I live, saith the Lord, in the manner ye execute this matter, so shall ye be judged in the day of judgment."-Herald, vol. 10, no. 11. [Vol. 2, no. 7.]
Fifteen years have elapsed since this charge was given; and the first object contemplated, viz.: "to carry on the propagation of the gospel," has not been attained to any
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