Sunday School Conventions and Enrollment

I am requested to say a few words in regard to the conventions which we have held during the past season, and what we intend to do during the year 1905. I wish to say to our brethren and sisters from the far south, that we have not forgotten them. We have held conventions all through the north, except in the Union and Cassia stakes, and those two will have our immediate attention. We are also making preparation to visit the stakes in Arizona, Colorado and Old Mexico, and we expect to do something for San Juan, but we hardly think it will be a convention. ¶

At our conventions we have asked the sisters to take off their hats in the general meetings, and they have responded as you have responded tonight. And then we have asked them to do another thing. We have asked them to let their hats remain off their heads until the benediction is offered, and not to disturb the meeting by putting on their hats and getting ready to leave the house before the services were closed. So far we have met with success and we would like you to do the same tonight. ¶

My brethren and sisters, this is the house of God, where we come to listen to the servants of God, and it is becoming in us that we remain with due decorum until the benediction is offered. ¶

On last Thursday evening we held a meeting at the Barratt hall, and it was decided by the superintendents of the stakes there assembled that we would continue our conventions during the coming year. We may have to group the stakes a little differently from what we grouped them during the present season, but we expect that the conventions next season will be all that they have been this season, and as much better as we can possibly make them. ¶

Another point that I am requested to speak upon, and that is this, that the superintendents of stakes and the superintendents of wards will note, that when their reports come to them this season, there is a change in some of the questions. We have been asking, if you remember, "What is your enrollment," and "What is your average attendance," and then we have asked for one hundred per cent on nickel fund account. The result of this has been that some superintendents have taken from the roll every name they could, to show -- first, a high average attendance, and secondly to more easily pay their one hundred per cent nickel fund; and a good many children between the ages of four and twenty have found their names taken from the roll, and they haven't gone back to school. We estimated the other day, just how many of this class of people were out of the Sabbath school, and we were of the opinion that there were some three thousand, eight hundred, with two hundred and fifty-six schools to hear from. This is wrong. So far as I am personally concerned, if I have got a boy that is not true to his trust, I would rather that that boy should come to the Sunday School but once a year than not to come at all. We are not so much after the average attendance or the nickels as we are after the salvation of the souls of those children. We want to get them into the Sunday School. Therefore, when you get your next report blanks, you will find this question: "How many persons have you in your ward between the ages of four and twenty years, inclusive?" also, "How many of these are there enrolled in your Sunday School?" We ask these two questions, and, later on, my breth- ¶

ren, between now and the first of the year, we will tell you what we want you to do with this class of citizens. ¶

The majority of the members of the General Board have been through the stakes this season to these different conventions. I myself have attended all of them but two, and I know that the Sunday school cause is thriving, and I know that the great Latter-day work is growing. We recognize that Zion is growing, and I believe that every department is growing. I want to say to you Sunday school people, while you are attending to this organization, do not forget the other organizations of the Church -- the Mutual Improvement, the Religion Classes and all. We want you to build up the kingdom of God in its entirety, that it may be beautiful to look upon when we present it to the Master. May God help us to do it, I ask in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶