DUTIES OF THE PRESIDENTS
MR. EDITOR,--I received an anonymous letter recently, but the person who wrote it was a counselor, so he said, in some place. He did not specify which place; and he was asking for a bit of light; that is, what are the duties of the counselors with regard to the president, and those of the president with regard to his counselors? Now I wish to make these things known through means of the TRUMPET, if you please, and shed some light on the matter.
The duty of every president is to be a president and to insist on being, according to the appointment which he has received in spite of everything; and to take care that he be not lead by anyone else under him, but only by those who preside over him. Some presidents who are unlearned are sometimes tempted to give way to their counselors who are learned to preside over them; and the instant that takes place, there is the cart before the horse; and that is totally awkward on the street, is it not? And it is much worse on God's path. It is a good thing to be learned, if they just govern themselves and turn in their own circles. Some who are learned tend to go up to the garret. Presidents, call them down.
There is another group, completely worthless to build the kingdom of God, and that is those who think too poorly of themselves; and these are the people who go down to the cellar and become a stop tap there.
These two groups get lost very often, and we find some up and some down; and it causes a great deal of difficulty to me and to other brethren; and it is a great obstacle to carrying forth with the work of God. The world is not in the least an obstacle to carying the work of God forth. I count the wisest of the wise as nothing and give a challenge to the world. The uppeer classes together with other sins, are the only ones who have the power to keep this wheel from turning. And that is but for a short season until God has come to the field to speak with power through his servants until all flesh will tremble and every devil flee.
But let us get to the point. The duty of the president is to love his counselors, and to counsel with them concerning the best way to carry things forward; and the duty of the counselors is to love their president. Circumstances permit when the president can put things out or organize things without counseling with anyone; and if they are nearby or present, it would be a good thing for him to counsel with them. The abilities of three are greater; there are three faiths in place of one; and their plans will be sure to succeed if they are in a unity of faith. The nearer they live to one another, the better, so they can work together to move things forward. It is not good for them to live far from each other unless they have frequent meetings. The president can say to his counselors, "You go this way and you that way; and I shall stay home." For that is where the branch presidents are always needed, except for some occasions. No one is able to perform the task of presiding except for the person who is appointed. And let every counselor consider it a privilege to get to obey and put into action the counsels of his president. That is enough light on that for now.
Another thing. Let the president of the districts send here to me the six-month reports of their districts by the 5th day of next December. The report should be made until the 1st of December. The things that I am requesting are the number of branches, high priests, elders, priests, teachers, deacons; excummunicated, deaths, emigrants, baptisms; current number of members; and in every case let the number of members contain the number of officers and the scattered members which do not belong to any branch, together with the name of the president and the secretary. Let the branch presidents see that their secretaries send a correct report on time to the district secretary so that he can send them here in time for me to send them to Liverpool by the aforementioned time.
Let the head distributors of the districts send information to Liverpool by the 10th day of December as to the number of Millennial Stars which are requested for next year, and let the head distributors of the branches send here to Bro. Richard Morris the number which they request.
One other bit of counsel: let the district presidents look into and insist on seeing a greater effort is made with the Perpetual Emigration Fund from now on than has been made in the past; and may God bless you and bless the Church in Wales, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
14, Castle St., Merthyr-Tydfil, October 28, 1851
WILLIAM PHILLIPS
[Translated from the Welsh original in Udgorn Seion, 1851, p. 346-8, by Ronald D. Dennis, 1529 W. 1170 North, Provo, Utah]
