Of course, I know the excuse that is made to justify plagiarism among some of our young and inexperienced Elders. Some of our young brethren are conscious of their unpreparedness to immediately begin their work when called to the ministry, and they feel the necessity of beginning at once; for they are called upon to speak immediately on arriving in their missions, and they are overwhelmed with the sense of having nothing to say, and either through wrong suggestion of others, or misconception of the proprieties in the premises, they commit to memory the discourse of a companion, or a tract (See Editor's Table of _Era_, September, 1907), or parts of books and deliver such memorized tracts or discourses _as their own_. That is plagiarism, which is always dishonest and not in harmony with the Spirit of truth, which is the Spirit of the gospel. To meet such an emergency of unpreparedness supposed to justify the kind of plagiarism referred to above, I suggest that it would be better for the Elder to confess his inability to set forth the doctrine or message for the present, but say that he had in his possession a tract or book that did so, and with permission of those who had gathered he would read some passages from it that would set forth some of the doctrines of our faith; and then read so much as might be necessary for the occasion. Or he might say that on a given occasion he had heard his companion set forth a certain doctrine or part of the message they were sent to deliver in a manner that appealed to him, and as his companion had not referred to it, or was not likely to refer to it on this occasion he would take the liberty of doing so; being careful to credit his companion throughout, and especially at points peculiarly striking. By taking this course, he preserves the consciousness of his own honesty, and by diligence will soon work himself out of the necessity of reading or repeating the ideas and language of others. _President Joseph F. Smith's Benediction on, and Instructions to the Seventies:_