The benevolence that manifests itself in material giving is impressed as a duty upon members of the Church, and while every one is taught to assist the needy by individual effort, a system of orderly contribution and distribution is maintained. In each Ward and Branch of the Church an organization of women known as the Relief Society is operative. Its particular function is that of caring for the needy and the afflicted, without exclusive distinction as to whether the subjects of their ministration are members of the Church or not. The Relief Society receives contributions of money, clothing, food and other commodities and distributes these as occasion requires, beside maintaining a system of visitation to the needy, giving aid in nursing, comfort in bereavement, and relief from distress in every way possible. The Church teaches the efficacy of prudent fasting, moderate abstinence from food at stated times, as an accessory to prayer; and the first Sunday of each month is observed as a fast-day. On that day the people are invited to meet for special devotional service, and by common consent and custom they contribute at least the equivalent of the meals omitted through the fasting of the family. These offerings are received by the local officers and are distributed under their direction to the worthy poor. If there be a surplus in any Ward it is applied to the needs of other Wards in which the proportion of dependent poor is greater. By these and other methods, including the tithing system to be considered later, are the Latter-day Saints taught to give of their substance for worthy purposes, and in such a way as to avoid indiscriminate charity whereby perchance unworthy dependency would be fostered. We believe that the harmony of our prayers will become a discord if the cry of the deserving poor accompany our supplications to the throne of Grace. -- 53 -- AMERICA THE CRADLE OF LIBERTY No King to Rule in the Land THE commanding position of the United States among the world powers, and the prominent place the American nation is to maintain as the exponent and champion of human rights, were foreseen and predicted centuries before the beginning of the Christian Era. Such is the Book of Mormon record. The prophet Nephi was one of the original company, who, under the leadership of his father Lehi, left Jerusalem in the year 600 B. C., and journeyed to the Arabian shore, thence voyaging to the American continent in a vessel they had constructed as, centuries earlier, Noah had built an ark under Divine guidance.