---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 1
number: 11
published: 1898-09
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Book Review," *Improvement Era* 1, no. 11 (September 1898): 864.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera111unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera111unse
start_page: 864
end_page: 864
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1898-09)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera111unse
  publication_year: 1898
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1898, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# Book Review

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8C4 IMPR O VEMENT ERA.
promoters of a railroad from Milford to Stateline was signed in Salt Lake
City. The signers are officials of the Oregon Short Line on one side, and
A. W. McCune, David Eccles, C. W Nibley and others, on the other side.
It is stated that the road as far as Sulphur Springs will be completed within
five months.
BOOK REVIEW.
PREACHING AND PUBLIC SPEAKING.
Very few people care to be told their shortcomings, and consequently,
it is quite possible that the work on "Preaching and Public Speaking, "
just from the press of the Deseret News Publishing Company, by N. L.
Nelson, professor of rhetoric and elocution in the Brigham Young Academy,
Provo—is not likely to please the present generation doing the preaching in
The Church.
The professor decidedly, not to say harshly, points out the faults of the
past and present generation of preachers; but not with the hope, as he assures us in his preface, of changing the mental habits of the older generation, and certainly not with the view of hurting their feelings; but with the
intention of benefiting the young men who, in the future, will become our
preachers and public speakers This somewhat relieves the work from the
charge of being harsh in its criticism which otherwise it could not escape.
We should say that exceptional advantages are possessed by the professor for writing such a work, since, in addition to some missionary experience as a preacher himself, in the Southern States, he occupied the
position of clerk at Sabbath meetings in the Provo Tabernacle for three
years, where he was required to place on record the substance of sermons
delivered there, and in addition to that, has been in contact with young men
for some fourteen years in the classes of the Brigham Young Academy; and
therefore the especial faults of the present generation have been constantly before him. We half regret that he has not been a little more kind to the
faults of the past, since exceptional conditions, in the midst of which the
ministry of the church has labored, go very far towards excusing the lack
of system and polish in preaching. But since the professor merely points
to these defects in speech, not to ridicule the past, but to benefit the generation that is to come after us, we trust that no exceptions will be taken to
what he has said in that division of his most excellent work; and we trust
that those who will be inclined to criticise the book on the ground indicated, will remember that if knowing our faults is not equivalent to correcting them, still, before correction can take place, both the individual
and a community must know their results, and in this spirit they should
view Prof. Nelson's book.
Fortunately, the greater part of the book, consisting of about 450
pages, is constructive in its character, and if studied with attention, and its
suggestions reduced to practice it will no doubt go very far towards correcting the prevailing errors in preaching and public speaking We regard
it as being a positive help to our young men, and therefore welcome the
professor's book as a very valuable contribution to a subject altogether
too much neglected; and commend it to the serious attention of our yonng
men.