---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Ingebretsen, James
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 2
number: 2
published: 1898-12
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'James Ingebretsen, "Past and Future", *Improvement Era* 2, no. 2 (December 1898): 127.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera22unse
  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: improvementera22unse
start_page: 127
end_page: 127
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1898-12)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera22unse
  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.
---

# Past and Future

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—

                        PAST AND FUTURE.                                127

"Spirit," quoth I, "of the hidden   chambers of the days of yore,
Finite mind cannot detect the meaning of thy musty lore,

"Tell me of the coming epochs, of the days that are to be.;
Show my soul the future records; take the Past back to the sea."
Silence reigned upon the waters, and   the shape was wrapped in gloom.
But again I heard the accents of a voice as from the tomb.

Long I looked, intent, expectant, for some strange, mysterious form;
But instead, the darkness deepened, like the blackest clouds of storm.

And I looked in vain for Future; only Darkness there amassed;
And the only voice I heard there was the accents of the Past:
"Mortal, fix thy wand'ring mind upon the ever living now;
Let thy curious inclination to the active Present bow.

"You can only judge the future by the whisp'rings of the past,
Judge the next occurrence only by the one that happened last.

"As the pages of the past are torn, and blurred, and darkly dim,
So the record of the future cannot yet be clearly seen.

"Work and struggle while the flying moments of to day remain;
Shun the crooked paths and by-way; seek but for the narrow lane.
"Truth the only light to guide you 'mid the darkness of the way,
Truth, the Spirit of our Father, leading to the brighter day.'