---
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: 2
number: 6
published: 1899-04
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Notes," *Improvement Era* 2, no. 6 (April 1899): 472.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera26unse
  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: improvementera26unse
start_page: 472
end_page: 472
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1899-04)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera26unse
  publication_year: 1899
  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 1899, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# Notes

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472                            IMPROVEMENT ERA.

dence       of the operation of the Spirit of        God upon him, and a
witness to him that God's voice was calling him unto that work;
but he was not and could not be authorized by that fact alone to
officiate in things pertaining to God until divine authority should be

given unto him, and he "called of God as was Aaron."
     The work of the Lord at the time these revelations were given
was just beginning its existence in the earth. The Church was not
yet organized, but the Spirit of the Lord was operating upon the
minds of a number of men who afterwards became prominent in
establishing the work of the Lord in the earth, and the fact of
God's Spirit operating upon their minds, giving them an earnest
desire to "thrust in their sickles and reap" God's harvest was considered an evidence that they were called of God, and in time would
be authorized by him by receiving divine authority, both to preach
the Gospel and administer its ordinances.           That this is the proper
exegesis of the matter, is to be found in the fact that in each of
the cases cited, the men who were inquiring of the Prophet the
will of the Lord concerning them,  were afterwards ordained to the
Holy Priesthood and authorized to assist in building up his kingdom.
         As the fourth question submitted in this communication requires a     rather lengthy explanation, we shall defer answering it
until the publication of the next number of the Era.

                                      NOTES.

      Sorrow, it should be remembered, is within us, and not in the things
about us; so is it with joy.

      Every attempt       to   make others happy, every step forward in the
cause of what is good, is a step nearer to true manhood.

      Great wealth is either a great blessing or a great curse. It is
seldom neutral.   Great wealth, like great waters, needs constant motion
to prevent stagnation and death.

      There is no real elevation of mind in a contempt of little things.
It is, on the contrary, from too narrow views that we consider those
things of    little   importance which have, in fact, serious consequences.