--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - J. Lloyd Woodruff collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 5 number: 10 published: 1902-08 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'J. Lloyd Woodruff, "I Wandered in the Mountains," *Improvement Era* 5, no. 10 (August 1902): 767.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0510unse 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: improvementera0510unse start_page: 767 end_page: 767 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1902-08) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0510unse publication_year: 1902 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 1902, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # I Wandered in the Mountains REPLY TO ROBERTS' VIEW OF DEITY. 767 infinite and the others finite. None of these suppositions are pos- sible, therefore, He is not compound. 1. Several finite things cannot produce an infinite or an illimitable, as there would always be a first and last. 2. Many infinite beings are inconceivable; for, if there were several, they would have to differ from each other by some perfec- tion. Now, from the moment one would have a perfection, the other one lacks, the latter would not beinfinite. Therefore, God cannot be a compound of infinite parts. 3. If one is infinite, nothing can be added to it. Finite parts could not belong to the infinite essence, else they would communicate their limitations to God. Therefore, the Infinite Being is not composite, but simple or spiritual. Therefore He is not, nor ever was, a man, who is a composite being. (To be concluded in next number.) I WANDERED IN THE MOUNTAINS. BY J. LLOYD WOODRUFF, PANQUITCH, UTAH. I wandered in the mountains, far from the haunts of men. Peaks, crowned with white, rose 'round me, sheltering wood and glen. A wildling brook was singing an elfland lullaby, And feathered songsters carroled; the wind was a happy sigh. The scene's impressive grandeur, the silent, balmy air, So much above life's struggles, raised from my soul all care. All restless thoughts were banished, trouble and worldly stress, Gave place to sacred musing my tongue would fain express. But words can never fathom the language of the soul; The breaths of heaven that reach us, angels alone control. Some find a charm in dancing, amid the thoughtless throng; Some love the city's bustle, its right, its gilded wrong. But these can ne'er awaken that joy, to me so dear. Aroused by nature's anthem, when none but God is near. The solitudes remind me, the Lord still arms the right: That truth at last shall conquer, though trodden down by might. And so, I love to ramble far in the pathless wild, Where nature reads sweet lessons to teach her erring child.