--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Annie G. Lauritzen collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 6 number: 7 published: 1903-05 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Annie G. Lauritzen, "Sunshine through the Shadows," *Improvement Era* 6, no. 7 (May 1903): 500.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0607unse 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: improvementera0607unse start_page: 500 end_page: 500 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1903-05) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0607unse publication_year: 1903 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 1903, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Sunshine through the Shadows 500 IMPROVEMENT ERA. of California. Enough material is at hand to show that the cave- dwellers date unquestionably from glacial times. SUNSHINE THROUGH THE SHADOWS. WRITTEN FOR THE IMPROVEMENT ERA. What use to spend our precious time in grieving About some real or fancied woe or wrong? Make it a poem your burdened heart relieving; Tis sorrow gives to earth her sweetest song. Oft our inspired thoughts are made the sweetest By melancholy mingling in the strain; The fairest flowers would wither in the sunshine, Did not God send to earth refreshing rain. The friends beloved, whom we so fondly cherish, Gain greater friendship through the test of years; Love born of happiness alone, must perish; True love is sanctified through sorrow's tears. The oak tree gains its strength by being wrested By storm and tempest, finding firmer hold; Love's choicest flowers by sorrow must be tested, And purified by tears as they unfold. I loved not thee, beloved, when youthful pleasure And earth's ambitions lured us on to fame; 'Twas when we parted with our precious treasure I loved thee truly, after sorrow came. I loved not God so well when his choice blessings Descended bounteously upon my head. As when deep sorrow came my soul distressing, And all my earthly hopes lay crushed and dead. The human heart by sorrow must be furrowed. The seed of Love be moistened with Grief's tears; The human soul by sufferings must be harrowed. If we would reap Love's fruit in coming years. —Annie G. Lauritzen. Richfield, Utah, 1903.