--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - T. C. Hoyt collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 6 number: 11 published: 1903-09 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'T. C. Hoyt, "Show Thyself a Man", *Improvement Era* 6, no. 11 (September 1903): 830–834.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0611unse 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: improvementera0611unse start_page: 830 end_page: 834 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1903-09) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0611unse 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. --- # Show Thyself a Man 828 IMPR0VEMEN1 ERA. We met a few small parties of returning trappers. We noted their quaint attire, their broken English, and jingling, cruel- looking, Mexican spurs. At Ft. Laramie we saw a few officers and soldiers, and many Indians. Here we entered the Black Hills where many oxen, some cows, and all the horses, were shod. The repairing of the wagons increased with the rocky road and the greater dryness of the country. At our camp-fires, ox-yokes were used for seats, we had not even camp-stools, for our wagons contained our bread-stuffs for eighteen months and the limited supply of grains and seeds to plant and sow in the new land, un- known to us, but about which we hoped and prayed. As we reached the mountains, they looked cold and hoar with frost; surely, surely God would not forget us, but would inspire our leaders to find for us some happy Canaan, the haven of all our hopes. It was stated by James Bridger, the first white man who saw the Great Salt Lake, that there was frost in that valley every month in the year. The pioneer company measured the road with an odometer; every ten miles, after leaving old Fort John, near Laramie, they placed a board near the road containing the legend " —miles from Fort John. — W. Richards." Finding these boards was like a greet- ing from a friend.At the upper crossing of the Platte, we found some members of the pioneer company who had stopped to build a ferry-boat at that point. We had previously crossed the unford- able stream by placing our wagons on huge rafts, and drawing them across with long ropes reaching to the further side; the upper Platte had fallen so much that we forded, at last. We were sometimes called upon to attend the funeral of some dear friend who sank under the bitterness of many persecutions. The touching, simple, wayside-burial can never be forgotten. On the north fork of the Platte, we saw buffaloes in almost countless numbers. They were migrating to the southwest. When seen in small bands, they followed trails, but when moving in dense masses, they held their course, never pausing; they turned aside for no obstacle, moving in a shambling gallop at about ten miles an hour. They sometimes moved by night, as we could hear them plunging into the river. The cattle sometimes followed them and imitated them in a mad race. This was called a stampede, and INCIDENTS OF THE "MORMON" EXODUS. 829 was much dreaded by travelers on the plains. On the Sweetwater, two messengers from the Pioneers met us; they had reached the valley of the Great Salt Lake, and decided that that should be our resting place.They said it was Mexican soil, but the Pioneers had taken possession, and raised the American flag. Here the story of the journey ends. We shortly afterwards met the Pioneers returning for the ; r families. We went on to face the perils of the new land, among which were famine, the problem of irrigation, the crickets that destroyed our crops, and the maraud- iDg Indians who drove off our cattle. WHAT "MORMONISM" STANDS FOR. "Mormonism" stands for all that is honorable, for all that is just, for all that is chaste and virtuous, for all that is true, whether it be in politics, sociology, or in religion. To be a Saint is to ful- fill the injunction of our Lord, "Be ye perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect." A Latter-day Saint will deal as fairly with a child or an ignorant person, as he will with an expert in the business in hand. When employing workmen, he will willingly pay a fair wage for a day's work. And if himself a workman, he will honorably per- form all that he is engaged to perform, regardless of the presence or the absence of his employer. A Saint will deal justly by all with whom he has business will pay all honest obligations, including those due the state, as well as those due to the Church. He will not contract a debt that he has no reasonable prospect of paying. He will not beg, borrow nor steal, nor will accept charity when it is possible to obtain the necessaries of life by his own honest exertions. He will be chaste in his actions and conversation. He will be careful about casting discredit upon his family, his friends, or the Church which honors him by its fellowship. The life of a Saint is an exemplification of the faith he has. A Saint loves and reveres the truth. He is the same man whether he is in the lecture room, the primary, or the meeting house — al- ways for truth and nothing but the truth. The life of every Saint is a sermon and testimony for God. Dr. J. X. Allen. SHOW THYSELF A MAN BY T. C. HOYT, KANAB, UTAH. It has often occurred that fathers, solicitous for the welfare of their sons, have spoken to them counsels of grand import, many of which have come to us through our literature or other means, subsequently to become the property of all who recognize their value as general precepts. In the character of Polonius we find this the case, and the admonitions Shakespeare gives him utterance of will live as long as fathers have a care for sons, or sons will profit by fathers' advice. Chesterfield, too, speaks wisely in general in his admonitory letters to his son, and his sentiments are, by other fathers, borrowed for use in parental instruction. The prophet Alma, also, in fatherly solicitude for the future of his sons, made utterance of wise and earnest counsel, suitable particu- larly to their condition and temperaments, and yet in a general way applicable to all. But farther back than any of these it was that an aged father cast all the essence of these later-born para- graphs of parental importunity into one little sentence of only four words — the caption -of this paper. We see him weighed down, not only with years but with con- cern and grief. Concern for the future of the people of God and the kingdom he had prayed so fervently and fought so valiently to maintain; grief for the past follies and feuds of his own household. He had attained to great eminence among the kings of the earth, and still more, had been the favored recipient of Special commis- sions from the Lord. But now the days grew nigh when this mighty king should die. To his son he must resign his name, his SHOW THYSELF A MAN. 831 fame and his fortune. To his son he must consign, under God's guidance, the destiny of a nation —the chosen of God. It often happens that simple expressions are rendered signifi- cant by the motive which prompted their utterance. David, the inspired poet, the sweet musician, the mighty war-king of Israel, would speak a final admonition to his son. What would we expect from such a one? Eloquence, wisdom, inspiration. In one short sentence, he includes them all, and encompasses the entire field of human instruction when, to Solomon, the future king, he speaks in simple yet eloquent pathos: "I go the way of all the earth; be thou strong therefore, and show thyself a man." Dazzled by ostentation, we too often do not appreciate true greatness when we find it humbly appareled; so, charmed by pedantry, we too often miss the best essence of a thought because it is too simply dressed. In this case, let us not pass too quickly these simple words, until we sift them carefully for the meaning with which they are so pregnant. The significance of this counsel depends entirely upon oar understanding of the word man. That David understood and used the word in its best and highest sense is evident from another expression of his in which he answers his own question: "What is man that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man that thou visitest him? for thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet." And then, in the ecstasy of the con- templation of man's station and stewardship, he cries: "0 Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!" Solomon's understanding of what the term implied is evi- denced by his reply to his brother Adonijah, who had previously attempted to usurp the throne of his father, but who, after Solo- mon's elevation, came to him in penitent fear and craved pardon for his sedition, to which Solomon made the laconic reply: "If he will show himself a worthy man, there shall not a hair of him fall to the earth." Manhood to this young king meant so much that it was a sufficient condition for pardon of the direst political transgression. Moreover, in those days, it is very evident from their expressions and teachings, the relation of man to God was 832 IMPROVEMENT ERA. much better understood than it is by most people of this day. To- them the fatherhood of God, and the universal kinship of man r was not the mooted question it is today, or had become when our Savior came to demonstrate the closeness of the relationship that has again come to be so woefully misunderstood and so vigor- ously denied. Inspired as they were, it is not likely that they were ignorant of the fact, later so positively stated, that "we are the sons of God," "for they are the children of God," etc., and had a better comprehension of what was implied when they said: "Our Father which art in heaven." Verily, to those who properly understand the relation of manhood and the Godship, the word man conveys significant meaning. In our literature and history, we find, happily, a few senti- ments expressive of a sense of the dignity of manhood. Polonius admits the pregnancy of some of Hamlet's expressions, in his role of insanity, and calls it "a happiness that often madness hits on which reason and sanity could not so prosperously be delivered of." And no wonder when he would hear such statements as his encomium on man: "What a piece of work is man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving, how expres- sive and admirable! in action, how like an angel! in apprehension, how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals!" Here again, Shakespeare expresses an appreciation of man's station which, were it properly sensed by all who claim right thereto, should be sufficient inducement to all to live nearer those prerequisites which alone determine the justice of their claim to such estate. In one of his works, Dr. Holland has one of his characters briefly, but pointedly, outline the sphere of manhood and its possibilities. A young mother, soured to jealousy by the supposed unfaithfulness of her husband, has become extremely cynical regarding men in general, and, with reference to her babe, says in a tone of regret: "If it were not a boy!" to which her friend makes reply "Were not a boy! Thank God for that! To be a man, if aught, is privilege, Precious and peerless. While I bide content The modest lot of woman, all my soul Gives truest manhood humblest reverence.