---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - L. L. Greene Richards
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 7
number: 1
published: 1903-11
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'L. L. Greene Richards, "Rest and Progression. A Poem", *Improvement Era* 7, no. 1 (November 1903): 52.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0701unse
  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: improvementera0701unse
start_page: 52
end_page: 52
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1903-11)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0701unse
  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.
---

# Rest and Progression. A Poem

<!-- page:52 -->

REST AND PROGRESSION.
                    BY L. L. GREENE RICHARDS.


                    [For the Improvement Era]



         The struggle is ended, the labor is done;
         The battle is over, the victory won.
         As fierce was the conflict, so sweet is the peace
         Which comes to the wrestler, as life's troubles cease.
           Sleep on — sleep on   —take now thy rest.
           Well-earned, among the faithful blest.

         All this for the mortal, lain quietly down;
         The spirit, in heaven, receives a bright crown;
         A halo of glory, through righteousness shed
         Around the immortal, here mourned for as dead.
                       —         —
           Work on work on and still progress;
          ,   No hindrance now   — no weariness.    •




         What knowledge, what mem'ries, forgotten at birth,
         (First union of spirit and body on earth,)
         Awake as the spirit to heaven ascends.
         Meets father and mother, dear kindred and friends.
              Truth, love, all pure intelligence,
              The glory of Omnipotence.

         In humiliation, the Savior laid by
         His judgment;     —
                          his mission to suffer and die;
         The will of the Father to learn and obey;
         And man can but follow as he leads the way
                               —
           On to perfection glory rife,
              "The Resurrection and the Life."
Salt Lake City, October, 1903.