--- 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: 7 number: 2 published: 1903-12 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Material vs. Spiritual", *Improvement Era* 7, no. 2 (December 1903): 113.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0702unse 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: improvementera0702unse start_page: 113 end_page: 113 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1903-12) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0702unse 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. --- # Material vs. Spiritual REFLECTIONS 113 its light, and to the wild deer its life ? Who causes the refreshing rains to wash the globe, and shapes earth's atoms into form? Who holds the wisdom that created man, and clothed him with speech and reason? But the youth could only answer: "It is God!" And he turned in adoration, breathing this prayer to the All wise: "Be thou my teacher, Wonderful Founder and Mighty Builder, and let a ray of thy light and knowledge shine about me. Speak to my troubled heart. Give me power to commence my walk in the pathway of truth that leads to the grandeur of thy knowledge, power and glory. Master, thou art the God of my soul, hide not from me, but unfold the truth, and teach me the plan of thy salvation. Imprint thy mercy and thy love upon my being, that I in turn may teach to my kindred of the nations the way of life. And when my journey ends, let me stand near thy presence in a holy place, nor be thou offended at my coming." WlLMER BRONSON, Jr. MATERIAL VS. SPIRITUAL. "Material America needs no stimulus," says Hamilton W. Mabie; "its triumph is already at hand. It is spiritual America that needs constant revelation and definition; and it is to be the high service of the literature of the future, as it has been the ser- vice of the literature of the past, to hold the ideal of this nobler American clear and beautiful above the dust and tumult of a vast and powerful working community." The man who takes time to raise himself above the "dust and tumult," by reading and com- munion with his Maker, is wiser than his more strenuous brother who looks upon relaxation and spiritual refreshment of this kind as mere idleness.