---
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: 8
number: 2
published: 1904-12
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Stand Firm: A Poem," *Improvement Era* 8, no. 2 (December 1904): 117.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0802unse
  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: improvementera0802unse
start_page: 117
end_page: 117
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1904-12)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0802unse
  publication_year: 1904
  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 1904, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# Stand Firm: A Poem

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—              —

                                     LOOKING BACK.                                    117

is   not yet finished."          I felt   so happy that      I   immediately went to
sleep.          Ob    think,   my soul, of a Being having such power to do
good, a Being so near, and in the darkness of the night as in the
day      !    My heart goes out with thankfulness to God for His goodness to me, and tears of gladness drop from           my eyes while I
write.          This is the first time any attempt has been made by me to
write it.         I   am amazed to think such an insignificant individual as
I,   should be noticed by a Being with such power.
             I informed   my people of the night's occurrence, and that I
had a new lease of life, for how long, I did not know.                      Since this
occurrence, I have been without pain, and slowly gaining strenght.
It is now (December,             1903) full three months since the occurrence.
This occurrence fully convinces me that Heaven's power of protection is over me, and for that reason I was not slain in some of
those death-dealing accidents that I have passed through.
             This was neither a vision nor a dream, but a fact, as wa3 that
of the lame            man who sat at the beautiful gate of the temple
although I cannot point to Peter as a witness.
     -       But I was in mental      affliction and bodily pain before,      and in a
moment I was happy and without pain.                    I   yet remain so.
      Paauilo, Hawaii.

                                      STAND       FIRM.

                      Is yours the post of duty,    —danger, too?
                       It is the only work a   man should do.
                       Attention!   Eyes in front!    Now see it through!
                                    Stand firm!

                      The hardest task,   —that falterers may shun,
                      Ah, that is where the laurel's to be won!
                      How sweet the victor-song at setting sun!
                                    Stand firm!

                      The prophet-soul,   —the martyr, —singing free
                      In clearer ether,   —though we cannot see,—
                      Yet hover near us, bidding you and me
                                      Stand firm!
                                                                       —   Success.