Mediocrity Not Good Enough

440 IMPRO VEMENT ERA. Mount of Olives." "The transfiguration took place in the mountain." "The mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it," etc., etc. According to the Bible account, Abraham was reared in the valley of the Tigris. He dwelt there seventy-five years, and although converted from his idolatry, it seems more than likely that his future life would be, to some extent, influenced by the usages and customs of his native country. He left Babylonia 1900 years B.C. The Jaredites,according to the Book of Mormon, left Babylonia three hundred years before Abraham took his departure. The jaredites did not sojourn in Egypt, as did Abraham, but came directly to the western continent, landing in Central America. Everything that they knew, socially and religiously, they learned in Babylon. Is it any wonder that they erected their dwellings after the pattern of the Babylonians? Is it to be wondered at that they built their temples on raised mounds, after the fashion of their native country? I do not assert that the similarity of architecture and the presence of artificial mounds in Babylonia and America afford conclusive evidence for the Book of Mormon, but I regard them as strong circumstantial evidence. Ogden, Utah. MEDIOCRITY IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH. We are largely the creatures of our environment and associations. Every person we come in contact with influences us for good or ill, and leaves an impression of his own character upon us. Beware of anything which lowers the ideals or makes you satisfied with anything less than your level best,—with anything but excellence,—or which tries to make you believe that mediocrity is good enough, or that ordinary will do. It is the mind which will be satisfied with nothing but the best, and which will have nothing to do with anything less than excellence, that achieves that which is worth while. —Success.