---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Smith, Joseph F.
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 8
number: 8
published: 1905-06
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Joseph F. Smith, "Authority Giveth Enduring Power," *Improvement Era* 8, no. 8 (June 1905): 620–622.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0808unse
  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: improvementera0808unse
start_page: 620
end_page: 622
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1905-06)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0808unse
  publication_year: 1905
  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 1905, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# Authority Giveth Enduring Power

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—
                        EDITOR'S TABLE.
            AUTHORITY GIVETH ENDURING POWER.
        Men of the world are generally applauded for their works,
while    men divinely appointed often receive the persecutions of
their fellows.     The truth of this was never more plainly exemplified than in comparing the lives and works of men who have sought
merely to imitate some of the features of the true Church of
Christ, with the lives and labors of the leaders of that Church
the Latter-day Saints.     The former have received aid and sympathy from men of the world, while the latter have been hampered
and persecuted.   Bat for all this, there is no truth plainer than
that the imitators soon fail, while the true Church     —
                                                       the work of
                          —
the Lord and his Saints has gone on, and will continue to endure.
     Why is this?      Because, behind the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints there is divine authority.       This is not found in
those who imitate either its spiritual or its temporal features; and
hence, in their efforts, no matter how aided by the world, there is
no enduring substance.
     Further, the Church has two characteristics   — the temporal and
the spiritual, and one is not without the other.     We maintain that
both are essential, and that one without the other is incomplete
and ineffectual.     Hence the Lord instituted in the government of
the Church two priesthoods    —
                             the Lesser or Aaronic, having special
charge of the temporal,and the Higher or Melchizedek, looking to
the spiritual welfare of the people. In all the history of the
Church, there has never been a time when considerable attention
was not given to temporal affairs, in the gathering places of the

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EDITOR'S TABLE.                         621
Saints, under all the leaders up        to the present     time, as witness
the building of Kirtland,          the settlements of Missouri, Nauvoo,
and the founding of cities and towns in the far west, our present
home.    The Saints have lived, and helped each other to
live; have worked out their temporal salvation with zeal and
energy, but withal have neither neglected nor forgotten the
spiritual essence      of the    great work inaugurated l»y divine order,
as witness their temples, and other houses of worship, that have
marked their every abiding place.
      And so, while we have devoted much time to temporal affairs,
it  has always been with a view to better our spiritual condition, it being apparent that the temporal, rightly understood, is a
great lever by which spiritual progress         may be achieved, in this
earthly sphere of action.          Besides, we have   come to understand
that all we do is indeed spiritual, for, before the Father, there        is
no temporal.      Hence, in our labors of redeeming the waste places,
building homes, erecting temples and houses of worship, there            is
a strong spiritual vein underlying the outward temporal covering.
Permeating every action of the Latter-day Saints is this spirit of
the gospel, giving life and vigor and endurance thereto.   It was
this faith which led them through the trials of Kirtland, the misfortunes of Missouri, the exodus from Nauvoo, and which upheld
them through the dreary days of Winter Quarters and the plains.
It has brought them,      one of a city, and two of a family, from the
states of our own nation,         and from the distant nations of the
earth, to their homes in the mountains.           It is   the sealing power
that binds them together; that enables them to rejoice in tribulation as in happiness, in adversity as in prosperity.
        Whatever they have built by their toil and faith, will endure,
for it approaches the perfect, being composed of both temporal
and spiritual.  Looking through the dressing of their temporalities,   one sees the   spirit    of eternal life,— the enduring substance.
For this reason they have been able to endure, and will be able to
endure, their great fight of afflictions, and have taken joyfully reproaches, and the spoiling of their goods, knowing that in heaven
they have the better and enduring substance.
                            who have sought to imitate features
        But, returning to those
—temporal and spiritual— of the work of the Lord: as an example,

<!-- page:622 -->

a recent magazine article, sent to me by some person, for what
reason I know not, names the founder of the Shilohists as a wonderful man.      He has built a temple without means, having started
it with   only a few cents and with his hands and a wheelbarrow.         It
recounts that wealthy men and others came to his assistance;
money came freely into his possession, until he was able to finish
a splendid building, "The Gates of Praise," which cost $250,000.
Much is also made of the fact that he has traveled to Europe and
other places without purse or scrip, proclaiming his mission. He
always found that the Lord provided; and he returned, having visited many cities, promoting his       work with much success.       He has
founded a community who are devout, and who are said to "live
the Bible;" and furthermore, who have been called upon, two by
two, with staff and scrip, to start out into the world.           But with
all,   there is no provision for the temporal     life,   and no recognized
authority from God; hence, as with many others who have begun
communities under these conditions, when the founder dies or passes
into disrepute, disintegration must follow.           How many examples
might not be recalled, whether with temporal or spiritual imitators,
in which this has been the case!        They, and others living, are faint
imitators only of the work of the Lord established by the Prophet
Joseph Smith, with      calling,   power, and authority from on high.
They lack this power,        this authority,   and hence their works are
short-lived and incomplete, even if they are fostered, petted and
assisted by the wealthy.         The practical value of truth depends
largely upon who stands behind it.
     The Prophet Joseph, persecuted and reviled of men, as are his
followers, accomplished   all that his imitators have achieved, and
more, with the difference, that his work has gone on from the first,
and will continue to grow steadily to the time of the redemption
of the world, for it was instituted of God, the Eternal Father, and
is permeated by the living power of his Holy Spirit.     It is not a
dead form, nor a temporary fad, excitement or experiment, but
the true religion of Jesus Christ, in which the fruits of the Spirit
are manifest: peace, love, virtue, honesty, integrity, spiritual and
temporal helpfulness, and fidelity to every known virtue in the law
of our     Savior.   It is   a practical, every-day, common-sen^^e religion, which will enable men and         women who will bow to its man-