--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Alfred Osmond collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 8 number: 9 published: 1905-07 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Alfred Osmond, "Faith versus Doubt," *Improvement Era* 8, no. 9 (July 1905): 687–688.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0809unse 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: improvementera0809unse start_page: 687 end_page: 688 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1905-07) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0809unse 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. --- # Faith versus Doubt A CLIMATE MODIFIER. 687 that plant life requires carbon dioxide, but as this is all restored to the atmosphere on the decay of the vegetation, these two processes counter-balance each other. An immediate source of supply is the soa, which contains perhaps eighteen times as much carbon dioxide as the air. It ought also to be stated that the world's present yearly production of coal is approximately five hundred millions of tons, and this transformed into carbon dioxide, corresponds to about one thousandth part of that now in the air. There is also an enormous supply of this gas locked up in the calcium carbonates, or limestones. Prof. Hogbom has estimated that there is 25,000 times as much fixed in the lime and sedimentary rocks as exists free in the air. (Hogbom, Svensk kemish Tidskrift, Bd. VI., p. 169, 1894.) Prof. Arrhenius is inclined to think that probably the great source supply is found in volcanic exhalations, and he argues that as volcanism is by no means constant, the supply will also vary ; and "Just as single volcanoes have their periods of variation, with alternating relative rest and intense activity, in the same manner the' globe as a whole seems in certain geological epochs to have exhibited a more violent and general volcanic activity, whilst other epochs have been marked by a comparative quiescence of volcanic forces. It seems, therefore, probable that the quantity of carbonic acid in the air has undergone nearly simultaneous variations, or at least that this factor has had an important influence." Columbia University, New York City. FAITH VERSUS DOUBT. BY ALFRED OSMOND, PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH, BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY. The storm-cloud of doubt on the world has descended; The pole star of promise no locger shines bright; The drawn sword of justice hangs o'er us suspended, And man is still clasped to the bosom of night. — No king of the heavens rules over the nation; The prayer of the perishing soul is but breath. The story is false that explains the creation, And nothing is real but destruction and death. Oh could man endure the advance of the ages, And still keep his faith in the great living truth Declared by the prophets and taught by the sages, That he is a spirit of immortal youth. Oh could he but stand on the heights of his learning, And gaze on the glory his toil has achieved, Yet still keep the fires of humility burning, As bright as they glowed in the child that believed. But no— he must climb the cold peaks of ambition, And gaze with contempt on the valley below; Up, up, he ascends to that lofty position, Where man is his critic, and God is his foe. Where blasts of the storm-king are howling around himThe blood of affection is chilled in his veins. The doubts that he trusted in fetters have bound him Alone on the mountain in grief he remains. The dark prince of doubt is despotic and peerless; His sceptre betokens an absolute sway. His lands are unfruitful, his palaces cheerless; His kingdom of glory is doomed to decay. The great Prince of Faith is our captain forever. We know that he reigns o'er a kingdom of love; Rewards us on earth for our humblest endeavor, And crowns us at last in a mansion above. Provo, Utah.