---
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: 10
published: 1905-08
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Alfred Osmond, "My Mission," *Improvement Era* 8, no. 10 (August 1905): 749.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0810unse
  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: improvementera0810unse
start_page: 749
end_page: 749
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1905-08)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0810unse
  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.
---

# My Mission

<!-- page:749 -->

—
                              DATA OF EDUCATION.                                 149
home, the community, and the school, must work                         in   harmony.
Education       is    the progressive realization of the purpose of life,
through the organic interaction of self-activity and the social and
physical environment.
   Salt Lake City, Utah.
                                    MY MISSION.
    BY ALFRED OSMOND, PROF. OF ENGLISH, BRIGHAM YOUNG
                                     UNIVERSITY.
            There is work for me, in this world of toil
                     The sequence of life will tell
            That the only way to be saved, today,
                 Is to do     my duty well.
            If I would        ascend to those lofty realms
                 Where the gods of my fathers dwell,
            I must love the soil, in        the field of   toil.
                 And must do my duty well.
            These hands must be taught to serve our God                —
                 I must rise where I stumbling fell;
            I   must learn to fight, in the cause of right,
                 For the truth I love so well.
            I   must cut my way through the ranks of sin
              Where legions of heroes fell;
            Where my foes are strong and the conflict long,
                 I    must fight life's battle well.
            I must cast my lot with the meek and poor.
               And camp where the wicked dwell;
            I must suffer pain for another's gain.
                 If I fill life's mission   well.
            My dear friends may die, and my foes may live;
              My griefs may be hard to quell.
            And my feet may stray from the narrow way
                 That leads where the righteous dwell;
            But my Father's love is too great to leave
                 The soul of his child in hell.
            He will call me back to life's shining track.
              And all will again be well.
   Bloomington, Idaho.