--- 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: 9 number: 6 published: 1906-04 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: "Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, \"Editor's Table,\" *Improvement Era* 9, no. 6 (April 1906): 493–494." source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0906unse 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: improvementera0906unse start_page: 493 end_page: 494 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1906-04) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0906unse publication_year: 1906 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 1906, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Editor's Table EDITOR'S TABLE. NOT NATURALLY RELIGIOUS. Some people persist in saying, on occasion, that they are not naturally religious. Do they mean by this that attending meetings, taking part in ward worship, teaching and preaching, are not congenial to them? Or, do they mean more? Perhaps the moral restrictions governing an active worker in the Church are not congenial to them. They reason that it is better to make no pretensions than to make more than one can live up to; and so they excuse themselves by declaring they are naturally not religious. Hence, they often go to the other extreme, and make their argument an excuse for doing and saying things that are against the laws of our Father in Heaven. They are not religious; hence, smoking, swearing a little, drinking and other evils, are not considered out of place with them. These things may not be done by an active member of the Church, however, without severe condemnation from men who would not censure themselves for like actions. The reason sometimes assigned is that one class is said to be religious, the other not. But religion is not outward show and pretense, and being religious does not altogether consist in compliance with outward forms, even when these are the ordinances of the gospel. Neither is it an unfailing sign that a person is conscientious who takes an active part in organizations of the Church. Evil men may use these for selfish and wicked purposes. I have known men who joined our organizations for such ends, and men who have been baptized who never repented. Their membership and their bap- 494 IMPROVEMENT ERA. tism not only did not make them religious, but made them worse scoundrels than they were before, because of their hypocrisy and evil pretense. This, however, is no argument against the requirement of baptism and its necessity for all who enter the Church of Christ, nor is it an evidence that to be a member of the organizations one must make false pretensions. Then what is religion? James declares: "Pure religion and undented before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." This may be interpreted as meaning that a person who is religious is thoughtful to the unfortunate, and has an inner spirit that prompts to deeds of kindness, and to the leading of a blameless life; who is just, truthful, who does not, as Paul says, think more highly of himself than he ought to think, who is affectionate, patient in tribulation, diligent, cheerful, fervent in spirit, hospitable, merciful, and who abhors evil and cleaves to that which is good. The possession of such a spirit and feeling is a true sign that a person is naturally religious. Men misunderstand religion when they believe or assert that it consists only of outward expressions, or external acts of penitence; on the contrary, he is in possession of true religion whose inner, underlying spirit and motive prompts him to perform all that is good. Hugh Latimer, the reformer and martyr, well said: "For religion, pure religion, I say standeth not in wearing a monk's cowl, but in righteousness, justice and well-doing." I dislike, therefore, to hear a young man, who possesses these qualities, and who has an inner spirit prompting him to right conduct and virtue, announce that naturally he is not religious. I believe that as a rule all the sons and daughters of the Latter-day Saints are religious. When I hear our young men say that they are not naturally so, I am inclined to believe they do not understand their own declaration. I wonder whether they meanjto condemn themselves as being unrighteous, unjust, full of evil-doing, and in possession of a spirit of evil; or whether they simply mean that they are indeed religious, but do not appear outwardly so. But if they are in possession of the Spirit of God, which is true in most cases I verily believe, why should they not both appear to be, and be so in reality? Godliness need not be clothed in the garb of evil,