Harbingers of Spring

HARBINGERS OF SPRING. (For the Improvement Era.) I welcome the bare, brown earth, I welcome the clear blue sky, For the Springtime's birth Awakens with mirth; Good by to the snow, good by!

514 IMPROVEMENT ERA. The robin is piping his lay, The flicker chirps from his bower, The blue-bird is gay In royal array— Sweet herald of bud and flower. The sparrow trills to his mat e, "My sweet, my own. Hove best; The season is late, Why longer await? Ho, now for a cozy nest!'' The lawn smiles up at the sun, The musical brook purls along. The day has begun. And royally won Its chorus of welcome song. I go to a little mound, Where violets ever grow. That bloom may abound O'er the sacred ground, And a dear one laid below. Oh, how she welcomed the Spring, With its sky like her laughing eyes! And to sweetly sing Was her offering To the welcome, sunny skies. I welcome the bare, brown earth, I welcome the clear, blue sky; But I miss the mirth By the fireside hearth— Good-by to the snow, good-by! Payson, Utah. J. L. TOWNSEND.

TRIBUTE TO C/ESAR. BY ELDER WILLIAM HALLS. The Pharisees sent their disciples to Jesus to ask the question, "Is it lawful to pay tribute unto Ceesar?" hoping to draw some expression from him that might help them to sustain theircharge against him of disloyalty to the Roman government. But they were disappointed, for he acknowledged the right of Caesar, saying, "render therefore unto Csesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." When John the Baptist came preaching "the kingdom of heaven is at hand," and told of the coming Messiah, the Jews, chafing under the Gentile yoke,tired of paying tribute, and anxious to regain their national existence, were ready to receive a Messiah who should come as a temporal deliverer. They had no conception of the nature of the mission of the Savior, and even his disciples, who followed him through all his ministry, never understood him, for the last question they asked him, as he was about to ascend to heaven, was, "Lord wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" His ministry in preaching the gospel, organizing his Church, and calling and sending the apostles to preach, had no political significance whatever. All he did was within the law. The Roman government gave all its subjects the right to worship their own gods, in their own way. Jesus was careful not to offend against the law. He gave