The Home Call: A Poem

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MISSING LINKS. 965

no more for a thousand years? (Rev. 20: 1, 2) that the Lord may come and find peace on earth and reign with his saints in the promised millennium? (Rev. 20: 4, 5, 6.) With lut inspiration from heaven, can these missing links be supplied, and a people be prepared for the second coming of the Savior?

Mancos, Colorado.

THE HOME CALL. (on receiving an honorable release to return home from a foreign mission.)

{For the Improvement Era.)

The charm of England's smiling fields, Of Scotland's hills with lochs between, Of Ireland's stretch of cooling green To Homeland's stronger summons yields.

A gray-sage reach of barren plain, A wild aroma of the hills, A gentle murmur of the rills These draw me westward once again.

Away from man and man's control, Among eternal solitudes, I dwelt so near to Nature's moods. So near to Nature's very soul.

The spell yet holds, where'er I roam; Nor tow'ring cities, busy marts, With all that wealth or art imparts, Can break the charm that draws me home

My home is desert-girt, I know The stars by night, the sun by day Shine down upon the dusty way— ^

And yet it calls, and I must go. Nbphi Anderson. Liverpool, Aug. 20, 1906.

PRAYER.

BY W. B. DOUGALL, JR.

[The following thoughtful sketch was written by the late Elder W. B. Dougall, Jr., while on his English mission, and appeared in the Millennial Star. —Editoes.] Among the circumstances that were peculiarly characteristic of the saints at the time of Chris fc, none were more steadily insisted upon, or more frequently mentioned, by the apostolic writers than this — that they 'walk by faith and not by ' sight. ' ' The various graces, whose harmonious union constitutes the perfection to which all Latter-day Saints aspire, seemed to be possessed by the Saints at the time of the Savior, in different degrees, according to their advances in righteousness; but owing to the peculiar organization of some of the people at that time, who were endowed with senses admirably constructed to perceive and enjoy the objects which surrounded them, and to whom the pleasures of life

were generally attainable without much painful exertion of strength or faculties, the life of faith was not of easy attainment. To them, accustomed to taste largely of the gratifications of life, the simple truths of the gospel were seldom a welcome message. Invisible things struck but faintly upon their minds, and the impression was easily effaced by the intrusion of other images. So keenly was this fact sensed by the apostle James, that, in his famous epistle, he deemed it expedient to exhort those who were inclined to waver to seek God earnestly in prayer, without wavering, and wisdom and knowledge would be given them.