--- 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: 10 number: 1 published: 1906-11 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Questions and Answers: The Kingdom of God; On Blessing Children," *Improvement Era* 10, no. 1 (November 1906): 66–67.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera101unse 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: improvementera101unse start_page: 66 end_page: 67 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1906-11) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera101unse 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. --- # Questions and Answers: The Kingdom of God; On Blessing Children QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS. The Kingdom of God. Will you please state what is meant by the Kingdom of God? President Wilford Woodruff was asked that same question by an Associated Press reporter, just after an election some years before his death, and in reply he is reported to have said EDITOR'S TABLE. 67 %. "It is this: We hold that this Church was set up and organized by command of the Almighty; that it has the right to formu- late and maintain rules of church discipline applying to its own members; that the extent of its punitive powers is the excommunication of the transgressor; that it has no power to punish anyone by deprivation of life, liberty or property or personal injury in any form; that governments should not regulate the church, nor the church seek to control the state, that all men should be politically free and equal, free to vote as they please and to sustain what politics they please, so that they do not in- fringe upon the rights of others. We believe this Church will prepare the way for the coming of Christ to reign as King, and that this Church will then develop into the Kingdom of God, which all Christians pray will come, that the will of God may be done on earth as it is in heaven. We believe in the full and free agency of man, and that when that kingdom is established there will be perfect liberty on earth, civil, political and religious." See also an article by the First Presidency, Era Vol. 7, page 274. On Blessing Children. When the Elders bless a child and give it a name, is it proper to mention the surname as well as the given name? The full name may be mentioned; that is, both the given name and the surname, when the child is blessed. But this is not absolutely necessary. But where both are given, there can then be no miscake about the name of the child. Its whole name is given; and besides, as soon as the child is blessed, it is the duty of the parents or its guardian to furnish the clerk of the ward with the date of names of its parents, etc., so that the rec- its birth, ord itself will give the whole name of the child, and will be an evidence in itself of what the child's name is.