--- 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: 11 number: 2 published: 1907-12 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "In Defense of the Church," *Improvement Era* 11, no. 2 (December 1907): 143–144.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1102unse 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: improvementera1102unse start_page: 143 end_page: 144 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1907-12) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1102unse publication_year: 1907 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 1907, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # In Defense of the Church IN DEFENSE OF THE CHURCH. A new addition to home literature is Defense oj the Faith and the Saints, by Elder B. H. Roberts, a handsome volume of 532 pages printed in new type, on good paper, by the Deseret News. Some years ago the author announced that he would publish a "Scrap Book" to contain his miscellaneous writings in general literature. But circumstances called him to devote himself to doctrinal, defensive and historical themes rather than to fiction. These themes treated in the pulpit, or contributed to magazines and newspapers, multiplied and accumulated so that notwithstand- ing the first thought was not carried out, the scrap book idea still became a possibility, though its character was necessarily changed. Defense of the Faith and the Saints is a collection from his many arti- cles of this class, and is here presented in compact and attractive shape. The book has three parts, the first, "Position and De- fense," consists of eight papers; the second, "Book of Mormon Controversial Questions," of four; and the third, "Historical and Doctrinal Papers," also of four papers. The student of history will find in this work a broad and intelligent treatment of leading doctrinal, political and historical questions that have affected the — : . 144 IMPRO VEMENT ERA Church in the past decade. The author calls this " Volume'One," thus indicating that other like volumes in time will probably follow.