---
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, Christine D.
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: 'Christine D. Young, "Suffer and Be Strong: A Poem," *Improvement Era* 11, no. 2 (December 1907): 95–96.'
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: 95
end_page: 96
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.
---

# Suffer and Be Strong: A Poem

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SUFFER AND BE STRONG.
BY CHRISTINE D. YOUNG.
[The author of this touching and beautiful poem was Director of the
Domestic Art Department of the Brigham Young University for several years
but has been compelled, this year, to give up the work on account of ill health.
She is a sister of the wife of the late Dr. Karl G. Maeser. The poem was first
printed in the student paper, The White and Blue, April, .1904. "The circum-
stances," says Dr. George H. Brimhall, in reply to a recent note of inquiry
from the editors of the Era, "connected with the writing of the poem are as fol.
lows: One of our students, Brother Corey Hanks, was at work in a mine, and by
a premature explosion lost the sight of both his eyes. He visited the school in
this unfortunate condition and spoke one morning in devotional exercises. His
remarks were so full of hope and fortitude and courage that he seemed a giant of
strength even in this deplorable condition. The visit and remarks of the young
man deeply affected us all, and Sister Young gave vent to her feelings in the poem,
'Suffer and be Strong.' Sister Young has been an invalid for years." Editors.]
The hall was filled with its careless, chattering throng,
Pealed forth the organ's prelude to the song,
Full rose the hymn, and then — the prayer:
And then — we saw thee stand
Before us. A kind hand
Had led thee, maimed and blind and broken, there.
And then thou spakest, — thy sightless face upturned
In the old hall, where but so late had burned
Thy heart like ours, with promise.
Still as death the place
Great God! to us that day,
What couldst thou say,
But cry thy anguish

<!-- page:96 -->

— : — —
96 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
And yet, with tranquil breath,
Thou spak'st of gratitude for things we'd done:
Of love to thee of God, of truth that shone
A living light. As for thy doom
Why, if it were his will
Thou'dst bear it and be still.
And stifled sobbing broke the stillness of the room.
* * *
When fierce rebellion surges through my heart,
And bitter my complainings at the smart
Of wounds that I must bear:
When all my restless life
Seems but a fruitless strife,
And God seems heedless of my pleading prayer,
Let me recall that sightless face again
So pale and patient 'neath its crown of pain,
And hear again thy lips in perfect trust,
Unfaltering proclaim thy heavenly Maker's name;
Aye, see thee kiss the cross that bore thee to the dust.
That humbled and ashamed I take again
My burden, and submissive struggle on,
Uplifted by thy strength divine.
My lot is noonday, bright, sublime,
Compared with thy deep night;
I stand rebuked before such faith as thine.
And thou, boy, may the pitying Christ, who died
Upon the cross, walk ever at thy side,
Make thee his own, and guide thy faltering feet!
And all the tempest's strife
That rends our troubled life
Stand awed to silence by thy price complete.
Provo, Utah.