--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Larsen, Louis collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 11 number: 11 published: 1908-09 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Larsen, Louis, "Your Past: A Poem," *Improvement Era* 11, no. 11 (September 1908): 854.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera11011unse 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: improvementera11011unse start_page: 854 end_page: 854 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1908-09) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera11011unse publication_year: 1908 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 1908, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Your Past: A Poem 854 IMPRO VEMENT ERA . tained the very actions which they admit to be consistent and noble. But is there not something paradoxical in the position that they assume that he was wise in actions but foolish in motive; logical in his statements but unreasonable in his premises; that his course of life was straight and direct, but that the goal he expected to reach was only a phantom? His life, which has proved the most successful of all earthly lives, was acted out on the hypothesis, or rather from the actual knowledge, that God was his father, that men were his brothers, and that life was eternal and perfection of character possible. Even though our spiritual intuition may not be sufficiently developed to grasp this truth, as to the fatherhood of God, as a matter of knowledge, are we not justified in accepting it as a matter of faith? Shall we not proceed to act from the view point that all things are presided over by one who has a special interest in the development of man; that life in itself is immortal and eternal, and hence, that all heights of knowledge and power are possible to human beings? Such a philosophy is good for man. It will naturally inspire that living faith which stimulates to the most heroic action, that hope that illumines our darkest hours, and that love for our fellows which must necessarily precede and be associated with that period still in the future which we refer to as the Age of the Brotherhood of man. Portland, Oregon. YOUR PAST. {For the Improvement Era.) Each day of life is built upon the past, Just as each stone is mortared in the wall; But when a day is added, fixed and fast, Cemented to the great, eternal past, You cannot rearrange it, nor recall. Then, builder, give each day the destined place That God, the architect, for it designed. Your past will stand in beauty and in grace ; In rising splendor to assume its place, And mark you as the noblest of your kind. Cove, Utah. Louis Larsen.