---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Cummings, D. W.
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 12
number: 3
published: 1909-01
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Cummings, D. W., "God Wills It," *Improvement Era* 12, no. 3 (January 1909): 191.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1203unse
  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: improvementera1203unse
start_page: 191
end_page: 191
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1909-01)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1203unse
  publication_year: 1909
  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 1909, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# God Wills It

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"GOD WILLS IT!'
The gladsome heart can easily sing
When 'tis Hope and Ambition that thrills it;
But oh, what a strong, invincible faith,
When Ambition, appalled by bitter Despair,
And fate- stricken Hope lies chilled and inert;
From such ruin, the soul, undismayed, looks aloft
And patiently breathes, "God wills it!"
Love-answered Love brings a bliss unexcelled.
With naught in the world that chills it;
But what of the faith, which, within that poor breast
Where the heart quivers wildly with sharp, bitter pain
Of Love unrequited, unanswered and vain,
Still grows on the torment, and softens, and heals,
And teaches this prayer, "God wills it!"
' Tis easy enough for the heart to be glad
When 'tis Laughter and Love that fills it;
But oh, what a faith, heroic, sublime,
When, with heart passion- burned to an acheless void,
Yet with smiles that float on the rising sob,
The soul mounts clear of its Gethsemane,
And utters with strength, ''God wills it!"
D. W. Gumminos.
Rexburg, Idaho.