--- 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: 13 number: 8 published: 1910-06 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Editor’s Table: The Spirit of Worship," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 8 (June 1910): 749–754.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1308unse 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: improvementera1308unse start_page: 749 end_page: 754 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1910-06) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1308unse publication_year: 1910 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 1910, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Editor’s Table: The Spirit of Worship Editor's Table. The Spirit of Worship. Civilization in these western valleys is still very young. Only sixty-three years ago this month the pioneer settlers were winding their way over the untrodden desert to find a new home in this then primitive west. They were few in number, poor in this world's goods, but abundantly rich in faith and unconquerable determination. Figuratively, they burned their bridges behind them, and went forth to conquer. They did so literally, for there was no way out but to do or die. And they found faith and strength to live and do. The work which they began, it is our duty to continue. Our religion means work and faith, and the reward is not gained by beginning, but by continuing and enduring to the end. The Lord has greatly blessed the Latter-day Saints in their efforts, and I believe many of these blessings have come to us because of the faith, glad hearts and cheerful countenances of our fathers and mothers, the valiant founders of our homes amid the mountains. The recent dedication of the Bishop's Building, the Pioneer Stake hall on April 17, and the completion of many new and commodious meetinghouses throughout the length and breadth of the land, have caused me to reflect on the wonderful changes that have come in the condition of the people in these few short years. My first recollection of a place of worship was in Nauvoo. It was in a little grove of trees near the site of the temple. In company with my mother I listened here to such men as Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, Orson Hyde, Parley P. Pratt, Orson Pratt, the Prophet Joseph and the Patriarch Hyrum.^ I remember 750 IMPROVEMENT ERA. quite well attending one meeting in this grove, that a wagon had been drawn up in front of the audience and the Prophet Joseph stood in the box speaking, when it began to rain. Some one or two persons got up and held umbrellas over him, to shield him from the wet. Many of the people had no umbrellas, and it was very annoying and disagreeable to sit there, but I remember very well, though but a little boy, that there was no one went away from the ground while he spoke. Next I remember the place of worship on the Missouri river, at Winter Quarters, now called Florence, some six or seven miles up the river from Omaha. The meetinghouse there consisted of a bowery— posts set in the ground with cross poles over them and covered with green boughs, which were replaced from time to time, as they grew dry and the leaves rattled off. This was the meeting place of the Saints in the fall and winter of 1846-7, and I know not how much longer, for we left for the Salt Lake valley in the spring of 1848. At Council Bluffs a double log house was built, in which council meetings were held by the priesthood, but in Winter Quarters the bowery served the purpose. In the Salt Lake valley, the first place of worship I recall was within the temple square, in the southeast corner, where a large bowery was erected. Here I remember first the 4th and 24th of July celebrations, on this temple block corner, under the bowery. The first tabernacle or assembly hall of any pretentions at all, in Salt Lake City, was erected in the southwest corner of the temple block. Here the old tabernacle stood, north and south, and the doors opened north and south. Later on, doors were cut through the center of the building, and the interior was greatly changed. The stand, first built in one end of the building, was removed to the center of the west side of the building. Up to 1854, this was the only meetinghouse that I remember having seen in the Church. Of course, other meetinghouses had been built in different parts of the territory. And I want to say here, in order that it may be remembered bv the children and young people, that as soon as our people began to gather into these mountain valleys, their first effort, whenever they settled in any part of the country, was extended towards the building of accommodation houses that could be used at once for educational and religious purposes. They EDITOR'S TABLE. 751 prepared to fit out these houses as speedily as possibly, and they were completed with the combine i object of serving for educational instruction and religious worship, for our religion and our education ran hand in hand throughout all the formation of our settlements. In 1849, president Young began to counsel the people to form settlements in the north as far as Ogden, and in the south to Lehi, Provo and Manti and intermediate points. A little settlement, Summit, on the dividing line between Utah and Juab counties, was started, and there a few of our people laid the foundations of a village now called Santaquin. Towns were laid out at American Fork, Pleasant Grove, Springville and Spanish Fork. The next settlements were projected some two or three hundred miles south in Iron county, and there, within the stockade built to protect the settlers from Indians, a bowery was erected where school was taught and the gospel preached to the children and people who gathered there. The history of our public buildings in all the early settlements is told in the case of these pioneer villages: first the bowery, then the log hut with dirt roof, and then the adobe structures. Most of these have now disappeared, or are disappearing, and today we worship in comfortable stone or brick palaces. There is an infatuation at present for building meetinghouses everywhere in the Church. Never before, it seems, was there a time when there was so much thought and talk of building as at present. Day after day appeals come to the First Presidency asking the Trustee-in-trust for help. There are some two hundred wards in the Church without meetinghouses, while three hundred more are now building. We wish that the Trustee-in-trust had means enough to erect all these houses of worship, but he hasn't, and yet the presidency are doing the very best they can, giving in justice and economy, and with impartiality, in accordance with their best judgment, to those who stand in need. But the thought I wish to emphasize is this, and I do it that the young people particularly may reflect upon the spirit that should characterize our lives and worship. Our fathers and mothers sat in the rain to listen tc the Prophet Joseph in the open air in Nauvoo; in Winter Quarters, amid the tumult of 752 IMPROVEMENT ERA. uncertainty and flight, heard the voice of Brigham Young in the open, in sod houses or under shady bowers; and upon the temple block in the Great American Desert, wayworn and weary, listened to the prophets expounded by Orson Pratt, and other leading elders: while in other new settlements the people paid their simple devotions to the Most High in log houses and boweries; — but let it be remembered forever, in it all they possessed palatial faith and integrity. Now that we sit in the midst of prosperity and plenty, granted to us through the bounteous blessings of Almighty God, in comfortable chairs, in palaces lighted by the press of the electric button, with sweet instruments of music to greet our ears, let it not be said that in our worship nor in our lives, we have in the slightest lost the humility, devotion, faith and integrity of the fathers. Joseph F. Smith. Gathering of the Jews. The gathering of the Jews into the Holy Land is a work not only of great importance but of living interest. It is evident, from a special cable to the New York Times, printed on the 16th of January this year, that the new constitutional regime in Turkey has caused an influx of Jews from Russia, Persia, and elsewhere. Colonies are spreading through the plains of Esdraelon, and their modern methods of agriculture are greatly increasing the productions of the earth. This movement is one of the signs of the latter-days. The Improvement Era is indebted to Elder J. T. Smellie, of New York, for a copy of the Times containing the following cablegram from London: Letters from Jerusalem say that the proclamation of the Constitution in Turkey has thrown open the doors of Palestine to the incoming of Jews from all parts of the world. In Jerusalem alone four-fifths of the population of one hundred thousand now belong to the Jewish faith, while at Jaffa, Tiberias, Safed, and Haifa Jews are reckoned by tens of thousands. Almost the whole extensive plane of Esdraelon has been bought up by them. Their prosperous colonies spread from Dan to Beersheba, and EDITOR'S TABLE. 753 even further south to the outskirts of Egypt. Thousands are escaping from Persia to find shelter and protection in the Holy Land, while every ship from Odessa carries hundreds of them. The valley of the Jordan, once the property of the ex-Sultan Abdul Hamid, is being eagerly sought after by Jewish capitalists and syndicates of Zionists, whose agents, distributed all over the land, are buying up rich properties of Mohammedan offenders whose incomes since the revolution are considerably lessened. The Holy City is essentially a Jewish town. Banking, as well as trade and commerce, is monopolized by Jews. The government has found it necessary to organize a company of Jewish gendarmes. Hundreds of thousands of pounds are sent annually from Europe and America to enable the colonists to build homes, hospitals, schools and invalid homes. Over one hundred Jewish schools already exist in Jerusalem alone, and synagogues are going up everywhere. The value of land has risen fourfold. The ignorant and povertystricken fellaheen are being ousted from their homes and villages by the sharp European Jewish settler, whose modern agricultural implements and methods have made the land produce harvests never before dreamed of by the natives. The Anglo-Palestine Company, a Zionist banking and commercial enterprise, is pushing the cause of Israel with great determination. The racial exclusiveness of the Jews and their clannish proclivities are arousing the opposition of the Ottomans, and the Turkish constitutional regime has in this question one of the greatest problems that a new and patriotic government ever faced. Messages from the Missions. On Sunday, April 23, Sister Phebe A. Daybell, wife of Elder George W. Daybell, at that time doing missionary work in England, died. She was the mother of four children, and was an enthusiastic Church worker, being secretary for the Relief Society at the time of her death. The funeral was held at Charleston, Wasatch county, Utah, April 26. Elder Daybell was cabled for, and left England for home on April 30. President Andrew Jenson, writing from Copenhagen, March 28, says: "We have just had a splendid conference in this city. Every seat in 754 IMPROVEMENT ERA. our spacious hall was occupied last night. Twenty-three elders from Zion were present; seventy-one were reported baptized in this conference during the last six months, which is a greater number than ever before in this conference during the same length of time, for the past thirty years. All are well at mission headquarters. We rejoice over the glorious results of our labors, and all the elders join me in sending greetings to the First Presidency of the Church and the Saints in Zion." Elder Alma 0. Taylor returned on April 26, from Japan, where he labored for about nine years, presiding most of the time over the Japanese mission. He translated the Book of Mormon into the Japanese language and published it. Elder Fred A. Caine, a grandson of Hon. John T. Caine, also returned on the same date, after eight years of missionary work, during which time he assisted in the translation and publication of the Book of Mormon and Anderson's Brief History of the Church Both of these books are selling well, and more than one thousand copies of the first edition of the Book of Mormon have been disposed of since its publication a few months ago. Elder Caine left home June 26, 1902, and Elder Taylor July 24, 1901. Both have acquired the language about as perfectly as it is possible for foreigners to do, and they have performed a wonderful literary work by the help of the Lord. The gospel seed has been planted in a new soil, and whatever the harvest, the names of these young men will always be honored for the part they have taken, and for the many years of labor they have spent, in seeking to found God's "marvelous work and a wonder'' in the Japanese nation. The Era extends to them a hearty welcome home. ALMA 0. TAYLOR. FRED A. CAINE.