--- 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: 11 published: 1910-09 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: Faith,” *Improvement Era* 13, no. 11 (September 1910): 1034–1038." source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera13011unse 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: improvementera13011unse start_page: 1034 end_page: 1038 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1910-09) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera13011unse 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: Faith 1034 IMPROVEMENT ERA. anything of note for the attention of the bishop, he should not hesitate to make mention of it to that officer. The bishop needs wise suggestions, and he would be an un- worthy bishop indeed who would not gladly listen to the sugges- tions of a high priest. He ought to obtain more from that body of men in his ward than from any others, as to the feeling and needs of the people. The true bishop should have it in heart to say, "My dear brother, you are a high priest, I need your sugges- tions and counsel to aid me in the proper conducting of my admin- istration of the ward. Do not hesitate to point out to me any matter that may be upon your mind. 1 shall appreciate it." The bishop and high priest belong to the same quorum, they are cut from the same piece of cloth, so to speak; therefore, it is most fitting that such a close relationship should exist and be recog- nized on the part of both. Much depends, it is true, upon the bishop in this matter. If he courts the counsel of his high priests they should be found in that prayerful, spiritual condition enabling them to render him invaluable aid, but if he does not recognize in a practical way the value of this high relationship, the high priest can be of little direct aid to him. It is a serious mistake for anv high priest to look upon him- self as out of the harness or laid upon the shelf. While younger and more active men may have been called to places which require a great deal of activity and the strenuous life— it does not imply that the Church no longer needs the services of the high priest, by any manner of means. He should keep his harness on in propor- tion to his ability to get about. Keep it on and die in it. Then he will find it strapped to him when he wakens on the other side, and himself ready for the activities which may await him there, and thus not unduly lengthen the period of negative existence due to the infirmities of age. But the high priest not appointed to specific work should be actively interested in the work for the dead, and should visit and inspire the families of the Saints to follow up this great work. In this field he can be of incalculable service to the bishop and the ward. Where there are parents who have not been sealed or had their children sealed to them, where families do not sense the great importance of work for their dead and are neglecting it and WHAT CAN A HIGH PRIEST DO? 1035 dying and passing away without accomplishing it in some degree, it is peculiarly the privilege of the high priest to enlighten their minds and awaken their interesc in the salvation of their dead. His field of activity in this direction is limitless, and the call for his services is loud indeed. If it be true that a man by striving all his life and bringing but one soul to Christ will have such great joy in the kingdom of heaven, how great may be the joy of those high priests, who, relieved of the more exacting labors of the priesthood, turn their attention to this great subject, and become the means of arousing family after family to look ofter the salva- tion of their dead. What could be a more fitting rounding out of an active life in the ministry? What could be a more fitting close of an eventful and useful career than attention to the great work for the dead? As a Church we are doing too little in this direction. Our temples are not all filled, and many families are wholly neglecting to attend to the duty they owe their progeni- tors. This work should be taken up more vigorously and more systematically than has been the case, and I do not know wherein the priesthood could do better than to lay this responsible charge upon the shoulders of the high priests. I hope to see the day when bishops will be called upon to set their high priests at work systematically along this line. But whether this is done or not, it is now an open field for honors of the very highest kind, and which will reach into eternity with greater glory to the doer than any other labor that can be pursued here upon the earth— for the beneficiaries there awaiting the coming of the laborer in the king- dom will crown him with mighty praises and thanksgiving. Ogden, Utah. Remain Faithful. "Nothing is so difficult as to remain faithful. Those who will fulfil on a rainy day a promise which they have made on a sunny one, are few and far between." — Wagner. Editor's Table. Faith. Many young people have an idea that faith pertains entirely to what they please to term "religion;"' and so when a person be- gins to speak of faith they wander off, apparently losing interest in what might follow, because they fear religious principles are to be discussed in which they are seemingly little interested. The Latter-day Saints, however, believe that faith is essential in all things— temporal and spiritual. In fact, they are firm believers in the truth that the spiritual and the temporal go together, not only to make the perfect man and woman, but to make a perfect character. It is forcibly set forth in the revelations of the Prophet Joseph Smith that "spirit and element, inseparably connected, re- ceive th a fulness of joy; and when separated, man cannot receive a fulness of joy." In a recent number of the Youth's Companion the following striking narrative confirms the teachings of the Latter-day Saints that faith lies at the basis of all action, — re ligious and scientific. The scientists base their works on faith as certainly as prophets, saints, and the elders: "The trouble is," said Harold Raymond, on his return from his sec- ond year in college, "that when you enter the sphere of religion, you deal with something quite different from anything that you meet in science. In the one you move step by step along lines of induction or deduction, and in the other you fling a highway through the air, in a bold and beau- tiful manner, but in a way quite different from that of science." "I am not sure that the difference is so great as we are accustomed to suppose," replied his friend. "I have been thinking how scientific faith is, or, rather, how large a part faith plays in science. No man ever made a great discovery that was wholly an accident. Even if he EDITOR'S TABLE. 1037 were seeking the Northwest Passage and found America, it was faith that was guiding him.'' "But it is a very different thing from what you call faith, isn't it?" asked Harold. "Faith seems very vague as compared with the pro- cesses of science." "I don't think so. I have wondered how it would seem if we were to try to add some modern names of science to the great muster-roll of faith in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews." "I should like to hear how it would sound." "By faith Columbus, when he was called of God to descover a new world, went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sailed strange waters, with Cabot, Magellan, Vespucius and Balboa, the heirs with him of the same promise. "By faith Copernicus lifted the earth from its solid base and set it to moving in rhythmic order round the sun; and all the suns and sons of ' suns with planets in bright array that circle round the throne of God. This he beheld by faith. "By faith LaPlace understood how the worlds are made from star- dust; and Newton beheld in the fall of the apple a force that holds the worlds in place, and that not by things that do appear. "By faith the men of science, who did not always call themselves men of faith, found substance in the things hoped for, and moved from ex- periment to hypothesis and from hypothesis to theory, and from theory to fact and from fact to sight: and all these were the children of faith. "And what shall I more say? For time would fail me to tell of Stephenson and Fulton, of Morse and Roentgen and Edison and Lister; of Cyrus Field and Alexander Bell and Marconi and Wilbur Wright, who through faith made iron float, yoked chariots to the invisible power of steam, caused the voice of man to be heard by his fellow man at a dis- tance of a thousand miles, filled the air with voices inaudible to the ear, but intelligible to the mind of faith, and lifted the bodies and the minds of men on wings of wonder, and set them to sailing amid the clouds. "By faith they built railways, irrigated deserts, crossed the track- less ice to the poles; subdued climate, overcame hardship and incred- ulity; out of weakness were made strong, and added to the space and comfort of human life, and gave wonderful analogies to those who seek the farther knowledge which is by faith. "Now they who do such things all die in faith, and none of them fully receive the promise, God having provided some better thing that we, too, should learn the lesson of faith, and follow their steps. "And wherein we have learned from saints and apostles, and the 103$ IMPROVEMENT ERA. Lord of life, and have found sure footing for faith, let us not count it unreasonable that still we follow, and live the life of faith." Messages from the Missions. Elders Edward W. Jensen and Charles H. Sorensen, writing from Aalborg, Denmark, July 4, on trading, state that during the past year they found a number of people in that old city, in which there are many good and honest members of the Church, who are willing to listen to the truth about the Latter-day Saints. The photos illustrate the elders meeting one of the prejudiced kind, who is receiving a tract and tearing it up before them, showing his contempt. While tracting is difficult and disagreeable, many times the elders through it receive an introduction. They recognize that tracts are used not so much to sell as to introduce the message that they have to deliver. We are called to search for the honest in heart, and we know that the words of the Savior to his servants are true: "This gospel of the king- dom shall be preached in all the world for a wit- ness unto all nations, and then shall the end come." The responsibility rests upon us to warn all the people that God has revealed his gospel, and to call them to repentance and belief. We are often spoken of with contempt in the public press, and despised by our enemies, but we still find many good and honest friends willing to give us an opportunity to explain to them the truth, and to judge us by our works. So we cheerfully labor. Elder T. F. Sevy, writing from Linton, Indiana, July 23, 1910( speaks of the first Sunday school organized in Linton, Indiana, of which he sends a photograph. The three elders in the rear have been in charge since last February. They are, reading from left to right: Elders T. F. Sevy, Elial Hadlock, superintendent, and Fayne Miliner. Other elders who are laboring in the city are, second row: C. W. Ellsworth, Vernon