Editor’s Table: A Word About the Era

A TESTIMONY. 1109 I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved. And the Lord answered me, and said: Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. — Habakkuk 2: 1-3. I will hear what God the Lord will speak : for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints; but let them not turn again to folly. Surely his salvation is near them that fear him; that glory may dwell in our land. Mercy and truth are met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth shall spring out of the earth; and right- eousness shall look down from heaven. — Psalm 85: 8-11. Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the Lord have created it. — Isaiah 45: 8. These are beautiful passages predicting the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. Other prophecies are numerous: And thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be as of one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust. . . . And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot, for it is sealed. And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned. — Isaiah 29: 4, 11, 12. For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk; the bud shall yield no meal; if so be it yield, the strang- ers shall swallow it up. Israel is swallowed up: now shall they be among the Gentiles as a vessel wherein is no pleasure. . . .Because Ephraim hath made many altars to sin, altars shall be unto him to sin. I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing. — Hosea 8:, 7, 8, 11, 12. And the vision of the evening and the morning which was told is true; therefore shut thou up the vision; for it shall be for many days.— Daniel 8: 26. Then I cut asunder mine other staff, even bands, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. — Zech. 11: 14. For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, etc. . . . Afterward shall the children of Israel return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king; and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter-days — Hosea 3: 4, 5; see also Gen. 40: 10; Jeremiah 31: 10; III Nephi 20: 29; Ether 13: 11; Doc. and Cov. Sec. 29. In conclusion, I rejoice in the light of the everlasting gospel. I

1110 IMPROVEMENT ERA. enjoy the spirit of prophecy (see[Rev. 19: 10) and know that the king- dom of God is set up never more to. he thrown down"(Daniel 2: 44) and that his house is established (Isaiah 2:2; Micah 4: 1). I know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God and I know that the everlasting gospel will make a Saint of everyone who will embrace it, and hold on to the rod, until the end. I remain your loving brother, W. Pring. Routine. {For the Improvement Era.) I murmured once at matin old and same, At night's unchanged compline, At task and routine fretting as they came, When lo! at plaint of mine, There came fair Springtime sunning down the land, With lilt and starling song, With balmy blossoms snowing from her hand, The same as springtimes gone. A dryad flinging vesture to the tree, And sun-motes to the noon — To every leaf a likened palmistry— 'Twas thus at yestermoon. On fell and moor the same beatitude, Of .April's chrism' d tear, Each copse apulse with holy interlude, The same as yesteryear. The autumn's rust shall stain the lily's sheen, And necrosis her -gold, Yet blithely through the woof of her routine, Spring plies her loom of old; Her triumph spun in fragile monocarp, Shall mould in sodden fen, Yet, though her forests twang a rusted harp, She shall make new again. Bertha A. Kleinman.