The Message. A Poem

REASONS FOR OPPOSITION 143 Now, my brethren and sisters, we are doing the best we know how. Our lives, our labors, our efforts, our intentions are like an open book to all who may read clearly, and they may run while they read. I want my brethren and sisters to do as I am trying to do, and I don't want to say it boastfully, for I do not feel that way. I want you to pay your tithing as honestly as I do. That is all I will ask of you to do in that regard. And if you will pay your fast donations for the poor, and if you will help to maintain your ward organizations as you should, as members of the Church, in which promise of blessing is involved in every instance, I can tell you that the world will have less and less power, and less and less reason to say, — I was going to say evil things, — but they will find less reason and less occasion to say nattering things of us, because we will be that much better, and the better we are, the more the devil will rage, and the more bitter he will be. But, as President Young said at one time, and as repeated later by Presi- dent Woodruff, the more righteous and upright, pure and undefiled, the Latter-day Saints become, the less power will Satan have over them, for in proportion to your unity and uprightness, honesty and fidelity to the cause in which you are engaged, in such proportion will the power of the adversary be weakened, and those who are seeking to entice your sons and daughters into haunts of shame, and dens of wickedness, that they might be defiled, corrupted, wicked, and "like the rest of them," will have less power over you, if you will watch your children better, and live better lives your- selves. God bless you, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus, Amen. The Message. (For the Improvement Era.) From hills of the shepherds, -the plain by the sea. There breaks through the stillness a message to me — A message sublime that doth my being thrill With rapture of joy, born of peace and good will. "Peace, peace on the earth, good will unto man!" As the message of angels o'er Bethlehem rang; May tones of my heart unto others extend; To brighten their lives, my hands ever lend The measure of love, thus striving to be A worthy disciple, my Savior, of Thee. Grace Ingles Frost. Waterloo, Utah.