---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Ursenbach, O. F.
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 16
number: 4
published: 1913-02
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Ursenbach, O. F., "What Have We Done Today? A Poem," *Improvement Era* 16, no. 4 (February 1913): 298–299.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1604unse
  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: improvementera1604unse
start_page: 298
end_page: 299
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1913-02)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1604unse
  publication_year: 1913
  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 1913, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# What Have We Done Today? A Poem

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What Have We Done Today?

             We boast- of our work in future years;
               But what have we done today?
             We shall give our wealth to those in tears;
               But what did we give today?
             We shall buoy the heart and feed the poor;
             In vain will none knock at our door;
             Fond castles we build, as our great minds soar,
               But have we "made good" today?

             Our harvest must be one of joy;
               Have we sown good seed today?
             Our life shall be without alloy:
               Have we lived that life today?
             We shall do so-and-so, in the "bye-and-bye;"
             We shall laud the truth from earth to sky.
             And shall press on and on to goals on high.
               But what have we done today?

             Don't wait to smile 'till the clouds have passed.
               But give the smile today.
             Don't wait 'till the soul from earth has passed.
               But give your rose today.
             Though you hitch your wagon to a star;
             Your thoughts soar on to hopes afar;
             You make your life right where you are,
               Doing kindly deeds today.
                                                    0. F. Urse.-.-bacj
RAYMOND, CANADA

<!-- page:299 -->

Dryden on Salvation for the Dead

                    BY CLAUDE T. RARNES, M. S., P. R.

        Many a dust-laden volume, with                 faded pages and peculiar
type, contains, should    we but try to find them, great truths, surprising philosophies and               beauties   of   phraseology         which need
but an alteration of lettering to               make them the expression of a
loftier   contemporary thought and culture.                  Indeed,   I   confess   'tis

a diversion never tiresome, to fish awhile with Walton, speculate
for a time with     Browne, take a mug with Addison at "Will's,"
or go on a lark with Fielding; in   many respects their age immeasurably surpasses ours, for science and commerce have quite
smothered our imagination.
        Truth
            is as old as the sun  it must be, for scattered
                                            ;               here
and there in the writings of by-gone centuries, are nuggets of
thought which prove that we are, after all, but an ordinary step
in the ladder of infinity.   Thus, it is indeed remarkable that
John Dryden (1631-1700) should have ignored the credenda of
his time and courageously thrust upon his compeers, in the form
of a    poem called Religio Laid, a staunch belief in the possibility    of heathen salvation   ;    and, furthermore, that he should have
argued concerning it with a clearness scarcely to have been expected without the illuminating influence of revelation.                     What he
has said, therefore, certainly deserves to be recorded in the confirmatory literature of the subject.               It illustrates   and emphasizes
the fact that the gospel          is    not new, but old, and that           all   down
the ages there have been glimpses of                   it,   saving truths to       illu-

minate darkness of error and tradition.
        A logical interpretation of scripture, together with reflections    on the perfection of divine justice, must convince one that
it    were monstrous indeed to condemn forever the heathen who
never heard the name of Christ.                   In fact, various passages* of

     *The argument unfolds itself in the following citations: Mark
16:16; John 3:5: Luke 23:39-43: Jolin 20:11-17; I Peter 3:18-20; John
5:25; Isaiah 24:22; 42:6-7;61:l; Job 33:27-30; I Cor. 15:29; Mai. 4:5-6;
Phil. 2;9-ll; I Kings 7:23.