--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Joseph Longking Townsend collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 17 number: 10 published: 1914-08 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Joseph Longking Townsend, "The Spirit of Truth," *Improvement Era* 17, no. 10 (August 1914): 919.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera17010unse 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: improvementera17010unse start_page: 919 end_page: 919 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1914-08) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera17010unse publication_year: 1914 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 1914, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # The Spirit of Truth ! — PARABLE OF THE MINTED COIN 919 Like unto those who are honorable in purpose and honest in heart, yet who have not yet yielded obedience to the require- ments of the saving gospel, are the unstamped blanks, good metal though they be. Their influence is limited, their capacity for ser- vice narrowly circumscribed. They await the touch, the im- press that shall commission them to testify and minister in the name of the King. To every sterling piece such as tallies with the law of right- eousness, that touch shall come in the present or the hereafter, provided only the piece be ready. But how will the metal receive the imprint? If it be brittle through base alloy, untempered, un- annealed and unyielding, it may break under the stress, or even though it hold together it may present but a blurred similitude of the authoritative stamp. Oh soul hast thou not yet passed between the dies ? Dost ! thou await the individual ^pnpress of divine commission? And is thy lack due to unreadiness? Art thou tempered and annealed to receive the testimony of God's approval? And thou other soul, bearing the imprint of such testimony, art thou true to the stamp thou bearest? Unlike the inanimate coin, thou hast agency and the ability to choose in what service thou shalt be used. Thou art of divine mintage. Great is thy power. Fail not The Spirit of Truth Spirit of Truth, Thou holy inspiration, Thou art my light, my source of advice! Rest Thou on me, direct my life's probation, My Comforter, my Pearl of Great Price! Ever to Thee my heart-thoughts are turning, Seeking Thine aid from sin to be free: Oh! with what love Thou answerest my yearning, Heaven is near, when thinking of Thee! Ar isions of glory awaken my reflection, Fill all my soul when by Thee inspired. Love then becomes a holier affection, God and the Savior the friends most desired. Thoughts most ecstatic, my soul ever thrilling, Come at the dawn and at evening apace; Ever from Thee within my heart instilling Faith unto faith, and grace unto grace! Till Iam one with God and Thee abiding, Heaven my home for all eternity, Lift Thou my soul, while in Thee I'm confiding, Sanctify all of my bein