The “Noisy Seven”: A Poem

284 IMPROVEMENT ERA

eral Board for the assistance rendered to the Mutual Improvement cause by Hi other Stohl during his life time. We recognized in him a good friend, a man of high character who willingly rendered service to the cause of the young people of Zion. As a man we greatly respected him, and as an officer in our organization considered him among the leaders. He was always doing good to others and rendering service for the cause of God upon the earth. Weare thankful to the Lord for his life and for the work which he accomplished in the cause, and deeply sympathize with you in the loss which you have sustained. We feel that you have been deprived for a time of a kind and loving husband and father whose example you may safely emulate and which should be a guiding star to you all throughout life. May the Spirit of God comfort your hearts and give you joy in the memory of so noble a man as your husband and father was.

At the funeral services, on December 3, a large number of the leading Church authorities were present. President Stohl was a man without an enemy, faithful and true in every capacity. The funeral is said to have been the largest ever held outside of Salt Lake City, and the floral contributions were profuse.

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The Noisy Seven

(Selected by Mrs. Emma Goddard, author unknown) 'I — wonder if he remembers that good old man in heaven— The class in the old red school-house known as 'the noisy seven.' I wonder if he remembers how restless we used to be, Or thinks we forgot the lesson of Christ and Gethsemane.

"I wish I could tell that story as he used to tell it then; I'm sure that with heaven's blessing I could reach the hearts of men. That voice, so touchingly tender, comes down to me through the years, A pathos which seemed to mingle his own with the Savior's tears. "I often wish I could tell him, though we caused him so much pain By our thoughtless, boyish frolic, his lessons were not in vain. I'd like to tell him how Harry, the merriest one of all, From the bloody field of Shiloh went home at the Master's call.

'Td like to tell him how Stephen, so brimming with mirth and fun, Now tells the heathen of China the tale of the Crucified One. I'd like to tell him how Joseph and Phillip and Jack and Jay Are honored among the churches, the foremost men of their day.

"I'd like, yes, I'd like to tell him what his lessons did for me, And how I'm trying to follow that Christ of Gethsemane. Perhaps he knows it already, for Harry has told, maybe, That we all are coming, coming through Christ of Gethsemane.

"How many beside I know not will gathei at last in heaven, The fruit of that faithful sowing, but the sheaves are surely seven."