--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Dunford, W. S. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 20 number: 9 published: 1917-07 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'W. S. Dunford, "God of Nature," *Improvement Era* 20, no. 9 (July 1917): 820.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2009unse 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: improvementera2009unse start_page: 820 end_page: 820 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1917-07) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2009unse publication_year: 1917 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 1917, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # God of Nature 820 IMPROVEMENT ERA international peace! The ship of state must be guided over stormy seas, with steady, strong hands. With the ideal of ser- vice to mankind vibrating in our beings we shall foster the American legacy of the past and hand it down more fully devel- oped to the future. We shall gradually make that ideal American whom God is helping us to produce, and he shall con- sider all mankind his brothers and the whole world his work- shop. In making our contribution to the term American, let us write plainly and surely. Let us not blot the sacred parch- ment, nor write what succeeding generations must blushingly erase. Let it be said of us: "They contributed much to the making of an American." Bunkerville, Nev. God of Nature A dark, dreary forest of pine, In whose heavy, pine-needled boughs The laboring winds ever whine, And deep murmuring whispers arouse. A canyon 'midst snow-mounted peaks, With giant cliffs, shadowing vales Where grandeur in eloquence speaks, And the forest its dampness exhales. A night when no moon can be seen, And turbulent storm-centered clouds Shut heaven away as a screen, And wrap earth in misty black shrouds. A gash cut by slithering light, In the canopying clouds of the sky, Which roll back again into night, To listen, spellbound, for earth's sigh. A crash from the batteries of heaven, A deep, rumbling echo, a roar, And the thunder peals off to its haven, Into corners on heave 's great floor. A moment of ear-piercing stillness, Then softly the rain settles down And spangles the pine-needles dullness, With jewels too grand for a crown. O indolent, insolent creature! O man — see these wonders of God! You call them the products of Nature? Why, Nature's the product of God! St. Maries, Idaho. Company B, 2nd Idaho Inf.