--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Steele, Frank C. 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: 'Frank C. Steele, "He Looked Beyond," *Improvement Era* 20, no. 9 (July 1917): 766.' 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: 766 end_page: 766 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. --- # He Looked Beyond Looked Beyond Seventy years have passed since Brigham's eyes surveyed thee, Zion. A dry, forbidding land, enclosed in mounts of iron; The Prophet then, methinks, saw Zion risen As ancient seers beheld in glorious vision. He looked beyond the rock-ribbed canyon waste, The valleys, baked and beaten, sore defaced; The wilderness of sand and sage and sea; A land of savage tribes, blood-thirsty, free. And, looking, saw the stagnant pools burst forth with water sweet; The valleys filled with fields, with towns replete; Orchards and vineyards teeming with their store, And mountains yielding wealth in wood and ore. And in the midst of all, the Prophet's gaze Beheld a city rise from out the haze, Stretching its virile limbs o'er vales and hills, Throbbing with commerce in its marts and mills. He saw the homes of saints from every nation, Called by God's servants to a sure salvation. But grander still, his keen, prophetic eyes Beheld Jehovah's House rise to rejoicing skies; And gathered Israel pouring through its gate, To save their kin who helplessly await. 0 Brigham, blessed wert thou above most seers of God, Steadfast and faithful to the Iron Rod — A Moses and a Joseph moulded into one, A humble giant in the Kingdom of the Son, You looked beyond the cheerless depths of night, And, looking, saw afar the noon-day light. Atlanta, Georgia Frank C. Steele