--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Kleinman, Bertha A. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 21 number: 2 published: 1917-12 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Bertha A. Kleinman, "The Needs of Yesterday," *Improvement Era* 21, no. 2 (December 1917): 116.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2102unse 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: improvementera2102unse start_page: 116 end_page: 116 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1917-12) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2102unse 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. --- # The Needs of Yesterday — — — 116 IMPROVEMENT ERA thy sacraments upon my holy day. For verily this is a day appointed unto you to rest from your labors, and to pay thy de- votions unto the Most High. Nevertheless thy vows shall be offered up in righteousness on all days and at all times. But remember that on this the Lord's day, thou shalt offer thine oblations and thy sacraments unto the Most High, confessing thy sins unto thy brethren, and before the Lord. And on this day thou shalt do none other thing, only let thy food be prepared with singleness of heart that thy fasting may be perfect, or, in other words, that thy joy may be full" (Doctrine and Covenants 59:9-13). We believe that a weekly day of rest is no less truly a neces- sity for the physical well-being of man than for his spiritual growth ; but, primarily and essentially, we regard the Sabbath as divinely established, and its observance a commandment of him who was and is and ever shall be, Lord of the Sabbath. The Needs of Yesterday Unbowed of years nor yet of pungent sorrow, Unsmirched of doubt that probes its avid way, I yet have need of grace and a tomorrow To right the many needs of yesterday. The many hours I have not lived to filling, The wasted days of empty little wiles, The crying tasks that have not found me willing The span of cloud that needed but my smiles. The fleeting beats of chance so easily squandered, The thousand little precious waits of time And all the ways of quest I have not wandered Where timid ones might cling to hands of mine. Ah, me the little zest and care expended, ! The meager, little, momentary zeal To others' wrongs that might have been amended, And rasping little hurts that I could heal. Thou who knowest every throb of sorrow, Bear still with me, for I would know the way, That somewhere in the might of Thy tomorrow, I may amend the needs of yesterday! Mesa, Arizona Bertha A. Kleinman.