---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Frank C. Steele
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 21
number: 6
published: 1918-04
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: "Frank C. Steele, “On the Fall of Jerusalem,” *Improvement Era* 21, no. 6 (April 1918): 518."
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2106unse
  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: improvementera2106unse
start_page: 518
end_page: 518
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1918-04)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2106unse
  publication_year: 1918
  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 1918, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# On the Fall of Jerusalem

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On the Fall of Jerusalem

Judah, awake, shake off thy mourning deep,

Forget thy tears, no longer shalt thou weep;

Thy fetters, worn with patience, fling afar,

Freedom dawns brightly with thy new-born Star.

Wandered thou hast, an exile far from home,

Since Titus bled thee white and ploughed the temple stone;

Thy sons and daughters fair have roamed the earth,

Hated and scorned — the toy of Gentile mirth.

Jerusalem, proud City of the Kings, defaced;

The sacred soil of Palestine laid waste;

At length befouled by Islam's turbaned bands,

E'en now the massive Mosque of Omar stands

Where once the Temple reared its stately walls,

Guarding thy priesthood in its holy halls.

Six centuries the Crescent floated high

Where once King David's standard brushed the sky.

But now, O Judah, sing unto the Lord,

For He at last has kept his plighted word,

Foretold by prophets in their songs sublime —

Sweet sequel to thy grief in foreign clime.

Redemption awaits; and now the trumpet shrill

Shall call thy sons to blessed Zion's hill.

Messiah has appeared, but not the conquering king

Of whom the Jewish heart has loved to sing —

Messiah, true; but in the keen, cold edge of British steel

And British brawn and British zeal

He is revealed. Behold the Union Jack unfurled,

A proclamation to a grateful world

That God has nerved the arm of Christian men,

And has reclaimed the Holv Land again.

O House of Judah — seed of royal sires —

Abraham, Jacob, David — light the ancient fires

Of national pride! Rebuild Jerusalem, Judea's acres till,

The purposes of God with zeal fulfil!

Those sterile plains and vales again shall yield

The riches of the vineyard and the field;

And over all, Jehovah's tender care shall rest —

Judah forgiven, and with Israel blest!

Frank C. Steele.

Chattanooga, Tenn,