Liberty

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Back to the Faith By Annie D. Palmer

"For this shall be a law unto the inhabitants of Zion, or in any of her stakes which are organized; "And their children shall be baptized for the remission of sins when eight years old, and receive the laying on of hands; "And they shall also teach their children to pray and to walk uprightly before the Lord."

Alice Moreton read the passage from her Doctrine and Covenants three times. Then she laid the book down and sat thinking and looking wistfully at her husband. The subject had been much on her mind of late, and she felt that she must talk with him about it. Presently she said by way of introduction: "This has been a hard day, Frank, I am so tired." "Why don't you go to bed, dear?" he asked, "the children are all asleep, aren't they?" "Yes," she answered, "the children are asleep; but Frank, I have been thinking — "Well, what have you been thinking?" "We used to kneel down together and have prayer before you went away. We never seem to have time for prayer any more." "It's childish," he said with a half frown. "If God really cares for his children and knows their need, why should he want them to be continually asking for things?" "We should forget him, dear, if we did not need to ask for his gifts. Besides, do we not owe gratitude for all the blessings of life?" "There are better ways of showing gratitude than being constantly on one's knees. To live honestly and honorably is better." "There is nothing to hinder people from doing both. I can't understand the change that has come over you, dear. When you came from your mission, four years ago, you were full of the spirit of prayer; and so sure of the truth of the gospel, that you would gladly have given your life in its defense. I remember the first Sunday you were here. I sat with our two little children and listened to your testimony, and wished in my heart that

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766 IMPROVEMENT ERA

both Frances and Joey could understand every word you said. You told how the Lord had inspired you in teaching the gospel, how the sick had been healed through your administration, how you had been protected from evil designing men, how food and clothing had been provided for your need, and how you had been able to rejoice in every trial, because you knew the truth of God's work. Oh, Frank! it was a living testimony that you bore that day, and it thrilled me through and through. Have you forgotten?" "I think I am wiser now." "Dare you say that testimony was not true?" — "I was probably over zealous and mistaken." "No, dear, you were not mistaken. You and I were happy in the year that followed your return. We didn't have much money but our children were well and we lived our humble life ;

secure in God's love. We didn't feel in those days, Frank, that it was useless to ask for our Father's care, or unnecessary to offer

thanks for his goodness; and, when baby Afton came to us well, I can't talk about it yet without crying. Only last week Dr. Gray pointed her out in a crowd and said: 'There's a sweet little girl that never would have been born, but for the faith of a couple of women who were there,' and Dr. Gray is not even a "Mormon." "Nobody doubts that a miracle was wrought that day, Alice — — but it might have been in fact, I think it would have been the same, even if we had not prayed at all." "And I am sure that it was the prayer of faith that did it your faith, and mother's, and Emma's." Frank Moreton resumed his reading, and his wife went sadly to her room, to kneel by her bedside in prayer alone. To be sure, she had so knelt habitually during the two years her husband had been away at college, but he was at home now and she looked to him to lead in religious as well as in secular affairs. Great tears rolled down her cheeks, while she lifted her heart in prayer for daily help and guidance. Alice Moreton had been born and reared a "Mormon." In her girlhood she had been taught the need of marrying a man of her own faith, and the possibility of any other union was as foreign to her thought as to one of heaven's purest angels. She had been married to Frank in the temple. He, too, had been full of faith in the gospel. They had been extremely happy in their love; and the two children that had come to them in the first two years had so strengthened the band between them that their every thought seemed bent in happy unison. Frank's mission had been a source of strength to both of them; and Alice was learning now for the first time, how her