--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 22 number: 8 published: 1919-06 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Messages from the Soldiers," *Improvement Era* 22, no. 8 (June 1919): 721–728.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2208unse 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: improvementera2208unse start_page: 721 end_page: 728 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1919-06) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2208unse publication_year: 1919 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 1919, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Messages from the Soldiers MESSAGES FROM THE SOLDIERS 723 1914 who, through sympathy with the cause of the poilu, paid their own expenses to Europe to enlist in the French army, recruiting being made through a bureau in Paris. Three of the sections now in Pontanezen are of this type and they have seen the war from the battle of the Marne to the armistice. The other seven, comprised mostly of university students, entered the service in June, 1917, part of them sailing immediately for the front, and the balance, after a period of training in Allentown, Pa., embarked for France August 20, the same year. They have been on every front from the Swiss border to the North Sea. There were eighty-seven sections of the United States ambulance service in the field at the armistice, totaling about 4,000 men, under command of Colonel Percy L. Jones, M. C. per cent of the strength had been cited for valor, Twenty-eight and their casualty list is one-third higher than any other American branch. . Because their work has been for the greater part with the chosen for their shoulder French forces, the cock of Verdun was insignia. The First Utah Field Hospital By Sgt. Matthew F. Noall Noall, Field Hospital 159, American E. F., Mars la Tour, Meurthe rSgt history of the Firs ct MoSllS France, has written the following brief^ ^ sent to the Era with tne Utah Field Hospital Organization, which he ^roval of the" commanding officer. has ^ his letter o f *»—* Field Hosp,ital in he states that the Utah boys now serving with the 159th Utah account of the work of the France, read with mnch interest, the given in the February number of the Era.-Editors.l soldiers as and drafted in- The First Utah Field Hospital was mobilized Ihe Utah, August 5, 1917 to Federal service at Fort Douglas, organization had seen service on the Mexican Border, the i ^^r the personne of the com- command of Major John F. Sharp, but War consisted pany as it was organized for service in the Great mainlv of Utah boys, who had just enlisted. Hospital com- On September^, 1917, the First Utah Field left Salt Lake seventy-five enlisted men prising five officers and under the command of Cap- Citv for Camp Kearny, California, former com- Major John F. Sharp, the tain Geo F. Roberts and rnder having preceded ^company Field Hospitals *.-™^ * ££ At Camp Keainy the capacity of Director of Train, and part of the 15th Sanitary tnt organization became a 724 IMPROVEMENT ERA was officially designated by the War Department as Field Hospital 159, which number they have maintained throughout the war. The fall, winter and summer of 1917 and 1918, were spent in intensive training at Camp Kearny, most of the men and some of the officers assisting in the 40th Division Base Hospital. Of the four Field Hospitals in the 40th Division, the Utah organization made the best record in setting up hospitals under field conditions, in athletics and in general efficiency. On July 31, 1918, the organization left Camp Kearny for Montreal, from which port it sailed August 13, 1918. After a voyage of eighteen days in a British Transport, during which many of the men suffered with influenza, it landed at Liverpool, England. Stepping from the boat to the train, the journey was continued to Southampton, and after but a few hours rest another transport was boarded, making the cross-channel trip in the darkness of the night, landing at La Havre, France, the second day of September. From La Havre the company traveled to the headquarters of the 40th Division, in central France, where the men tasted their first trouble of war by being required to sleep on the ground in the drenching rain, without protection, after days and days of weary travel and meagre meals. A long march, with wet clothes and hungry stomachs, took the organization to an old mediaeval chateau where welcomed rest was found in the horse barns of a former well-to-do Frenchmen. For a month and a half the men worked with other sanitary troops, fitting up the chateau for a camp hospital to care for the sick men of the district. The epidemic of Spanish influenza was at that time unchecked, and many cases were treated. Just after the hospial had started operation, the organization was ordered to the Alsace Lorraine battle front, where a great concentration of troops was then being effected for a drive on Metz, Germany's greatest fortified stronghold on the French border, the capture of which would have been the crowning achievement of America's 1918 campaign. For ten days a camp was established in a position where Uncle Sam's big guns were placed to start a new offensive against the enemy. The signing of the armistice stopped the carrying into effect of orders which, on the following day, would have taken the 159th Field Hospital well beyond the then established American lines. A short time after the cessation of hostilities the Utah men were ordered on the trail of the retreating German army, beyond the zone which had witnessed four years of battle, into former enemy territory. In connection with other medical troops, a hospital was established to care for the prisoners of war returning from Germany. The physical condition of many was indeed pathetic to behold, and valuable assistance was rendered in MESSAGES FROM THE SOLDIERS 725 nursing the sick and in feeding and helping others to reach the Allied lines, further back in France. With the advance of the Armies of Occupation, the organization opened a separate hospital in a large building formerly used by the Germans for that purpose. Here its personnel is still working day and night, caring for the sick and wounded. Many casualties have occurred to the forces salvaging the battlefields, destroying the mines, time bombs, gas shells and ammunition dumps left by the Germans. During the winter months Spanish influenza and pneumonia were prevalent in the army, and the Utah boys watched at the bedside of dying comrades in arms, administer- ing to every need and comfort of those who are far from home. The 159th Field Hospital has received very high praise and commendation for efficient work and soldierly conduct from Train, Corps, and Army commanders and surgeons. The organ- ization has been pronounced the most efficient in the train of which it is a part, and commanding officers have paid high trib- ute to the excellent character of the personnel. Of the original seventy-five enlisted men and five officers who left Salt Lake City, but forty-six enlisted men and one of the officers are still with the company, the others having been discharged because of sickness or transferred to other organizations. Advice to Brothers By Gus Dyer [This soldier of Battery D, 17th Field Artillery, American Expedition- to his ary Forces, writes from Bendorf, Germany, December 25, 1918, brothers, Ralph, Alvin and Mont, this message of good advice. The Era has been permitted to copy the letter, through the courtesy of A. R. Dyer, 142, No. 7th West St., Salt Lake City.—Editors.] My Dear Brothers: I wish I could express to you boys how deeply I was moved when I heard of the death of our beloved President Joseph F. Smith. Ever since I was a boy I have looked hear him speak and to read to him for advice and have loved to his teachings. He has been a most useful and beneficent man, of his always doing good and trying to help others all the days the plains, driving the ox teams life. From the time he crossed pulled his widowed mother, until the hour of his death, that are two ot he always met up with sacrifice and service. These principles that any boy, girl, man or woman can the greatest develop. Learn to do without things you would like, learn to give up to others things which you want, learn to give to m 726 IMPROVEMENT ERA other people. Say your prayers every night and morning, and you will learn how to sacrifice. Did you ever give up any thing you would like, to make mother or father, brother or sister, or friend happy? Remember the scout law "do a kind act each day." By doing things for others is the way we really become happy. When you begin to sacrifice then you commence to serve. Service unto others is a sure means of happiness. In doing good things for others each day, never tell any body what you have done. Just foregt it, and do another good thing the next day, and then forget you did it. Each morning you wake up sing the song, "Make the world brighter today." President Smith became a great man because he learned in his boyhood to help his mother, loved ones, friends, and all whom he could. President Wilson, the great American president and leader, now in France, is a good man and a leader because his purpose is to help others. The most important command from our Savior requires us to forget ourselves and first, "Serve the Lord with all thy strength," and second, "Love thy neighbor;" which means do good to all men. Let me, your brother, because of my love for you and your welfare, encourage you to look to the teachings of the leaders of our Church, both those living and dead. There is no safer guide for your happiness. May the Lord ever grant unto you peace, and happiness and joy in life; strength in every sinew, power in the priesthood and a rich knowledge of truth, for "The truth shall make you free," all of this I promise you, and which you will understand if you keep the Word of Wisdom. Learn to love your home and be happy in dear Salt Lake City. My sincere advice is to avoid- too much amusement such as picture shows, and places of idle pleasure. You will never regret delving into books and building up in yourselves strong manhood. Be sincere, righteous, and honest. Make all your amusements good and clean, but let most of them be in your home. Boys, if you had seen what I have seen, and could feel as I feel, your home and your opportunities would be attended to with vigor and alacrity. Go to father in everything that you do, and go to him now with this letter, and talk to him and have him explain to you what the good things are in life for you. The things which will make you happy. The cause of the War is that men become dissatisfied, not knowing how to be happy. Learn while you are young to do things to make you happy. — — Learn to sacrifice learn to help others learn to obey. My Christmas wishes to you are that you will do the thing which you know to be right each day of your life. Your future then will always be a happy one. May our heavenly Father bless you, and may mother and father become more proud of you each day of their lives. Nothing From Nothing Creation a Process of Organization By Elder James. E. Talmage, of the Council of the Twelve "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." These are the opening words of .'the Holy Bible as we have it. The verse is at once the embodiment of simplicity and profundity. It is a masterpiece of literary summation. ' 1 Acknowledging our human limitations of comprehension, let us eliminate "the heaven" of infinite extent, and restrict our attention to the certified fact that God created the earth. Many a reader has queried, though few have ventured to voice the question in definite terms: Of vdhat did God create the earth? I For long ages an insufficient and unsatisfactory answer has — been current that creation means making something from nothing, and the quoted Scripture has been taken to mean that the earth, comprising land, water, air and all that in them is, were formed out of nothing. Though in acknowledged conflict with the fundamental facts demonstrated by science as to the constitution of matter, this concept of creation yet sways the thoughts of men, and is perpetuated in some modern dictionaries. What is nothing? Lexicographers answer that "nothing" is a state of non-existence. Granting that the finite mind as wholly unable to picture or apprehend a universal state of non-existence, we may reasonably ask, if such a state ever was, what could ever have come out of it? Is it not a self-evident truth that from nothing nothing can come? Had there ever been a state of nothingness, that state must perforce have been of endless duration. I know that I am, and the fact of my existence is conclusive, absolute, and incontrovertible proof that never was there a state of nothingness. The material of my body, the substance of the pen and paper with which I write, the elements of the flowers and trees I see from my window-—the matter of which all material things are composed, is eternal. It has always existed and always will exist. True, I have not always existed in my present embodied condition; nor has the desk that just now facilitates my writing always existed as a desk. Furthermore, the elements of my body 728 IMPROVEMENT ERA have not always been combined in their present association as flesh, blood, and bone, nor the elements of my desk as wood. Unseen processes of absorption and assimilation drew in, with discriminating selection, certain gases of the air,i certain chemical compounds from the soil, and so nurtured the tree, from a sprouting seed to the fully matured trunk from which the artizan shaped, or created if. you will, my desk. Reason asserts that God did not create the earth out of nothing. There is no sacrilege in saying that He could not have done so. With skill and power infinitely exceeding all (that man has acquired, God took of eternally existent matter and formed therefrom the earth with all its material accessories and belongings. Unbounded and illimitable space is full of material, out of which the Divine Chemist can compound as He wills, and He may cause worlds to come into existence as worlds, created out of the once formless and void, but nevertheless pre-existent, matter. As matter in the 'ultimate sense cannot be created or made, it necessarily follows that matter cannot be destroyed. This desk may be burned and so disappear, both as the fashioned furni- ' ture and as the combination of elements that constitute the wood; but the indestructible elements are only released and returned to the current of circulation. The word of latter-day revelation, given by the Lord through His prophet Joseph Smith, is explicit in demonstrating that what we call the creation of the world was a process of organization of preexistent elements. Thus we read that in the — — beginning that is to say before the earth was formed in the conclave of unembodied spirits, God spake, saying: "We will go down, for there is space there, and we will pike of these materials, and we will make an earth whereon these may dwells (Pearl of Great Price, p. 66). In distinguishing between intelligent spirits, and the material bodies in which for the period of earth-life they live, the Lord hath said: "For man is spirit. The elements are eternal, and spirit and element, inseparably connected, receiveth a ful- ness of joy. The elements are the tabernacle of God; yea, man isthe tabernacle of\God, even temples; and whatsoever temple isdefiled, God shall destroy that templet (Doctrine and Cov- enants 93:33, 35). Basis of True Religion The basis of true religion is a knowledge of God. "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." In order that we may have a basis for true religion, we must believe that God is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. We must learn his personality, character and will. Naturally, then, the question arises, how shall we come to a knowledge of God? In our early catechism for children by that veteran teacher, Elder John Jaques, we were given an answer to this question: there are three ways in which mankind may learn that there is a God. First, by tradition, second by reason, and third by revelation. Then he goes on to tell us how: parents tell their children, who in turn tell their children, and so on the knowledge is handed down for ages, and men learn by tradition that there is a God. Mankind learn by reason that there is a God by looking around them and beholding his works in nature. They watch the seasons come and go in regular order. They see the sun shine by day, the moon and stars by night, and behold the order of the heavens, with all its marvelous changes. They see the rains descend, the fruits and verdure of the earth appear in their seasons, and as all these things cannot be stopped, nor the times when they appear be altered by men, the conclusion is that there must be a Being with superior intelligence who governs and directs all things. In this way, one learns by reason that there is a God. By revelation one learns by God himself appearing to men, or sending angels to them, who have greater power and knowledge and glory than man; or He speaks to them by his own voice from the heavens, or gives them dreams and visions, and in this way, men learn by revelation, that there is a God. The first two methods of learning are indistinct and unsatisfactory, and only by revelation can a definite and satisfactory knowledge be obtained. One need not quote the examples of this truth found in many passages of the holy scriptures. In modern times, the Father has appeared with his 730 IMPROVEMENT ERA Son Jesus Christ, to the Prophet Joseph Smith, spoken to him, given him instructions, and made themselves known, revealing to mankind anew that they exist and are in the likeness of man. The word of scripture is indeed proved true, that God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them. The foundation of the religion of the Latter-day Saints is thus laid first and foremost upon a knowledge of a personal God, received through revelation to the Prophet Joseph Smith, and confirmed by personal testimony to every truly repentant believer, by the Holy Ghost. Every person is entitled to this same revelation who seeks for it in the way that the Prophet Joseph Smith sought: "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him." Believing this, Joseph went to the Lord in the only way that a man may approach him; namely, through prayer. The wisdom that he desired was granted unto him, as it will be to all who approach Father in like manner, nothing doubting. The knowledge of God, then, through personal contact, — is the basis of all true religion the safe and only road to salvation. The first and great commandment is: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy might, mind and strength," and the second, as Christ explained, is like unto it: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." The order in which these commandments are placed, is the true order: first, love the Lord thy God; second, love thy neighbor as thyself. Upon these two commandments, according to the Savior, hang all the law and the prophets. It is impossible to love God with all one's heart, without loving one's neighbor. While the reverse, loving one's neighbor, may not always lead to a true love of God. A true conception of God, his character and will, influences men to human duty as defined in true morality and love of mankind. Separated from the love of God, morality, and social efficiency, in themselves, never can become a basis of true religion. The order is service to God first, then unselfish service to man must and will follow. We do not think we are far from the truth when we say that without first rendering unselfish service to God, and obedience to his commandments, the plan which Jesus Christ established in the earth for the salvation of men, true and unselfish service to mankind will never come. There will be no peace in the earth that will be permanent until mankind shall recognize the gospel of Jesus Christ, first learn to know the true and living God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent. But with this knowledge will come peace and eternal life to those who walk in the pathway. True religion, founded in the character and will of God, al-