---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Horback, A. P.
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 23
number: 3
published: 1920-01
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Horback, A. P., "“Mormons” in Liège During the War," *Improvement Era* 23, no. 3 (January 1920): 262–265.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2303unse
  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: improvementera2303unse
start_page: 262
end_page: 265
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1920-01)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2303unse
  publication_year: 1920
  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 1920, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# “Mormons” in Liège During the War

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;

                Danger of Unearned Praise

      That was a most splendid tribute paid to the Latter-day
Saints in the Senate of the United States, a full account of which
we print in this issue of the Era. Moreover, it was well merited
it was earned, through faithful toil and unselfishness, by the
fathers and mothers of our commonwealth, the founders of the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and its early builders.   It is due and deserved praise to their character and integrity, from a source unsolicited, yet the highest in the Nation.   The times appear to have changed, and the feeling for
the Latter-day Saints is geenrally one of good-will and fellowship, and even frequently of laudation.      To some extent, the
Latter-day Saints have come into their own, and are becoming
better understood for their good works and excellent character.
This is as it should be, and the credit cannot be overdone as far
as our fathers and mothers and grandfathers and grandmothers
are concerned.
     How about you and me, and the young men and women
generally?   We should not lay the flattering thought to our
souls that all these compliments apply to us. But we rejoice,
you and I, that this belated laudation for our ancestors, comes
now, even though it may not apply to all of us. We are untried.
We have yet our lives before us, but we have their foundation
to build upon —  a glorious foundation of faith, service, sacrifice
and unselfishness.
     The young people of Zion have before them a greater task,
perhaps, than had their fathers, mothers, and grandparents, notwithstanding the latter passed through many toils and tribulations, through poverty and distress, were persecuted and treated
as outcasts, and battled with poverty and the deserts!
     We have our own problems, among them the misuse of the
movies; the damnable tobacco and cigarette habit; the social
problem, with its dancing, dirt, and disease; the misuse of the
automobile, and of wealth; and the inclination to selfishness and
disobedience. Let us not flatter ourselves, therefore, that
                                                            these
eulogies referred to were said of us, but rather inquire
                                                         whether
we are worthy of the good things that have come down to us
from our parents and grandparents, to whom the praise is due.
Let us also determine to do the work demanded of
                                                       us in our

<!-- page:265 -->

EDITORS' TABLE                               267

time, by rightly solving the puzzling problems that lie before
and all about us.
    Ours is a practical religion. While we have ample cause to
stand on our present heights and view with gratitude and pride
the achievements of the past, we must not forget that the present is full of grave responsibilities, not to say dangers, that
should cause us to up and at our work, with bright eyes, cheery
hearts, clean hands, and a firm determination to solve in righteousness the questions of the present, that our future may be
filled with increased fruition.
     Let us take this to our hearts. We must not be weaklings,
leaning on the past. The present is calling for our firm determination, care, sacrifice, and service. As young people of the
Latter-day Saints we have a wonderful past upon which to build.
A foundation has been laid that will save us, physically, morally,
socially, and intellectually. We have a religion by which we may
both live and die, that gives us comfort and cheer in the darkest
hours, relieves the perplexities of the day, enables us to stand
steadfast in prosperity, and leads us on to victory over sin and
selfishness, finally landing us in the rest of God, by which we
enter into the knowledge of his love, and obtain faith in his purposes and plans.
    But we have serious work to do, and that work must be done,
and to do it requires our most strenuous efforts. We must not
allow ourselves to be merged into the general mass, to be led
hither and thither by every popular fad of the day. We must
not allow compliments on the past to overcome our better jiv1 "ment, nor to turn our heads, so to speak, thinking they are meant
for us.          dangerous thing to feel that we are perhaps bet-
           It is a
ter than   we thought ourselves to be.    Let the praise go to our
parents, and let us take no flattery to ourselves, but rather, with
firm determination resolve to surmount the temptations and
evils of the times, and so save ourselves and earn the encomiums
of the future, as our parents have already done. I seem to hear
a hundred thousand young men and women answer: "We
will!"—A.

                                  Books
                              —
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     Missionary life and experiences have a universal appeal to the Latterday Saints, and in time they become a source of interest for future telling.
Attached to the life of the particular missionary who is the hero of this
story, are much romance, as well as many wonderful experiences. This may
also be said of his converts to the gospel. Following is the theme developed in this, Nephi Anderson's latest and, some will say, most interesting
