--- 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: 23 number: 5 published: 1920-03 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "The Dog," *Improvement Era* 23, no. 5 (March 1920): 424–425.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2305unse 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: improvementera2305unse start_page: 424 end_page: 425 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1920-03) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2305unse 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. --- # The Dog 424 IMPROVEMENT ERA order to know anything completely, we must consider it in its three-fold aspect in relation to time. "Truth," says Joseph Smith, "is the knowledge of things as they are, as they were, and as they are to come." This definition is comprehensive; it omits nothing essential. If we know the present condition of anything and know also its past history, that is, how it came to be what it is, we have a true knowledge of that thing to date* But it is the future that most concerns us; so that in order to complete our knowledge, we have next to learn what is its goal, its destiny. Applying this principle to our own lives, Joseph, tells us that we lived in heaven before we came here, that we came to earth of our own choice and in agreement with the' plans of the Most High. We came to gain an experience that) is possible only by occupying this mortal body, subject, though it is, to pain, disease, and death. As to our future, hei assures us that some day we shall graduate from this intermediate stage of life to the higher and more perfect, but otherwise similar society of heaven. Thus we are at school on earth. Our real home is in heaven. We are strangers and sojourners in a strange land, as all our fathers were. "Some day the silver cord will break, and we no more as now shall sing; but oh, the joy when we shall wake within the presence of the King!" For the King is our Father; the kingdom is our eternal home. — There are our real friends the soul mates whom we shall meet and know as we are known. (To be continued.) The Dog I've never known a dog to wag I've never known a dog to fake His tail in glee he didn't feel, Affection for a present gain, Nor quit his old-time friend to tag A false display of love to make, At some more influential heel. Some little favor to attain. The yellowest cur I ever knew I'venever known a Prince or Spot Was, to the boy who loved him, true. That seemd to be what he was not. I'venever known a dog to show And I have known a dog to bear Halfway devotion to his friend, Starvation pangs from day to day To seek a kinder man to know, With him who had been glad to share Or richer; but, unto the end, His bread and meat along the way. The humblest dog I ever knew No dog, however mean or rude, Was, to the man that loved him, true. Is guilty of ingratitude. —American Field. The Bread that was Found By James G. Du ffi.ii "Cast thy bread upon the waters, for thou shalt find it after many days." —Eccl. 11:1. From among the many beautiful figures of speech with which Holy Writ abounds the one here quoted has been chosen as designed to cause the thoughtful to pause and consider the effect of their words and actions upon the lives of their fellows as well as upon their own character. Herein is set forth irj Biblical symbol the eternal law of compensation, or retribution, as we look at it from the one view point or the other. "Bread" throughout scripture is used figuratively and literally, as a means of preserving life by its administration to the starving spirit or weakened body. "Waters" are used both symbolically and literally: "And he said unto me, The waters which thou sawest * * * are peoples- and multitudes, and " nations, and tongues." — (Rev. 17:15.) All bread made by hands is not good for the body, neither are all precepts or examples by which people are influenced for their souls' good. "Bread," sweet and wholesome, when taken into the body and properly assimilated, gives strength and vigor to every part of the being and brings satisfaction to the one who has so carefully prepared it for us. "Bread," poorly made may produce disease and may even be the cause of death, as untruthful precepts or wrong examples may undermine and destroy spiritual life, in both the one giving and in the one receiving their deadly poisons. The "bread," then, that shall be found "after many days" shall be the same "bread" that was "cast upon the waters," whether it has been the means of saving or destroying life. Those who "cast" out upon the great ocean of humanity light and truth and knowledge, shall "find" their reward in the joy they give to those who have listened to their pure teachings, or have witnessed their unselfish devotion to duty, and have been inspired thereby to lead better and nobler lives. From life's experiences we get the truest interpretation of the divine. From this source we shall draw, to illustrate the truth contained in the words of the prophet of old. A number of years ago an address was delivered in the great Tabernacle of the Latter-day Saints at Salt Lake City,