--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Peery, Joseph S. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 24 number: 1 published: 1920-11 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Peery, Joseph S., "You Are Royal-Born," *Improvement Era* 24, no. 1 (November 1920): 39–40.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2401unse 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: improvementera2401unse start_page: 39 end_page: 40 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1920-11) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2401unse 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. --- # You Are Royal-Born You are Royal-Born By Joseph S. Peery Some will try to make you believe that you came from the snails and the monkeys. That is not so. Snails and monkeys are a different class entirely. You are born royal. God Al- mighty is your Father. Like begets like. It is natural for chil- dren to become like their parents. The teaching of evolution from monkeys to men destroys faith in God and makes the Bible ridiculous. A certain monkey trainer worked with monkeys for thirty years and could make nothing but monkeys out of them. Monkeys cannot work with tools nor build houses. The missing link has never been found and never will be found. Scientists have recently discovered that when the attempts are made to cross animals, the transfusion of blood is in the end fatal to the animals. It cannot be done. It means death. There can be no mixture of animals. A rabbit remains a rabbit; a cat, a cat; and a monkey, a monkey. So evolution of that kind has been dealt a body blow by recent scientific investigations. How much better and easier to believe the Bible statements of creation. The first chapter of the Bible says, "God created man in his own image." The Savior teaches us to pray to our Father in heaven, and tells us: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." (Matt. 5:48.) The glo- rious message of the resurrected Redeemer to Mary shows us our exalted parentage: "Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God." (John 20:17.) The personality of our Father in heaven is mentioned throughout the Old Testament and New 40 IMPROVEMENT ERA Testament Paul plainly states in Hebrews 1:3 that the Son is the express intake of God's person. So yon are a child of God. Yon have filled your mission in the spirit world before you came here; and, to a degree, you were true to your Maker in the pre-existent life. In the war in heaven you were on the Lord's side. You came to this life to fill another mission, and a glorious destiny is ahead of you, if you only obey divine law. God is no respecter of persons. Poor or rich, male or female, those who obey the law receive the re- ward. The Prophet Joseph Smith gives us the splendid axiom, found in Doctrine and Covenants 130:20, 21: "There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated; and when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law up- on which it is predicated." This life is only one stage of development, one school of experience, and you are just as much in eternity now as you ever will be. In the next life you start where you leave off — — here the same individual and there you will have opportu- nities to advance and progress eternally, until you also can be- come divine. That is your glorious privilege; or, as modern in- spiration teaches us the wonderful thought, "As man is, God once was; as God is, man may become." If we can only get this thought into our being, there is no stronger incentive for daily right doing and self improvement. In this eternal progression, we never change our identity nor individuality. In your life and travels so far, you have never seen anyone like yourself, and you never will, through- out all the ages of eternity.