---
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: 24
number: 5
published: 1921-03
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, *Improvement Era* 24, no. 5 (March 1921).
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2405unse
  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: improvementera2405unse
curator_note: Editorial foliation begins at printed p. 373 on PDF leaf 3; printed page = PDF leaf + 370. Advertising leaves 1–2 are omitted.
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1921-03)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2405unse
  publication_year: 1921
  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 1921, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# Improvement Era, March 1921

:

Improvement Era
Vol.    XXIV                     MARCH, 1921                         No. 5

          The      Fall     and the Redemption

         By Elder Orson F. Whitney, of the Council of the Twelve

    Many years ago I put forth some thoughts in the form of
an allegory upon the theme of Earth's fall and redemption. For
when Man fell, Earth fell also, and for a similar purpose that      —
&he might, by descending below all, rise above all, and inherit
the fulness of Eternal Glory. It may help to create an atmosphere for the address I am about to deliver, if I here repeat that
allegory

Earth Redeemed
       The "World lay wrapt in Death's embrace. The tale of the Tempter
had triumphed, and the pinions  of his power now fettered the fair limbs
of God's beauteous creation. Earth, a virgin, beguiled, ensnared by Sin,
shrank shuddering from the touch of her would-be defiler and destroyer.
               —
     Hark! a cry for help. The captive strives to free herself from the
fell clasp of the foe.   Summoning all her powers, she springs erect, and,
grasping her chain, essays to rend it asunder. It will not yield; the links
are firm, the staple strong.                            —
                               Madly she tugs and toils in vain, alas! in
vain.   Baffled, bruised and breathless, she sinks exhausted, and the arms
of the monster Sin once more enfold her. Again and again she struggles,
exerting all her strength to repel the foul polluter. But alas! his strength
is stronger, his grasp a grasp of iron. He holds her writhing form as in a
vise, gloating over her despair, exulting in her misery, and laughing to
scorn her fruitless efforts to be free.
      Vainly she weeps and pleads and prays. No mercy melts that icy
heart, no pity beams from out that baleful eye.  She is lost, she is lost!
For who can save her now? Oh, that she should be dragged into deeper
depths of shame than those into which her wayward will and youthful folly
have plunged her!
      The cry for help was heard in Heaven. The incense of tears, the
perfume of prayers came up before the Great White Throne, and the heart
of Him who sitteth thereon, the mighty heart of the throbbing universe,
was touched with compassion.

       *An address delivered before the Church School Teachers' Convention,
in Barratt Hall, Salt  Lake City, December 31, 1920.