--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Gibby, George E. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 24 number: 9 published: 1921-07 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Gibby, George E., "The Forces We Leave Behind," *Improvement Era* 24, no. 9 (July 1921): 817.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2409unse 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: improvementera2409unse start_page: 817 end_page: 817 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1921-07) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2409unse 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. --- # The Forces We Leave Behind MAN'S NEED OF GOD 817 seldom or never attains them, he never for long maintains them and at best, when founded on merely human conceptions, men fall below the absolute of righteousness for which the good hunger and thirst. Among the mere foot hills of attainable hu- man righteousness man stands, but off in the distance, and rising far above his attained foot hills, are the lofty mountain sum- mits of absolute righteousness, flooded with glory ineffable, but utterly unattainable by man unless divine help shall be given him, a sustaining power supplied by a divine inspiration that shall supplement the human effort and link up man with God in holy union; without which there shall be no certain attain- ment of, and surely no steadfast adherence to, righteousness worth while, much less the attainment of absolute righteousness. Man, then, needs God as sustaining power, power outside — himself that makes for righteousness. In this, as in so many other respects, "without God man can do nothing" he needs — God. The Forces We Leave Behind Each man when dead will leave behind Some good or bad to burden or relieve; Our acts are ours by will and choice, But acts yield gifts for others to receive. When mortal life has ceased to be, And friends proclaim the body dead, There'll be alive among our kin The forces that our acts have shed. These forces coupling life with death Are but effects of deeds performed; They brace the lives we leave behind That otherwise would be deformed. Some deeds have shadows of despair That spread their gloom as time expands; Oh, pity, God, the child that's bound By fetters made by other's hands. No studied science can supply What careless hands have failed to give. True heritage comes with the child Bespeaks the lives its parents live. If destiny had not decreed That birth be linked with ages past, Man then could judge his fellow-man With some approval of his task. But, since each child that comes to earth Is heir to forces not its own, We must abide by God's just law, And let him judge and judge alone. Mackfoot, Idaho Geo E Glbby - -