--- 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: 26 number: 10 published: 1923-08 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Reading that Counts", *Improvement Era* 26, no. 10 (August 1923): 935–937.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera26010unse 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: improvementera26010unse start_page: 935 end_page: 937 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1923-08) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera26010unse publication_year: 1923 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 1923, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Reading that Counts Reading that Counts Among the books in the reading course of M. I. A. this sea- son there is one by Henry Van Dyke in which he treats of Com- panionable Books. He speaks of the good enchantment of Dickens, "The real men of Thackeray," "The real women of George Eliot," and Keats as the "Immortal poet of youth." On Browning he entitles his comments, "The glory of the im- perfect;" he calls Walton, "A quaint comrade of quiet streams;" Samuel Johnson, "A sturdy believer;" Emerson, "A Puritan plus poetry," and Stevenson, "An adventurer in a velvet jacket." For the student of literature his treatment is very interesting and telling. But for all men and women, young and old, the well read and those not so informed, his treatment of the Book of Books, the Bible, will appeal with telling and sympathetic force. Three paragraphs should be learned by heart so that the might be remembered always: "Born in the East and clothed in Oriental form and imagery, the Bible walks the ways of all the world with familiar feet and enters land after land to find its own everywhere. It has learned to speak in hundreds of languages to the heart of man. It comes into the palace to tell the mon- arch that he is a servant of the Most High, and into the cottage to assure the peasant that he is a son of God. Children listen to its stories with wonder and delight, and wise men ponder them as parables of life. It has a word of peace for the time of peril, a word of comfort for the day of calamity, a word of light for the hour of darkness. Its oracles are re- peated in the assembly of the people, and its counsels whispered in the ear of the lonely. The wicked and the proud tremble at its warning, but to the wounded and the penitent it has a mother's voice. The wilderness and the solitary place have been made glad by it, and the fire on the hearth has lit the reading of its well-worn page. It has woven itself into our deepest affections and colored our dearest dreams; so that love and friendship, sympathy and devotion, memory and hope, put on the beautiful garments of its treasured speech, breathing of frankincense and myrrh. "Above the cradle and beside the grave its great words come to us uncalled. They fill our prayers with power larger than we know, and the beauty of them lingers on our ear long after the sermons which they adorned have been forgotten. They return to us swiftly and quietly like doves flying from far away. They surprise us with new meaning, like 936 IMPROVEMENT ERA springs of water breaking forth from the mountain beside a long-trodden path. They grow richer, as pearls do when they are worn near the heart. "No man is poor or desolate who has this treasure for his own. When the landscape darkens and the trembling pilgrim comes to the Valley named of the Shadow, he is not afraid to enter: he takes the rod and staff of Scripture in his hand; he says to friend and comrade, "Good-by; we shall meet again"; and comforted by that support, he goes toward the lonely pass as one who walks through darkness into light. What is said of the Bible may appropriately be declared of the Book of Mormon, and the Doctrine and Covenants, both of them not only powerful witnesses of the redeeming life and mis- sion of Jesus Christ, and of the Book of Books written of old as holy men and prophets were moved by the Holy Ghost, but given to us not by the will of man, but through the influence and inspiration of the Lord to prophets and apostles of our own day. In these books are also sublime passages, definite teachings of practical value, literary excellencies, and eternal truths that will affect for good the lives of millions, and stand the test of all times. Another thing to remember: We have prophets and apos- tles and other holy men of God who speak and write today, as they are moved, not by the will of man, but by the Holy Ghost. "We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts." Let us not overlook these facts because we are so near to these men. — A. - Messages from the Missions Their Look9 After Their Struggle with the Language Elder Delbert E. Foulger, writing from Hamburg, Germany, March 5, reports a conference held there on the 27th and 28th of January. President Serge F. Ballif was in attendance and a splendid spirit prevailed through- out the meetings which were well attended by many Saints and friends. "The inspiration received at the gatherings from our leaders caused us missionaries to go back to our fields of labor with a renewed determination to put our best into the carrying forward of this 'wonderful work' in which we have been called to labor. Prospects are bright and many people seem to be anxious to hear our message. We hope our folks and friends will be interested in our picture and the expressions that we are able to maintain after struggling with the German language." Front row, left to right: Delbert E. Foulger, Ogden^ Herman Dehmel, Salt Lake City; Rudger Solomon, Salt Lake City; President Serge F. Ballif, Logon; Conference President Glenn A. Rowe, Moore, Idaho: Karl Kraemer, Salt Lake City, Utah. Second row: Clyde A. Lindquist, Ogden, Utah; B. Rigby Young, Idaho Falls, Idaho ; William Buttle, Provo ; Henry Winch, Manti ; Joseph Summer- d fc. R "' : V ? 1 * } | ^ r< Cy\ % £* *4 <*J I | Si * s i i ... < :? i If V » hays, Salt Lake City; S. P. Horsley, Brigham City. Back row: Charles A Gutke, Ogden; Milton Cannon, H. S. Rueckett, Joseph Crasser, Arthur L. Liddle, Salt Lake City, Utah. Leslie Carl Haacke, Bountiful; Thomas Dodds, A. P. Naegelin, Salt Lake City; Ernest Steinfeldt, Salt Lake City; E. M. Neubert, Willington, (Jlah. In St. Paul and Minneapolis Elder Joseph Case, St. Paul, Minnesota, March 20: "These missionaries are laboring in the twin cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota. All of us are interested in anything that helps to explain the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Improvement Era does its part in this work and we read it with interest throughout the mission field, not only by the missionaries, but by Saints, friends, and investigators, and we find it very helpful in ex- plaining ihe gospel." Missionaries, back row, left to right: Samuel Park, Tooele, Utah; Callie B. Arrington, Twin Falls, Idaho; Ross Gowans, Tooele; J. M. Jack- son, Woods Cross; Fontell Peterson, Glenwood, Utah; Rae E. Farmer, Clifton, Idaho. Silting: B. F. Green, outgoing confdence president; Joseph Case, incoming conference president.