--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Morris, Nephi L. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 27 number: 4 published: 1924-02 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: "Nephi L. Morris, “The Present Need of Religious Education,” *Improvement Era 27, no. 4 (February 1924)*: 279–292." source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2704unse 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: improvementera2704unse start_page: 279 end_page: 292 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1924-02) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2704unse publication_year: 1924 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 1924, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # The Present Need of Religious Education Improvement Era Vol. XXVII FEBRUARY, 1924 No. 4 THE PRESENT NEED OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION* By Nephi L. Morris President of the Salt Lake Stake of Zion A knowledge of God is the eternal basic necessity in every life. Eternal life and everlasting joy are dependent upon that knowledge and its translation over into the life of the individual. Man cannot be saved in ignorance of the things of God. The most complete secular education obtainable may not in the least advance the prospects of the individual, in the way of salvation in the kingdom of God. The gospel of Christ does not require acquaintance with the science of geology, astronomy, or chemistry; nor of any other branch of secular education. The conditions of salvation in our Father's kingdom are, "Be- lieve in the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved." His last admonition to the apostles was: "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel unto every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." We are assured by Paul the apostle: "He became the author of eter- nal life unto all them that obey him." Hence the conditions of salvation are first, knowledge of God, and second, obedience to his laws. "This is life eternal that they might know thee, the only true and living God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." In this dispensation this great truth has been made known to men: "For behold this is my work and my glory, to bring to pass the immortality and the eternal life of man." If we would most effectively promote the eternal welfare of man we would acquaint him with the gospel and do all in our power to enable him to obtain the testimony of Jesus Christ. If we would promote the social, moral, spiritual, as well as the physical, welfare of man we would bring him within the influence ♦An address before a conference of Religion Class workers, held in Barratt Hall, Oct. 7, 1923. Entered at the Post Office, Salt Lake City, Utah, as second class matter. Ac- ceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided foe in Section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized on July 2, 1918, $2 per annum. Address Room 406 Church Office Building, Salt Lake City, Utah. 280 IMPROVEMENT ERA and power of the gospel. Morality has no permanent abiding place outside of God. He is the author of all good. The responsibility of teaching these truths to our children is placed upon the parents, by a great and solemn injunction of the Deity. If the parents shall fail in this regard, God will hold them guilty. Because of the failure on the part of parents for a generation or more, the world stands today perilously near to moral wreckage. There never was greater need of true religion in the world than today. Don't tell me that the recent collapse of the social, moral and re- ligious world is a failure of Christianity. Christianity has not yet been tried. Every sacred obligation, every lofty ideal, every tender sentiment of Christianity has been trampled under the brutal feet of a barbarously unChristian power that seeks world dominance. Christ is still spurned and rejected as much as he was two thousand years ago in Jerusalem. Yet he is the only Savior of men. And now, as then, he is the only Savior of society. He saved the world twenty centuries ago by three great, ever- present agencies. They are always the agencies of life and wholesome strength, or the agencies of sin and destruction. They are the Home, Motherhood and Industry. In his coming as the Babe of Bethlehem, being born of the Virgin, he re-exalted woman, again sanctified the Home, and, by his being the "son of a carpenter" and drawing around him his fisherman Saints, he dignified labor, and thus there arose a new world out of the ashes of the old, by reason of his revitalizing these three great forces of humanity. And the Church, of which he was the chief corner stone, was the instrument he provided for these accomplishments. We need not look to Europe with self-righteous airs. Figures and facts afford us no comfort in the situation. In the issue of August 14, 1920, of the Literary Digest, a care- fully prepared map of the United States appeared, showing the re- ligious short-comings of each state with respect to the religious edu- cation of the children. This alarming head line appeared above the map: America's Greatest Peril, The Spiritual Neglect of Childhood "Distribution of over twenty-seven million children and youth (under 25 years) nominally Protestant, who are not enrolled in Sunday School and who receive no formal or systematic religious training. This is the seed plot of immorality, crime, social unrest and anarchy." Below the map this disquieting inscription appeared: "Spirit- ual illiteracy is the forerunner of moral bankruptcy and national decay." From the article accompanying this graphic cartoon I quote a few of the significant suggestions made, looking to the redemption of the youth from their unbelief: "It suggests that what America should do is to command every child PRESENT NEED OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 281 to attend the public schools, and then allow the different Churches, either separately or cooperating, to build up a system of week-day religious schools, giving time for such studies." * * * "There is no hope for the future in trying to force religion into the public school. The sooner we make up our minds to this situation the better it will be. There is no hope for the ultimate Christianization of America without a far more adequate system of religious education. Each community should provide weekly schools wherein paid teachers of training should develop the moral and Spiritual natures of the children. Such a system would cost money, but it is worth it." In order to bring the serious minded Christians of each state face to face with the problem confronting them, the preparer of the map printed across the face of each state the exact number of chil- dren within the state who were without religious affiliation of any character. The very astonishing figures for Utah and Idaho are respectively 106,040 and 164,540. If these figures are accurate there are in these adjoining states more than a quarter of a million of religiously neglected children out of a total population of approxi- mately one million. The Particular Need of Religious Education as a Complement to Secular Schools The religious training of the youth was a natural and a simple matter in some countries in times past where one creed or religion was universally adhered to. Under such circumstances the church was the great educator. We are inclined today to belittle the great service that such a system rendered. Nevertheless, just such an obsolete and intolerable circumstance has contributed tremendously to the progress and enlightenment of this age. The church has been our great school teacher and our librarian. There was much of power that grew out of unity. Those great unified religions have, since the revolution of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, become divided and subdivided until modern Christianity presents a multitudinous system called sectarianism. The term bespeaks denominational dif- ferences and disagreements. While we prefer the divided and conflict- ing religions of today to the compulsory unity of the past, because of the liberty of conscience we now enjoy, we must not altogether over- look the price we pay for this full swing of freedom. It is the one outstanding trait of mankind to go from one extreme to another. This trait is so manifest in human affairs that it may be called a fixed law. So, from the Acts of Parliament compelling all people in the king- dom to go to church more or less regularly, we have gone to the other extreme. A very small percentage of people go to church. Again, we pay the price of religious freedom, and for one, I am convinced that such freedom is, after all, worth the price we pay. Compulsion is not of God. It comes from another source entirely. And so it is with respect to education. From religiously dom- 282 IMPROVEMENT ERA inatcd schools we have swung, like the pendulum, to the opposite extreme and have excluded religion altogether. With religious dif- ferences existing in our communities it is imperative, in order to pre- serve our perfect religious liberty, that religion shall be absolutely ex- cluded from our public school system. Again, unhappily, we must pay the price, for instead of merely having non-religious schools we have irreligious schools. No nation ever stressed education more than this nation. And with the religious element eliminated from education we have reaped the harvest of unbelief and indifference with respect to religion. Non-religious schools have not promoted morals. Stu- dent life in America is not celebrated for its social purity and virtue. If the religious element could be infused into the life of the pupils from some proper source and in some unobjectionable manner, the public school might bcome a great bulwark against the vices and sins of the world. Instead of great aggregations of students becoming breeding centers for immodesty and other follies of a worse character that follow, it could become the most powerful agency for morality, spirituality and righteousness. It is regrettable that refinements are limited to the intellect. They ought to develop in the soul. There is nothing finer in human nature than a well-balanced and intelligent spirituality. Immorality is not only a result of ignorance of God but it is an agency that is more or less permanently destructive of faith in God. That is true for the reason that faith is a gift of God and the spirit of God will not dwell in an unclean tabernacle. I deplore the lack of the Christian spirit in our public school system. I realize, however, that it must be so under the circumstances controlling us today. We have no right to interfere with the religious views of our Jewish or Agnostic neighbors. I have recently had great pleasure in reading Lytton Strachey's charming life of Queen Victoria. I am not making an original obser- vation when I say that it is a book which everybody ought to read. With respect to the religious education of Victoria, I will read a significant extract. Speaking of Victoria's mother, the author says: "Her educational conceptions were those of Dr. Arnold, whose views were just beginning to permeate society. Dr. Arnold's object was, first and foremost, to make his pupils in the highest and truest sense of the word, Christian gentlemen. Intellectual refinements might follow." About the time of her accession her mother said of her: "Her adherence to truth is of so marked a character that I feel no appre- hension of that Bulwark being broken down by any circumstances." Religion alone makes the virtues so absolutely dependable. Victoria describes her own confirmation in these words: "I felt that my confirmation was one of the most solemn and import- ant events and acts of my life; and that I trusted that it might have a PRESENT NEED OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 283 salutary effect upon my mind. I felt deeply repentant for all that I bad done which was wrong and trusted in God Almighty to strengthen my heart and mind; and to forsake all that was bad and follow all that is virtuous and right. I went with the firm determination to become a true Christian, and to try and comfort my dear Mamma in all her griefs and trials, and anxieties, and to become a dutiful and affectionate daughter to her." What a reward to a mother's devotion, and how beautiful the assurance that her course in life would meet with divine favor. What a priceless gift to an empire and to a whole world was Victoria! The world owes a large debt of gratitude to the religious education she received at the hands of Dr. Arnold and her pious mother. Need and Value of Religious Education to Children of the Elementary Grades The time to give religious education is during the earliest period of impressionable infancy and youth. The Master said, "Suffer little children to come unto me." The proverb of old says: "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart therefrom." For some hundreds of years we have been doing the most un- scientific thing known to the educational world in connection with this subject. Some short-sighted parents have actually pursued the policy of letting the child decide for himself all matters pertaining to religion after he attains to maturity. Rather than interfere with the child's free agency in religious affairs he is deprived of all religious influences in his youth. Such parents would not permit their poultry, nor their cattle or other well bred stock to attain to maturity without guidance and culture, or careful training. The churches of Christen- dom are to some extent made up of a membership that knew little or no religious training through the impressionable and character- formative period of life. Many of them were indifferent to religion until, perchance, in middle-life, or later, some single experience comes into their lives and they join a church and "get religion." Such are made Christian in a day, and by the dozen, oftimes. Well, of course, it is better to come to God late in life than never at all. You can't become a Christian in an instant, nor in a day, any more than you can become a doctor of philosophy or of medicine in a day. You belittle Christianity to think it possible. A real Christian is not one who has merely sensed a spiritual shock and becomes instantaneously trans- formed. The godly life is the longest course prescribed in the cur- riculum of man. It requires an eternity to master the whole course. And all along the never-ending path the applicant shall need and have the assistance of the Almighty. Talk about becoming a Christian in a day! Talk about giving your soul to God! What a gift some of us offer him. Why not try to give him souls in their purity and let their 284 IMPROVEMENT ERA making and fashioning be according to his plan. He tells us that he would have us a "royal generation." That means he would have our lives yield to his plan through infancy, if not before, through youth to maturity and down to old age, "from the cradle to the grave," to walk through life hand-in-hand with him. These late conversions, so miraculous in their nature, are often but a determination upon the part of the Deity to shake a man into a realization of what he has missed. I recall a good sort of a brother coming to me one day with this kind of a testimony. Said he, "Brother Morris, I have often heard you and President Emery and others say that you knew that this is the work of the Lord. I never knew just what you meant by that testimony until today, when I was invited by one of the apostles to unite with him in laying hands upon my son who is about to leave upon a mission. When in the act of setting him apart the Lord took hold of me and shook me so violently that I now know for myself as you do." Well I knew this good fellow a great deal better than he, perhaps thought I did. I knew that he had always been more or less careless in his habits, using tobacco and liquor and sometimes indulging in profanity and such things, and had to a large extent failed to set a worthy example to his children. So I said, "Well, I am glad the shock came to you. I always knew God would have to shake some of the earthly nonsense out of you in order to get a little light into your soul." What a regret it is that a man should do much to spoil his life and then, after almost succeeding in his efforts, become frightened at his apparent success and run to God in fear and offer the whole affair to him. And, if he accepts, the poor mortal, in his ignorance and disobedience, some times gets the notion that he is saved because God speaks a word of comfort to him in his distress. How much better it is for the individual, for society, and for future generations, and how much more pleasing in the sight of God to give him your heart in your youth and thereby make a pure and sacred offering to him? God has compassion on the sinner and even pardon for the truly penitent, but he cannot love, or admire, sin in its deformities, nor can he admire, or find joy in an ungodliness that grows out of a thorough lack of religious training. Therefore, let us seek, by the most effective means possible, and in a manner to which no enlightened person can object, to give to our children a religious training that shall be a factor for good and a potential influence for their salvation from the time that they enter school until they shall become enlisted in God's service. It is not pos- sible to furnish Church schools in every community, but we can with intelligent effort organize Religion Classes that will be a complement of the public school system and give our children a genuine religious training. Our motto should be to have a Religion Class in every ward in the Church. ^^gg^fif^g iTiTr^^-^ ^ — ..«— f- ~r ~- iJ5-*^ ^ ) . The memorial amphitheatre at Arlington, Virginia, which stands as a monument, not only to Washington, but to all national heroes. WASHINGTON, D. C, A TRUE MONUMENT TO THE MAN By A. Rex Johnson President Brigham Young University Student Body A mention of Washington immediately brings to my mind at least four thoughts: the man, the city, the monument and home, and the state. Each has a fascination and each a peculiar symbolism of the man. Each symbol is extraordinarily located — the picture in the hall of fame, the city in a wealth of forward movements, the monument and home in commanding situations, and the state in a garden spot of the universe. But the symbolism is possibly most clearly seen in the nation's capitol, for Washington is preeminently the city beautiful. The pre- dominance of white buildings, a symbol of purity, together with wel- coming wide streets and their suggestion of openness, go hand in hand with the towering obelisk monument, in standing distinctly above the commonplace, as did Washington. The absence of the smoke of industry permits those buildings and monuments to remain white, as was his soul. Yet the massive- ness of the whole suggests a permanence comparable only to the deeds of the hero. From that marvelous architectural panorama of the great wings and towering dome of the Capitol, past the absorbing Lincoln Memorial, to the glistening white marble shrine of patriotism, the Memorial Amphitheatre at Arlington, the visitor is enthralled by the almost endless number of sights of historic interest that in one way 286 IMPROVEMENT ERA Front of Mt. Vernon showing the usual summer afternoon crowds. or another direct his attention to our Nation's father. An almost endless store of surprises awaits all newcomers in Washington. To linger for a few moments in the stately rooms of the White House, to wander through the Botanical Gardens, or the historic Georgetown section, to stand in silence at the foot of the great monument which towers in his heroic memory — these alone make one wonder at the astute vision of that French engineer who late in the eighteenth century laid the plans for the city and suggested a few of these locations. The massive Capitol, begun in 1793, the towering Washington Monument, begun in 1848, and the chambered Lincoln Memorial, begun in 1915, rise one after the other toward the west. 'Each is built of marble but is an improvement over the other. All face a rising sun but are westward placed, in keeping with the westward progress of the nation, and all are symbolic of the vision of the future which Washington possessed. But perhaps the greatest feeling of awe comes when one glides slowly down the historic and placid old Potomac to Mt. Vernon and sees, long before landing, the famous colonial mansion with its many square porch pillars, gables, and white walls. The water-bordered weeping willows with their graceful and reverential forms add to the sacredness of the spot. No disturbing sound of any sort can be de- tected here. Erected high over the age-old stream, and with a com- manding view on all sides, this colony of mansion and servant homes thrills one with a feeling of absolute seclusion — now not even akin to the outside world. The house, full of the actual articles and furniture used by Washington, gives one an insight into home life of that day that could be gained in no other way. The remains of the hero lie in a wooded glen at a lower level than the house, where WASHINGTON. D. C, A TRUE MONUMENT M has been erected a tomb of red brick. This simple tomb is in direct contrast to the elaborate settings on every hand — simple yet appro- priate. So from the moment one enters the city through the white-domed railroad station, with its spacious rooms and Doric columns, all the while he travels over the elm-covered highways of the city with mag- nificent lawns and monuments on every side; and while he visits only a few of the hundreds of public buildings erected here, and while he visits the more inner recesses of the paths of the man, there is a feeling that he "who never told a lie" is fitly monumented in this the truly white city, which he himself assisted in locating. The simple vine-covered tomb of Washington at Mt. Vernon. A Model Life The woods are full of joy, And faith in them we find, But things we might enjoy Are often left behind. Our lives when first begun With mortal state on earth, Were pure as yonder sun, Who still retains that birth. So when the past reflects Upon the human mind It seems one can detect True light has ceased to shine. A model life to me, Whose joy and Faith is great, Is yonder aged tree Which teaches all but fate. Each limb is firmly set To battle with the breeze, And frosty years they met With faith and did not freeze. The roots did something, too, To make the tree complete, And held it firm and true Through storms of snow and sleet. The joy it gave to all, With peaceful, whispering sigh, Divinely seemed to call To one while passing by. Its life is spotless, clean, Far more than human souls. But mortal eyes have seen The master life it moulds. Christen Hansen. DESTRUCTION OF ANCIENT NATIONS IN AMERICA* The Book of Mormon Message to the Gentile Nations Occupying the Land By B. H. Roberts, of the First Council of Seventy and President of the Eastern States Mission Two nations, with two distinct civilizations, occupied America in ancient times, and both had been destroyed before the arrival of the Europeans who came toward the close of the fifteenth century. The Jaredites The colony which developed into the first nation came direct from the Euphrates Valley — from the Tower of Babel, at the time of the confusion of languages. They were known as the Jaredites, be- cause a leader of the colony was a man of that name — Jared. Through a special favor from God to the family of Jared, and his brother, Moriancumer, their language, and the language of a few of their friends, was not confounded. Under divine direction this colony de- parted from Babel northward, and thence were led through Asia, east- wardly, until they came to the shore of the great sea — the Pacific Ocean—" which divided the lands." Here they remained four years; and then by divine commandment constructed eight barges in which to cross the mighty ocean to a land of promise, to which God had covenanted to bring them; to a land "which was choice above all other lands, which the Lord God had reserved for a righteous people." The colony is generally supposed to have landed on the western coast of North America, probably south of the Gulf of California. This colony finally so multiplied that it became a mighty people, one of the greatest nations of antiquity, with a population spread over a great part of eastern North America — including Central America, Mexico, thence northward to the great lakes, and from the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic. Their numbers, ac- cording to the record, must have exceeded ten millions of people. The Jaredites had a varied experience: peace and war; famine, pestilence, revolutions; the usual ebb and flow of prosperity and ad- versity they experienced; wealth, corruption; then decline and bar- barism, and finally destruction, up to utter extinction of the nation and race. This last calamity overtook them about six hundred years B. C, in the region of the Hill Cumorah, called by them Ramah, and about the time of the landing of the second colony upon the shores of America, viz., ♦Read by LeRoi C. Snow at the Smith Farm meeting, Cumorah Conference, Sept. 23, 1923. DESTRUCTION OF ANCIENT NATIONS IN AMERICA 289 The Nephites The Nephites were a colony that came direct from Jerusalem, made up of families who were descendants of the Patriarch Joseph, son af Jacob. They were led by their prophets and seers to the land of America, where they also expanded into a nation. Internal strifes early separated them into two main divisions, known as Nephites and Lamanites. Plots and counter plots, leading to strifes and wars make up the varied history of these two peoples through a period of a thousand years. Then both divisions having so departed from tht ways of righteousness as to lose the favor of God, a great civil war broke out in the fourth century A. D., in which the Nephites — who generally stood for civilization, religion and orderly government — were overwhelmed and destroyed by the barbarous Lamanites, also about the Hill Cumorah. After that the Lamanites, already degen- erated into anarchy, lived on in a state of barbarism, resolved in*"o the tribal relations obtaining when discovered by Europeans near the close of the fifteenth century. The Colony of Mulek There was another colony led from Jerusalem to America after the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, usually accounted as happening about 587 B. C. This colony was made up of Jews. In their wanderings in the north American continent, however, they came in contact with the Nephites and were absorbed by them, and lost their identity as a people. They were known as the colony of Mulek — the name of their leader. This, in briefest outline, represents the coming of colonies to America, their expansion into nations, their decline and fall. It out- lines a melancholy history. I refer to it here that it may teach its mighty lesson, and impart that lesson to the nations now occupying the lands of those ancient nations. America a Promised Land — Choice Above All Other Lands The Book of Mormon informs us that when the waters of the flood, which came in the days of Noah, receded from the face of this land of Zion — America, the western continents "became a choice land, above all other lands, a chosen land of the Lord; wherefore the Lord would have that all men should serve him who dwell upon the face thereof." (Ether 13:2.) When the Lord was leading the colony of Jared to this land of America, he would not suffer them to "stop beyond the sea in the wilderness, but he would that they should come forth even to the land of promise, which was choice above all other lands, which the Lord had preserved for a righteous people." "And he had sworn in his wrath unto the brother of Jared, that whoso should possess this land of promise, from that time henceforth and forever, 290 IMPROVEMENT ERA should serve him, the true and only God, or they should be swept off when the fulness of his wrath should come upon them. "And now, we can behold the decrees of God concerning this land, that it is a land of promise; and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall serve God, or they shall be swept off when the fulness of his wrath shall come upon them. And the fulness of his wrath cometh upon them when they are ripened in iniquity. "For behold, this is a land which is choice above all other lands; wherefore he that doth possess it shall serve God or shall be swept off; for it is the everlasting decree of God. And it is not until the fulness of iniquity among the children of the land that they are swept off." (Ether 2:8-10.) Then comes the special warning to the Gentile nations, who would occupy the land in our times: "And this cometh unto you, O ye gentiles, that ye may know the decrees of God — that ye may repent, and not continue in your iniquities until the fulness come, that ye may not bring down the fulness of the wrath of God upon you as the inhabitants of the land have hitherto done. "Behold, this is a choice land, and whatsoever nation shall pos- sess it shall be free from bondage, and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if they will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ, who hath been manifested by the things which we have written." (Ether 2:11, 12.) This is a prophetic contribution to our American knowledge, and a warning also by Moroni, the abridger of, and the commentator upon the Jaredite history as we have it in his Book of Ether. This message is echoed and re-echoed through the prophetic ut- terances of the records of the Nephites, and by special warnings of Christ himself. At one point of a communication made to the Ne- phites, the risen Christ said to them: "And thus commandeth the Father that I should say unto you: At that day when the Gentiles shall sin against my gospel, and shall be lifted up in the pride of their hearts above all nations, and above all the people of the whole earth, and shall be filled with all manner of lyings, and of deceits, and of mischiefs, and all manner of hypocrisy, and murders, and priestcrafts, and whoredoms, and of secret abominations; and if they shall do all those things, and shall reject the fulness of my gospel, behold, saith the Father, I will bring the fulness of my gospel from among them. "And then will I remember my covenant which I have made unto my people, O house of Israel, and I will bring my gospel unto them. "And I will show unto thee, O house of Israel, thdt the Gentiles shall not have power over you ; but I will remember my covenant unto you, O house of Israel, and ye shall come unto the knowledge of the fulness of my gospel. "But if the Gentiles will repent and return unto me, saith the Father, behold they shall be numbered among my people, O house of Israel." (Ill Nephi 16:10-13). There is much more to the same effect, but let this suffice for the present. Here is sufficient set forth of the message of the Book of Mormon to show the great and proud Gentile nation that it was DESTRUCTION OF ANCIENT NATIONS IN AMERICA 291 foreseen that such a nation would be raised up in the Western World in the last days. A glorious station is to be granted unto it; inso- much that its people would become "lifted up in the pride of their hearts above all nations, and above all the people of the whole earth." A condition to which the nation of the United States has most cer- tainly attained. And that exalted station they may hold if they ad- here to righteousness and worship the God of the land, who is pro- Leroi C. Snow Member of the General Board, Y. M. M. I. A., and Secretary to President B. H. Roberts, Eastern States Mission. claimed to be Jesus Christ. And if that proud nation will not observe these two things, then woe be unto it, for its doom is sealed, its fate is fixed. It will be destroyed, even as the other nations have been destroyed which occupied the land before it — the Jaredites and the Nephites. These prophetic warnings to this great Gentile nation — our na- tion, the United States of America — constitute one of the most im- portant messages of the Book of Mormon to the modern world. It is a message of both national and international importance; for so are the relations of the United States interwoven with the nations of all 292 IMPROVEMENT ERA the earth that no large calamity can overtake our nation but what would spell disaster to all other nations of the earth. Hear, then, this warning, O thou proud, Gentile nation that leads the world in power and excellence of dominion, and unto whom is accorded by universal acclamation the leadership among the nations of the earth. That pride of place is thine, and thou mayest hold it on the condition of strict adherence to righteousness, and honoring the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ. On these two conditions de- pend all thy prestige, all thy glory, all thy power — thy pride of place. If there has been in any measure a departure from the path direct of righteousness, individually and nationally — and who can doubt that there has been? — even then if thou wilt but repent, thy God, yea, the God of thy Fathers, will be swift to forgive — and to hold thee in thy high place of prestige, and power, and glory. This is iterated and re-iterated through this volume of American scripture, the Book of Mormon, and constitutes a message of great national importance. Will ye not heed it, O ye Gentiles? And by heeding the warning, live? And living, fulfil the high mission which God has assigned to you in the achievement of his high purpose in the last days. God grant that you may have the faith and the grace for these high things. Blustery Weather Dreary is the grayish sky, The ground is wet, a-reeking through; Moisture-laden winds are high; Dry things left are but a few. Hungry birdies, fretting, cry If wind and rain don't stop, who As they swiftly homeward fly. Can tell us what we'll ever do? Swaying, bending, sighing low, But be patient, this won't last, Stand the trees in quivering row, God in storms his blessings casts Rain-soaked and a-dripping so O'er the earth, as in the past That they lean in arching bow. Gave he sunshine; so, stand fast. Little grasses 'neath our feet Life is as the weather here: Close to Mother earth now creep, One day blustery, next day clear; Seeking shelter from the sleet Just trust the Lord, have no fear, That's wind-blown o'er lawn and Then he'll guide you through this street. sphere. Barn doors, in the wind's breath, When this mortal life is o'er, bang; And on earth we dwell no more, Creak the hinges where they hang, May our spirits onward soar Shrieking like some death-stirred pangTo that stormless, heavenly shore. That in winter storms hath rung. Lai*. Oahu. M. F. KlRKHAM.