Editor’s Table

Editors ^able The True Latter-day Saint Spirit Loyalty has always been one of the leading characteristics of the Latter-day Saints. The Prophet Joseph Smith loyally gave his full time, his attention and finally his life for the cause of the establishment of the gospel upon the earth, as revealed to him by the Lord and by holy angels. All our leaders who have followed also have proved loyal by knowledge and choice. Jesus Christ, the greatest example of the perfect life, prayed that he might be spared the suffering of the cross, but "not my will, but thine be done," he added, when he prayed for this favor. He was strictly loyal to the will of the Father and desired to do nothing save that which the cause of the Father commanded. Loyalty is never half-hearted; it is willing and whole-souled. Loyalty is the feeling that must be put into action for the good of any cause. Josiah Royce, Harvard, defines loyalty, as "the whole-souled, willing and practical devotion of a person to a cause." Through our organizations and institutions we may learn to obtain and practice the loyalty essential to development and success in us and our cause. As an organization and as individuals, we stand loyal to the cause that we have espoused — the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints. The true spirit of "Mormonism" shows faith *n action. To have faith is the true spirit of the Saints; then come works; knowledge and loyalty follow. A very homely, but direct, illustration is related in a sermon by the great missionary, Jedediah M. Grant, as far fack as 1854. He said: "A man who has faith has capital in himself; he is 'telegraph' enough to build himself a home. Another man has to sit down and count, 'three and two are five, five and two are seven, seven and four are eleven, and eleven and six are seventeen,' and so he will calculate; and unless he has so many dimes he has not faith enough to draw the first rock, or the first adobe, or get the first foot of lumber, or do the first thing. But you take a man who has in him the true 'Mormon' spirit, and he considers he can accomplish just what ought to be accomplished. If he considers that he wants a house, he deems himself competent to go at it, and to build such an one as he wants. That is the 'Mormon' spirit." We desire our young people to cultivate the spirit of loyalty to the faith. To do this it is desirable that they should get a testimony of the divine mission of the Prophet Joseph Smith, so that, through that testimony, they may prove loyal to the cause which, by the direction of the Lord, he established, and which is the Church and Kingdom of God. To have faith is good and necessary, but to have a testimony

1194 IMPROVEMENT ERA one must be convinced and converted, and must know. A good way to obtain the testimony is to read the Book of Mormon, thus making ours its doctrines and teachings. "We believe the Bible to be the word of God, as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God." We have been repeating this from our Articles of Faith for many years. No one can repeat this statement with complete personal satisfaction and not have read the contents of that holy book. Let us, then, attack the reading of the Book of Mormon with this disposition of faith, work, and knowledge, so characteristic of the true Latter-day Saint spirit. By study we shall accomplish the purpose for which we have set out; namely, to obtain a testimony of the divine mission of the Prophet Joseph Smith, who was instrumental, through the gift and power of God, in bringing this book before the world. It is, indeed, the word of God as it applies to us and to the people of this continent. This course will make us more competent and able to practice loyalty to the doctrines and principles which constitute the fundamentals of the gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. — A. Pre-Existence In the Book of Mormon it is stated, in substance, that the Lord, Jesus Christ, in the beginning, created all men after the body of his spirit. In the exact words, the Lord, Jesus Christ, says: "All men were creafcd in the beginning after mine own image. * * * Man have I created after the body of my spirit." Orson Pratt, in a sermon delivered in early days, in 1856, said: "This is the only place in the Book of Mormon where pre-existence is clearly spoken of, and this was revealed before the organization of this Church, and is a doctrine which was not in the possession of the Christian world; hence, it shows that it was dictated by a Spirit capable of revealing a doc- trine unknown to the Christian world — the pre-existence of man." It is another evidence of the divine mission of the Prophet Joseph Smith, who was able to declare this glorious doctrine, made known to him in the translation of the Book of Mormon through the gift and power of God. — A. The Picture With a Story For the contest, as explained in the August Improvement Era, we have received twenty-eight contributions in verse. They are now in the hands of the judges, and the awards will be made to the author of the poem deemed best, in their judgment, and also to the three authors who rank next in merit to that one. The four poems, with the picture, will then be printed in the Era. No manuscripts will be returned.