p. \UjJL
."■'
Before tbe Smoke Clears Away
On your fire-stricken shop, factory, office or store, you can resume business if in- sured with us. No long unnecessary delays in adjusting, no haggling over terms; but prompt payment of losses every time. It's to our interest to get you set up in business again — we can insure you again.
Home Fire Insurance Company of Utah HEBER J. GRANT & Co., General Agts.
20-26 S. Main St., Salt Lake City, Utah
BOTH PHONES. 351.
Jos. Wm. Taylor
Utah's Leading Undertaker and Licensed Embalmer.
Fine Funeral Chapel, Private Parlor, Show Rooms and Morgue
OFFICE OPEN DAY AND NIGHT
21. 23, 25 South West Temple Street
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
Established 1889.
Utah
Capital, $200,000
Commercial and Savings Bank.
4<?c
Interest, computed semi-annually, on (J Savings Deposits.
Commercial Banking in all its branches. Accounts of Banks and Individuals solicited. Customers assured the best accommodations consistent with conservative and safe banking*.
Wm. F. Armstrong, President.
Byron Groo,
Cashier.
Scenic Line of the World
THROUGH PULLMAN AND
TOURIST SLEEPERS TO
DENVER, ST. LOUIS AND QHIGAGO
For Folders, Booklets etc.. ad- dress I. A. BENTON, C.A.P.D., Salt Lake City, Utah
The STATE BANK
/^V"0 T T-Hp A TT Salt Lake City. Utah V " -U 1 iitl Established 1890.
THIS Bank solicits the accounts of banks, firms and individuals, and extends to such customers every reasonable courtesy and facility.
Joseph F. Smith, Prest, Anthon H. Lund,V.Pres.
Chas.S. Burton, Cashier H.T.McEwan,Asst.Cash
iWh»n writing- to Advertisers, please mention the ERA.)
Books Received.
John Stevens' Courtship, Susa \< ,'ig Gates, a story of early pioneer life in Utah, during the period of the Johnston army trouble, and the Echo Canyon war. It is a story of love and lift,.,4n the rugged days of the early pioneers, with some of their early Utah history, and containing many say- ings of Brigham Young, and sidelights on his character. Its purpose is to show that there are romance and color in djffery-day life, and it holds the reader's attention and interest from start to finish. One of the Y. M. M. I. A. reading course. Price, $1.00, postpaid; 80 cenvS "with the full reading set.
Parent and Child, volume two, Deseret Sunday School Union, Salt Lake City. This is a volume of nearly 300 pages, containing a series of essays and lessons for use in the parents' department of the Latter-day Saints Sun- day Schools. Those who have read the first volume, of which nearly 18,000 have been sold, will readily agree that this series is very appropriate also for home study. There are eighteen lessons in volume two on the social or pleasure side of community life; and nineteen, on our educational systems. Many of the leading educators and writers of the Church have contributed to this very useful and practical work. Price 35 cents, postpaid.
Origin of the Reorganized Church and the Question of S.iccession, by Joseph F. Smith, Jr., a new, revised, and enlarged edition, 139 pages. This volume contains two discourses delivered by the author at Ogden, on the "Origin of the Reorganized Church," and on "Succession in the Presidency," to which has been added as part three a discussion on the doctrines of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, dealing with the most prominent differences be- tween The Church and the Reorganization, wherein the latter accuse the Lat- ter-day Saints with departing from the doctrines of the Prophet. The text is especially valuable for missionaries who are required to meet the sophis- try of the Reorganite elders. The whole book is a strong argument for the true succession in the presidency, through Brigham Young, and contains very valuable historical data, notes, rare quotations, and testimonials to be found in no other book. One improvement only would enhance largely the value of the work — an exhaustive index. The book stores generally, price, paper, 20c; cloth, 50c.
Wilford Woodruff, A History of His Life and Labors as Recorded in His Daily Journals, prepared for publication by Matthias F. Cowley, and published by the Woodruff Family Association. This is a beautiful and very valuable volume of over 700 pages, illustrated with five page-illustrations, and a fine frontispiece of President Woodruff. It is dedicated to the lovable president's "increasing family and to all who love his name and memory." The author has sought to select the most important parts from the Presi- dent's voluminous writings, and has naturally experienced great difficulty in so doing, and in bringing these within the scope of one volume. It will not lie surprising, when the difficulties are considered, if it shall be found that in some parts he has not succeeded. The record reveals rather the annals of President Woodruff's day than a clear conception of the character and work of the man himself and the important part which he played in the affairs of his time. In this book, President Woodruff stands more in the back- ground than in the forefront where he belongs. Little attempt has been made at classification and analysis of events. The book sets forth the con- ditions of the times in which the subject lived, and will be perused with delight by the many readers who are interested in Church history and the chronicles that President Woodruff made of those parts- of it that came under his immediate observation. Through these annals, also, the discern- ing reader, as a recompense for h's time and pains, may happily catch a wel- come glimpse, now and tnen, of the self-sacrificing, faithful, humble and lovable character who penned them, and so learn to love and appreciate him the more.
An account of President Woodruff's funeral, a character sKetch by Dr. Joseph M. Tanner, several important letters written in England while Presi- dent Woodruff presided over the Saints there, a family record and an index occupy the 79 closing pages.
Sterling, Canada, sends 31 paid up subscribers; it is the first ward to receive pay for having obtained five per cent of its Church population as subscribers to volume 13 of the Era.
Other Important matter crowded out the story, "How the Lord was Good to Aunt Johanna," from this number. To make up, this and another story will appear in the December number.
Elder Richard W Young, Jr., writing from Nelson, England, September 6th, says: "As an active missionary I find the Era of invaluable aid and of great interest, and wish you unbounded success in your work."
"I think the Era a very fine publication, the best in the Church, none excepted. The articles published serially, by Jordan, are very good; the last installment, alone, being well worth $2 to any young man."— Chas. W. Goodliffe, Park Valley, Utah, Oct., 1909.
IMPROVEMENT ERA, NOVEMBER, 1909.
Joseph F. Smith, j ™ ,., Heber J. Grant, Business Manager
Edward H. Anderson. ] l ors Moroni Snow, Assistant
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
The Great Apostasy. (With Portrait of Author) . . Dr. James E. Talmage 1
My Prayer, A Poem. Elsie C. Carroll 13
The South of Ireland. (Illustrated) T. L. Hatch 14
The Crown of Individuality. I. — Introduction William George Jordan 19
Latter-day Saints University. (Illustrated) 25
Jean Calvin. (Illustrated) Lawrence Squires 26
The Just Shall Live by Faith. A Poem Grace Ingles Frost 37
Salvation Universal. I Joseph F. Smith, Jr 38
The New England School. A Poem. . Oliver Wendell Holmes 45
People and Places in the Orient. — V. A Bit of
China. (Illustrated) Frank J. Hewlett 46
Unknown. A Poem William Wordsworth 54
The Pyramids of the Sun, Moon and Stars. (Illus-
trated) Elizabeth R. Cannon 55
Love will Never Grow Old. A Poem Carl C. A. Christensen 67
Some Men Who Have Done Things. I. — Anthony
W. Ivins. (Illustrated). John Henry Evans 69
The New Deseret Gymnasium. (Photo) Gerald Anderson 74
Editor ' s Table — The Origin of Man The First Presidency 75
"The Time Has Come for the Latter-day
Saints to Look After Their Children" Prest. Joseph F. Smith 81
The Thing that Counts in a Boy's Life 87
Messages from the Missions 88
Priesthood Quorums' Table 91
Mutual Work 94
Passing Events 95
IMPROVEMENT ERA.
Vol. XIII. NOVEMBER, 1909. No. 1.
The Great Apostasy. -•
Considered in the Light of Sacred and Secular History.
BY DR. JAMES E. TALMAGE.
[The Great Apostasy is a new forthcoming work of ten chapters, by Dr. James E. Talmage. By kind permission of the author, the Improvement Era is permitted here to present to its readers chapter 6, which relates to the internal causes of the apostasy. Many are the demands that have been made for a book treating upon this important subject. Its appear- ance now is especially timely since the Young Ladies' M. I. A. classes are this year studying the apostasy. We are confident this book will satisfy the demand and meet the want and requirements of students as well as general readers who are looking for a short, yet pointed and pronounced, historical and scriptural exposition of "The Great Apostasy."
Chapter 6 here given is as it will appear in the book, except that paragraph headings are omitted here. Preceding chapters deal with:
1. "The establishment of the Church by Jesus Christ;" 2. The Great Apostasy predicted;" 3. "Beginnings of the Apostasy;" 4. "Ex- ternal causes of the Apostasy;" and chapters following the sixth are 7, 8, 9, "Internal causes of the Apostasy;" 10. "Sequel to the Great Apostasy. ' ' —Editors.]
CAUSES OF THE APOSTASY — INTERNAL CAUSES.
The cruel persecution to which the adherents of Christianity and the Church as an organized body were subjected during the
Copyright by James E. Talmage, 1909.
2 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
first three centuries of our era have been treated as external causes, contributing at least indirectly to the general apostasy. Details of Judaistic and heathen opposition have been given with sufficient fulness to show that the unpopular Church had a troubled existence, and that such of its members as remained faithful to the tenets and principles of the gospel were martyrs in spirit if not in fact.
As would naturally be expected, the immediate effect of per- sistent persecution on those who professed a belief in the divinity of the Lord Jesus was diverse and varied; indeed it ranged from un- restrained enthusiasm expressed in frenzied clamoring for martyr- dom, to ready and abject apostasy with ostentatious display of de- votion in idolatrous service.
Many of the Christian devotees developed a zeal amounting to mania, and, disregarding all prudence and discretion, gloried in the prospect of winning the martyr's crown. Some who had been left unassailed felt themselves aggrieved, and became their own accusers, while others openly committed acts of aggression with intent to bring resentment upon themselves.* These extravagances were doubtless encouraged by the excessive veneration accorded the memories and the bodily remains of those who had fallen as victims in the cause. The reverential respect so rendered devel- oped later into the impious practice of martyr worship.
Commenting on the imprudent enthusiasm of the early Chris- tians, Gibbon says:
"The Christians sometimes supplied by their voluntary dec- laration the want of an accuser, rudely disturbed the public ser- vice of paganism, and, rushing in crowds round the tribunal of the magistrates, called upon them to pronounce and to inflict the sen- tence of the law. The behavior of the Christians was too remark- able to escape the notice of the ancient philosophers; but they seem to have received it with much less admiration than astonish- ment. Incapable of conceiving the motives which sometimes trans- ported the fortitude of believers beyond the bounds of prudence and reason, they treated such an eagerness to die as the strange
See note 1, end of -chapter.
THE GREAT APOSTASY. 3
result of obstinate despair, of stupid' insensibility or of supersti- tious frenzy." *
But there is another side to the picture. While imprudent zealots invited dangers from which they might have remained ex- empt, others, affrighted at the possibility of being included among the victims, voluntarily deserted the Church and returned to heathen allegiances. Milner, speaking of conditions existing in the third century, and incorporating the words of Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, who lived at the time of the incident described, says:
"Vast numbers lapsed into idolatry immediately. Even before men were accused as Christians, many ran to the forum and sacri- ficed to the gods as they were ordered; and the crowds of apos- tates were so great, that the magistrates wished to delay numbers of them till the next day, but they were importuned by the wretched suppliants to be allowed to prove themselves heathens that very night." f
In connection with this individual apostasy of Church members under the pressure of persecution, there arose among the pro- vincial governors a practice of selling certificates or "libels" as these documents were called, which "attested that the persons therein mentioned had complied with the laws and sacrificed to the Roman deities. By producing these false declarations, the opulent and timid Christians were enabled to silence the malice of an informer, and to reconcile, in some measure, their safety with their religion." $
A modification of this practice of quasi-apostasy consisted in procuring testimonials from persons of standing, certifying that the holders had abjured the gospel; these documents were presented to the heathen magistrates, and they, on receipt of a specified fee, granted exemption from the requirement of sacrificing to the pagan gods.§
As a result of these practices, whereby under favorable cir- cumstances the wealthy could purchase immunity from persecu-
* Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapt. 16. t Milner, Ch. Hist., Cent. Ill, chapt. 8. % Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapt. 16. § See Milner, Hist, of the Ch., Cent. Ill, chapt. 9.
4 IMPRO VEMENT ERA .
tion, and at the same time maintain a semblance of standing in the Church, much dissension arose, the question being as to whether those who had thus shown their weakness could ever be received again into communion with the Church.
Persecution at most was but an indirect cause of the decline of Christianity and the perversion of the saving principles of the gospel of Christ. The greater and more immediate dangers threatening the Church must be sought within the body itself. Indeed, the pressure of opposition from without served to restrain the bubbling springs of internal dissension, and actually delayed the more destructive eruptions of schism and heresy.*
A general review of the history of the Church down to the end of the third century shows that the periods of comparative peace were periods of weakness and decline in spiritual earnest- ness, and that with the return of persecution came an awakening and a renewal in Christian devotion. Devout leaders of the people were not backward in declaring that each recurring period of per- secution was a time of natural and necessary chastisement for the s:n and corruption that had gained headway within the Church.f
As to the condition of the Church in the middle of the third century, Cyprian, the bishop of Carthage thus speaks:
"If the cause of our miseries be investigated, the cure of the wound may be found. The Lord would have his family to be tried. And because long peace had corrupted the discipline divinely re- vealed to us, the heavenly chastisement hath raised up our faith, which had lain almost dormant: and when, by our sins, we had de- served to suffer still more, the merciful Lord so moderated all things, that the whole scene rather deserves the name of a trial than a persecution. Each had been bent on improving his patri- mony; and had forgotten what believers had done under the apos- tles, and what they ought always to do: — they were brooding over the arts of amassing wealth :-^the pastors and the deacons each forgot their duty: Works of mercy were neglected, and discipline was at the lowest ebb. —Luxury and effeminacy prevailed: Mere- tricious arts in dre.^s were cultivated: Frauds and deceit were
* See note 2, end of chapter, t See note 3, end of chapter.
DR. JAMES E. TALMAGE.
6 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
practiced among brethren. — Christians could unite themselves in matrimony with unbelievers; could swear not only without rever- ence, but even without veracity. With haughty asperity they despised their ecclesiastical superiors: They railed against one an- other with outrageous acrimony, and conducted quarrels with determined malice: — Even many bishops, who ought to be guides and patterns to the rest, neglecting the peculiar duties of their stations, gave themselves up to secular pursuits: — They deserted their places of residence and their flocks: They traveled through distant provinces in quest of pleasure and gain; gave no assistance to the needy brethren; but were insatiable in their thirst of money: — They possessed estates by fraud and multiplied usury. What have we not deserved to suffer for such a conduct? Even the divine word hath foretold us what we might expect, — 'if his chil- dren forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments, I will visit their offenses with the rod, and their sin with scourges.' These things had been denounced and foretold, but in vain. Our sins had brought our affairs to that pass, that because we had despised the Lord's directions, we were obliged to undergo a correction of our multiplied evils and a trial of our faith by severe remedies." *
Milner, who quotes approvingly the severe arraignment of the Church in the third century as given above, cannot be charged with bias against Christian institutions, inasmuch as his declared purpose in presenting to the world an additional "History of the Church of Christ" was to give due attention to certain phases of the subject slighted or neglected by earlier authors, and notably to emphasize the piety, not the wickedness, of the professed fol- lowers of Christ. This author, avowedly friendly to the Church and her votaries, admits the growing depravity of the Christian sect, and declares that toward the end of the third century the effect of the Pentecostal outpouring of the Holy Spirit had become exhausted, and that there remained little proof of any close re- lationship between Christ and the Church.
Note his summary of conditions: "The era of its actual de- clension must be dated in the pacific part of Diocletian's reign. During this whole century the work of God, in purity and power,
As quoted by Milner, 'History of the Church, Cent. Ill, chapt. 8.
THE GREAT APOSTASY. 7
had been tending^to decay. The connection with philosophers was one^of the principal causes. Outward peace and secular advantages completed the corruption. Ecclesiastical discipline, which had been too strict, was now relaxed exceedingly; bishops and people were in a state of malice. Endless quarrels were fomented among contending parties, and ambition and covetousness had in general gained the ascendency in the Christian Church. *
The faith of Christ itself appeared now an ordinary business; and here terminated, or nearly so, as far as appears, that first great effusion of the Spirit of God, which began at the day of Pentecost. Human depravity effected throughout a general decay of godliness; and one generation of men elapsed with very slender proofs of the spiritual presence of Christ with his Church." *
If further evidence be wanted as to the fires of disaffection smoldering within the Church, and so easily fanned into destruc- tive flame, let the testimony of Eusebius be considered with re- spect to conditions characterizing the second half of the third century. And, in weighing his words, let it be remembered that he had expressly recorded his purpose of wrriting in defense of the Church, and in support of her institutions. He bewails the tran- quility preceding the Diocletian outbreak, because of its injurious effect upon both officers and members of the Church. These are his words: ''But when by excessive liberty we sunk into indolence and sloth, one envying and reviling another in different ways, and we were almost, as it were, on the point of taking up arms against each another, and were assailing each other with words, as with darts and spears, prelates inveighing against prelates, and people rising up against people, and hypocrisy and dissimulation had arisen to the greatest heights of malignity, then the divine judgment, which usually proceeds with a lenient hand, whilst the multitudes were yet crowding into the Church, with gentle and mild visita- tions began to afflict its episcopacy; the persecution having begun with those brethren that were in the army. * *
But some that appeared to be our pastors, deserting the law of piety, were inflamed against each other with mutual strifes, only accumulating quarrels and threats, rivalry, hostility, and hatred
Milner, Hist, of the Church, Cent. Ill, chapt. 17,
8 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
to each other, only anxious to assert the government as a kind of sovereignty for themselves." *
As further illustrative of the decline of the Christian spirit toward the end of the third century, Milner quotes the following observation of Eusebius, an eye-witness of the conditions de- scribed.
"The heavy hand of God's judgments began softly, by little and little, to visit us after his wonted manner; *
but we were not at all moved with his hand, nor took any pains to return to God. We heaped sin upon sin, judging like careless Epicureans that God cared not for our sins, nor would ever visit us on account of them. And our pretended shepherds, laying aside the rule of godliness, practiced among themselves contention and division." He adds that the "dreadful persecution of Diocletian was then inflicted on the Church as a just punishment, and as the most proper chastisement for their iniquities." f
It will be remembered that the great change whereby the Church was raised to a place of honor in the state, occurred in the early part of the fourth century. It is a popular error to assume that the decay of the Church as a spiritual institution dates from that time. The picture of the Church declining as to spiritual power in exact proportion to her increase of temporal influence and wealth has appealed to rhetoricians and writers of sensational literature; but such a picture does not present the truth. The Church was saturated with the spirit of apostasy long before Constantine took it under his powerful protection, by according it official standing in the state. In support of this statement, I quote again from Milner, the avowed friend of the Church: "I know it is common for authors to represent the great declension of Chris- tianity to have taken place only after its external establishment under Constantine. But the evidence of history has compelled me to dissent from this view of things. In fact we have seen that for a whole generation previous to the [Diocletian] persecution, few marks of superior piety appeared. Scarce a luminary of godliness
* Eusebius, Eccl. Hist., Book VIII, chapt. 1. See note 4, end of chapter.
f Milner, Hist, of the Church, Cent. Ill, chapt. 17.
THE GREAT APOSTASY. 9
existed; and it is not common in any age for a great work of the Spirit of God to be exhibited but under the conduct of some re- markable saints, pastors, and reformers. This whole period as well as the whole scene of the persecution is very barren in such characters. * * Moral and philosophical and mon-
astical instructions will not effect for men what is to be expected from evangelical doctrine. And if the faith of Christ was so much declined (and its decayed state ought to be dated from about the year 270), we need not wonder that such scenes as Eusebius hints at without any circumstantial details, took place in the Christian world. * * He speaks also of the ambitious spirit
of many, in aspiring to the offices of the Church, the ill judged and unlawful ordinations, the quarrels among confessors them- selves, and the contentions excited by young demagogues in the very relics of the persecuted Church, and the multiplied evils which their vices excited among Christians. How sadly must the Christian world have declined which could thus conduct itself under the very rod of divine vengeance? Yet let not the infidel or the profane world triumph. It was not Christianity, but the departure from it, which brought on these evils."*
The foregoing embodies but a few of the many evidences that could be cited in demonstration of the fact that during the period immediately following the apostolic ministry —the period covered by the persecutions of the Christians by the heathen nations, — the Church was undergoing internal disintegration, and was in a state of increasing perversion. Among the more detailed or specific- causes of this ever widening departure from the spirit of the gospel of Christ, this rapidly growing apostasy, the following may be considered as important examples:
1 . The corrupting of the simple principles of the gospel by the admixture of the so-called philosophic systems of the times.
2. Unauthorized additions to the ceremonies of the Church, and the introduction of vital changes in essential ordinances.
3. Unauthorized changes in Church organization and govern- ment.
* Milner, Hist, of the Church, Cent. IV. chapt. 1. The Italics are introduced by the present writer. See also note 5, end of chapter.
10 IMPRO VEMENT ERA .
We shall consider in order each of the three causes here specified.
NOTES.
1. — Inordinate Zeal Manifested by some of the Early Chris- tians: "The sober discretion of the present age will more readily censure than admire, but can more easily admire than imitate, the fervor of the first Christians; who, according to the lively expression of Sulpicius Sev- erus, desired martyrdom with more eagernes than his own contempora- ries solicited a bishopric. The epistles which Ignatius composed as he was carried in chains through the cities of Asia, breathe sentiments the most repugnant to the ordinary feelings of human nature. He earnestly beseeches the Romans that when he should be exposed in the amphi- theatre, they would not by their kind but unreasonable intercession, de- prive him of the crown of glory, and he declares his resolution to provoke and irritate the wild beasts which might be employed as the instruments of his death. Some stories are related of the courage of martyrs who actually performed what Ignatius had intended: who exasperated the fury of the lions, pressed the executioner to hasten his office, cheerfully leaped into the fires which were kindled to consume them, and discovered a sensation of joy and pleasure in the midst of the most exquisite tor- ture." (Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ch. XVI).
2. — Internal Dissension During Time of Peace: As stated in the text the early part of Diocletian's reign — the period immediately preced- ing the outburst of the last great persecution to which the Christians were subjected— was a time of comparative freedom from opposition, and this period was characterized by internal disturbances and dissensions within the Church. Illustrative of the tolerance shown by the emperor before he became hostile to the Church, and the accompanying decline of spiritual earnestness among the Christians themselves, Gibbon says: "Diocletian and his colleagues frequently conferred the most important offices on those persons who avowed their abhorrence of the worship of the gods, but who had displayed abilities proper for the service of the state. The bishops held an honorable rank in the respective provinces, and were treated with distinction and respect, not only by the people, but by the magistrates themselves. Almost in every city the ancient churches were found insufficient to contain the increasing multitudes of proselytes; and in their place more stately and capacious edifices were erected for the public worship of the faithful. The corruption of man- ners and principles so forcibly lamented by Eusebius, may be considered
THE ORE A T APOSTA SY. 11
not only as a consequence, but as a proof, of the liberty which the Christians enjoyed and abused under the reign of Diocletian. Prosperity had relaxed the nerves of discipline. Fraud, envy, and malice prevailed in every congregation. The presbyters aspired to the episcopal office, which everyday became an object more worthy of their ambition. The bish- ops who contended with each other for ecclesiastical pre-eminence, ap- peared by their conduct to claim a secular and tyrannical power in the church; and the lively faith which still distinguished the Christians from the Gentiles, was shown much less in their lives than in their controversial writings." (Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chap. XVI).
3. — The Effect of Peace on the Early Church. "Disastrous as the persecutions of the early Christian centuries were, still more mischiev- ous to the Church were those periods of tranquility which intervened be- tween the outbursts of rage which prompted them. Peace may have her victories no less renowned than those of war; and so, too, she has her calamities, and they are not less destructive than those of war. War may destroy nations, but ease and luxury mankind corrupt — the body and the mind. Especially is peace dangerous to the church. Prosperity relaxes the reins of discipline; people feel less and less the need of a sustaining providence; but in adversity the spirit of man feels after God, and he is correspondingly more devoted to the service of religion. We shall find the early Christians no exception to the operation of this in- fluence of repose. Whenever it was accorded them, either through the mercy or the indifference of the emperors, internal dissensions, the intrigues of aspiring prelates, and the rise of heresies, characterized those periods." (B. H. Roberts, A New Witness for God, p. 70).
4. — Schisms and Heresies in the Early Church. Eusebius, whose writings date from the early part of the fourth century, cites the writings of Hegesippus, who lived in the first quarter of the second cen- tury, as follows: "The same author [Hegesippus] also treats of the beginning of the heresies that arose about this time, in the following words :
'But after James the Just had suffered martyrdom, as our Lord had for the same reason, Simeon, the son of Cleophas, our Lord's uncle, was appointed the second bishop [of Jerusalem] whom all proposed as the cousin of our Lord. Hence they called the church as yet a virgin, for it was not yet corrupted by vain discourses. Thebuthis made a beginning, secretly to corrupt it on account of his not being made bishop. He was one of those seven sects among the Jewish people. Of these also was Simeon, whence sprung the sect of Simonians; also Cleobius,
12 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
from whence come the Cleobians; also Dositheus, the founder of the Dositheans. Prom these also sprung the Gorthoeonians, from Gorthoeus; and also Masbotheans from Masbothoeus. Hence also the Meandrians, and Marcionists, and Carpocratians and Val- entinians, and Basilidians, and the Saturnilians, every one introducing his own peculiar opinions, on3 differing from the other. From these sprung the false Christs and false prophets and false apostles, who divided the unity of the church by the introduction of corrupt doctrines against God and against his Christ.' "(Eusebius, Eccl. Hist., Book IV, chap. XXII).
5. — Early Decline of the Church: Milner, summing up the con- ditions attending the church at the end of the second century, says: "And here we close the view of the second century, which, for the most part exhibited proofs of divine grace, as strong, or nearly so, as the first. We have seen the same unshaken and simple faith of Jesus, the same love of God and of the brethren; and — that in which they singu- larly excelled modern Christians — the same heavenly spirit and victory over the world. But a dark shade is enveloping these divine glories. The Spirit of God is grieved already by the ambitious intrusions of self- righteous, argumentative refinements, and Pharisaic pride; and though it be more common to represent the most sensible decay of godliness as commencing a century later, to me it seems already begun." (Milner; Hist. of the Church, Cent. II, chap. IX).
Mosheim, writing of conditions attending the closing years of th3 third century, says: The ancient method of ecclesiastical government seemed in general still to subsist, while, at the same time, by impercep- tible steps, it varied from the primitive rule and degenerated towards the form of a religious monarchy. * * * This change in the form of ecclesiastical government was soon followed by a train of vices, which dishonored the character and authority of those to whom the adminis- tration of the church was committed. For, though several yet contin- ued to exhibit to the world illustrative examples of primitive piety and Christian virtue, yet many were sunk in luxury and voluptuousness, puffed up with vanity, arrogance and ambition, possessed with a spirit of contention and discord, and addicted to many obher vices that cast an undeserved reproach upon the holy religion of which they were the un- worthy professors and ministers. This is testified in such an ample man- ner by the repeated complaints of many of the most respectable writers of this age, that truth will not permit us to spread the veil, which we should otherwise be desirous to cast over such enormities among an order so sacred. The bishops assumed in many places a princely au-
THE CHEAT APOSTASY. L3
thority, particularly those who had the greatest number of churches^under their inspection, and who presided over the most opulent assemblies. They appropriated to their evangelical function the splendid ensigns of temporal majesty. A throne surrounded with ministers, exalted above his equals the servant of the meek and humble Jesus; and sumptuous garments dazzled the eyes and the minds of the multitude into an ignor- ant veneration of their arrogated authority. The example of the bishops was ambitiously imitated by the presbyters, who, neglecting the sacred duties of their station, abandoned themselves to the indolence and delica- cy of an effeminate and luxurious life. The deacons, beholding the presbyters deserting thus their functions, boldly usurped their rights and privileges, and the effects of a corrupt ambition were spread through every rank of the sacred order." (Mosheim's Eccl. Hist.,Cent III, Part II, chap. II: 2, 4.
My Prayer.
I do not ask for fame,
Nor do I ask for power. I do not ask that wealth
Shall ever be my dower. The morrow needs no care,
No more does yesterday; 'Tis for the present hour,
Dear Lord, for which I pray.
For eyes to see the wrong;
For will to choose the right; For voice to sing hope's song
To make a sad face bright. Just help my lips to speak
But words of love and cheer. Just help me, Father, help
My conscience to shine clear. Just show me how to walk
In thine own perfect way, In thought and act and talk,
Just for today, just for today.
Elsie C. Carroll
Orderville, Utah.
The South of Ireland.
BY T. L. HATCH, PRESIDENT OF THE IRISH CONFERENCE.
Ireland is a country of more than passing interest for the active-minded traveler. It is only in the south and west, however, that one gets a proper view of the "rale paddy," and the most beautiful scenery which the island affords. Many of the inhabit- ants of these parts still speak the Gaelic, or native Irish, language. The Gaelic tongue is extinct in the north, and is fast dying out in the south, but the Catholic church and the National party are making strenuous efforts to have the learning of the mother tongue made a compulsory part of education. It is held by en- thusiasts, who are contending for Home Rule, that if Ireland is to be a prosperous nation it should have Irish rule; and that Irish
An Irish farm house in the country, at Kellswater, County Antrim. People from left to right: President T* J. Bennett, Jane Mcllvene, H. R. Merrill, Sister Mcllvene and William D. Head.
THE SOUTH OF IRELAND.
1.-
patriotism cannot lie properly maintained if the Irish language be
allowed to die.
Cork city, the capital of Munster, is the metropolis of the
south, and the third city of Ireland, in point of popula- tion which numbers about one hundred thousand. About ninety per cent of its people belong to the Roman Cath- olic church. The Church of Ireland (Anglican) has a large following here. It owns half a dozen places of worship in the city; its cathe- dral (St. FinnBarre's) being the finest church building in Cork. St. Ann's, Shandon, is also a noted building. It was erected in 1722, on the site of a very ancient church which was destroyed by fire during the seige of Cork, in 1690. The steeple of Shan- don is unique in structure, and is a prominent object from all parts of the city. It consists of a towei and a Shandon Church, Cork, Ireland. lailtem, of three stories each,
and is one hundred and seventy feet high. In this tower are the sweet-toned ''Bells of Shandon," of which poets have sung and novelists written.
Cork is supposed to have originated in the sesTenth cen- tury, in connection with an abbey founded here by St. Finn Barre, in 623 A. I). In the eleventh century the Danes established a trading post here, and enclosed the place with walls. They were found in undisturbed possession of Cork at the time of the Anglo-Norman invasion, in 1172.
The city's principal industries are^the manufacture of whisky
16
IMPROVEMENT ERA.
and beer, cloth and dairy products.
Blarney Castle.
''The splendid old ruin of Blarney Castle is situated in the midst of a country exceedingly beautiful. It is five miles from Cork City, and is the easiest and favorite excursion from Cork.
"The Castle stands upon the. steep slope of a hillside overlooking a stream which winds away through a lovely and well wooded valley.
"Hard by is the neat little vil- lage in which the famous Blarney tweed is manufactured. The world- wide reputation that Blarney has ac- quired is not due to the magnificent ruin of mediaeval days and the lovely scenery around it, but to the 'Blarney Stone.' This stone, fixed into the northern battlement, has the reputa- tion of giving to all who kiss it the gift of a soft and persuasive manner; and it is the main object of the multi- tudes who yearly visit Blarney to see this stone and if possible touch it with their lips."
There are also iron foundries, and the city is a seaport of considerable importance.
Some four or five miles north of here is the famous Blarney Castle, built by Cormac Mc- Carthy, fourth Lord of Mus- kerry, about the middle of the fifteenth century. It is a wonderful piece of work, and was no doubt an admir- able defense for its owners; but it was badly damaged by the shells of Cromwell's forces, who besieged and took it, in 1646. At the northeast corner of the castle is. an opening in the solid rock of the castle base, which leads to the prison, consisting of two chambers dug out of the rock. This prison is as "atrocious an enclosure as was ever devised by bar- baric tyranny or malice for the punishment of its un^ happy victims." To enter this cavern is unpleasant enough, but to think that human beings were com- pelled to remain in such a Thousands of tourists visit
place, in chains, is heart-sickening.
Blarney every summer. The object which has gained notoriety
for the castle is a certain stone near the top —
"That whoever kisses, Oh! he never misses to grow eloquent. 'Tis he may clamber to a lady's chamber, Or become a member of Parliament,
THE SOUTH OF IRELAND.
A clever spouter he'll sure turn out, or An out-an-outer to be let alone! Don't hope to hinder him, or to bewilder him, Sure he's a pilgrim from the Blarney stone."
17
Photo by Leonard S. Miles.
Blarney Castle, 120 feet high.
Standing on the top of the battlement are W. W. Dummer; at his right, A. C. Black, at his left, T. L. Hatch, W. S. Beatie and T. J. Bennett. The latter is president of the Irish conference, the others are traveling elders.
It is a novel undertaking to kiss the Blarney stone, and one which most people would not attempt just for pastime; but the desire to be daring usually overcomes timidity at Blarney; and the stone is being slowly worn away by the lips of those who covet the gift of charming eloquence.
18
IMPRO VEMENT ERA .
About a mile down the river Lee from Cork, stand the an- cient ivy-covered ruins of Dundanion castle, from which William Penn embarked to found the colony of Pennsylvania.
About twenty-five miles east of Cork, on the estuary of the Blackwater, (sometimes called the Irish Rhine) stands the quaint old town of Youghal, one of the oldest in Ireland, and a summer
resort of considerable import- ance. It was originally a Dan- ish settlement, and has wit- nessed many stirring scenes. It received its first charter from King John, in 1209. In 1588, the brave and enter- prising Sir Walter Raleigh was chief magistrate of the town. Sir Walter and the poet Spenser were among the English adventurers who shared in the forfeited pos- sessions of Gerald Fitzgerald, sixteenth Earl of Desmond, on the failure of the Geraldine rebel- lion, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Spenser lived in Ireland for several years, and held several important government positions. His home was burned in 1598, when the Tyrone rebellion spread into Munster. Raleigh's home is still in a fine state of preserva- tion, and is used as a private residence by the present owner. It was in the gardens at Myrtle Grove (as his home is called) that Sir Walter planted the first potato in European soil; and under the four yew trees immediately in front of his home this favorite knight of Queen "Bess" puffed the first tobacco smoke that tainted Britain's air. Until recently, the bench on which he sat, the pipe which he used, and the bucket from which his servant poured water on him when he was thought to be on fire, were all exhibited at Myrtle Grove; but the present owner does not allow visitors on the inside of the gate. We were obliged to climb to the top of the stone wall which surrounds the property and view the house as best we could from that position.
Cork, Ireland.
Myrtle Grove,
Sir Walter Raleigh's house at Youghal.
The Crown of Individuality.
BY WILLIAM GEORGE JORDAN.
I — Introduction.
The supreme courage of life is the courage of the soul. It is liv- ing day by day, sincerely, steadfastly, serenely, — despite all opinions, all obstacles, all opposition. It means the wine of inspiration for ourselves and others that comes from the crushed grapes of our sorrows. This courage makes the simplest life, great; it makes the greatest life— sublime. It means the royal dignity of fine in- dividual living.
Every man reigns a king over the kingdom of— self. He wears the crown of individuality that no hands but his own can ever remove. He should not only reign, but — rule. His individu- ality is his true self, his best self, his highest self, his self victo- rious. His thoughts, his words, his acts, his feelings, his aims and his powers are his— subjects. With gentle, firm strength he must command them or, they will finally take from his feeble fin- gers the reins of government and rule in his stead. Man must first be true to himself or he will be false to all the world.
Man reigns over this miniature kingdom of self — alone. He is as much an autocrat as is God in ruling the universe. No one can make him good or evil but he, himself. No one else in all the world has his work or his influence. Each of us can carry a balm of joy, and strength, and light, and love to some hearts that will respond to no other. Each can add the last bitter drop in the cup
* From The Crown of Individuality. Copyright, 1909, by Fleming H. Revell Company.
20 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
of life to some one dependent on us through love or friendship. No other in all the world can live our life, loyally fulfil our duties, or wear the crown of our individuality. It is a wondrous joy and inspiration to us if we see this in its true light, for never again would we ask: "What use am I in the world?"
When God "created man in his own image" his first gift to him was — dominion. The greatest dominion is over — self. Our lives should be vital to those around us. Each of us can be the sun of life in the sky of some one - perhaps many. Were we sud- denly to have made luminant to us in every vivid detail our daily influence we should stand stunned by the revelation as was Moses in reverent expectancy before the burning bush.
The realization of the glory of the crown of our individuality would sweep the pettiness of selfish living and the wonder of the unanswerable eternal problems alike into — nothingness.
The world needs more individuality in its men and women. It needs them with the joy of individual freedom in their minds, the fresh blood of honest purpose in their hearts, and the courage of truth in their souls. It needs more people daring to think their own highest thoughts and strong vibrant voices to speak them, not human phonographs mechanically giving forth what some one else has talked into them. The world needs men and women led by the light of truth alone, and as powerless to suppress their highest convictions as Vesuvius to restrain its living fire.
They have the glad inspiring consciousness that they are not mere units on the census list, not weak victims of their own im- pulses, not human bricks baked into deadly uniformity by conven- tionality, but themselves— individuals. They are not faint carbon copies of others but strong, bold-print originals, — of themselves. They are ever lights not reflections, voices not echoes. To them the real things of life are the only great ones, the only objects worth a hard struggle.
In our darkest hours new strength always comes to us, if we believe, as the silent stars shine out'in the sky above us — when it is dark enough. The hardest battle for our highest self is, when hungry for love and companionship of the soul, we must fight on — alone. If we have one or two dear loyal ones watching bravely by our side, understanding us with a look, heartening uSjWith a
THE CROWN OF INDIVIDUALITY. 21
smile or inspiring us with a warm hand-pressure, we should fairly tingle with courage and confidence.
But if these leave us, slip away under the strain, or even be- tray us, let us fact' alone the seemingly empty life that is left us, just as heroically as we can. Let us still stand in silent strength, like a lone sentry keeping guard over a sleeping regiment, in the grim shadows of night, forgetting for a time the terror of the solitude, the darkness, the loneliness, the isolation and the phan- tom invasion of memories that will not stay buried, in the courage that comes from facing an inevitable duty with a sturdy soul. Of course, it is not easy to live on the uplands of life. It was never intended to be easy, but oh — it is worth while.
Individuality is the only real life. It is breathing the ozone of mental, moral, spiritual freedom. Nature made the countless thousands of flowers, trees, birds and animals without permitting two to be precisely alike. She stamped them with — individuality. She did it in a greater way for man. Some people seem to spend most of their time — trying to soak off the stamp. They follow in the footsteps of the crowd, guided by their advice. They wear a uniform of opinion; suffer in the strait-jacket of silly convention, seek ever to keep in step with the line, and march in solid same- ness along the comfortably paved road of other people's thinking, — not their own.
Individuality means stimulating all the flowers of our best nature and banishing one by one the weeds of our lower self. It means kingship over self and kingship with all humanity. It means self-knowledge, self-confidence, self-reliance, self-poise, self-con- trol, self -conquest. It is the fullest expression of our highest self, as the most perfect rose most truly represents the bush from which it blossoms.
Individuality is the complete self-acting union and unity of man's whole mind, nature, heart and life. It is moved ever from within, not from without. The automobile is a type of individu- ality— it is neither pushed, pulled nor propelled by outside forces. The automobile is self -inspired, self-directed, self-moving.
Eccentricity is not individuality —it is a warped, unnatural distortion, like a reflexion from a concave or convex mirror. Hy- pocrisy is not individuality a mask is never a face and no matter
22 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
how close it be held to the skin it never becomes a real face. Con- ventionality is not individuality— it is the molding of all that is vital and original in us to conform to an average type. Affecta- tion is not individuality — it is only pretentious display of qualities one has not in stock. Individuality permeates every thought, word and act of ours, as a half grain of aniline will tinge a hogshead of water so that a microscope will detect the coloring matter in every drop. Individuality crowns every expression of itself, in every day of living, with the— crown of its own kingship.
He who is swerved from a course he knows is right, through fear of ridicule, taunts, sneers or sarcasm of those around him, is not a man — self -directed by right. He is only a weak puppet pulled by the strings of manipulation in the hands of others. He is a figure in a moral Punch and Judy show — without its entertain- ing quality.
The man who knows he is doing wrong may realize it coolly, calmly, considerately, and even confess it with a sort of bravado, while he is too cowardly and selfish to do the imperative right, is not a king over his higher self, but a weak slave of his lower self. That he knows the right and sees it without illusion merely emphasizes the depth of the abyss into which he has fallen.
The woman who lets bitterness grow in her heart until it pois- ons judgment, kills the love that was dear to her, deadens all the finer emotions and lets petrified prejudice usurp the throne of her justice, while she shuts her ears to all pleas for understanding, commits one of those little tragedies in every-day life that may scar for years the soul of the one so cruelly misjudged. She may recklessly throw the golden crown of her individuality, with all its dear, sweet love and tenderness, into the weary loneliness of the years.
He who, from sheer lack of purpose, drifts through life, let- ting the golden years of his highest hopes glide empty back into the prospective of his past, while he fills his ears with the lorelei song of procrastination, is working overtime in accumulating re- morse to darken his future. He is idly permitting the crown of his individuality to remain an irritating symbol of what might be rather than a joyous emblem of what is. This man is reigning, for reign he must, but he is not — ruling.
THE CROWN OF INDIVIDUALITY. 23
Individuality does not mean merely being ourself, but our — highest self. It never means living for self alone. The world, in every phase must be saved by — individuals. You cannot take hu- manity in mass up in moral elevators; they must receive and ac- cept good as individuals. The united work of individuals makes up the action of society. It is easier to stimulate the individual to action than it is to galvanize society, as it is easier to lift one stone than a cathedral. As we intensify true individuality, we at the same instant begin a fine co-operation with the best work of all humanity.
Individuality is the link; co-operation is the chain. You can strengthen the chain only as you strengthen the link. Christ, the great individualist, knew no shadow of selfishness. He sought to make better, stronger links in the living chain of humanity. His influence was ever an inspiration. He represented perfected indi- viduality and individual perfection.
Let us reign a king over our individuality by conquering every element of weakness within us that keeps us from our best, and raising eveiy element of strength to its highest power by living in simple harmony with our ideals. We should begin it today. To- day is the only real day of life for us. Today is the tomb of yes- terday, the cradle of tomorrow. All our past ends in today. All our future begins in today.
Let us seek to reign nobly on the throne of our highest self for just a single day, filling every moment of every hour with our finest, unselfish best. Then there would come to us such a vision of the golden glory of the sunlight heights, such a glad, glowing tonic of the higher levels of life, that we could never dwell again in the darkened valley of ordinary living without feeling shut in, stifled, and hungry for the freer air and the broader outlook.
If at the close of day we can think of even one human being whose sky has been darkened by our selfishness, one whose bur- den has been new-weighted by our unkindness, one whose pillow will be wet with sobs for our injustice, one whose faith in human- ity has been weakened at a crucial moment by our bitterness or cru- elty, let us make quick atonement. Let us write the letter our heart impels us to write, while foolish pride would stay the hand; let us speak the confession that will glorify the lips we fear it may
24 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
humiliate; let us stretch out the hand of love in the darkness till it touches and inspires the faithful one that possibly never caused us real pain.
Let us have that great pride in our individuality that would scorn to let petty pique or vanity keep us from doing what we know is right. Wear the robes of your royal pride in such kingly fashion that it would seem no sacrifice to stoop to brush off that which might stain them.
Let us make this life of ours a joy to ourselves and a tower of strength to others. Then shall we have made this life a success, no matter what its results. We shall have made character - and character is real life. The truest success is not the one the world often holds highest — that which is rung up on a cash register. The truest success is a strong nature, living at a high but steady moral pressure, and radiating love, kindness, sympathy, strength, tend- erness and joy to others.
Let us live with our faces turned ever courageously to the East for the faintest sunrise of new inspiration. Let us realize that the four guardians of the crown of individuality are Right, Justice, Truth, and Love. Let us make Right our highest guide, Justice our finest aim, Truth our final revelation, and Love the constant atmosphere of our living. Then truly will we reign and — rule. It is not the extent of the kingdom, but the fine quality of the kingship that really counts.
(The next article in this series, "No Room for Them in the Inn," will appear in the December Era.)
Don't Wabble.
There is one sort of man that there is no place for in the uni- verse, and that is the wabbler, the man on the fence, who never knows where he stands, who is always slipping about, dreaming, apologizing, never daring to take a firm stand on anything. Every- body dispises him. He is a weakling. Better a thousand times have the reputation of being eccentric, peculiar and cranky even, than never to stand for anything. — Success.
a J3 -=
i 3 c tJC-^f c =3 3 >.
~ .-^ ^- *- " c — o
5.C
ft 33
5 ~z M *
P,Eh o ■ 3? a .fir
*o - "? — '
- •_
5 * .2 .S
c 3>
2 $
i § S -^_i
W 3
S3 V
rR C
eS
I? °
ran - ~ s-
C
or, K
-/.
o>
J 1 h f a ~~ e §
ea rt3 iTl w o b g q
S « m c -a S j -S
ps ■*> Sot- u .SPm S
2 5 > © ' s S> o J ^ £§2o-5.S 5 b
17-1 ^ 5 ?c 5c = c
»S ft* 15 * g c
fi _<fi «' 5q
. OT OS r > S
OB © >»iQ
,2 In "
.g • C8
ea bJD .
00 'S <»
.5 -5 2
!"*
m « c
>■» 5?'E cs <2 as
55 °*
93 £• .5
33 d S >>-^ ii K-
:; S s .S " g I
O w
— -= .2
S- vh cS C >- ZZ
c ^ S S l-J 83
g _ jg p &
Z. « <d B © «
2 ^ -G ""
5 c "
ca c ;^o
o>
c ea
09 5
.20
"^ g
n aj co
" — •*a fe -
-2 •= g © to ° ."S 03
> c^"o g^.«^ £
33 o >. C < — O ■ 33
w S £--g a 5 "S -c . ^ u S •> § § - 33 ^
3> ;3 ^ C, -C .33 j- »-. J=
S 5 13 1 « ° 5 . S fe
• - -, O _i -/: 33 W
£ '- x
33 i— +»
:IP=
1 33 33
S^^=x
i-r .25
l_3 "^ -»J SB o DO
^ ^ *- >
08 C = 1
:—
^3 CC w Lk ^^ N S fi i d
Jean Calvin.
BY LAWRENCE SQUIRES.
DEVANT CE REMPART DE L'ANCIENNE
GENEVE
CONSTRUIT EN 1543
SERA ERIGE LE MONUMENT INTERNATIONAL
DE LA REFORMATION
10 JUILLET 1909
IVe CENTENAIRE DE LA NAISSANCE DE CALVIN
On Tuesday, July 6, the above inscription, the first stone of a monument to be erected commemorative of the Reformation and the work of Calvin at Geneva, was laid, there being delegates from almost every country of Europe and America present at the ceremony. Before this there was scarcely a thing, unless it is a short, narrow street which bears his name, to tell the passing voy- ager that Jean Calvin once ruled over Geneva, or to give one the least idea that this city was at one time the center of the Reforma- tion in Europe, and called by some the Rome of Protestantism.
In the month of July, 1536, a French voyager, who was passing through Switzerland on his way to Strasburg, entered Geneva to spend the night. By his dress one would recognize him as being a student of one of the schools; he had a valet who called him Master Jehan. It was Jean Calvin.
The reform had already been commenced by William Farell, who had been sent down to Geneva from Bern. To help him he had a man by the name of Viret, from the Canton of Vaud. But the "reform" was having difficulty in taking root; it lacked a good leader. Farell, on learning Calvin was in town, knowing him
.//•;. l.V CM A' IX.
27
already by reputation, went down to the inn to see and talk to him about Geneva.
Calvin, with clear eyes, could easily see the task that lay be- fore the man who should undertake to lead the reform in this city,
General View of the Monument in Commemoration of the Reforma- tion, and the Work of Calvin, at Geneva, Switzerland.
The bass-reliefs between the smaller figures show the first predication of Farell and Viret at Geneva, and of Knox at Edinburgh; these are im- mediately at the right and left of the central figures. The others are different historical events of other countries, pertaining to the Reforma- tion, such as France, Germany, the American Colonies, England, Austria- Hungary, and the United Provinces, or Netherlands. The smaller fig- ures are those of some of the noted historical figures of that epoch, namely, Coligny, William the Taciturn, and Frederick William of Brandenburg, the great elector, on one side, and Roger Williams, Oliver Cromwell and Etienne Bocskay, prince of Transylvania on the other. The four central figures each holds a Bible in his hand.
and at first refused Farell' s request that he stay, alleging that his health would not permit it, and that he had already chosen an- other career. But Farell, thinking that it was through God's providence that Calvin had been led here, was not going to let him
v>8 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
escape so easily, and even threatened him with divine curses, if he refused to stay. His zeal and sincerity impressed Calvin, who then decided to stay and work with him. One of the papers of this city has this to say of the results of Calvin's decision:
"A month after he [Calvin] decided to stay over in Geneva, he com- menced the work that consumed the twenty-seven years of existence that lay before him. That work is Geneva, the Geneva of modern times. It is its national church, it is its civil laws of the sixteenth century. It is its university and public school, an international center of culture, learning, patriotism and energy. It is the character of its people and magistrates. It is the situation it has assured for itself in Switzerland among the Pro- testant towns of Bern, Basel and Zurich. It is the position it held among the capitals of Europe, a puny, little city, become in that quarter of a century the refuge of thousands of people who were banished from their own countries, for the most noble of causes, the metropolis of a republic without limits."
I am inclined to believe the person who wrote this was a little over-enthusiastic because of the Jubilee, and may have overstated real facts, but this is the sentiment of many of the Protestants with whom I have talked.
As a short resume of Calvin's life and work may be of interest to the readers of the Era, I add to the foregoing intro- duction the following facts that I have gathered together:
Jean Chauvin (or Calvin) was born at Noyon, near Paris, July 10, 1509, and died at Geneva, May 27, 1564. He was always very quick at learning, and while yet a student, showed that intel- ligence which quickly grasps all that is within its reach, that strength of mind which so vigorously converts acquired knowledge to its own use and seems to be less a recent conquest than an in- born faculty. He was usually the leader of his class and often completed before his fellow-pupils the lessons that they had just heard. As a pupil, he had the authority of a master. At one time he made an appointment with a Spanish physician, who was also a philosopher, for a theological argument; the physician, whose name was Servetus, and the duel did not come about until nineteen years later at Geneva, and then it was rather one-sided, as Calvin was in power at the time.
JEAN CALVIN.
■1\)
Calvin had first learned of the reform in Prance, through the writings of Luther, and soon after started to preach it in that
Farell, Calvin, Knox and Viret — the four central figures of the Monument of the Reformation, Geneva.
country. He was sought after, and not feeling himself safe, quit his mother country about 1534 and went to Basel. There he learned Hebrew, and published his Institution Chretienne in 1535-6.
He afterwards returned to France, hastened to arrange his affairs, and set out again, this time for Germany. Not being able to cross Lorraine and Flanders, because of the war, he resolved to pass through Geneva, where we found him at the commencement of this article.
It was not an easy task that fell upon him when he consented to stop at Geneva, because it was necessary, and this was the most difficult, to coincide the reform of the morals with the religious reform. So, to really be able to appreciate the work that Calvin accomplished and the difficulties which he had to overcome, we must have an idea of what Geneva was at that epoch. Guizot gives us a very good picture of that city's condition, in 1536, the year of Calvin's arrival:
"The reform at Geneva had been preceded by long political agitations, and for several years the parties, delivered over to themselves, had been prey to the alternatives of a violent struggle, so had, one might say, un- learned discipline and obedience to law. The parties of the Dukes of
30 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
Savoy* and the Bishop, to retain their power, which was escaping from them, had in their moments of triumph resorted to those infamous poli- tics which permit licentiousness and debauchery among the people, in the hope of conducting them to servility by corruption. The patriotic party, often oppressed, had nourished itself with hateful passions, but had not been able, even in such a small state, to escape the contagion of the bad habits. Victory, however, was at last theirs, but victory after such dis- order is followed by new corruptions.
"Introduced in Geneva, amidst these conditions, the reform, eagerly and sincerely embraced by the people, was at first adopted by the state leaders and the party men for political views only, in order to conserve the alliance with Bern, and to raise an insurmountable barrier between the republic and the old governors. This object was attained, but the reform called for the improvement of the public morals, the establish- ment of a regular order and reverence to the magistrates and laws as well. From that time numerous obstacles were encountered, licentious- ness reigned, places of debauchery were not only tolerated, but were con- verted into institutions. This loose living had penetrated into the homes of families and colored itself with foolish maxims. On the other hand, the long duration of the factions had accustomed the people to insubor- dination and riots, so the principal citizens had contracted that arbitrary taste and those habits of irresponsibility and despotism, which render authority so difficult when it wishes to fulfil its duty by exercising itself over all. Moreover, in the bosom of reformed Geneva, and after the ex- pulsion of the foreign party, a new faction formed itself, called Libertins. This party assumed to conduct itself according to its own caprices, and to govern the state as it wished, not even permitting itself to be governed by any authority or rule. It was also very mutinous and licentious and fought against the amendment of the morals and the power of the magistrates. It was led by a few men, formerly patriots,
* It was at the beginning of the sixteenth century that the struggle between Geneva and the House of Savoy became active and violent. The Duke had thought, by showing himself friendly, he would induce the "Genevois" to give themselves over to him. He promised to re-establish the former fairs that had been taken away from them, if the syndics would consent, in the name of the community, to give him an oath of loyalty. The General Council replied to him — "that the citizens would rather be poor and free, than rich and slaves." This reply angered him, and from then on he tried to do them all the harm possible.
JEAH CALVIN. 31
who were indignant that after having obtained the national independence and having expelled Catholicism, they sin mid fall under the yoke of mor- als and laws."
It was in the midst of this turbulent dissolution that the re- form had to be organized. Calvin immediately set to work, and with Parell, drew up a formulary of a profession of faith, and a plan of ecclesiastical discipline. These two acts, read before the Conseil des deux cents in the month of November, 1536, were sanctioned by the people assembled in general council, July 29, 1537. This was but a first step. After having regulated the liberty of thought and belief by the formulary, there rested to re- press the liberty of habits. Farell and Calvin preached against licentiousness and demanded a repression. This excess of zeal upraised a discontent that was almost general, and Farell and Cal- vin, refusing to submit to certain restrictions demanded by the people, especially the Libertins, who became the controling fac- tion, were banished. Farell retired to Neuchatel and Calvin to Strasburg (1538).
The Libertins feted their victory with a great deal of noise and eclat, and immediately abolished the severe regulations estab- lished by the reformers. Living became loose, and the republic was badly administered. The people soon felt the need of a firm hand to hold the reigns of the government, so there soon uprose a very pronounced movement which manifested itself against the Libertins.
In 1541, after a decision made by "syndics" chosen by the adversaries of the Libertins, Ami Perrin was sent to Strasburg to tiy to induce Calvin to return and again take charge of Geneva. This he succeeded in doing, after a long hesitation by the reform- er, and Calvin re-entered Geneva September 3, 1541, this time almost in triumph.
Immediately upon his return, he took the necessary measures to give the church that order she so much needed. He first drew up the Ordinances Ecclesiastiques, a sort of religious constitution that regulated eveiything concerning the "culte," the election of ministers, the church administration and the inspection of the mor- als. To execute the ordinances he created the Consistoire, a
32 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
body composed of both laity and clergy, and the office of which was to direct the church and to superintend the private life of the citizens. It held the right to censure, pronounce the exclusion of the sacrament, and to even apply by council pecuniary and corpo- ral punishment. Thanks to these drastic measures, the morals of the people were much improved and became austere.
The registers of the councils and consistories also proved that the people were observing the laws; a number of persons were fined for not having attended religious worship regularly. Sumptuary law forbade men to wear gold or silver chains, and women to have broideries, or more than two rings. It was even prohibited to serve more than four dishes at dinner, and men were only allowed to assemble in five designated places to play skittles, these being restricted to certain hours, and the surveillance of a member of the council.
Thus the judging of all errors in doctrinal matters, all vices and all disorders, were under the jurisdiction of this Consistoire.'" Gerusez says, "Plagiarist of Rome and Madrid, Calvin thus estab- lished, under the name of consistory, anew inquisition with a more extended jurisdiction than that of the 'Catholic Inquisition.'' Dating from 1541 to his death," continues the same historian, "Calvin reigned at Geneva. However, his reign was not left un- contested, he had much to wrestle with. ' It is during these years of struggle that one should see and admire the activity of his mind, as well as the influence and power of his character, in all the crit- ical circumstances. To maintain the high position that he had made for himself, he was obliged to be constantly before the public; talking to the people and appearing upon the public squares to brave those who desired to contest his power. One can scarcely understand how he was able to attend to so much work; predica- tions almost every day, improvised theological discussions, appoint- ments with all those who desired to be enlightened upon matters of faith, as well as an active correspondence kept up with all the dissidents of Europe. All this marched abreast of the church ad- ministration, the surveillance of the state, and the composition of his great works. All that he has written and said, all that he has produced is incalculable. His letters alone, if they were united, would fill not less than thirty volumes, and there exists at Geneva
.//•:. l.V CALVIX.
::::
two thousand sermons that he has pronounced mained manuscripts.
which have re-
"We must realize also, and this increases our astonishment, that this man with such an active mind was feeble in body, that he was a prey to the most cruel of maladies, and most of his writings were dictated while he was confined to his bed. However, one might think that this bodily weak- ness, that this constant illness which did not permit him to enjoy any of the worldly pleasures, contributed to magnifying the activity of his mind. One is almost seized with fear, in the presence of this activity of mind that is carried away by ambition towards a single goal, in one constant direction which nothing turns aside and with a movement that nothing slackens. The struggle for power is often at the price of this perseverance; but power in the hands of such ardent, sickly, ambitious men becomes an insupportable tyranny."
Freedom of thought was even more obnoxious to Calvin's mind than loose living. He, like some of the other reformers, after ob- taining power resorted to the same cruel means to protect his be- liefs that the Catholics had employed. "What man," says Rous- seau, "was ever more peremptory, more imperious, more decisive, or more divinely infallible, in his own mind, than Calvin, to whom the least opposition, the least objection that we dared to make, was always considered a work from Satan, a crime deserving of death?" But all tyranny provokes opposition, and Calvin was obliged to fight, both in politics and religion, against formidable adversa- ries.
I once passed through a small town in France that is situated about three and a half miles from the city of Geneva. This town has about 3,000 inhabitants and is called Annemasse. In the principal
Drawn by Lawrence Squires, From an engraving.
John Calvin, Protestant Re- former; Born 1509, Died in Geneva, 1564.
34 1MPR0 VEMENT ERA .
part of it, there has been a monument erected in memory of Michael Servetus who was Calvin's most formidable adversary. Servetus wrote a book which he called Restitutio Christianismi and which contested some of Calvin's beliefs, principally that of the Trinity. This he sent to Calvin who was terribly agitated by it; but, after all, it was merely the consequence of the principle laid by Protes- tantism itself, that is, private interpretation of the scriptures. In his indignation he wrote to Farell and Viret, in the month of February, 1546, that if Servetus should come to Geneva he would not leave it alive. He kept his word, but it was through the fault of the Vien- na Magistrates who, outstripping the Catholic judges, condemned Servetus to be burned, in June, 1553. Servetus succeeded in evad- ing the law and was only burned in effigy. But the strangest thing is that he took refuge in Geneva, the city ruled by his mortal enemy. Arriving there in the first part of July he was arrested about August 13, and after a trial which lasted more than two months, Servetus, judged by authentic extracts from his works, was condemned to the flames.
The most touching and impressive parts of this story are the inscriptions found upon the monument raised in honor of Servetus. These I have copied and send to your readers.
On the front of the base is written: —
To
Michael Servetus
Apostle of free belief
and
Martyr of free thought
Born Villeneuve, d'Aragon, Sept. 29, 1511.
Upon the denunciation of Calvin
Burned in effigy at Vienna by the Catholic Inquisition, June 17, 1553
and Burned alive at Geneva, Oct. 27, 1553.
On the left side is written: —
The arrest of Servetus in Geneva, where he had neither published anything nor dogmatized, and where consequently he was not amenable, should be regarded as a barbarity and an insult to the right of nations. — (Voltaire.)
JEAN CA L I IN. 35
Locked up in a damp prison, sick and deprived of all relief, Servetus wrote to his judges: — I entreat you to shorten this agony, you sec that Calvin, to please himself, wishes to have me rot in prison. The lice are eating me alive, my shoes are in tatters, and I haven't the means of changing neither doublet nor shirt.
On the back: —
The administrative council of the city of Geneva having refused a site for the statue of Michael Servetus offered by international subscrip- tion, the committee thereof had it removed to the municipality of Anne- masse. It was inaugurated Oct. 25, 1908. Mr. J. Cursat being .Mayor of Annemasse and A. Pellet and E. Laurancin deputies.
On the right: —
Michael Servetus
Hellenist, geographer, physician, physiologist, has well merited from
humanity, by his scientific discoveries as well as his devotion to
the sick and poor, the indomitable independence of his
intelligence and conscience.
"At the critical moment as through all the course of his trial there was never a word of retraction came from these lips of Servetus, his con- victions were invincible and he had made for the cause of truth the sac- rifice of his life." — Jules Barni (1862).
Most of Calvin's followers and admirers have regretted this act and have condemned it as an unjustifiable cruelty, but at the same time they excuse him by recalling the condition of his sur- roundings, at that epoch, as well as the sincerity of his convic- tions. -At his death, according to his orders, he was buried in the city cemetery, without ceremony. Today all that marks his grave- is a small stone of about 8x10 inches, with J. C. cut in it.
One would naturally think that such austerity as that prac- ticed by Calvin, in Geneva, would leave its effects upon the inhabit- ants, through many generations to come, but today it is scarcely visible in this beautiful city. In fact, we find the other extreme, and the Genevans are quite proud to have their "Mile" called "Le Petit Paris." They also attempt (and succeed quite well) to keep pace with all of that celebrated city's latest "modes" of dress, etc. I think this is due mostly to the necessity of attract-
36
IMPROVEMENT ERA.
ing the tourists, pleasure-seekers, etc., to their city, as it depends a great deal upon this element for sustenance.
Therefore, if Jean Cal- vin was to come back to his once proud possession and walk along its streets or visit its "Kursaal" he would be terribly shocked. By this I don't wish to infer that Geneva is so greatly demoral- ized, but its inhabitants, ' catching the habit from then- visitors, have become pleas- ure-seekers, careless in then- living, and treat religion rather lightly.
Geneva is an ideal place for the voyager, who is at the same time seeking rest, to spend a few days or weeks. Along the "quais" of an evening there is a continual strain of orchestral music, coming from the different hotels, cafes, etc.; this, added to the beautiful effect of the many lights reflecting in the waters, leaves a most lasting impression, and has a most charming effect upon a person.
There are veiy few people who have not read or heard tell of the beauties of Lake Geneva, upon the shores of which we found so many beautiful little summer retreats, where people from al- most every clime pass a few weeks or months of the year. A part of this lake runs over onto French territory while the largest part of it is in Switzerland. Between Geneva and the Chateau de Chil- lon, which are situated on the extreme ends of the lake, there is a continual line of lake steamers which are always crowded, during the beautiful summer months, with voyagers, representing almost all of the modern nations.
I have noticed that in all of the small villages frequented by the tourist, large hotels are being erected, and one remarks a de-
From a Drawing by Lawrence Squires.
St. Peter's Church, where Calvin Preached.
JEAN CALVIN. 37
cided contrast between the dirty dark, rock dwellings, some of which are a century or more old, and the clean, new hotels with their attractive surroundings. It looks as if it will only be a matter of time when Switzerland will be one immense resort for the attraction of foreigners. One comes here and rides on the lakes and climbs the Alps in the summer, while in the winter he coasts, skates and indulges in ski sports.
Geneva, Switzerland.
The Just Shall Live By Faith.
I /•'()/• the Improvement Km.)
The just shall live by faith.
The Father good and wise, In tenderness and love,
Doth ofttimes close the eyes Of those his best beloved,
To prove full well their worth. Faith reacheth to the skies;
Oft knowledge cleaves to earth.
The just shall live by faith.
The just, mark well the.name. His best, most treasured gold
Most often in the flame The alchemist doth place;
But when withdrawn at last, Oh, then what wondrous grace!
Of blemish or alloy
It doth not bear a trace.
The just shall live by faith.
Take heart, ye weary- worn, We trust and hope and wait,
With brow pierced by the thorn. There'll come the glorious dawn.
When God will raise his voice, And in his might proclaim:
"Behold, my blest, my choice,
Who up thru trial came!"
Salt Lake City, Utah. Grace Ingles Frost.
Salvation Universal.
BY JOSEPH F. SMITH, JR., ASSISTANT CHURCH HISTORIAN.
The greatest of all the gifts of God unto his children, is the gift of salvation.*
The greatest of all his works, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man, which constitutes his glory. f
For this grand and glorious purpose, worlds are created by him and peopled with his children. He gives to them his command- ments, granting the power to choose for themselves whether or not they will obey. Those who obey him in all things he has prom- ised great blessings, they shall be added upon in his celestial king- dom for ever and ever, and shall be crowned with the fulness of his glory. But to those who reject his laws, and become a law unto themselves in unrighteousness, shall punishment be meted out according to their evil deeds.
The plan of salvation, or code of laws, which is known as the gospel of Jesus Christ, was adopted in the heavens, before the foundation of the world was laid. It was appointed there that Adam our father should come to this earth and stand at the head of the whole human family. It was a part of this great plan, that he should partake of the forbidden fruit and fall, thus bringing suffering and death into the world, even for the ultimate good of his children. By many he has been severely criticized because of his fall, but Latter-day Saints, through modern revelation, have
* Doc. and Gov. 6: 13. f Book of Moses 1; 39,
Salvation UNIVERSAL. 3&
learned that such was necessary in order that man should have his agency and, through the various vicissitudes he has to pass, receive a knowledge of both good and evil, without which it would he im- possible for him to gain the exaltation prepared for him.
It was also necessary because of Adam's transgression for the only Begotten Son of the Father to come to redeem the world from Adam's fall. This also was a part of the plan chosen before the earth was made, for Jesus is called the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world.* He came and redeemed us from the fall— even all the inhabitants of the earth. Not only did he redeem us from Adam's transgression, but he also redeemed us from our own sins, on condition that we obey the laws and ordi- nances of the gospel. f
"And now, behold," said the Prophet Lehi to his son Jacob, "if Adam had not transgressed, he would not have fallen; but he would have remained in the Garden of Eden. And all things which were created must have remained in the same state in which they were, after they were created; and they must have remained for ever, and had no end. And they would have had no children; wherefore, they would have remained in a state of innocence, hav- ing no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin. But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things. Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy.
"And the Messiah cometh in the fulness of time, that he may redeem the children of men from the fall. And because they are redeemed from the fall, they have become free for ever, knowing good from evil; to act for themselves, and not to be acted upon, save it be by the punishment of the law at the great and last day, according to the commandments which God hath given.
"Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great medi- ation of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to
* Rev. 13: 8.
fHeb. 5: 9; Matt. 7: 21; John 1: 3-6.
40 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself."*
The primary and fundamental principles of this plan of salva- sion are:
First: Faith in God the Father, in his Son Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost. We must accept them as the presiding authority in the heavens, who govern and control all things, who are omnipo- tent, just and true.
Second: We must accept the infinite atonement of Christ, believing that he is the Redeemer of the world, both from Adam's transgression and from our individual sins on condition of our re- pentance.
Third: We must repent of all our sins, giving our hearts to God, with the full intent of serving him.
Fourth: we must be baptized in water for the remission of our sins, by one who is called of God and clothed with divine author- ity to administer in the ordinances of the gospel.
Fifth: We must have the hands of those holding authority placed upon our heads, and through their ministration receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost,— the Spirit of Truth and Prophecy that guides us in all truth.
Sixth: We must be willing to serve the Lord with all our heart, mind and strength, keeping his commandments even unto the end.
Upon these laws, salvation is based, and the promised blessings are unto all men. These conditions are not severe, nor grievous, and are within the power of the weakest of the weak, if they will only place their trust in their Redeemer.
All who repent and obey these laws, will be redeemed and saved from the sins of the world; but they who refuse and repent not, will have to suffer for their own sins. The Lord says: "He created man, male and female, after his own image and in his own likeness, created he them, and gave unto them com- mandments that they should love and serve him, the only living and true God, and that he should be the only being whom they should worship. But by the transgression of these holy laws, man
II Nephi, 2: 22-27.
SALVATION UNIVERSAL. 41
became sensual and devilish, and became fallen man. Wherefore the Almighty God gave his Only Begotten Son, as it is written in those scriptures which have been given of him. He suffered temp- tations, but gave no heed unto them; he was crucified, died and rose again the third day; and ascended into heaven, to sit down on the right hand of the Father, to reign with almighty power accord- ing to the will of the Father, that as many as would believe and be baptized in his holy name, and endure in faith to the end, should be saved: not only those who believed after he came in the merid- ian of time, in the flesh, but all those from the beginning, even as many as were before he came, who believed in the words of the holy prophets, who spake as they were inspired by the gift of the Holy Ghost, who truly testified of him in all things, should have eternal life, as well as those who should come after, who should believe in the gifts and callings of God by the holy Ghost, which beareth record of the Father and of the Son; which Father, Son and Holy Ghost are one God, infinite and eternal, without end. Amen.'"
Moreover, he further says: "And surely every man must re- pent or suffer, for I God am endless: * * * Therefore I com- mand you to repent — repent, lest I smite you by the rod of my mouth, and by my wrath, and by my anger, and your sufferings be sore — how sore you know not! For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent, but if they would not repent, they must suffer even as I, which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both in body and spirit: and would that I might not drink the bit- ter cup and shrink— nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men." f
These principles were taught to Adam after he was driven from the Garden of Eden, who repented and was baptized in water for the remission'of his sins, and received the Holy Ghost. And Eve, when she heard the gospel plan, rejoiced, saying: Were it not for our transgression, we never should have had seed, and never should have known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption.
* Doc and Cov. 20: 18-28. f Doc. and Cov. 19; 4, 15-19,
42 IMPRO VEMENT ERA .
and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient. "And Adam and Eve blessed the name of God, and they made all things known to their sons and daughters."*
Thus the principles of the gospel were taught from the begin- ning among the children of Adam. Some believed and accepted them, many others rejected them, bringing down upon their heads the wrath of God, for his anger was kindled against them because of their rebellion. In course of time, when the inhabitants of the earth were sufficiently corrupt, he caused the floods to come upon them, sweeping them off the earth. Noah, who was a preacher of righteousness, continued to preach these saving principles. The gospel was also taught to Abraham, and has always been among men when they were prepared to receive it.
Latter-day Saints have been severely criticised by many pro- fessing Christians for believing it necessary to comply with these first principles of the gospel. We are told that such views make us narrow and illiberal, for we reject and damn all who do not accept "Mormonism" and the ministration of our elders, while they, on the other hand, give a broader interpretation of the scrip- tures, holding it but necessary to believe in Christ -to confess him with the mouth and to believe in the heart that Christ was raised from the dead.
Or, as it is expressed,
Nothing, either great or small,
Remains for me to do; Nothing - Jesus paid it all,
All the debt I owe.
Nevertheless, there is but one plan of salvation, and one door into the sheepfold, "He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber, "y
We have not made the way narrow nor the gate strait, that few there be that find it! Nor was ours the edict, "Not every
* Book of Moses 5: 11-12. t John 10: 1.
SALVATION UNIVERSAL. 43
one that saith Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of the father." *
The fact that certain laws must be observed, and ordinances complied with, is not the ruling of the Latter-day Saints, but the divine mandate of the author of our salvation, who has said he will judge all men according to their works and opportunities. We are merely complying with the teachings of the Master which we have received, and which are requisite to salvation.
If belief alone were sufficient, then even the devils, who fear and tremble, would be saved. They recognized the Savior and de- clared on several occasions that he was the Son of God.f And the devils in the days of the sons of Sceva declared that they knew Jesus and Paul, yet they wTere far from the road to salva- tion. %
Notwithstanding the apparently narrow construction of the Latter-day Saints pertaining to the scriptures — and we most em- phatically declare that all men must obey these laws if they would be saved, excepting those who die without law, and therefore are not judged by law§ — we are broader and more liberal in our teach- ings than the believers in the faith-only theory of salvation, who would save all who profess a belief in the name of the Redeemer, but reject all others, consigning them to everlasting destruction without one ray of hope, simply because they did not confess that Jesus was the Christ. This view condemns all who lived at a time or place that the knowledge of the Redeemer of the world could not reach them. They would reject this vast majority of the human family, men, women and children, to eternal damnation, without the fault being their own!
With the Latter-day Saints this is not so. While it is true we teach that a man must comply with these principles of the gospel in order to receive salvation and exaltation in the kingdom of heaven— which is proved by many passages of scripture— never- theless, we hold out the hope that all may be saved, excepting the
* Matt. 7th chapter.
t Mark 5: 2-9; Luke 4: 33-34.
t Acts 19: 15.
§ Moroni 8: 22.
44 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
sons of perdition — a class that wilfully rejects the atonement of the Savior: for the Lord intends to save all the workmanship of his hands, save these few who will not receive salvation. Our doctrine consigns none others to perdition, but holds forth the hope that all will eventually be saved in the kingdom of God at some time and in some degree of glory.
Little children are redeemed from the foundation of the world through the atonement, ''Wherefore, they cannot sin," the Lord has said, "for power is not given unto Satan to tempt little chil- dren, until they begin to become accountable before me; for it is given unto them even as I will, according to mine own pleasure, that great things may be required at the hand of their fathers. And, again, I say unto you, that whoso having knowledge, have I not commanded to repent?" *
He that declares that little children are born in sin, and therefore require baptism, denies the mercy of the Father and does not understand the nature and significance of the atonement. The Savior said: "Suffer little children and forbid them not to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven." The Prophet Mormon sums the whole matter up in the following words:
Little children cannot repent ; wherefore it is awful wickedness to deny the pure mercies of God unto them, for they are all alive in him be- cause of his mercy.
And he that saith, that little children need baptism, denieth the mercies of Christ, and setteth at nought the atonement of him and the power of his redemption.
Wo unto such, for they are in danger of death, hell, and endless tor- ment. I speak it boldly, God hath commanded me. Listen unto them and give heed, or they stand against you at the judgment seat of Christ.
For behold that all little children are alive in Christ, and also all they that are without the law. For the power of redemption cometh on all they that have no law; wherefore, he that is not condemned-, or he that is under no condemnation, cannot repent; and unto such baptism availeth nothing.
But it is mockery before God, denying the mercies of Christ, and the power of his Holy Spirit, and putting trust in dead works.
Behold, my son, this thing ought not to be; for repentance is unto
* Doc. and Cov. 29: 46-49.
SALVATION UNIVERSAL. 45
them that are under condemnation and under the curse of a broken law. And the first fruits of repentance is baptism, and baptism cometh by faith, unto the fulfiling of the commandments; and the fulfiling of commandments bringeth remission of sins.*
[to be continued.] Salt Lake City, Utah.
The New England School.
(Selected.)
The morning came, I reached the classic hall;
A clock-face eyed me, staring from the wall;
Beneath its hands a printed line I read:
Youth is Life's seed-time; so the clock-face said.
Some took its counsel, as the sequel showed, —
Sowed — their wild oats, and reaped as they had sowed.
How all comes back! the upward slanting floor—
The masters' thrones that flank the central door —
The long, outstretching alleys that divide
The rows of desks that stand on either side —
The staring boys, a face to every desk,
Bright, dull, pale, blooming, common, picturesque,
Grave is the master's look; his forehead wears
Thick rows of wrinkles, prints of worrying cares;
Uneasy lies the head of all that rule,
His most of all whose kingdom is a school.
Supreme he sits; before the awful frown
That bends his brows the boldest eye goes down;
Not more submissive Israel heard and saw
At Sinai's foot the Giver of the Law. — Oliver Wendell Holme*
* Moroni 8: 20-25.
Peoples and Places in the Orient.
BY FRANK J. HEWLETT, DIRECTOR OF THE UTAH STATE FAIR AND PRESIDENT OF HEWLETT BROS. COMPANY.
V.— A Bit of China.
After a strenuous time in Shanghai, I was well satisfied to rest up a brief period on my floating home. The first thing wanted was a bath. Arrayed in kimona, slippers, etc., I rang for the "Chinese bath boy." When informed of my immediate necessity, he looked surprised, and replied in the best pigeon English that he could speak, "No takee bath. Dirty water— Shanghai water. Takee bath mollow morning. ' ' These were the exact words used and China was triumphant over America. In my anxiety for a bath I had forgotten that we were still in the Yangtze river, the water of which is yellow and nearly thick enough to paint a house.
After sailing sixty hours, we arrived in the splendid harbor of Hongkong. The world-renowed island is situated off the coast of the Kiaung province, near the mouth of the Canton river. It is about eleven miles long and from two to five miles wide. Its circumference is about twenty-seven miles. The city of Victoria, usually referred to as Hong-kong, is magnificently situated on the northern shore of the island. The harbor faces a sheet of water be- tween the island and the mainland, is enclosed on all sides by lofty summits, and is generally considered to be one of the finest and most beautiful harbors in the world. The city has an area of ten square miles, and with its diversified scenery, and varied shipping, pre- sents a most animated and imposing spectacle. I think it safe to make the statement that there is more actual tonnage shipped from this harbor than from any other in the world. The face of
PEOPLES AND PLACES IX THE OR I EXT. 47
the water is dotted with every imaginable kind of craft, from the little sampans and the clumsy junks, to the great English warship, sitting like an aquatic mastiff. Among these, quite conspicuously, gleam the Stars and Stripes upon some transports enroute for the Philippines, and several big war vessels whose prowess now makes Americans proud of their country's navy.
Many of the houses in the city of Victoria are large and hand- some, rising tier upon tier from the water's edge to a height of over four hundred feet on the face of the peak, while heavy build- ings are visible on the summit of the hills. Seen from the water at night, when lamps twinkle among the trees and houses, the city, spreading along the shore for upwards of four miles, affords a sight not soon forgotten.
John Bull, the prince of real estate men, made, indeed, a master stroke when he secured this valuable property. Its forti- fications are towers of strength, ranking next to Gibraltar and Quebec. It is an open port, no quarantine, no baggage inspection, no tariff, all as free as the air you breathe, provided you put on your best behavior, — for Great Britain's laws are made with one object in view— to be enforced.
The hotel launches are soon alongside, and a few moments later their advance agents are soliciting trade. The Chinese tailors swarm around, with tape and samples, to "makee a white suit, sixey dollars." Arriving at the hotel, the first thing to greet one is a sign, "Please use the lift," (elevator). We were assigned rooms on the sixth floor, and were glad to enter the lift, but it raised so slowly — not much faster than the Salt Lake City boule- vard. Our windows were covered with long, blue curtains, dotted with white dragons.
Hong-kong has a number of interesting points, in and around the city of Victoria, the principal one being the Peak, to which there is a cable-car line up the mountain-side some eighteen hun- dred feet to the Peak hotel. Here a grand, panoramic view may be obtained. The driveways are very limited, the mode of con- veyance being nearly all by "jinrikisha," and by sedan chairs, for the city. In these one is carried for a nominal sum, by two Chinese coolies, along narrow paths, on the mountain sides. We rode nearly to the top of the Peak, and gazed in wonder at the
48 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
scenes below. Midway is located the large reservoirs that supply the sparkling water to the Hong-kong people. We saw the British barracks, with the soldiers in white and gold uniforms, on dress
Frank J. Hewlett traveling in China.
parade, while the splendid band was playing stirring airs. We concluded to walk back, so as to have ample time to enjoy the scenery, meet the different classes of people going to and fro, and view the beautiful flowers and the luxuriant foliage. There is no rose without a thorn: halfway down the summit, on the main traveled road, we witnessed a sight that will linger a long period in our memory: Nearly naked Chinese women were carrying sand in baskets, two at a time, one at each end of a pole across their shoulders. The load was so heavy that they staggered under it, as they toiled up the steep incline. They start out with about thirty baskets, and carry two for as long a distance as possible, then return for two more until all are carried to the top of the Peak. They go in single file, each knows her own baskets. One can see the beads of perspiration drop from their foreheads as they stagger along under their heavy burdens. The sand is used for building purposes, the women are paid so much per hundred pounds, their wages average. from twelve to twenty cents a day.
PEOPLES AND PLACES IN THE ORIENT. 49
Before leaving home, Fisher Harris of the Commercial Club, pinned a badge on the lapel of my coat on which was the optimis- tic word, "Smile'," and I have always tried to look at the humor- ous side of things. I have seen women sweeping the streets to earn a livelihood; the Japanese women, in the rice fields, working in mud and water nearly to their waists; and the women of Nagasaki loading coal on the ships, from dawn to dark; but in most cases the toilers were in the company of others to urge them on with words, laughter and encouragement. But these Chinese women were plodding along alone, as if their lives depended on this day's work, the cords on their arms and legs strained almost to the point of bursting. I did not smile on this occasion but breathed a silent prayer to the Father of all to hasten the day when these poor creatures might be freed from bondage, and have the joy of living like his more favored children.
Money is a good thing to have in this world, but in China the novice becomes entangled in many difficulties. There is not a universal class of money in China. Nearly every province has its own particular coin. In Shanghai you have the so-called Shanghai dollar. Hongkong has her special kind of Chinese money for the island; then, to make financial difficulties more complicated, Great Britain also has her money. On one side are Chinese characters, while on the other is stamped the head of Queen Victoria. Canton has her money, and jealously puts the arm of protection around it, so that her tradesmen will refuse all other coins in her munic- ipality. And thus it is throughout the Chinese empire. While riding along Queen Road, a news boy ran after me crying, China Mail. Anxious for the news, I purchased a copy, and handed him the price in Chinese currency. A few moments later he came racing alongside my rikisha, yelling like blue murder, and handed the coin back to me to the amusement of the other tourists. I handed him several different coins which were refused, then in pure despair gave him back the paper. No doubt several of the coins were counterfeit, having been passed on an unsuspecting foreigner, French style, by the unscrupulous postal-card dealers. I was careful in the future to take only the ones that had Victoria stamped on them, which was the real legal tender on the island.
Hongkong has a population of about 210,000. It is very
50
IMPROVEMENT ERA.
cosmopolitan but mostly Chinese. The European business quarter occupies the middle of the city. The streets are macadam-paved, and well drained. The thoroughfares, for the most part, are well shaded with trees. The business blocks of Hongkong are some- what ancient in architecture, but are commodious and well venti- lated. Hongkong being a free port, there is no complete official returns of the imports and exports. People who know best, esti- mate the value, per annum, at over two hundred and fifty million dollars, and it is constantly increasing. For several years past the exports from the United States to Hongkong have been over
ten million annually, and the imports into the United States from Hongkong are over two million a year. The principal exports are sugar, lumber, flour, coal, hemp, kerosene, machinery, woolen and cot- ton goods. The city is the chief distributing market for the south of China, and as such invites a close study and attention, on the part of United States exporters. No tourist fails to visit Canton, the typical Chinese city, where three million people live, and one feels for the moment as if it is the fountain, the place where the heart of old China beats. At the pier, there are some of the finest river steamers in the world. Their leaving is as regular as clock work, night and morning. The accommodations are first class. Foreigners take the upper decks, while the coolies are sent below and locked in, for there has been serious trouble with them on several occasions. It is ninety miles up the Pearl river whose various scenes are extremely interesting. Hundreds of house-boats, upon which thousands of people are born, live, marry, and die, are there. It is in fact very doubtful if many of the Cantonese have ever set feet on terra- firma. Sampans of every size are being rowed up and down the river, many of the rowers being in undress uniform. Junks, painted in gaudy colors with big, black eyes and white rims around
View of Canton River, China.
PEOPLES AND PLACES IN THE ORIENT.
51
them, seem to be staring at you from every direction. I asked a native, who spoke a little English, what the eyes were for. The answer was direct to the point: "No eyes, how see? no see, how walkee?"
The river bazars are most dazzling affairs, the spectacular effect being most extraordinary. As one nears Canton, the people become more and more numerous, and before the boat is fastened to the wharf, the din of many voices reaches the ear like the roar of an angry surf. Professional guides are there, and they present their cards in a business-like manner. They are absolutely neces- sary, no stranger would think of going into Canton without their aid and advice. Next one engages chairs, three coolies to each chair, one to change off with the others. You are carried on a
The Temple of the Five Hundred Genii.
fixed route, which gives a glimpse of the most important points of interest in Canton. Many of the people are so badly disposed to- wards foreigners, that the visitors are gently warned by the guides not to invite or resent any remarks, loud laughter, or gestures.
Here is the Temple of Five Hundred Genii ; the water clock in the temple, on the walls; the Temple of Flowers, with a court-yard
52
IMPROVEMENT ERA.
full of fortune tellers and beggars; and here, the execution grounds, with their tales of horror, only too true. Examination hall is in-
Interior of the Temple of the Five-Hundred Genii.
teresting. Here hundreds of young Chinese students wait for weeks, and sometimes months, to be examined for educational
honors. They bring their food and beds with them, and one must admire their quiet, respectful demeanor, and their unflagging energy in the cause of education.
The next place of in- terest is the five story pagoda on the city walls. Here the guide finds chairs and tables, and sets forth the luncheon The Five-story Pagoda. brought from the steamer.
Returning across the city you pass the Flowery Pagoda; the ruins of a once splendid marble structure; the old English Yaamen, where the first foreign legation
PEOPLES AND PLACES IN THE ORIENT.
53
was housed, in 1842; the court house; city prison; and the Green Tea Merchant's guild hall.
Canton no longer holds the important place that it once did in the tea trade. The trade between Canton and London is now practically extinct. The exports to London have fallen from 1,170,000 pounds, in 1885, to 490,000, in 1908. The Indian and Ceylon people have captured this trade.
The streets are very narrow, ranging from five to eight feet in width, and the people are as numerous, to all appearances, as ants on a sandhill in the desert. Down these narrow lanes we go. Here are matting awnings over-head, and swinging, black, gold, sign-boards, which are about fifteen inches wide and ten feet long, hung perpendicularly. Two chairs can hardly pass. To turn some sharp corners, the poles are run far into the shops, and when a mandarin's chair, or mounted escort, appears, one is hustled into an open shop front, and does not feel safe there from the bumping and brushing of the train. One is almost bewildered by the confusion, — the panorama of open shops, oil shops, and Standard oil cans, meat and cook shops on either side.
Mysterious cooking simmers, sputters, and scents the air, and for a time at least, one wishes that his nose would lose its smell- ing power. Dried ducks hang by half-yard-long necks, and a queer bit of dried meat declared itself, by the thin, long tail, curled like a grape tendril, to be the rat. The rat is in the market everywhere, alive in cages, fresh or dried on meat-shop counters; and dried ones are often bought as souvenirs of a trip to Canton, and proof of the often-denied rat story. White mice in cages are plentiful, canary birds are singing as sweetly in some of the dingy shops, as if they were in the Garden of Paradise.
You enter one of the silk or jade-shops. A curious crowd follows. The shop-keeper, quick as a flash, locks the door. You
Flower Boats.
54
IMPROVEMENT ERA.
are a prisoner surrounded by Chinese only. Some of the horrible scenes witnessed at home in a moving-picture show come to mind.
The guide sees that you are nervous, and ["explains that it is necessary to lock the door, as it would be impos- sible to show goods, for the place would be packed by the curious crowd. Many days afterwards your imagina- tion carries you back to Canton, the city with the greatest population in the Orient, the city of pawn-shops, and curio shops without end, where imitations and counterfeits of every- thing Chinese, delude the unsophis- ticated foreigner. It is a city of oriental riches and barbaric splendor, and a city of the greatest wealth and the direst poverty. One is glad to have been through the narrow, seething thoroughfares, the blaze of gold and vermilion, and the glitter and glow of showy exteriors. After seeing it all, I felt like the boy who went to the dentist, "it's awful good to be over with."
Canton, China.
The Honam Pagoda, China.
Unknown.
{Selected.)
She dwelt among the untrodden ways
Besides the springs of Dove; A maid whom there were none to praise
And very few to love.
A violet by a mossy stone
Half-hidden from the eye! — Fair as a star, when only one
Is shining in the sky.
She lived unknown, and few could know
When Lucy ceased to be; But she is in her grave, and, oh,
The difference to me! — William Wordsworth.
The Pyramids of the Sun, Moon and Stars.
BY ELIZABETH R. CANNON.
(With Photographs by the Author.)
We take the train at Mexico City in the early morning, curve past the church-crowned hill of Guadalupe, which, with its holy well and sacred legend, is the Mecca of Mexico; then travel through fields of maguey until it gives way to wastes covered with giant Nopal cactus.
After an hour's ride we stop at the station of San Juan Teo- tihuacan, where native women sell us tunas, the insipid-tasting fruit of the cactus, and small boys offer to the gullible tourists calendar stones and genuine antiques which one chap naively informs us "are made by my father. " Still there is compensation, for one woman remarked that she liked "made ones, because they are not so dirty and broken as the others."
To the uninitiated, the great Pyramid of the Sun, rising clean-cut, bathed in the brilliant sunlight of Mexico, looks very near indeed. The woman from San Francisco, how- ever, had a pretty clear idea of the distance, for she insisted on riding a A modern inhabitant of San burr0i As she weighed two hundred Juan Teotihuacan. ^^ ^ ^ ^.^ ^ ^^
they made rather slow progress.
03 03
«.s
THE PYRAMIDS OF THE SUN, MOON AND STARS. 57
As we approach the pyramid we notice that it rises tier upon tier, terrace after terrace, 216 feet into the air. It is nearly as large as Cheops of Egypt. The building itself is of conglomerate rock cemented together. Terraced platforms of pure cement dec- orate one corner at the base, while stairs of hewn stone, in a per- fect state of preservation, rise clear to the summit. Here is the old Egyptian mystery again presented, as to how such blocks of stone can be raised to such heights without the aid of machinery. The work was probably done then, as it is now in Mexico, by man labor.
On examining the construction more closely it seems easier. The Pyramid apparently is solid; that is, as far in as the government has tunneled. It has found one stratum built upon another, which leads to the conclusion that the New World, like the old, had Pharaohs who were proud and liked to leave their names in solid masonry. If the diggers go far enough, they will probably find the center of the building hol- low, for the first king built a temple, the second one covered it, and made it larger; so each one had left a finer building to commemorate his reign. The fifth layer exposed to the elements had fallen into decay, vegetation had sprung up on it, and it was as its companion, the Pyramid of the Moon, is now.
After the Dismal Night, when Cortez retreated with the rem- nant of his little band, he camped on a hill at this place. He was in desperate straits. His cannon were in the bottom of the lake; and even if he had had guns, he had no powder to charge them with; every man in his company was wounded, and worst of all, starvation stared them in the face.
As if he had not troubles enough, the plains below became a
The stairs that lead to the summit of the Pyramid of the Sun.
THE PYRAMIDS OF THE SUN, MOON AND STARS. 59
seething mass of Aztec warriors. The captain looked down upon them and reflected that the survivors of the horrors of the Sad Night were to be butchered like sheep. He held the advantage of posi- tion on a mound. In the center of the advancing army he beheld the white plume of the chief. By a trick of memory he remem- bered that he had heard that among some of the Indian tribes, when the Cacique went down the warriors considered it a sign of ill-omen and fled.
Shouting "Santiago and Forward," Cortez dug the rowels of his spurs into his horse. Alvarado, Sandoval, and several other
Aztec Calendar and Stone Idols, National Museum, City of Mexico.
captains followed him. Trampling the naked Indians under the horses' iron-shod hoofs, they made straight for the center of the field where Cortez cleft the skull of the chief with his battle ax. The Spaniards hewed right and left, and when the Indians saw their leader's plume borne triumphantly on a Spanish spear, they faded away into the distance.
60
IMPROVEMENT ERA.
The mound on which the Spaniards were stationed, at the bat- tle of Otumba, had been built by the Toltecs, (the Builders), a race which was dead and gone when the Aztecs came from the north.
But for many ages yet these silent monuments to a for- gotten race will stand.
When you view the un- couth Aztec idols of crude designs in the National Mu- seum of Mexico, you think that Prescott's Conquest, with its description of the Indian's advancement and cul- ture, is a tremendous fiction. However, they did not have the chisel, and cut stone only with soft copper. The build- ers of the Pyramids evidently had better tools, for their workmanship in stone, as everything else, denotes a higher civilization.
The stone work of the Pyramids is symmetrically wrought, some of it in the rarest onyx. The designs are conventional, closely resembling the Egyptian. The massive carved objects seem to have been designed for use and ornament, rather than worship.
At the gate of the Pyramid of the Sun a regiment of soldiers is stationed. These men take your name, relieve you of your camera, (unless you are a very clever smuggler, indeed) and furnish you a government guide. So many of Mexico's antiquities have found their way to museums of other countries, that now she takes care of her own. The trunk of every traveler coming from Mexico is overhauled at the border, to see that he does not carry away any little stone gods.
Through the cactus, we trail to the "House of the Priests,"
Some of the statues found among the
ruins.
THE PYRAMIDS OF THE SUN, MOON AND STARS. 61
On the terrace of the Pyra- mid of the Sun, Mexico.
as well excavated and clean cut as the ruins of Pompeii. Here the cement floors are uncovered, and parts of the walls are standing.
From the paintings on one of these, the place takes its name. An enor- mous sun is painted in terra-cotta, and near it is a yellow-ochre moon surrounded by numerous green stars. The imperishable design is as hard and smooth as flint. From the frequent repetition of the sun symbol found in the ruins, scientists have deduced the theory that these "Unknowns" were sun worshipers.
We skirted the base of the Sun Pyramid, dodging the immense bould- ers being hurled down by the govern- ment excavators, and started on the ascent. Unanimously we ask the same question, "What was it built for?"
"Sepulchre?" No — there are no tombs there. "Public Building?" There are no chambers. "Sports?" There is not room on the top to accommodate a large number of people. After toiling up the stairs, flight after flight, one is led to believe- that only two things would induce people to undergo the hardship of getting to the top, -wor- ship, or the splendid view of the surrounding country with which we were rewarded at the summit. Undoubtedly the pyramid was a temple.
It was at one of the frequent stops on the stairs that I sprang my camera on them, but was warned to conceal it again as it is against the law to take pictures of the ruins.
"You ought to have an elevator up here," the fat woman puffed.
"We are going to have, — next year at the Centennial," answered the Old Fossil out there trying to discover a means to kill the vegetation, which is the greatest enemy of the archaeol- ogist.
"Is President Diaz coming out then?" "Yes, but he has already been here."
62
IMPROVEMENT ERA.
A Collection of Antiquities, Mexico.
"He did not climb these stairs?"
"No, he avoided them and scrambled up the cliffs, and the rest of his party had to follow suit."
The fat woman sighed and went on. From the broad, beautiful top, where the air is like champagne, we looked down upon myri- ads of round mounds. Their mysteries must be solved by the digger's spade. Some are tombs, most of them dwelling houses, and perhaps others are the Star Temples clustered around their great nucleus, the Sun.
The Calle del Morte, the Street of the Dead, leads from the base of the larger building to the Pyramid of the Moon. The path derives its name from the fact that it is lined with tombs on both sides. When we started down it, the Mexican muchacho (boy) who was our burden-bearer, stopped at the mouth of a cave and.
picked up a stone face, per- fectly moulded, about an inch and a half in diameter. Dur- ing the course of the day we collected about a dozen oth- ers, some of which we found, and others we bought of the children, who are adepts at finding them in the plowed fields near the ruins. No two of them were alike, and they offer absolutely different types in feature and expres- sion, varying from pure Egyptian and Greek profiles to the lowest African. Some think they were children's toys, but their number, and the careful workmanship exhibited in their carving, led us t j believe that they were portraits perhaps of departed friends. As
Terraces at the Base of the Pyramid
of the Sun.
THE PYRAMIDS OF THE SUN, MOON AND STARS.
few of them measure more than two inches, they were not masks that covered the faces of the dead, as one learned archaeol- ogist gravely informs us. He evidently had not been on the grounds of San Juan Teotihuacan, although he wrote a book on the subject.
Many are the stories suggested, but not told, on this mortu- ary road. The children are buried upright in great jars, so that one can lift the lid, and, like Ali Baba's maid-servant, look down upon a cranium. One great crypt contained limbs and bones hurled in there pell mell. One skeleton buried on top of another to which he was fastened suggested the ancient form of punishing a murderer by chaining him to the corpse of his victim.
The Moon Pyra- mid is covered with century plants. It is believed to be hollow, a fact of which we were convinced when one of our party mys- teriously disappeared and the guides had to haul him out of a cavity ten feet deep into which he had fallen. A subterra- nean passage, just discovered, connects the two, and it is be- lieved that one end of it will lead into the mysterious chambers of the moon.
To one side of the Street of the Dead is a palace, whose rich mural decorations have been preserved by heavy plate glass. Con- ventional designs in all colors of the rainbow are interspersed with pictures of rabbits, bears, wolves, snakes, and turtles, all of which had symbolical meaning. There again is the ever present sun. A large chimney, which seemed more popular with the ancients than with the modern Mexicans, ascends from one corner of the room.
The Government is protecting the wonderful coloring of the frescoes with plate glass.
64
IMPROVEMENT ERA.
In the long halls of another casa were bases of pillars similar to the Hall of the Monoliths at Mitla. Below this lay the Subter- ranean City, with its queer passages, its many stone-lined rooms, and its deep well gurgling with the water that moistened the lips of a dead race. Such a well in this underground house meant life itself to the people in time of siege.
Hall of the Monoliths, Mitla.
Near the watering place we found human vertebras and shat- tered spear-points of obsidian. For miles around, the ground is speckled with bits of this glittering black stone. As we walked through the corn fields we picked up arrow points and pieces of hatchets. The shattered implements of war located a battle ground. All over Mexico are the same indications of a great conflict.
Through the fields my muchacho led me to an ancient house that a Mexican had been excavating on his own account. Even after lusty halloos the owner of the house failed to appear, although we caught a glimpse of him over a rock wall, his head swathed in bloody bandages. The paintings here were finer than any belonging to the ruins proper. An Egyptian queen, with a sceptre in her hand, who looked like the Queen of Hearts, — as perhaps she had been, — smiled benignly from the west wall. Amid broken pottery and ancient stone gods, looking very shabby and
THE PYRAMIDS OF THE SUN, MOON AND STARS. 65
bedraggled, compared with this thousand year old Queen, was a canvas of the Catholic Virgin of Guadalupe.
Exterior of the Hall of the Monoliths, Mitla.
Here we picked up [an olla, a rare-shaped'jardiniere which was "No antiqua,— no moderna, — Azteca— middle period.'' The
Imperishable Mosaic Work of Mitla.
third race had also left its ruins, for the Catholic church, decayed and moss-grown, was most desolate of all. The pagan hieroglyphics
66
IMPROVEMENT ERA.
graved in its building stone were less easily read than its forsaken sepulchers and tatter-demalion shrine.
"Do you think that Teotihuacan, Mitla, and Palenque were built by the same race?" I asked Senor Perez, director of the Natural History Museum.
"Who shall say!" with a shrug of the shoulders. "I have here a pair of pincers. Who can tell by looking at it, whether it is made in Germany, England, or the United States." True, the cities are all built massively, the absence of arches is no- ticeable at all of them, they all have pyramids, and the sign of the cross is found at all three.
Palenque, which covers twenty square miles, is mas- sive enough to withstand the jungle growth. Its carvings are magnificent. One great swinging stone hammock contains the figures of a man and a woman. In its paint- ing, life-sized women hold out children as if for blessing. Its pyramids are amphitheater-crowned, containing tier after tier of seats, as if used for great assemblies. And its walls are covered with writing.
Mitla, with its beautiful, long galleries, its monolithic pillars, its colored tiles and exquisite Mosaic work, shows a luxury-loving people.
Teotihuacan means the "House of God."
Is it not possible that Palenque was the seat of govern- ment, with its written laws, and halls of embassadors; that Mitla contained the palatial homes of the rich; and that San
A Daughter of the Ruins, Mitla, Mexico.
THE PYRAMIDS OF THE SUN, MOON AND STARS. 67
Palace Ruins at Mitla, Showing Colored Mosaics.
Juan Teotihuacan was the religious city of the white-skinned Nephites?
Salt Lake City, Utah.
Love Will Never Grow Old.
[The Old Folks' annual grand festival of the South Sanpete stake of Zion was held September 18, 1909, at Manti. As usual, it was a very- happy gathering and a success in every way. The verses herewith were sung by the veteran author on the occasion. Many of our readers will remember Patriarch C. C. A. Christensen as among the first who became members of the Church in Denmark. He was baptized September 26, 1850, and after strenuous missionary work, came to Utah in 1857. He is the most widely known writer of verse and prose among the Scandi- navians of Utah. In the Danish hymn book are found many of his sacred poems, and he has been a constant contributor to Bikuben and Skan- dinaviens Stjerne, the Danish- Norwegian Church organs of the Latter- day Saints. His poems are full of the spirit of vigor and cheer, and are often humorous, while his hymns breathe the spirit of the gathering, the
68 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
glory and freedom of Zion, and the sympathy and pathos of a soul full of faith in the work of the Lord. — Editors.]
With old friends, today, we assemble,
To greet one another once more — Tho' some now are feeble, and tremble,
Yet love makes us strong as before. Love will never grow old, Nor will friendship wax cold,
With those who are faithful and true; But in heaven above friends will greet you ; And give welcome, when here we are through.
chorus: Love will never grow old, nor will friendship wax cold,
But in heaven we'll our union renew; And in mansions above, friends will greet us.
And give welcome, when here we are through.
The springtime of youth we remember,
With its blossoms and sunshiny days; But old age, like the days of December,
Have few of sun's beautiful rays; Yet the sun is "still there, And the blossoms that were, We shall find on that beautiful shore;
And the friends which we lov'd ^ There will greet us —
And then they will leave us no more.
There is rest for the faint and the weary,
And the future is cheerful and bright; No night was so dark nor so dreary
But that it again became light — When the clouds disappear, And thelcoastline is clear,
Our flowers we shall see them again; Then with joy on the shore we shall greet them,
And with lov'd ones forever remain. Ephraim, Utah. Carl C. A. Christensen.
Some Men Who Have Done Things.
BY JOHN HENRY EVANS, OP THE LATTER-DAY SAINTS' UNIVERSITY.
I.— Anthony W. Ivins,
THE MAN OP GENERAL EFFICIENCY.
Very likely Anthony W. Ivins never heard of that remark of Professor James's about "the efficient ones." Anyway, he did not hear of it when he was a boy on that Washington county farm,
forty-odd years ago, for the very simple reason that it was not then written. And yet if he had read it and made up his mind to follow it — which would be just like him,— his life could not more perfectly have been a fulfil- ment of its fine prophecy.
This is the passage, and I may as well give it, now that I have referred to it :
Let no youth have any anx- iety about the upshot of his edu- cation, whatever the line of it may be. If he keep faithfully busy each hour of the working day, he may safely leave the final result to itself. He can with perfect certainty count on waking up some fine morning to find himself one of the competent Anthony W. Ivins. ones of his Generation, in what-
70 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
ever pursuit he may have singled out. Silently, between all the details of his business, the power of judging in all that class of matter will have built itself up within him as a possession that will never pass away.
Only, in the case of Anthony W. Ivins, he seems always to have been one of the competent ones of his community, if we may judge by the honors he has received at the hand? of the State and the Church. He has been town constable, city councilman, mayor, county attorney, state legislator, and member of a state constitu- tional convention. He could have been anything else that he wanted, had his attention not been so much with spiritual affairs. Religiously he has held about every office in the priesthood from that of deacon, dusting the benches and kindling the fires, to that of apostle, the second office in the Church. He has been president of the M. I. A., he has filled several missions, and he has presided over two large stakes. And always these places of honor, political as well as religious, have come to him wholly unsolicited. Even an anti-"Mormon" paper in Salt Lake had to admit that his nomi- nation to the apostleship was "a good one."
Why? Well, it is a short story and soon told:
First of all, there is the man himself. One cannot help think- ing as one reviews the strange events of this energetic man's career that here was a singular spirit cultivating alfalfa and hoe- ing potatoes in the St. George valley, reading betimes out of some book or other! When he climbed the grand old cliff that shuts off so abruptly all view from the north, the great stretches of plain and mountain spoke to him loudly of opportunity and re- source That, of course, was the man. Out of the death of his father, the head of a large family, young Ivins gathered inde- pendence and a sense of responsibility. That, too, was the man. And if he heard, as he often did, the coarse language and the ob- scene jests of the herdsmen and the freighters of those rough days, it did not invite him to senseless imitation, but rather it roused in him, by very contrast, a passion for purity of thought and life. And that, pre-eminently, was the man.
As a boy he was a great reader. Especially was he fond of history. He knew by heart the history of England. The heroes of the past 'made a profound impression on his mind, and he
SOME MEN WHO HAVE DONE THINGS.
71
sought, to the extent of his opportunities, to act out the qualities that made them strong. In his pocket, while he worked, was a book ready for the hand when, at noon or night, the hand quit its task, in whose pages he looked for something that could lift him out of the alfalfa field or the potato patch. Always, too, per- haps as a result of his reading, he diligently cultivated the friend- ship and association of superior boys and men. He knew that only these had anything worth while to give him. Very early, also, he learned that there are higher things in life than money— a thing very hard to learn nowadays, and a thing that some never learn.
And then there are the man's ways, known, but not read of all men.
The lives of successful men often seem complicated and hard to resolve into anything like simplicity. In reality, however, they are simpler than the lives of most men that fail. For always, when looked into carefully, there appears some one supreme guid- ing principle. Every great reformer, every great educator, has had but a single idea to preach — only, he did so in a variety of ways. The career of such different characters as Abraham Lin- coln and John Wanamaker is based on the simple axiom that men ought to be honest in everything. This high demand for single- ness of aim and foundational simplicity has crystalized itself into the proverb: "Beware of the man of one idea."
Of this basic simplicity Anthony W. Ivins is a fine example. He began life with an established conviction that integrity is the main thing — a plodding, persistent devotion to whatever cause he happened at the time to be serving. He cherishes the belief that when you work for a man, you ought to serve him well; that if you are in the employ of the public, you should give the best ser- vice you can; and that if you engage to serve God, you ought to do so with devotion.
To be sure, a good many people have entertained precisely the same notion. But Anthony W. Ivins has practiced it! Who- ever heard of his betraying a trust?
Really, out of this one animating purpose has grown his whole career of usefulness, trust, and responsibility. He made up his mind that he would be trustworthy, that he would give honest ser- vice all the time. And presently men found this out and trusted
72 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
him. No wonder he said to me, when I asked him what one thing he thought a boy ought to have beyond all others — "Integrity, a constant endeavor to serve with devotion, in big and little things, whomsoever he is supposed to serve. That sums up all the virtues, in my opinion. I do not believe that any boy needs to be con- cerned for his future who in everything will give honest service now."
To this aim, too, is partly to be traced his peculiar methods of acquiring knowledge. Anthony W. Ivins is an educated man in the highest and best sense of the word. And he got his education in this way.
Casting about him for big things to do, he took in the whole situation in Washington county. Now, Washington county is no place for such men as Harriman, who expect to make millions And yet there were two tolerably big jobs crying out to be done by somebody. Anyway, that was what young Ivins thought. One was stock raising. So he invested his savings in grazing lands, a little at a time. He bought cows and calves whenever he could. In the end, he conducted this business on a large scale — larger than anyone else there. And he studied the business till he knew it from A to Z.
Meantime, he had his eye on the hill country, which he thought might contain valuable ore, and he hoped some day to en- gage in mining. Now, he knew nothing of assaying. But he wanted to— which is the next thing to knowing. Besides, he did not like to be dependent on others, even for information. So he studied geology, mineralogy, chemistry, and assaying. To this day he can tell you more about these subjects than most college graduates. And this is thoroughly characteristic of the man. He is never satisfied till he knows all about a subject.
And while I am on this aspect of this interesting personality, I may as well tell one thing more about his reading. When An- thony W. Ivins reads in the newspapers about troubles between the Chinese and the Japanese, he straightway reads up on the sub- ject in books. He never lets the matter drop till he knows some- thing of the geography of the Orient, the ethnology of its inhabi- tants, their history, and a hundred and one other things. After that he can follow anything in current affairs that concerns these
SOME MEN WHO HAVE DONE THINGS. 73
Eastern peoples. And so he does with every other important topic of present day interest.
He has read law, too. He felt that he needed law in his business. And then he did not want to depend on others, where he could depend on himself. And so he studied and practu ed law. The judicial history of Southern Utah will tell you that he argued cases with some of the best Northern lawyers. It will tell you also that he never lost a case. And that shows how much of law he read and how well he read it.
"How on earth have you done all this?" I demanded. "Surely you have had to earn a living!"
"Yes," he replied, "I have had to work for a living. But I have been a reader all my life, and I have read a little every day and whenever I could."
That is why I call the whole career of Anthony W. Ivins a standing rebuke to scores of men in our settlements who bemoan tearfully the fact that they have little education and then give as a reason the excuse that they have had to work so hard and have had so little opportunity to learn! And sometimes they add that Church duties have required so much of their time. But here is a man who, starting with nothing, has given more than his share of attention to Church duties, has had to earn his bread by hard work and thought, and has in the meantime acquired a fine educa- tion. That was because, depend upon it, there was no lounging on the corner grocery in his life and no twiddling of the thumbs.
Apostle Ivins smiled when I asked him to compare the oppor- tunities a boy has today with those he had. Then he leaned over and said in his earnest way:
"There is no comparison. Opportunities in my day had to be made. Now they lie ready to hand— if a boy will only show that he can be depended upon. And they are innumerable, too. Edward H. Harriman may bequeath his railroads to his wife, but he can- not bequeath the men who are to run those roads. These will have to be found in the boys who today live along the lines. There will always be big places to take, for the reason that the men who fill them now will not live always. And these places are every day growing in number and size. They are the heritage of our boys today."
74
IMPROVEMENT ERA.
And then he told me what I have already set down, that the main thing a boy ought to have as his working capital is integrity, a devotion to whatever cause he may be serving.
One other word he added, and that was for a boy always to be hopeful of his future — but not too hopeful. "Be hopeful," he said, "even if there appears to be nothing to hope for. The dead past should be allowed to bury its dead. And yet you should not depend upon the future so much as to leave everything to it. 'Act, act in the living present' — that is the best thing to do always."
Salt Lake City, [Utah.
Photo by Gerald Anderson.
The new Deseret Gymnasium, Salt Lake City, in which the Y, M. M. I. A.
are interested.
Editor's Table.
The Origin of Man.
BY THE FIRST PRESIDENCY OF THE CHURCH.
"God created man in his own image."
Inquiries arise from time to time respecting the attitude of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints upon questions which, though not vital from a doctrinal standpoint, are closely connected with the fundamental principles of salvation. The latest inquiry of this kind that has reached us is in relation to the origin of man. It is believed that a statement of the position held by the Church upon this important subject will be timely and pro- ductive of good.
In presenting the statement that follows we are not conscious of putting forth anything essentially new; neither is it our desire so to do. Truth is what we wish to present, and truth— eternal truth— is fundamentally old. A restatement of the original atti- tude of the Church relative to this matter is all that will be attempted here. To tell the truth as God has revealed it, and commend it to the acceptance of those who need to conform then opinions thereto, is the sole purpose of this presentation.
"God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." In these plain and pointed words the inspired author of the book of Genesis made known to the world the truth concerning the origin of the human family. Moses, the prophet-historian, "learned," as we are told, "in all the wisdom of the Egyptians," when making this important announcement, was not voicing a mere opinion, a theory derived from his researches into the occult lore of that ancient people. He was speaking as the mouthpiece of God, and his sol-
76 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
emn declaration was for all time and for all people. No subse- quent revelator of the truth has contradicted the great leader and law-giver of Israel. All who have since spoken by divine author- ity upon this theme have confirmed his simple and sublime procla- mation. Nor could it be otherwise. Truth has but one source, and all revelations from heaven are harmonious with each other. The omnipotent Creator, the maker of heaven and earth — had shown unto Moses everything pertaining to this planet, including the facts relating to man's origin, and the authoritative pronounce- ment of that mighty prophet and seer to the house of Israel, and through Israel to the whole world, is couched in the simple clause: "God created man in his own image" (Genesis 1: 27; Pearl of Great Price— Book of Moses, 1: 27-41.)
The creation was two-fold- firstly spiritual, secondly temporal. This truth, also, Moses plainly taught - much more plainly than it has come down to us in the imperfect translations of the Bible that ar^ now in use. Therein the fact of a spiritual creation, antedating the temporal creation, is strongly implied, but the proof of it is not so clear and conclusive as in other records held by the Latter-day Saints to be of equal authority with the Jewish scrip- tures. The partial obscurity of the latter upon the point in ques- tion is owing, no doubt, to the loss of those "plain and precious" parts of sacred writ, which, as the Book of Mormon informs us, have been taken away from the Bible during its passage down the centuries (I Nephi 13: 24-29). Some of these missing parts the Prophet Joseph Smith undertook to restore when he revised those scriptures by the spirit of revelation, the result being that more complete account of the creation which is found in the book of Moses, previously cited. Note the following pas- sages:
And now, behold I say unto you, that these are the generations of the heaven and the earth, when they were created in the day that I, the Lord God, made the heaven and the earth,
And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew.
For I, the Lord God, created all things of which I have spoken, spiritually, before they were naturally upon the face of the earth. For I, the Lord God, had not caused it to rain upon the face of the earth.
EDITOR'S TABLE. 77
And I, the Lord God, had created"all'the children of men, and not yet a man to till the ground; for in heaven created I them, and there was not yet flesh upon the earth, neither in the water, neither in the air.
But I, the Lord God, spake, and there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
And I, the Lord God, formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul, the first flesh upon the earth, the first man also.
Nevertheless, all things were before created, but spiritually were they created and made, according to my word (Pearl of Great Price- Book of Moses, 3: 4-7. See also chapters 1 and 2, and compare with Genesis 1 and 2).
These two points being established, namely, the creation of man in the image of God, and the two-fold character of the cre- ation, let us now inquire: What was the form of man, in the spirit and in the body, as originally created? In a general way the answer is given in the words chosen as the text of this treatise. '"God created man in his own image." It is more explicitly ren- dered in the Book of Mormon thus: "All men were created in the beginning after mine own image" (Ether, 3: 15). It is the Father who is speaking. If, therefore, we can ascertain the form of the "Father of spirits," "The God of the spirits of all flesh," we shall be able to discover the form of the original man.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is "the express image" of His Father's person (Hebrews 1: 3). He walked the earth as a human being, as a perfect man, and said, in answer to a question put to Him: "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father" (John 14: 9). This alone ought to solve the problem to the satisfaction of every thoughtful, reverent mind. The conclusion is irresistible, that if the Son of God be the express image (that is, likeness) of His Father's person, then His Father is in the form of man; for that was the form of the Son of God, not only during His mortal life, but before His mortal birth, and after His resurrection. It was in this form that the Father and the Son, as two personages, ap- peared to Joseph Smith, when, as a boy of fourteen years, he re- ceived his first vision. Then if God made man— the first man— in His own image and likeness, he must have madp him like unto Christ, and consequently like unto men of Christ's time and of the
78 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
present day. That man was made in the image of Christ, is posi- tively stated in the Book of Moses: "And I, God, said unto mine Only Begotten, which was with me from the beginning, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and it was so. * * * * And I, God, created man in mine own image, in the image of mine Only Begotten created I him, male and female created I them" (2: 26, 27).
The Father of Jesus is our Father also. Jesus Himself taught this truth, when He instructed His disciples how to pray: "Our Father which art in heaven," etc. Jesus, however, is the first- born among all the sons of God — the first begotten in the spirit, and the only begotten in the flesh. He is our elder brother, and we, like Him, are in the image of God. All men and women are in the similitude of the universal Father and Mother, and are liter- ally the sons and daughters of Deity.
"God created man in His own image." This is just as true of the spirit as it is of the body, which is only the clothing of the spirit, its complement; the two together constituting the soul. The spirit of man is in the form of man, and the spirits of all creatures are in the likeness of their bodies. This was plainly taught by the Prophet Joseph Smith (Doctrine and Covenants, 77: 2).
Here is further evidence of the fact. More than seven hun- dred years before Moses was shown the things pertaining to this earth, another great prophet, known to us as the brother of Jared, was similarly favored by the Lord. He was even permitted to be- hold the spirit-body of the foreordained Savior, prior to His incar- nation; and so like the body of a man was His spirit in form and appearance, that the prophet thought he was gazing upon a being of flesh and blood. He first saw the finger and then the entire body of the Lord— all in the spirit. The Book of Mormon says of this wonderful manifestation:
And it came to pass that when the brother of Jared had said these words, behold, the Lord stretched forth His hand and touched the stones one by one with His finger; and the veil was taken from off the eyes of the brother of Jared, and he saw the finger of the Lord; and it was as the finger of a man, like unto flesh and blood; and the brother of Jared fell down before the Lord, for he was struck with fear.
EDITOR'S TABLE. 79
And the Lord saw that the brother of Jared had fallen to the earth; and the Lord said unto him, Arise, why hast thou fallen?
And he saith unto the Lord, I saw the finger of the Lord, and feared lest he should smite me: for I knew not that the Lord had flesh and blood.
And the Lord said unto him, Because of thy faith thou hast seen that I shall take upon me flesh and blood; and never has man come he- fore me with such exceeding faith as thou hast ; for were it not so, ye could not have seen my finger. Sawest thou more than this?
And he answered, Nay, Lord, show thyself unto me.
And the Lord said unto him, Believest thou the words which I shall speak?
And he answered, Yea, Lord, I know that thou speakest the truth, for thou art a God of truth and canst not lie.
And when he had said these words, behold, the Lord showed himself unto him, and said, Because thou knowest these things ye are redeemed from the fall; therefore ye are brought back into my presence; therefore I show myself unto you.
Behold, I am He who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people. Behold, I am Jesus Christ, I am the Father and the Son. In me shall all mankind have light, and that eternally, even they who shall believe on my name; and they shall become my sons and my daughters.
And never have I shewed myself unto man whom I have created, for never hath man believed in me as thou hast. Seest thou that ye are cre- ated after mine own image? Yea, even all men were created in the be- ginning after mine own image.
Behold, this body, which ye now behold, is the body of my spirit. and man have I created after the body of my spirit; and even as I ap- pear unto thee to be in the spirit, will I appear unto my people in the flesh" (Ether, 3: 6-16).
What more is needed to convince us that man, both in spirit and in body, is the image and likeness of God, and that God Him- self is in the form of man?
When the divine Being whose spirit-body the brother of Jared beheld, took upon Him flesh and blood, He appeared as a man. having "body, parts and passions," like other men, though vastly superior to all others, because He was God, even the Son of God, the Word made flesh: in Him "dwelt the fulness of the Godhead bodily." And why should He not appear as a man? That was the form of His spirit, and it must needs have an appropriate coverii 2,
80 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
a suitable tabernacle. He came into the world as He had promised to come (III Nephi, 1: 13), taking an infant tabernacle, and de- veloping it gradually to the fulness of His spirit stature. He came as man had been coming for ages, and as man has continued to come ever since. Jesus, however, as shown, was the only be- gotten of God in the flesh.
Adam, our great progenitor, "the first man," was, like Christ, a pre-existent spirit, and like Christ he took upon him an appro- priate body, the body of a man, and so became a "living soul." The doctrine of the pre-existence,— revealed so plainly, particularly in latter days, pours a wonderful flood of light upon the otherwise mysterious promblem of man's origin. It shows that man, as a spirit, was begotten and born of heavenly parents, and reared to maturity in the eternal mansions of the Father, prior to coming upon the earth in a temporal body to undergo an experience in mortality. It teaches that all men existed in the spirit before any man existed in the flesh, and that all who have inhabited the earth since Adam have taken bodies and become souls in like manner.
It is held by some that Adam was not the first man upon this earth, and that the original human being was a development from lower orders of the animal creation. These, however, are the the- ories of men. The word of the Lord declares that Adam was "the first man of all men" (Moses 1:34), and we are therefore in duty bound to regard him as the primal parent of our race. It was shown to the brother of Jared that all men were created in the beginning after the image of God; and whether we take this to mean the spirit or the body, or both, it commits us to the same conclusion: Man be- gan life as a human being, in the likeness of our heavenly Father.
True it is that the body of man enters upon its career as a tiny germ or embryo, which becomes an infant, quickened at a cer- tain stage by the spirit whose tabernacle it is, and the child, after being born, develops into a man. There is nothing in this, how- ever, to indicate that the original man, the first of our race, began life as anything less than a man, or less than the human germ or embryo that becomes a man.
Man, by searching, cannot find out God. Never,unaided, will he discover the truth about the beginning of human life. The Lord must reveal Himself, or remain unrevealed; and the same is true
TOR'S TABLE. 81
of the facts relating to the origin of Adam's race— God alone can reveal them. Some of these facts, however, are already known, and what has been made known it is our duty to receive and re- tain.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, basing its belief on divine revelation, ancient and modem, proclaims man to be the direct and lineal offspring of Deity. God Himself is an ex- alted man, perfected, enthroned, and supreme. By His almighty power He organized the earth, and all that it contains, from spirit and element, which exist co-eternally with Himself. He formed every plant that grows, and every animal that breathes, each after its own kind, spiritually and temporally — "that which is spiritual being in the likeness of that which is temporal, and that which is temporal in the likeness of that which is spiritual." He made the tadpole and the ape, the lion and the elephant; but He did not make them in His own image, nor endow them with Godlike reason and intelligence. Nevertheless, the whole animal creation will be perfected and perpetuated in the Hereafter, each class in its "dis- tinct order or sphere," and will enjoy "eternal felicity." That fact has been made plain in this dispensation (Doctrine and Covenants, 77: 3).
Man is the child of God, formed in the divine image and en- dowed with divine attributes, and even as the infant son of an earthly father and mother is capable in due time of becoming a man, so the undeveloped offspring of celestial parentage is capable, by experience through ages and asons, of evolving into a God. . Joseph F. Smith, John R. Winder, Anthon H. Lund,
First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
"The Time Has Come for the Latter-day Saints to Look After Their Children."
One of the leading topics discussed in the 80th semi-annual conference was the duty of parents, '[in the control, training and
82 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
education of their children. President Joseph F. Smith in his opening address on Sunday morning (Oct. 3) devoted most of his time to this important and timely topic; first bearing an earn- est testimony to the fact God has spoken from the heavens, in our day, and has revealed to man the true way to life everlasting. "This is a truth that cannot be denied intelligently," he said. Men may doubt, reject, deny, disbelieve, fight and array them- selves against the truth that God and his Son revealed themselves to the Prophet Joseph Smith, and gave him commandments and their law, their gospel, and their plan of temporal and spiritual salvation, and their plan of life eternal; but still the truth that God and his son did so reveal themselves remains unshaken and undisputed.
He testified that he accepted the truth that God and his Son Jesus Christ live, and that Joseph Smith was raised up by them to lay the foundations of this work; and declared that his all, his whole hope of life is staked upon these truths. He believed them and accepted them with all his soul. As fathers and mothers in Israel, the overpowering desire should prevail in every heart over all other desires, to serve God and keep his commandments, so that we may bring up our children in the way they should go— that they may not only believe, but know, through obedience to the truth, that God has spoken from the heavens, and so learn to love the truth and walk in the way of righteousness. Having accepted the truth, he rightly considered it natural that we should very earnestly de- sire that our associates, kindred and children should learn to know the truth as we know it. Then he continued:
"I want to take that course in my life that at least I can be counted free from the responsibility of any of those associated with me in life going astray, falling by the way, turning from the light into the darkness, denying the truth or falling into trans- gression, or wandering from the right path. I have a fervent prayer in my soul, an earnest desire, that when I shall be called to give my last account to the Judge of the quick and the dead, I may not be chargeable for the misdeeds of my children, for the wandering away from the truth, or falling into transgression, if they should do so, of any of my family. I do not want to be charged with it: I want to be free from this possibility. Next to
EDITOR'S TABLE. 88
them, I want my associates in life, my friends, my fellow members in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to so live that they may love God with all their hearts — for that is the greatest of all the commandments— and that they shall love their neighbor as they love themselves, as far as it is possible for men, with the help of God, to overcome their selfishness and extend their love, forgiveners, interest and charity to their fellowmen. I want to see the people of God obedient to the Lord and to the gospel, true to the faith, to their covenants, to mankind, true to one another and to the gospel of life and salvation; and in order that they may be true to these things, that they will prove it, and show forth their faith, devotion and love for the principles of the gospel by the manner in which they will rear their children and bring them up in the faith.
"The Lord has blest me wonderfully. Sometimes, indeed al- most always, I feel that no man in all the world has been more blest than I have been. I cannot express the gratitude I feel to God my Father, the giver of every good and perfect gift, for the inestimable and boundless mercies and blessings he has vouch- safed to me, his humble servant. So far, through my journey of life, I have had the joy and satisfaction of knowing, as far as it is possible for me to know, that the Lord has put into the hearts of my children the love of God and the love of truth, as he has put it into my heart, and I thank the Lord for it with all my soul.
"I would to the Lord that all men who are fathers in Israel, could say as much for their children; and why can't they say so much? I want to tell you one reason why a few of them, at least, cannot do it, and tell the truth. It is because they love their chil- dren with a shallow and unreasonable love. They indulge them to the utmost limit, and they carry it to such an extent that, if a child of theirs should ask them, while it was incapable of protect- ing itself, for a razor or a deadly instrument, figuratively speaking, rather than disappoint the child or deny its request, they would put into its hand an instrument of destruction. That is what they would do, and that is what they are doing when they weakly yield to their foolish whims, and you mark my words, my brethren and sisters. There may not be many, God forbid that there should be many of us, so unwisely indulgent, so thoughtless and so shallow in
84 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
our affection for our children, that we dare not check them in a wayward course, in wrong-doing and in their foolish love for the things of the world, more than for the things of righteousness, for fear of offending them.
"I want to say this: Some people have grown to possess such unlimited confidence in their children that they do not believe it possible for them to be led astray or to do wrong. They do not believe they could do wrong, because they have such confidence in them. The truth is, they turn them loose, morning, noon and night, to attend all kinds of entertainments and amusements, often in company with those whom they know not, and do not under- stand. Some of our children are so innocent that they do not sus- pect evil, and therefore they are off their guard and are trapped into evil. I do not like, and it isn't pleasant for me, to throw chips, so to speak, for I do not know what may come to me in the future. I do not know what sorrows may await me in my chil- dren, or in their children, I cannot tell what the future may bring forth; but I would feel today as if my life had been, in part, a failure, if at this moment, any of my children had thrown off their allegiance to their father or to their mother, and taken the bits into their own teeth, so to speak, to do as they pleased in the world, without regard to their parents.
"There are things, in connection with this subject, that would not, perhaps, be proper to speak of here, before a large and mixed congregation; but I want to sound a note of warning to the Latter- day Saints. The time has come for them to look after their chil- dren. Every device possible to the understanding and ingenuity of cunning men, is being used for the purpose of diverting our children from the faith of the gospel and from the love of the truth. Every species of organization is being formed, both in our midst and abroad, having for its object the express purpose of leading astray the children of the Latter-day Saints, because the parents can not be reached.
"This is their argument: 'We cannot convert the adult 'Mormon' people, but we may perhaps convert their children; we may lead away their children, we do not hope to lead away the old people.' They can't do it, except it be, now and then, a man or woman who never did know anything particularly about the gospel.
EDITOR'S TABLE.
sr,
These, only, are they who can be led away from the truth; and our children can be led away from their parents, and from the faith of the gospel, only when they are in a condition that they know not the truth for themselves, not having been taught it, not having had a proper example before them to impress it upon their minds. "Sometimes good-hearted people are in the habit of joking a good deal about sacred things, and there is scarcely anything held by them too sacred to speak lightly of, in some form. They do this in the presence of their children, and their children take ad- vantage of it; and while they go but an inch, so to speak, their children go the full length. They see that their parents do not hold sacred the things which are sacred; they joke about them and speak lightly of them in the presence of their children at the very fireside of their own homes. The children grow up to feel that even their parents, when under the influence of a jocular spirit, do not hold sacred those things that they call sacred. The parents joke about these things and speak lightly of them, and the chil- dren take advantage of it.
"I may be pardoned, since it is pretty well known everywhere, I believe, that I speak my mind, if I speak at all, if I say to you, 'Mormon,' Jew and Gentile, believer and unbeliever, present in this congregation, I would rather take one of my children to the grave than I would see him turn away from this gospel. I would rather fol- low my children's bodies to the cemetery, and see them buried in innocence, than I would see them corrupted by the ways of the world. I would rather go myself to the grave than to be associ-
; ated with a wife outside of the bonds of the new and everlasting covenant. Now, I hold it just that sacred; but some members of the Church do not so regard the matter. Some people feel that it does not make very much difference whether a girl marries a man in the Church, full of faith in the gospel, or an unbeliever. Some of our young people have married outside the Church, but very few of those who have done so have failed to come to grief. I would like to see Latter-day Saint women marry Latter-day Saint men, and Latter-day Saint men marry Latter-day Saint women; and let Methodists marry Methodists, Catholics marry Catholics, and Pres- byterians marry Presbyterians, and so on to the limit. Let them
': keep within the pale of their own faith and church, and marry
86 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
and intermarry there, and let the Latter-day Saints do the same in\ their Church, then we will see who comes out best in the end. j This is the way I feel about it. There is nothing I can think of, in a religious way, that would grieve me more intensely than to see one of my boys marry an unbelieving girl, or one of my girls mar- ry an unbelieving man. While I live, and they will listen to my voice, you can depend upon it none of them will do it, and I would to God that every father in Israel saw it as I do, and would carry it out just as I intend to do.
"Yet we do not know what the future may bring forth. We know the past, and the Spirit of the Lord may manifest to men, and does manifest to us, to some extent, what the future will be. We can, in part, judge of things that will come to pass by the things we see and understand, for we can trace the effect or result from the cause. When we see that laxity prevails in the family circle, when men do not pray at home, when they do not ask their wives nor their children to pray with them, when they treat lightly sacred things, when they joke and laugh about that which is most sacred, holy, and most important to the welfare and happiness of men; when they do this before their children, we may foretell what will be the result of it eventually, with those children. You can foretell it almost as surely as you can tell that which has passed. The same causes, if pursued on the same lines, will pro- duce the same effects, in the future as in the past. We know what the past has done, and we may judge from the past what the fu- ture will bring forth.
"Some of our people, living elsewhere, are in the habit of letting their daughters come to this city unprotected, to get employment, and it would be pitiable indeed, to relate the consequences which sometimes result from that practice. *****
"The Lord bless you. Peace abide with you; and, oh, may the fathers in Israel live as they should live, treat their wives as they should treat them; make their homes as comfortable as they possibly can; lighten the burdens upon their companions as much as possible; set a proper example before their children; teach them to meet with them in their prayer, morning and night; and whenever they sit down to partake of food, to acknowledge the mercy of God in giving to them the very food that they eat and the raiment
EDITOR'S TABLE. 87
that they wear, and acknowledge the hand of God in all things. This is our duty, and if we do not do it, the Lord will he dis- pleased, for he has said so. He is only pleased with those who acknowledge his hand in all things."
President Smith expressed some very important thoughts on the subject of home industry and manufacture, which will find place in these columns later.
The Thing that Counts in a Boy's Life.
The other day, when President Taft was here, a boy eight years old wanted to know of his father how any one started to be president of the United States. That was a deep question, and ran far into the heart of things. How to start to be president — that is the thing we want our boys to know.
You can't do this, though, by telling him in the ab- stract what you think is necessary for him to do in order to be president. Men have tried this from the beginning of time — and failed. You may tell him what success is. You may point the way never so clearly. But either he does not understand you, or he is not moved by what you say. The thing is too theoretical, and boys do not take much to theorizing. But set before him an account of how Taft started to be president, and immediately you touch his interest. That is concrete. That is a thing he can see. That is something he can catch hold of and ollow to the end.
Now in this volume of the Improvement Era we have a se- ries of articles telling, not how7 to start to be president merely, but how to start to be anything that succeeds. The series is en- titled Some Men Who Have Done Things. There will be twelve of them. Each is to be an account of how one successful man started to be what he is, and went on to be what he is. And in order to have a variety, each is representative of his class. There will be the man of general efficiency, the farmer, the stock-raiser, the teacher, the fruit-grower, the man of letters, the musician, ami so on. But each must have his struggle. That is an indispensable condition. Each must be unquestionably successful in his partieu-
88 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
lar calling. That is indispensable, too; and all must have lived their lives, carried on their struggles, and earned their success under conditions, in the main, in which our boy must live his life, carry on Ms battle, and wrench out his success.
It is an interesting series. You ought to put it into the hands of your boy. It will make a vast difference in his life. He will read it with interest. It will take firm hold on him. It will spur him to be more and to do more than he otherwise would. It will brace him up like a tonic, make him hold up his head, and go to with a will to do what is in him to do.
The next of the series will be called, Brains on the Farm.
Messages from the Missions.
The Millennial Star of September 30, announces with deep regret the death of Griffith E. Williams of Blackfoot, Idaho, who came to Eng- land on a mission, landing June 1, 1909. He died in the hospital at Trede- gar, South Wales, on September 25, 1909. An operation performed prior to his death showed that he was suffering from appendicitis and peritonitis, the appendix having supperated and burst. Every attention was paid to him possible, but he succumbed to the disease. He was a good, stalwart man, six feet, three inches tall, and was apparently in excellent health until September 22, when the disease attacked him. He leaves a wife and one child. His body was shipped to Utah on the steamship Megantic, in care of his brother, Franklin E. Williams, who was released to return with the body.
Writing from Trinidad, Colorado, President Alfred J. Atkinson says that "although the elders of the West Colorado conference must undergo some physical hardships to carry on their work, yet they have proved true to their cause, in word and deed." They were called to travel a dis- tance of from three to four hundred miles to attend conference in Trini- dad. They carried their grips through mud and rain, with light hearts. The elders were treated well in some cases by friends which they made as they traveled to conference. • The meetings held were mutually bene" ficial, judging from the words of appreciation spoken by unbelievers' Saints and elders. President John L. Herrick especially commended the singing of Elders James H. Ellison, R. A. Wilkins and Ray C. Green. The elders separated at the close of the conference for their fields of
EDITOR'S TABLE. 89
labor. Ray C. Green and Conference President A. J. Atkinson remained to complete the work in Trinidad.
|
BIP^ |
Lf- * ■ |
'•5T 11 |
||||||
|
JL^: |
•>.-*-T3 |
fiSSJvS |
■CP^* |
>-v . > |
||||
|
3jJSS?at,« |
J^L |
1^ |
4t4k |
|||||
|
rfe: |
• 'iBBk*^ |
SKIS |
r^V |
TT |
||||
|
— |
i > |
r r |
||||||
|
kr |
ELDERS OF THE WEST COLORADO CONFERENCE.
From left to right: Ray C. Green, Jas. H. Ellison, Jno C. Taysom, Wm.
H. Lynn, Alfred J. Atkinson, Conference President;
Urban Green and Robert A. Wilkins.
The organization of the Vermont conference on July 24, as noticed in the October Era, gave occasion for the New York Times to "discover" that the Memorial Monument to Joseph Smith was about to be dedicated, although this event had taken place nearly four years prior to that time. The Times said some mean things about the "Mormons," and these were copied and added to by other papers, including the Burlington Free Press. Elder Junius F. Wells, in charge of the Memorial, sent the following ex- planation and invitation to the editor of the Vermont paper:
The Joseph Smith Memorial, Sharon, Vermont.
South Royalton, Post Office. 5th September, 1909. Editor Free Press,
Burlington, Vt.
Dear Sir: — The monument in honor of Joseph Smith, the "Mormon" Prophet, was erected, under my superintendence, at his birthplace, and dedicated on the 23rd of December, 1905; the one hundreth anniversary of his birth.
That some N. Y. Times editorial numbskull, four years behind the news and forty in his knowledge of the "Mormons," should be just rub- bing his eyes open to the anticipation of that event does not surprise me. but that the Burlington Free Press should copy its drivel and comment reassuringly, as if it also is scarcely awake, rather astonishes me.
The Memorial here has not hurt anyone ; but has been very gratify- ing to the feelings of some half million "Mormons," who love and re- spect the memory of Joseph Smith. It was erected to satisfy their sense
90 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
of the proprieties; they believing it to be the least they could do upon that occasion; as they owe to the life and ministry of this son of Ver- mont, their identity as a Church, a community, a happy and prosperous people.
It has been a pleasure for me to receive and welcome from ten to twenty thousand visitors here, since the dedication of the monument. These have expressed their pleasure at coming, and I believe, quite generally, their delight at what has been done to improve and beautify this place, one of the loveliest places in the state of Vermont.
I regret that the managing editor of the Free Press has not been among these visitors; though we have had many representatives of New England newspapers here, at one time and another, and other dis- tinguished visitors: statesmen, ministers, teachers, scientists and general travelers.
I believe it is informing to come here; and I should be very glad to receive the writer of your editorial of August 31st, if he can make it convenient to come. I assure you that he will discover nothing here that is hurtful to the fair fame of Vermont or its people; and I think he will have a good time if he comes.
I should like to be advised a day or two ahead, as I am so much of the time away in New York and Boston.
Governor Proctor or General Howard would perhaps vouch for the sincerity of this invitation.
Yours faithfully,
Junius F. Wells.
Elder Wells, speaking of the monument, says: "We have had many visitors here this summer, some every day. Among these the speakers of the G. A. R. reunion of the counties of Windsor, Orange and others. It happened that General 0. 0. Howard was one of these. Ex-Governor Pingree, Rev. Metzger of Randolph, a noted preacher, made up the com- pany. The village band volunteered to come and play on the lawn while we served them a cold lunch. I was particularly pleased to draw out of General Howard, Christian soldier and Indian fighter, the statement that: 'It is eminently proper that you people should have built this memorial here. You know in regard to faith, I am telling the people, nowadays, that there is so little faith in the world, we ought to welcome it from any one.' That is a good deal coming from that source, and shows that all men are broadened by knowledge, and that to come here and partake of the influence of this place is helpful to friends and op- posers alike. I wish more of our people could come and see us."
Priesthood Quorums' Table.
Bishops will Select Seventies for Missionary Service. —
For several years it has been the rule for all seventies chosen for mis- sionary service abroad, to be selected and recommended under the im- mediate authority of the First Council of Seventy. Bishops have been restricted in the filling of requisitions made upon them, for missionaries, to the elders, high priests and the quorums of the lesser priesthood. The reason for introducing this double system of making recommenda- tions for missionaries was to do away with occasional misunderstandings, and more or less confusion that had been arising, through Bishops, and Presidents of Seventies, now and then sending in the name of the same individual for a missionary call. To avoid this duplicating of names, the presiding authorities of the Church decided that seventies should be sought after for missionary service, through the First Council and local Councils of Seventy, and missionaries from all the other quorums of priesthood, through the various bishoprics. At a special priesthood meeting held in the Assembly Hall, Salt Lake City, Wednesday, April 7, 1909, it was decided that the bishops of the various wards should recom- mend brethren for missionary labor from the quorums of seventy, just as they have heretofore done from all other quorums of priesthood. Presidents, and members, of the quorums of seventy, will therefore understand that requisitions for missionary calls from thair ranks will hereafter come from the bishops. The word of the Lord is:
The seventy are also called to preach the gospel, and to be especial witnesses unto the Gentiles and in all the world.
It is the duty of the traveling High Council to call upon the seventy, when they need assistance, to fill the several calls for preaching and ad- ministering the gospel, instead of any others.
The bishops are urged to keep in mind the doctrine here set forth, and in filling the requirements made upon them for missionaries to choose, if possible, from the ranks of the seventy and fill the requisitions wher- ever it is consistent from their numbers, instead of any others, as the
92 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
Lord has said. When bishops come to scan the quorums of seventy for missionaries, if they find there are not sufficient men of missionary cal- ibre to meet the demand, let this lack of proper material be an incen- tive to them to use their influence towards having the quorums of seventy filled with the right class of men; that the quorums may become what the Lord intended them to be; that is, the missionary force of the Church. Bishops, the First Council again urge you to recommend from the seven- ties as many men as possible for missionary work abroad.
A Hypothetical Question. —If all persons holding the Melchize- dek Priesthood, excepting one elder, should in some way or other be taken from the earth, could or should he reorganize the Church again?
This question is purely hypothetical and of little consequence or in- terest. Such a contingency is not likely to arise, but if it did -arise, no man on earth can now tell what wouli be done. The action taken would depend largely on the inspiration of the Lord to that one elder, or upon what the Lord would call him to do; because calling in the Priesthood is quite as important as authority. A man holding the Priesthood has authority to do many things that he will not do until he is called to do them. The lone elder would certainly have authority to go ahead with the work, to ordain other elders, and to fill up the quorums and build up the Church, because he would be in possession of the Holy Melchizedek Priesthood which is greater than any office in it. The Church would scarcely need reorganization, but growth. That is what he could do; what he should do is a matter about which he would properly consult the Lord and learn of a surety that he was called to act in whatever steps might be taken. In the meantime, the Church of Christ is established never more to be overthrown nor given to another people.
Time for Completing "Second Year Book" Extended. — At
the time of inaugurating the present system of weekly meetings among the seventies of the Church, the first Sunday in November was selected to commence the work. The "First Year Book" commenced in accord- ance with the plan on the first Sunday in November of the year 1908. gome of the quorums have completed the line of study as outlined in the "Second Year Book," and are now prepared to take up another course of lessons. In very many wards the weekly priesthood meetings were dis- continued for the summer months by order of the various bishops; owing to this temporary discontinuance of work many of the quorums of seventy have not succeeded in completing the year book for 1908-9, within the time originally designated. It has been decided by the First Council
PRIESTHOOD QUORUMS' TABLE. 93
that a change be made in the time for completing the study of the "Second Year Book" and the time has been extended until the end of the present year. This change will bring the quorums of seventy into more complete harmony with the recent priesthood movement, as all other quorums will complete their first year outlines on the last Monday in the coming December.
The quorums of seventy that have completed the "Second Year Book' ' can undoubtedly spend the time that will be at their disposal be- tween now, and the first week in January, 1910, in a most interesting and profitable manner in reviewing some of the lessons that have been under consideration during the past two years; or in introducing such other items as the presidents may feel will be for the best interests of their respective quorums.
Those quorums that have fallen behind in their lessons through a discontinuance of weekly meetings, during the summer season, are now urged to give all possible attention to' the work that has been prepared, and have all the lessons completed by the end of the year.
Elder B. H. Roberts is now busily engaged in the preparation of the ' 'Third Year Book, ' ' and all quorums of seventy will be required to take up this new line of work the first week in January, 1910.
The change of time in commencing work for the year, from the first week in November, to the first week in January will make the starting point for the seventies the same as that of all other quorums. This change in no way affects the time for holding the annual seventies meet- ing; that is to be held the first week in November, of each year, as out- lined in the Era last month.
Get Started, Hold On, and Finish.— A business magazine gives this good advice: "Get the thing started. That is one half of success. The other half is — get the thing done. Starting the idea into operation and doing it to a complete finish — that is the only road to results. " How well this applies in religious work, also, and to our Priesthood quorum work! Get it started, push it through, initiate and finish. Anl that implies holding on persistently and with purpose and zeal, to make a suc- cessful season. The new outlines will soon be announced. Have you finished the old ones? Are you working to be ready for the new? If you have failed once, try again. Remember the old colored preacher's definition of perseverance: "Firstly, take hold; secondly, hold on; third- ly, nebber let go." We must persevere and be persistent if we would succeed and finish, as well in religious work as in business.
Mutual Work.
New Secretary and Assistant Manager.
At a meeting of the General Board of Y. M. M. I. A. held on Wed- nesday, October 13, Elder Moroni Snow, on the recommendation of the General Superintendency of Y. M. M. I. A., presented by Elder Heber J. Grant, was unanimously appointed General Secretary of the Board, and Assistant Business Manager of the Improvement Era.
He is the son of Erastus Snow and Artemesia Beaman, and was born in Provo, May 13, 1858. His parents moved to St. George in 1862, where young Snow spent the early part of his life. He attended the public schools, and in 1875 entered the Deseret University, where he spent three years. In St. George he had his first mission through Wash- ington, Iron and Beaver counties with Elder C. S. Burton in the inter- est of the Y. M. M. I. A. In 1879 he went on a mission to Great Brit- ain, returning on account of ill health in the fall of 1880. In the M. I. A. he is an old worker, having served as ward president, counselor to Superintendent A. W. Ivins of St. George Stake, and on the departure of Elder Ivins for the Mexican mission, as stake superintendent, which posi- tion he occupied until 1885, when he removed to the north. In 1900 he settled in Provo, where he served as an alternate member of the High Council, was subsequently ordained Bishop of the Provo Fourth ward, and on the division of the Provo wards became bishop of the Fifth ward, which position he held until his removal to Salt Lake, in 1906. He has held several political positions, including alderman, jus- tice of the peace, county recorder, county superintendent of district schools, and deputy county surveyor of Washington county. In Provo he was a member of the Provo city council, serving two years as president of that body, and was re-elected a member of the council and continued to serve in that capacity until his removal to Salt Lake. In 1882 he married Emma Adelaide Gates, daughter of the late Jacob Gates, and they have eight children. His wide experience, zeal and varied abilities will now be devoted to the Era, and to the growth of the thriving organ- ization of which he is now the general secretary.
Passing Events.
St. Louis celebrated its centennial in early October. It has a newspaper over one hundred years old, the St. Louis Republic, established in 1808. Its population has grown from 1,400, in 1808, to about 800,000 at present.
At the last session of the semi-annual conference, October 6, Eld :r Levi Edgar Young, born in Salt Lake City, February 2, 1874, was sustained as a member of the First Council of Seventy. He is a son of Dr. Seymour B. Young, very prominent in educational affairs, and a. fav- orite with the young people wherever he is known. His ability, genial- ity and unassuming disposition have won him many golden opinions and will make him useful and popular in his new position.
The thousands of friends of Mr. and Mrs. Franklin S. Richards deeply sympathize with them in the death of their son, Joseph T. Rich- ards, who died after an operation, October 9, 1909. He was a well known young attorney, born in Ogden, Utah, December 8, 1871. Through diligent application and natural ability he became one of the ablest men of his profession, and at the time of his death was an active member of the firm of Richards, Richards & Ferry, one of the foremost law firms in the state.
The Utah State Fair, open during the week ending October 9, 1909, was pronounced the best ever held. The home industry displays were a veritable revelation, and the growth of the state shown in every line of husbandry was a marvel. The live stock pageant presented specimens unexcelled in any part of the world. The display of the State Agricul- tural College, in a building by itself, has never before been approached in practical usefulness and value to the farmer. More than 75,000 peo- ple passed through the gates.
John Albert Johnson, Governor of Minnesota, died September 21, in his 48th year. He rose from poverty to be one of the most respected men in our country. He left school at twelve, and at fourteen had to support his mother and a family of five. While hard at work during the day, he studied at night and so made good his early deficiencies in educa- tion. He was elected three times governor of his state notwithstanding
96 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
it was Republican by a great majoirty; and received 46 votes for Presidential nominee in the latest National Democratic Convention.
President Taft, and President Diaz of Mexico met on the American side of the Rio Grande, at El Paso, Texas, Octo- ber 16, and exchanged amenities. It was 99 years, September 16 since the struggle began which ended in the independence of the Repub- lic of Mexico. President Diaz is only 20 years younger than the repub- lic over which he presides, and has served 32 years continuously as presi- dent. He is a candidate now for re-election. President Taft after his pleasant sojourn in Salt Lake made the round of the Pacific coast, making many speeches and meeting enthusiastic receptions everywhere.
William H. Taft, president of the United States, arrived in Salt Lake City on Friday afternoon, September 24, and remained until Sun- day afternoon, 26th. He reviewed the soldiers at Fort Douglas, played at golf at the country club, appeared in a parade on main street, reviewed the school children and saw the living flag of children, was dined by various clubs, and finally, on Sunday morning, 26th, appeared in the great tabernacle where ten thousand people heard him speak. The building was gorgeously decorated with flags and bunting, and the organ was graced by a large portrait of the president. He chose for his text Pro v. 15: 1: "A soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger." On his way north he stopped at Ogden, Brigham City and Cache Junction, Utah.
Amos Milton Musser, assistant Church historian, died in Salt Lake City, Friday, September 24, 1909. He was born in Lancaster county, Pa., May 20, 1830, and joined the Church by baptism, May 24, 1851, though he had been nominally a member some years previous. He came to Utah in the fall of 1851, and has ever since been one of the prominent workers in the community, in civil, industrial and religious affairs. He circled the globe on a mission to India in 1851, and was travel- ing bishop of the Church from 1858 to 1876. He was one of the incorpo- rators of the Deseret Telegraph Company, and introduced the phonograph and telephone to Salt Lake City. He has written several Church pamphlets and tracts, and in 1887 issued the Palantic. He was connected for years, as sscretary, with the Deseret Agricultural & Manufacturing Association, and took a leading part in the Bee Association and the Utah Silk Associa- tion, and for nearly twenty years prior to statehood was fish and game commissioner. In many other industries, corporations and ways he de- voted his ability to the building up of the community. He leaves a large and honored family and a name that will long live among the people.
The Remington Auto-Loading Shotgun
"BROWNING'S PATENT"
It was the Remington AutQ-Loading Shotgun, in the hands of an amateur, that won the recent Grand American Handicap against 495 contestants. It is the PERFECT gun for trap and field .
Send for our 150 page catalog; it is free. We have "Everything for Every Sport in Every Season.''
BROWNING BROS. CO., ..-■ ■ - - Ogoen, Utah
"In my estimation any person who will earnestly take up the sale of Wearever Aluminum Cooking Utensils can build up a permanent business that will net him big returns without the necessary capital required to conduct general busine»s." — M. F. COWLEY.
We are in need of a representative in several of the counties of Utah. Write for full in- formation. THE ALUMINUM COOKING UTENSIL CO.
302 Security and Trust Bldg., Salt Lake City, Utah
SONGS OF ZION
No turning of leaves while singing. Every ^-\ /—* song complete on the open page. Order -^ tC^ sample copy. Price, cloth postpaid . . Kj%^J\-^
Send orders to IMPROVEMENT ERA, 214 Templeton Bldg., Salt Lake City
California
Round trip rates on sale daily* Limit returning six months* Write for full information to
Kenneth C Kerr,
169 S, Main Street,
Salt Lake City, Utah
'When writing- to Advertisers, please mention the ERA!
Z. G. M. I.
Fall Suit Styles
WILL APPEAL TO THE MAN WHO DESIRES TO BE STYL- ISHLY DRESSED AT AN ECO- NOMICAL OUTLAY.
^Notice the high-class standard of tailor- ing which distinguishes all our clothes.
Suits from $12. 5 0 to $U5
If Boys' and Children's SCHOOL SUITS in fall weights — new ma- terials and latest styles.
KIMBALL" TONE"
The tone of a piano is what interests you. You cannot always analyze its attraction, yet to you the tone of the Kimball piano will stand out as infinitely more appealing than that of any other.
Hear the Kimball tone. We want you to hear it because it has an individuality, a sub- tle charm of its own that cannot be described, yet is keenly felt.
The Kimball iriano not only fulfills every requirement of a piano, but is an inspiration — to you to keep up your music, to your child because it develops from the start a true ap- preciation of tone and touch. To practice from the start on the very best piano you can buy is the proper way to fully develop the musical ear as well as the fingers.
Exclusive "Kimball" Agents
Qoijj'o/zdafetfJffijJG Oct.
OLDEST. LARGEST. AND BEST MUSIC HOUSCIN THE STATE Of UTAH
"EiUELRYTniNQ IN MUSIC"
*foM Agency Jar
<§tda^^hmer.Vojdfliuball
and other plane*
SUCCESSORS TO CLAYTON-OWNES MUSIC CO AND QEESLEY MUSIC CQ
109=11=13 Main St
/0P-////JJ MtaSt JattLJt*Ot»l»ak
Salt Lake Gity
(When writing- to Advertisers, please mention the BRA.)