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npHE general board extends love and felicity at the new year and reminds Relief Society members that ''men are, that they might have joy." Glad hearts, cheerful countenances, love, hope, and charity in the souls of Relief Society sisters will reflect themselves in the lives of others and show forth to our Heavenly Father our gratitude that we are privileged to enter into the marvelous days of 1957, illuminated by the light of the gospel and the blessing of Relief Society.
While the Lord enjoins us to ''be sober," he also promises us, "And inasmuch as ye do these things with thanksgiving, with cheerful hearts and countenances, not with much laughter, for this is sin, but with a glad heart and a cheerful countenance . . . the fulness of the earth is yours" (D.&C. 59:15, 16).
As the new year is born, the general board wishes for every Relief Society member, deep, abiding joy throughout 1957.
Affectionately,
The Cover: The Floating Gardens, Xochimilco, Mexico
Photograph by Otto Done Co^'e^ Design by Evan Jensen
QJrOfYl I i
ear an
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I am so happy to start my subscription to The Relief Society Magazine. We have ah\ays had this Magazine in our home, and since a young girl I have read the wonderful stories and marveled at the in- formation contained therein. My hus- band and I are in Germany in the ser\'ice and so enjoy our Church activity here. It is a joy to be a member of Relief Society and to be able to have the Magazine for my own now.
— Shirk Debenham
Weisbaden, Germany
The story "One Bright Star" by Myrtle M. Dean, in the November 1956 Maga- zine, is so sweet, and makes the reader feel glorified with its humbleness. Many homes throughout the world will be blessed by this story of the real Christmas spirit. — Ruth M. Penrose
Salt Lake City, Utah
May I thank all concerned who have so kindly sent me The ReUef Society Maga- zine all this year. I have really enjoyed reading all the lovely things, for in them I find I can learn quite a lot. I have looked forward to receiving the Magazine each month from so far away. I do not belong to your Church, but I have some very dear friends who do.
— Mrs. L. Carrington
Leeds, England
I can't begin to tell you how much I appreciate our wonderful Magazine. I only wish it were bigger or came more often. I especially enjoy the wonderful recipes. They are so easy to follow and call for items that are readily available. The stories are always very enjoyable and of great ben- efit. Our Relief Society has only four members, but we do receive much inspira- tion from the Magazine.
— Alice M. Mann Iwakuni, Japan
T should hate to miss a copy of The Rehef Society Magazine. I find every copy a wonderful incentive to better living. — Mrs. Maude E. Grable
Southgate, California
As I was looking through some of the Magazines, I noticed the lo\'ely poems, especially the ones that come as frontis- pieces at the beginning of the Magazines. I also enjoy the lovely stories, particularly the continued ones. I have found the editorials most interesting. I am sure that everyone who subscribes to the Maga- zine gains something worthwhile. — Mrs. Viola Wasden Rexburg, Idaho
With the November issue of our in- spiring Magazine, I say "Best yet." May I spotlight my special eulogies on story- writer and poet Margery S. Stewart. To me, there is always such warmth and such a fine message in her story themes. And in the poem "November Afternoon," I recall rich color pictures her words and phrases gave to me.
— Helen L. Backman
Ogden, Utah
We have received the extra copies of the Magazine which you have so gener- ously assigned to this mission. The copies that are sent for use in the servicemen's groups are put to good service. . . . The other subscriptions we have used to send to the district Relief Society presidents, of whom we haxe eleven. These sisters take advantage of . . . members in their dis- tricts who speak English, and have these sisters read the articles and stories and present them to some of their groups in German. In that way more of our Ger- man sisters have the advantage of the messages and inspiration from the Maga- zine. Let me tell you how much the Magazine means to me personally. I read it from cover to co\'er each month, and the messages I find in the stories and articles gi\'e me a spiritual boost for which I am very grateful. Then I lo\e to read about the activities of the other missions and stakes, because it gives us a feeling of belonging, even though we are a long way from home.
— Bernice O. Dyer
President
West German Mission
Relief Society
Page 2
THE RELIEF SOCIETY MAGAZINE
Monthly Publication of the Relief Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
RELIEF SOCIETY GENERAL BOARD Belle S. Spafford --------- President
Marianne C. Sharp --.__-
Velma N. Simonsen Margaret C. Pickering
Anna B. Hart Edith S. Elliott Florence J. Madsen Leone G. Layton Blanche B. Stoddard
Editor - - -
Associate Editor Assistant to the Editor General Manager
Evon W. Peterson Louise W. Madsen Aleine M. Young Josie B. Bay Christine H. Robinson
First Counselor
Second Counselor
Secretary-Treasurer
Alberta H. Christensen Edith P. Backman
Mildred B. Eyring Helen W. Anderson Gladys S. Boyer Charlotte A. Larsen
RELIEF SOCIETY MAGAZINE
Winniefred S. Manwaring Elna P. Haymond Annie M. Ellsworth Mary R. Young
Marianne C. Sharp
Vesta P. Crawford
June Nielsen
Belle S. Spafford
Vol. 44
JANUARY 1957
No. 1
e
on tents
SPECIAL FEATURES
New Year's Greetings 1
Homemaking, the Ideal Career for Women Annie M. Ellsworth 4
Award Winners — Eliza R. Snow Poem Contest 8
Remembering the Handcarts — First Prize Poem Christie Lund Coles 9
Christmascope — Second Prize Poem Frances Carter Yost 10
Benediction to Summer — Third Prize Poem Joanne B. Rose 12
Award Winners — Annual Relief Society Short Story Contest 13
Strength for the Way — First Prize Story Sylvia Probst Young 14
The Mexican Mission Preston R. Nibley 20
Jungle Pilgrimage Into the Past Nell Murbarger 26
Great Men Pray 30
Polio and the March of Dimes Basil O'Connor 35
Biographical Sketches of Award Winners in the Eliza R. Snow Poem Contest
and First Prize Winner in the Annual Relief Society Short Story Contest 45
FICTION
Bitter Medicine — Part I Olive W. Burt 22
A Doll Buggy for Christmas Florence S. Glines 40
GENERAL FEATURES
From Near and Far 2
Sixty Years Ago 32
Woman's Sphere Ramona W. Cannon 33
Editorial: "Let Your Light So Shine" Vesta P. Crawford 34
Notes to the Field: Relief Society Assigned Evening Meeting of Fast Sunday in March 36
Award Subscriptions Presented in April 36
Bound Volumes of 1956 Relief Society Magazines 36
Notes From the Field: Relief Society Activities Margaret C. Pickering 48
Birthday Congratulations 72
FEATURES FOR THE HOME
Sina Bishop Reid Makes Her Own Crochet Designs 37
Recipes From Mexico Jennie R. Bowman 38
Recipes for Beverages Rhea H. Gardner 46
LESSONS FOR APRIL
Theology: A Review of Outstanding Characters of The Book of Mormon
Leland H. Monson 54
Visiting Teacher Messages: "Ye Shall Have Hope Through the
Atonement of Christ" Leone O. Jacobs 59
Work Meeting: Beverages Rhea H. Gardner 60
Literature: "A Midsummer Night's Dream" Briant S. Jacobs 61
Social Science: "Search Your Hearts" John Farr Larson 67
POETRY
The Monuments, Hazel Loomis, 19; Phantoms, Bessie I. Peterson, 29; Birthday, Genevieve Groen, 31; An Afterthought, Gene Romolo, 37; Enduring Beauty, Maude O. Cook, 44; Gifts, Catherine E. Berry, 53; Mountain Snowstorm, Eva Willes Wangsgaard, 58; Prayer for a New Year, Vesta N. Lukei, 72; Today, Elsie Chamberlain Carroll, 72.
PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE GENERAL BOARD OF RELIEF SOCIETY
Editorial and Business Offices: 76 North Main, Salt Lake City 16, Utah, Phone EMpire 4-2511; Subscriptions 246; Editorial Dept. 245. Subscription Price: $1.50 a year; foreign, $2.00 a year; payable in advance. The Magazine is not sent after subscription expires. No back numbers can be supplied. Renew promptly so that no copies will be missed. Report change of address at once, giving old and new address.
Entered as second-class matter February 18, 1914, at the Post Office, Salt Lake City, Utah, under the Act of March 3, 1879. Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in section 1103, Act of October 8, f^l7, authorized June 29, 1918. Manuscripts will not be returned unless return postage is enclosed. Rejected manuscripts will be retained for six months only. The Magazine is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts.
Homemaking, the Ideal Career for Women
Annie M. FAlswoith Member, General Board of Relief Society
HOMEMAKING, in its truest sense, is woman's greatest career. No other profession occupies the attention and efforts of more women than that of home- making. There is no vocation so important and so challenging as successful wifehood, motherhood, and homemaking. It is the sphere in which women can find the most happiness and render the greatest service. The making of a home is the highest and best in woman's realm.
Today, homemaking is a much more complex task than it was in the days of our grandmothers. While women have been released from much of the physical drudgery in the home because of human inge- nuity and inventions, many more complex problems and responsibili- ties have been added. In the eyes of trained home economists, if homemaking is to maintain its cen- tral position in human life, and to be permanently satisfying in a world of economic freedom and beckoning outside careers, it must take on professional standards and secure professional recognition.
Regardless of the circumstances in which a woman lives, whether alone in an apartment, with or with- out children, she can still make a true home to which she can invite her relatives and friends, and in which she can be a gracious home- Page 4
maker and extend warmth and hos- pitality. Her home can also be a place where her varied talents, pur- poseful accomplishments, and many- sided personality find satisfactory expression.
A marked difference exists be- tween homemaking and housekeep- ing. Homemaking, in its highest form, is a creative calling. House- keeping is more or less a static occu- pation, the ministering of the physical comforts of life to the fam- ily, and has less to do with the pro- duction of values. Where the ideal is to make life better for the family and for friends and neighbors who may enter, the homebuilder has a dynamic responsibility in home- making. A person can keep house and yet not make a home. Real homemaking requires a resourceful mind, ingenuity, and thoughtful consideration.
There are various types of home- makers. Included are those who have a sincere desire each day to excel in their sphere of homemak- ing and those who consider each day just another day of drudgery. It rests in the point of view. One per- son may view a gorgeous sunrise with ecstasy and gratitude for the glory and beauty of God's creation and for the challenge of a new day. Another may view it as just another daily appearance of the sun. A per- son may go into one home and leave
HOMEMAKING, THE IDEAL CAREER FOR WOMEN
with a desire and determination to be a better person because of the hospitahty and uphfting influence radiating within that home. A visit to another home may have an en- tirely different effect on the same person because of a lack of warmth and friendliness. This latter home is soon forgotten.
To the true Latter-day Saint woman, the gospel can have a refin- ing influence in her life which will be reflected in the home, in the lives of the members of her family, and may even be carried into the lives of her neighbors and friends who may enter her home.
pj^OR successful homemaking one of the important qualifications is a sense of its challenge and a sense of true values. As homemak- ers, are we interested in ease and pleasure, or in work, real joy, service and hospitality? Which are the greater possessions? It is the true homemaker who excels in the chal- lenge and makes people want to re- turn to her home, whom we now wish to consider.
The following worthwhile values in this ideal career — homemaking — may be worthy of consideration: the spiritual, the cultural, the aes- thetic, the physical, and personality development. Each is a component part of the integrated whole, and each should find lodgment in suc- cessful homemaking.
The ideal homemaker reflects a deep sense of spiritual values in her home — humility, compassion, an understanding and forgiving heart, reverence, courtesy, kindness, and the worth of character. Her home will take on this refining, spiritual influence which will be felt by
those who enter it. The atmosphere or spirit of the home is greatly im- proved where religion plays a domi- nant role. Someone has rightly said: 'There is something about re- ligion and spirituality in the home that clears the atmosphere and makes the home a delightful place in which to live."
The cultural atmosphere is en- hanced with good books, selective magazines, and discriminating mu- sic. People notice it. Hospitality is increased and a person's heart is warmed by these friendly contacts. One develops a high regard for the homemaker and leaves inspired, lifted, even with a feeling of kinship.
In the career of homemaking one must not lose sight of the aesthetic values which enrich and glorify the atmosphere of a home — the lovely needlepoint on the dining-room chairs or on a footstool, the fine choice of pictures on the walls, the handmade rug, the heirloom, the attractive house frock the hostess is wearing, and, by all means, the color- ful flower garden in the backyard. Nothing creates more warmth and beauty in the home than an attrac- tive arrangement of flowers from one's own garden. The following verse typifies the feelings of a lover of flowers:
If thou of fortune be bereft And in thy store there be but left Two loaves, sell one and with the dole Buy hyacinths to feed thy soul.
— From ''Not By Bread Alone," by James Terry White
Art creation and appreciation in the home enrich the lives of each member, and carry the influence be- yond the home into the community.
RELIEF SOCIETY MAGAZINE— JANUARY 1957
A humble pride in her accomplish- ments brings contentment and satis- faction to any homebuilder.
The physical satisfactions are many and varied. The aroma of freshly baked bread, spicy apples, pumpkin pie, fruit cake, or the smell of savory soup reflect upon the at- mosphere of the home. Today, when so many of these delectable foods are purchased over the count- er by housewives, it makes one won- der if fine cookery is becoming a ''lost art" to the home. Do we as homemakers invite our friends in for home-cooked meals, or do we take them out to dinner? Nothing glorifies homemaking more than for a happy group to gather around the dining-room table, spread with de- licious home-cooked food, and en- joy a meal together, enhanced with delightful conversation. Or, is the dining-room table and its many happy, festive occasions also passing into oblivion? A dinner in the din- ing-room, served with leisure and in a tidy surrounding, would be a con- tinuous and potent means of bringing the family closer together, likewise, friendships.
/^LD-fashioned homemade merry- making in the home is not so frequent as it used to be, due, per- haps, to the present struggle of making a living. A committee on homemaking, called by President Hoover during his administration, said: ''If the home is to function as it should in encouraging friend- ships, in broadening the social horizon of the family, and in mak- ing its members feel themselves a part of the community, there must be an effort to bring back some of its old-fashioned hospitality." The
challenge is great. I knew of one homemaker and her husband who held open house on Saturday nights for all of the Latter-day Saint service- men from two aviation fields, serv- ing them with fresh homemade bread and jam. Was that a phase of real hospitality, bringing sweet memories of mother and home to those boys?
Personality development is ever a challenge to the homemaker. Through effort, observation, love, service, and sharing, she uncon- sciously develops strength in person- ality which has its reward— a better homemaking career. Every home- maker owes it to her family to look her best, as it will reflect upon the home atmosphere. Good grooming, proper care of her person, correct posture, cleanliness and neatness in dress, observance of health rules, all add up to a delightful personality and create poise and charm. A sense of humor is another valuable asset. Elizabeth MacDonald, in her book on homemaking, said: "The woman who has a gallant attitude is seldom long-faced." The value of a smile cannot be over-estimated. The memory of it may last a lifetime. Dr. Royal L. Garff (University of Utah), in addressing a large group of women, said: "There is nothing like the magic of a smile to turn on the brakes of personality."
Success in home finances must have a place in good homemaking. The ability to use money wisely is quite as important as the power to earn it. Through budgeting and record keeping, the homebuilder can acquire frugality in spending the family income.
Budgeting of one's time is an-
HOMEMAKING, THE IDEAL CAREER FOR WOMEN
other important aspect in an order- ly home. The final result should be an increase of leisure time. An occasional change in the regular routine of duties, constructive imagination, and executive ability should invent new and better ways of doing things which should result in more time for other accomplish- ments. This time should give the homemaker moments for selective reading, personal hobbies, social functions, community and Church activities, which help to cultivate an appreciation for interests beyond her own household and have a stim- ulating effect in the home as well.
Truly, the challenge of good homemaking is great and the dig- nity of successful home manage- ment is unexcelled. In a talk on homemaking, Mrs. Sterling Ercan- brack* said: ''A home, like a person, has a body and a soul. House furn- ishings, heat, light, food, clothing, etc. make up the body. The thoughts, feehngs, attitudes and purposes which pervade the home constitute the soul.'' Regardless of Jiow elaborate or how humble a house may be, a spirit of hospitality, friendliness and charm can radiate within its walls and characterize home entertainment. If the home- maker would perform well in this career of homemaking, she must
assume these responsibilities with integrity and courage.
''Abundant living evolves primar- ily from the happy family. Such ob- jectives have their roots deep within the culture of the Latter-day Saint people. Family life is the matrix of spiritual development, the foun- dation of society, and the basic unit of the Kingdom of God" (Dr. Mar- ion C. Pfund, Dean of College of Family Living, Brigham Young Uni- versity).
And now, just one more visit with the ''ideal" homemaker who has chosen homemaking as the "ideal" career. Today, as always, you are greeted with a ready smile and a warm friendliness. Regard- less of how busy this homemaker may be, there is a feeling of calm- ness, serenity, and charm. You sense a feeling that you are the only one that matters. The same reflection is felt throughout the home of a charming, hospitable, gracious personality. This is one of the greatest attainments of a homemaker in homemaking. You go away relaxed, lifted in spirit, de- termined again to be a better per- son and a better homemaker. Yes, the homey, friendly, hospitable, and spiritual atmosphere is what charac- terizes the ideal home.
^Member of the Board of Trustees, Utah State Agricultural College, Logan, Utah
fyiward vi/i
inners
ibiiza U\. Q>no\K> [Poem Looniest
'T^HE Relief Society general board is pleased to announce the names of the three winners in the 1956 Eliza R. Snow Poem Contest. This contest was announced in the May 1956 issue of the Magazine, and closed August 15, 1956.
The first prize of twenty-five dol- lars is awarded to Christie Lund Coles, Provo, Utah, for her poem ''Remembering the Handcarts." The second prize of twenty dollars is awarded to Frances Carter Yost, Bancroft, Idaho, for her poem ''Christmascope." The third prize of fifteen dollars is awarded to Joanne B. Rose, West Jordan, Utah, for her poem ''Benediction to Sum- mer.''
This poem contest has been con- ducted annually by the Relief So- ciety general board since 1924 in honor of Eliza R. Snow, second gen- eral president of Relief Society, a gifted poet and beloved leader.
The contest is open to all Latter- day Saint women, and is designed to encourage poetry writing, and to increase appreciation for creative writing and the beauty and value of poetry.
Prize-winning poems are the prop- erty of the Relief Society general board, and may not be used for pub- lication by others except upon writ- ten permission of the general board. The general board also reserves the right to publish any of the poems
Page 8
submitted, paying for them at the time of publication at the regular Magazine rate. A writer who has received the first prize for two con- secutive years must wait two years before she is again eligible to enter the contest.
Mrs. Coles appears for the third time as an award winner in the Eliza R. Snow Poem Contest. Mrs. Yost and Mrs. Rose are first-time winners.
There were 143 poems submitted in this year's contest. Entries were received from twenty-three states, with the largest numbers coming in order, from Utah, California, Idaho, and Arizona. Six entries were re- ceived from Canada, three from England, and one each from Nova Scotia, Panama Canal Zone, Yugo- slavia, Australia, and South Africa.
The general board congratulates the prize winners and expresses ap- preciation to all entrants for their interest in the contest. The general board wishes, also, to thank the judges for their care and diligence in selecting the prize - winning poems. The services of the poetry committee of the general board are very much appreciated.
The prize-winning poems, to- gether with photographs and bio- graphical sketches of the prize- winning contestants, are published in this issue.
Lrnze - vyinnifig [Poems
Eliza Roxey Snow Memorial Poem Contest
CHRISTIE LUND COLES
First Prize Poem
iKemembenng the ulandcarts
Christie Lund Coles
It was not worth the cost, the cynics said, Reading again the names of those who died, Remembering the graves of lonely dead, Covered by rocks against the rushing tide Of elements . . . the snarl of wind, the snow; The sharp, relentless beat of sleet and rain; The fang and claw of wolves whose hungers know No pity . . . not worth price of blood and pain.
Yet, we who stand within the valley's arch,
Green as the Eden of another day.
Watching each temple spire rise like a torch
Of truth, of verity, to guide man's way.
We, travelers upon the path they laid.
Thank God they found it worth the price they paid.
Page 9
FRANCES C. YOST Second Prize Poem
(^hnstmascope
Fiances Carter Yost
PART I: Walk With the Shepherds
Though paper angels dangle on each tree, And frosted cherubs string each neon light, The world, in tawdry tinsel, does not see, Or even sense, a Gabriel, in white. Come! Walk along the paths of Galilee. Where Virgin Mary, favored of the Lord, And humble Joseph, her own covenantee, Counseled by angels, walked with one accord. They stroll the shepherd's starry hill and dell, Don robes of meekness, take the staff of faith. Hear the archangels sing with Gabriel, The sacred carolers, a holy wraith. While jeweled starlight guards each woolly fleece Walk with the shepherds to the shrine of peace.
Page 10
PART II : Come Be a Wise Man
Though ghstening stars festoon each Christmas tree,
And asteroids bedeck each store and street,
The world, bent on quick-witted repartee
And selfish merriment, almost delete
The pointed meaning of the yuletide star.
Come! Be a wise man, take the road to him.
(Be not a Herod who sees not afar.)
As they, let not the light of love grow dim.
As they, take gifts; the gold of gratitude;
The myrrh of mercy and of charity;
The frankincense of faith and hope renewed.
A gift too worldly, is as filigree.
We can be wise men, too, and go with them.
Follow the star that leads to Bethlehem!
PART III: Bend Low to Him
Ebony leather, and the rhinestone heel Now point and pivot in each wayside inn. Proud men and haughty ladies sip with zeal Strong nectar, while the world is clothed in sin. Have we forgotten whose birthday is this? Have we forgotten star and angel song? We, too, have filled our inn with avarice, As lusty Romans drank their cup of wrong. Bend low to him, though time is now far spent; Kneel as the shepherds, worship at his feet. Only through him can we find real content. Only through him life's lyric can repeat. Although the world seems bent on trumpery, Accept his gift of immortality.
Page 11
JOANNE B. ROSE
Third Prize Poem
ujeneaiction to Sunifner
Joanne B. Rose
What captive power is fettered to the wing That hires the feeding gull from sea-sucked shore; What sad, relentless song does autumn sing Compelling the restless birds to wheel and soar? Flocking in gray-white clouds behind the plough They gorge themselves where rich black soil's unfurled; Skimming the earth they scream a parting vow To leave this plain till trees are blossom pearled. Theirs is the cry that ushers winter's breath . . . The cry of motion spent— of purpose lost; Theirs is the cry of gulls at summer's death As mourning earth is draped in a veil of frost.
Note: For biographical sketches of the award winners in the Eliza R. Snow Poem Contest, see page 45.
page 12
,yLsK>ard vi/i
ifiners
Annual Uxelief Societif Short Storg (contest
T^HE Relief Society general board is pleased to announce the award winners in the Annual Relief Society Short Story Contest, which was announced in the May 1956 issue of the Magazine, and which closed August 15, 1956.
The first prize of fifty dollars is awarded to Sylvia Probst Young, Midvale, Utah, for her story ''Strength for the Way/' The sec- ond prize of forty dollars is awarded to Edith Larson, Manton, Michi- gan, for her story ''Mother's Shoes." The third prize of thirty dollars is awarded to Vera H. Mayhew, Berk- eley, California, for her story "The Slow Hurry."
Mrs. Young is a first-time winner in the Relief Society Short Story Contest, although she has received two awards in the Eliza R. Snow Poem Contest. Mrs. Larson was awarded third prize in last year's story contest. Mrs. Mayhew is a winner in the story contest for the second time.
The Annual Relief Society Short Story Contest was first conducted by the Relief Society general board in 1941, as a feature of the Relief Society centennial observance, and was made an annual contest in 1942. The contest is open only to Latter- day Saint women who have had at least one literary composition pub- lished or accepted for publication by a periodical of recognized merit.
The three prize-winning stories will be published consecutively in
the first three issues of The Relief Society Magazine for 1957. Twenty- five stories were entered in the con- test for 1956.
The contest was initiated to en- courage Latter-day Saint women to express themselves in the field of fiction. The general board feels that the response to this opportunity continues to increase the literary quality of The Rehef Society Mag- azine, and will aid the women of the Church in the development of their gifts in creative writing.
Prize-winning stories are the property of the Relief Society gen- eral board, and may not be used for publication by others except on written permission from the general board. The general board also re- serves the right to publish any of the stories submitted, paying for them at the time of publication at the regular Magazine rate.
A writer who has received the first prize for two consecutive years must wait for two years before she is again eligible to enter the contest.
The general board congratulates the prize-winning contestants, and expresses appreciation to all those who submitted stories. Sincere grati- tude is extended to the judges for their discernment and skill in se- lecting the prize-winning stories. The general board also acknowl- edges, with appreciation, the work of the short story committee in supervising the contest.
Page 13
C/irst Lrrtze- vi/infiifig Story
J^nnual LKelief (boaety (bnort Q>tory[ Looniest
Strength for the Way
Sylvia Piohst Young
SOFTLY, so as not to awaken Jim, Anne Hadfield slipped out of bed and stole from the tent into the night stillness. Over the bluffs moonlight lay like a mantle, but not a breeze was stirring and the air was heavy and almost as hot as at midday.
With a weary little sigh, she sat down on a nearby log. Council Bluffs— wagons and tents; the low- ing of cattle; the smoke of campfires —a camp of Israel. How long it had been since she had known the comfort of her Nauvoo home. It was February when they had left Nauvoo with the first company of saints— February and this was July- only five months. But living out- of-doors, knowing cold and hunger, being deprived of all of the easy liv- ing she had known in Nauvoo had made her young heart yearn so much to be back there again. Still, with Jim beside her, with his strong, young love to warm and comfort her, she hadn't minded so much the hardships or privations on the way. Jim's courage and fine sense of humor had been like a staff in her hand. But now — now, Jim would not be here. A tear stole down her cheek and she brushed it away. Before her stretched wagons and tents of men— recruits for the United States Army— fathers, hus- bands, and sons from Mt. Pisgah
Page 14
SYLVIA PROBST YOUNG
and Garden Grove, who had come to join with the men from Council Bluffs. Tomorrow they would leave for Fort Leavenworth.
Less than a month ago Captain James Allen had come to Council Bluffs to see President Young. He had asked for five hundred men to help defend the United States in a war against Mexico. It seemed almost ironical that he should point out the governmental protection of- fered them when they had been driven from state to state, and had suffered untold persecutions. But President Young, with loyal patriot- ism, had begged the saints to dis-
STRENGTH FOR THE WAY
15
tinguish between the conduct of the states separately and the conduct of the states collectively. The nation, he said, was not responsible for their present outcast condition. So pa- triotism had won because of Presi- dent Young, and Captain Allen was getting his men. But in Anne's heart, there was a bitter resentment toward the President, and she won- dered how he could have seemed so willing to let the men go.
Jim had enlisted, of course— and tomorrow he would be gone. She would be quite alone then, with not even a relative near. Here in this wilderness she would bear Jim's child, and he would be far away in the barren country beyond. . . . She covered her face with her hands and let the warm tears flow.
^^ A NNE - Anne, darhng."
It was Jim's voice. She turned to look at her husband. Jim Hadfield, tall and brawny and straight as a pine, was as fine an example of clean, Mormon man- hood as the battalion could have. He came to sit beside her, his pro- tective arm around her waist.
''Honey, what are you doing out here?" His words were full of tender solicitude.
"I thought you were asleep, Jim, so I came out here."
''I was asleep until I discovered you weren't beside me. Anne, you have to get your rest, dear."
''I couldn't sleep — tomorrow you'll be gone."
He put a hand under her chin and looked down into her eyes.
''But I'm here tonight — right here beside you," he made an effort at speaking lightly. Jim.
"Yes?"
"Did you know that Jennie Peters is going with the battalion? She enlisted as a cook. Jim, if I weren't having the baby I could be going, too."
He looked at her gravely then. "Anne, are you sorry about the baby?"
"You know Fm not." Her tone was fringed with impatience. "I've been as glad about it as you have, but your going makes everything so different." She wanted to add— "I don't see the reason for it, either," but she didn't. She had argued on that before and it only upset Jim. He was convinced that President Young had no alternative.
"It's being alone that will be so hard." She tried to keep her voice steady.
"Anne." He put his other arm around her and held her close, his voice was husky. "Leaving you will be the hardest thing I've ever done. I've thought about it constantly. One thing gives me comfort. I say to myself: 'Anne's the kind of girl that can take it with her chin up; she's as good a soldier as I'll ever be.' You'\'e already proved that, dear."
For a long moment he looked searchingly into her upturned face. "I want you to remember some- thing always — I'll be with you all the way. Across the miles that sep- arate us I'll be asking God to bless and comfort you," he spoke earnest- ly, "and my every thought will be with you back here."
Anne looked into the dark, serious eyes so close to her own, eyes full of love and tenderness for her. She answered with lips brushing his
16
RELIEF SOCIETY MAGAZINE— JANUARY 1957
brow. Then gently Jim gathered her in his arms and carried her back into the tent and to bed.
In the still darkness he led her to talk about the future when he would be back and meet her and their baby in the promised valley of the mountains; of the home they would have and of the wonderful years before them.
His gentleness lifted the load from her heart, and, peacefully as a child, Anne closed her eyes and went to sleep, not knowing how great the weight on her husband's heart.
npHE following day, July twentieth, was a busy one for the saints at Council Bluffs. Jim Hadfield, as a corporal in the newly formed bat- talion, met with all the other officers in a private council with President Young. The President gave them a farewell blessing, he counseled them to remember to be clean, virtuous, and prayerful. Pro- phetically he promised them that they should not be required to shed human blood.
In the afternoon there was a fare- well ball in honor of the departing men. It was a gay party; to the canto of fiddles and the jingle of bells, young and old danced the Virginia reel and the Copenhagen jig beneath the shelter of a bowery prepared especially for the occasion. Hand in hand, Anne and Jim Had- field watched the dancers, smiling and gay as the others. No one would have guessed that it was a time of parting for all of these mer- rymakers.
When the sun dipped behind the sharp skyline of the Omaha hills, the dancing ceased, and a farewell
quartette sang a parting song. Goodbyes were said then.
Anne and Jim clung to each other for that brief moment.
'Til be praying for you always," he whispered, ''take care of your- self — and the baby." Then he kissed her gently and smiled into her shining eyes. She returned as brave a smile as his.
"That's my girl, no tears, darling."
No tears — she had shed them all the night before, and she had re- solved that he would not see her cry today.
They took up their line of march then, tramping to the strains of the band with the Stars and Stripes waving above them. Five hundred men marching toward Fort Leaven- worth, Kansas, where they would receive their uniforms and supplies.
Standing with those who were left behind, Anne watched until her eyes could no longer distinguish anything but a cloud of dust. Then she turned toward her own wagon, the heart within her heavy as stone.
"Everyone will be good to you," Jim had said. They were. Sister Hansen, who was camped next to them, brought her a dish of beans and a slice of corn bread for her supper.
"I told Jim I'd keep care of you," she exclaimed, "and I mean to do so. Peggy could come and sleep here with you, if you like."
Anne smiled at this big, motherly neighbor. "I'll be just fine," she said, "just knowing you're close by."
But long after the camp had settled down for the night she lay staring into the darkness. Last night Jim had been here with her— tonight she was alone. It was the
STRENGTH FOR THE WAY
17
most heart-tearing experience she had ever had, being without Jim. It had only been hours since he had gone; it seemed an eternity.
The western movement would have to stop now, without the men they could not go on. Here they would build quarters for the winter, and here their child would be born —hers and Jim's— with no kin to give her comfort. How much must they all bear for this new belief?
Her thoughts turned to Nauvoo then; ever since Jim had enlisted Nauvoo had been in her semicon- scious mind. Back in Nauvoo there were those who still worshiped God— those who had stayed with Emma Smith— her own father and Aunt Carrie. If she could be in Nauvoo when the baby came. A sudden idea made her sit upright in her bed — Nauvoo — if she could go back to Nauvoo. Surely between now and November there would be wagons returning to help the sick and needy to evacuate. She had heard some talk of it. They could have her team and wagon for the privilege of a ride back. She was strong and healthy and young; she could easily make that trip. In Nauvoo, her baby could be born in a house with a doctor and Aunt Carrie by her side. In Nauvoo, she would not be alone or afraid. When Jim was discharged from the army he could come back for her. He would understand and he would not disapprove— he loved her too much for that.
The idea grew and took posses- sion of her. She would go to the President himself. She would tell him why she wanted to go back. How could he refuse her wishes,
wasn't he directly responsible for Jim's absence?
With a little smile, Anne closed her eyes and dreamed of Nauvoo and the happiness she had known there.
She awoke before dawn the next morning, the idea still paramount in her thoughts. All morning she toyed with it. The one disturbing thing was Jim; she was not at all sure that he would be pleased. But Jim was gone, she argued with her- self, and she had to make her own decisions.
OESOLUTELY she dressed in her best brown calico dress and her pink sunbonnet, and wearing high courage, in the early afternoon, she went to see President Young. But her heart was beating rapidly, she had never talked to the President before. On the various occasions when she had heard him speak he seemed quite stern, and his manner brisk. Would he be displeased to have her take up some of his time?
But the voice that greeted her was gentle and friendly. Anne looked with surprise into the rugged face of the man who was leader of the entire company. He didn't seem surprised to see her; it was almost as if he had been expecting her visit.
Inside of his tent he found a chair for her. "I don't believe I've had the pleasure of meeting you be- fore," he said, holding out his hand.
'Tm Anne Hadfield," she an- swered. ''My husband is Corporal James Hadfield of your battalion."
A look of gentle compassion soft- ened the stern lines of his face. ''Those men," he said, "are the
18
RELIEF SOCIETY MAGAZINE— JANUARY 1957
cream of Israel. There are no braver men on earth, but not one of them is any more courageous or vahant than the woman he has left behind.
"Sister Hadfield/' the President's face grew grave, ''it was not easy for me to send your corporal away from you, I had no other course. We have known great trials, perhaps none greater than this. But, my dear sister, remember — we are never alone. The God of heaven is guiding us as he has always done. He is forever mindful of you and of me — of all of us. He is at the helm. With trust in him you can endure whatever trials may come your way. God will provide for you here the same as he did in Nauvoo.
''Back in Nauvoo there are men and women who have chosen not to follow — the way is too hard, the sacrifices too great. But it is God's chosen course for us, and, if we re- main true to that conviction, we shall reap blessings that they who stav behind shall never know.''
As he spoke his face reflected wis- dom and calm assurance, and the truth of his every word sank deep into Anne Hadfield's heart. It seemed he could read her very thoughts, and she felt strangely un- comfortable in his presence.
ORIGHAM Young, a prophet of God— there was something ma- jestic about him. And suddenly she remembered the conference in Nau- voo. It was as if she were seeing him now as she had seen him then, when the mantle of Joseph had fal- len upon him; when he had spoken in the voice of the martyred one.
She could never forget the spirit of that conference — how Jim's hand had gripped her own. She could feel that same spirit now, in the presence of this man. In that mo- ment she was ashamed — ashamed of the weakness that had brought her here. Jim had spoken of her courage, what would he think of her now? A tear stole down her cheek — a tear of remorse, but a tear of relief, too. She raised her head, courage had returned; faith had been rekindled; doubt had gone, more quickly than it had come. It was almost as if the President had pronounced a special blessing upon her head.
She knew, as she had known at the conference in Nauvoo, that the way was here with this chosen prophet of God; there could be no turning back. But now she didn't want to turn back, for her strength had returned, and a warm, comfort- ing peace filled her soul.
The President's face relaxed then, and he smiled down at her.
"Sister Hadfield, I didn't mean to give you a sermon. Now tell me how can I help you?"
Anne looked at him with shining eyes. "I needed a little strength for the way," she answered, "and you have given me that. Thank you. President Young."
She held out her hand and he took it in his big, roughened one.
"God bless you," he said.
With her head held high, Anne went out of the tent, her eyes look- ing across the prairie to the future that lay beyond.
Note: See page 45 for a biographical sketch of Sylvia Probst Young.
Willard Luce
MONUMENT VALLEY, ON THE UTAH-ARIZONA BORDER
In the heart of the Navajo Indian Reservation
cJhe 1 1 Lonuments
Hazel Loomis
I saw you spread your velvet robe.
I saw the curtain drawn
As night came down.
I closed my eyes,
And even dreaming knew, when come the dawn,
Like loyal friends.
You would be there
Unchanged,
Unmoved.
Page 19
&ke m
exican
n iissi
ission
Pieston R. Nihhy
AT the October conference of the Church, held in Salt Lake City in 1875, Elders Daniel W. Jones, Anthony W. Ivins, Amnion M. Tenney, James Z. Stewart, Helaman Pratt, Robert H. Smith, and Wiley C. Jones were called to open a mis- sion for the Church in the Re- public of Mexico. As they were requested by President Brigham Young to explore Arizona and look for possible places for settlement by the Mormon people on their way to their field of labor, they traveled on horseback, taking their food,
bedding, and camp equipment on pack animals.
After enduring many hardships while making their way across Ari- zona and New Mexico, they arrived in El Paso, Texas, during the first week of January 1876, and crossed the Rio Grande River, where they began their labors. They worked their way southward as far as the city of Chihuahua, held meetings and distributed their literature. In the fall of the year they returned to their homes in Utah.
At the October conference of the
Harold M. Lambert Studios
PLAZA OF MOUNTAIN VILLAGE, EL CHICO, MEXICO
Page 20
THE MEXICAN MISSION
21
Photograph by Otto Done
EL TAJIN PYRAMID IN THE STATE OF VERA CRUZ, MEXICO
Church held in Salt Lake City in 1879, Elder Moses Thatcher, a member of the Council of the Twelve, was appointed president of the Mexican Mission. Shortly after- wards he established headquarters in Mexico City, and with Elders James Z. Stewart and Meliton G. Trejo, began a vigorous campaign to make known the gospel message. The first baptisms took place in No- vember and soon a small branch of the Church was established in Mex- ico City.
Except for a brief period (1889 to 1901 ) missionary work in Mexico has continued since that time. In June 1956, under the direction of
Elders Harold B. Lee and Spencer W. Kimball of the Council of the Twelve, the Mexican Mission was divided, and the Northern Mexican Mission was formed. Claudius Bowman presides over the Mexican Mission and Joseph T. Bentley over the Northern Mexican Mission. Before the division there were ap- proximately 9,300 members of the Church in the Republic of Mexico, located in sixty-one branches. In December 1955, before the mission was divided, fifty-six Relief So- ciety organizations were reported, with 1,183 niembers. Jennie R. Bowman presides over the Mexican Mission Relief Society.
Note: The cover for this Magazine is a view of the Floating Gardens, Xochimilco, Mexico. See also "Recipes From Mexico/' page 38.
Bitter Medicine
Part I OJive W. Burt
HELEN Lund was just a bit breathless as she hurried up the school-building stairs and into the auditorium where the P.T.A. meeting was to be held. As she opened the door, however, the buzz of conversation and the con- fusion of moving people told her that she was in plenty of time. She glanced quickly about to see where Lettie Young, her particular friend, was sitting.
Lettie was off to one side, stand- ing by a group of talking women. She was looking down at them, but not joining in the conversation. Helen strolled over to her friend's side.
''Hi, Lettie. I see Fm early for once. It's such a chore to get Jill cared for for the evening. I don't know how you manage with three!"
Lettie smiled. 'Tou'll find it gets easier with each one," she said. ''Come on, let's find a seat before they're all taken. It looks like a real crowd tonight."
As they started toward the rear of the room. May Turner, who was the center of a chattering knot of women, looked up.
"Hello, Helen!" she called eager- ly. "I'm so glad you've come. We were just talking about Tess Carl- son's new car. You know they've just bought a new Cadillac, and I can't see how they can afford it. They live right by you, Helen— what do you think? Give us the
Page 22
low down. We're just dying to know. . . ."
Lettie gave a slight tug on Hel- en's arm and started to whisper something. But Helen looked down at May's upturned, eager face with eyes glinting in anticipation of what she thought she was about to hear. And Helen spoke pleasantly enough, "I don't know a thing. May."
May's voice showed no disap- pointment; in fact, it was even more urgent. "Don't pretend with me, Helen. You and Tess are good friends— and close neighbors. You must know what goes on over at their house. Where did Jim get the money for a seven-thousand- dollar car?"
Helen's voice was cool now. "I'm going to find a seat before they're all taken and I have to stand during the meeting. I'm too tired to do that. May," she said, and moved toward the rear of the big room.
"She's been talking about that car ever since she came into the room," Lettie said softly, "trying to make something of it. She's a born gossip."
Helen smiled with amusement. "Come now, Lettie!" she teased. "What do you call that remark of yours?"
Lettie flushed slightly. "It's catty, I know, and I shouldn't have said it. But if you'd been here the past ten minutes. . . ." She stopped abruptly, shrugged, and ended firm-
BITTER MEDICINE
23
ly, ''Skip it. Here're a couple of seats together."
They settled themselves, nodding and smiling at acquaintances around them. Then Principal Gleason stood up and called the meeting to order.
TT was an interesting meeting
because the Parent-Teacher As- sociation wanted to promote a proj- ect for raising funds to provide eye, ear, and dental care for the children who could not afford the proper treatment. Nearly every parent present had some scheme to suggest, and the discussion was animated and enthusiastic.
Helen listened attentively, be- cause she knew she would have a large part in whatever project was decided upon. But, though she was listening, one half of her mind was still occupied with May Turner. May was becoming a real problem, and Helen was deeply concerned about it.
For it wasn't as if May were just a gossip and nothing else. She had many fine qualities — was cheerful and generous and a willing worker. She could be counted upon to do her share in any school or neighbor- hood project, and to do more than her share, if someone was in trouble or had sickness in the house.
And yet she did gossip — had gossiped ever since she moved into the neighborhood five years ago. At first, the other women had just smiled at her eager questioning, her quick interest in all their affairs. She's just trying to get acquainted— to be one of us — they had said charitably. She's new, and has to sort of catch up on the neighbor- hood background.
But as her prying became more and more determined, and the stories she retailed grew more and more fantastic, they had gradually come to leave her alone as much as possible. She wasn't too close to them, anyway, as most of the wom- en in the neighborhood were Church members and had their Re- lief Society and other Church activities to draw them close to- gether. May Turner did not belong to any of these groups excepting the P.T.A. But she was a neighbor; they met her at the market, on the corner waiting for a bus, in various neighborhood acti\ities. And it had always been such a pleasant, friend- ly little community that none of them wanted really to ''cut" the newcomer. They had just hoped that their example would cure her of her shortcoming.
But it seemed that the very opposite had happened. The more they avoided May, the more careful they were what they said in front of her, the more persistent and malicious grew her stories, until now she was truly unwelcome in their little friendly gatherings on porches of a summer evening, or at the back-yard barbecues, or the small neighborly get-togethers around a living-room fireplace on a winter night.
OELEN was abruptly awakened from her reverie by the buzz of conversation as the women around her stood up and began the inevi- table chatter that followed every meeting. Lettie laughed down at her.
"Did you drop off to sleep, Helen?" she asked^ amused.
24
RELIEF SOCIETY MAGAZINE— JANUARY 1957
Helen, too, stood up. ''No, I was just thinking. . . ."
They started toward the front of the room, stopping to speak to a friend here and there. As they reached May Turner's seat, they found her standing in the aisle, blocking their path.
"I just couldn't let you go, Hel- en!" she gushed, "until I wrung out of you the story behind the Carl- son's car. I know Jim's just a young lawyer — and young lawyers don't make much money in this town — not unless they're in some sort of racket. What's Jim's, Helen? Only thing I can think of is some crooked uranium deal!"
Helen tried to sidle past the woman, but May stood her ground firmly.
'Took, May," Helen said reason- ably, "I don't know a thing about Jim Carlson's business, and I wouldn't even try to guess. It isn't any of my affair, you know. Now, if you'll just let me get by, I'll skip along home. Jill had a little cold, and I'm a bit worried. . . ."
"Oh, no, you don't!" May laughed, still good-natured, though Helen thought there was an under- tone of stern determination. "I can't understand you, Helen. This is all between friends, you know. I wouldn't breathe a word. . . ."
"No?" Lettie said sarcastically. "Then why . . . ?"
May's look was suddenly angry. ''I don't understand either of you! Why should you be so close- mouthed? Everyone can see that big car— it's no secret, is it? And if Jim got it honestly, he shouldn't care if the whole world knows about it. I'm sure that wc don't have
anything to be so cagey about. My life's an open book— and so is Ted Senior's. Anyone can ask us where we got anything — we live within our means! The only reason I can see for anyone's being so scared of telling about his affairs is if there's something shady — either in his present activities or in his past."
Helen smiled wryly. "There's such a thing as privacy, you know. . . ."
And Lettie added maliciously, "And the invasion of privacy!"
May ignored Lettie and looked at Helen. "What have you got to be afraid of, Helen Lund? Is Tony mixed up with Jim Carlson's deal? Or is there a skeleton hiding in your own closet that you are afraid someone will stumble across?"
Helen managed a short laugh. "I guess that's it. May. Come on. We'll have to get out or we'll be locked in here for the night."
She and Lettie pushed by May, and as they went on toward the door, they heard her mutter to the few stragglers who had stood by, listening to the exchange of words, "These pious people make me sick. If you could only see what's behind their pretense of righteousness, you'd be surprised!"
\ S they walked down the pleasant street with its well-kept lawns and gardens, its neat houses and friendly atmosphere, Lettie said crossly, "Something ought to be done about her, Helen. Really!"
Helen shrugged. "I don't know what we can do, except ignore her. I don't think she really means any harm."
"I wouldn't be too sure of that, Helen. The way she looked at vou
BITTER MEDICINE
25
—and those remarks about skeletons in closets." Lettie laughed a little. ''If you do have anything to hide, Helen, better hide it well or she'll dig it out."
'Tm not worried!" Helen an- swered quietly.
I'hey parted on the corner and Helen walked on to her own house, her brow wrinkled in thought. Maybe she should be worried about May's gossip, for the woman could certainly concoct a fantastic yarn out of nothing. Un- easily, Helen reviewed Lettie's last comment. Lettie — her best friend — had there been a slight hint of a doubt in her voice? Had May's poison already tinged Lettie's thoughts?
Tony was in the living room read- ing the paper. He laid it aside as Helen came in, got up and came toward her.
"How was the meeting, honey?" he asked, and then, seeing her face, ''something go wrong?"
"No, nothing," Helen answered. "We really got a lot done — the whole plan for a three-day bazaar laid out. I'm on the sewing com- mittee."
"As usual!" Tony teased. "But why the frown?"
"Oh, Tony^ was I frowning? It's nothing. . . ." She stood silent a moment and then looked up into her husband's eyes. "Tony, I was just trying to think — trying to re- member if there's anything — if I've ever done anything that could cause talk among the neighbors. . . ."
Tony's concerned look gave way to an amused smile, as he ran an exploring finger along the smooth arch of her brow.
"You, honey? Well, if you had,
you wouldn't have to cudgel vour brain to remember it. It would be such a weight on your conscience that you'd be thinking about it all the time. Why the probing, any- way?
He sat down on the settee, gently pulling his wife down beside him. "Come on, sweetheart. Tell me what this is all about."
Helen tried to laugh. "I know it's silly, but May Turner was at the meeting. She's upset about Jim Carlson's new Cadillac — began tossing hints around that he'd been in some shady uranium deal. Said he couldn't afford a car like that on honest earnings. Well, when I would not talk about it, she began on me — said I must have some- thing to hide, and then Lettie said that if I did, I'd better hide it well — and, well, I just began to won- der. . . ."
Tony's laugh was hearty and gen- uine. "You women!" and then more gently, "you little goose, Helen!" He kissed the top of her head. "That's just May Turner — don't think about it. And if she finds anything in your past that should be kept a deep, dark secret, I'll treat the neighborhood to a barbecue supper. And speaking of supper— I'm hungry!"
Llelen jumped to her feet. "Oh, darling, I'm sorry. I completely forgot about dinner. But it's all ready — won't take a jiffy to get it on the table. You get Jill."
She dashed into the kitchen. Tony was right— forget May Turner and her gossiping. Feeding her hungry family would certainly help. She tied an apron over her good dress and set briskly to work.
{To be continued)
y^ungle Lrilgnniage SJ^nto the [Past
Nell Murbarger
IN our traveling to the west coast of Mexico, bound for San Bias, on the Pacific Ocean, we dropped nearly 4,000 feet in eleva- tion, and the cool air of the moun- tains was succeeded by the warm moistness of the coastal jungle. Groves of waving bananas and papayas now occupied every pocket- sized clearing on the steep hillsides, and small plots of sugar cane lay like green scatter rugs on the floor of the valley.
Along either side of our road rose giant coquita palms, their trunks so closely spaced that we seemed to be traveling through a narrow and endless corridor of smooth, gray columns.
Beyond the jungle we entered upon a wide salt marsh cut by calm estuaries that wound back from the sea through dense thickets of man- groves. On the down-dropping branches of the mangroves lived matted clusters of white oysters, and busy multitudes of small glossy crabs, spotted and striped like agates. White egrets, rose-tinted flamingos, and tall herons stalked silently through the shallows, like judges on parade; and twice we saw the dark surface of the water part, momentarily, to reveal the long, gray-green snouts of cruising alli- gators.
After leaving the jungle and the salt marsh and crossing a wide, clear river, where men fished with hand-knotted nets and women knelt on the banks and washed their gar- ments as in the times of Ruth and
Page 26
Rachel, our road dropped down to the Pacific Ocean and meandered to its end in the old town of San Bias — the Mecca of our jungle pilgrimage into the past.
Drawing to a halt in the shade of the plaza, we ranged inquir- ing eyes over this place where, in centuries gone, had been drafted so many of the blueprints of Western American history. But if we had supposed that San Bias would be different in appearance from any other of the many Mexican villages we had visited, we were destined to disillusionment.
San Bias was no different.
Here was the same old stone church; the same tiny, square shops looking out on the plaza; the same complement of tired, thin-bodied old men; the same tinkle of lonely music. In the cobble-paved streets and the well-swept yards, played the usual bevies of fat, brown babies; the usual gray burros and dogs and long-legged roosters drowsed in the shade of adobe huts and walls; and the same patient. Madonna-faced women were performing their house- wifely duties in the same gentle fashion.
AS we ranged our eyes over the quiet, commonplace scenes of this commonplace village, we found it impossible to imagine that here had been the first shipping port on the western shores of both North and South America. Equally difficult to accept was the fact that this small town had once bustled with more
JUNGLE PILGRIMAGE INTO THE PAST
27
than 30,000 inhabitants, and had ranked as one of the most important cities of the New World!
If San Bias chooses to drowse in the sun, that should be her privi- lege, for San Bias is a very old lady! Founded in 1537— less than twenty- five years after Balboa's discovery of the Pacific Ocean— these same cob- bled streets were echoing to the wheels and hooves of commerce
when naked savages still roamed the site where New York would one day rise, and the fathers of the Pil- grims were yet unborn.
In the middle of the sixteenth century, with Sir Francis Drake and other British privateers preying on ships of the Spanish Main, San Bias had become a haven for great treas- ure galleons outward-bound from the Orient with cargoes of gold and
Charles K. Crawford
ABANDONED CUSTOMS HOUSE, SAN BLAS, NAYARIT This flat-topped building, with interlocking arches, was a busy place in the days when San Bias was one of the main ports on Mexico's west coast.
28
RELIEF SOCIETY MAGAZINE— JANUARY 1957
Nell Murbarger
PALM-THATCHED HUTS AT THE JUNGLE'S EDGE, NAYARIT, MEXICO
(Outskirts of San Bias)
silver, and silks and carved jade worth a king's ransom. With the Panama Canal still more than 300 years in the future, it was neces- sary that the long sea voyage from Manila to Spain be made by way of Cape Horn. Not only was this a time-consuming course, but with pirates and privateers menacing the shipping lanes of the world, the long route added greatly to the po- tential hazard of every voyage. To combat these factors — particularly the danger of piracy — the Oriental treasure galleons were unloaded at San Bias and their rich cargoes re- packed on burro back to be freight- ed overland, under heavy military guard, to Vera Cruz. Here the
booty was placed on other waiting ships for the remainder of its 1 3,000- mile journey to Spain.
In connection with this monu- mental portage, San Bias had be- come the western terminus of one of the most incredible treasure roads in the history of the world.
"DUILT nearly 400 years ago, this great portageway had extended from the Pacific coast to Nayarit, all the way across Mexico, to Vera Cruz, on the Atlantic — a distance of more than 600 miles, over high mountain ranges and through deep valleys and wide jungles. Nor was this continent-spanning road a mere trail packed down by the sandaled
JUNGLE PILGRIMAGE INTO THE PAST 29
feet of men and the hooves of ani- Cahfornia where he would subse-
mals. It was a true highway. Every quently estabhsh his famous chain
foot of its 600 mile length was of missions — now the Golden
paved with cobblestones, fitted to- State's oldest and most famous an-
gether in a tight mosaic; and every tiquities built by white men. Dur-
foot of that cobble-paved way was ing this same period, San Bias had
flanked on either side by stout been site of an important foundry
stone fences! for the manufacture of church bells,
San Bias later became headquar- and many of the original bells used
ters of the Spanish explorer Gasper in the California missions had been
de Portola; and on March 16, 1768 cast here.
-after the town had been already g^^^ j-^^^ ^^3 ^^^ ^^^ ^^ ^an
prospermg mightily for some 230 g^^^ The day of the pirate ended,
years — the rranciscan priest, rray ^ ^ j i i j
V . c T, J 1 J 1. £ the treasure road was abandoned:
lumpero Serra, had sailed out ot . '
San Bias harbor aboard a 300-ton ^^^^^^ ^^^^PP^^g P^^^s became more
vessel built in one of the several favored, the harbor silted full. And,
shipyards then doing business m the Anally, this place where thousands
town. of n"ien had lived and prospered,
The vessel was La Purisima, and declined in vigor until only a few
Father Serra's destination was Alta hundred souls remain.
Lrhantoms
Bessie I. Peterson
The warmth of firehght is not warm alone — It casts a spell in soft and friendly tone. Cheerfully the clean wood crackles its delight Glad to be the fuel of fire. . . . And builds a phantom cit}^, turrets blazing bright, Ever changing, ever moving, quivering with light. But suddenly the hungry flames, eager for their prey, Consume the golden spires and towers And crumble them away. . . .
And so it is with dreams —
Fair is the hope that builds our castles high,
But, left untended, they flicker out and die.
L/reat //ten LPrau /
rayi
QREAT and wise men and women of all the ages have sought and re- ceived help through prayer and have found an unfailing source of strength.
Washington at Valley Forge — Lincoln before Gettysburg — Eisen- hower on D Day — Joseph Smith in the Sacred Grove — Jesus at Geth- semane and at Golgotha — all these have prayed! Page 30
GREAT MEN PRAY 31
''Grant us liberty''; "Preserve the nation"; ''Give us wisdom"; "De- liver us from evil"; "I'hy will be done."
And these, too, are proper petitions to an understanding Father in heaven :
The trust of a child at a mother's knee.
The prayer of a father for the return of a wayward son.
The student's honest seeking for answers to an examination.
A young man's reverent request for strength to do his best in a ball game or business venture.
The young woman's plea for guidance in choosing a husband. The earnest soul's sincere desire.
That he answers these petitions (though in his own time and way) is a truth to which millions can daily testify.
What about you? Do you ever need help from a Higher Source? Then follow the example of the great and good and wise men of all the ages. Ask and receive. "In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."
Pray.
BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF
[Birthday
Genevieve Groen
I hear them sing the celebration Of his birth, the children carohng The ancient Yuletide themes.
I seem to leave my log-fire, flaming
In its place, and find the frosted window
Where their voice-candle beams.
The lighted tones of their lyric pageant Are sounds to me of blue veiled innocence That chord the blessed scene.
In the cold night air their warm breath Fables hills of lamb-fold where staves Of shepherds are the notes unseen.
My fire's haloed burning reflects an Infant Purity born and song-cradled in the hour Of hymnal light.
Until the embers flash white-robed against The blackened grate, a vision of choirs Echoing in the night.
Sixty LJears Kyigo
Excerpts From the Woman's Exponent, January i, and January 15, 1897
"For the Rights of the Women of Zion and the Rights of the
Women of All Nations"
CHARLOTTE BRONTE: A fragment of a letter written in Charlotte Bronte's own hand, shows her character as well as anything she ever wrote. It is the ending of a letter to Miss Nussey, and these are the lines: "Submission, courage — exertion when practicable — these seem to be the weapons with which we must fight life's long battle."
— Exchange
RELIEF SOCIETY IN CHICAGO: A notable event of the new year is the organization of a Relief Society in the great city of Chicago — so near to the place and in the same state where the first Relief Society was organized by the Prophet Joseph Smith. The following notice appeared in the Deseret Evening News of Jan. 9, 1897: "A Relief Society has been organized here lately with Sisters Bengta Benedict president, Sister Charlotte Esterbloom and Christena Soderland as first and second counselors, and Sisters Erekson and Brumley secretary and treasurer . . . ."
— News Note
It is always pleasant and gratifying to have young people marry happily .... In our belief we have not only a desire for union here, but for the eternal marriage in which we most firmly believe, and undoubtedly hope that all the young people in whose marriages we are so deeply interested may be so happy that they may continue throughout the eternal ages to come.
— Editorial
THE YEAR OF JUBILEE .
Ring the bells for ninety-seven — Let's have a great rejoicing; Forgiveness, love and peace abound The ancient custom voicing ....
— R. M. F.
THE WOMAN'S CONGRESS IN BERLIN: I cannot help saying it was a success ... I am compelled to proclaim it. . . . During the seven days' Congress nearly all subjects connected with the woman question were touched, and not a single one lacked interest. The foreign delegates were agreeably surprised at the coolness and cleverness with which the German women delivered their speeches from the platform . . . but there is no denying the fact . . . ours was the good fortune to be enchanted by the magnificent and splendid speeches delivered by the foreign, especially by the English and American delegates . . . Mrs. Ormiston Chant, who gave us in her musical voice, a most interesting account of the temperance question . . . Mrs. Belva Lockwood who spoke in a most interesting manner on the political rights of women in the United States. . . .
— Eliza Ichenhauser
Page 32
Woman's Sphere
Ramona W. Cannon
M
[ARIA MENEGHINI CALLAS,
one of the greatest hving sing- ers, appeared in BelHni's opera ''Norma/' at the opening of the MetropoHtan Opera season in New York City in November. Born in New York City, Maria Callas re- ceived her musical education in Italy and has sung many difficult and triAimphant roles at the La Scala Opera House. Her voice has extraordinary range and versatility, and for a singer still in her early thirties, her musicianship has been extolled as unrivalled among her contemporaries.
jyiRS. LORRAINE WASHING- TON, of Memphis, Tennes- see, is founder and president of a very successful collection agency, dedicated to the interest of the debtor as well as the creditor. She learns why people are not paying their bills, then helps the debtors, sometimes even finding employ- ment for them when they are out of work. The firm, with its friendly methods, is expanding into many states.
JTAREN HANTZE, of San Diego, California, although only thir- teen, has more than fifty trophies for her tennis matches and has won some of them in competition with adult women tennis stars.
lyrAUDE ADAMS, one of Ameri- ca's greatest actresses, is pre- sented with charm and authenticity in a new biography Maude Adams: An Intimate Portrait, by Phyllis Robbins. Miss Adams, a grand- daughter of Barnabas Lothrop Ad- ams, a member of Brigham Young's first pioneer company, received her start as an actress in Salt Lake City. At a high point in her career (1902), she wrote from Switzer- land: 'The Alps are inspiring, but not friendly like the mountains that protect the lovely valley of Salt Lake. My childhood was guarded by the kindly Wasatch Range, and the Rockies were friends from my beginning." Miss Adams died in 1954.
rjOROTHY CLAPP ROBINSON
of Boise, Idaho, a contributor to The Rehef Society Magazine, is the author of The Mystery oi Contrary House, an adventure story for the early teen ages. Vantage Press, New York City, is publisher of the book.
nPRUDI BUXTON, eight years old, played Beethoven's Con- certo No. 1 (for piano) with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra at a student concert. She is the young- est soloist ever to appear with this noted organization.
Page 33
EDITOIIIAL
VOL 44
JANUARY 1957
NO. 1
JLet LJour JLight o^o Shine
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorif}' your Father which is in heaven (From Christ's Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:16).
T^HE New Year is the early morn- ing of the seasons, and it comes to us radiant with opportunities for increasing our joy and usefulness. Self-appraisal and resolutions need not be empty words nor fleeting thoughts; rather, they may become the open doors of a bright begin- ning and the windows of direction for all the days of the unfolding year.
It is a responsibility and a bless- ing for us to realize that we are the reflectors and the transmitters of light. Our beliefs, our faith, our ideals, can be revealed and ''shine before men" only through our atti- tudes, our words, and our actions. We know that we ha\'e been given a great light, ''for the command- ment is a lamp; and the law is hght." If that light fails to shine through us, we may be shadowed and limited by doubt or negligence, disappointment or sorrow. The light may be dimmed by too much con- cern with our own problems which confuses the directions of the beams and restricts the areas of illumina- tion.
Relief Society women have been given a guiding light which can direct their own lives and shine into all the far places where their influ- ence and their service may reach. In the beginning of the organization.
Page 34
charity and sisterhood were the qualities most beautifully expressed. The sisters shared the blessings of the gospel; they shared food and shelter, poverty and bereavement, accomplishment and rejoicing, standing together in strength and bowing together in humility and prayer. They were particularly con- cerned with children — the begin- ning of life — and the care of the aged — those near the journey's end. Thev learned that a woman who stands alone is limited in her in- dividual development and in her field of service, but in united effort, each one is strong in the strength and courage of the group — in the circle of the sisterhood.
Once the Prophet Joseph Smith took his wife and family to visit Emma's sister who lived in a lonelv place on the prairie. That night Elizabeth set a large candle in the window, saying that it might serve as a light for someone lost on the prairie, and the Prophet remarked that the window was an example of a light shining in darkness.
Among our pioneer women there was a saying: "We all have some- thing to give; we must reach a little deeper into the bin." In those days of uncertain harvests, the frugal women tried to keep a supply of flour in their homemade wooden
EDITORIAL
35
flour bins, and the svmbol of reach- ing deeper into the bm was real to them. They clothed the saying with a spiritual meaning, and, if there was no flour in the bin and no oth- er food to share, they gave of them- selves in compassionate service, in davs of home nursing, in hours of companionship with the aged, in comforting and caring for children. Thev learned that encouragement, compassion, and faith mav be given to others, as they become a part of a shining light undimmed and un- limited.
It is our heritage to be the bearers of light, to reflect the wisdom and the beautv, the tenderness and the courage, the humility- and the strength which are our possibilities and which may be fulfilled in us. Mav we seek for that uplifting serenitv, so well expressed by the poet:
My bark is wafted to the strand
By breath divine; And on the helm there rests a hand
Other than mine. — Heniy Alford
-V. p. c.
Lrolio and the 1 1 Larch of Jjimes
Basil O'Connor President. The National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis
'T^HE March of Dimes wants to finish the fight against polio. To do this,
we must have your help — just as we had it in reaching the present hopeful position.
It's hopeful because final victory- is now in sight. Thanks to the SaUc vaccine, which was financed with March of Dimes funds, tomorrow's chil- dren will be spared the tragedv of polio. Thousands of today's children, however, still suffer from this crippling disease. There are many thou- sands for whom the victor\" is not so quick, and not so easv. These people still suffer from polio, and they need much more than an inoculation. They need mechanical substitutes for arms and legs and lungs. Thev need help in rebuilding shattered lives. Most of all, thev need tlie hope which comes from knowing that thev do not fight alone, ^^"e can't quit — wc know vou would not want us to quit — until these voun^sters have had a chance to run and plav again; a chance to grow up as strong and useful citizens for the years ahead.
The money in your pocket will help children to walk without braces. And, what is more, your dimes and dollars will help train the minds and hands of the professional experts so desperatelv needed in the treatment of crippled patients. Tens of thousands bom too soon for the vaccine still need your help, and your help is needed to help finance research to perfect the vaccine.
That's the unfinished business behind this vear's March of Dimes. You can help, as you have helped so generouslv before, the 195" March of Dimes, January- 2 to 31.
TbJtcJL
TO THE FIELD
iKelief Society J/issigned ibvening I lieeting of QJast Sunday in ii Larch
HTHE Sunday night meeting to be held on Fast Day, March 3, 1957, has again been assigned by the First Presidency for use by the Rehef
Society.
Suggestive plans for this evening meeting have been prepared by the
general board and sent to the stakes in pamphlet form.
It is suggested that ward Relief Society presidents confer with their
bishops immediately to arrange for this meeting. Music for the Singing
Mothers should be ordered at once.
J/twara Subscriptions Lrresentea in ^/ipril
'THHE award subscriptions presented to Magazine representatives for hav- ing obtained 75 per cent or more subscriptions to the Magazine in re- lation to their enrolled Relief Society members, are not awarded until after the stake Magazine representatives' annual reports have been audited. Award cards for these subscriptions for the year 1956 will be mailed to ward and stake Magazine representatives about April 1, 1957.
[Jjouna Volumes of 1Q56 uielief Society 1 1 lagaztnes
OELIEF Society officers and members who wish to have their 1956 issues of The Relief Society Magazine bound may do so through The Deseret News Press, 31 Richards Street, Salt Lake City 1, Utah. The cost for binding the twelve issues in a permanent cloth binding is $2.50, including the index. If a leather binding is preferred, the cost is $3.50. See schedules of postage rates in the Deseret News Press advertisement in this issue of the Magazine. If bound volumes are desired, and the Magazine cannot be supplied by the person making the request, the Magazine will be supplied for $1.50 by the Magazine Department, Gen- eral Board of Relief Society, 76 North Main Street, Salt Lake City, Utah. Only a limited number of Magazines are available for binding.
It is recommended that wards and stakes have one volume of the 1956 Magazines bound for preservation in ward and stake Relief Society li- braries.
Page 36
Sina Ujishop uieid 1 1 Lakes uier (!:ywn (^rocket UJesigns
SINA Bishop Reid, ninety-one, of Salt Lake City, Utah, has made many exquisite pieces of crochet work using her own designs. She won first place in a national contest for one of her original patterns, and her work beautifies the homes of many of her friends and relatives. Her specialties are doilies, chair sets, pillow cases, jackets, and bootees. Recently she completed her fourteenth tablecloth, which required four hundred hours of work.
During the time she works with her crochet hook, Sister Reid recalls the events of her long, useful life. She was only six years of age when she accompanied her mother in the fields where they gleaned wheat for storage in the Relief Society granary in Cache Valley, where she was born. She recalls the years when she worked hard to support herself and two children, as well as to help her husband with his missionary expenses; and she recalls the sending of three sons into the mission field.
Sister Reid is a talented musician and has sung many solos in Relief Society meet- ings and for other occasions. She has been a class leader in social science, theology, and literature. Her work as a teacher has been so outstanding that many younger class leaders seek her advice in the preparation and presentation of Relief Society lessons.
c/l/1 Afterthought
Gene Romolo
His natal day has come again and gone.
But its reflected glory lingers on
To light our way and pave another year
With faith and hope and love that casts out fear.
Page 37
LKeapes ofrom il iexico
Submitted hy Jennie R. Bowman
Tortillas 2 lbs. corn (in grain) 3 qts. water
2 oz. lime
Wash the corn, add the lime and water, and place mixture on the fire. When boiling has progressed to the point where the skin can be peeled off the kernels of corn, remove the mixture from the fire and let it cool. Then squeeze kernels of corn in the hand for removing the skins. When all the skins have been removed, wash the corn thoroughly in cold water. At this stage the corn is called nixtamal. Then grind the corn to fine consistency to make tortilla dough. This dough can also be used for quesadilias (special cheese tortillas), goiditas (tortillas which are three or four times thicker), etc.
Making Tortillas the Mexican Way:
Divide the dough into small balls, and, one at a time, with the hands slightly wet, press the ball between the palms and fingers of both hands until the ball becomes flat and round, the thinner the better. Cook over a flat clay or iron broiler, called in Mexico a coma]. When cooked, turn on the other side. Fold tortillas in a large napkin to keep them warm and stack in a round basket, folding part of the napkin over the top of the stack of tortillas.
Tortillas may be baked on a griddle or in an ordinary oven.
For variation, ground cooked meat may be rolled inside the tortillas. Sprinkle grated cheese over the top.
Red Chile Enchilada Sauce (for serving with tortillas)
1 tbsp. powdered chile % tsp. salt
1 tbsp. flour 1 tsp. sugar
1 c. tomato puree 1 tbsp. lard or other shortening
Ys tsp. onion juice Vz lb. grated cheese
Heat the required number of tortillas, one at a time, for two or three seconds. Then dip into the sauce. Remove from sauce and sprinkle with grated cheese and chopped onion if desired. These may be rolled or stacked on individual plates. Fried eggs are often served on top of a stack of three or four tortillas.
Dry red chiles may be used in the sauce in place of chile powder for better flavor. To make, use six large dry chiles. Remove seeds and veins. Wash and drop into hot water; let come to a boil and drain. Again place over flame with one cup hot water and boil gently for fi^•e minutes. Put through a colander and add as much as desired to the tomato puree.
Make sauce by first heating the shortening and flour then adding the liquid (to- mato puree and onion juice).
Chile Gravy Puebla Style (Mole Poblano)
1 turkey or chicken 2 oz. chocolate
Vz lb. chiles (mulato) 3 chiles (chipotles)
7 oz. chiles (anchos) 4 tomatoes (roasted)
4 oz. chiles (pasilla) 3 onions
3 oz. sesame 6 cloves of garlic
4 oz. almonds 1 tortilla
3 oz. raisins 1 tsp. anise seed
3 oz. peanuts 8 black peppers
1 oz. bread 5 cloves
7 oz. lard 1 stick cinnamon
3 qts. meat stock 2 oz. sesame to sprinkle
Page 38
RECIPES FROM MEXICO 39
Cut the turkey or chicken in pieces, fry it in lard, in a large earthenware dish. When fried, add the chiles "chipotles," veinless and cooked, and ground with the roast- ed tomatoes; when dry, add one quart of meat stock and season with salt. Take the veins off the other chiles and fry them in the lard to brown slightly. The anise and sesame are toasted on a comal (a round piece of tin can be used). The almonds, pea- nuts, raisins, bread, tortilla and spices are fried in lard, then ground with the chiles, sesame, anise seeds, onions, and garlic. Dissolve all this in the remaining two quarts of meat stock, add the chocolate, and add to the turkey when it is well cooked. Leave on the fire till thick. Put on a platter and sprinkle with the toasted sesame.
Note: Mulato, anchos, pasilla, and chipotles are varieties of chile. A canned mole powder is commercially sold that makes a very good substitute for the original mole recipe, if used to season thickened meat stock or chicken broth to be served with the chicken or turkey.
Mexican Rice
Vi lb. rice Vi tsp. onion juice
4 oz. lard 2 c. meat stock
4 oz. peas /4 tsp. salt
6 tbsp. tomato puree 1 c. cold water
Soak the rice in hot water for fifteen minutes. Wash well in cold water till it comes out clear. Drain and fry in the lard. When it has taken on a golden color, drain off the lard and add the tomato and onion juice. Stir, then add cold water, the salt, and the peas and continue to cook.
When dry, add the hot meat stock, cover, and let simmer. Do not stir. If more water is needed sprinkle it over the top. When done, the rice kernels will be soft, fluffy, and separate. When served, the platter may be garnished with fried sausage, hard boiled eggs, or avocado strips.
Cherry Cookies (Galletas)
Vi c. shortening 1 c. flour
14 c. sugar V?, tsp. salt
1 egg yolk (whipped until 1 egg white, beaten stiff
lemon-colored) Vi c. chopped nuts
1 tbsp. grated orange rind 10 maraschino cherries
1 tsp. lemon juice
Cream the sugar and shortening. Add the beaten egg yolk and the grated rind of orange and lemon, then the lemon juice. Beat well. Sift in the flour and salt Mix well, then place in the refrigerator to cool. When cold enough to be firm, form into small balls and dip in the beaten egg white, roll in chopped nuts, and place on cookie sheet. Dent the center of each ball and put in each a half cherry. Bake twenty minutes in a moderate oven 350° F.
Milk Atole (Beverage)
4 c. milk 3 oz. cornstarch
2 c. water 1 stick cinnamon 54 lb. sugar
Dissolve the cornstarch in water, add cinnamon, and put on the fire. When it starts to thicken add milk and sugar, let it simmer, and stir constantly with a wooden spoon, until it thickens like cream. Serve very hot.
This atole may be seasoned with chocolate, crushed, strained strawberries, or any fruit flavor.
A Doll Buggy for Christmas
Florence S. Glines
4 6 4 RENT you glad they /-V brought the doll buggy?" Three-year-old Bobby anx- iously searched his mother's averted face, as he leaned on her knee. Five-year-old Ann cast an apprais- ing eye over the old-fashioned bug- gy, brown and frayed, standing in the middle of the small sitting room. But Ruth stooped over, swooped up the yellow cat, and tried to make him sit in the buggy.
Barbara Lind forced herself to smile into the eager e3^es of her three children so intently regarding her. "Yes, Bobby," she said, "of course, Fm glad. It was thought- ful of them to remember us and bring sister a buggy."
"He said Santa Claus sent it," observed realistic little Ann. "Why did he send an old one, Mother?"
"Because we're poor," said ten- year-old Ruth, adding defensively to her mother, "well, Mabel says we're poor now— she says we're widows and orphans.' "
Barbara searched her mind for some words she could say. These three eager, precious, little souls were so defenseless and dependent on her for their attitude toward the world! The thought was appalling.
"Oh, Bruce," her heart cried out, "that's why I simply can't go on without you!" Her own loneliness and longing she felt she could en- dure. She had those perfect years to remember, and she was already grown. But the children, what of them? What if she could not guide them right alone? Yet that was
Page 40
what she had to do, and all three were now waiting to hear what she would say to Ruth's outburst.
"Mabel doesn't know what she is talking about. We couldn't be poor, while we have so much. We have Father in heaven to pray to; we have each other; we have Daddy in heaven; we have uncles and aunts and cousins who always remember us; we have this nice house . . . ."
"Not so very nice," said ten- year-old Ruth under her breath.
"We have this nice house to live in," repeated Barbara firmly. "We have good food to eat; we have pretty clothes to wear; and you all have so many toys now that I don't see how we can take care of any more."
"But didn't Santa Claus know that I wanted a white doll buggy that was new?" asked Ann. "And doesn't he know that Christmas is not till day after tomorrow?"
"Of course Santa knows," said Barbara, "but nobody, even Santa Claus, can always do exactly what everybody wants. Then, too, there are some very kind people who like being Santa's helpers, especially for children. They don't want to get paid or fussed over, so they try to find some child who wants some- thing they have and they send it. I suppose someone said Ann wanted a doll buggy, and a lady had one she wanted to give away, so she sent it to Ann and was a helper." Barbara searched their serious faces and felt that what she had said was not enough.
A DOLL BUGGY FOR CHRISTMAS
41
''Man bring the buggy/' said Bob- by.
''The lady got the man to bring it/' explained Barbara. She waited, a prayer in her heart that she had not said too much, that she had said enough. She did not want to spoil anything lovely the children might have, and she did want them to understand things realistically, so that life 'might not be too hard.
^^r^AN we be Santa Claus help- ers?" asked Ruth, slowly, weighing her words.
Ann and Bobby nodded vigorous- ly. ''Can we?" they echoed.
Barbara's thoughts flew swiftly. Whatever did she have they could give? "Why, yes," she said, "if you know someone to whom we can take something."
"I know," said Ann quickly, "Mrs. Savage! She's got no one. Nobody brings her Santa Claus helpers."
Barbara was about to protest. Old Mrs. Savage, who lived in the big house on the corner, whatever could they give her? She had everything. Well — not friends, which she didn't want. Barbara had heard that Mrs. Savage had come West and bought that house years ago to get away from people.
"And Vie and Bert in the back lot," said Ruth.
"Mr. and Mrs. Hobson," Barbara corrected automatically.
"They want me to call them Vie and Bert, Vie told me to," said Ruth, "and I call the baby Sam- my.
There were plenty of things they could give the Hobsons. Barbara had a feeling of shame that she had not tried to do something for those struggling young folks before.
"Jimmy wants Santa Claus help- ers," said Bobby.
Dear me! thought Barbara. Jim- my Armstrong would have much more Santa Claus than he could use. But if Jimmy was Bobby's choice, she would have to find a way.
The three little faces were turned to her now, enthusiastic and inter- ested. The shabby little brown doll buggy and the upset it had started seemed forgotten.
"We don't want to take our Santa Claus helpers two days be- fore Christmas," said Ruth. "I'd hate to be that kind of helper."
"What can we take, what can we take?" Five-year-old Ann was always one for immediate action.
What could they give? Barbara thought of all the boxes and drawers she had filled with things she was keeping for someday. Soon she had the children helping her pull them out and sort over to see what could be given. They found some of Bobby's baby clothes and a doll that rattled for baby Sammy.
"Here's this too-little blouse Aunt Rae sent you. It'll just fit Vie," said Ruth. "Now, if we can only find something for Bert."
OARBARA thought of Bruce's warm wool sweater, packed away in the cedar chest. Oh, no, not that! She was saving it for Bobby when he grew up. Then she seemed to see Bruce's grin and his easy voice saying, "Two years are long enough to hoard anything, honey," and she had to admit that keeping it for Bobby was only an excuse. Bobby wouldn't be big enough for maybe twenty years! She pushed aside her reluctance and
42
RELIEF SOCIETY MAGAZINE— JANUARY 1957
brought out the sweater with seem- ing gaiety.
*'Oh, Mother/' said Ruth, over- joyed, ''you can't imagine how pleased Bert'll be! But should we? Daddy's . . . /'
''Daddy would want Bert to have it, Fm sure." Then Barbara added quickly, "I've thought what we can give to Mrs. Savage."
She showed them how to make a dainty pincushion with scraps of satin, lace, and a powder box lid stuffed with sawdust.
"Ruth got lots of things for the Hobson's," said Ann. "I only have one for Mrs. Savage."
"Jinimy's got nothing," mourned Bobby.
"What does Jimmy want?" said Barbara, perplexed.
"Everything he sees, if it belongs to somebody else," said Ruth, "and that goes for my stilts Cousin Dale made me last summer."
"Make Jimmy stilts!" exulted Bobby, "saw, saw, hammer, ham- mer!
"Make stilts!" exclaimed Bar- bara, "why, I can't hammer a nail in straight, and as for sawing— Jim- my would walk with one foot up and the other foot down like in the Mother Goose rhyme!"
Bobby looked stricken, and Ruth volunteered doubtfully, "Maybe I could."
Barbara forced herself to meet the challenge. "I have an idea," she said. "We'll ask the scout- master if he can help us," and she hurried to the phone. It took cour- age for Barbara Lind to ask for help.
"I'll say we've got a boy who'd like to help!" said the man, "and thank you for calling. Toby Judd
just came in. He's tops with a hammer and saw. Toby's shy and backward but . . . ."
"Wonderful, send him along. Thanks a lot," said Barbara, hiding her qualms about Toby Judd. Lots of folks thought Toby was not quite bright, but maybe if she helped, Toby could manage. Bruce had always told her that even if she did think her mechanical ability was nil, she was a big inspiration to talk to when a fellow was figuring out something.
She brightly urged the children to help clear away the boxes and drawers they had pulled out and make room for making the stilts in the kitchen.
TT seemed that almost at once, Toby was knocking at the door. His face was bright with expecta- tion, though his smile was doubt- ful, as if he feared he might not be wanted after all.
"Here's the hammer and the saw," said Ruth, holding them out to Toby, "and Bobby has the nails, and the old shoe that Ann has' is for the straps."
"There's a pile of wood scraps in the garage," directed Barbara, helping Bobby into his coat. "May- be among you all, you can pick out some good pieces. Bring them back here and we'll see what we can do."
"Oh, Ma'am," Toby breathed, his face flushing, as the children crowd- ed enthusiastically around him, "I love to make things. Come on kids, this is going to be fun!"
Ruth was back in a few minutes. "Mother," she said, "Toby says why can't we make the stilts out there. The cement floor and the
A DOLL BUGGY FOR CHRISTMAS
43
light and everything are just right, and we won't need to mess up the kitchen. And, Mother, Toby knows lots of things we can make! Have we got some glue and some sand- paper and some paint?"
Barbara gathered up the articles, and with paper, rags, and paint thinner, she took them out. Toby must be a veritable genius, the way he had them all working and having such a wonderful time!
Grateful for the free time to finish up her own Christmas prep- arations, Barbara got busy in the house, but she could not get Toby out of her mind. Big hands, no gloves; long arms, sleeves three inches above the bony wrists; he looked half-fed and neglected. No two ways about it, if Bruce's fur- lined gloves would stay on him, and if the plaid lumber jacket could be taken in, Toby should have them for Christmas.
It was supper time when Bobby stumbled in, trying to walk the finished stilts. Ann hugged a door- stop and a book marker for Mrs. Savage. Ruth tried to hide a very secret spool-holder for Barbara be- hind her with one hand, while she carefully carried some small bits of polished wood in the other.
"Look, Mother,'' she exclaimed, ''you glue letters from alphabet macaroni on these pieces of wood to make your name. Then you get a tube of liquid cement and stick a little safety pin on the back in this little place Toby marked, and there you are! A wooden pin with your name on it! If you want it to shine, you varnish it."
''Marvelous!" agreed Barbara. 'Tut them on the dresser while we
eat, and Toby, will your grand- mother worry if you stay and eat with us?"
''His grandmother and sister have gone to visit his auntie," said Bobby.
So Toby stayed to eat, to glue names on the macaroni pins, to help string lights on the Christmas tree, and afterwards to sing carols with Barbara and the children.
"It's past bedtime," Barbara final- ly said. "We'll all have to hurry. And Toby, you must come on Christmas and help us eat that enormous turkey my Uncle Heber sent us from his farm."
"Yes, yes, yes," chorused the children.
Toby had forgotten to be shy as he had worked and sung with the children crowded around him, but now, only the quick flush to his face showed how thrilled he was at the invitation, as he mumbled his thanks and abruptly said good- night.
<'^'T^HE Hobsons never have tur- key," said Ruth.
"Mrs. Savage has no big turkey, just for one people," observed Ann.
"Jimmy likes turkey," chimed in Bobby.
Finally Barbara agreed that first thing in the morning, thev would all go invite the Hobsons, Mrs. Sav- age, and Jimmy Armstrong to eat Christmas dinner with them, and Toby Judd.
"Oh, how wonderful of you to ask us!" said Vie Hobson. "We'd love to accept, if you will let me help with the cooking."
"I'll surely accept that offer," said Barbara, "and I'm doing most
44
RELIEF SOCIETY MAGAZINE— JANUARY 1957
of it this afternoon to leave tomor- row free."
CINCE she had agreed, Barbara walked resolutely up to Mrs. Savage's big house and held Ann up to reach the knocker.
A maid led them into a pleasant morning room where Mrs. Savage patted Ann's cheek and then seat- ed them all comfortably. She re- ceived the invitation with a stiff excuse until Ann impulsively ran to her and said, ''We could have ice-cream roll; you know, like you gave me once, if you would come and bring it." It made everybody laugh, and the lonesome old lady accepted before she quite realized it.
At the Armstrongs, Jimmy's moth- er hesitated. ''I really don't know what to say, Mrs. Lind. Of course, Jimmy's father and I were going out to a dinner party, but I've made arrangements for the cook and a maid to stay and feed Jimmy."
''Jimmy can come," and "I can go," chanted both little boys, hold- ing hands and whirling around.
"But cook has made your special kind of plum pudding," his mother reminded Jimmy.
"He could bring his pudding, we wouldn't mind," observed Ann.
Barbara looked apologetically at Mrs. Armstrong, who smiled under- standingly while Jimmy cried.
"Hurrah! I can bring the pudding for the Christmas dinner!"
Barbara hurried her family home to get busy and see that every cor- ner of the house was clean and shining for the big cooking event of the afternoon, and that all packages were wrapped and piled at the foot of the tree.
When Vie Hobson came over, the children all went for a walk. Bobby carried the yellow cat over his shoulder. Ruth and Ann pushed baby Sammy for a ride in the brown doll buggy which had caused such upset feelings and led to the whole plan for a neighbor- hood Christmas dinner and cele- bration.
"The shabby little buggy and what it stood for that I hated, has really turned out to be a blessing," Barbara marveled, as she watched the happy children.
She turned from the window to young Vie Hobson at the sink, smiling and gladly scrubbing vege- tables, and it almost seemed she could hear Bruce say, "It isn't what you have that's good or bad, honey. It's what you do with it." She gave Vie a smile and, thinking of Toby and old Mrs. Savage and lone- some Jimmy Armstrong, said, "Isn't it wonderful about tomorrow? All of us here together like a family and nobody around lonesome! A real Christmas."
ibndi
®<
unng ujeauty
Maude O. Cook
The sunset fades, rose petals fall, The rainbow hues depart: The only beauty which is ours Is stored within the heart.
UJiographical (^ketches of J^ward Vl/inners in the ybliza LK. Snow Lroein Looniest ana QJirst [Prize SaJ inner ^yinnual uielief Societif cohort Story (contest
Christie Lund CoJes, Provo, Utah, daughter of the late C. N. Lund, poet and newspaper pubHsher, and Ceha A. Lund, is the wife of E. Elroy Coles and the mother of Carolyn (Mrs. John E.) Lewis. She has a small granddaughter Lynn Anne. She has contributed stories, articles, and poems to The ReUef Society Magazine, and this is her third appearance as a winner in the Eliza R. Snow Poem Contest. Her poems have been published in many magazines of national circulation, and she has been awarded prizes in local and national contests. At present Mrs. Coles is working on a novel and studying playwrighting at Brigham Young University. She is a member of the Utah Sonneteers, Poets of the Pacific, the League of Utah Writers, the National League of American Pen Women, Utah State Poetry Society, and other professional organizations.
Frances C. Yost, Bancroft, Idaho, is a frequent contributor to The ReUef Society Magazine. Her poem "Christmascope" marks her first appearance as a winner in the Eliza R. Snow Poem Contest. Mrs. Yost is the wife of Glenn F. Yost, a rancher, and is the mother of four children. "My family and my Church come first," says Mrs. Yost, but she finds time for various writing activities. She is hometown correspondent for three daily papers, she assisted in the compilation of a ward Book of Remembrance, and is the author of two books of poetry: Brim With Joy and While Orchids Bloom. In 1954 Mrs. Yost received the award "Most Successful Homemaker" in the State of Idaho.
Joanne B. Rose, West Jordan, Utah, introduces herself to readers of the Magazine: "I am twenty-seven years old, have a high school education, and have studied the technicalities of writing through library books. I have written numerous personal sketches for our ward paper and am correspondent for a local newspaper. In 1955, one of my poems received honorable mention in the Utah State Poetry Society contest in the amateur division. My husband, Gene, and I have three wonderful children — eight, six, and four, two boys and a girl. Someday I hope to continue my schooling and learn more of putting into words the wonders of everyday living with which the Lord has surrounded us. I love literature in all forms."
Svh'ia Probst Young, Midvale Utah, was awarded the second prize in the Eliza R. Snow Poem Contest in 1953. Her story "Strength for the \\'ay" marks her first ap- pearance as an award winner in the Relief Society Short Story Contest. Her husband, Reid W. Young, is a great-grandson of William Wesley Willis, a lieutenant in the Mormon Battalion, and this relationship, says Mrs, Young, has given her a particular interest in the battalion. "Being a bishop's wife, a mother, and a schoolteacher, leaves me little time for anvthing else," writes Mrs. Young, "but whenever possible I write because I \o\e to. I ha\e written for all the Church magazines and for some other publications, and my poems ha\'e appeared in several anthologies. I love the Church, and especially the Relief Society, where I am class leader for social science and litera- ture. I am the mother of four sons."
Page 45
LKecipes for ioeverages
Rhea H. Gardner
What is enjoyed more than an ice-cold fruit drink on a hot afternoon, or a flavor- ful hot beverage on a cold winter night?
Since lemon juice is part of most fruit drinks, let's start out with good old-fashioned, and most refreshing lemonade.
Lemonade Drink
5 c. water i c. sugar
rinds of 2 lemons cut in pieces 1 c. lemon juice
Mix sugar, 1 c. water, and lemon shells. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Boil very gently about 7 minutes. Remove lemon shells and cool. Add lemon juice and 4 c. of water.
Limeade: Substitute lime for lemon juice. Add 14 c. lemon juice.
Orangeade: Substitute 2 c. orange juice for lemon juice in lemonade recipe and add !4 c. lemon juice.
Grapeade: Make sirup of Yi c. sugar and 2 c. water. Let cool, then add: 1 c. grape juice 1 e. orange juice
Vi c. lemon juice
Just before serving, add some ginger ale if desired.
Pineapple Mint Julep
6 sprigs fresh mint % c. sugar
% c. lemon juice 3 c. pineapple juice
3 c. ginger ale
Wash mint leaves. Bruise with spoon. Gover with sugar. Add lemon juice and let stand 15 minutes. Add pineapple juice. Pour over ice in pitcher or tall glasses. Add ginger ale. Garnish with sprigs of mint.
Spiced Pineapple Punch
Gombine 1 c. sugar, lYi c. water, 2 sticks cinnamon, and 8 whole cloves in sauce- pan. Boil gently for 3 to 5 minutes. Strain and cool.
Add:
4 c. unsweetened pineapple juice Yi c. lemon juice
1 c. orange juice
Pour over ice and serve.
Spiced Rhubarb Gooler
2 lbs. rhubarb, cut in small pieces 3 c. water
4 whole cloves 1 inch stick cinnamon
1 c. sugar sirup {Vs c. sugar to Ys tsp. mace
to % c. water) 2 tbsp. lemon juice
Y2 c. orange juice 1 pint ginger ale
Put rhubarb, water, and spices in saucepan. Simmer until rhubarb is tender. Strain. Add cooled sugar sirup and fruit juices. Ghill. Pour over the ice. Add ginger ale.
Page 46
RECIPES FOR BEVERAGES 47
Old English Hot Spiced Cider
Vz tsp. whole allspice i qt. cider
1 2-inch stick of cinnamon % c. brown sugar 6 whole cloves grated nutmeg
Tie spices in cheesecloth bag. Heat eider and brown sugar together. Add spice bag and let simmer about lo minutes. Remove bag. Serve with dash of nutmeg.
Spiced Grapefruit Juice
6 e. canned grapefruit juice 6 tbsp. sugar
4 tbsp. honey 12 whole cloves
6 sticks cinnamon
Simmer 3 minutes. Strain and serve hot or cold with a dash of nutmeg.
Cranberry Fruit Punch
2 qts. fresh cranberries 1 tbsp. grated lemon peel 1 dozen whole cloves 2 c. sugar
1 tbsp. grated orange peel !4 c. lemon juice
8 c. apple juice or apple eider 2 trays ice
4 c. water
Cook together cranberries and water. When berries are tender, remove from heat and force berries through sieve. While juice is hot, add cloves, sugar, orange and lemon peel. Cool and add lemon juice, apple juice, and ice. This is delicious served with holiday fruit cake.
Punch — Plus
1 qt, vanilla ice cream 1 qt, ginger ale
1 qt, pineapple juice 1 qt. sherbet, pineapple, orange, or lime
Mix with beater and serve.
Milk and eggs, two of nature's most nearly perfect foods, combine into delicious, nutritious, and appetizing beverages. Many chocolate drinks may be made from home- made chocolate and cocoa sirups. These sirups are easy to make and keep well in the refrigerator.
Chocolate or Cocoa Sirup
1 c, cocoa or K tsp. salt
4 squares unsweetened chocolate 2 c. cold water
cut in pieces 3 tbsp. vanilla
2 c. sugar
Mix all except vanilla. Cook over low heat until thickened and smooth, about five minutes. Cool slightly. Add vanilla. Pour in jar. Keep in refrigerator. Add 2 tbsp. chocolate sirup for each cup of scalded milk to make a chocolate drink. Stir until sirup is dissolved,
Eggnog
Beat whites of 2 eggs until stiff. Beat yolks, 1 tbsp. sugar, Vi tsp. vanilla, and
2 c. milk until well blended. Fold in egg whites. Pour into glasses. Sprinkle nutmeg on top.
Chocolate Eggnog: To the above add 2 tbsp. chocolate sirup. Omit sugar. Fruit Eggnog: To the above add 3 tbsp, orange, strawberry, raspberry, cherry, or grape juice or 1 mashed banana just before adding egg whites.
FROM THE FIELD
Margaret C. Pickeiing, General Secretary-Treasurer ,
All material submitted for publication in this department should be sent through stake and mission Relief Society presidents. See regulations governing the submittal of material for "Notes From the Field" in the Magazine for April 1950, page 278, and the Handboolc oi Instructions, page 123.
RELIEF SOCIETY ACTIVITIES
»< ^* W .''I
Photograph submitted by Lu Seba W. Petersen
REXBURG STAKE (IDAHO) VISITING TEACHERS ACHIEVE OUTSTANDING RECORD
Front row, seated, left to right: Stake officers: Jessie Atkinson, Secretary; Myrtle Sellers, Second Counselor; Lu Seba W. Petersen, President; LaVerne Hacking, First Counselor; and Constance Brown, President, Rexburg Third Ward Relief Society.
Back row, standing, left to right: Marie Barber, Counselor in Fifth Ward Rehef Society; Claudia Hendricks, President, Lyman Ward Relief Society; Norma Larsen, President, Rexburg Seventh Ward Relief Society; Velma Drennen, President, Rexburg Fourth Ward Relief Society; Opal Clements, President, Archer Ward Relief Society; Xenia Nelson, President, Rexburg Second Ward Relief Society; Genevieve Klingler, President, Rexburg Sixth Ward Relief Society.
President Petersen reports the outstanding achie\'ements in \'isiting teaching of the wards in her stake: "We are very proud of our visiting teaching in Rexburg Stake. The following wards have had 100 per cent for the years indicated: Archer Ward, eleven years; Rexburg Third Ward, six years; Rexburg Sexenth Ward, six years; Lyman Ward, five years; Rexburg Fifth Ward, four years, ever since its organization. The Rexburg Sixth Ward was organized in June 1952, and has missed only one district for one month. The Rexburg Fourth Ward has had one hundred per cent for five years, except for one district each of two months. The Rexburg Second Ward has had one hundred per cent for nine years, except for one district each of two months."
Page 48
NOTES FROM THE FIELD
49
Photograph submitted by Hazel B. Tingey
HIGHLAND STAKE (UTAH) SINGING MOTHERS PRESENT MUSIC FOR
STAKE QUARTERLY CONFERENCE
Seated at the organ: Idell Larson; at sister Larson's left, chorister Ina G. Cannon.
Standing, front row, fourth from the right: Vivian Coombs, First Counselor; fifth from the right: Hazel B. Tingey, President, Highland Stake Relief Soeiety; sixth from the right: Gladys Bateman, Second Counselor.
Sister Tingey reports that all of the wards were represented on this occasion by members of the ward presidencies. Nine of the ten ward Relief Society presidents at- tended, as follows: Parley's Ward, Marjorie Eldredge; Parley's Second Ward, Louise Elsey; Parley's Third Ward, Mildred Porter; Parley's Fourth Ward, Ethel Hutchins; Crystal Heights Ward, Ermone Sanders; Crystal Heights Second Ward, Echo Ellis; Highland Park Ward, Lenore Lewis; South Highland Park Ward, Maida Webb; Strat- ford Ward, Eva Bullen; East Stratford Ward, Theresa Wakefield.
These Singing Mothers presented the music for all the general sessions of the quarterly conference, with one hundred twenty Singing Mothers participating.
Photograph submitted by Alta S. Wiltshire
PANGUITCH STAKE (UTAH), CIRCLEVILLE WARD, FORMER PRESIDENTS HOLD SOCIAL
Front row, seated, left to right: Ellen Samuelsen; Mary Norton; Lorena Davis; Daphne Smith,
Back row, standing, left to right: Evelyn Mortenson, present President; Indra John- son; Alice Allen; Eva Dalton; Eventa Fullmer; Lois Haycock.
50
RELIEF SOCIETY MAGAZINE— JANUARY 1957
PhotoRraph submitted by Edna S. Millar
BOISE STAKE SINGING MOTHERS PRESENT MUSIC FOR BOTH SESSIONS OF STAKE QUARTERLY CONFERENCE
August 19, 1956
Gladys Broadbent, the chorister, stands at the left in the second row; Sheila Broadbent, the organist, stands twelfth from the left in the second row; Edna S. Millar, President, Boise Stake Relief Society, at the right in the second row; Nola Muhlstein, Second Counselor, eighth from the left in the third row.
Photograph submitted by Hortense B. Robinson
FINNISH MISSION RELIEF SOCIETY ANNUAL CONFERENCE HELD IN
HELSINKI, August 25 and 26, 1956
Front row, seated, left to right: Edith Ruuhinen, Pori Branch Relief Society; Anni Backholm, Vaasa Branch; Lea Minni, First Counselor, Finnish Mission Relief Society; Hortense B. Robinson, President, T'innish Mission Relief Society; Elsa Arojaa, Oulu Branch Relief Society; Hulda Fellman, Jakobstad Branch Relief Society.
NOTES FROM THE FIELD
51
Back row, standing, left to right: Esteri Miilumaki, Jyvaskyla Branch Rehef Society; Toini Kerttula, Lahti Branch Rehef Society; Lilja Jarxenkari, Kokkola Branch Rehef Society; Lydia Miete, Hameenhnna Branch Rehef Society; Lempi Ojala, Lappeenranta Rehef Society; Ahi Immonen, Kuopio Rehef Society; Senja Aalto, Lahti Rehef Society; Helka Karumo, Fori Branch; Anne Halonen, Kuopio Branch; Toini Halonen, Turku Branch; Hilja Fhnckman, Kotka Branch; Aune Uskah, Tampere Branch; Bertta Heinonen, Kotka Branch; Jenny Stromberg, Larsmo Branch; Maila Valkama, Helsinki.
President Hortense B. Robinson reports: "The annual Relief Society Conference of the Finnish Mission was held in Helsinki, August 25 and 26, 1956. Rehef Society presidents from fifteen of the sixteen branches were in attendance. In some branches, where presidents had just been released, both the released and the new presidents at- tended. All lady missionaries also attended the conference. The Saturday evening program included a luncheon for all presidents, a play introducing all general Relief Societ}' presidents, and a national folk dance performed by Relief Society sisters. Sun- day meetings included a testimony meeting and a leadership meeting, as well as two general sessions. Of special interest was the fireside on Sunday evening. Minister Yrjo Kallinen, a noted speaker, related his visit to his Mormon relatives in Arizona and hearing 'Come, Come Ye Saints,' sung by his 'cowboy cousins in the twilight setting of the Arizona desert.' All meetings were well attended. Over two hundred attended the Sunday evening sessions. The sisters were thrilled with the conference, and it aroused much interest and enthusiasm. Last year there were 221 Rehef Society mem- bers in the Finnish Mission."
Photograph submitted by Matilda B. Gilbert
FRANKLIN STAKE (IDAHO) VISITING TEACHERS HONORED AT CONVENTION AND OPENING SOCIAL
Front row, left to right: Mary A. Moser, Annie N. Merrill, Delettie Burbank, each with fifty years of service as visiting teachers; Ahce Greaves, sixty years; Mildred Ander- son, with a twehe-year perfect record; Nellie G. Smith, fifty years.
Matilda B. Gilbert, President, Franklin Stake Relief Society, reports this happy occasion: "All xisiting teachers \xere honored at a recent visiting teachers convention and opening social. A lovely program under the direction of Nettie Nielsen, stake visiting teacher message leader, \\as presented. Each sister with twenty-five years or more of service was presented with a corsage. Those with fifty or more years of service were especially honored."
52
RELIEF SOCIETY MAGAZINE— JANUARY 1957
Photograph submitted by Mary W. Kotter
NEBO STAKE (UTAH) SINGING MOTHERS PRESENT MUSIC FOR STAKE QUARTERLY CONFERENCE
Roene Di Fiore, director of the chorus, tells of the faithful efforts of these sisters: "There were one hundred six singers in all, and they gave of their time so freely and joyfully that not one telephone call, or other means of communication, was employed to keep them coming out to rehearsals regularly. Counselor Lila Carlisle was the ac- companist."
Mary W. Kotter, President, Nebo Stake Relief Society, reports that these Singing Mothers prepared a Christmas cantata.
Photograph submitted by Fern Brockbank
PALMYRA STAKE (UTAH), SPANISH FORK THIRD WARD BAZAAR
Standing, left to right: Marion Hales, First Counselor; Erma Cope, Second Coun- selor; Iva Maland, Secretary-Treasurer; Grace Pincgar, President.
Fern Brockbank, President, Palmyra Stake Relief Society, reports: 'Hliis bazaar was a very fine affair, with a variety of quilts and handwork on display. Homemade candy and cooked foods were also sold."
NOTES FROM THE FIELD
53
Photograph submitted by Florence S. Jacobsen
EASTERN STATES MISSION, PALMYRA, NEW YORK, BRANCH RELIEF SOCIETY MEETS IN THE HOME OF LUCY MACK SMITH
Seated in front, left to right: Dora Fergnson; Grace Bump; Alice Mecham; Mona Plane; Mary DeNosky and grandchild; Ruby Wanscott.
Back row, standing, left to right: Leona C. Olsen; Elsa Walker; LaVern Darley, who presented the social science lesson; Mary Atkin.
Florence S. Jacobsen, President, Eastern States Mission Relief Society, reports: "I had a thrill this week end while attending district conference in Palmyra, to learn that the wonderful Relief Society sisters residing there had held their first social science lesson of the year in the living room of the home of Lucy Mack Smith (mother of the Prophet Joseph Smith ) . They said there was a wonderful, sweet spirit present as Sister LaVern Darley presented the lesson from the history written by Lucy Mack Smith. They felt the environment for this lesson unique enough to warrant taking a picture of the occasion. I thought perhaps you would be interested to know that after the passage of 126 years since the house was occupied by the Smith family, that the home has been used as a meeting place to study the life and ideals of this great family as recorded by Mother Smith. A picture of Lucy Mack Smith may be seen hanging on the wall in the background. The table in the foreground was made by Brigham Young. This is just a note of interest concerning the little Relief Society of Palmyra where the Smiths lived and so much of Church history has taken place."
Catherine E. Berry
The good we do at Christmastime Can li\'e throughout the year,
If we \\'ill give our hearts, our love,
Wrapped up with Christmas cheer.
LESSON DEPARTMENT
cJheology^ — Characters and Teachings of The Book of Mormon
Lesson A7—A Review of Outstanding Characters of The Book of Mormon
Elder LeJand H. Monson
For Tuesday, April 2, 1957
Objective: To show through a study of the lives of the characters of The Book of Mormon that true greatness is found in a love of God and service to one's fellow men.
\ man standing on the shoulders of a giant, ought to be able to see farther. We have had that privilege as we have walked, talked, prayed, and thought with those giant characters in spirituality who led their people in The Book of Mormon history. In retrospect, we may see Jared, his brother Mahonri Moriancumer, and Ether from the Jaredite civilization; and at least Lehi, Nephi, Jacob, Benjamin, Mo- siah. Alma, Nephi, Mormon, and Moroni from the Nephite civiliza- tion. A quick review of the con- tributions of these men to their peoples will give us a sort of kaleido- scopic scene of the changing nature of life among The Book of Mormon peoples.
Book of Ether
Jared and his brother, Moriancu- mer, came from that stretch of ter- ritory between the Tigris and Eu-
Page 54
phrates rivers, a part of the land which is known as 'The Fertile Crescent," within which territory is the ancient city of Babylon. Un- der divine guidance, the Jaredites left this land of Shinar at the time the Lord confounded the tongues of the people building the Tower of Babel.
Moriancumer, at the solicitation of Jared, prayed that the Lord would have compassion upon them, their families, and their friends. This prayer was answered, and a colony of people known as the Jaredites came to the Western Continent. They crossed the ocean in eight boats, built after the manner of ''barges" which they had previously built. (See Ether 2:16, 17.) These boats were lighted by sixteen stones, ". . . white and clear, even as trans- parent glass . . ." (Ether 3:1) which were made luminous by the finger of the Lord. At the time the Lord
LESSON DEPARTMENT
55
touched these stones and gave them luminosity, ". . . 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 . . . behold, the Lord showed himself unto him, and said . . . . Behold, I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people. Behold, I am Jesus Christ .... In me shall all mankind have light, and that eternally .... And never have I showed myself unto man whom I have created, for never has man be- lieved in me as thou hast. Seest thou that ye are created after mine own image? Yea, even all men were created in the beginning after mine own image" (Ether 3:6 ff.).
The civilization built by these men flourished in North America from about the time of the Tower of Babel to about 600 B.C. when it suffered extinction because of un- righteousness.
The abridged record of the Jaredites in The Book of Mormon is called the Book of Ether after Ether the last prophet of the Jared- ites. Moroni made the abridgment from the twenty-four gold plates which had been found by the peo- ple of Limhi in the days of King Mosiah. Ether prophesied the de- struction of the Jaredite civilization, for he knew that the people were living unrighteously and that Ameri- ca was a choice land only to those who worshipped the' God of the land, who is Jesus Christ.
Coming oi Lehi
to the Piomised Land
The civilization of the Nephites and Lamanites, which followed the
Jaredite nation, was founded by Le- hi, who left Jerusalem about 600 B.C. and came to the promised land with his family, Sariah his wife, La- man, Lemuel, Sam, Nephi, Jacob, Joseph, and some daughters; and Ishmael and his sons and daughters; and Zoram. Lehi was the great patriarch of his day. He blessed his sons and daughters and encouraged them to live righteously.
Nephf
Nephi, after the death of his fa- ther, took charge of the righteous branch of the people and built a great civilization, while his older brothers, disobedient, shiftless, and lazy, lived in tents and dwindled in unbelief. Those who followed Ne- phi were called Nephites; those who followed Laman and Lemuel were called Lamanites. The remainder of The Book of Mormon history concerns these two groups of peo- ple, for the Mulekites, a third group to come to America about 590 b.c, merged their civilization with that of the Nephites.
Nephi, faithful, intelligent, for- giving, industrious, and resourceful founded a city in the land of Nephi. He gave to his culture a spiritual foundation at the same time that he taught the people to be indus- trious and to care for their material welfare. He knew that the real pur- pose of wealth was to provide for the improvement of his people.
Jacob
Jacob, brother of Nephi, followed Nephi as a teacher of the people and a keeper of the records. He sought to persuade the people ''. . . to come unto Christ . . /' (Jacob 1:7).
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RELIEF SOCIETY MAGAZINE— JANUARY 1957
Wherefore, we would to God that we could persuade all men not to rebel against God, to provoke him to anger, but that all men would believe in Christ, and view his death, and suffer his cross and bear the shame of the world; wherefore, I, Jacob, take it upon me to fulfil the com- mandment of my brother Nephi (Jacob 1:8).
Jacob was a great preacher of righteousness all his days. He de- nounced unchastity, encouraged his people to seek first the kingdom of God, promised them that if they did so they would obtain riches, ma- terial wealth, which he encouraged them to use for righteous purposes— ". . . to clothe the naked, and to feed the hungry, and to liberate the captive, and administer relief to the sick and the affhcted" (Jacob 2:19). He condemned pride and noted that riches are not necessarily a sign of excellence. Jacob was also a doc- trinal preacher, and explained fun- damental principles of the gospel.
From Jacob the plates were hand- ed on to Enos, Jarom, Omni, Ama- ron, Chemish, Abinadom, Amaleki, and Mosiah to Benjamin, the next prophet leader we shall discuss.
Benjamin
King Benjamin, about 130 B.C., was a ruler who assiduously worked for the welfare of his people. Near the close of his life, he built a large tower from which he instructed the people concerning doctrines of the gospel and concerning their self- improvement, and announced that his son Mosiah would succeed him. He will be long remembered for his comment that ". . . when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God" (Mosiah 2:17). We also remem- ber him for his instructions concern-
ing the atonement of Christ. He also taught the people that man is not naturally good, but that:
. . . the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be . . . unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submis- sive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father (Mo- siah 3:19).
He also stressed the fact that Jesus Christ would come in the future and visit the people. The people made a covenant with God to keep his commandments and took upon them the name of Christ.
King Mosiah
King Mosiah, son of Benjamin, founded democracy among the Ne- phites when his four sons refused to be king, making, so far as we know, the Nephite civilization the cradle of democracy in America. He gave laws to the people and in- structed them concerning the man- ner of electing their judges, concern- ing their money, and concerning their duties to one another. He began to reign when he was thirty (Mosiah 7:4), in about 124 b.c.
In setting up the reign of the Judges over the Nephite people, Mosiah advised them:
Now it is not common that the voice of the people dcsircth anything contrary to that which is right; but it is connnon for the lesser part of the people to de- sire that which is not right; therefore this shall ye observe and make it your law — to do your business by the voice of the people.
And if the time comes that the voice of the people doth choose iniquity, then
LESSON DEPARTMENT
57
is the time that the judgments of God will come upon you; yea, then is the time he will visit you with great destruction even as he has hitherto visited this land.
And now I desire that this inequality should be no more in this land, especially among this my people; but I desire that this land be a land of liberty, and every man may enjoy his rights and privileges alike, so long as the Lord sees fit that we may live and inherit the land, yea, even as long as any of our posterity re- mains upon the face of the land (Mosiah 29:26-27, 32).
It was during Mosiah's reign that his four sons went to preach to the Lamanites.
Alma the Younger
After the death of King Mosiah, Ahiia, the younger, was appointed to be the first chief judge of the Nephites. At the same time he was the high priest having had the of- fice conferred upon him by his fa- ther Alma, and thus he was in charge of the religious welfare of the people. (See Mosiah 29:42.)
Alma, who in his youth had been wicked and, with the sons of Mo- siah, had sought to destroy the Church, developed into one of the greatest characters in Book of Mor- mon history. He was, after his con- version, a great preacher of right- eousness and a doctrinal teacher and one of the greatest missionaries in Book of Mormon history. He built up churches in and around Zarahemla, teaching the people of Jesus Christ and that he would be born of Mary, the Son of God in the flesh. (See Alma 7:10.) He en- couraged the people to have faith, and hope, and charity— the three cardinal virtues of Christianity. With Amulek he performed a great missionary work. Later, with two
of his sons, he performed an illustri- ous missionary service among the Zoramites.
Grieving over the wickedness of his people, he called his three sons and gave '\ . . unto them every one his charge, separately, concerning the things pertaining unto righteous- ness . . ." (Alma 35:16). His in- structions contain great doctrinal dissertations. His commandments to his sons concern taking care of sacred things, to look to God and live, to declare the word among the people, the sin of adultery, on the resurrection, and the state of the soul between death and the resur- rection, a literal restoration, on just- ice and mercy, mortality a period of probation, spiritual and temporal death, and the necessity of repent- ance, the atonement, and law, and punishment. (See Alma chapters 36-42.) He urged his son Corian- ton:
... let the justice of God, and his mercy, and his long-suffering ha\e full sway in your heart; and let it bring you down to the dust in humihty (Alma
42:30).
Nepiii the Disciple
Nephi, son of Nephi, son of Hela- man, son of Helaman, son of Alma, had the privilege of seeing the prophecies of Samuel the Lamanite concerning the signs of the Savior's birth and death literally fulfilled. Subsequently, he was called from the multitude by Jesus and given power to baptize the people after the departure of Jesus (3 Nephi 11:21). He was in the group that heard the Father introduce his Son, Jesus, to the Nephites, and knew of a surety concerning the divinity of Christ. He became a member of a
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group of twelve called by the Savior to supervise the work of the Church in the meridian dispensation among the Nephites.
Mormon
Mormon, the next great character whom we shall consider, gave his name to The Book of Mormon. He took the plates from the Hill Shim as he had been instructed to do by Ammaron, who had placed them there about 320 a.d. Mormon, as we studied in a previous lesson was a great spiritual leader and a com- mander in chief of Nephite forces, who witnessed the almost complete destruction of the Nephites. He was also a great scholar, an histor- ian, who made the set of records on which he wrote the abridgment of the large plates of Nephi and to which he attached the small plates of Nephi.
Moroni
Moroni, the son of Mormon, fin- ished his father's book in the rec- ord, abridged the twenty-four gold plates giving the history of the Jaredite civilization, and wrote a
book of his own on his father's plates, called the Book of Moroni. Moroni lived to see the complete destruction of the Nephites because of wickedness, and remained a lone survivor of a once righteous, power- ful, and blessed people.
Living with these men who mark milestones of progress in the history of the two great civilizations that flourished in America from about the time of the Tower of Babel to about 421 A.D., we have come to understand what true greatness is, that it is to be found in the love of God and service to one's fellow men.
Questions on the Lesson
1. Explain how a study of a great man gives us an understanding of the history of a period.
2. What ^^'ere the chief characteristics of Nephi?
3. Show how powerful the doctrine of repentance is by an explanation of the early life and repentance of Alma.
4. What kind of testimony concerning Jesus Christ did Alma and Nephi have?
5. What was Mormon's great contribu- tion to The Book of Mormon, besides his own historical account?
6. What was Moroni's great contribu- tion?
777
ountai
n 0/7
owstorm
Eva WiUes Wangsgaard
"These flakes resembling velvet stars," she said, "Are clever camouflage to hide our jail." I sat in silence, for my thoughts had fled. Riding a snowflake down a time-hid trail. Where children, pulled by cords of school or home Climbed drifts as high as hillocks. Twinkly bright Were eyes that loved the bout with brittle foam Which topped the waves of frozen crested white. Now hills were growing whiter steadily Where sumac lately brewed a rich maroon, But being snowbound waked no dread in me. The years ran back to meet my life's high-noon. The storm would hold us prisoners on the hill. But joy is always free to roam at will.
Visiting QJeacher 1 1 iessages —
Book of Mormon Gems of Truth
Lesson A7-"kr\6 What Is It That Ye Shall Hope For? Behold I Say Unto
You That Ye Shall Have Hope Through the Atonement of Christ and
the Power of His Resurrection, to Be Raised Unto Life Eternal,
and This Because of Your Faith in Him According to the
Promise" (Moroni 7:41).
Leone O. Jacobs
For Tuesday, April 2, 1957 Objective: To show that faith in Jesus Christ is the key to eternal life.
ALL of our lives we should be working toward one goal— that of achieving eternal life. The hope we have of achieving that goal helps us to meet the problems and ad- versities that beset us in mortality. That hope gives comfort in our sor- rows and courage to continue on- ward without ever losing sight of the destination.
As has been said, ''faith is the moving cause of all action" (Lec- tures on Faithy page 8), and faith in Christ is the power by which we may reach this goal of eternal life. Mormon says, 'Tor no man can be saved, according to the words of Christ, save they shall have faith in his name . . ." (Moroni 7:38).
Faith is a mighty force, and its possibilities are unlimited. Faith requires a positive attitude of mind. Doubt and fear flee from its pres- ence. When wc comply with the necessary requirements, we can gain perfect faith in the atonement of Christ and in his resurrection.
Many passages of scripture point out the great power of faith. "... If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed . . . nothing shall be impossible unto you." (Mt. 17:20). "... According to your faith be it unto you" (Mt. 9-29). "... Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole . . ." (Mark 5:34), said Christ to the woman who touched the hem of his garment. "I can do all things through Christ which strengthen me" (Phillipians 4:13). "And Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is ex- pedient in me" (Moroni 7:33).
It is by faith that one accepts the words of Christ. It is through faith in Christ ". . . that the Holy Ghost may have place . . ." (Moroni 7:32) in our hearts. Thus, if faith in Jesus Christ is the principle that can bring us eternal life, let us read and study and work to attain it.
. . . From a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus, All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for in- struction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect . . . unto all good works (II Timothy 3:15-16).
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V(/orR 1 1 ieetifig — Food Preparation and S
ervice
(A Course Recommended for Use by Wards and Branches at Work Meeting)
Lesson 7— Beverages Rhea H. Gardner
For Tuesday, April 9, 1957
CINCE some kind of beverage is a part of every meal, it is im- portant that it be chosen with the same care as all other parts of the menu.
For many, good cold water or milk is sufficient as a meal beverage. Since milk is high in food value, it is more than a thirst quencher. Milk drinks are a nourishing food for people of all ages; in fact, milk is about the first and last food and beverage man enjoys.
There is a wide variety of milk drinks. Eggnogs are especially good. They are more appealing to the eye and to the taste when the egg whites and yolks are beaten separately.
Chocolate and cocoa are both made from the cocoa bean. Their difference is in the fat content. Chocolate is about fifty per cent fat, while cocoa contains only about twenty-two per cent fat. Conse- quently, chocolate is much richer. Cocoa is considered better adapted for children or people with diges- tions that are easily upset.
When cocoa or chocolate is used frequently for beverages, it is con- venient and time-saving to make a quantity of cocoa paste or sirup which can be mixed quickly with the milk as needed.
Lemonade and orangeade are favorites in the increasingly long list of fruit beverages we may choose
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from today. Use only enough sugar to accent the natural fruit flavor.
Sugar can be added directly to the juice and water or it may be made into a sirup, cooled, then added. The latter method is recommended. The precooked sirup seems to im- prove the drinking quality of the beverage to which it is added; it also saves time and saves sugar, since it is not uncommon to find undis- solved sugar in the bottom of pitch- ers when sugar is added directly to the drink.
Most fruit punch requires the use of some citrus juices, especially lem- on juice. The practice of taking lemons out of the refrigerator, cut- ting them in half, squeezing them, and throwing the rest away is waste- ful. If you will let the lemons stand in warm water before squeezing them, you will be able to extract much more juice. Then, if you will boil the rind with the sugar sirup, the rind of two lemons for each cup of sugar, you will have a drink that is much richer in flavor.
Fruit punch need not be expen- sive, if you plan ahead for it. Rhubarb juice makes a delicious base for a fruit drink. Prepare it in much the same way as you do tomatoes for juicing. Pour the hot, strained, slightly sweetened juice in- to fruit jars and process in a hot water bath. (See instruction books for processing time in your area.)
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In areas where apricots are in abundance, one is often able to get small ones for a nominal cost. Apri- cot puree makes a delicious base for fruit drinks. Juice from currants, pie cherries, certain kinds of wild berries, grapes, some plums, and cranberry juice are also delicious.
Watch the market for specials on canned fruit juices so you will always have a variety on hand.
For very clear ice cubes for your fruit drinks, use boiled water. Here are a few suggestions for fancy ice cubes: (i) Add a little green color- ing to the water before freezing it into cubes for an especially cool looking efifect. Avoid overuse of the coloring. (2) Freeze curls of lemon or orange peel, maraschino cherries with stems intact, or sprigs
of mint in the ice cubes. (3) Freeze leftover drinks in the ice cube trays to serve in fruit beverages.
The appearance of a fruit drink on a hot day cannot be overesti- mated. Cool drinks will look especially refreshing if you frost the rims of the glasses. Put some lemon juice into a saucer about one-fourth inch deep. Sift some powdered sugar into a plate about one-fourth inch deep. Stand each glass, in- verted, in the lemon juice about a minute. Lift it out of the juice then let it stand, inverted, in the powdered sugar for a minute. Now lift carefully out of the sugar so as not to jar the sugar coating which has formed on the rim. Stand right side up in the refrigerator until set. Then carefully fill with your drink.
Note: "Recipes for Beverages," by Rhea H. Gardner, page 46, in this issue of the Magazine.
JLiterature — Shakespeare in Our Lives
Lesson 7—"fK Midsummer Night's Dream"
YAdti Briant S. Jacobs
(Textbook: Shakespeare Major Phvs and the Sonnets, by G. B. Harrison, Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1948)
For Tuesday, April 16, 1957
Objective: To show that in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare touches our lives through fantasy and poetry — through qualities we all approve, such as love, delight, joy, and humor.
The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling.
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven,
And as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to shapes, and gi\es to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.
A Midsummer Night's Dream, V. 1. 12-17
TF ever a literature lesson deserves moon, it is this one. For literal-
to be presented in the warm, minded persons this play may seem
bright silence of an April midnight a filmy triviality without substance,
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direction, or indeed without any justification for existing. The prac- tical persons who prize as real only that which can be pinched or priced or preserved, will find this play to be ''airy nothingness'' incarnate. But for the rest of us, this plunge into the unplumbed vistas of the imagi- native world yields an ecstasy and a delight rivaled in Shakespeare only by passages from Romeo and Juliet and The Tempest.
The more thoroughly we saturate ourselves in this play-poem on love, the more we realize that only young Shakespeare could have produced it. Actually, it was written during 1594 or 1595 in the poet's thirtieth year. Obviously written to commemorate some wedding or marriage-feast, it is filled with its own theme of the goodness and gaiety of mortal love.
Surely one of Shakespeare's ap- peals is that he knows love to be without limitation or station: every- one from the highest to the lowest loves, yet each in his own way. Therefore, he depicts love in many forms, including the stately, digni- fied relationship between Duke Theseus and Queen Hippolyta; the foolish jealousies, quick-tempered exchanges, and ethereal ecstasies of the fairies Oberon and Titania, a love so touchy and unreasoning as to be entirely mortal; the impulsive, confusing young loves of Lysander and Hermia, Demetrius and Helena; the uncultivated, serious Bottom who, in his constant yet unspectac- ular sanity, refuses to be swept off his feet by the most skilled love- techniques of Queen Titania's magic words. Thus love in its various aspects and extremes provides the sole subject of the play.
PJot
Theseus, Duke of Athens, and Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, are soon to be married. On their wedding day the fate of young, headstrong Hermia is to be decided. She loves Lysander, but her father wants her to marry another suitor of his choice named Demetrius. It is decreed that if she refuses Demet- rius, she must either die or forswear all contact with men and become a nun. Hermia and Lysander, decid- ing to flee Athens, agree to meet in a wood just outside the town. They are waylaid by Demetrius who hopes to prevent his beloved Hermia's escape, and Helena, who loves him.
In the same wood we are intro- duced to the fairies. Queen Titania and King Oberon have quarreled over a beautiful, dark-skinned boy who has been stolen by the fairies from an East Indian King. (This was a common practice among fairies who would leave a less at- tractive child in place of the one stolen.) Jealous Oberon wants the child as his attendant, but Titania will not yield him, since she claims him as her own. Resolving to tor- ment her for this injury, Oberon sends Puck halfway around the world to pluck a little western flower which Cupid once shot with his fiery shaft. The juice from this flower, laid on sleeping eyelids, will make the per- son dote upon the next living crea- ture he sees. Oberon intends to watch Titania when she is asleep and drop the potion in her eyes so:
The next thing then she waking looks
upon, Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull, On meddling monkey, or on busy ape, She shall pursue it with the soul of love.
II, 1. 179-182
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Oberon also intends to help Helena in her love pursuit of De- metrius, but Puck, by mistake, puts the potion into Lysander's eyes rath- er than in Demetrius' with resulting confusion and mix-up among the four young lovers. The third plot within the play also reaches its cli- max in these same woods. Rustic bully Bottom and his fellow con- struction workers come to the woods to practice a play with which to entertain the royal wedding party for Theseus and the Amazon Queen Hippolyta. Puck places an ass's head on Bottom, which frightens off his superstitious comrades. Still influenced by the love potion, Ti- tania awakens to see Bottom, and is immediately enamored of him. Thus, at the beginning of Act IV, Scene i, Titania is making love to Bottom. While she suffers from her romantic over-obsession, his is a true common-sense response. She offers him new nuts; but he asks only for good dry oats and a bundle of hay. Titania wants to caress his cheeks and place flow- ers in his hair; instead, practical Bottom asks for a fairy to scratch his head. Titania offers him fairy music, and he asks for tongs (an instrument resembling a triangle for making rustic music) and bones (to be held between the fingers and used as clappers). Finally the two fall asleep and Oberon enters, ready to forgive and ''undo this hateful imperfection of her [Titania's] eyes." Meanwhile, the four sleeping lovers awaken soon after Puck anointed them once more with his magic po- tion. Now Demetrius recognizes Helena as his true love, and Ly- sander and Hermia are re-united.
Bottom awakes to wonder what has become of his comrades. He is sorely perplexed by his startling dream, one which "the eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man's hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report, what my dream was. I will get Peter Quince to write a ballad of this dream. It shall be called Bottom's Dream, because it hath no bottom." IV, i. 216.
In Act V all join in the nuptial celebration of Theseus, Hippolyta, and the four lovers. Bottom and his friends perform their play as part of the entertainment and the fairies pronounce blessings and good for- tune on all of the newlv wedded couples. And in the words of Puck:
Jack shall have Jill, Nought shall go ill,
The man shall ha\'e his mare again, and all shall be well.
III. 2. 461-463
Delight and Satire As long as people have been human they have liked to be fooled by that which fools them most completely. This is beautifully accomplished in A Midsummer Night's Dream. After reading the play one feels that Shakespeare created it to embody the sheer joy which radiates to all sympathetic souls who choose to remain within the charmed circle of love and marriage. Without this play to give these emotions a body and make them more nearly tangi- ble, such emotions could only have hovered about like some ethereal ghosts. As it is, the play relays their charms to all who care to attend. And as the play progresses, we feel from Shakespeare's merry words,
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puns, scenic fantasies, and rich, po- etic passages, his own winkings of deUght at having given his audience such provocation for rehving once more the joys and beauty of mortal- ity's greatest universal experience: true, pure love.
Even though, in one sense, this play is a sweet hymn to beautiful love, Shakespeare is nonetheless wise enough to remember that ''The course of true love never did run smooth" (I,i) and, as Puck sees the senseless antics of people in love, he speaks perhaps his most famous line, "what fools these mortals be!" (111,2). Shakespeare also knew well the pompous dangers which come to those who take themselves too seriously. After detailing perfect, lyrical love in Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare satirizes it quite point- edly in this play, particularly in the delightfully grotesque play presented in deep seriousness and dedication by Bottom and his rough friends.
Shakespeare also satirizes the rustic drama itself. In his own day groups of artisans were forming dra- matic clubs, and instead of follow- ing the religious form of the true rustic drama, these amateurs began to perform romantic plays, while still using the rigid techniques of the old dramas. In A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare laughs at the carpenters, tinkers, and bel- lows-menders who have turned ac- tors and who, in presenting their play The Most Lamentable Com- edy, and Most Cruel Death of Pyramus and Thishy, make even the scenery and stage setting into actors' parts as actors become WaJJ and Moonshine. (If time permits read aloud Act III, Sc.i. 59-72.)
The fairies, particularly Puck, play an important part in the plot. It could be real fun to characterize Puck to your group. Shakespeare casts him in the role of fool or clown to Oberon, King of the Fairies, but he is really Robin-Good- fellow, a household spirit of ancient folklore. It is he who frightens maidens of the village, who skims the milk off its cream so that the butter won't churn, takes the yeast out of the beer, misleads the night- wanderers; assumes the likeness of a crab apple in the drink that ma- trons enjoy while gossiping about the bubbling kettle, and bobs sharp- ly against their lips so the shock causes them to spill their ale down their own necks; assumes the like- ness of a stool so that when an old woman goes to sit on him, he disap- pears and she topples down. (Act II. Sc. 1.)
The standard stock in trade of our present-day tin-pan alley which produces its constant stream of pop- ular songs is to be found in the well- worn rhyming words ''moon, June, tune, croon, swoon, spoon." Shake- speare's materials are the same, yet he avoids the ruts which make our average romantic love songs so trivial. The setting of the play stresses the role of the moon, some- times full and warm, sometimes lofty and cold (when the lovers are quarreling beneath it). We do not wonder at Shakespeare's creating a phantasy, but that such a phantasy could ever attain any sense of reality at all. We are forced to agree with Addison, that if there could be places and people like these, cer- tainly they would have to be and
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65
act exactly as they do. Or as Dry- den says:
But Shakespeare's magic could not copied
be; Within that circle none durst walk but he. The Tempest, Prologue
A small part of Shakespeare's de- light appears in Bottom's and Peter Quince's misuse of words which sound similar, but which have vast- ly different meanings: ''Thou art translated/' for 'Thou are trans- formed"; "I will condole in some measure," for "I will lament"; "You were best to call them generally," for "You were best to call them sev- erally"; and "Ninny's Tomb" for "Ninus' Tomb," etc.
Shakespeare appeals to us again by exploiting our normal delight to be found in that which is small and miniature, and, also, in the nearness of nature. These are best given us by Titania and her fairies:
Come, no\\' a roundel and a fairy song. Then, for the third part of a minute,
hence — Some to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds, Some war with rere-mice [bats] for their
leathern \\ings, To make my small elves coats, and some
keep back The clamorous owl that nightly hoots and
wonders At our quaint spirits [sports]. Sing we
now asleep. Then to your offices, and let me rest.
Song
You spotted snakes with double tongue,
Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen. Nev^'ts and blindworms, do no wrong,
Come not near our fairy Queen. Philomel, with melody Sing in our sweet lullaby;
Lulla, lulla, lullaby, lulla, lulla, lullaby. Never harm, nor spell, nor charm, Come our lovely lady nigh;
So, good night, with lullaby.
II. 2. 1-19
To the fairies, nature is an inti- mate part of them, and the rough elements in the first of their song accent the beauty and softness of the chorus lullaby.
Best in A Midsummer Night's Dream is the sheer poetry which releases Shakespeare's serene joy and sense of beauty. Such a passage as the following is filled with the sing- ing beauty of true poetry.
King Oberon: My gentle Puck, come hither. Thou rememberest Since once I sat upon a promontory And heard a mermaid, on a dolphin's
back. Uttering such dulcet and harmonious
breath That the rude sea grew ci\il at her song. And certain stars shot madly from their
spheres To hear the seamaid's music.
II. 1. 148-154
To be at their best such passages must be read aloud; only then does their beauty penetrate to be heard by the inner ear and eye.
The intent in discussing this, as in succeeding plays, will be not to present all the details of the plot, but to develop intensively one or two central scenes. However, indi- \idual passages throughout the play that are particularly beautiful and Ivrical could well be read. For ex- ample:
I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows,
WHiere oxlips and the nodding \iolet grows;
Quite overcanopied with luscious wood- bine,
\\'ith sweet musk rose, and with eglantine.
There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,
Lulled in these flowers with dances and delight.
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And there the snake throws her enameled
skin, Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in.
Act II, 1. 249-256
Re-read this passage to class mem- bers until they get the picture of Titania, Queen of the fairies, lying on the bank of a stream. I'here the snake sloughs off her enamel- like skin which is wide enough to serve as a garment to wrap Titania in, as she lies there surrounded with primroses and sweetbriar, canopied over with honevsucklc, lulled to sleep by her fairies' delightful music and dances.
You might briefly lay the setting for Act IV, Scene I, and then read this scene slowly and carefully to your group. I'his scene has been chosen because all of the major characters appear, and because all the three plots are unraveled in it. Notice that Shakespeare has his dif- ferent characters speak in three dif- ferent styles, all of which appear in this scene. Bottom, as one of the rustics, speaks in prose, which would be natural for a tradesman. I'hc fairies speak in lyrical rhyme, and the dignity of Theseus is evident in his lines spoken in blank verse.
Scene 1, Act. IV, is surcharged with great poetry, in addition to re- solving the three plots within the play. While not a functioning part of the story, such passages as the fol- lowing speeches by Ilippolyta and Theseus are rarely surpassed in Shakespeare's later works for their rich imagery and the music of their singing:
Hip. I was with Hercules and Cadmus once Wficn in a wood of Crete they bayed the bc.ir
With hounds of Sparta. Never did I hear
Such gallant chiding; for, besides the groves,
The skies, the fountains, every region near
Seemed all one mutual cry. I never heard
So musical a discord, such sweet thun- der.
Thes. My hounds are bred out of the
Spartan kind, So flcwed, so sanded; and their heads
are hung With ears that sweep away the morning
dew; Crook-kneed, and dewlapped like Thes-
salian bulls; Slow in pursuit, but matched in mouth
like bells, Kach under each. A cry more tunable Was never holloed to, nor cheered
with horn. In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly. Judge when you hear.
IV. 1, 116-131
The strength of A Midsummer Night's Dream, therefore, is in hu- mor, whimsy, satire, wordplay, but, most of all, in delight, cheerfulness, joy, and an expansive outpouring of such lines rich in cadenced imagery, lines which, thus far, only Shake- speare could have written.
Thoughts ioi Discussion
1. Which universal qualities of human love appear in the play?
2. Of which qualities or characters does Shakespeare appear to approve? Of which does he sccui to disapprove?
3. Why docs Titania's attachment for Bottom seem humorous? Has it any basis in actual life as you have seen or known it?
4. Discuss Shakespeare's use of fantasy and poetry as tools in this play to achieve his desired effect.
Social Science — Latter-day Saint Family Life
Lesson 6— "Search Your Hearts'' Eider John Fan Larson For Tuesday, April 2 ■5, 1957
Objective: To illustrate the process of perfection and the necessity of eliminating those traits of character which retard our quest for perfection.
<'<"DE ve therefore perfect, even as vour Father which is in heav- en is perfect" (Mt. 5:48). This admonition of Jesus, from the Sermon on the Mount, was em- braced bv the Prophet Joseph Smith as an attainable goal for all. z\l- though the Prophet's teachings to the women co\"ered a wide range of subjects, the common thread throughout was that perfection might be a reality. This and the following lesson are directed to each member of the Relief Society who seeks perfection. \\'hile a listing of the qualities of perfection would, no doubt, be helpful in setting one's sights, the more important factor in progression is the process bv which we improve. It is hoped that by a discussion of some tmits con- sidered bv the Prophet to be either desirable or undesirable, we may stimulate and promote personal im- pro\ement hv the process of self- appraisal and prudent decisions. A careful review of the Prophet's teachings, followed by their appro- priate application to life, will greatlv assist all who seek the attributes of godliness.
\\'ithin each of us he potentiali- ties for great accomplishment. Those traits of character which de- termine whether we do good or evil, succeed or fail, become perfect or mediocre, remain inacti\e until stimulated bv circumstances or con-
ditions. Most of them develop quite unnoticed, and without con- scious effort, within the en\'iron- ment supplied bv parents, friends, and life situations. A helpful prin- ciple then, if we are to attain per- fection for ourselves and loved ones, is to strive for and to provide wholesome, uplifting experiences. Through personal effort we can ap- proach perfection, if we cultivate the desirable and weed out the harmful traits of character. This is the challenge of the gospel.
On April 28, 1842, little more than two vears before his death, the Prophet told the Relief Society he was taking the opportunity:
... to instruct the ladies of this So- ciety, and point out the way for them to conduct themselves, that they might act according to the will of God; that he did not know that he ''should have many op- portunities of teaching them, as they were going to be left to themselves; they would not long ha\e him to instruct them; that the Church would not ha\e his instruc- tions long; and the world would not be troubled with him a great while (D. H. C. 1\', page 604).
These comments suggest the im- portance and urgency the Prophet himself attached to his teachings.
Individucil Responsibility
Perfection, the Prophet stressed, is an indi\idual matter. He suggest- ed that while the efforts of others might stimulate us to good works,
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they would not save us, and although we would be blessed for our service to others, this, alone, was not enough. "The people should each one stand for himself, and depend on no man or men ..." he said, since "righteous persons could only deliver their own souls" (Ibid., V, page 19). The responsibility for salvation and perfection he placed squarely upon each individual.
The Prophet Joseph had said at an earlier meeting:
After this instruction, you will be re- sponsible for your own sins; it is a desir- able honor that you should so walk be- fore our heavenly Father as to save your- selves; we are all responsible to God for the manner we improve the light and wisdom given by our Lord to enable us to save ourselves [Ihid., IV, page 606).
As was the case in the Council in Heaven, there were some early members of the Church who thought the Prophet should compel the souls of men. Often the people would tell the Prophet what he should do, saying, "O, if I were Brother Joseph, I would do this and that, but," said the Prophet, ". . .if they were in Brother Joseph's shoes they would find that men or women could not be compeJJed into the kingdom of God, but must be dealt with in long-suffering, and at last we shall save them" [Ibid., V, page 24), (Jtahcs added.)
To serve the Lord is not always easy, but the Prophet made it clear that we must be resolute in seeking our goal. Said he:
All difficulties which might and would cross our way must be surmounted. Though the soul be tried, the heart faint, and the hands hang down, we must not retrace our steps; there must be decision
of character, aside from sympathy {Ihid., IV, page 570).
The Prophet's teachings all sug- gest that salvation is a continual process. It is neither attained by one good deed nor is it at any time a certainty. Having received the gospel, we must continue to serve the Lord to the best of our ability —and, if we forsake the truth, we are in danger of losing that which we have gained. The Prophet warned on one occasion:
Though a man should become mighty, do great things, overturn mountains, per- form mighty works, and should then turn from his high station to do evil, to eat and drink with the drunken, all his former deeds would not save him, but he would go to destruction! {Ihid., IV, page 606).
In his characteristic way of being practical and specific, the Prophet pointed the way to Relief Society members who desire to become as God would have them. Just as a parent teaches his child black and white, the Prophet taught the wom- en there were good as well as harm- ful qualities; that perfection came from accepting the good and reject- ing the bad. He strongly urged them to cultivate the commend- able, to keep the commandments, and to search for further light and knowledge. Inherent in the pur- suance of perfection is the recogni- tion of those attributes which hind- er our progress. For this reason we shall now reflect upon some characteristics the Prophet singled out to be shunned. Those discussed serve to illustrate the collective and individual possibility of their exist- ence. Women who seek perfection will do well to heed the Prophet's cautions as well as his commenda- tions.
LESSON DEPARTMENT
69
Self-Righ teousness
Time and again, the Prophet warned against self-righteousness. The assumption of responsibihty for one's self, he suggested, is en- nobling, while self -admiration blinds the view to our own shortcomings, illuminates the faults of others, and creates illusions of personal worth. The Prophet forthrightly reminded that ''it is the doctrine of the devil to retard the human mind, and hinder our progress, by filling us with self-righteousness .... The devil flatters us that we are very righteous, when we are feeding on the faults of others/' he observed (Ihid., V, page 24). He pointed up the pitfall of self -righteousness when he said:
Christ was condemned by the self- righteous Jews because He took sinners into His society; He took them upon the principle that they repented of their sins {Ibid., V, page 23).
Aspirations
The Prophet cautioned the wom- en to aspire to magnify only their own offices and callings. He read to them from the 12th Chapter of 1st Corinthians and explained the func- tion of the various offices within the Church and:
. . . the necessity of every individual acting in the sphere allotted him or her, and filling the several offices to which they are appointed. He spoke of the dis- position of many men to consider the lower offices in the Church dishonorable, and to look with jealous eyes upon the standing of others who are called to pre- side o\er them; that it was the folly and nonsense of the human heart for a person to be aspiring to other stations than those to which they are appointed of God for them to occupy [Ihid., IV, page 603).
The Authorities of the Church have repeatedly counseled that our
individual progress is closely related to the effort we expend and the manner in which we perform our Church assignments.
The Prophet urged the women ". . . to magnify their respective callings, and wait patiently till God shall say to them, 'Come up high- er'" (Ibid., IV, page 603). The disposition to aspire would be with- in the Relief Society, he cautioned, and the women should therefore guard against it. "Every person should stand, and act in the place appointed, and thus sanctify the So- ciety and get it pure" (Ihid., IV, page 604). To magnify one's office and calling is a most desirable ob- jective. This is very different from the covetous feelings for position and power. The Prophet strongly recommended humility. The posses- sor of this Christ-like virtue will have power and undreamed of blessings. Ilumility will add a wholesome lus- ter to the soul of every one who cultivates it.
Guard the Tongue
Had it not been for the unholy lies of evil men and women, the history of the Church, and, par- ticularly, the story of the Prophet's untimely death, might have been materially different from the facts. The Prophet, who never feared the truth, was continually the victim of untruths. Whether published or passed by word of mouth, they fanned and fed the flames of per- secution.
In the midst of a widespread campaign to do him harm, the Prophet spoke out strongly against the evils of gossip. On May 6, 1842, an attempt was made on the life of Lilburn W. Boggs, who was Gov-
70
RELIEF SOCIETY MAGAZINE— JANUARY 1957
ernor of Missouri when the saints were so cruelly treated and driven from that State. Immediately there arose rumors that the "Mormons" were at the bottom of the attempt and, based upon these suspicions, the Prophet was later charged, but exonerated, as being an accessory to this crime. Within a week fol- lowing these insinuations the Proph- et said to the Relief Society:
I have one request to make of the President and members of the society, that you search yourselves — the tongue is an unruly member — hold your tongues about things of no moment ■ — a little tale will set the world on fire {Ihid., W, page 20).
He advised the women:
. . . beware, be still, be prudent, re- pent, reform, but do it in a way not to destroy all around you. I do not want to cloak iniquity — all things contrary to the will of God, should be cast from us, but don't do more hurt than good, with your tongues — be pure in heart {Ihid., V, page 20) .
This evil is a many-sided sword. Untruths do the most harm, but injudicious language, though it con- tains truth, can also do tremendous harm. The following from Vol- ume 1, page 103, Woman's Expon- ent, illustrates another aspect:
The evil done by the first utterer of a slander is small compared with that which is spread through a community from the repetition of the false tale by idle bab- blers .... Counterfeited coins and bank- notes, however ingeniously executed, do no harm if they remain in the hands of the original forger. It is by their circula- tion that the people suffer. Somebody once said to a sage: "A man slandered you in my presence." "If," replied the wise man, "you had not listened with pleasure, he would not have defamed me."
During the late summer of 1842 the Prophet was forced into hiding to protect himself against the vi- cious attempts of his enemies to take him into custody. Much of the impetus to do these acts came from the false stories that were spread concerning the Prophet. He re- turned to his home the latter part of August 1842, and August 31, he met with the Relief Society and made this statement:
When I do the best I can — when I am accomplishing the greatest good, then the most evils and wicked surmisings are got up against me. I would to God that you would be wise. I now counsel you, that if you know anything calculated to disturb the peace or injure the feelings of your brother or sister, hold your tongues, and the least harm will be done (D. H. C. V, page 140).
He suggested there were affirma- tive blessings from carefully watch- ing what we say. ''No organized body can exist," he said, unless the members thereof " . . . put a double watch over the tongue . . . /' (Em- phasis added.)
All organized bodies have their peculiar evils, weaknesses and difficulties, the ob- ject is to make those not so good reform and return to the path of virtue that they may be numbered with the good, and even hold the keys of power, which 'will influence to virtue and goodness — should chasten and reprove, and keep it all in silence, not even mention them again; then you will be established in power, virtue, and holiness, and the wrath of God will be turned away (Jbfd., V, page 20).
Overzealoiisness
It is well to underlay our enthus- iasm in the gospel with cautious re- straint. At one meeting the Proph- et commended the women '\ . . for
LESSON DEPARTMENT
71
their zeal, but said sometimes their zeal was not according to knowl- edge" {Ihid., IV, page 570).
On another occasion, the Prophet warned:
There is another error which opens a door for the adversary to enter. As females possess refined feehngs and sensitiveness, they are also subjeet to overmueh zeal, which must ever prove dangerous, and cause them to be rigid in a religious ca- pacity — [they] should be armed with mercy, notwithstanding the iniquity among us ... . Notwithstanding the unworthy are among us, the virtuous should not, from self importance, grieve and oppress needlessly, those unfortunate ones {Ihid., V, page 19, 20).
The overzealous can discourage others, become fanatical, act un- seemly, and go beyond their proper bounds.
Peiiection Lies Within
If we are to become perfect, we must look at ourselves without de- lay, with a keen eye to our limita- tions and shortcomings. Once recog- nized, our weaknesses become out of place in our lives. When we have completed the task of divesting our- selves of these personality ''sore spots," we are then in a position to acquire the more ennobling traits. The ability to recognize and dispel unbecoming attributes and to seek the godlike virtues is the thought pattern for perfection.
In the last analysis, if we are to reach for perfection, we must do as the Prophet suggested in a talk giv- en in the Grove to the Church:
Search your hearts, and see if you are like God. I have searched mine and feel to repent of all my sins (Ibid., IV, page 588, Remarks of Prophet Joseph in the Grove, From the Journal of Elder Wil- ford Woodruff, page 8).
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72
RELIEF SOCIETY MAGAZINE— JANUARY 1957
Supplementary Refeiences (7)' ./ J f^ ± I ,-
^^ ^ UJirtnaay ^congratulations
1. "Relief Society Responsibilities" — President Joseph Fielding Smith, Relief Society Magazine, March 1954, page 150; and October 1954, page 644.
2. "But One Thing Is Needful" — Marianne C. Sharp, Relief Society Maga- zine, November 1954, page 721.
3. The Wa}' to Perfection, Joseph Field- ing Smith, chapter 27, pp. 179-185.
Questions ioi Discussion
1. What are the necessary steps in the perfection process? Why is self-analysis so chfficult?
2. Why did the Prophet Joseph Smith meet with the Relief Society and instruct them often?
3. WHiy is it important for individual Church members to be constant in their search for perfection?
4. Point out and discuss the undesir- able traits against which the Prophet warned.
5. Why was the Prophet sensitive to the evils of gossip? What are his cautions regarding the habit?
OIRTHDAY congratulations are extended to: Mrs. Eliza Drake McManus, Roy, Utah, one hundred one; Mrs. Emma Bandley, Salt Lake City, one hundred one; Mrs. Caroline Wayman Newman, Salt Lake City, one hundred; Mrs. Mar- garet James, San Fernando, Cali- fornia, ninety-eight; Mrs. Marriett Irene Olson, Salt Lake City, Utah, ninety-seven; Mrs. Rose Brown Llayes, Salt Lake City, ninety-six; Mrs. Ann Burns, Logan, Utah, ninety-six; Mrs. Hannah A. Ran- som, Smithfield, Utah, ninety-five; Mrs. May Watson, Salt Lake City, ninety-five; Mrs. Minerva Richards Young, Salt Lake City, ninety-four; Mrs. Margaret Jones Field, Roy, Utah, ninety-two; Mrs. Maria J. Rowland, Gretna, Virginia, ninety; Mrs. Ellen Fogelstrand Tanner, Salt Lake City, ninety; Mrs. Emma D. Harrison, Malad, Idaho, ninety; Mrs. Evelyn Cox Moffitt, Salt Lake City, ninety.
LPrager for a I Lew LJear
Vesta N. Lukei
cJodc
\a^
Elsie Chamberlain CaiioU
Gently, gently let rain fall. Not in torrents, not in flood, But let it be, this New Year's day. Refreshing, fragrant, mild, and good.
A link between the sky and earth Rain sprays with jewels leaf and bough. And reaches deep for seed, for bulb. For needy root, exploring now.
And may this new year's rain dissolve Old bitterness, and purify Both heart and soul, release the mind To grow in beauty toward the sky.
Today is a sunlit pathway Bet\\een two shadowy nights, Where obli\'ion and darkness Shut out the sun's bright hghts.
May I let no shadows of tomorrow. No griefs of yesterday Cast their clouds upon the hours That are mine, all mine today.
If tomorrow holds but sadness. Or never comes, for me, I have today in \\'hich to weave From life a lovely tapestry.
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Man is made after the image of God. . . . Man has been blessed by his Creator with free agency. Lynn McKinlay considers these two principles the very foundation upon which all LDS religious concepts are based. Offering greater insight into the principle of free agenty, the author analyzes fundamental views on good and evil and considers man's responsibility in his choice. $2.25
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IBRUARY 1957
1 1 Luted uii
our
Catherine E. Berry
I who have sung of spring and Aprils gone,
Have woven words for magic found in May, Put shining notes to beat of silver rain,
And lyric rhymes to praise the waking day. Can find no words to limn this muted hour
Of hushed expectancy the earth now holds. Though February's blue and quiet dusk
Is wrapped around with winter's frozen folds, The first faint stirring of the coming spring
Was foretold in a wind that whispered by A moment gone, and left the world as still
As if a miracle had touched the sky.
I who have sung of spring can find no word To use for beauty felt — unseen, unheard.
The Cover: Grain Grinding Mill in Leiden, Holland Photograph by Rinze Schippers Submitted by Ada S. Van Dam
Frontispiece: Ponderosa Pines in the Aftermath of Storm Photograph by Josef Muench
Cover Design by Evan Jensen
CJroin I Lear and C/c
ar
The Relief Society Magazine truly is an enjoyment and a blessing to recei\c. It brings joy and happiness to me, and, al- though it is a little Magazine, it contains worlds of enjoyment and knowledge. This N'crse expresses my thoughts:
Blessed are they who ha\e the power and
gifts to make friends; It in\olves the power of going out of
oneself And appreciating whate\er is noble and
loving in others.
This is just what The ReUef Society Magazine does for me.
— Ruth A. Lyons
West Covina, California
I do enjoy reading all of The Relief So- ciety Magazine. In fact, it makes a well- rounded education, all found within its pages, for me. When \\c are older, we need the Magazine to keep us posted and uplifted, just as we do when we are younger.
— Crysta B. Woodland Brigham City, Utah
While reading the September issue of The Relief Society Magazine, this senti- ment came to me:
Not merely just a Magazine, This publication \\omen built For others' help and happiness; Though small, it's like a flawless gem Expertly cut.
— Gene Romolo
Provo, Utah
I want to thank you for each wonder- ful issue of the Magazine. I am just a new bride and am so excited about going to Relief Society this fall. There is such an abundance of knowledge and worth- while experiences to be shared.
— Jeanne Draper Chico, California
Se^■eral months ago a subscription to The Relief Society Magazine was present- ed to me by my cousin Fern Brockbank of Spanish Fork, Utah. Since I v^•as born and reared in Pleasant Gro\'e, Utah, )'ou can imagine how much I appreciate the gift. It is the biggest little Magazine I have ever had the privilege of reading. The poems, especially, are outstanding, and the stories are so realistic of home life. The whole book is full of the kind of reading that it takes to make life beautiful.
— Jennie E. Waltenspiel
Hoqui,Mii, Washington
I would like to write a few lines to tell how much we enjoy The Relief Society Magazine. My sister sends it to m\- moth- er, and she hands it on to us. It is a pleasure to read the Magazine.
— Mrs. Arthur Leigh
Rudheath North Northwich England
It gives me great pleasure to take time to express my appreciation for the wonder- ful Relief Society Magazine, which was a present to me on my birthday from my daughter Rosalie. I look forward each month to receiving the Magazine, as I lo\e to read the beautiful poems and in- spiring teachings and interesting lessons.
— Mrs. Rose R. Stokes
Promontory, Utah
Words cannot express my appreciation for the Relief Society Magazine. I lo\e it from cover to co\er and always feel edified and encouraged after reading any part of it.
— Mrs. Charlotte M. Linder Sacramento, California
I enjoy each Magazine immensely and read them all from cover to eo\cr at least once. The stories, editorials, and lessons are helpful to nic in my e\er}day life. — Mrs. Maurine Marcum Arimo. Idaho
Page 74
THE RELIEF SOCIETY MAGAZINE
Monthly Publication of the Relief Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
RELIEF SOCIETY GENERAL BOARD
Belle S. Spafford -- President
Marianne C. Sharp - - First Counselor
Helen W. Anderson ------ Second Counselor
Hulda Parker ------- Secretary-Treasurer
Anna B. Hart Evon W. Peterson Mildred B. Eyring Elna P. Haymond
Edith S. Elliott Louise W. Madsen Gladys S. Boyer Annie M. Ellsworth
Florence J. Madsen Aleine M. Young Charlotte A. Larsen Mary R. Young
Leone G. Layton Josie B. Bay Edith P. Backman Mary V. Cameron
Blanche B. Stoddard Christine H. Robinson Winniefred S. Afton W. Hunt
Alberta H. Christensen Manwaring
RELIEF SOCIETY MAGAZINE Editor ----------- Marianne C. Sharp
Associate Editor -_--.-_-- Vesta P. Crawford
Assistant to the Editor --------- June Nielsen
General Manager __--- Belle S. Spafford
Vol. 44 FEBRUARY 1957 No. 2
(contents
SPECIAL FEATURES
Sustaining the Authorities of the Church ElRay L. Christiansen 76
The Netherlands Mission Preston R. Nibley 88
Values Derived From Reading Worthwhile Literature Thomas C. Romney 90
What Makes a Happy Home Wilma Boyle Bunker 93
Great Men Pray 99
A Flag for Utah Statehood Margaret G. Derrick 106
I Explore the Upstairs Zipporah Layton Stewart 114
FICTION
Mother's Shoes — Second Prize Story Edith Larson 80
Hearts United Frances C. Yost 94
Bitter Medicine — Part 2 Olive W. Burt 109
GENERAL FEATURES
From Near and Far 74
Sixty Years Ago 100
Woman's Sphere Ramona W. Cannon 101
Editorial: A Step Aside June Nielsen 102
Birthday Congratulations to Amy Brown Lyman, Former Relief Society
General President 103
New Serial "The Bright Star" to Begin in March 107
Notes From the Field: Relief Society Activities 116
Birthday Congratulations 144
FEATURES FOR THE HOME
Recipes From the Netherlands Mission Ada S. Van Dam 104
Mary E. Jones Dalton Finds Happiness in Her Hobbies 108
Candy for Valentine's Day Mary J. Wilson 113
LESSONS FOR MAY
Theology: "A New Witness for Christ" Leland H. Monson 123
Visiting Teacher Messages: ". . . Ye Would Ask God, the Eternal Father, in
the Name of Christ, If These Things Are Not True" Leone O. Jacobs 128
Work Meeting: Summary Rhea H. Gardner 130
Literature: Julius Caesar Briant S. Jacobs 132
Social Science: "Be Ye Therefore Perfect" John Farr Larson 138
POETRY
Muted Hour — Frontispiece Catherine E. Berry 73
Mother, Dora Toone Brough 79
Future Resolve Hazel M. Thomson 86
Heritage Leslie Savage Clark 87
Giant Saguaros Ethel Jacobson 93
Dawn Castle Eva Willes Wangsgaard 103
When Portals Close Mabel Law Atkinson 108
The Voice of Peace Isabelle Jensen 112
Attic Treasure Maude Rubin 113
Jt Is Love Gene Romolo 122
Reunion Eunice J. Miles 129
Star Dust Vesta N. Lukei 131
Winter Notwithstanding Lael W. Hill 143
°°y Elsie McKinnon Strachan 144
PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE GENERAL BOARD OF RELIEF SOCIETY
Editorial and Business Offices: 76 North Main, Salt Lake City 16, Utah, Phone EMpire 4-2511; Subscriptions 246; Editorial Dept. 245. Subscription Price: $1.50 a year; foreign, $2.00 a year;
payable in advance. The Magazine is not sent after subscription expires. No back numbers can be supplied. Renew promptly so that no copies will be missed. Report change of address at once, giving old and new address.
Entered as second-class matter February 18, 1914, at the Post Office, Salt Lake City, Utah, under the Act of March 3, 1879. Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in section 1103, Act of October 8, 1917, authorized June 29, 1918. Manuscripts will not be returned unless return postage is enclosed. Rejected manuscripts will be retained for six months only. The Mag:azine is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts.
Sustaining the Authorities of the Church
Elder EJRay L. Christiansen Assistant to the Council of the Twelve
i 4 nriHOSE in favor will show it
I by raising their right hands
—those opposed, if any,
may manifest it by the same sign."
This expression is familiar to every
member of the Church.
The First Presidency, consisting of three presiding high priests, a president who holds all the keys of the Priesthood, and two counselors, preside over all affairs and activities of the Church. They are assisted by Twelve Apostles, who, in turn, are aided by an unspecified number of high priests called Assistants to the Twelve, as well as by the First Council of Seventy. Also, laboring under the direction of the First Presidency are the Patriarch to the Church, the Presiding Bishopric, and the other general officers.
The General Authorities have Church-wide supervisory powers. In addition to the general officers, stake and mission authorities are ap- pointed, sustained, and set apart, with jurisdiction limited to stake and mission affairs. In the same manner, branch officers are appoint- ed to preside in Church affairs with- in the confines of their respective wards and branches.
The various offices in the Church exist ''. . . for helps and for govern- ments, for the work of the ministry and the perfecting of my saints" (D. & C. 124:143).
It should be remembered that the
Page 76
ultimate power on earth to direct the affairs of the kingdom of God rests in only one person at a time. That person is the Prophet and President of the Church. He may delegate portions of this power to others and authorize them to act in a particular labor or office. There- fore, the president of a stake, the bishop of a ward, the president of a quorum, the president of a mission, and the president of a temple each receives from the President of the Church, directly or by delegation, the keys of that particular office and labor.
The extent of the official author- ity of any officer in the Church is limited to the unit or division or institution in which he has been called to serve. Each is subject to the direction of those holding high- er authority. However, temple pres- idents and mission presidents are appointed by, and are responsible directly to the First Presidency.
The auxiliary organizations repre- sent in their labor the President of the Church, and, as their name implies, are helps primarily to the President and, incidentally, to the Priesthood in the training and de- velopment of the members of the Church. When the names of the officers of the auxiliaries are pre- sented to the membership assembled — whether it is general, stake, or ward — they are duly sustained by
SUSTAINING THE AUTHORITIES OF THE CHURCH 77
the members of the organizations tions. The scriptures bear out the
which they are called to direct. fact that, with the passing of the
No person can rightfully serve in apostles of old, the authority of the
any administrative position in the holy Priesthood was to be taken
Church unless he has been so sus- from the earth, and that of neces-
tained by the people over whom he sity it would have to be restored
is to preside. The Lord has given from heaven before the Church
us the way in which this is to be could be re-established. The Proph-
done. et Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery
He has revealed to us that it is the were ordained to the Melchizedek
duty of presiding authorities to appoint Priesthood in 1829 under the hands
and call; and then those whom they choose of Peter, Tames, and John: for any official position in the Church
shall be presented to the body. If the ... who received the keys of Presi-
body reject them, they are responsible for dency on the Mount, and who, as the
that rejection. They have the right to Presiding Council over the Primitive
reject, if they will, or to receive them Church, last held the keys of the Higher
and sustain them by their faith and Priesthood. Every right, authority and
prayers. That is strictly in accordance key was conferred upon the modern
with the rule laid down of the Lord (Pres. prophets, and they in turn ordained
Joseph F. Smith, Gospel Doctrine, page others for the benefit of the Church of
188, 1920 edition). Christ. (Widtsoe, "Studies in Priest- hood," page 21). XXZHEN, in assemblies of the
saints, we are asked to sustain Nowhere, other than in The
proposed officers in the Church, it Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-
is our right to express our true feel- day Saints, can men, in a few steps,
ings. But, we should not question trace to its origin, their authority
the wisdom and inspiration of those to act in the name of the Lord
making the nominations, unless we Jesus Christ. Of this we do not
know of facts that plainly indicate boast, but we render unto the Lord
unworthiness on the part of the our gratitude for the fact. Hence,
person nominated. It is not proper when we have the privilege of rais-
nor in order for any member to ing our hands and voices to sustain
raise his hand to register opposition those properly appointed, it should
to a man who is called by proper be done with thanksgiving in our
authority simply because he has a hearts.
personal dislike for him; because he Not only is the right to sustain a has had some personal grievance, fundamental and sacred right, but or for other inconsequential reasons, it is an important duty resting upon The Latter-day Saints should feel the members of the Church to up- grateful for the knowledge that, hold the authorities presiding over after its absence for many years, the them. Merely raising the right hand authority to act in the name of God does not fulfil this duty. It simply has been restored to man. This expresses a promise that the persons power was conferred upon the first named will be sustained in deed officers of the Church by ordination and, in fact — that they will be de- under the hands of those who held fended against those who would de- the same power in earlier dispensa- fame them.
78
RELIEF SOCIETY MAGAZINE— FEBRUARY 1957
It is a very serious thing for any member of the Church to engage in criticism and raise his voice against the duly appointed leaders. To do so will lead to no good, but will make it easier for such a mem- ber to be persuaded by the ungodly. It points the way to unhappiness.
. . . There never should be a day pass but all the people composing the Church should lift up their voices in prayer to the Lord to sustain his servants who are placed to preside over them. . . . These men should have the faith of the people to sustain them in the discharge of their duties, in order that they may be strong in the Lord. . . .
We should not permit ourselves to go about from day to day with a spirit of murmuring and fault-finding in our hearts against those who are presented before us to be sustained in responsible positions. If we have anything in our hearts against any of these brethren, it is our duty, as conscientious members of the Church, first as the Spirit may direct, to go to them alone and make known to them our feeling toward them and show them the cause of such feeling; not with a desire in our hearts to widen or increase the difficulty, but we should go to them in the spirit of reconciliation and brotherly love, in a true Christian spirit, so that if any feeling of bitterness exists within us it may be absolutely removed; and if we have cause against our brother, that we may be in a position to remedy the evil. We should seek to love one an- other and to sustain one another as chil- dren of God and as brothers and sisters in the cause (President Joseph F. Smith, Gospel Doctrine, page 280).
npHIS great, stalwart leader taught further that it is not our right or prerogative to point out the sup- posed defects of the leaders in the Church: "Let the Lord God Almighty judge them and speak for or against them as it may seem to him good — but not me; it is not for me, my brethren, to do this . . ." {Ibid., page 223).
Another great and important duty resting upon the parents in the Church in regard to sustaining our Church leaders is to teach their children by example as well as by precept to respect those in authority over them. If children hear their parents criticize or speak disparag- ingly of the bishop of the ward, the president of the stake, or other leaders in the Church, the damage is highly detrimental and may never be erased. We should teach our children to love the