Thanksgiving to Our Lord

by Amanda Hartman

I thank the Lord every day
For the blessings He’s bestowed.
I thank Him for what I don’t know
He has waiting down the road.

I give thanksgiving to our Lord
For all that He has given.
I thank Him for the loving words
And life that we are living.

I thank you Lord for all the trials
That you have helped us through.
I thank you for the happy smiles
By loved ones when we’re blue.

I give thanksgiving for family and friends
And how we gather here today.
I’m grateful for the time He spends
To show us the right way.

We are thankful for the all the food
You have provided for us to share.
We’ll not forget this grateful mood
As we’re embraced in His loving care.

Table Rules For Little Folks

"Table Rules For Little Folks"
Eliza R Snow Smith


In silence I must take my seat,
And give God thanks, before I eat
Must for my food, in silence wait
Till I am asked to hand my plate.
I must not scold, nor whine, nor pout,
Nor move my chair or plate about.
With knife, or fork or anything,
I must not play, nor must I sing.

I must not speak a useless word
For children should be seen – not heard.
I must not say, "the bread is old" –
"The meat is hot" – "the milk is cold."
I must not cry for this, or that,
Nor murmur if my meat is fat;
My mouth with food I must not crowd,
Nor while I’m eating, speak aloud.

The table-cloth I must not spoil,
Nor with my food my fingers soil –
Must keep my seat, when I have done,
Nor round the table sport or run;
When told to rise, then I must put
My chair away, with noiseless foot,
And lift my heart to God above,
In praise for all his wondrous love.

The Ultimatum Of Human Life

THE ULTIMATUM OF HUMAN LIFE
By Eliza R Snow

The sun had set, and twilight’s shady mood
Spread a brown halo-ting’d the solitude.
As days last glimmer flitted down the west;
Life’s stirring scenes demurely sank to rest-
Soft slience lent its comtemplative charm,
And all conspir’d the mental pulse to warm-
From world to world, imagination wander’d,
While thought, the present, past and future ponder’d.

As I was musing with desire intense
That some kind guardian angel might dispense
Instruction; lo! A seraph-form appeared-
His look-his voice my anxious spirit cheer’d.
It was the Priesthood-he who holds the key
T’ unlock the portals of Eternity;
And with o’erflowering heart, I took my seat,
An enter’d student at th’ Instructor’s feet.

"What would’st thou me?" The seraph gently said;
"Tell me, and wherefore hast thou sought my aid?"

I then replied: Long, long I’ve wish’d to know
What is the cause of suff’ring here below-
What the result of human life will be-
Its ultimatum in Eternity.

With deep, attentive mind-with list’ning ear,
I watch’d and waited ev’ry word to hear;
As thus he said: ‘Tis not for you to pry
Into the secrets of the worlds on high-
To seek to know the first, the moving Cause,
Councils, decrees, organizations, laws-
Form’d by the Gods, pertaining to this earth,
Ere your great Father from their courts came forth,
The routine of his ancestors to tread-
Of this new world, to stand the royal head.

The more immediate cause of all the woe
And degradation in your world below,
Is disobedience: Sorrow, toil and pain,
With their associates, follow in its train.

This life’s an ordeal, and design’d to prove
Fraternal kindness and parental love.
Earth is your Father’s workshop: What is done-
All that’s attain’d, and what achievements won,
Is for the Parents: All things are their own-
The children now hold nothing but by loan.
Whatever some may claim in proud pretense;
No one has yet obtain’d inheritance;
E’en Abraham has no possession gain’d
Of what by promise he thro’ faith obtained:
And all that greedy hands accumulate,
Is yet the Father’s, not the child’s estate.
Then shame, O shame, on all the strife you see
Here in the cradle of life’s nursery-
The green-ey’d jealousies-the frosty hate
Which carnal, avaricious thoughts create!

How vain the phantom of mortality,
The mimic-form of human dignity!
‘Tis soon enough for infant lips to talk
Of pow’r and greatness, when they’ve strength to walk-
‘Tis soon enough for children to be great,
When they can boast a self-possess’d estate.

It will not matter whatsoe’er is gained,
Or what on earth may seem to be obtained;
But ‘tis important that each one prepare
To be with Christ, a joint, an equal heir;
Faith, and obedience, and integrity,
Will the grand test of future heirship, be.
If true and faithful to the Father’s will,
It matters not what station here you fill;
As you prepare yourself on earth, will be
Your place, your portion in eternity.

As disobedience fill’d the world with pain,
Obedience will restore it back again.
The base perversions of my pow’r produce
All the strong engines satan has in use;
And qualify the sons of men to dwell
With his dark majesty, the prince of hell.
All that obey the pow’rs of darkness go
With those they follow-to the world below.
Then list to me-my precepts all obey-
The Gods have sent me in this latter-day,
Fully commissioned upward all to lead,
Who will my counsels and instructions heed-

Who seek in ev’ry circumstance and place,
To benefit and bless the human race-
Who seek their Father’s interests to enhance-
His glorious cause upon the earth advance:
Whether below, they much or little claim,
If they exalt and magnify his name;
And in his service labor faithfully,
They’ll have a fullness in his legacy.
Each faithful saint is an acknowledg’d heir,
And as his diligence, will be his share,
When God a patrimony shall bestow
Upon his sons and daughters here below.

Adam, your God, like you on earth, has been
Subject to sorrow in a world of sin:
Through long gradation he arose to be
Cloth’d with the Godhead’s might and majesty.
And what to him in his probative sphere,
Whether a Bishop, Deacon, Priest, or Seer?
Whate’er his offices and callings were,
He magnified them with assiduous care:
By his obedience he obtain’d the place
Of God and Father of this human race.

Obedience will the same bright garland weave,
As it has done for your great Mother, Eve,
For all her daughter on the earth, who will
All my requirements sacredly fulfill.
And what to Eve, though in her mortal life,
She’d been the first, the tenth, or fiftieth wife?
What did she care, when in her lowest state,
Whether by fools, consider’d small, or great?
‘Twas all the same with her-she prov’d her worth-
She’s now the Goddess and Queen of Earth.

Life’s ultimatum, unto those that live
As saints of God, and all my pow’rs receive;
Is still the onward, upward course to tread-
To stand as Adam and as Eve, the head
Of an inheritance, a new-form’d earth,
And to their spirit-race, give mortal birth-
Give them experience in a world like this;
Then lead them forth to everlasting bliss,
Crown’d with salvation and eternal joy
Where full perfection dwells, without alloy.

Thus said the Seraph.-Sacred in my heart
I cherish all his precious words impart;
And humbly pray, I ever may, as now,
With holy def’rence in his presence bow.
This field of thought he open’d to my view,
My wonder rous’d-my admiration too:
I marvel’d at the silly childishness
Of saints, the heirs of everlasting bliss,
The candidates for Godhaeads and for worlds,
As onward time, eternities unfurls.
I felt my littleness, and thought, henceforth
I’ll be myself, the humblest saint on earth;
And all that God shall to my care assign,
I’ll recognize and use as his, not mine.
Wherever he appoints to me a place,
That will I seek, with diligence, to grace;
And for my Parents, whatsoe’er my lot,
To work with all my might, and murmur not,
I’ll seek their interest, till they send or come,
And as a faithful daughter take me home.

As thus I mus’d, the lovely queen of night,
‘Neath heav’n’s blue canopy, diffus’d her light:
Still brighter beams o’er earth’s horizon play-
A cheering prelude to approaching day,
When truth’s full glory will o’erspread the skies,
And the bright "Sun of Righteousness" arise.

To Mrs. _____

TO MRS. ______
By Eliza R Snow

DEAR LADY:
Pleasure sat gently smiling when
I read th’ effusion of your pen.
Thought wakens thought: a thought express’d
Called your thoughts forth, with which I’m blest,

One gem of mind, I value more
Than glittering piles from mammon’s store.
We find a radius in the soul,
Illumined by th’ eternal pole,

And thro’ the heart’s deep sympathy,
We taste of immortality.
The blessed prescience God has given
Of immortality and heaven,

Sweetens and creams life’s flowing cup,
And swallows all the bitter up.
All pain and grief to pleasure tend-
Each human suff’ring has an end:

Each yoke will burst-each bondage break-
Each wounded heart will cease to ache:
All clouds will scatter-storms will cease-
All warfare terminate in peace-

All swellings of the waves, be o’er-
There is no sea without a shore.
That restless thing, anxiety,
The finely masked disloyalty,

Is but the lack of confidence
In God, our strength and our defence.
Compared with past life-life before,
What is the present? ‘Tis no more

Than a mere point- a little dot,
(God grant it may not prove a blot.)
A life of toil, of care and pain,
Where weakness, pride and ign’rance reign.

But ‘tis as God ordained to be,
And He well knows what’s good for me;
And all I have to fear, or do,
Is to obediently pursue

His Priesthood leadings, and obey
His providences day by day:
And thus, whatever Father gives,
His daughter thankfully receives.

And when I’m all in all resigned-
In very heart as well as mind,
I’m filled with light-I’ve eyes to see
His kind parental love for me:

To His requirements, constant yes,
Produces constant happiness;
And this, the germ of perfect peace,
If cherished, daily will increase.

To me, it matters little now,
To where I rise-to what I bow;
Or toil or ease, I little care
If Father’s smiles I freely share;

And when th’ interior all is right,
I have no outward foes to fight.
I war for Zion-not for me:
I’ve signed a gen’ral amnesty

To all injustice, strife and hate,
Which, to my single self, relate:
Th’ intenti’al evil-doer will,
Sooner or later, foot the bill.

Then need we trouble? Surely, no;
Nor stoop to fight an outward foe.
I glimpse at data far behind
What now is tangible to mind.

Ah! There’s a something comes to me,
Like figures wrought in filligree;
A something old-both old and new,
And yet, inviolably true.

Thought bursts the bound of this low earth-
On past-life’s ocean launches forth,
And traces our existence, ere
The Gods had formed this nether sphere.

But now I’m but a child of dust;
Thanks, thanks to Him, in whom I trust,
I’m not without his wise direction,
His smiles, his guidance and protection.

Adam, our father-Eve, our mother,
And Jesus Christ, our elder brother,
Are to my understanding shown:
My heart responds, they are my own.

Perfection lifts them far from me,
But what they are, we yet may be,
If we, tho’ slowly, follow on,
We’ll reach the point to which they’ve gone.

Then, Sister, what-O, what this life-
Our Edens and our Goshens, rife
With all the fatness, and the most
Of excellence that mortals boast,

Contrasted with eternal blessings,
When Earth renew’d, and worth possessing,
Is in celestial beauty drest,
And crowned with everlasting rest?

There heart with heart and mind with mind,
In bonds eternal are entwin’d.
I know how bitter portions taste,
They’re med’cines given, but not to waste.

Sweet sweeter seems when bitter’s past;
Thus health will be secured at last.
Fear not, my Sister: God is just,
He’ll succor those who firmly trust

His justice and His mercy too,
His grace sufficient is, for you.
How blest to be on Zion’s ship!
All safe at helm, she’ll make the trip

With all aboard- a mighty host,
She’ll clear the swells and reach the coast.
Unwisely and untimely sought,
With evil, blessings may be fraught;

But in God’s chosen time to give,
All things, are blessings, we receive.
Training the mind to circumstances
Our pow’r of happiness enhances.

‘Tis not when seas and waves are still,
That mariners improve their skill,
"We suffer to progress:" ‘Tis so,
‘Neath mighty pressures, spirits grow.

But O, that glorious day of rest,
With sweet associations blest!
With gratitude my feelings swell
That I’m of favored Israel.

My heart is full-too full to write-
Dear Madam, Sister, Friend, good night.