Published Monthly for the Youth of the Reorganized Entered as Second-Class Matter at Post-Office at Lamoni, Iowa TYING THE VINES. Beneath the smiling, tranquil sky, Where great white clouds go sailing by, I bind them to the trellis old. The velvet buds, crimson and green, Are swelling on the umber stem; Winds from the west ofttimes blow keen; Tie we the vines to shelter them. So with the Christian, humble vine, The law must hold him on each hand; Binding may seem the gospel band, -David H. Smith. VOLUME 21 JULY, 1908 NUMBER 7 CARRIE A. THOMAS, AUTHOR OF THE WELL LOVED HYMN, "IN THE LIGHT." D BY CHARLES F. CHURCH. Y SISTER, Carrie A. Thomas, was the oldest daughter of Horace and Sally E. Church, being born at Mantua, Ohio, September 7, 1839. Her childhood was without particular event except that in the winter of 1844 and 1845 our mother's half brother, Justus Morse, came to visit at father's, and he being a Latter Day Saint and a high priest in the church, the winter was spent in discussing the claims of Joseph Smith and of the Book of Mormon. Father was early in life a Seventh-day Baptist, and mother a Presbyterian, both of the strictest sort, and it was only after this winter's argument closely contested, and the reading of the Book of Mormon through five times, and fighting every step of the way, that father gave up and accepted the truth of the latter-day gospel as taught by the church. After thus becoming acquainted with the church and its Book of Mormon, my sister took a great love for the reading of the book, and read it through no less than four times while a girl at home. She was a lover of the book and the story it told of God's love to his people on this continent, which was in close harmony with the teachings of the New Testament Scriptures to his people on the old continent. In the old family Book of Mormon are still to be seen the marks she made on the inside of the back cover to the book as each time she completed the reading of the book. This was the particular incident of her childhood, and which continued to young womanhood; for she imbibed the sacred teachings in her youthful heart. The love of God and his truth became the dominating trait in her character. Her supreme delight was the study of the Book of Mormon, with which she became very familiar. Its precious teachings were so indelibly impressed on her memory that she never lacked a testimony from it when needed. As she grew in years she did not cover her light under a bushel; but in word and by precept did she try to impress the precious promises of the gospel upon others, and to labor to lead them to the "true light of God." Her childhood was mainly spent in Ohio, but in 1849 and 1850, on a trip with the family to Rhode Island, she became acquainted with her cousin, Charles N. Brown, and the correspondence that ensued later made him acquainted with the gospel plan to that extent that he obeyed its teachings in time, and in his later minis terial work wrought well, and many sheaves were brought into the fold, and many still live to love his memory. My sister being the eldest of the family that lived, and our mother of very delicate health much of the time, early in her life it became necessary for her to take an active part, and with her loving disposition she soon became a prominent factor in the good and well-being of the family. Her tender care of her younger sister and brothers was more the part of a tender mother than simply a sister, and she seemed more to us as the former than the latter. With all her diligence in the duties of her father's home she found time to acquire a comfortable schooling in all the common branches of that day, and also others not so included at that time, namely, astronomy, algebra, geometry, etc., and she took pleasure in the study of the wonders in the heavens, as well as the wonderful formations of the earth on which we dwell, or to delve into the depths of the higher mathematical problems. This diligence placed her in early young womanhood in a position to act as a school-teacher, and she was successful and able to conduct schools of that time where others failed to manage or control, much to her own credit and the good of the schools. In those early days schools were not graded as they are to-day, neither did they have many helps and school accessories as do the schools of our time. The average school of those times was composed of children running from the tender years of the primary department all the way up to young men and women, oftentimes twenty-three and twenty-four years of age, who would spend the winters in school, making a mixed attendance many times harder to manage and difficult to teach, all being in the same room and all under one teacher; and when oftentimes schools of this kind where one or more teachers had been very unofficially dismissed by the scholars in a hilarious manner, she was called on to take it, and in so doing was able to bring order out of chaos and success out of failure. SR. CARRIE A. THOMAS. "Let us peacefully dwell with our brethren, Being neighborly, upright, and kind, Ever putting our faults before us. And those of our neighbor behind." Early in life a love for art asserted itself, and she loved to place on paper with her pencil the imaginations of her soul, many of which were true to nature and a pleasure to her many friends. In the production of one of these occurred an incident long remembered by her, as it taught a lesson she never forgot. On this occasion my sister had been requested to mend a torn place on the knee of her father's pantaloons before he went out for |