![\"Together](\"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/IMG_2116.jpeg\")
Most of this lesson comes from D&C 25, the revelation in which Emma Smith is called to select the hymns for the Church\u2019s first hymnal. \u00a0But that calling is a small part of a revelation meant to provide Emma with help and support, as well as guidance in where she should devote her efforts\u2014in \u201cthe Things of a Better World.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lesson mostly leaves it up to us to determine what constitutes a \u2018better world\u2019\u2014and it\u2019s probably better that way. These selections are often involve complex ethical and moral judgments, so the lesson teaches the principles we should use to choose the better things.<\/p>\n
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What is troubling is that we, humans, have a rather poor track record in making these selections, both because of our individual weakness and because the very structure of society around us forces us to make poor choices. Nevertheless, I don\u2019t see any alternative but to continue to teach how to choose the better things. I hope people will begin to listen and employ those principles.<\/p>\n
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Perhaps one of the principles we can learn is how to help others (and ourselves as well) when down because of the vagaries of life. Our cultural understanding of how to react to grief and support those who are suffering has changed radically in recent decades\u2014the once universal idea of urging people to lay aside their grief (\u201cthey\u2019re in a better place\u201d) is no longer considered best.<\/p>\n
Perhaps we can excuse Eliza R. Snow for suggesting as much in this poem. Written for \u2018Father Tyson,\u2019 whose son was killed in an accidental rifle discharge, the poem does express the near impossibility of mere words giving solace, while pointing to heaven for a final recovery.<\/p>\n
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by Eliza R. Snow<\/p>\n
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1842<\/p>\n
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The difficulty of choosing \u2018the things of a better world\u2019 can sometimes leave us feeling inadequate, or without ability to make a difference. But the Lord\u2019s advice to Emma suggests otherwise, that each person has a role to play in making the world better.<\/p>\n
The following poem, from the Improvement Era in 1901, tries to show the need for everyone to participate. I think it pushes back against the wrong-headed hero-oriented narratives so common in our culture. We don\u2019t need a hero or a few heroes to save us. We need everyone together saving us.<\/p>\n
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by Malta<\/p>\n
1901<\/p>\n
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Given the idea that we all have a role to play, the call for meekness might seem strange \u2014 or very wise. It\u2019s certainly in conflict with the idea of heroes\u2014I can think of very few that actually manage to remain meek while being a hero, and certainly not in the narratives we are given by our culture. The value of meekness has largely disappeared.<\/p>\n
Our Mormon Scottish Bard, John Lyon, promotes meekness in the following poem, addressed to a couple of women in the Church (not Sister Missionaries \u2014 they weren\u2019t called until 50 years after this poem was written.<\/p>\n
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by John Lyon<\/p>\n
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1847<\/p>\n
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Here we get to a crucial issue in the search for a better world: we are all caught up in the values inherent in our culture, and forced to act the way the culture sees as normal. It\u2019s not that we don\u2019t want to work for a better world, it\u2019s that the culture blinds us to what can be done. The possible answers don\u2019t even occur to us.<\/p>\n
In the following poem, Richard Alldridge puts the idea that we need to set aside society\u2019s expectations and values in the context of our lives, asking us to think about what really matters when we leave this life. Alldridge was an English church member who emigrated to Utah in 1861. He is most remembered for his hymn \u201cWe\u2019ll Sing All Hail to Jesus\u2019 Name.\u201d<\/p>\n
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by Richard Alldridge<\/p>\n
1881<\/p>\n
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At this point in the Come Follow Me lesson we finally get to the Lord\u2019s message to Emma about the hymns. Surely we can agree that hymns\u2013and poetry, of course\u2014are some of \u2018the things of a better world.\u2019<\/p>\n
Hymns and poems fill many roles in our lives, and J. L. Townsend here focuses on one\u2014the nostalgic feelings they provide for things like home and family, the core elements of life that are, for many of us, idealized and most dear. Townsend is the author of 10 hymns in our current hymnal, including popular hymns like \u201cHope of Israel\u201d and \u201cChoose the Right.\u201d<\/p>\n
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by J. L. Townsend<\/p>\n
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