Goldsboro weekly argus., 1914-01-29
As | SEE IT
VIEWS OF A REARED
BOY WHO HAS BEEN SEARCH
ING THE SCRIPTURESo AND
DRAWING CONCLUSIONS.

seven devils went out OF one woman.
I take it for granted that she was
healed of seven infrmities of the
body, or seven faults of morality.
We know that the world has for a
great while lived under the impress
sion that as there is a God, that some
where there is a personal Devil, OF
some unseen form, whose power is
next to that of Gods.
I am far from believing that seven
such creatures went out of one wo-
man.
AS for what I write, it may be like
a little pebble dropped in the ocean:
it's waves will never reach the shores:
but the Holy Bible teaches me that
God is Just and Righteous; and that
He created all things, and that with
out Him was not anything made, that
was made. This being the case, am
at loss to know from whence the
Devil came. Surely God never needed
him to help Him superintend His bus
mess. Neither did He create him to
thwart His purposes. Everything
evidences to me that there is a God
while there is nothing to evidence to
me that there is personal Devil.
1t seems to me that the Bible teach
es that the principles of right and
wrong have always existed. For in
stance if any two of us could have
lived before the creation of the world
it would have then been wrong to do
the things that are now wrong for US
to do. Hence God gave the command
thou shalt not do those things that are
wrong, as caution.
The question now arises why do
men sin?
In answer to which I will say be-
cause God created man as free as He
Himself is. This He did that man
might be happy in his way, for no
man would be happy with less free
dom than God created him with.
And we are held responsible for the
misuse of this freedom.
Everything that we do, we do it for
the little satisfaction we expect to get
out of it, right then and there, or at
some future time. Hence we do as
we choose to do, and risk the conse-
quences..
Now, while 1 know that with one
eye blind-folded, a dime can be held
so close 20 the other eye as to make
the world obscure, so man is always
ready to find some excuse for his
wrong doing, imagine that the Devil
is between him and his God; and that
because of him he is forced to sin;
while the doors of Heaven are wide
open to him, and the spirit and the
bride are saying come" and whose
ever will may come.
1t seems to me that while reading
the Bible, we should never allow our
selves to reach a conclusion in which
we cannot see and understand God to
be righteous, and just. Hence I have
spent years of study on this, and some
other scripture subjects. Therefore.
it is very clear to my mind how the
word Devil" came to be in the vo-
cabulary of language. For instance
the word Vegetable is word in which
the production of many plants can
be included. Just so in all ages and
il all languages, the world has had
need OF words Of personification. For
instance, to spe ak of goodness, justice
and righteousness, we have need OF
the word "God," to tell from whence
they come.
Likewise at this point we take the
word Deviate, which means to turn
aside from a certain course, diVergeI
err, and we follow it on down until
we come the word Devil" which is .
noun of the singular number, name
of many definitions. Leaving off the
letter CD and we have the word
"evir' which reasonably shows the
word "Devil' to be word designed
to embody the plurality of many evils
as the results of deviating from the
principles of right.
Thus we can reasonably see how
seven devils could have gone out OF
one woman, leaving her healed.
On one occasion Jesus said to His
disciples, zone of you is a devil, hav-
ing reference to Judas. By this He
must have meant that Judas was a
deviator; or that he was unreliable
and could not be trusted.
I wonder how the world can see
cd to be just and righteous with such
different mistifed doctrinal views as
now exist. For instance, the world
is taught that somewhere there is a
personal Devil that influences, and
gives rise to all the wrongs of the |
world. Such an idea does not appeal
to the common sense and reason as
being true. Can we charge God witt |
being able to create world, and then |
not able to protect and defend it?
Such an idea is discouraging to hu-
manity, and detrimental to the King |
dom of God.
Since the question is asked in the
Scriptures, What profit hath man
though he gain the whole world and
lose his own soul?" let us make
comparison: and since we all possess
a soul, we will say suppose million
aire was to come to this country /
knowing nothing of it, like we come
into this world; and he wanted to be
directed to some desired place, like we
all want to be saved in the Kingdom
of God, would it be Of much consola
tion to him to tell him that there is
such place and it is possible for you
to get there, but you will have to en-.