Western Carolina Democrat and French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1913-1915, 1915-03-18
"What is the Devill" Replying to Il.
j. Hickman.

About two weeks ago there appear
ed in the Democrat an article written
as best / remember, by Mr.. Hickman.
setting forth the meaning of the term
devil" which is a name used by
ministers and is not altogether un-
heard-of, / do not know of the man
who had this article inserted and con-
s~equently know nothing of his religi-
GUS beliefs and affiliations, but as he
has sprung an idea that / have not
heard of before l wish to explain my
self along the same line with all re-
spect to the other mans view.
AS l remember, the gentleman
stated that any school student would
answer that the devil is not a person,
a spirit, a god, a being and such. Does
! the gentleman mean theological stu
dents, or ordinary school students of
the elementary branches. An Ordi-
nary school student is not supposed
to know much of the Bible, except as
he hears it from the pulpit or from
the sainted lips of the mother. Not
all mothers teach the Bible. Such
teaching is prohibited in the public
schools.
When we refer to the Bible we find
| Lh0G IAO uCh14 a JO0S SUM- opPOAN
| tons as our religious mothers have
taught us and the same that we hear
invariably from the preachers. We
find that the devil is referred to by
| the nou che and him" not in
frequently. This would bring out the
inference to the child that the devil
is a being of some kind. In Matt. 4.
one may read the narrative where
! QUIT --oz La h, tho CnSrif into tho
wilderness to be tempted of the devil,
"And when the tempter came to him
he said, IF thou be the Son of God,,
etc. Again in the same chapter we
find, ""Then said Jesus unto him. Get
thee hence, Satan" Now, the gen.
| tleman states that the devil is some
kind of unnatural disturbance, us
traction, ~supposition Of whimsical
idea existing in the imagination and
want people not be misled by my
| opinion or that of any other man, out
to search the scriptures. If the devil
is only an imaginary commot1on, such
| should be referred to in the Scripture
| by the pronoun lit" and not he" ana
"him.". This man also states That IL
everybody in the world we're TO pc
| asleep for twelve hours, thereby CIV
ing the 1maSlQdLIOu HO CudASO ~
tivity. this s~upposition or disturbance
of the cranial organs would not exist
and, therefore, if we were all sleeping
creatures all the time, we would ali
have no devil. The reason the devil
does not work in sleeping people is
because they have no words or &C
tions for him to control or mislead.
| And. by the way, do you m that
sleeping people-a sleeping church
for instance-are just what suits d
devil anyway Idleness is the deV1Es
workshop"
It seems that to speak of the dsVil
as being only a mental disturbance a
distracted condition of the MIND Or
something supposed existing only
;maginary form is to contradict parts
of the Bible especially the efficacy Oh
| Christ's suffering and atonement
How could there have been such a set
conflict between the life n work or
| Christ and a distracted imaginary
condition of peoples minds? was y
necessary for Christ to die to inaugl-
lrate a plan of life and salvation TO-
peoples ima sinations? Why did n ?
.EChrist on the other hand teach people
to. use some kind of nerve tonic and
/ stop such foolish, idiotic magazines (
I Christss appeals were not made 20