The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1917-04-07

Our justices are every day pushing
their work and turning it into pleasure
and soon We hope to decide every APP
peal within thirty days. We are not
stealing our time. receiving pay for do
ing work and leaving it undone. as
that is vulgar theft.
This time / want to write you or
some Bible stories. In a former letter
gave a simple statement showing
the way to measure and compute the
distance to the stars. This is some
thing that should be known to every
Rible student. You should also learn
that the twenty million stars within
our telescope vision are all suns. with
other worlds revolving around them.
and that oru sun is only star or
common size, and yet it is over a
million times larger than the earth.
1t is true we cannot see the other
worlds as we do the suns which we
call stars. because each world shines
only by rejecting the light Of its sun.
but reason shows that all the suns do
serve just the same purpose az our
sun and that each sun Is the center
of a solar system Of revolving worlds
and moons.
Here is story to illustrate the sub
ject: In Fargo there is an attorney-at-
law, mighty good lawyer and his
name is Taylor Crum. He is face
tious fellow, regular Peter Pinder.
He always stops you on the street.
tells good story, and joins you in the
laugh. Now this same Taylor Crum
is a church goer. and good Christian.
and so it came to pass that on one
Sunday evening when he and / were
at the M. E. church in Fargo hearing
a lecture on the prophets, he put this
question to the distinguished speak,:
Do you believe in the literal story or
Jonah and the whale? The answer
was: Il think a person can be a good
Christian without believing it." OF
course, that was great solace to Mr..
Crum. The whale story had taxed his
credulity. and whale or no whale, he
was bound to be. good Christian.
And so think we may all be good
Christians without believing many
things contained in the Bible. We do
not have to believe in the fall or
Adam, or that in Adams fall We sim
ned all. You know it is said that when
God put Adam in the garden he for
babe him to eat of the fruit. of the
tree of knowledge, and said: On the
day that thou eatest thereof thou
shalt surely die. Satan said to Mother
Eve: 1t is well for you to eat that
fruit and we shall not surely die. God
knows that on the day We eat thereof
your eyes shall be open and We shall
be as Gods, knowing good and evil.
(And in kindness he said IT'D And
when the woman saw that the tree
was good for food and that it was
pleasant to the eyes and tree to be
desired to make one wise, she took of
the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave
also unto her husband, and he did eat.
(And it was the proper thing to doO
And the eyes of them both were open
ed and they knew that they were
naked and they sewed fig leaves to-
gether and made themselves aprons.
Then they heard the voice of the
Lord, walking in the garden in the
cool of the day, and they hid them
selves among the trees. being asham-
ed because they were naked. And the
Lord said: Adam, where art thou;
hast thou eaten of the tree whereof l
commanded thee thou shouldst not
eat? They confessed. And then unto
Adam and his wife did the Lord make
coats of skins, and clothed them.
want you to believe all that because
it is immensely beautiful and poetical.
Just think of the Great Father. the
Maker of millions of suns and millions
of worlds, in his humane kindness
walking in the garden. in the cool OF
the evening and visiting our first par
ents and making coats of skins and
clothing his big, adult, innocent chill
dren. OF course he was not angry with
them and he said not TO them an UNI
kind word. He just made and put on
their clothes and said to them: Now,
my Adam and Eve, you are no longer
helpless children. You have Just eaten
of the tree of knowledge and you are
now well clothed. You must not con-
tinue to loaf in this garden. Get right
out and learn to build homes and to
make for yourselves and your children
an honest living. He said: You were
not made to live in a state Of idleness,
nor in a little garden. Go hence, with
my blessing of long life and good
health. And so they went in childlike
pride and joy with their new fur
suits. They lived in health and hap