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

= piness for nine hundred and thirty
Years and had many sons and daugh-
tiers. Their third son was named Seth
At the age Of one hundred years Seth
became the father of Enos, and he
lived eight hundred and fifteen years
and had many sons and daughters. AT
the age of ninety years Enos became
the father of Cainan. and he then
lived eight hundred and fifteen years
and had many sons and daughters.
AT the age Of sixty-five years Enos
became the father of Methuselah who
lived nine hundred and sixty-nine
years. And Noah, he lived nine hun
dred and fifty years and became the
father of Shem, Ham and Jephthah.
Then the Lord said the days of man
shall be one hundred twenty years. In
| time the days were reduced to three
score and ten; now the days of man
are about four score years.
In time man began to multiply upon
the face of the earth and when sons
of God saw the daughters of men, that
they were fair. and took them wives of
all whom they chose. Then 1t Is writ
ten God saw that the wickedness of
man was great and 1t repented the
Lord that he made man and he grieved
him at his heart. We do not have to
believe that 1t is much better to be-
lieve that when God made man he
knew exactly what he was doing and
he never repented of the making Of
man or of doing anything, and he was
never angry or in a state of wrath.
We read Of the Lord tempting Abra-
ham and saying to him: Take now thy
son, thine only son Isaac whom thou
loveth, and offer him for q burnt Of
fering upon a mountain. We do not
have to believe that or anything writ
ten of burnt offerings, Of peace offer
ings, sacrifices of any kind, or any
thing contrary to reason or which
would belittle the Almighty. AS reason
Is the highest gift of God to man, it
is fair to assume that the pure reason
ing of a good man is the same as the
reasoning of his Maker. And on mat
tiers of pure science there can be no
real question between the reasoning
of the finite and Infinite. Both must
lead to the same conclusion. Any
demonstration must show that the
three included angles of any triangle
are equal to two right angles. You
see it in minute by doubling the tri-
angle so as to form a parallelogram.
We do not have to believe all that is
written of the Lord spending great
part of his time in personal confer
ences with Abraham, Isaac. and Jacob;
with Lot and Noah; Moses and Aaron /;
and many others. In former times the
people were simple and credulous and
they were imposed on by all kinds OF
whale stories, and some are imposed
on even to this day. The Lord does
talk to good people today just the same
as in olden times. He has not become
deaf or speeches..
In former times the people had a
very cruel God because He was made
in their own image and after their
own likeness and they said of Him
many cruel things that would put all
the devils to shame. Now, under the
advance of science, and mechanics and
the general diffusion Of knowledge, the
people has improved their conditions.
They no longer have fearful struggle
to live, and having time to read and
think they have grown more just and
humane, with better conceptions OF
God. o.:
And so even of Satan our thoughts
have changed, and We no longer throw
at him our ink bottles, as did Martin
Luther. Indeed about the worst thing
I know of Satan is what is written of
him in the book of Job. It seems that
for some reason he took delight in
testing the patience of Job and af-
fiicting him with boils, but the suffer-
ing of Job was not so great as to
prevent him from talking we'll and
holding his own with his three COM
forting friends, who imputed all his
misfortunes to his own sins and follies
/ have found that our modern Satan
really likes good people, and especial
ly those who do not fear to work.
When 1 meet him, always greet him
courteously and he greets me in the
same manner. With all sincerity I do
assure you that when / cross the
Great Divide on my way to the Celes--
tial City, if l happen to meet Satan
shall not fear him. shall say: Hello,
old fellow; glad am I to see you; how
do you do? And he will answer with
still greater courtesy. He knows we'll
how to be a Prince Of Politeness.
J. e. ROBINSON, Judge.
Bismarck, April Z, 1917.