--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Tanner, Joseph M. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 21 number: 8 published: 1918-06 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Tanner, Joseph M., "Thoughts of a Farmer," *Improvement Era* 21, no. 8 (June 1918): 671.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2108unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera2108unse start_page: 671 end_page: 671 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1918-06) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2108unse publication_year: 1918 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1918, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Thoughts of a Farmer Thoughts of a Farmer By Dr. Joseph M. Tanner XIV—At Kicking Distance Every farmer knows something of the dangers and troubles which come from kicking horses. Such horses don't pay, and the sooner the owner is rid of them the better. They are, however, a part of the risks of this world. One morning I noticed a man leading a kicking horse out to a post where he tied him so as to curry the animal with greater safety. The man was afraid. He stood off at a distance and reached toward the animal's legs. He was just within the range of the animal's leg, at good kicking distance. "He can reach you," I called out, "get as close to his legs as you can!" The man turned and looked at me in surprise. Then I had to explain that when close to the animal he would 'nerely be pushed by his leg in case he kicked. There are safe and unsafe distances. There are conditions of life from which we should not remove ourselves under the delusion that distance will give us safety. That is manifestly true of our spiritual experiences. Men are beset by the sins of the world. They imagine that if they put away from them as far as possible the thoughts of their wrongdoings, they may be overcome by separation. It is the intimate consciousness of sinful conduct that helps men to repent. It is a fallacy to suppose that they may escape by running away from this conscience or by banishing from them as far as possible all thoughts of the wrongs they have committed. The remedy really lies in facing them frankly, battling with them, and repenting of them. They can not be put at a safe distance. They must be grappled with and be overcome. "Forget about it," we are told, when our souls are troubled by sin. "Banish the thought," and move on, is too frequently the philosophy of life. Delusions about escape lead men to believe that there is a safety zone in which they will find freedom from conscience. The burdens of sin should be unloaded as soon as their presence is detected. There are dangers which grow when men try to forget them and to remove themselves to a distance which they falsely suppose is safe. Men do not escape God. They need him and hi mercy. The nearer they are to him, the more suscepti- 4 - ble they are to consciousness of present evils in their lives which they may overcome by divine aid through repentance, but which they cannot escape.