The Norfolk post. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1865-1866, 1865-08-04
CONFESSION OF A POISONER.
A Clergyman Poisoning the Communion Win

The English papers publish the fol-
lowing extraordinary confession of
Swedish clergyman named Lindbach,
who was recently condemned to death
for numbering several of his parishioners
by putting arsenic in the communion
wine:
n II comprehended the pas
tors duty as fathers. / ordered no.
tice to be given meevery Sunday by APP
pointed persons of where any poor sick
person was to be found. After such in
quiries l went round with food and
medicine, and became witness of much
misery and hopelessness. When one
stands beside an incurably sick and
dreadfully panied fellow-creature, one
wishes, ofa1l his heart, that he might be
| released from his heartrending misery.
BY those hungry, cold, incurables in
| Silbodahl, have often stood, moved by
the deepest pity, and thought, Were I
| in such miserable plight would bless
him who fastened the end of my pain,
and God would forgive that merciful
| one.' With every renewed visit to these
poor people / was strengthened in this
idea. l prepared separate wine, as help
in trouble, when this, my misdirected
charity, should urge me to it, thought
also, what none can deny, that very few
human beings pass to the other world
| in the course of nature, that is, when the
power of soul and body are worn out by
| age. Some external cause occurs, which
God, though he does not advance it, yet
does not prevent, in virtue of the free
| dom he granted, the understanding he
| gave. How many in the prime of life,
in their full vigor, are their own muir
derers, invOluntarily, yet through mis-
| use of their understanding. How many
| have fallen out of the hands of the most
skillful physician into the grave. The
patients statement is not always proper
~ comprehended (yet the statement de-
termines the prescription, and the pre-
scription determines life or death, with
out Gods either helping or hindering,
and neither doctor nor patient are
thought to have any share in the death.
How many an illness which in the be-
ginning might easily have been cured,
has, through delay in seeking help, pre-
cipitated its victim into the grave.
"From these incontrovertible facts,
and the many such examples which l
have partly heard described, partly
witnessed myself, have come to the
conclusion and beliefth that science as well
as ignorance often bears the most deci-
sive part, and that pious faith is often
wrong in saying the hour had GOMEZ
I, therefore, believed that the merciful
God would not condemn me if l short
ened the sufferings of a miserable fell
low creature. This action is certainly,
to outward appearances, against all law,
but in reality it rests upon grounds OF
compassion. My God, before whom
shall finally answer, knows this, and
with deep contrition, feel myself
civil law, for the sinful compassion
exercised towards the dead persons in
the case. Respecting Tyson, men will
likely reject my assertion of mercy
and call it selfishness in its grossest
form, but those who knew his dreadful
sufferings and our written agreements,
will admit my motives of pity. My
guilt is great; my enemies acted right in
their earnest Investigations. 10 their
consciences, however, put the ques-
ton, Was it zeal in service, or zeal in
persecution, which directed your course"
Hate, the worlds demon, is murder
er, and wants even the poor comfort OF
meaning we'll by its crime. Who Is
most responsible, he who, against the
law, frees one from misery, or he who,
under protection of the law, precipitates
one into misery? God alone will
Judge? How I have sinned is confessed
before God and man; and now my per-
secutors, pray you be merciful, as our
Heavenly Father is! Let your false
imputations now cease, and spare my
blameless relatives the heartrending
scream of that hate. You have now
enough my crime confessed, my house
destroyed, my grave open. Farewell!
farewell, Carlsbad! That day ! was or
dained your pastor, ! was ordained to
death. o God! have mercy upon me!'