The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1869-08-12
SUNDAY AND SUICIDE.

! - ~ ID ouE SeFlouS OpluIOn tuat tneie ID
no one thing that kills, exhausts, or
sends to the lunatic asylum more of the
active and strong men Of this country,
than the breach Of the Fourth Com
mandment. "He kept no Sunday:
you may safely write that epitaph over
hundreds Of graves that will be dug, in
this year 1869, for strong men cut
down in their prime, for ambitious, pros
porous, influential men, cut off in the
midst Of the race of lite. The doctors
will say "sottenlng of the brain,"s
'paralysis," sbears disease" "neryous
exhaustion, there are . dozen medi-
cal names for the cause Of the 5fsad
and uutimely deoease of our prominent
feliow-citizen, MIR. Bank But, sifted
to the bottom, the real fact was Mr..
Blank killed himself By breaking
Sunday. III, r.. .'..:..r 3.
There are snicides in scores, where
DO apparent cause exists for what the
newspapers call "tbe rash act. 2 The
man was doing we'll. His business was
prospering.> His family relations were
pleasant and afectionato. One day he
puts an end to himself, no man can tell
why, least of all the solemn coroners
jury who return the usual owl7wise
verdlct-"temporary insanity Search
ed to the bottom, the matter will
yield this verdict -"died Of working on
Suadayej'' ..:....:.~ ;5<
No law of God is arbitrary 1t is for
mans good that God has established all
his statutes. Clear as that truth is
about them all, it is especially clear
about the Day Of Rest. "The Sabbath
was made for man and not; man for the
Sabbath" And if it was made for
man anywhere, it was surely made for
him in these United States:s>@ ~:
Our life is more intense than any
the world has yet krown. The move
ment Of all things is with express-train
speed. We are all in the whirl to-
gether. 1t takes every faculty-a man
possesses to epable him to bold his own.
Striving to get on, striving to keep
square up to the front, with the army of
competitors, man is compelled to use
every power tothe fullest. It makes lit
tie difference what his calling may be,
the pressure is about the same ju all.
The. man Who will succeed-who will
even hold fairly his own-must accept
the necessity of anxious, ceaseless,
never ending work.
50 our people "bu,n the candle at
both ends" Nervous diseases, diseas-
es which affect the brain, the physicians
tell US, are becoming the most common.
So, sudden deaths, death by paralysis
death from ':softeuing of the BRAIN;
as it is called, are the common exits Of
our most prominent men. Business men,
statesmen, lawyers, clergymeu, students,
they are getting, in America, into
habit of going out at a moments warn
ing. dropping dead as they stand, in a
| way that has never been known before.
The probabilitle that any prominent
man, in any walk Of life, will die in
his bed, in a ripe old age in these
United States, are daily becoming rar-
CT.
There are reasons enough given fc1
this state Of things, We say, but they
all resolve themselves at last into the
same-over work. The men have no
ISabbaths-no "rests" at all. It is one
perpetual work-day, and when they
seek for enjoyment Of that fierce, rest
less kind-late hours-hot suppers
gas aaring theatre-the "spectacu-
lar drama"-tke gambling table, which
keep the nerves on the same tension,
and ipaame still more the feverish and
restless brain. Tie calm quiet Of
rational social enjoyment, the sports of
the children at home, the soothing in
tellectusl relaxation with genial books
or intelligent friends, pail on the jaded
taste. Intense excitement, new sensa-
tions ore essential elements in what
Americans miscall amusements. Aud
so comes the over work upon the nerves
and brain. There is no rest for them
day or night.
| Nov and then there is enough of
toughness in the constitutional fiber,
enough of steel and whalcbono derived
from hard working parents, the chill
dren Of tho soil, to carry man through
this sort of life to a reasonable old age.
But these are exceptional cases, and
they are daily growing more exception
al. The children Of these fathers and
mothers, whose nerves are raw to the
touch, aud whose brains are in restless
buzz all their lives, are showing them.
selves true to the inevitable natural
law.
Now it was to meet just this sort 81
bluuder in human life that the Lord
gave HE seventh day Of rest He knew
the constitution of the creature He ha.
made, and did not order him to do Ut
work on that day because it is at all nee
} essary to tue great God that mon shoult
work or not work, but because it i
: absolutely essential to the wcll-bein,
Of man that ho should rest the tire,
hands aud calm the fevered brain
; And as matter Of fact, there is no rest