Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-09-22
the days of my appointed time will wait till

my change cOme."
Notwithstanding all that the Bible saws
against suicide and all the aversion it wouid
create by the CHASTITY and loathsOme spectacle
of those who hurled themselves out of life, and
the fact that Christianity has always been
against it by the arguments and the useful
lives and ilustrious deaths of its disciples, the
fact Is alarmingly patent that suicide is on
the increase, and everybody asks, why is 1t?
charge the whole thing upon the infldelitY
ana agnostlcism abroad. If there be no
! hereafter, or if that hereafter is blissful,
without reference to how we live and how
we die; why not swing back the
| the next? Why not let all those who
find this world uncomfortable pass right over
into Elysiumg Take this fact for considera-
tiOn: In every case of suicide that has ever
been recorded, or ever win be recorded, the
perpetrator was either demented-and hence
not responslbe-Or an infdel. / challenge the
universe, and l challenge the ages for one
exception. There never has been, there never
VIII be, a man who took his own lite while
appreciating the fact that he is immortal
and that this Immortality viii be glorious or
wretched, according to his reception of Jesus
Christ as a Saviour or the rejection of Him..
You account for the increase of suicide by
business mlsfOrtunes, by Oyerwork, by lnsom-
MIA, by this, by that, by the other thing. Go
through abdication of reason or through the
handsome and delectable work of infdelity.
which practically says: ''If you don't like
this world, get out OF it, and you will either
go into annihilation-where you will have no
notes to pay and no persecution to suffer and
no gout TO torment-or you VIII pass imme-
diately into world where you will have
every thing glorious without paying for it,
lnfdelity always has been an apOlogist for
suicide. David Hume writes: You admit
that II would be no crime in me to direct the
Nile or Danube from its course, if l could.
Where, then, is the crime of turning few
ounces of blood out of their natural channelg"
Hume lent this essay to a friend, who, after
reading it, returned it, with thanks, and the
next day shot himself. Voltaire, Rousseau,
Glbbon, MOntaigne were advocates for sui
eide under certain conditions. Infidelity puts
not up one bar to hinder people rushing vol
unfairly out of this life into the next They all
tell you that you will land safely anyhow,
either in nowhere or a happy somewhere. So
InfdelIty holds the upper end of the rope of
the suicide and fires of the pistol with which
the man blows his brains out and mixes the
strychnine for the last swallow. If Intidelty
could carry the day and persuade the majori-
ty OF people that IL is right, and that however
men 20 out of this life they land well in the
next existence, the East river and Hudson
would be soon so full Of corpses that the ferry
boats would be impeded on their way to New
York, and the crack of the suicides pistol
would be as common as the rumble Of a street
car. Let oroners' juries get brave enough to
render verdict according to the case. and as
in the irresponsible cases they say, "While in
state of insanity the deed was done;" in
other cases say, ''While suffering from the re-
suits of reading Infidel books or hearing Inf
del lecturers which DESTROYED All idea of retri-
button. the deceased took his own life.'
Let braZen Intidelitv stand up and get its
sentence. Its lip, blistered with every bias
phemy, and its cheeks SCARED with every lust.
and Its breath foul with the corruption of the |
ages; this satyr, this filthy goat, TINS unclean
buzzard of nations, this leper of centuries!
Standup! thou monster! part man, part pam
tneF' ' part part Vulture, part reptile and
that thou art the instigator of self-murder,
and shy hands are red with the carnage In
which thou hast washed, and thy feet crimson
N rnr Ifcrbv phisrI, hon haof
Waded. 60 down, sentenced to the pit and !
sup on the sObs and grOans OF families whom
thou hast blasted, and roll bed of knives
which thou hast sharpened for others, and
thy music be the unending "Miserere'' of those |
thou hast damned. | brand ipfidelity and
agnOsticlsm with the crime OF all those who |
IN possession OF their mind committed self |
slaughter during the last century.
My hearers, if you ever, because life by |
reason oil It's trials and m0lestatiOns is un-
bearable, should be tempted to quit it at your
own behest, 90 not condemn yourself above |
all others. Christ himself was tempted to |
cast himself down from the roof of the tenn
pie; but as he resisted, so resist yc. Chris |
uanlJy comes IN TO medicine all our wounds !
and give us victory. People who had it worse |
than you have been songful all the way. Be- |
side that, God has arranged with precision |
the chronology Of your life as well as the |
chronology of nations, the time to die as well |
as the time to be born, your grave |
as well as your cradle. The Egyptians were |
slain in Egypt at precisely II O'Clock at night |
and the I~raelites emancipated. Why at u |
O'Clock at night? Because 430 years were up
at that hour. God knows when to let you out |
OF earthly bondage. By his grace don't make |
the worst, but the best OF things. If you must |
take pills, don't chew them. Your heavenly
reward will correspond with your earthly
perturbation, as Caius gave to Agrippa chain |
OF gold as heavy as once had been his chain of |
iron. For the asking you can have the same |
grace that was given to the Italian martyr |
Algerius, who dated his letter 'FTOm the de- |
lectable orchard Of the Leonine prison.
Above all, let us realize that there is around |
our earthly life a rim which it is most perlOus |
for us to break. All around this brief life a |
rim beyond which is eternity, and we had |
better keep out of it till God breaks the rim, |
thin but important, which separates this from |
that. To go out of present ills don't rush into |
swarm of summer insects, plunge into a |
jungle OF Bengal tigers. There is a sorrow less |
world and so radiant that the MONDAY sun is |
but one OF Its lower dOOrsteps, and the Aurora |
that lights up the northern heayens, confOund- |
ing astronomers to what it can be, is |
only one of the banners of It's pro |
cesslOn come out to conduct a |
conqueror from church militant to |
church triumphant. And you and have ten /
thousand reasons for wanting to go there. |
But we shall not reach it either by seif-imm |
by the stroke of Him who came to do that /
and nothing else, we want to go in at the |
time divinely selected and from a bed |
dIvinely spread. And then the clang of the /
sepulchral gate behind us will be drowned |
out by the clang of the opening of the solid |
pearl before us God! whatever others |
may choose give me the Christians hope, and /
the Christians life, and the Christians death, |
and the Christians burial, and the Christians |