New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1888-10-24

ers2 Then ask youn you are not as re-
sponslbe for your own life, as for the
life of others? God gave you special trust
In your life. He. made you the custodian of
your life as He made you the custodian. of no
other life He gave you as weapons with
which to defend it two armsto strike back
assailants. two eyes to watch for invasion
and a natural love of life which ought ever
to be on the alert. Assassination of Others
is mild crime compared with the assassina-
ton of yourself, because in the latter case it
is treachery to.anl especial trust; it is the
surrender of a castle.you were especially ap-
pointed to keep; it is treason to a natural
law, and it is treason to,God added to orr
binary murder.
To show how Godain the Bible looked up
on this crime, point you to the rogue's pic
ture gallery in some parts of the Bible. the
pictures OF the, people who have COM
mitted this unnatural crime. Here is the
headless trunk of Saul on the walls of Bath
shan. Here is the man that chased little
Dayid-l0 feet in stature chasing four. Here
is the man who consulted clairvoyant,
Witch of Endor. Hereis man who whipped
in battle, instead of surrendering his sword
with dignity, as many man has DONE asks
his servant to slay him; and when the servant
declines, then the giant plants the hilt of his
sword in the earth, the sharp point sticking
upward, and he throws his body on it and
expires, the coward, the suicide. Here is
Ahithophel, the Machiayeli of olden times.
betraying his best friend David in order that
he may become prime minister of Absalom.
and joining that fellow in his attempt at
parricide. Not getting what he wanted by
change of politics, he takes a short cut out
of a disgraced life intosthe suicides eternity.
There he is, the migrate!
Here is Abimelech practically a suicide He
is with an army, bombarding tower, when
a woman in the'tower takes a grindstone
from it's place and drops it upon his head,
and with what life he has left in his cracked
skull he commands his armor-bearer: ssDraW
thy sword and Stay me, lest men say wom-
an slew me'' There is his post-mortem
photograph in the book of Samuel But the
hero of this group iss Judas lscariot. Dr.
Dome says he was a martyr, and we have in
our day apologists for him. And what won
der, in this day when we have book reveal
ing Aaron Burr asa pattern of virtue, and
in this day when we uncover q statue to
George Sand as the benefactress of literature,
and in this day when there are betrayals of
Christ on the part ofsome of His pretended
apostles-a betrayal SO black it makes the
lnfamy OF Judas lscariotWhite. Yet this man
by his own hand hung up for the execration
of all the ages, Judas Iscariot.
All the good men and women of the Bible
left to God the decision of their earthly term
mus, and they could have said with Job, who
had a right to commit suicide if any man
ever had-what with his destroyed property,
and his body all ahame with insufferable car
buncles, and everything gone from his home
and four garrulous people pelting him with
comfortless talk while he sits on heap of
ashes scratching his scabs with a piece of
broken pottery, yet crying out in triumph
"All the days ofmy appointed time will I
wait till my change GOMEZ
Notwithstanding the Bible is against this
I / L. u
loathsome and CHASTITY spectacle of those who
have hurled themselves out of life, and not
withstanding Christianity is against it, and
the arguments and the useful lives and the
illustrious deaths of its deciples, it is a fact
alarmingly patent that suicide is, on the in
crease.
What is the cause? Icharge upon infdel-.
ity and agnosticism this, whole thing If
there be no hereafter, or if that hereafter be
bissful without reference to how we live and
how we die, why not move back the folding
doors betweenthis world and the next? And
when our existence here becomes trouble.
some, why notpass right over into Elysium?
Put this down among your most solemn re-
Elections, and consider it after you go to>
your homes there has never been case of
suicide where Incorporation was not neither.
demented, and therefore irresponsible, or
an infdel. I challenge all the ages, and L
challenge the whole universe. There never.
has been a case of selfdestruction while in
full appreciation of his Immortality and of
the fact that that Immortality would be
glorious or wretched- according as he accepted
Jesus Christ or rejected Him.
You say it is business trouble, or you say
it IS electrical currents, orit is this, or it is.
that, or it is the other thing. Why not go
clear back, my friend, and acknowledge that
in every case it is the abdication of reason
or the. teaching of infdelity which practical
ly says: eff you don't like this life get out
of it, and you will land either in humiliation.
where there, are no.notes to.pay, no perseeu--
tons to suffer, no govt to torment, or you will
land where there WILDE everything glorious,
and nothing to pay forit. Infdelity always
has been apologetio for self-immolation.
After Tom Paine's Gage Of Reason was.
published and widely read there was a mark
ed increase in self-slaughte
A manin London heard Mr.. Owen deliver,
his infidel lecture on socialism and went
home, sat down an wrote these words:
Jesus Christ is one of the weakest characters:
in history, and the Bible is the greatest posi-
bic deception" and then shot himself. David
Hume wrote these. words: sit would.
be- no crime for me to,divert the Nile or the
Danube from its natural bed. Where, then,
can be the crime in my diverting q few drops
of blood from their ordinary channel?' And
having written the. essay he loaned it to,
friend, the friend read Id, wrote a letter, of
thanks and admiration, and shot himself
Appendix to- the same book.
Rousseau, Yoltaire, Gibbon, Montague,
under certain circumstances, were apologize
for self-immo lation. Infdelity puts up no
bar to peoples rushing out from this world
into the next. They. teach us it does not
make any difference, how you live here or, go,
out of the world, you will land either in OBJ
liyions nowhere or a. glorious somewhere
And infdelity, holds the upper end of the
rope for the suicide, and aims the pistol with.
which man blows his brains out, and mixes
the strychnine for the last swallow. If inf
deity could carry the day and persuade the
majority Of people in this country that it
does not make. any difference how you go
out of the world you will land Safely the
Hudson and East rivers would be SO, full of
corpses the ferryboats would be impeded in
their progress, and the crack of the. suicides
pistol would be more alarming thamths. r.am-
bic. of street car.
have sometimes heard it discussed wheth-
er the great drauaatist was @ Christian or
not. do not know, but know that he
considered appreciation OF a future existence
the mightfsst hindrance to self-destruction
For who COULD bear the whips and scorns of
time.
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man s
e0ntumely,
The pangs of despis'd love, the laws delay,
Tho. insolence of Office, and the spnrns
NO ~, ,po