Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1888-11-03

| 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 a mild crime compared with the
assassination of yourself, because in the lat
ter case it is treachery to an especial trust, it
is the surrender of a castle you were espe-
cially appointed to keep, it is treason to a
| natural law and it is treason to God added
| to ordinary murder.
To show how God in the Bible looked upon
| this crime, point you to the rogue's picture
| gallery in some parts Of the Bible. the
| pictures of the people who have committed
| this unatural crime. Here is the headless
trunk of Saul on the walls of Bathshan.
Here is the man who chased little David
! ten feet in stature chasing four. Here is the
man who consulted a cairvoyant, Witch OF
Endor. Here is man who. whipped in battle
| instead Of surrendering his sword with Dig
nifty, as many a man has done, asks his SER
want to STAY him, and when the servant de-
clines, then the giant plants the hilt of the
! sword in the earth, the sharp point sticking
upward, and he throws his body on it and
expires, the coward, the suicide Here is
| Ahitophel the Machiavelli of olden times, be-
| lraying his best friend David in order that he
( may become prime minister of Absalom, and
| joining that fellow in his attempt at paricide.
I Not getting what he wanted by change of
politics, he takes a short cut out of a dis
| graced life into the suicides eternity. There
| he is, the migrated Here is Abimelech prac-
! ticaliy suicide. He is with an army, bonn
| harding tower, when a woman in the tower
| takes a grindstone from its place and drops
] it upon his head, and with what life he
has left in his cracked skull he commands
| his armor-bearer: Draw thy sword and
| STAY me, lest men say a woman slew me-"
| There is his post-mortem photograph in the
| book Of Samuel. But the hero of this group
| is Judas Iscarot. DIR. Dome says he
| was martyr, and we have in our
| day apologists for him. And what
J wonder, in this day when we have
| book revealing Aaron Burr as pattern of
virtue and in this day when we uncover a
statue to George Sand as the benefactress OF
literature, and in this day when there are
betrayals Of Christ on the part of some of
His pretended apostles-a betrayal SO black
| it makes the infamy of Judas lscariot whitei
Yet this man by his own hand hung up for
| the execration Of all the ages, Judas lscariot.
All the good men and women of the Bible
| left to God the decision of their earthly
terminus, and they could have said with
Job. who had a right to commit suicide if
| any man ever had-what with his destroyed
property his body all aflame with insulfera-
BILE carbunces, and everything gone from
J his home except the chief curse of it, pes
tiferous wife, and four garrulous people pelt-
| ing him with comfortless talk while he sits
on a heap of ashes scratching his scabs with
piece of broken pottery. yet crying out in
| triumph: ''All the days of my appointed
time will wait till my change come"
notwithstanding the Bible is against this
evil and the aversion which it creates by the
loathsome and CHASTITY spectacle of those
who have hurled themselves out of life, and
| notwithstanding Christianity is against it,
and the arguments and the useful lives and
the illustrious deaths of its disciples, it is a
fact alarmingly patent that suicide is on the
increase.
What is the caused charge upon Inf
| deity and Agnosticism this whole thing. If
! there be no hereafter, or if that hereafter be
bi>sful without reference to how we 1.-Two
and how die, why not move back the
| folding doors between this world and the NEXT
i And when our existence here becomes troub-
lesome, why not pass right over into Elysiumi
| Put this down among your most solemn re-
| Elections, and consider it after you go to your
| homes: there has never been a case of suicide
| whore the operator was not either demented,
and therefore irresponsible. or an infidel. l
challenge all the ages, and challenge the
universe There never has been a case of
J self-destruction while in full appreciation of
| his immortality and of the fact that that inn
mortality would be glorious or wretched ac-
cording as he accepted Jesus Christ or reject
ed Him.
You say it is a business trouble, or you say
| it is electrical currents, or it 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 abdica-
ton of reason or the teaching of inf-
deity which practically says: "lf you don't
like this life get out of it, and you will
land either in annihiIation. where there are
| no notes to pay. no pers ,cutlons to suffer, no
| govt to torment, or you will land where
there will be everything glorious and moth
| ing to pay for it." Infidelity always has
been apologize for self-immolation After
| Tom Paine's "Age of Reason" was published
and widely read there was marked increase
| of self-slaughter.
A man in London heard Mr.. Owen deliver
his infidel lecture on Socialism, and went
| home, sat down, and wrote these words:
Jesus Christ is one of the weakest characters
in history, and the Bible is the greatest pos
| sble deception and then shot himself.
| David Hume wrote these words: ut would
/ he no crime for me to divert the Nile or the
| Danube from its natural bed Where then
| can be the crime in my diverting few drops
of blood from their ordinary channel." AMI
| having written the essay he loaned it to a
friend, the friend read it, wrote a letter OF
thanks and admiration, and shot himself.
Appendix to the same book.
| Rousseau, No.taire, Gibbon, Montague,
under certain circumstances, were Apologize
Tor self-immolation. Infidelity 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 this world, you will land either IN
an oblvious nowhere or glorious some
whore. And infideIity holds the upper end Of
tn y ope for the suicide, and aims the pistol
win which a man blows his brains out,
and mikes the strychnine for the last
swallow. II iniidelty 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 the East river would
be 50 full of corpses the ferry boats would be
impeded in their progress, and the crack of a
suicides pistol would be no more alarming
than the rumble of street car.
| have sometimes heard it discussed
whether the great dramatist was Christian
or not. | do not know, but know that he
considered appreciation of future existence
the mightiest hindrance tu self-destruction:
.For who could bear the whips and scorns Of time,
| The oppress0r's wrong, the proud mans contumey,
| The pangs Of deep's'd love. the iaw'r delay,
The nsolence Of office. and the spurns
That patient merit Of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his qnietus make
| With bare book n? Who would farces bear,
To gruBt and sweat under q weary life.
But that the dread OF something after death
The undiscovered country. from whose bourne
No traveller returns-pnzzes the Wilt"
Would God that the coroners would be
brave In rendering the right verdict, and
when in case Of responsibility they say:
while this man was demented he took his
life:n In the other case say: Having read
] II inf