Milford chronicle., 1888-10-19
MILFORD, DEL, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1888.


life of othersl God gave you a 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 10 defend it two arms to strike back
assaiants, two eyes to watch for invasion,
and a natural love OF life which ought ever
to be on the alert. Assassination of otherl
is a mild crime compared with the assassina-
tion of yourself, because in the latter case it
is treachery to an especial trust, it is the sur
render of a castle you were especially ap-
pointed TO keep. it is treason TO a natural law
and it is treason TO God added 10 ordinary
murder
To show how God in the Bible looked pRon
this crime, l point you to the rogues'
picture gallery in some parts Of the
Bible, the pictures of the people who have
committed this unnatural 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 clairvoy-
ant, Witch Of Endor, Here is man who,
whipped in battle, instead of surrenderlng
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 the sword in the earth, the sharp
point sticking upward and he throws his
body on it and expires, the coward, the sui
eide. Here is Ahithophel, the Machavelh
of olden times, betraying his best friend
David in order that he may become prime
minister of Absalom, and joining that fel-
low in his attempt at parricide. Not getting
what he wanted by change Of politics, he
takes a short cut out of a disgraced life
into the suicides eternity. There he is, the
migrate!
liere is Abimelech, practically a suicide.
He is with an army, bombarding a tower,
when a woman in the tower takes a grind
stone 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 slay me, lest men say
a women slew me.n There is his post mortem
photograph in the book Of Samuel. But the
hero of this group is Judas Iscariot, DIR,
DOnne says he was q 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 as a 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 Iscariot whitel 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 ter
minus, 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
except the chief curse of it, Il pestiferous wife,
and four garrulous people pelting 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;
San 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 not
withstanding Christianity is against it, and
the arguments and the useful lives and the
illustrious deaths of its disciples, it is fact
alarmingly patent that suicide is on the in
crease,
What is the causel I charge upon inidel-
ity and agnosticism this whole thing. If
there be no hereafter, or if that hereafter be
blissful without reference to how we live and
how we die, why not move back the folding
when our existence here becomes trouble
some, why not pass right over into Elysiumi
Put this down among your most solemn re-
hections, and consider it after you go to your
homes: there has never been a case of suicide
where the operator was not either dementedi
and therefore irresponsible, or an iniideL
challenge all the ages, and challenge the
whole universe. There never has been case
of self destruction 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 re
jected him.
You say it is a business trouble, or you say
1t is electrical currents, or it is this, or it l.
that, or it is the other thing Why not &c
clear back, my friend, and acknowledge thai
in every case it is the abdication Of reason OI
the teaching of infdelity which practically
says: IF you don't like this life get out Of
it, and you will land either in annihilation
where there are no notes to pay, no persecu
tions to suffer, no gout 10 torment, or you vii
land where there will be everything glorious
and nothing topay for itn lnfdelity alwayi
has been apologetic for self immolation. Aftei
Tom Paine's age Of Reason" was published
and widely read there was u marked increaS'
Of self slaughter.
A mani in London heard Mr. Owen deliver
his infidel lecture on socialism and wen
home, sat down and wrote these words: ''Je
sus Christ is one of the weakest characters il
history, and the Bible is the greatest possible
deception" and then shot himself. Davii
Hume wrote these words; ut would be N
crime for me to divert the Nile or the Dan
ube from its natural bed. Where, then, eal
be the crime in my diverting few drops o
blood from their ordinary chanuelP Ant
having written the essay he loaned it to
friend, the friend read it, wrote letter o
thanks and admiration, and shot himself
Appendix to the same book.
Rousseau, Voltaire, Gi5bon, Montaigne
under certain circumstances, were APOLOGIZE
for self immolation. Infdelity puts up II
/ bar to peoples rushing out from this wOrl'
into the next. They teach US it does not max
any difference how you live here or go ou
of this world, you will land either il
an oblivious nowhere or a glorious some
where. And inidelity holds the upper en-
, Of the rope for the suicide and aims Oh
pistol with which a man blows his brain
| out, and mixes the strychnine for the las
! swallow If infdelity conld carry the da
, and persuade the majority Of the people i
this country that it does not make any di
ference how you go out Of the world, 20
: will land safely, the Hudson and the Eai
, rivers would be so full Of corpses the ferrl
{ boats would be impeded in their progres
4 and the crack Of q suicides FSstol would
= no mnEe alarming than the rumble OF stre'
S car,
Ihave sometimes heard it discussed whethC
Q the great dramatist was a Christian or not.
|, do not know, bnt 1 know that he considere
. appreciation Of a future existence the nigh
!, lest hindrance to self destruction.
For who could bear the whips and scorns {
time,
0 The oppressor's wrong. the proud mans col
tumely,
1he pangs Of despls'd love, the laws delay,
a The tnsOlence OF ofice, and the spurns
That patient merit OF the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With bare bodkinf Who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under weary life,
Rut that tho drand ~ cnr,afhlnO after death