Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1888-10-15

went home, sat down, and wrote thes
words: "Jesus Christ is one Of the weak
est characters ia history, and the Bible
the greatest possible receptions" en-
then 81 OF himself. David Hume wIo'
these words: at wou'd be no crime 10
me to dive { the Nile OF the Danube from
its natural bed. Where, then, can be tn
crime of divsrting a few drops OF b!oot
from their ordinary channel?" After haY
ing written the essay be loaned 1t 10
friend, the friend read it, wrote 0 letter Q
thanks and admiration, and shot himsa lt
Appendix to the same book.
Rossear, Voltairs, Gibbon, Montague
under circumstances, were spolcgetic TO
self.immolation. ~Intdelity puts up NJ
bar TO peoples rushing out from TIL
world into the next. They teach rs l
does not make any difference how you liy,
here or go out of this world, you will land
either in an oblivious nowhere or a glGri
GUS somewhere. And iride' ity holds TIT
upper end of the rops for the suicide
and aims the pistol with which
q man blows his brains out, anc
mixes the srycbi,e for thu
last swallow. If Iufdelity could
Carry the day snd p~srsua1e the msjority o.
people in thiscouniry that 1t does not make
any difference how you 60 ont Of toe
weird you will land safely, the Hudson
and the Est rivers would be Sd full Of
corpsts the ferryboats would be impeded
in their progress, and the crack OF a
suicides pistol would he no more alarm
Jog than the rumble of a street car.
l have sometimes heard it discussed
whether the great drsmatist was q Chris
tiao or not. l do not know, but l know
that he considered appreciation OF q future
existence the mightiest hindrance to self
destruction:
For who could bear the whips and scorns OF
time;
The oppressor's wrong, ths proud mans con
tumely,
The paugs o fdespis'd love. the laws delay,
TIE insolence of Office, and the spurns.
That patient merit of the unwort by takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
| With q bare DO ikin? Who would fardelS bear,
TO g'unt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death
The undiscovered country, from whose bourne
No traveller r~eturns-puZZles the VILE"
Would Gcd that the COroners would be
brave in rendering the right verdict, and
when in q case of irresponsibiiity they
cay: while this man WAS demented he
tcoS his life" in the other case say:
Having read infdel hooks and attended
iniiel lectures, which oblitersted from
this mans mind all appreciation OF any
thing like future retribu,ion, he commit
ted self-slaughter!"
All! iufdelity, stand up and take thy
sentence! III tho presence of God and
angels and men, stand Up, thou monster,
thy lip blasted With b~lGsphemy, thy cheek
scarrel with lust, thy breath foul with
the corruption of the ages! Stacd up,
Satyr, filthy goat, buzzlrd OF tie nEtoas,
leper Of the centuries! Stand up, thou
monster iDfidelity! Part man, part pan
Their, part reptile, part dragon, staud up
and take thy sentence! Thy hauds red
with the blOod in which thou hast wash
ed, thy feet crimson with tie human gore
through which thou has waded, stand up
and take thy sentence! Down with thee
to the pit and sup on the sobs and gTOlps
Of families thou has b,astel, and roll on
the bed of knives which thou hos sharp
cred for others, ard let thy music be the
everlasting miserere of these whom thou
hast damned. l brand the forehead of In.
fidelity with all tie crimes of selt-immo-
latio1 fer the last Ce5t1ry on tae part OF
these who had their reason.
My friends, if ever your life through its
sbrlsions and its molestations should seem
to bs unbearable, and you are tempted to
quit it by your own behest, do not en-
si3er yourself as worse than Others. Christ
himself was tempted 20 cast Himself from
the roof Of the Temple; but as He resisted.
so Jesi t ye. Christ came to medicine all
oar wounds. IN your trouble | prescribe
life instead Of death. People who have
had it worse than you will ever have 1t
have gone songfui on the way. Remem'
Der tdat God keep, the chronology of your
lie with as much precision as he keeps
the chronology of nations, your death as
well IS your cradle.
Why was it that at midnight, just at
midnight, the Destroying angel struck the
blow that set the Israeliies free from
bondage? This four hundred and thirty
years were up at twelve o'clock that
night. The four hundred and thirty years
were not up at eleven o'clock, and one
o klUck NOJlI htNC DGCh NniN1 "1u W
late. The four hundred and thirty years
were mp at twelve O'Clock, and the de-
stroyirg angel struck the blow, and Israel
was free. And God knows Just the hour
when it is time to lead you mp from earthly
bondage. By His grace make not
the worst of things, but
The best of them. II you
must take the pills, do not chew them,
Your everlasting rewards will accord with
ycur earthly peIturbations, just as Caius
gave to Agrippa . chain Of geld as heavy
as had been a chain of iron. For the ask
ipg-aud l do not know to whom l speah
in this august assemblsge, hut the world
may he especirlly app-opriste-for you
asking You may have the same grace tba'
WAS glvea to tie Italian martyr, Algerius,
who, down in the darkest of dungeons
dated his letter from 1.-The delectsble orch
ard of the Leonipe prison"
And remember that this brief lie of our
ia surrounded by a rim, q very thin be
very important lin, aad close up t, tha
rim is a great eternity, and you bad bette
keep ont of it until God breaks that rim
and separates this from that. To get III
of ths sorroUs of earth do not rush int
greater SORROWS. To get rid of a swarm
of summer insects, leap not into a jungle
Of Bengal tigers.
This is q %sorrowless world, and 1t is g
radiant that the poordAy sun is only th'
I wtst doorstep and tie aurora that light;
MP our northern heavens, c~onfoundipI
astronomers es u what it caa be, is tn
waving of tie banners Of the procession
ceme to take the couquerors bon iron
church militant to church triumphant
and you and 1 have ten THOUSAND
reasons for wanting to 60 there, bu
we will never get there eithe
by Accommodation OF impenitency. Al
our sius s'ain by the Christ who came I
do that thirg, we want to GO in ut just tn
time divinely arranged, and from q coueI
divinely spread, and then tie clsna OF tn
s~epulchral gates behind rs will bs over
: powered by ths clarg Of the openirg ofth
: solid pearl bafore Us. o, God, whsteve
Others may chpcse, givs me a Christian.
life, a CHRISTIANS death, 8 Christian