The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1888-10-25

| for invasion, and natural love OF life which
ought ever TO be on the alert. Assassination
| OF Others is q mild crims compared with the
assassination OF yourself because in the lat
ter case II is treachery to an especial trust, 1t
| is the surrender OF a castle you were espe-
cially appointed to keep, IL Is treason to
natural law. and it Is treason TO God added
To show how God in the Bible looked upon
this crime, point you to the rogues 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.
| Hero Is the man who chased little David
ten feet in stature chasing four. Here Is the
man who consulted a clairvoyant, Witch Of
| Endor. Here is a man who, whipped in battle,
| instead OF surrendering his sword with Dig
nifty, as many man has done, asks his ser
| want to slay 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 1t and
| expires, the coward, the suicide. Here is
Ahitophel. the Machiavelli Of olden times, be-
| traying his best friend David in order that he
may become prime minister OF Absaom, and
| joining that fellow in his attempt at paricide
NOT getting what he wanted by change OF
politics. he takes short cut out of q dis
graced life into the licide's eternity. There
he is, the ingratel Here is Abimeech, prac-
| tically a suicide. He IL with an army, bonn
| harding tower, when woman in the tower
takes grindstone from its place and drops
| IL upon his head, and with what life he
| has left in his cracked skull he commands
| his armor- bearer. Draw thv sword and
stay me, lest men say woman slew me-"
| There is his post-mortem photograph in the
| book of Samuel. But the hero of this group
| is Judas 1scariot Dr. Donne says he
| was martyr, and We have in our
| day apologsts for him. And what
wonder, in this day when we have
book revealing Aaron Burr as n pattern OF
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 apostes--a betrayal so black
IL makes the infamy OF Judas lscariot whitel
| 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 right 10 commit suicide u
any man ever had-what with his DESTROYED
property, his body all afiame with insuffera-
BILE cnrbuncles, and everything gone from
| his home except the chief curse OF it, a pes
tiferous wife, and four garruous people pet-
ing him with comfortless talk while he sits
, on n heap of ashes scratching his scabs with n
| 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 1t creates by tho
| 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, 10 Is
fact alarningly patent that suicide is on the
| increase.
What is the cnusel charge upon Inf.
| deity and Agnosticism .hs whole thing. IL
there be no hereafter, or IL that hereafter be
blissful without reference 10 how we live
and how we die, why not move back the
hot tya lie nd ba VT
And when our existence here becomes troub-
lesome, why not pass right oveI. into Elysum'
Put this down among your NIT solemn re-
Elections, and consider IL after on go to your
homes; there has never been case of suicide
where the operator was not either demented.
and therefore Irresponsible, or AN infdel. i
challenge all the ages, and challenge the
universe There never has been case OF
self-destruction while in full appreciation OF
his immortality and of the fact that that i'm.
mortality would be glorious or wretched ac-
cording as he accepted Jesus Christ or reject.
ed Him.
You say IL Is business trouble, or you say
1t is electrical currents, or 1t is this, or it
is that or IL is the other thing. Why not
go clear back, my friend, and acknowledge
that in every ca-s IL Is the abdica-
| tion of reason or the teaching of inil-
deity which practically says: "lf you don't
like this life get out of it, and you will
land either in annihilation. where there are
gout to torment or you will land where
there will be everything glorious and moth
ing to pay for it," lnhdeliSy always has
been apo!ogetic for self-immolation. After
Tom Paine's age of Reason" was published
and widely read there was a naked increase
of self-slaugbter.
A man in London heard Mr.. Owen deliver
his intidel 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.
sible deception" and then shot himself.
David Hume wrote these words: at would
be no crime for me to divert the Nile or tho
Danube from Its natural bed. Where then
can be the crime in my diverting n few drops
Of blood from their ordinary channei" And
having written tho essay he loaned il to n
friend, the friend read it, wrote letter of
thanks and admiration, and shot himself.
Appendix to the same book
Rousseau, Voltaire, Gibbon, Montaigne
under certain circumstances, were apologize
for self'immolation. 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 or this world, you will land either in
an oblivous nowhere or glorious some
where And infidelty 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 tho last
swallow. IL inidelity could carry the day
and persuade the ma 'ority 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 so full Of corpses the ferryboats would be
impeded in their progress, and the crack of n
| suicides pistol would be no moro alarming
than the rumble of a 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 To self destruction:
.For who could bear the whips aud scons OF time,
The opprcssor's wrong the proud mans contumely,
The pangs Of desplsd love. the laws delay,
The insolence OF oiiice, aud the spnrns
That patient merit Of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his qnietus make
With bare bodkn? Who would fardels bear,
To grunt aud sweat under weary life,
Bnt that the dread OF something after death
The undiscovered country. from whose bourne
No traveller returns-puzzes the w?"
Would God that the coroners would be
brave in rendering the right verdict, and
when in a case of responsibility they say:
while this man was demented he took his
life;h in the other case say: "Having read
infldel books and attended infidel lectures,
which obliterated from this mans mind all
appreciation Of anything like future retri-
kutiOu he committed salf. .slauphtarfi