The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1888-10-19

bCAuOWlcuSo tuhL III oVcIy Socc ~ - VaS
abdication Of reason or the teaching o.
infldelity which practically says: III yor
don't like this life get out Of 1t, and you
will land either in humiliation, where
there are no notes to pay, no persecution
to suffer, no govt to torment. or you viii
land where there will be everything glori'
GUS and nothing to pay for it," lnfidel'
ity always has been apologetic for sell
immolation. After Tom Paines "Age
Of Reason" was published and widely
read there was marked increaseaof sell
slaughter.
A man in London heard Mr.. Owen de.
liver 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 possible deception, y
and then shot himself. David Hume
wrote these words: ut would be nc
crime for me to divert the Nile or the
Danube from it's natural bed. Where,
then, can be the crime in my diverting a
few drops of blood from their ordinary
channel9" And having written the
essay he loaned it to friend, the friend
read it, wrote letter of thanks and ad-
miration and shot himself Appendix
to the same book.
Rousseau. Voltaire, Gibbon, Montaigne,
under certain circumstances, were apollo
getic for 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 oblivious nowhere
or glorious somewhere. And infdel-
ity 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 infdelity 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 Hud-
son and the East rivers would be so full
of corpses the ferryboats would be i'm
peded in their progress, and the crack OF
suicides pistol would be no more alarm.
ing than the rumble of street car.
/ have sometimes heard it discussed
whether the great dramatist was Chris
tian or not. I do not know, but I know
that he considered appreciation of
future existence the mightest hindrance
to self destruction:
For who could bear the whips and scorns Of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud mans con
tumely,
The pangs of despised love, the laws delay,
The insolence of Office, and the spurns
Mat ionftr t,ff hx,v <olro
When he himself might his quietus make
With bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under weary life,
But that the dread of something after death
The undiscovered country, from whose bourne
No travellers returns-puzzles the wills
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;" in the other case say:
Having read infidel books and attended
infidel lectures, which obliterated from
this mans mind all apprehension u 1sfy
thing like future retribution, he COM
mitted self slaughterr'
All! Infidelity, stand up and take thy
sentence! In the presence of God and
angels and men, stand up, thou monster,
thy lip blasted with blasphemy, thy
cheek SCARED with lust, thy breath foul
with the corruption Of the ages! Stand
up. Satyr. filthy goat. buzzard of the ma
tions, leper of the centuries! Stand up,
thou monster Infidelity! Part man, part
panther, part reptile, part dragon, stand
up and take thy sentence! Thy hands
red with the blood in which thou hast
washed. thy feet crimson with the hui
man gore through which thou hast waded,
stand up and take thy sentence! Down
with thee to the pit and sup on the sobs
and groans of families thou hast blasted,
and roll on the bed of knives which thou
hast sharpened for Others, and let thy
music be the everlasting miserere of |
hose whom thou hast damned! brand
5he forehead Of infidelity with all the
crimes of self immolation for the last |
century on the part of those who had
heir reason.
My friends. if ever your life, through
is abrasions and Its molestations, should
seem to be unbearable, and you are
empted to quit it by your own behest, do
not consider yourself as worse than others.
Christ himself was tempted to cast him
elf from the roof of the temple; but as
lie resisted, SO resist We. Christ came to
all our wounds. In your
rouble prescribe life instead of death.
People who have had it worse than you
will ever have it have gone songful on
he way. Remember that God keeps
he chronology of your life with as much
precision as he keeps the chronology of
nations, your death as well as your
,radle.
Why was it that at midnight, just at
midnight, the destroying angel struck
he blow that set the Iseraelites free from
bondage? The four hundred and thirty
ears were up at 10 O'Clock that night.
The four hundred and thirty years were
lot up at II, and 1 O'Clock would have
,een tardy and too late. The four
hundred and thirty years were up at 10
o'clock, and the destroying angel struck
he blow, and Israel was free. And
Tod knows just the hour when it is time
o lead you from earthly bondage. By
lis grace make not the worst of things,
,ut the best of them. If you must take
he pills, do not chew Them Your ever
asting rewards will accord with your
arthly perturbations, just as Caius gave
o Agrippa chain of gold as heavy as