Sharp County record., 1888-11-01

nartad No wonder that when God mercl-
fully delivered him from that awful ae'
mentia he sat down and wrote that O'Aer
hymu just as memorable:
God moves in o mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.
Blind unbehef is sure to err
And scan His work in vain;
God is His own interpreter,
And He will make II plain
While we make this merciful and
righteous allowance in regard 10 lhose
who were plunged into mental incoher-
ence, | declare that that man who IN the
use of his reason, by his own act snaps
the bonds between his body and his soul,
goes straight into perdition. Shall l
nrove it? Revelation xxi, S: Murder
ers shall have their part in the lake which
burneth with fire and brimS stone"
Revelation xii, 15: "Without are dogs,
and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and
murderers. You do not believe the New
Testament? Then, perhaps, you believe
the Ten Commandments: Thou SHALT
not kill"
Do you say all these passages refer to
the taking of the life of others? Then l
ask you if you are not as responsible Tor
vOur own life as for the life of othersT
God gave you special trust in your he
He made you the custodian of your life,
and He made you the custodian OF no
other life. He gave as weapons with
which to defend it two arms to strike
back assailants, two eyes to watch for IN
vasion, and a natural love of life which
ought ever to be on the alert. ASsassina-
ton of others is a mild crime compared
with the assassination of yourself, be-
cause in the latter case it is treachery to
an especial trust; 1t is the surrender of a
castle you were especially appointed to
keep; it is treason to natural law, and
it is treason to God added to ordinary
murder.
To show how God in the Bible looked
upon this crime, pointyouto 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 con =
suited a clairvoyant, Witch of Endor'
Here is a man who, whipped in battle, in
stead of surrendering his sword with dig
pity, as many man has done, asks his
servant to slay him; and, when the serV-
| Ioo1,roe than tbn CTiant 1llqntS the
hllt 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 Ahithopel the Machia-
velli of olden times, betraying his best
| friend David, in order that he may be-
come Prime Minister of Absalom, and
Joining that fellow in his attempt at par
ricide. Not getting what he wanted by
change of politics, he takes short cut
out of disgraced life into the suicides
eternity. There he is, the migrate!
| Here is Abimelech, practically sui
eide. He is with an army bombarding a
| tower, when 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 slay
me, lest men say a woman slew me-"
There is his post-mortem photograph in
I the book of Samuel. But the hero of this
group is Judas Iscariot. DR.. Donne says
he was martyr and we have in our dsys
apologists for him. And what wonder in
| this day when we have q book revealing
| Aaron Burr as pattern of virtue, and in
| this day when we uncover a statue to
| George Sand as the benefactress Of liter
ature, and in this day when there are be-
trayals of Christ on the part Of some Of
| His pretended apOstles-a betrayal so
| black it makes the infamy Of Judas Isca-
riot white! 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 terminus, and they could have
said with Job, who had a right to commit
| suicide if any man ever had-what with
his destroyed prosperity, and bis body all
afame with insufferable carbuncles, apd
every thing gone from his home except
the chief curse of it-a 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: "All the days of my ap-
pointed time will wait till my change
| comes"
Notwithstanding the Bible is against
this evil, and the aversion which it
creates by tie loathsome and ghastly
spectacle of those who have hurled them
selves out of life, ald Notwithstanding
Christianity is against it, and the argu-
ments and the useful lives and the IL
lustrious deaths of the disciples, it is a
fact alarmingly patent that suicide is on
the increase.
What is the cause? l charge upon inf
deity and agnosticism this whole thing.
If there be no hereafter, or if that here
after be blissfU without reference to how
we live and how We die, why not move
back the folding doors between this
world and the next? And when our ex-
istence here becomes troublesome, why
not pass right over into Elysium? Put
this down among your most solemn re-
Elections, and consider it after you go to
your homes: there has never been case
of suicide where the operator was not
either demented, and therefore irrespon :
sible, or an infdel. l challenge all the
ages, and | challenge the whole universe.
There never has been case of self-de-
struction while in full appreciation of
his Immortality and of the fact that i'm.
mortality would be glorious or wretched