The Wahpeton times., 1888-10-25

~ N1n ID III III - 6l61 "
shos so. d dod Il IL A Is. Q III i look, u up-
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pictures Of the people Who have COM
mitted this unnatural crime. Here is the
headIess trunk Of Saul ON the walls of Bath
shan. Here is the man that chased little
David-1O feet in stature chasingfour. Here
is the man who consulted q clairvoyant.
In battle, instead of surrendering his sword
with dignity, as many man has done, asks
his servant to slay him; and when theservant
declines, then the giant plants the hilt of his
sword in the earth, the sharp point sticking
upward, and he throws his body ON it and
expires, the coward. the suicide: Here is
Ahithophel. the Machiavelli Of olden times,
betraying his best friend David in order that
he may become prime minister of Absalom,
and joining that fellow in his attempt OF
parricide. Not getting what he wanted by
change of politics, he takes q short cut out
of disgraced life into the suicides eternity.
There he is, the migrated
is with an army, bombarding q tower, when
o woman in the tower takes q grindstone
from it's 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 won.
an slew me-" There is his post-mortem
photograph in the book of Samuel. But the
Donne says he was 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 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
0nnnf1oa-o hofrnyO0 h1ooE 4 -.
infamy of Judas Iscariot white. Yet this man
by his own hand hung up for the execration
of allthe ages, Judas Iscariot. :.
All the good men and women of the Bible
left to God the decision of their earthly term
mus, and they could have said with Job, who
had o right to commit suicide if any man
ever had-what with his destroyed property,
and his body all atlame with insufferabie car.
buncles, and everything gone from his home
but the chief curse oft, pestiterous wife.
and four garrulous people pelting him with
comfOrtless talk while he sits on heap of
ashes scratching his scabs with o piece of
broken pottery. vet crying out in triumph:
"Ail the days ofmy appointed time will I
wait till my change come"
Notwithstanding the Bible ia against this
evil, and the aversion which it creates by the
loathsome and ghastly 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 deciples, it is a fact
alarmingly patent that suicide is on the in
crease.
What is the cause? charge upon infidel-
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
doors between this world and the next? And
when our existence here becomes trouble
sx,l, s.>A.
Put this down among your most solemn re-
fections, and consider it after you go to
your homes, there has never been case of
suicide where the operator was not neither
demented, and therefore irresponsible, or
an infidel. l challenge all the ages, and I
challenge the whole universe. There never
has been a case of selfdestruction while in
the fact that that Immortality would be
glorious or wretched according as he accepted
Jesus Christ or rejected Him.
You say it is business trouble, or you say
1t is electrical currents, or it is this, or it is
that, or it is the other thing. Why not go
clear back, my friend. and acknowledge that
in every case it is the abdication of reason
ly says: "If you don't like this life get out
fit, and you will land either in annihilation,
where there are no notes to pay, no persecu-
tions to suffer, mo govt to torment oryou will
land where there will be everything glorious
and nothing to pay for it. lnfdety always
has been apologetic for self.immo!ation.
published and widely read there was mark
ed increase in self-slaughter. q
A man in London heard Mr.. Owen deliver
his infidel lecture on socialism and went
home, sat down on wrote these words:
sJesus Christ is one of the weakest characters
in history. and the Bible is the greatest posi-
l. Il xI~,> IL, L 4
Hume wrote these words: ut would
be no crime for me to divert the Nile or the
Danubetrom it's natural bed. Where, then,
can be the crime in my diverting few drops
of blood from their ordinary channel?" And
having written the essay he loaned it to
friend, the friend read it, wrote letter of
thanks and admiration and shot himself.
Appendix to the same book.
Rousseau, Eoltaire, Gibbon, Montaigue,
under certain circumstances were apologetic
for self-immolation. Infdelity puts up no
har 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 the world, you will land either in OBJ
livious nowhere or glorious somewhere.
rope for the suicide, and aims the pistol with
which q man blows his brains out, and mixes
the strychnine for the last swallow. If inf
deity 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
Hudson and East rivers would he SO full of
corpses the ferry yboats would be impeded in
their progress, and the crack of the suicides
pistol would be more alarming than the rum.
bic of street cur.
have sometimes heard it discussed wheth-
er the great dramatist was q Christian or
not. do not know, but 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.
contumely,
The pangs Of despisd love, the laws delay,
Tho insolence of office. and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear.
To grunt and sweat under weary life,
But that the dread Of something after death
No traveller returns-puzzles the will?"
Would God that the coroners would be
brave in rendering the right verdict, and
when in case of firresponsibility they say:
"Whiie this man was demented he took his
life; in the other case say: Having read
infldel books and attended infidel lectures,
which obliterated from this mans mind all
ton, he committed selfslaughterl'
Ali lnfide1ity. stand up and take thy SEN
and men. stand up, thou monster, thy lip
blasted with blasphemy. thy cheek SCARED
with lust, thy breath foul with the corrup-
tion of the ages! Stand up, Satyr, filthy
goat, buzzard of the nations, leper of the CEN
turies! Stand up, thou monster Infidelity!
Part man, part panther, part reptile, part