The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1888-10-31

sword in the earth the sharp point sticking
upward, and he throws his body on it 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 Absalom, and
Joining that fellow in his attempt at paricide.
Not getting what he wanaed by cnange OF
politics, he takes q short cut out OF dis
graced life into the suicides eternity There
he is, the migrate! HE is Abimeech, prac-
ticalIy suicide. He is with an army, bom-
harding tower, when woman in the tower
takes grindstone from its place and drops
it upon his head, and with what life ne
has left in his cracked skull he commands
his armor-bearer: Draw thy sword and
say me, lest men say e woman slew me-"
There is his post-mortem photograph in the
book of Samuel. But the hero of this group
is Judas Iscariot DR.. Donne says he
day apologists for him. And what
wonder, in this day when we have
book revealing Aaron Burr as pattern of
virtue, and in this day when We uncover
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 apostles-a betrayal so black
it makes the infamy of Judas 1scarot white!
Yet this man by his own hand hung up for
the execration Of all the ages, Judas Iscarlot.
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 to commit suicide if
any man ever had-what with his DESTROYED
property, his body all atiame with insufera-
Bile carbuncles and everything gone from
| his home except the chief curse of it, q pes
tiferous wife, and four garruous people pet-
ing him with comfortless talk while he sits
on heap of ashes scratching his scabs with
piece of broken pottery, yet crying out in
triumph: 'All the days of my appointed
time will I wait till my change come"
Notwithstanding the Bible is 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
notwithstanding Christianity is against it,
and the arguments and the useful lives and
the illustrious deaths Of its disciples, it is
fact alarmlngly patent that suicide Is on the
| increase.
What is the cause7 Icharge upon Inf.
deity and Agnosticism this whole thing. II
there be no hereafter or if that hereafter be
bissful without reference to how we live
and how we die why not move back the
folding doors between this world and the next2
And when our existence here becomes troub-
lesome, why not pass right over into Elysiumf
Put this down among your most solemn re-
fections, and consider it after you 60 to your
homes; there has never been case OF suicide
where the operator was not either demented,
and therefore irresponsible, or an infidel.
challenge all the ages, and l challenge the
universe. There never has been case OF
self-destruction while in full appreciation or
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 it is business trouble, or you say
it is electrical currents, or it is this, or it
is that, or it is the other thing. Why not
60 clear back, my FRIEND and acknowledge
That in every case it is the abdica-
tion of reason or the teaching of inf
delity which practically says: Of you don't
like this life get out Of it, and you will
land either in annihilation, where there are
no notes to pay, no pers scutions to suffer, no
gout to torment, or you will land where
there will be everything glorious and moth
ing to pay for it." Infdelty always has
been apologetc for self.immolation. After
Tom Paines "Age Of Reason" was published
and widely read there was marked increase
of self-slaughter.
A man in London heard Mr. Owen deliver
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 pos
sible deception" and then shot himself:
David Hume wrote these words: 1T would
be no crime for me to divert the Nile or the
Danube from its natural bed. Where then
can be the crime in my diverting few drops
of blood from their ordinary channel?" And
having written the essay be loaned it to
friend, the friend read it, wrote letter OF
thanks and admiration, and shot himself
Appendix to the same book.
Rousseau, Vo.tare, Gibbon, Montaigne,
under certain circumstances, were apologize
for self-immolation 1nfidelity 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 60
out Of this world, you will land either in
an .oblivious nowhere or glorious some
the rope for the suicide and aims the pistol
with which a man blows his brains out,
and mixes the strychnine for the last
swallow If infidelity could carry the day
and persuade the majority OF people in this
country that it does not make any difference
how you 60 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 a
suicides pistol would be no more alarming
than the rumble of 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 and sco,ns Of time,
The oppressors wrong, the proud man scontumely,
The pangs Of desps'd love. the laws delay,
The nsoence Of office, and the spnrns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quetus make
With bare bodk,n n? Who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat nnder weary life,
But that the dread Of something after death
The undiscovered country, from whose bourne
No traveller returns-puzzles the will?'
Would God that the coroners would be
Grave in rendering the right verdict, and
when in case Of responsibility they say:
"While this man was demented he took his
life;' in the other case say: Having read
infdel hooks and attended infidel lectures,
which obliterated from this mans mind all
appreciation of anything like future retri
button, he committed self-slaughter"
All! Infidelity. stand up and take thy SEN
tence! 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
I'D. thou monster Intidelity! Part
..n.h, part panther, part reptile part dragon,
stand I'D and take thy sentence! Thy hands
red with the blood in which thou hast
washed. thy feet crimson with the human
gore through which thou hast waded stand up
and take thy sentenced Down with thee TO the
pit AMI sup on the sobs and groans of families
which thou hast sharpened for Others and
let thv music he the everlasting miserere Of
those whom thou hast damned! brand the
forehead of infdelity with all the crimes OF
sef-immo:ation for the last century on the
palt Of those who had their reason.
My friends. if ever your life through lts
ohrosions and its molcStationS, should seem