The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1888-10-16

keep, it is treason to a natural law and it is
treason TO God added 20 ordinary murder.
To show how God ia the Bibie looked upon
this crime, point you 10 the rogucs' picture
gallery IN some parts OF the Bible, the pictures
OF the people who have committed this unnat-
ura crime. Hero is the hoadless trunk OF
Saul on the walls Of BathShan Hero Is the
man who chased little Dayid-ten feet in stat
ure chasing four. Hero is tine man who con-
| suited clairyoyant, Witch Of Endor. Hero
is a man who, whipped in battle, instead OF
surrendering his sword with dignity. as many a
| man has done, asks his servant to Stay him /;
and when the servant declines, then the giant
| plants the hilt Of the sword in the earth, the
| sharp point sticking upward, and he throws his
| body on II and expires the coward, the suicide.
| Here IL Ahithophel, the Machiayelli of
! olden times, betraying his best friend David
| in order that he may become prime minis
ter Of Absalom, and joining that fellow in his
attempt at parricide. Not getting what he
wanted by change of politics, he takes n short
cut out Of disgraced life into the suicides
eternity. There he is, the migrate!
Here Is Abmelech, practically suicide. He
Is with an army bonn harding tower, when a
woman in the tower takes glindstone from
its place and drops it upon his head, and with
what life he has left III his cracked skulled lie
commands his armor- bearer: "Draw thy 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 Iscariot DIR. Dome says he was a
martyr, and we have in our day
apologists for him. And what Won
der, in this day when we have
O book revealing Aaron Burr us a pattern of
virtue, and in this day when we uncover a
statue TO George Sand as the bonefactress Of
literature, and in this day when there are be-
trayals Of Christ on tho part Of some of His
pretended apostles-a betrayal so black it
makes the iniamy OF Judas Iscariot Whitel
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 tho decision OF their earthly ter
minus and they could have said with Job
who had right to commit suicide il any man
ever had-what with his destroyed property
and his body all aHame with insufferable car
bpncles and everything gone from his homo
except the chief curse of it, q pestiierous wife,
and four garrulous people pelting him with
confortless talk while he sits on heap OF
ashes scratching his scabs with o 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 it creates by tho
loathsome and CHASTITY spectacle OF those who
have hurled themselves out OF life, and not
withstandng Chrlstianltyis against it, and the
arguments and the useful lives and the illus-
trious deaths OF the disciples, 1t is a fact
alarmlngly patent that suicide is on the in
crease.
What Is the cause? charge upon infidelity
and agnosticism this whole thing If there be
without reference to how we live or how we
die, why not move back the folding doors be-
tween this world and the next? And when
our existence here becomes Troublesome why
not pass right over into Elysium? Put this
down among your most solemn reflections,
and consider it afterIyou go to your homes;
there has never been case OF suicide whore
tho operator was not either demented, and
therefore irresponsible, an infidel chal-
lenge all the ages, and challenge the whole
universe There never has been n case of self
destruction while in full appreciation Of his
Immortality and OF the fact that that immortal
ity would be glorious or wretched according as
he accepted Jesus Christ or rejected Him.
You say ii is a business trouble, or you NAV
sayIt Is electrical currents, or 1t is this or it Is
| that or It is the other thing. Why not 20
| clear back, my friend, and acknowledge that
| In every case II is the abdicatlon of reason or
tho teaching of the infidelity which practically
says: III you don't like this life get
out OF It, and you will land either
| In humiliation, whore there are no
notes 10 pay no prosecutions to suffer, no govt
| TO torment, or you viii land where there will
DO everything glorious and nothing to pay for
! It," Inhdelity has always been apologize for
| self-immolation. After Tom Paine's Age of
| Reason" was published and widely read there
was a marked increase Of self-slaughter.
a man in London heard Mr.. Owen deliver
his nfidel lecture on socialism, and went
home, sat down and wrote these words:
Jesus Christ is one of the weakest characters
in history, and tho Bible is tho greatest posi-
bio deception" and then shot himself David
Hume wrote these words; ut would DO no
crime for me to divert the Nile or tho Danube
from its natural bed. Where then, can be
the crime in my diverting few drops Of blood
from their ordinary channel2" And hay
ing written the essay, he loaned 10
to friend the friend read it, wrote letter of
thanks and admiration, and shot himself
Appendix 60 the same book.
Rousseau, Voltaire, Gibbon, Montague, I'M
All. .taa
self-mmolation. lnhdeliiy puts up no bar to
peoples rushing out from this world into the
next. They teach us 1t does not mako any diff
ference how you live here or go out OF this
world, you will land either in an oblivious no.
where or glorious somewhere. And infidel-
ity holds the upper end OF the rope for the sui
eide, and aims the pistol with which q man
blows his brains out, and mixes the strychnine
for tho last swallow. III intidelity could carry
the day and persuade the majority Of people in
this country that IL does not mako any differ
euce how you go out Of the world you Will land
safely. the Hudson and tho East rivers would
be SO full of corpses the forryboats would be
impeded IN their progress, and the
crack of a suicides pistol would
DO no moro 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 no considered
appreciation of future existence the might
lest hnderanco 70 seli-destruction
"For who could bear the whips and scorns OF time,
The 0ppgessors wrong, the proud mans contumely,
The paugS Of despscd love, the laws delay,
The lnsolenco OF Osloe and the spurns
Tint patient merit Of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his QuietuS make
Win bare hoiking Who would fardels bear.
To gruut and sweat under weary life
But Tint the dread Of something after death
TLe undiscovered country, from whose bourne
No traveller returns puzzles the wila'
Would God that tho coroners would DO
bravo in rendering the right verdict, and when
in case Of responsibility they say: "While
this man was demonted no took his life" in
the other ease say Having read infidel
books and attended infidel lectures, which OBJ
liberated from this mans mind all apprecia-
tion Of anything like future rotributlon, he
committed sell-slaughterl"
Ahl lnhdelity, stand up and take thy SON
tcncel In tho presence of God and angels
and men. stand up, thou monster, thy lip
blasted with hlasphemy, thy cheek SCARED
with lust, thy breath foul wirh the corruption
Of the ages Stand up, Satyr, filthy goat,
buxzard OF the nations leper of the centuriesl
Stand up, thou monsterinfdelity Part man.
part panther, part reptile. part dragon, stand
and take thy sentenced Thy hands red
with the blood in which thou hast washed,
thy feet crimson with the human gore through
fhpst Inst nfad gtos,1 ,p aul kol IL,