The Russellville Democrat. [volume] (Russellville, Ark.) 1875-1898, 1888-10-25

anu ne uuAue you tue coShoulan 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 natural love OF life which
ought ever to be on the alert. Assassina-
ton OF others is mild crime compared
| with the assassination of yourself. be-
cause in the latter case 1t is treachery to
an especial trust; it is the surrender OF a
castle you were especially appointed to
keep; 1t Is treason to natural law, and
it is treason to God added 20 ordinary
murder.
TO show how God in the Bible looked
upon this crime, pointyou 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 q clairvoyant, Witch of Endor.
Here is a man who. whipped in battle, in
stead of surrendering his sword with dig
nifty, as many q man has done, asks his
servant to SHAY him; aud, whom the serv-
ant declines, then the giant plants the
hit Of the sword In the earth, the sharp
point sticking upward and he throws HIS
body on L 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 ingratel
Here Is Abimelech, practically q sui
eide. He is with an army bombarding a
tower, when a 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 Stay
me, lest men say woman slew me.n
There is his post-mortem photograph in
the book OF Samuel. But the hero or this
group is Judas Iscariot. DR.. Donrs says
he was a martyr, and we have in our dogs
apologists for him. And what wonder in
| this day when we have a book revealing
| Aaron Burr as a pattern Of virtue, and in
| this day when we uncover a statue to
| George Sand as the benefactress OF liter
AZURE, 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 whitei 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 right to commit
| suicide If any man ever had-what with
his destroyed prosperity, and bis body all
| ahame with insufferable carbuncles, and
every thing gone from his home except
the chief curse of tia pestiferous wife,
and four garrulous people pelting him
with comfortless talk while he sits on
heap Of ashes scratching his soabs with
q piece OF broken pottery yet crying out
| in triumphi sAll the days Of my APP
pointed time will / wait till my change
| comes"
/ Notwithstanding the Bible is against
| this evil, and the aversion which it
creates by the loathsome and CHASTITY
spectacle of those who have hurled them
selves out of life and Notwithstanding
Christianity is against it. and the argu-
ments and the useful lives and the IL
lustrious deaths of the disciples, it is
fact alarmingly patent that suicide is on
| the increase.
What is the cause? / charge upon inf
Il
If there be no hereafter, or if that here
after 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? Aud 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, aid therefore irrespon- :
sible, or an infdel. l challenge all the
| ages, and / challenge the whole universe.
| There never has been a case of SELF -deS
| struction while in full appreciation of
| his immortality and of the fact that i'm
mortality would be glorious Or wretched
according as he accepted Jesus Christ or
| rejected HIM. AE E3&tb sbt68
You say it is a business trouble or you
say it is. electrical currents, or ii is this,
| or it IS that, or it is the other thing. Why
| not go clear back, my friend, and ac-
| knowledge that in every case it is the abb
| dication of reason or the teaching of inf
| deity which practically says: "If you
| don't like this life get out of it, and you
| will land either in humiliation, where
! there are no notes to pay, no persecution
| to suffer, no govt to torment or you will
| land whore there will be every thing glo-
| rious and nothing 10 pay for it?'t Inf
| deity always has been apologize for
lf-immolation. After Tom Paine's
W ee OF Reason" was published and
| wldely read there was marked increase
of self slaughter.
| A man in London heard Mr.. Owen de-
| liver his infidel lecture on socialism, and
| went home, aud sat down and wrote these
words: Jesus Christ is one of the weak
est characters in history, and the Bible is
| the greatest possible deception" and
| then shot himself. David Hume wrote
| these words: at would be no CRIME for
me to divert the Nile or the Danube from
| its natural bed. Where, then, can be- the
| crime in me diverting few drops of
| blood from their ordinary channel?"
And having written the essay he loaned
it to a friend, the friend read it. wrote q
letter of thanks and admiration 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 Of 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 glo-
rious somewhere. And infdelity holds
the upper end of the rope for the suicide,
and aims the pistol with which man
| blows his brains ont 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 the East rivers
would be so full Of corpses the ferry
boats would be impeded in their progress,
aud the crack OF a suicides pistol would
| be no more alarming than the rumble OF
a street car.
l have sometimes heard il discussed
| fba eyraaf droynatfat mas d, 1l-i,-