The west Tennessee star. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1888, 1888-10-26
God is His own interpreter.
And He will make il plafn.

use of his reason, by his own act snaps
the bonds between his body and his soul
goes straight into perdition. Shall I
prove it? Revelation xxi 8: ttMurder
ers shall have their part.in the lake which
burneth with fire and brimstone.U y
Revelation xii, 10; ''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 I
ask you If you are not as responsible for
your own life as for the life Of others?
| God gave you a special trust in your life,
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 assailauts, two eyes to watch for in
vasion, and natural love of life which
ought ever to be on the alert. Assas sina =
tiOn OF others is a mild crime com pared
with the assassination of yourself be-
cause in the latter case it is treachery to
an especial trust; it is the surrender of a
castle you were especially appointed to
keep; it is treason to a natural law, and
it is treason to God added to ordinary
murder.
To show how Cod in the Bible looked
j
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 man who, whipped in battle, in
stead of surrendering his sword with Dig
nit ae n hos rs dc
servant to slay him; and, when the serv-
ant Declines then the giant plants the
h1lt 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-
YelH 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
rioide. Not getting what he wanted by
change Of politics, he takes short cut
out of a disgraced life into the suicides
eternity. There he is, the ingratel
Here is Abimelech, practically sui
eide. He is with an army bombarding a
tower, when a woman in the tower takes q
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
the book of Samuel. But the hero of this
group is Judas Iscariot. DR.. Dome says
he was martyr, and we have in our d9ys
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
| 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 tn @
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 carbuncIes, and
every thing gone from his home except
the chief curse Of it--a pestiferous wife,
and four garrulous people pelting him
with comfortiess talk while he sits on
heap Of ashes scratching his scabs with
a piece Of broken pottery yet crying out
in triumph: "All the days of my ap-
pointed time VIII 1 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, aud 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 alarmingiy patent that suicide is on
the increase.
What is the cause? l charge upon inf
deity and agnosticism this whole thing.
II there be no hereafter or il 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? And when our eX-
istence here becomes troublesome, why
not pass right over into Elysium? Put
this down among your most solemn re-
dectfons, and consider it after you 60 to
| your homes: there has never been case
| of suicide where tine operator was not
either demented, and therefore frrespon
| sib1e, or an infidel / challenge all the
| ages, and / challenge the whole universe.
| There never has been O 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
| according as he accepted Jesus Christ or
| rejected HIM.
You say it Is a business trouble, or you
| say it is electrical currents, it 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 ont Of It. and you
will land either ia annihilation, where
there are no notes to pay, no persecution
to suffer. no gout TO torment, or you will
land where there viii be every thing Rlo-
rious and nothing to pay for it?" inf
delity always has been apologize for
self-fmmolation. After Tom Paine's
"Age Of Reason" was published and
widely read there was marked increase
| Of self-slaughter.
A man in London heard Sir. Owen de-
liver his infdel lecture on socialism, and
went home, and 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. cit would be no crime for
me to divert the Milo or the Danube from
/ its natural bed. Where, then, can be the
crime In me diyerting few drops Of
blood from their ordinary channelW
And having written She essay he loaned
I 10 to O friend the friend read it, wrote a
( letter Of thanks and admiration and shot
himself: Appendix To the same book.
/ Rousseau, Voltaire, Gibbon, MontaIgne,
under certain circumstances, were apollo
/ petie for self-immolation. Inddelity puts
/ up no bar 10 peoples rushing out Of this
| world into the next They teach US it does
l not make any difference how you live
/ here or 90 out Of this world, you viii land
4 either in an obligious nowhere or a Rlo-
rfous somewhere. And inhdelity holds
/ the upper end Of the rope for the suicide,
/ and aims the pistol with which a man
/ blows his brains ont, and mixes the
/ strvchnine for the last swallow. III inh-
/ deity could carry the day and persuade
I the majority Of people IN this country
+ that II does not make any difference how
! vou 90 out of lLe world you viii land
\ safely, the HUDSON and the East rivers