The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1893-05-24
NUMBERING SELF.
The Question of Suicide as Influenced by
Religious Belief.

Religious Belief.
Suicide has been very common among
the Chinese and japanese, and as death
offers to the disciples OF Buddha
change of being, and mary of them
have heavy life-burdens to bear, it is
not altogether strange, especially as
the Brahminical religion so encouraged
some forms of voluntary death, such as
suffice and self-immolation before the
car of Juggernaut, as to breed an indif-
ference to the value of life, and an ex-
travagant belief in the merit of the act
OF sacrifice. But at present it is not
very common among the HinodOs, who
are timid by nature, and many of whom
hold very pessimistic ideas as to the
future state. Times there certainly
have changed since, at the death of
Hindoo grandee in the reign of Emperor
Jehangir, fifty of his wives allowed
themselves to be burned on his funeral
pyre. Self-murder is strongly for
hidden in the Koran, except when
1.-The faithful give their lives away in
battle, and when it is in defense
of the faith, great is the glory and re-
ward; but ordinary suicide is rare
among the Mohammedans. The Cath
Ollie church condemns self-destruction,
SO that suicide is rare in strictly Cath
Ollie lands, like Spain and southern
Italy.
The proportion of suicides is much
larger in Protestant countries, and the
Bible contains no express malediction
| for him who unbidden throws away
the jewel of life, unless Thou shalt
not kill" be so accommodated in its
meaning as to include those who take
their own lives as well as their neigh
boris. In the great European cities
suicide is most cOmmon and where the
views of the victims can be learned,
they are generally found to be ma
terialistic and pessimistic, SO that those
who believe that death is sure opiate
for miseries which they imagine I'M
bearable will follow the teachings of
the ancient stoics, who said that if life
had become mere misery, and was
without honor, it was best for a man
to avail himself of the easy escape.
Still even they must have been con-
fronted with the great Perhaps that
has found its completest expression in
Hamlets soliloquy; and so strong is the
love of life, and so indestructible the
hope that springs immortal" in the soul
OF man that the great majority will bear
their burdens to the although we
shall from sine to time be called upon
to pity the men, who seemingly in the
fullest possession of every mental
power, and apparently conquered by a
logic all too clear, have deliberately
renowned the gift of life to escape a
doom of hopeless physical pain, or a
burden of merited disgrace. True, a
large proportion of men who kill them
selves have shown signs of disordered
mental action but in two recent treat
ises on this subject written by men of
wide experience in this class of cases,
one says "one-ffth," the other zone
third" only had shown previous symp-
toms Of insanity.
The best defense against this tempta-
ton is firm religious faith; for the
man who looks upon this life as a trial
and discipline, whereby he is to be
fitted for higher and better future,
will certainly not wish ITO shorten the
period of preparation. Religious faith
is certainly safeguard of sanity, and
as certainly a defense against the
temptation to rush uncalled before the
bar of final judgment-N. Y. hide
pendent.