News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1894-08-16
Treason to God.

Treason to God.
While we make this merciful and
righteous allowance in regard to those
who were plunged into mental incoher-
ence, declare that the man who in the
use of his reason, by his own act, snaps
the bond between his body and his soul
goes straight into perdition. Shall l
prove it? Revelation xxi, s, Murder
ers shall have their part in the lake
which burneth with fire and brimstone;"
Revelation xxi, 10, Without are dogs
and sorcerers and whoremongers and
murderers. " You do not believe the
New Testament? Then perhaps you be-
lieve the Ten Commandments, Thou
shalt not kill"
Do you say all these passages refer to
the taking of the life of others? Then
ask you if you are not as responsible for
your own life as for the life of others?
God gave you special trust in your
life. He made you the custodian of
your life as he made you the custodian
of no other life. He gave you as weap-
ons with which to defend it two arms
to strike back assailants, two eyes to
watch for invasion and a natural love
of life which ought ever to be ON this
alert. Assassination of others is mild
crime compared with the assassination
of yourself, because 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 nat
ural law and it is treason to God add
ed to ordinary murder.
To show how God in the Bible looked
upon this crime point you to the rogues'
picture gallery in some parts Of the BIZ
BILE, the pictures of the people who have
committed this unnatural crime. Here
is the hea' less trunk of Saul on the
walls of Bathshan. Here is the man
who chased little David-10 feet in
stature chasing 4. Here is the man
who consulted a clairvoyant witch of
Endor. Here is man who, whipped in
battle, instead of surrendering his
sword with dignity, as many 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 it and expires, the
coward, the suicide! Here is Ahithe-
phel, the Machiavelli of olden times,
betraying his best friend, David, in Or
der that he may become prime minister
of Absalom and joining that fellow in
his attempt at parricide. 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 migrated
Two Cases In Point.
Here is Abimelech practically a sui
eide. He is with an army bombarding
a tower, when woman in the tower
takes grindstone from its place and
drops it upon his head and with what
life he has left in cracked skull he
commands his armor bearer, "Draw thy
sword and Stay me, lest men say WON
an 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 a martyr, and
we have in our day apologists for him.
And what wonder in this day when we
have 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 literature, and in
this day when there are betrayals of
Christ ON the part of some of his pre-
tended apostles-a betrayal SO black it
makes the infamy of Judas Iscariot
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 the
Bible left to God the decision of their
earthly terminus, and they could have
said with Job, who had right to COM
init suicide if any man ever had-what
with his destroyed property, and his
bodyall aflamewith insufferable carbun-
Giles, and everything gone from his home
except the chief curse of it--a pestifer-
Gus wife-and four garrulous people
pelting 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 wait
till my change come"
Notwithstanding the Bible is against
this evil and the aversion which it Gre
ates by the loathsome and CHASTITY spec
tacle of those who have hurled them
selves out of life, and Notwithstanding
Christianity is against it and the argu-