St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-09-03
IS SUICIDE PROPER :?
DR.. Egbert Refutes the Theory
Of Bob Ingersoll on the
Subject.
HUMAN LIFE is SACRED.
John B. Cough Was Saved
Il. From Suicide to Be-
:, come Great.
IT is COwARDLY TO SUICIDE.
i;s7..
The Right to Suicide Would
s'9 Cut the Nobleness Out
: of Life.
IT is CowARDLY TO SUICIDE.

IS At the House of Hope church last
: night Rev. John Paul Egbert preached
on ''Striving to Comprehend the Mean
+. Ing of Life" In the course of his SER
mon, in referring to IngersOll's latest
utterance his letter OH suicide he
SAID:
There are two or three points in that
letter thai give beautiful Illustrations
OF the theme we have before US. MIR.
lngerSOll says: Under many circum-
stances Il man has a right to kill him.
self. When life is of no value to him.
when he can be of no real assistance to
others. why should man continued"
L suppose that question is thrust, sooner
or later, in the face OF every man.
read the letter over carefully. and TWO
or three illustrations came to my mind.
When the Apostle Paul wrote this let
ter, he was broken-d0wn man in the
prison at Rome. He knew he was to die
very soon. There was not one particle of
life left for him in this world. Suppose
he had committed suicide. 1t would
have been The denial OF all else that lie
had ever done, and all that he had ever
written. and all the wonders of that
mans life as seen in the lives he has
Influenced would have been lost to the
world A case even more marked III
the Scriptures Is that of Stephen.
he was taken out to be stoned. His
fate was absolutely certain. Suppose
he had killed himself. What COM
mentary 1t would have been upon a
noble life-the nObeneSs of the effort Of
living all gone. But take a keener case,
case that answers every condition
that Mr.. lngersoll makes in his letter.
John Is. Cough. You know the story
OF his life. He thought it over
and said, Life isn't worth living. will
go kill myself" and just as he was
about to go over the bridge retaining
hand was laid upon his shoulder. If he
had succeeded III his attempt to COM
NIT suicide, Mr.. Ingersoll and all his
school could have said that was the
righteous thing to do. He was of no
use to his friends or to himself 10 all
human vision. And yet all the wonder
full work Of that mans life was done
after that.
When Man Puts an End
to his life he puts all end to his chances.
But there is something further. Every
man who commits suicide, as every man
who commits murder, strikes at the
SacredneSs or human lite. and when
this world. or any country in it, loses
sight of The great SacrednpSS of human
life, of personal lite, it will let down
everything else in the moral nature.
Bat the trouble Is at the root af all
this. Let me read a paragraph. when
man has committed some awful crime.
why should he stay and ruin his family
anu friehds?" Our theory is that il he
has committed some awful crime he has
done Us much as lie we'll can to ruin his
family aud friends. ''Why should he
live. filling his days and nights and the
days AMI nights OF others, with grief and
pain. with agony and tears?" That is to
say, ii a man wants TO commit a great
crime, and then commit suicide, all
right. He is out of the pain. He is
away from the punishment. How does
the committing of suicide save his wife,
his children, his father, his mother from
the shame and the pain and the degra-
datiOn of il? One'of the most absurd
fallacies ever man put forth from his
pen.
Ingersoll says: "Religion, or the de-
cadence of religion, has bearing OH
the
Number Of Suicides.
"rhe fear of God of judgment. of
| eternal pain, will stay the hand,
and people SO believing will
suffer here until relieved by
| natural death. A belief in eternal
| agony beyond the grave will cause such
| believers to suffer the pangs of this
Life. When there is no fear of the
future. when death is believed to be a
| dreamleSS sleep, men have less hesita-
ton about ending their lives"
| The Christian thought is that a man
holds his life sacred in this world, not
| through fear of what is on the other
side, but because of the great hope
| he has of standing some day
perfect in the likeness of God.
| it is the might of infinite love
| and the might of a sublime hope that
holds the Christian church up to Its
level, and holds men-whether they he
| rich or poor. wise or ignorant, strong or
| weak-hOlds them up against desertiOn
OF their faith in Jesus Christ.
And then there is another thing. In
this he totally denies all future life.
| A Dreamless Sleep.
Two or three times in this letter he
speaks of death as the end. Grant his
premises and you grant all the rest. If
| death is the end, suicide Is not only the
occasional good thing, but it is the good
thing for tens of thousands in our land
tomorrow. But that is not Christian
teaching. What would this world
become if there We're no denial of
| the tedcHlnS OF tnlS letteT! IL
would be a pandemonium. Every
criminal to escape justice would escape
life. Every man to escape great response.
bility. who Is afraid of it, could escape
/ 1t. Suicide would become more com.
i mon than IL was in the AuguStan age,
| when that theory was held so largely.
The remedy for the ills of this life
the sutferings, the despair that drives
men TO suicide, Is not in suicide-it is in
the gospel of the Lard Jesus Christ. II
is in spite OF religion that these things
come, and nat because of it. Suicide is
not remedy for anything. 1t is the
end of despair. 1t would quickly cut
the nobleness out of every striving life.
The men who have lifted the world,
the men who stand highest in our re.
spect are the men who have fought
their way through darkness and despair.
| The suicides Of the world have not
helped the world to rise. The
men who have fought on, In spite Of
| all the odds against them, are the
| men who have lifted 1t. and it
| encourages every one Of US when we
| see a man. against hardship, against
physical suffering, against poverty,
| against all the dlstresses Of this life,
striving to be true and faithful and
noble man. And he will be. Failure or
success is not measured in this life.
The standard is on the other side, and
the reward is on the other side.