Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1894-08-24

| Wltcn OF Endor. Here Is man who,
i whipped In battle, instead Of surrenderiny
his sword with dignity asks his servant to
| slay 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 1t and expires, the
coward, the suicide Here Is Ahithophel,
the Machiavelli 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 parricide. Not
! getting what be wanted by change of politics
he takes short cut out OF dtsgraced life
| into the suicides eternity. There he is, the
| migrate!
Here IS Abimelech practically q suicide.
| He is with an army bOnbarding q tower,
! when a woman in the tower takes grind
| stone from Its place AMI drops 1t upon his
| head, and with what life he has left in a
| cracked skull he commands his armOr bearer,
| "Draw thy sword and slay me, lest men say
q 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 u martyr, and we have in
| our day apOlOglStS for him. And what Won
| der in this day when We have a book reveal
! ing Aaron Burr as pattern Of virtue, an
| in this day when we uncover statue to
| George Sand as the benefactress of litera-
| ture, and in this day when there ara be-
| trayals OF Christ on tho part of some of His
pretended apostles-a betrayal so black 1t
makes tho intamy of Judas Iscariot white
| Yet this man by his own hand hung up for
the execration OF all the ages, Judas Iscar;ot.
All the good men and women of the Bible
| left to God the decision Of their earthly ter
! minus, and they could have said with JOB,
who had n right to commit suicide if any
| man ever had-what with his destroyed
! property, and his body all afiame with insult
ferabla "arbunc!es, and everything gone
from his home except the chief curse of it
q pcstiferOus wife-and four garrulOus peO
Dlp DpltiOp him with oOmfOrtlpSS talk while
he sits a 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 Biblo is against this
evil and the aversion which it creates by the
lOatEsOmc and ghastly spectacle of those
who have hurled themselves out
of life, and Notwithstanding Christ
ianity is against it and the argu-
ments and the useful lives andthe ilIustrious
deaths of its disciples, it IS fact alarming
ly patent that suicide is on the increase.
What is the cause? l charge upon intidelity
and agnOsticism this whole thing. If there
be no hereafter, or if that hereafter be bliss
full 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 existence here becomes troublesome why
not pass right over into Eiysum? Put this
down among your most solemn reflections
there has never been q case of suicide
where the operator was not either demented,
and therefore irresponsible, an infidel. l
challenge all the ages, and | challenge the
who,C universe. There never has been
case of self destruction while in full appre-
citation of his Immortality and Of the fact
that that Immortality would be glorious or
wretched according as he accepted Jesus
Christ or rejected Him.
You say it is business trouble, or you say
oil &rICa r.ATofc 10 =
that or it is the other thing. Why not 90
clear back, my friend, and acknowledge that
in every case it IS the abdtcatiOn of reason or
the teaching of infdelity which practically
says. ''If you don't like this life, get out of
it, and you will land either in annihilation,
whore there are no notes to pay, no persecu-
tiOnS to suffer no gOut 10 torment, or you
will land where there will be everything
glorious and nothing to pay for it." Intdeli-
ty always has been apOlOgetic for self immo-
lation. After Tom Paine's cage of Reason"
was published and widely read there was
marked increase of Self-Slaughter.
Rousseau, Voltaire, Gibbon, Montaigne,
under certain circumstances, were apollo
getic for self inlnOatiOn. 1ntldelity puts up
no bar to peoples rushing out from this
world into the next. They teach US it does
not make any difference how you live here
or 90 out of this world, you will land either
in an OblivioUs nowhere or glorious some
where. And inhdeltty holds the upper end
OF tho rope for the suicide, and aims tho
pistol with which q man blows his brains
out, and mixes the strychnine for the last
swallow. If inddelity could carry the day
and persuade the ma Ority of people that 1t
does not made any difference how you go
out Of the world you will lanl safely, the
rivers would be so full of corpses the Jerry
boats would be impeded in their progress,
and the crack OF suicides pistol would be
no more alarming than the rumble Of street
car.
=
tence In the presence OF God and angels
and men, stand up, thou monster, thy lip
blasted with blasphemy, thy cheek SCARED
with lust, thy breath foul with the cOrrup-
tion of the ages Stand up, satyr, filthy
goat, buzzard Of the nations, leper of the
centuries! Stand up, thou monster infidel-
ity, part man, part panther, part reptile, part
dragon, stand up and take thy sentence!
Thy hand is red with the blood in which
thou hast washed, thy feet crimson with the
human gore through which thou hast Waded.
Stand up and take thy sentence! Down with
thee to the pit and sup on the sObs ana
grOanS of families thou hast blasted, and roll
on the bed of knives which thou hast sharp
ened for others, and let thy music be the
everlasting miserere OF those whom thou
hast damned! [ brand the iorehcl Of inf
deity with all the crimes of self immo,at;On
Tor the last century Oh the p2rt of those Wlo
had their reason.
My friends, ii ever your life through its
aHraSlOIS ana its mO!eStatiOn5 should s.Um
TO he unbearable, and you are tempted to
quit il by your own behPst, do not consider
yourselves as worse than others. Christ
Himself was tempted to east Himself from
the roof of the temple, but as He resisted so
resist ye. Christ came to medicine all our
wounds. In your trouble / prescribe life in
stead of death. People who have had it
worse than you will ever have it have gone
sOngful on their way. Remember that God
keeps the chronology of your life with as
much precision as He keeps the chronology
OfnatiOns.
Why was 1t at midnight. just at midnight,
the destroying angel struck the blow that
set the 1sraelltes free from bondage? The
43O years were up at II O'Clock that night.
The 430 years were not up at II, and o clock
would have been tardy and too late. The
430 years were up at II o'clock. and the de-
stroying angel struck the blow, and Israel
was free And God knows just the hour
when it is time to lead you up from earthly
bondage. BY his grace make not the worst
OF things, but the best of them. If you must
take the pills. do not chew them. Your ever
lasting rewards will accord with your earthly
perturbations, just as CaiuS gave to Agrippa
a chain of gold as heavy as had been his
chain OF iron. For your asking you may
have the same grace that was given to the
Italian martyr, Algerius, who, down in the
darkest of dungeons, dated his letter from
"'the delectable orchard Of the Leonine pris-
oD."
There is a sorrowless world, and 1t Is 50
radiant that the MONDAY sun Is only tho
lowest doorstep. and tho aurora that lights
up our northern heavens, confounding as
tronomers as to what it can be, is the way
ing of the ba nners of the procession come
to take the coGquerors home from church
militant to church triumphant and you and
1 have 10000 reasons for wanting to 90
there, but we will never get there either by
self immolation or impenitency All our
sins slain by the Christ who came to do that
diviney arranged and from couch divine
ly spread, and then the clang of the sepul-
chral gates behind US will be overpowered
by the clang of the opening of the solid
pearl before US. Q God, whatever others
Christians dea,l n Christians hurjaI a