The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1894-08-22

DlluO uuptIlSl Is SUlC w Gil
And scan his work in vain,
God is his own interpreter,
And he will make it plain.
While We mske this merciful AM
righteous allowance in regard to thos'
who were plugged into mental incoher,
erce declare that the man who IN th'
use OF his reason bY his own act snaps
the bond between bis body and bis sou
goes straight into perG!tlon. Shall
prove il? Revelation XXI, S, Murder
ers shsll have their part in the lake tha
burueth with fire and birthstone" Rev
elation xxi, Is, Without are dogs an(
sorcerers and whoremongers and mur
derers." You do rot believe the New
Testament: Then perhaps YOU oel,eT'
the Ten Commandments, Thou shall
rot KILL" Do you say all these pas
sages refer to the taking OF the lie 0
otherss Then | ask ycu if you are no
as responsible for your own lite as fol
the life OF others9 God gave you aspe
clal trust in your life. re made you the
custodian CT your life as he made yor
the custodian Of no other lie. He gave
YOU as weapons with which to defend il
two arms to strike back assaillants, two
eyes 10 watch for invasion and natura
love Of lie which ought ever to be oC
the alert. Assassination OF others Is s
mild CRIME com pared with the assass;na
ton of yourself, because in the latter
case it is treschary to an especial trust
it is the surrender Of a castle you were
especially appointed to keep; it is trea
son to natural law, and it treason tc
God added to ordinary murder.
TO show how God in the Bible looked
upon this crime I point you to the
rogues' picture gallery in some psrts OF
the Bible, the pictures OF the people who
have committed this unnatural crime
Here is the headiess trunk Of Saul on
the walls of Bathshan. Here is the
man who chased little David-l0 feet in
stature chasing 4. Here is the.man who
Consulted clairvoyant. witch Of Endor.
Here is man who, whipped in battle.
instead of surrendering his sword with
dignity, as many a man has done, 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 hs
throws his body on it and expires, the
coward, the suicide! Here is Ahithopel,
the Machlavelli Of olden times, betray.
ing his best friend David in order that
he may become prime minister Of Absa'
lom and joining that fellow ia his at
temp. at parricide. Not getting what
he wanted by change of politics, he takes
q short cut out of a disgraced life into
a suicides eternity. There he Is, the
migrate!
Here is Abimelech, practically sui.
eide. He IS with an army DO nbarding
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 a cracked skull he
commands his armor bearer, "Draw thy
sword and slay 1ne, lest men say wo-
man slew me-" There is his post NOR.
tenn photograph 10 the book of Samuel.
But the hero Of this group IS Judas Is
cariot. DR.. Donne says he was mar
tyr, and We have in our day spolglsts
for him. Aud what wonder, in this day
when we have q book revealing Aaron
Burr IS pattern Of virtue, and in this
day when we uncover 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 infauY 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 cf the
Bible left to God the decision Of their
earthly terminus, and they could have
said with Job, who had right to com.
nit suicide if any man ever had, what
with his destroyed property and bis
body all aAsme with insuferable car.
buncles and everything gone from bis
home except the chief curse of it-a pes
tiferous wife-and four garrulous people
peltlng him with comfortless talk while
he sits on heap Of ashes, scratching his
scabs with piece o. broken pottery,
yet crying out in triumph, "All the days
Of my appointed time will l wait till my
change come"
Notwithstanding the Bible is against
this evil and the aversion which 1t cre-
ates by the losthsome and CHASTITY spec
tacle of those who have hurled them
selves out of life, and Notwithstanding
Christianity is against it and the argu-
ments and the useful lives and the illus
trieus deaths of its disciples, it is a fact
patent that suicide is on the
increase. What IS the cause? charge
upon infdelity and agnostlcism this
whole thing. IF there be no hereafter
or if that hereafter be bllssful without
reference to how we live and how we die
why not move back the folding doors
between this world and the nexls And
when our existence here becomes troub-
lesome why not pass right over into Ely.
siums Put this down among your most
solemn reflections and consider it after
you 60 10 your homes: There has never
been case Of suicide where the opera
tor was not either demented and there
fore Irresponsible or an in6del. I chal-
!enge all the ages, an: challenge the
whole inverse. There has never been
3 case of self destruction while n full
of bis Immortality and of the
fact that that Immortality would be
glorious or Wretched, according as he
accepted Jesus Christ or rejected him.
You savit is business trouble, OF you
say 1t is electrical currents, or 1t is this,
Or it is that or it is the other thing. Why
not go clear back, my friend, and &C.
snowledge that il every case 1t is the
abdication Of reason or the teaching OF
which practically says, "lt
you don't like this lie, get out Of It,"
And you will land either in annihilatlon,
where there are no notes to pay no per-
,ecuticns to suffer, no gout to torment,
or you will land where there will be
everything glorious and nothing to pay
or It. In6delity always has been apol-
,getic for self immolstion. After Tom
Do;,.3, 6, A o<a &c Deoeop13 MOO ,,phl;ehe1