The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1894-08-15


Revelations xxi. s. "Murderers shall
have their part in the lake which
burneth with fire and birthstone" Revel-
alton xxi, 10. WITHOUT are dogs and sor-
cerers and whoremongers and murder
ers." You do not believe the new tesla
ment? Then perhaps you believe the
ten commandments, Thou shalt not
Kill" Do you say all these passages re-
fer 10 the taking Of the life OF others
Then 1 ask you if you are not as respon-
sible for your own life as for the life OF
others. God gave you a special trust In
your life. He made you the custodian OF
your life as he made you the custodian
of not other life he gave you as weapons
VIII which 70 defend II two arms 10
strike back assailants, two eyes TO
waech for invasion and a natural love of
life which ought ever TO be on the alert.
Assassination OF others is a mild crime
compared with the assassination of your
self, because in the latter case IL Is
treachery TO an especial trust; II is the
surrender of a castle you were especially
appointed to keep; ii is treason TO a
natural law, and II is treason 10 COD
added to ordinary murder.
To show how God in the bible looked
upon this crime l point YOU to the
rogues' picture gallery in some parts OF
the bible, the pictures of the people who
have committed this unnatural crime
Here IS the headless trunk of Saul on
the walls OF Bathshan. Here is the man
who chased little David-ten feet in
stature chasing four. 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 slay him, and when
then 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 AhithOpel,
the Machiaveli of olden times, betraying
| his best friend, David, in order 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 a short
cut of q disgraced life into the suicides
eternity. There he is, the migrate.
Worse Than Judas.
Here is Abime.ech. practically a il
| eide He is with an army, bombarding
tower. when a woman in the tower takes
| a grlndstone 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
me. lest men say a woman slew me"
! There is his post norton photograph in
the book of Samuel. But the hero of this
group is Judas Isc3riOt. DR.. Dome says
| he was a martyr. and we have in our day
| apologlsts for him. And what wonder, in
| this day when we have a book revealing
Aaron Burr as q pattern of virtue, and in
| this day when we uncover a statue to
| George Sand as the benefactress Of Htera-
| ture. and this day when there are be-
trdyals of Christ on the part Of some of
| His pretended apostles betrayal so
| back it makes the infamy of Judas Is
CARROT white! Yet this man by his own
hand hung up for the execration of all
TnnT TE-faa fraHra
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 a right 10 commit
| suicide if any man ever had. what with
| his destroyed property and his body all
ahame with insufferable carbuncles and
everything gone from his home except
| the chief curse Of it-a pestiferous wife
and four garrugous people pelting him
| with comfort,ess talk while he sits on
| heap of ashes, scratching his scabs with
a piece of broken pottery, yet crying out
| in triumph, ''All the days Of my ap-
pointed time will l wait till my change
come"
The Prime Cause.
Notwithstanding the bible is against
this evH and the aversion which it
| creates by the loathsome and CHASTITY
| spectacle 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 il
lustrious deaths of its disciples. it is
| fact alarmingly patent that suicide is on
| the increase. What is the cause? !
| charge upon infidelity and agnosticism
| this whole thing. If there be no here
| after, or If that hereafter be blissful
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 be
| comes troublesome why not pass right
| over into Elysium? Put this down
| among your most solemn reflections and
| consider 1t after you go to your homes:
/ There has never been a case of suicide
| where the operator was not either de-
| mented and therefore irresponsible or an
| inhdel. / challenge all the ages, and
| challenge the whole universe There
| never has been a case of self-destruction
\ while in full appreciation of his inn
| mortality and of the fact that that i'm
mortality would be glorious or wratche1,
| according as he accepted Jesus Christ
| or rejected Him.
| You say it IS business trouble, or you
| say IL is electrical currents, or it is this,
| or it is that, or it is the other thing.
| Why not 60 clear back, my friend, and
| acknowledge that in every case it IS the
| abdica ton Of reason or the teaching Of
| inhdelity, which practically says, IF you
| QOU IhG llllS HE, SCL Oul VI IL anu
| you viii land either in annihila ton,
| where there are no notes 10 pay, no
! prosecutions TO suffer, no govt TO tor
| ment. or you will land where there will
| be everything glorious and nothing TO
! pay for it, Infidelity always has been
| apologetic for self-immolation. After
| Tom Paine's age of Reason" was pub
| lshed and widely read there was a
marked increase Of self-slaughter.
ApoIOgists for Suicide.
| A man in London heard Mr.. Owen de-
| liver his infldel lecture on Socialism"
and went home and sat down and wrote
these words: Jesus Christ is one of the
weakest characters in history. and the
bible is the greatest possible deception .
and then shot himself. David Hume
| wrote these words: 1T would be no
| crime for me to divert the Nile or the
| Danube from its natural bed. Where,
| then, can be the crime in my diverting a
| few drops of blood from their ordinary
| channel?" And having written the es-
| say, he loaned it to a friend. The friend
| read it. wrote a letter of thanks and ad-
/ miratiOn and then shot himself Appen-
| dix to the same book.
| Rousseau, Voltaire, Gibbon, Montaigne,
| under certain circumstances. were apollo
| getic for self-immolation. Infidelity 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
| land either in an obliviOus nowhere or a
| oil And fnfi6alitHr holds