The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1894-08-15

NNWA ohVuB your WOSt bOlctuu TO
Elections, and consider 1t after you go
to your home; there has never been
case ofsuicide where the operator was
not either demented, and therefore ir-
responsible, or an infidel. l challenge
all the ages, and challenge the whole
universe. There has never 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 it is electrical currents, or it is this,
or 1t is that, or it is the other thing.
Why not go clear back, my friend, and
acknowledge that in every case it is the
abdication 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 annihila-
tion, where there are no notes to pay,
no prosecutions to suffer, no gout to
torment, or you will land where there
will be everything glorious, and moth
ing to pay for it." Infdelity always
has been apologetic for self-immola-
tion. After Tom Paine's cage of Rea-
son" was published and widely read
there was a marked increase of self
slaughter.
A man in London heard Mr.. Owen de-
liver his infdel 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 de-
ception," and then shot himself. David
Hume wrote these words: "It would
be no crime for me todivert the Nile or
the Danube from it's natural bed.
Where, then, can be the crime in my
diverting few drops of blood from
their ordinary channelP" And having
written the essay, he loaned it to
friend; the friend read 1t, wrote a let
ter OF thanks and admiration, and then
shot himself. Appendix to the same
book.
Rousseau, voltaire, Gibbon, Mon
taigne, under certain circumstances,
were apologetic for self-immolation.
Infdelity puts up no bar to people
rushing out from this world into the
next. They teach us it does not make
any difference how you live here or go
out Of this world, you will land either
in an oblivious nowhere or glorious
somewhere. And infdelity holds the
upper end Of the rope for the suicide,
and aims the pistol with which man
blows his brains out, and mixes the
strychnine for the last swallow. If in
! fidelity could carry the day and per-
suade the majority Of people that 1t
does not make any difference how you
go out Of the world you will land safe
ly, the rivers would be so full of corpses
the ferryboats would be impeded in
their progress, and the crack of the
suicides pistol would be no more alarm
: ing than the rumble of a street car.
have sometimes heard it discussed
whether the great dramatist was q
] Christian or not. do not know, but l
| know that he considered appreciation
OF future existence the mightiest him
drance to self-destruction.
For who would bear the whips and scorns Of
time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud mans con-
tumely,
The pangs OF despis'd love- the laws delay,
The insolence Of office, and the spurns
| That patient merit Of the unworthy takes.
When he himself might his quietus make
| With bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under weary life,
But that the dread OF something after death
/ The undiscovered country, from whose bourne
| No traveller returns-puzzles the will.
Would God that the coroners would
be brave in rendering the right verdict,
and when in the case of responsibility
they say, "While this man was de-
mented he took his life," in the other
case say, Having read infidel books
and attended infdel lectures, which
obliterated from this mans mind all
appreciation of anything like future
retribution he committed self-slaugh-
ter"
| All! infdelity, stand up and take thy
sentence! In the presence of God and
angels and men, stand up, thou mon
ster, thy lip blasted with blasphemy,
| thy cheek SCARED with lust, thy breath
foul with the corruption of the ages!
Stand up, Satyr, filthy goat, buzzard
of the nations, leper of the centuries!
Stand up, thou monster in6delity Part
man, part panther, part reptile, part
dragon, stand up and take thy SEN
tence! Thy hands 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 and groans
of families thou hast blasted, and roll
on the bed of knives which thou hast
sharpened for others, and let thy music
be the everlasting miserere of those
whom thou hast damned! l brand the
forehead of infdelity with all the
crimes of self-immolation for the last
century on the part of those who had
their reason.
My friends, if ever your life through
It's abrasions and its molestations
should seem to be unbearable and you
are tempted to quit it by your own be-
hest, do not consider yourselves as
worse than others Christ himself was
tempted to cast himself from the roof
Of the temple; but as he resisted,
so resist ye. Christ came to medi-
cine all our wounds. In your
trouble prescribe life instead of death.
People who have had it worse than you
will ever have it have gone songful on
their way. Remember that God keeps