The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1894-08-18

and rode to the river Thames, but
found n man seated on some goods at
the very point from which he expected
to spring, and rode back to his home,
and that night threw himself upon his
own knife, but the blade broke, and
then he hanged himself to the ceiling,
but the rope parted. No wonder that
when God mercifully delivered him
from hat awful dementia he sat down
and wrote that other hymn just rs
memorable:
God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform:
He plants His footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.
Blind unbclief is sure to err
And scan His work In vain;
God is His own interpreter
And lie will make IL plain.
While we make this merciful and
righteous allowance in regard to those
who were plunged into mental inco-
herence, l declare that the man who in
the use of his reason, by his own act,
snaps the bond between his body and
his soul, goes straight into perdition.
Shall / prove it? Revelation xxi. 8:
''Murderers shall ave their part in the
lake which burneth with fire and brim-
stone" Revelation xxi. Is: without
are dogs and sorcercrs, Inc whore
mongers, and murderers." You do
not believe the New Testament?
Then, perhaps, you believe the
Ten Commandments: Thou shalt
not kill" DO you say all these passages
refer to the taking of the life of others?
Then l ask you If you are not RESPONSE
BILE for your own life as for the life Of
others? God gave you a special trust
in you life. He made you the custodian
of your life as he made you the custo-
dian of no other life. He gave you as
weapons with which to defend it two
arms to strike back assailants, two
eyes to watch for invasion, and a ma
tural love Of life which ought ever to
be on the alert. Assassination Of
others is n mild crime compared with
the assassination of yourself, because
in the. latter case it is ~treachery to an
especial trust, it is the surrender of a
castle you were especially appointed to
keep, il is treason to a natural law and
il is treason to God 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-1O
feet in stature chasing 4. Here is the
man who consulted q clairvoyant,
Witch of Endor. Here Is a man who,
whipped in battle, instead Of surren-
dering his sword with dignity, as many
q man has done, asks his servant to
slay him, and when the ervant de-
clines, 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 become prime minister to Absa-
LON, and joining hat fellow in his at
tempt at parricide. Not getting what
he wanted by change of politics, he
takes a short cut out of a disgraced
life into suicides eternity. There he
is, the migrate.
Here is Abimelech, practically q
suicide. He is with an army BON
harding a tower, when a woman in the
tower takes a grindstone from its
place and drops IL 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 slew me-" There Ii
his post mortem photograph in the
Book OF Samuel. But the hero of thi,
group is Judas Iscariot. DIR. Dome
says he was a martyr, and we have in
our day apologists for him. And what
wonder, in this day when we have q
book revealing Aaron Burr as a pattern
Of virtue, and in this day when W. I'M
cover u statue to George Sand al tn,
b~enefactress to literature, and in thii
day when there are ~betrayals of Chris
on the part of some Of his pretended
apostles-a betrayal 30 black it makes
the infamy of Judas Iscariot whits
Yet this man by his own hand hung VI
for the execration Of all the ages, Juda'
Iscariot.
All the good men and women Of tn
Bible left to God the decision of thei
earthly terminus, and they could hav,
said with Job, who had q right to com
nit suicide If any man ever had-wha
with his destroyed property, and hi
body all afiame with insufferable cal
buncles, and everything gone from hi
home except the chief curse Of 1t,
pestiferous wife and four garrulou
people pelting him with comfortles
talk while he sits on a heap of ashe
scratching his scabs with a piece @
broken pottery, yet crying out in trt
umph: 'All the days of my appOints
time will l wait till my change come.
Notwithstanding the Bible is agains
this evil, and the aversion which
creates by the loathsome and ghastl
spectacle Of those who have bnris
themselves out Of life, and notwitf
standing Christianity is against it, an
the arguments and the useful lives an
the illustrious deaths of its disciples,
is a fact alarmingly patent that suicid
is on the increase. What Is the cause
| charge upon infidelity and agnosti'
ism this whois thing. II there be n
! hereafter, or il that hereafte
be blissful without reference to ho'
we live and how we die, why nc
move back the folding doors betwee
this world and the next? And whe
our existence here becomes troubl,
some, why not pass right over int
Efysium? Put this down among yor
most solemn reflections, and consids
it after you go to your homes; theI