The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1894-08-24

fidelity always has been apologize for
self-immolation. After Tom Paine's
age of Reason" was published and
/ widely read there was marked in
crease Of se1f-slauehter.
A man in London heard Mr.. Owen
delivered his ihfide1 lecture on social
| ism, and went home and sat down and
| wrote these words: Jesus Christ Is
one OF the weakest characters in his
tory, and the Bible is the greatest pos
sible deception" and then shot him
self 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 ehanne1?''
And having written the essay he
loaned it to friend; the friend read it,
wrote a letter of thanks and admira-
ton, and then shot himself Appendix
to the same book
Rousseau, Vo1taire, Gibbon, Mon
taigne, under certain circumstances,
where apologize for self immolation.
Infdelity 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 go
out of this world, you will land either
in an oblivious nowhere or a glorious
| somewhere. And infidelity holds
the upper end of the rope for
the suicide, and aims the pistol
with which a man blows his brains
out, and mixes the strvchnine for the
last swallow. If infide1ity could carry
the day and persuade the majority of
people that it does not make any differ
ence how you go out of the world you
will land safely, the rivers would be so
full of corpses the ferryboats would be
impeded in their progress, and the
crack of suicides pistol would be no
more alarming than the rumble of
street car.
have sometimes heard it discussed
whether the great dramatist was a
Christian or not. / do not know, but
know that he considered apprecia-
ton of a future existence the mighei-
est hindrance to self-destruction.
For who would bear the whips and scorns Of
time,
The oppressor's wrong. the proudman' 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 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 travel returns-puzzles the will
Ali Infdelity, stand up and take thy
sentence! In the presence of God and
angels and men, stand up, thou mon
ster, thy lips 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 centuriesi
Stand up, thou monster Infidelity!
Part man, part panther, part reptile,
part dragon, stand up and take
thy sentence! 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
its 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 re-
sist We. Christ came to medicine all
our wounds. In your trouble l pre-
scribe 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 the
chronology of your life with as much
precision as He keeps the chronology of
nations-your death as well as your
birth, your grave as well as your
cradle.
Why was it that at midnight, just
at midnight, the destroying angel |
struck the blow that set the Israelites
free from bondage? The four hundred |
and thirty years were up at twelve |
o'clock that night. The four hundred |
and thirty were not up at eleven, and |
one o'clock would have been tardy |
and too late. The four hun |
dred and thirty years were |
up at twelve o'clock, and the de- |
stroying angel struck the blow that |
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 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 Ital-
ian martyr, Algerius, who, down in tho
darkest of dungeons, dated his letter
from 1.-The deleetable orchard of the
Leonine prison.
And remember that this brief life of
ours is surrounded by a rim, a very thin
but very important rim, and close up
to that rim is great eternity, and you
had better keep out of it until God
breaks that rim and separates this
from that. To get rid of the sorrows
of earth. do not rush into greater sor-
rows. To get rid of swarm of SAM
mer insects, leap not into a jungle of
Bengal tigers.