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

has never been a case Of suicide where
the operator was not either demented,
and therefore irresponsible, or an inf
del, l challenge all the ages, and 1
challenge the whole universe. There
has been a case of self-destruc-
ton while in full appreciation 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 currer's, or it is
this, Or II 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 eas or
the teaching of infidelity which prac-
tically says: IF you don't like this
life, get out Of it, and you will land
either in humiliation, where there are
no notes to pay, no prosecutions to
suffer, no govt to torment, or you will
land where there will be everything
glorious and nothing to pay for it. In
fidelity always has been apolOgetic for
self-immolation. After Tom Paine's
age of Reason was published and
widely read there was a marked in
crease of se~lf-slaughter.
A man in London heard Mr.. Owen
deliver his infidel lecture IN socialism,
and went home and sat down n
wrote these words: Jesus Christ is
one of the weakest characters in his
tory, and the Bible is the greatest pos
..llo an. J, aud than ahnf HIM
self. David Hume wrote these words:
ut would be no crime for me to divert
the Nile or the Danub 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 essay, he loaned 1t
to q friend; the friend read it, wrote a
letter Of thanks and admiration, and
hen shot himself. Appendix to the
same book.
Rousseau, Voltaire, Gibbon, Mon
taigne, under certain circumstances,
were apologize for self-immolation.
Inidelity 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 60
out Of this world, you will land either
In an oblivious nowhere OF q glorious
somewhere. And infdelity 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
strychnine for the last swallow.
l have sometimes heard 1t discussed
whether the great dramatist was q
Christian or not. do not know, but J
know that he considered appreciation
of a future existence the mightiest
hindrance to self-destruction:
For who would bear the whips and scorns o.
time.
The oppressor's wrong. the proud mans con-
Tho uanay ., ss.,,s,a love tina ,aw.s as,.v.
The insoienoe Of once, and the spurns
That patient merit Of the unworthy takes.
When he himself might ms quietus make
W. nm, ana s~sat un%sr . ~sarv lie
But that the dread of somethins after death
The undiscovered country from whose bourne
No traveller returns-pusne the WILL
Would God that the would
be brave In rendering the right verdict
and when in the case of irresponsible.
ity they say: while this man was de
mented he took his life," in the other
case say: Having read inadel book,
and attended in1del lectures, which oh.
liberated from this mans mind all ap
probation of anything like future retri
button, he committed felf-slaughter!'
All! ~Infdelity, stand up and take thy
sentence! In the presence Of God ant
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, buzzart
OF the nations, leper Of the centuries
/ Stand up, thou monster Infdelity
Part man, part panther, part reptile
part dragon, stand up and take tn.
sentence! Thy hands red with tn,
blood In which thou hast washed, tn,
feet crimson with the human gor
through which thou hast waded, stan,
up and take thy sentenced! Down witt
thee to the pit and sup on the sobs an,
groans Of families thou hast blasted
and roll On the bed OF knives which
thou hast sharpened for others, and lie
thy music be the everlasting miserer
of those whom thou has damned!
brand the forehead Of Infidelity will
all the crimes of self-immolatiOn 70
the last century on the part Of tbos
who had their reason.
My friends, II ever your life throug
its attractions and its molestation
should seem to be unbesrable, and 20
are tempted to quit 1t by your be
hest, do not consider yourselves q
worse than others. Christ himself wa
tempted 10 asst Himself from the roc
Of the temple; but as He resisted, 20 r,
sist We. Christ came to medicine a
our wounds. In your trouble I pr,
scribe life instead of death.
Why was 1t that at midnight, just q
midnight, the destroying angel struc
the blow that set the Israelites FIRE
from bondage? The $50 years were u
at la o'clock that night The 40 wei
not up at IL, and at ! o'clock woul
have been tardy aud too late. The 4;
q we're up at IL o'clock, and til
destroying angel struck the blow tbs
Israel was free. And God knows jul
nm from earthly bondage. Nv Hia ora.
make not the worst Of things, but Il
best of them.
Tn ere is a sorrowless world. and It
SO radiant that the MONDAY sun il onl
the lowest doorstep and the aurol
that lights up our northern heaven
nfoundin0 as 10 what
can be IA the waving of the hanna
of the procession come TO take the co,
ouerors home from churob militant