The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-07-22

their part in the a Ks which burneth
with fire and mrimstone." Revelation
xxi, Is, Without are dogs and sorcerers
and whoremongers and murderers.' You
not believe the New Testament? Then
perhaps you believe the Ten Command
ments, Thou shalt not kill" Do you
say that all these passages refer to the
taking of the life Of others? Then l ask
you If you are not as responsible for
your own life as for the life OF others?
God gave you a special trust in life and
made you the custodian Of your life,
and he made you the custodian of no
other life. He gave you as eapon
with which to defend 1t two arms TO
strike back a~ssailants. two eyes to watch
for invasion and a natural love OF life
which ought ever TO De on the dIerL
Assassination of others IS a mlid crime
compared with the ASSASSINATION o. YOU
self, because in the latter case II rs
treachery to an especial trust II IS the
surrender of a castle you were eSpecldl-
Iy appointed to keep. 1t is treason 10 a
natural law, and 1t Is treason 10 IoO do-
ded- to ordinary murder.
A mBLICAL ROGUES' GALLERY.
To show how God in the Bible looked
rogues' picture gallery in some parts OF
the Bible, the pictures OF the peopIe
who have committed TINS immature
crime. Here is the headless trunk o.
Saul on the walls Of Bathshan. mere
is the man who chased little DaVlo-1e
feet in statue chasing 4. Here Is the
man who consulted d cldLl IA -
of Endor. Here is a man who, nlppe
in battle, instead OF su~rrenderlng ms
sword with dignity, as many d man mas
done, asks his servant to STAY hlIn' ana
when that servant declined then the
giant plants the hilt Of his sword In the
earth, the sharp point sticking upward
and he throws his body on 1t ana ex-
pires-the coward, the suicide! here Is
Ahitophel.j 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 to parricide. Not
politics, ne takes a short cut out Of a
d-isgraceful life into the suicides eter-
nifty. There he is, the migrate!
Here is Abimelech, practically a sui
a tower, when a woman in the tower
takes a grindstone from its place and
drops it Upon his head and with what
life he has left in his cracked skull he
commands his armor bearer, Draw thy
sword and slay me lest men say a woman
slew mei' There is his post mortem
photograph in the book Of Samuel.
But the hero of this group is Judas
Iscariot. DR.. Dome says he was a mar
tyr, and we nave in our day apologists
for him.. And what wonder in this day
when we have a book revealing, Aaron
Burr as a pattern Of virtue and this day
when we uncover a statue of George
Sand as the benefactress Of literature
and in this day when there are betrayals
VI NIl1Sl III lit pdII VI SOIIc IL liz pic
tended apostles, a betrayal so black it
makes the infamy of Judas 1scariot
white! Yet this man. by his own hand,
hung up for the eXecration of all ages,
Judas 1sacriot.
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 to com
nit suicide if any man ever had, what
with his destroyed property and his
body all aflame with insufferable car
buncles and everything gone from his
home except the chief curse of it, a pes
tiferous wife and four garrulous peo-
pie pelting him with comfortless talk
while he sits on a heap Of ashes scratch
pottery, yet crying out in triumph, AL
the days Of my appoint I'd time will l
wait till my change com IS"
Notwithstanding the Bible is against
this evil and the aversion which it Gre
ates by the loathsome and CHASTITY spec
tacle of those who have hurled them
selves out Of life, and Notwithstanding
Christianity is against it and the argu-
trious deaths of it's disciples. it is a fact
alarmingly patent that suicide is on the
increase. What is the cause? I charge
W WP1h thing. If t anq bgn1 no hereaf fhl4
or if that hereafter be blissful without
reference to how we live and how we
die. why not o back the folding
doors between this world and the next?
And when our existence here becomes
troublesome why not pass right over into
elysium? Put this down among your
most solemn reflections. There has never
been a case of suicide where the opera
tor was not either demented, and there
fore irresponsible or an infidel. I chal-
1enge all the ages and I challenge the
universe. There never has been a case
of self-destruction while in full appreci-
alton of his immortality and of the fact
that that Immortality would be glorious
or wretched according as he accepted
| Jesus Christ Of rejected him.
INSANITY AND INFTDELITY.
You say it is a business trouble OF
you say is it electrical currents or it is
this or it is that or it is the other
thing. Why not go clear back, my
friend, and acknowledge that in every
teaching of intidelity, which practically
says, IF you don't like this life, ge-
out Of it, and you will land either ir
humiliation, 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 nothing
to pay for it." 1nfidelity has always beer
apologize for self immolation. After
Tom Paine age of Reason was pub.
lished and widely read there was &
marked increase of self slaughter.
A man in London heard Mr.. Owen de,
liver his infide lecture on socialism ant
went home, sat down and wrote these
words, Jesus Christ is one of the weak.
est characters in history, and the Bible
is the greatest possible deception anC
then shot himself. David Hume wrote
these words: TT would be no crime fol-
me to divert the Nile or the Danube
from its natural bed. Where, then, car
be the crime in my diverting a few
drops of blood from their ordinary chan
nel?' And having written the essay he
Loaned it to a friend; the friend read it
wrote a letter of thanks and admiration
and shot himself. Appendix to the same
book.
Rousseau, Voltaire, Gibbon, Montaigne
were apologize for self immolation. In
Fidelity puts up no bar to people rush
ing 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 some
where. 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 s~trychnine for
the last swallow. If infidelity could car
ry the day and persuade the majority of
people in this country that it does not
make any difference how you go out of
this world you will land safely, the Po-
tomac would be SO full of corpses the
boats would be impeded in their pro-
sress. and the crack of the suicides pis-
tol would be no more alarming than the
rumble of a street car.
oNn 49,