The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-07-11

'Blind unbelief Is sure 10 err
And scan His work in vain;
God is his own interpreter,
And he Will make it plain"
While we make this merciful and right
eous allowance in regard 10 those VINO
were plunged into mental incOherence, 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, gees
straight into perdtion. Shall / prove IL!
Revelations 21:8-"Murderers shall nave
their part in The }ake which burneth win
fire and birthstone" Revelation 2: ID
without are dogs and sorcerers ana
whoremongers and murdcrers." You 90
not believe the New Testament linen
perhaps, you believe the Ten Command
ments: Thou shalt not kill" do you say
that an these passages refer to the taxing
of the life OF others? Then ! ask you II
YOU are not as responsible for your own
life as for the life of others2 Coo gave
YOU a special trust in life, and made you
the custodian of your life, ana ne hdHe
you the custodian of no other me lie
gave you as weapons with which 70 deIend
it, two arms to strike back assam ANS
two eyes to watch for invasion, and
natural dove of life which ought ever 70
be on the alert Assassination OF others Is
a mild crime compared with the aSsaSsl-
nation of yourself, because in the latter
case II as iIEdclltIS 70 az Saly'Diei 49, ~
is the surrender of a castle you were es-
pecially appointed to keep it as treason
to a natural law. and it is treason to Coo
added TO ordinary murder.
To show how God in the Bible looked
upon this crime, / point you to the rogueS
picture gallery in some parts OF the blple'
the pictures of the people who nave COM
mitted this unnatural crime. Here Is the
headless trunk of Saul on the walls OF
Bathshan. Here is the man who chased
little David-ten feet in stature chaslhs
four Here Is the man who consulted
clairvoyant Witch of Endor. Here Is a
man who whipped in battle, instead OF
surrendering his sword with dignity, as
many a man has done. asks his servant TO
slay him, and when that servant declined,
then the giant planted the hilt OF his sword
in the earth, the sharp point sticking up
ward and he throws his body on 1t and
expires-the coward the suicide! Here
is Ahitophel, the Machiavelli 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 at parrcide. Not getting what
he wanted by change of politics, he takes
a short cut out of a disgracetul Life into
the suicides eternity. There he Is, the
lngratei
Here is Abimelech, practically a sui
eide He IS with an army, bombarding a
tower, when woman in the tower takes
grindslone from its place and drops 1t
upon his head. and with what life he has
left in his cracked skull he commands his
armor-bearer: Draw thy sword and Stay
me lest men say a woman slew me.
There is his post-mortem photograph in
the book of Samuel.
But the hero of this group is Judas Is
CARROT DR.. Dome says he was a martyr,
and we have in our day apolOgists for
| him. And what wonder, in this day when
we have a book revealing Aaron Burr as
| pattern of virtue, and this day when we
| uncover a statue of George Sand as the
benefactress of litera ture, and in this day
| when there are betrayals of Christ on the
! part of some of his pretended apostles
| a betrayal SO black il makes the infamy
| of Judas Iscariot white Yet this man by
his own hand hung up for the eXecration
of all ages, judas lscariot.
! 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 right to commit
suicide. If any man ever had, what with
his destroyed property and his body all
alame with insufferable carbuncles and
everything gone from his home except the
chief curse of it. a pestiferous wife and
four garrulous people pelting him with
| comfortless talk while he sits on a heap
| of ashes scratching his scabs with a piece
| of broken pottery, yet crying out in tri-
umph,. "All the days of my appointed time
win l wait, till my change comes.
Notwithstanding the Bible is against
| this evil. and the aversion which it creates
by the loathsome and CHASTITY spectacle of
those who have hurled themselves out of
Bfe, and Notwithstanding Christianity is
1 against it and the arguments and the use
full lives and the illustrious deaths of its
! disciples II Is fact alarmingly patent
that suicide IS on the increase What is
bo I i0fidp1itV and
asnosticism this whole thing. If there
he no hereafter, or if that hereafter be
blissful without reference to how we live
and how we die, why not move BACK the
folding doors between this world and the
next? And when our existence here be-
GENES 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
operator was not either demented. and
therefore irresponsible, or an intidel.
challenge all the ages and l challenge the
universe. There never has been a case Of
self-destruction while i'm full appreciation
of his immortality and of the fact thai
that Immortality would be glorious OF
wretched according as he accepted Jesus
Christ or rejected him.
You say 1t is a business trouble or YOU
say 1t is electrical currents or it is this o
it is that or it is the other thing. VIII,
edge that in every case it is the abdica
ton of reason or the teaching of intdeit.
I which practically says: IF you don't lilI
this life get out of il. and you viii LAM
either in humiliation, where there are NJ
notes to pay, no prosecutions to suffer M
govt 10 torment, or you viii land wher
there VIII be everything glorious and moth
! ing to pay for it." Infidelity has Away
been apologize for self-immolation. Ate
Tom Paine's Age of Reason" was pub
lished and widely read there was a mark
ed increase of self-slaughter.
A man in London heard Mr.. owen deliv
er his mhdel lecture on socialism, an
went home, sat down, and wrote thes
words: Jesus Christ IS one of the weak
est characters in history. and the Bible j
> the greatest possible deception" and the
shot himself. David Hume wrote thes
words: 1T would be no crime for me t
divert the Nile or The Danube from its ma
, tural bed. Where, then, can be the Grim
in my diveruug a few drops of blood fror
| ordinary oh n N.r,.it