Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1898-07-21
wrote tina, other hymn Just as memoir.


Blind unbelief is sure to err,
And scan his WORK in vain;
God is His own Interpreter,
And He will make it plain.
While we make this mercitul and
righteous allowance in regard TO those
wlo were plunged into mental inco.
herence, l declare that the man who,
in the use of his reason, by his own
act, snaps the string between his body
and his soul, goes straight into per,
dition. Shall prove it? Revelations
xxi, 8: "Murderers shall have their
part in the lake which burneth with
fire and birthstone" Revelations xii,
Is: without are dogs and sorcerers
and whoremongers and murderers y
You do not believe the New Testament?
Then, perhaps, you believe the ten
commandments: Thou shalt not kill. ;
Do you say that all these passages
refer to the taking of the life OF
others? Then 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 weapons with which to de.
fend it two arms to strike back assail.
ants, two eyes to watch for invasion and
natural love of life which ought ever
to be on the alert Assassination OF
others is 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; 1t is treason to a natural law, and
it 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's 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. II ere
is the man who chased little David-ten
feet in stature chasing four. Here
clairvoyant, Witch of Endor. Here
is man who, whipped in bat
tie, instead of surrenderiug his
sword with dignity, us many man has
done, asks his servant to Stay him, and
when that servant declined, then the
giant plants the hilt of his sword in
the earth, the sharp point sticking up
ward, and he throws his body on it and
expires-the coward, the suicide! Here
is Abitophel, 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 parricide. Not
getting what he wanted by change of
politics, he takes II snort cut out of a
dlsgraceful life into the suicides etern
ity. There he is, the migrate!
Here is Abimelech. practically sui
eide He is with an amy, bonn harding
a tower, when Il 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 Stay me, lest men say a
woman Slew me-" There is his post
mortem photograph in the book of Sam
uel
But the hero of this group is Judas
Iscariot. DR.. Dome says he was a
martyr, and we have in our day apollo
gist for him. And what wonder, in
this day when we have book reveal
ing Aaron Burr as a pattern of virtue
and this day when we uncover statue
of George Sand as the benefactress of
literature, and in this day when there
are betrayals of Christ on the part of
some of His pretended apostles be-
trayal so black it makes the nfamy of
Judas Iscariot white! Yet this man by
his own hand hung up for the execra-
ton 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 COM
NIT suicide if any man ever had, what
with his destroyed property and his
body all ahame with insdtferabe car
buncles 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 heap of ashes
scratching his scabs with piece of
broken pottery, yet crying out in tri-
umph: IAN the days of my appointed
time will | wait till my change comes. "
Notwithstanding the Bible is against
this evil, and the aversion which it
creates by the loathsome and ghastly
spectacle of those who have hurled
themselves out of life, and notwith-
standing Christianity is against it and
the arguments and The useful lives and
the illustrious deaf IS of its disciples,
it is fact alarmngly patent that
suicide is on the increase. What is the
cause? charge upon infidelity and
agnosticism this waole thing. If there
be no hereafter, or if this 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-
comes troublesome why not pass right
over into Elysium? Pit this down
among your most solemn reflections.
There has never been case Of suicide
where the operator was not either
4 II r IL