St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1898-08-13

OOO m0tSlIully OcUVeIeu nun IV1n
that awful dementia he sat down and
wrote that other hymn just as memoir
able:
God moves in . mysterious way.
His w0nders to perform:
He plants his footsteps in the sea-
And rides upon the storm
: Blind unbelief Is sure to err.
And scan his work In vain;
God n His own interpreter.
And He will make Il plain
While we make this merciful and
righteous allowance in regard to those
who were plunged into mental inco-
hercnce, 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. s: .sMurdercrs shall have their
part in the lake which burncth with
fire and birthstone" Revelations xii,
Is: Without are dogs and sorcerers
and whoremongers and murderers. )"
You do not believe the New Testament?
Then. perhaps, you believe the ten
commandments: .tThou shalt not kill. !"
Do you say that all these passages
refer to the taking of the life of
others? Then 1 ask You il you are
not as responsible for your own life as
for the life of others? God gave You
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
q 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 q
castle you were especially appointed to
keep; it 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, 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. Here
is the man who chased little David-ten
feet in stature chasing four. Here
is the man who consulted q
clairvoyant, Witch Of Endor. Here
is man who. whipped in bat
tie, instead of surrendcring his
sword with dignity, as many man has
done, asks his servant to slay 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 suicidei 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 ut parricide Not
getting what he wanted by change OF
politics, he takes a short cut out OF a
dlsgraceful life into the suicides etern :
ity. There hcis. the migrate!
Here is Abimelech. practically a sui
eide. He is with IN amy, bombarding
. tower, when woman in the tower
takes 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 pos:
norton photograph in the book of Sam
uel
But the hero OF this group is Juda.
Iscariot. DR.. Dome says he was q
martyr, and we have in our day apollo
gist for him. And what wonder, il
this day when we have q book reveal
ing Aaron Burr us pattern Of virtue
and this day when we uncover a statue
of George Sand as the benefactress o.
literature, and in this day when there
| are betrayals of Christ on the part o
some OF His; pretended apostlcs-a be
trayal 90 black 1t makes the infamy o.
Judas Iscariot white. Yet this man b.
his own hand hung up for the execra
ton of all ages, Judas 1scariot-
All the good men and women of tn,
Bible left to God the decision of thei
earthly terminus. and they could hav,
said with Job, who had q right 10 com
init suicide if any man ever had, wha
with his destroyed property and hi
body all aaame with insufferable car
bunclcs and everything gone from hi
home except the chief curse of it, I
pestiferous wife and four garrulou
people pelting him with comfortles
talk while he sits on n heap of ashe
scratching mis- scabs with a piece o
broken pottery, yet crying out in tri
umph: ..All the days of my eppointe
time will I wait till my change comes
Notwithstanding the Bible is agains
this evil, and the aversion which i
creates by the loathsome and ghastl
spectacle of those who have hurle
themselves out of life, and notwith
standing Christianity is against it an
the arguments and the useful lives an,
the illustrioas deaths of its disciples
il is . fact alsrmingly patent tina
suicide is ON the increase. What is tn
cause? / charge upon infidelity an
agnosticisn this whole thing. If thcr
be no hereafter, or il this hereafter b
blissful without reference to no,
we live and how we die, VIII
not move back the folding door
between this world and the next
And when our existence here b,
comes troublesome why not pass rigt
over into Elysium? Put this dow
amo ng your most solemn reflection
There has never been of suicid
where the operator was not ciths
demcpted, and therefore irresponsible
or an infidel Ichallcnge all the age
and challenge the universe. Thel
never has been . case of self-destru
ton while in full appreciation of h
immortality and of the fact that thu
Immortality would he glorious {
wretched according MS he accepte
: Jesus Christ or rejected Aim.
You say it is > business trouble, (
you say it is electrical current, or it
this or it is that, or it is the 9th,
thing. Why not go clear back, N
friend, and acknowledge that in ever
case it is the abdication of reason ,
the teaching Of infidelity, which pra
tically says: If you don't like tn
life get out OF it, and you will Ian
either in humiliation, where there q,
no notes to pay, no prosecutions