The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1898-07-22


the River Thames, but found a
point from which he expected to
spring, and rode back to his home, and
that night threw himself upon his own
knife, but the blade broke; and then
he hanged himself to the ceiling, but
the rope broke. No wonder that when
God mercifully delivered him from
that awful dementia he sat down and
wrote that other hymn just as memoir
able:
God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders 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 is His own interpreter,
And He will make it plain.
While we make this merciful and
righteous allowance in regard to those
who were plunged into mental incO-
herence, 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 xxi.
Is: without are dogs and sorcerers
and whoremongers and murdererS.
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 L ask you if 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
a 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
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, 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 hcadlesS trunk of
Saul on the walls of Bathshan. Here
is the man who chased little DLvid-ten
feet in stature chasing four. Here
is the man who consulted q
clairvoyant, Witch of Endor. Here
is a man who, whipped in bat
tie, instead of surrendering his
sword with dignity, as many a 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 a snort cut out of a
dIsgraceful life into the suicides etern-
ity. There heis, the migrate!
Here is Abimelech, practically sui
eide. He is with an amy, bombarding
a tower, when 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
woman slew me-" There is his post
mortem photograph in the book of Sam
uel.
But the hero of this group is Judas
Iscariot. DIR. 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 pattern of virtue,
and this day when we uncover a statue
of George Sand as the benefactress of
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 infamy of
Judas IscariOt whitei Yet this man by
his own hand hung up for the execra-
ton of all ages, Judas Iscariot.
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 afiame with insufferable 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 |
his scabs with a piece of |
broken pottery, yet crying out in tri-
umph: "All the days of my appointed |
time will 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 life, and notwith-
Christianity is against it and !
the arguments and the useful lives and |
the illustrious deaths of its disciples,
it is fact alarmingly patent that |
suicide is on the increase. What is the |
cause? l charge upon infdelity and |
agnosticism this whole thing. If there /
be no hereafter, or if this hereafter be
blissful without reference 20 how
we live and how we die, why |
not move back the folding doors |
between this world and tbs next?
And when our existence here be-
comes troublesome why not pass right
over into Elysium? Put this down
a mong your most solemn reflections.
There has never been case of suicide
where the operator was not either
dem ented, and therefore irresponsible,
or an infidel. l challenge all the ages,
and challenge the universe. There