Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1898-07-11

river Thames, but found man seated
on some goods at that very 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 him
self to the ceiling but the rope broke.
No wonder that when God merciful1y
delivered him from that awful dementia
| he sat down and wrote that other hymn
just as memorable:
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 incoher-
ence declare that the man who in the
use of his reason, by his own act, snaps
the bond between his body and his soul
goes straight into perdition. Shall [
prove it? Revelation xxi, s, "Murder-
ers shall have their part in the lake
which burneth with fire and brim-
stone. " Revelation xxi, 10, "Without
are dogs and sorcerers and whOremOn-
gers and murderers " You do not be-
lieve the New Testament? Then per-
haps 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 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 defend it two arms to
strike back assailants, 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 your
self, because in the latter case it is
treachery to an especial trust. It is the
surrender of a castle you We're especial
1y appointed to keep. It is treason to a
natural law, and it is treason to God
added to ordinary murder.
A Biblical Rogues' Gallery.
To show how God in the Bible looked
upon this crime I point you to the
rogues' picture gallery in some parts of
the Bible, the pictures of the people
who have committed this unnatural
crime Hero is the headless trunk of
Saul on the walls Of Bathshan. Here
is the man who chased little David-1O
feet in stature chasing 4. Here is the
man who consulted a clairvoyant, witch
of EndOr. Here is q man who, whipped
in battle, 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 hiIt of his sword in the
earth, the sharp point sticking upward,
and he throws his body on it and ex-
pires-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 III his attempt at parricide. Not
getting what he wanted by change of
politics, he takes q short cut out of a
disgraceful life into the suicides eter-
lily. There he is, the migrate!
Here is Abimelech, practically a sui
eide. He is with an army, bOmbarding
a tower, when a woman in the tower
takes q grindstone from it's place and
drops it upoa 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 wom-
an slew me!'' There is his post norton
photograph in the book of Samuel
But the hero of this group is Judas
Iscariot DR.. Donne says he was mar
tyr, and we have in our day apologists
for him. And what wonder in this day
when we have book revealing Aaron
Burr as a pattern of virtue and this day
when we uncover g 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 pre-
tended apostles, a betrayal SO black it
makes the infamy of Judas IscariOt
white Yet this man, by his own hand,
hung up for the execration 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 af1ame with insufferable car
buncles and everything gone from his
home except the chief curse of it, a
pestiferous wife and four garrulous peo-
pie pelting him with comfortless talk
while he sits on heap Of ashes scratch
ing his scabs with a piece of broken
pottery. yet crying out in triumph, All
the days of my appointed time will I
wait till my change comes.
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
col a11t Of Lie and 1antxxi n ling