Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1903-07-13

ed with our own lives. Brother. better
change the lenses in your spectacles.
Better be a sunbeam playing in the
day than sulking owl. solitary and
alone, croaking during the night
A towards heart is direct cause
for the suicidal sin. "Oh. no." says
some one; that cannot be. A suicide
may be this or that or the other thing
but he is not a coward. No man is
coward who dssres TO commit self muir
der. No man is a coward who will
calmly look death in the face and defy
the grinning skeleton of the tomb"
All, my friend, you are wrong. The
direct cause of the suicidal sin is in
variably the result of a towards heart
1t is the act of a man who runs away
from trouble instead of courageously
graphing with it. The bravest of
deeds is to die if necessary to save 9TH
ers. But it would not be heroic for
men to die merely because they are too
cowardly to fight. Neither is it he
role or brave for any man to commit
suicide merely because he is too craven
hearted to meet the responsibilities of
life as they arise. The noblest word in
some respects in all the English Ian
guage is duty" That word will some
times compel its followers to plunge
into and endure the bayonet thrusts of
a thorny hedge, as it will sometimes
give the pleasanter command of fol-
lowing that stern word through an en-
powered pathway.
BE True to Christ.
Now, my friends, as the suicidal sin
Is often caused by a towards heart,
how can we best become brave and
true? How can we better fight this
tendency to self murder than by nobly
and conscientiously and dauntlessly
meeting the most pressing duty which
| is nearest at hand? How can we cease
| to be towards better than by fulfilling
| our honorable obligations which we
| know we owe to our God and our
| Christ? We have all read of the Ro-
| man sentinel who during an awful
eruption of Mount Vesuvius was ready
to die at his post when the officer of
the guard did not relieve him and al
low him to fly for his life. Should we
not be equally ready to be brave and
true to that great Commander who
| shall vet ride the white horse Of vic
tory and in the great millennial day
| come to claim and defend his own? He
has placed US here to do our duty, to
live his life in the world, to serve him
| by serving our fellow men. Shall we
cravenly desert our post? Shall we
declare that the task assigned us is toe
hard for us? Rather let us look to him
for the almighty strength that he
| promises to his faithful servants that
we may endure as seeing him who is
invisible. So let us stand undaunted
| beneath his standard until his sum
mons reaches us and we quit with the
triumphant shout: Il have fought 9
| good fight l have finished my course
I have kept the faith. Hencefortt
there is laid up for me a crown OF
Righteousness
The bravest act in all the world fol
| some men is to publicly confess
Christ. While we are preaching today
on the suicidal sin are you ready tt
|
was? In a time of great mental de
preston he was on his way to the
river Thames to take his own life
When he arrived near the fatal water:
he saw a man fishing at the end Of the
dock from which he intended to throw
himself into the stream. He turned
back. Then he went home and trieC
to stab himself to death, but the knife
snapped in two. Then he tried tt
hang himself, but the rope broke
Then William Cowper realized wha
he was doing and how cowardly b,
was. He confessed his error before
the world and gave himself up, as new
er before. to sound forth the divine
praise. Oh, my friends, will you no
realize that one of the chief reasons O.
the cowardly tendency to suicide 1
the unwillingness to publicly confes
and work and live for Christ? AS al
roads were once supposed to lead t,
Rome, every act and deed and though
of your life should lead you to tn
foot Of the cross. Then, oh, then,
you are true to Christ. you will neve
be false to Yourself! Then, oh, then
your life. instead of having a suicida
tendency. will be an eternal life Of tri
umphant joy!
copyright. 1903. by Louis Klopsch.l