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

Dare any Christian. by self destruction.
ob,iterate that life which God alone
can give and which God alone has a
right to take away
Put on the Gospel Armor.
The whole tendency of the gospel OF
Jesus Christ is opposed to this s1icidai
epidemic; the whole tendency of unbe
lief is 10 promote and increase ii. To
the atheist life is a single span. one
abutment OF which is the cradle and
the other the grave, at which he meets
humiliation. TO such a man there il
no better principle of life than to eat
drink and be merry. for tomorrow he
dies. He would make life comedy
for all and death a great finale. His
idealism would do for his fellow men
as that millionaire capitalist recently
did for his friends. He provided. by
last will and testament. that mo serv-
ice of religious character be held at
his grave; that a special train of Pull
mans be chartered to take his remains
from Louisville to Cincinnati to be Gre
mated: that the buffet cars be well
stocked with good things to eat and
drink; that while his remains are being
cremated an orchestra render a pro-
gramme of popular and select music.
and that when an intermission is reach
ed the friends ask the members of the
orchestra 70 drink TO the dead mans
memory" That is the consistent out
come of the total humiliation belief.
The earnest Christian disciple says,
Life is not a joke; death is not a
finale" Life is an opportunity for do
ing good and for struggling against
evil. Because the good as we'll as the
evil lives on for ever and ever we
ought to put ourselves in the hands of
the Almighty. who arranges our lot fol
us, and say. az did Job, "All the days of
my appointed time will l wait till my
change come"
The unbeliever in the gospel says: IF
there is hell it is to be found this side
and not the other side of the grave.
When things go wrong the best way
to escape suffering is to snap the silver
cord of human life and silence the
beating heart" The Christian disciple
says: "Sanctified troubles are spir-
itual means by the grace of God for
raising an immortal soul on and up
! Unsanctified troubles are the inexora-
BILE means of dragging a sinful, de-
| FAINT soul on and forever down. He
that is unjust let him be unjust still,
and he which is filthy let him be filthy
still. and he that is righteous let him
be righteous still, and he that is holy let
! him be holy STILL" Such are the two ex-
tremes-the tenets of the believers in
! total humiliation at the brink of the
grave and those of the earnest disciple
of Jesus Christ. Do you wonder that
/ charge tie hideous monsters athe-
ism, agnosticism and infidelity with
being the chief causes of this accursed
suicidal epidemic? Do you wonder
that look to the gospel of Jesus Christ
to stay the hand of self immolation?
Will you not. by buckling on the gospel
armor, prepare to wage incessant war
against the insidious demons who
blight the lives of your fellow men by
robbing them of peace. joy and faith
and leaving them so despoiled and i'm
Uttered that they prefer death to life?
False Standards of Happiness.
False standards for happiness can
be catalogued among the frequent, pro-
life causes of the suicidal sin. They
are the decoying mirages which tempt
the weary life's traveller to lose himself
In the midst of Sahara of sand. They
are the deceitful stars, twinkling theic
benedictions over affairs of silver and
of gold and of fame, which suddenly
20 out and leave the devotees worship.
ing in total darkness. They are the
musical voices of the sirens singing
their sweetest songs when Turing their
victims on to fatal shipwreck.
In the false standards of happiness
can be found the origin of the disap
pointments which SO often end in sui
eide. Men do not first seek wealth OIL
fame to possess those treasures, as 6
miser might board up his gold. They dc
sire the merchant princes palace ant
the kings throne because they foolish
ly think that happiness is a coy nader
who loves to robe herself in silks an(
to have her throat and fingers a-glitte
with precious jewels, and therefore
they can the more readily find her II
the rich mans mansion than in thu
poor mans hut. If they cannot have
wealth or fame or worldly honor 4
about to be taken away from them
then they feel they cannot have happi
ness. Then, with one pull of the pts
tolls trigger. they fling away thei
blighted lives, as did the late "cottol
king of Louisiana, who lost his for
tune in Wall street, or as did the lat
Sir Hector Macdonald of the British
army, who killed himself to avoid fac
ing the publicity of a court martial an,
q disgraceful Dismissal from the king
service.
Source of True Happiness.
Now. my friends, the human bein
who commits suicide merely becaus
the golden breasted oriole of wealt
has plumed her wings and disappeare
4.