Show SUICIDE Utah is fast becoming famous as a place for suicides and so common has become the occurrence that now it rarely calls forth any further remark than the common one that so and so has committed com-mitted suicide Those who suicide as a rule do not assign any reason for their act and the act is generally attributed cither to nervousness disappointment in affairs of Jove or business or temporary insanity Perhaps in all cases the public assigns as the cause for suiciding a temporary tem-porary fit of insanity The reasons lor always assigning insanity as the cause are chiefly two the love of life which is so strong in most people and the religious relig-ious condemnation which the act of self destruction brings upon the person committing com-mitting it Both reasons are born of fear the pne that the act may bring i complete mnihikition the other that there may besome offense against Gods jl laws or whose transgression He visits a > > > 1 f terrible punishment j ksiiag through eternity Doubtless it Is uncertainty as to what death is rather than fear of punishment pun-ishment to come after death that makes people pause whenthe thought of self itself The real terrorist destruction presents itself no matter how it ror is In death cornea The thought of bringing upon minds horrible for most ones self is too to contemplate and from this horror religion spell which makes ligion has woven a men leave to tho decision of others the question whether or not they will bear life of everyday the burdens and sorrows Death being inevitable it can in reality matter but little in what manner or by whom it comes It comes from the very necessity of the composition of the form in which life is made manifest more than a cessation ifest It is nothing tion of consciousness on the part of the individual Man only knows life by the medium through which it is manifested So it is with death man only knows it by the change which takes place in the medium through which he recognizes life Life and death are alike changes but how wrought man does not Know As was said above it is more often uncertainty uncer-tainty as to what comes as a consequence ot death than the certainty of punishment punish-ment after death that causes men to commit selfdestruction more than anything any-thing else It seems a law of mans very being to associate the terrible with the uncertain The love of life is natural and the majority of men especially aLong Christians have deemed the hopes and desires which arise from our nature to be the will of God and among them all none is so strong as the love of life and to destroy de-stroy thisliie must be to transgress a law of God Here then has been the sin of suicide transgressing a law of God The law of God in this case is deduced I from the longings of man But is there 1 should not 11 any valid reason why a man take charge of the time of his exit from this world if this world no longer 11 1 pleases him The chief reasons against it are the ones that Hamlet gave which after all were the reasons of doubt I and dread Hamlet sums it all up when lie asks if it is not this that makes us II I rather bear those ills we have than flee j to others we know not of and this each 1 must decide for himself In considering i the question the chances of life must be j calculated The fall of a tower or the infusion of a poison will destroy a man equally with the meanest creature an I inundation sweeps away everything without with-out distinction that comes within the reach of its fury The above reflections have been suggested I I gested by the suicide of James Gibson Gib-son at Ashleys Fork Whether he left any letter explaining the motives for his action we are unable to say hut some time since he told a few friends and relatives that he had at times contemplated I I at The reasons he assigned were these 111 health and occasional aherra I tions of mind At times he wus very I despondent and he began to wonder what was its caiwp Of his sister he became I be-came suspicious in the matter of his II I meals being apprehensive of being 1 poisoned This same fear haunted him j while he was a guest at the Cliff House This idea preyed much upon his mind and recently told a relative that he i believed that his mind was giving way and if he became convinced of this it was his intention to take his own life as i he much preferred to do that to continu i j ing to live and be a maniac and a burden to himself and his friends If he was aware that he was liable to become per manently demented did he not take the wiser course by putting an end to his life and thereby avoiding the prolongation of a miserable existence Perhaps most people would prefer death to a demented mind and if so wherein can bo the sin of avoiding a demented mind by putting an end to life The worth of life must be fhtiimited in accordance with the prospect it offers for peace and happiness or for pain and sorrow where the religious element and a belief in the immortality of the soul dependent on our actions here do not enter into the calculation calcu-lation And of this worth each must decide de-cide for himself Conventional morality has decided against suicide but conventional conven-tional morality is not always the best and most reasonable guide It would be difficult for the most rigid conventional moralist to condemn the action of James Gibson in taking his own life when all the circumstances are calmly and care fully considered = |