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Show MODERN UNBELIEF THE ROOT OE SUICIDE The Sages of Pagan Times Considered Self Immolation an Act of Supreme Courage. (Written for Intcrmounlain Catholic.) A Boston clergyman on 'Now 'Year's day, j.i' .I' iiintr lawlessness, said: ' "We are told that ir lh- United Stairs in three v, ,:i have lern killed in murders and homicides l.uMii jijou and women." , This record serves as an unfavorable common-' i.ii-y on the progress and intelligence of the age. I; i- the. result of the lots of faith in the super-j super-j 3,;iMiral. Murder, homicide and suicide, when de-liix-raiely committed, are deadly sins. These crimes juv barbarous, cowardly and unnatural. Pagan Jaws in the days of the Koman empire decreed iii;it- ihe penalty inflicted on the violator of the ;uv ,-hould be visited on the sheriff or the guard deputed to watch the criminal in case the criminal should make his escape from prison. As prisoners, 'at midnight, Paul and Silas praying praised God. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so ihat the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and ihe bonds of all were loosed. And the keeper o,f ihe prison awakening out of his sleep, and seeing ihe doors of 1 he prison open, drawing his sword, would have killed himself, supposing the prisoners bail been fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying. 'Do thyself no harm, for we all are here."' Here the keeper, to avoid disgrace and death pen-sdty pen-sdty in his suicidal act, was stormed ' by the in- I spired words of his prisoner, ''Do thyself no harm.'' Does the long list- of murders, homicides and f-uieides given by the Boston clergyman prove that Christian influence is on the wane.' And if so. how remedy the evil? We claim to be a Christian nation, na-tion, but is not our religion thoroughly materialistic: material-istic: Instead of going: to Bethlehem and Calvary lino drinking in the spirit of Christ, persons will ; voiddp only at temples founded on Mammon. They are unwilling to make any sacrifice to reach -.heaven. All wants, natural and artificial, must be supplied. "Blessed r.re they that hunger and thirst i i t'ier justice, for they shall be satisfied,'' is anti- fjuaU-d. A new civilization modeled on that of ; fiu'ient Greece and Borie marks the progress of if 1i' new century. "What are the results? Murders I- rn ! homicides are on the increase. Suicide, 1 t-o . Ilant. is , receding back to the pagan ii!i,nlKn and morality which considered sui- . ri'!e :in act of bravery. Cato. rather than yield t C;:e;u slew himelf. When Hannibal thought liii wa not worth living he-took nison. which he i..'.iy carried in his ring. Brutus, whom Mark Antopy ironically called "an honorable man," com-Jid;ted com-Jid;ted suicide. So did the great philosopher, Zeno, wbeu nearinc the century acre .mark, because, ihvough a fall he dislocated a ringer, go like Judas ; :.'! liang himself. ' . J he statistics of modern times and the daily T'-poj-t-i of the press show that this awful crime j- "!i ilie increase, and in proportion to the increase V" e, ! I'd u that Christian civilization is on the .' .:.;). To dispel disappointed love, to hide .. -i i:ne. fo cheat justice, suicide is ihe remedy se-' se-' '"!. The advice of St. Paul, "Do thyself no :!!!!." i- not heeded. His keeper threw himself at '' ';!- foci, and addressing Paul and Silas said: ".V'!a-:er.-. what may I do, that I may be saved?" le I'uious indifference or no rolivion is un-( un-( :i':e.iy i!,e cause of the cowardly act of. the r-.;n-:de. .- one believing in the immortality of sonl and the teaching of the Bible and the 'i '1:1 ion of ihe human race, could or would, unless i 'iir-nted, take his own life. The consequences are I ! '.'j 11 i rn.r 1o risk an eternity of misery to es-s es-s '' imprisonment and cheat justice. I "haire, like the pagan sages, taught that sui- ' " was not only ponnissable and justifiable, but I " ,; :i dutv under certain circumstances.' Rous- ;,nd Gibbon- taught .the same. For them ' ' i; was nol an eternal rest, but a standstill, I- . annihilation of the soul, which they 1erm the -! ark. And this forever ends life. Xo God, I i ' "' after, not even the happy hunting ground of ' -avage. is the unbeliever's ethical code. It ' 1 - irin the soul the consoling thoughts which '"ni of Christian faith, hope and love. ; ; ' spi-imrs eternal in the human breast;' i ii"vr is. but always to be Vilest. I ' s-eul. nnMpy and confined 'from homo. -' ;ini oxpiatPF in a life to come. I "h" poop Indian! whopp untutovel mind I 'e"i in clouds, or hears him in the wind.' Hin tho philosophy of ihe unbeliever destroys i " '!!-h. kills hope and makes love selfish and senti- 1 nia!. For him, "hope is but the dream of those I 1 nt wake.'' I . How far have philosophy and science succeeded j ' '-tablishing this cold and hopeless ethical code? I At ber it gives onlv the "I do not know" of the ! gnostic. . A few days ago a young man of this city, in the 1 prime of Hfe, bade a 'fond farewell to parents, and 1 l.l's lhem t1? impression that he is bound for j Chicago to finish his studies and graduate with I honors. Fifty miles from the city he quietly leaves I the train, goes' to a hotel, and there shoots himself. I lie had the confidence and love of an affectionate I father. In a letter which he carried with him the ? i at her said: , I "Paternal love for you as my son, my only eon and representative, has never for a moment been lost "Kiit of. Nor do I intend it shall, while I am per- rnitif-d to serve out the remaining few days allotted 'i . - ; ' ; I ! : 1 1 i: 1 fa ' : I I -; p j ' i ; ' : HIS EXCELLENCY, MOST EEV. ARCHBISHOP AGIUS, 0. S. B., j; Apostolic Delegate in the Philippine Islands. Regarding the optimistic spirit in which he had taken up his mission to the Philippines, Mgr. Agius told a diverting story, at Xotre Dame university,-which set his audience in a roar. "Before I came away from England I had a complimentary compli-mentary dinner given to me, and several Benedictines (a me to give me a. warm send-off. Bishop Hedley, the archbishop of Westminster, and several other bishops, and the abbot of Downside where the Abbot Gasquet hails from. And in his speech Abbot Ford was giving me some words of encouragement. He knows me pretty weli. and he knows likewise that I look at the bright side of things. In the course of his speech he brought out a similitude; he told us a. little story which I shall repeat. He talked about the history of two frogs: he called them clerical frogs. He said those two frogs saw a pail of milk, and they at once proceeded to have a drink out of this pail. They both tumbled in. One of them was an optimistic frog: the other was a pessimist. The pessimist said: 'Well, it's no good, I'm . i ' ' ' the living. My heart and hand will respond to your relief (my'ubility permitting) at your call. Ever your father." What 'wore, his reasons for this rash act? He gives them : "My reasons are almost entirely ethical, and have to do with myself and relatione; to life. "Through scinetific study and deduction, and rather extensive philosophical reading I have unhappily come to believe that ;ill the so-called supernatural is pure fallacy. This forces me into the position of an unwilling un-willing materialist, and rot's existence of its highest attract ions. "Through other influences developed along similar lines, J have come to regc.rd- life as untenable and intolerable. in-tolerable. I believe then human life to be at the disposal dis-posal of its owner. -I choose to stop mine that is all. "The only remorse I feel' is in snapping the ties of love -which bind me to parents and sisters. "Fear I do not feel at all. It is no part of n-phil-nsepher to feel fear that is for the ignorant and uninformed." un-informed." This reasoning is like that of the skeptical' Scottish historian. David Hume, who wrote, "You admit that it would be no crime on me to divert the Nile or Danube from its course, if I could. Where, then, is the crime of turning a few ounces of blood out of their natural channel?" These two sentences had such an effect on a friend of the his-, torian that he shot himself. The young suicide in his letter appeals to science and philosophy. But. neither science nor philosophy disestablish the existence of a supreme being or the immortality of the soul. On the contrary, con-trary, real science and true philosophy establish both. "Being a philosopher." he claimed to be devoid de-void of fear, which belonged only to the ignorant and uninformed. His philosophy must be borrowed from ihe old Koman philosophical poet. Lucretius, who wrote. "Fear made the gods." The human mind must apprehend an object before it fears that object. Belief in God must be prior to fear, because be-cause man could neither fear nor love what he never saw or heard of. The passions are blind, and when left to their own nieanderings will distort or exaggerate the true knowledge of God and'his attributes, but they could never originate that, belief. be-lief. Thus materialists, who have not yet studied the rudiments of philosophv, have yet to learn. Lucreteus was a sad example of his own false philosophy, for he, too, committed suicide. The Gentiles, after their separation from the synagogue, had some knowledge of God, for how otherwise, identify the divinity with t wood and stone, the sun and moon and even reptiles? As the genuine coin must necessarily precede the spurious, so must belief iir God precede the application appli-cation of that belief. The human mind could not originate the belief. How, then, will our modern philosophers explain that belief which is coeval and coexistent with the history of the human race, having hav-ing its roots in Paradise. . F. D. in for it,' and he just let himself drop and went to the bottom. The optimist said: 'There its still a chance:' and he began to strike out, and he went round and i round, and the faster he went round the more courage he got, until finally striking out even a little more vigorously vig-orously he hit upon something hard, and to his surprise sur-prise he found he was sitting on a pat of butter! "I hope I shall have the fortune of sitting well, not on a pat of butter, but on something more solid by tho time I shall leave the Philippines. Ajnd what helps me moist is the encouragement which Freeeived from the Holy Father the warm way in which he received me. And how when I mention his name, I do so with feelings feel-ings of the greatest love and the greatest respect for that holy man, whom the Holy Ghost has given us for our father and our universal pastor. My friends, the Holy Father has succeeded in having the whole Catholic world in the palm of his hands. Nay, more, he has the whole Catholic world in his heart; it is large enough for the world.' and many worlds; he is the human pope who comes to us with his love." |