-
Articles/Ads
Article ON SUICIDE AND MADNESS. ← Page 2 of 3 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On Suicide And Madness.
such desperate remedies for relief , but to their relying upon their own natural powers , to bear them up under the severest trials ? Standing upon this ground , the properties of their nature were , by many great and trying adversities , worked up into a state of extreme contrariety , anxiety ; horror , and despair ; till at last these raging , contending qualities grew intolerable ; and , as the only relief from the anguish they feltboth had recourse to suicide . And as human nature is invariably
, the same in all ages , so the very self-same cause must be assigned for the many deplorable instances of the same act of desperation , even in these days of more enlig htened knowledge . Man ' s life becomes a burthen , when , by adversity and distress , the evil that is in him is violently excited . To fly from himself is impossible ; and finding all his own endeavours to remove his misery ineffrom his breastand
fectual , he thinks that happiness is for ever flown ; , ' no lonvrer able to bear the pungent reflections of his own mind , he breakslhe sacred bonds of life , and rushes headlong into eternity . To a mind tenderly affected with the distresses of human nature , how lamentable is this condition , which drives our fellow-creatures to suck immediate destruction ! Butlamentable as it isyet with respect to
, , every son of fallen man , till he feels himself in some measure in the state " above described , that is , till the properties of his natural life find the want of a higher good , he has no awakened sensibility of himself , no just conception of the depth of misery and happiness which lies hid in human nature . And would but men , upon these hying
occasions , - as their condition surely demands , give themselves up totally to God , they would infallibly find a remedy adequate to the depth and burthen of their misery : the working , contending properties of their nature would soon be appeased , by the eritrahce-ofthe heavenly power into their afflicted souls ; and an inward joy and peace would o-radually succeed , proportionate to the distresses they have endured .
° if Cato and Brutus had had recourse to this sovereign remedy , I am well assured , from the nature of man , neither of them would have perished with tlie ruin of their country ; nor yet under the tumultuous struggles of their own nature , far more insupportable than all outward miseries . For this heavenly remedy is always near at hand to every of and as soon as lie feels the burthen and wretchedness of
son man ; his own nature ( as feel it he will , sooner or later ) and in the earnest desire of his heart , cries out to God , the divine goodness will then communicate itself to the soul , as freely as the sun does its virtues to the fruits of the earth , which would perish , had they not their proper nourishment thus imparted to them , and derived into their natures . As this is an undeniable truth , which the face of nature demonstrates ,
so it is no less undeniably true , that a supernatural goodness , flowing from God , must be derived into the soul of man , in the same manner as the virtues of the sun must be derived into the fruits of the earth , before he can possibly arrive to that state of goodness and perfection which his nature wants . And as nothing less than an inward growth of the'divine life can be our Saviour and Deliverer , so it is the mis' tt & emcvim-idsration , that God is only an outyvard good , who has no
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On Suicide And Madness.
such desperate remedies for relief , but to their relying upon their own natural powers , to bear them up under the severest trials ? Standing upon this ground , the properties of their nature were , by many great and trying adversities , worked up into a state of extreme contrariety , anxiety ; horror , and despair ; till at last these raging , contending qualities grew intolerable ; and , as the only relief from the anguish they feltboth had recourse to suicide . And as human nature is invariably
, the same in all ages , so the very self-same cause must be assigned for the many deplorable instances of the same act of desperation , even in these days of more enlig htened knowledge . Man ' s life becomes a burthen , when , by adversity and distress , the evil that is in him is violently excited . To fly from himself is impossible ; and finding all his own endeavours to remove his misery ineffrom his breastand
fectual , he thinks that happiness is for ever flown ; , ' no lonvrer able to bear the pungent reflections of his own mind , he breakslhe sacred bonds of life , and rushes headlong into eternity . To a mind tenderly affected with the distresses of human nature , how lamentable is this condition , which drives our fellow-creatures to suck immediate destruction ! Butlamentable as it isyet with respect to
, , every son of fallen man , till he feels himself in some measure in the state " above described , that is , till the properties of his natural life find the want of a higher good , he has no awakened sensibility of himself , no just conception of the depth of misery and happiness which lies hid in human nature . And would but men , upon these hying
occasions , - as their condition surely demands , give themselves up totally to God , they would infallibly find a remedy adequate to the depth and burthen of their misery : the working , contending properties of their nature would soon be appeased , by the eritrahce-ofthe heavenly power into their afflicted souls ; and an inward joy and peace would o-radually succeed , proportionate to the distresses they have endured .
° if Cato and Brutus had had recourse to this sovereign remedy , I am well assured , from the nature of man , neither of them would have perished with tlie ruin of their country ; nor yet under the tumultuous struggles of their own nature , far more insupportable than all outward miseries . For this heavenly remedy is always near at hand to every of and as soon as lie feels the burthen and wretchedness of
son man ; his own nature ( as feel it he will , sooner or later ) and in the earnest desire of his heart , cries out to God , the divine goodness will then communicate itself to the soul , as freely as the sun does its virtues to the fruits of the earth , which would perish , had they not their proper nourishment thus imparted to them , and derived into their natures . As this is an undeniable truth , which the face of nature demonstrates ,
so it is no less undeniably true , that a supernatural goodness , flowing from God , must be derived into the soul of man , in the same manner as the virtues of the sun must be derived into the fruits of the earth , before he can possibly arrive to that state of goodness and perfection which his nature wants . And as nothing less than an inward growth of the'divine life can be our Saviour and Deliverer , so it is the mis' tt & emcvim-idsration , that God is only an outyvard good , who has no