Page:SermonsFromTheLatins.djvu/128

 self does  man  owe  this  duty. " Thou  shalt  love  thy neighbor  as  thyself." The one  and  the  same  law, therefore, equally  forbids  murder  and  self-destruction, and consequently  the  deliberate  suicide  is  as  guilty  in the  sight  of  God  as  the  perpetrator  of  murder  in  the first degree. And since,  as  St.  John  says,  "  Whosoever hateth  his  brother  is  a  murderer,"  therefore,  also whosoever desires  to  take  his  own  life  but  stays  his hand for  some  purely  secular  consideration,  is  a  suicide in  the  sight  of  God  and  equally  with  the  murderer forfeits,  for  the  time  at  least,  all  claim  to  eternal life. Nay, more,  suicide  is  more  heinous  even  than murder. The nearer  the  relationship  between  the murderer and  his  victim  the  more  revolting  the  crime. One citizen  kills  another;  shocking! A man  slays his brother;  horrible! A mother  strangles  her  child; demoniacal! A man  commits  suicide,  embodying  in his  own  person  the  red-handed  destroyer  and  the writhing victim,  and  you  will  find  no  word  in  any  language strong  enough  to  fully  express  the  hideous nature of  his  crime. Suicide is  a  direct  usurpation of God's  most  exclusive  prerogative,  as  sole  arbiter of life  and  death. In the  thirty-second  chapter  of Deuteronomy,  verse  39,  God  says,  "  I  alone  am,  and there  is  no  other  God  besides  Me.  I  will  kill  and make  to  live.  I  will  strike  and  I  will  heal,  and  there  is none  that  can  deliver  out  of  My  hands,"  and  in  the Book of  Wisdom,  chapter  xvi.,  verse  13,  Solomon  exclaims, "  It  is  Thou,  O  Lord,  that  hast  power  of  life and  death,  and  leadest  down  to  the  gates  of  death  and bringest  back  again!" Since, then,  the  union  of