Page:SermonsFromTheLatins.djvu/130

 rights, but  to  order  all  things  through  himself  and with himself  to  God.

Brethren, suicide  is  a  crime,  not  only  against  God, but also  against  Nature,  and  society. Every form  of animal  life,  and  even  the  members  of  the  vegetable kingdom, instinctively  resist  destruction. Nature's primary law  is  self-preservation. Now, the  natural law is  simply  the  eternal  law  of  God  reflected  in  the instincts and  judgments  of  His  creatures. The light of the  setting  sun  and  its  glowing  reflection  in  the western ocean  are  not  more  identical  than  the  natural law and  the  eternal  law. Under Nature's  guidance animals struggle  for  existence,  nourish  themselves, propagate their  species,  and  in  general  strive  to  attain their highest  material  development. But the  highest perfection of  man,  half  animal,  half  angel  as  he  is,  involves the  subordination  of  the  natural  to  the  supernatural, the  making  of  his  material  nature  into  a  kind of Jacob's  ladder  whereby  his  soul  may  climb  to higher  things. But though  this  elevating  of  the  spirit above the  flesh  be  praiseworthy  in  the  spiritual  sense, nothing will  justify  a  man  in  separating  his  soul  from his body  in  the  literal  sense,  however  exalted  his motives. For life  is  the  standing  place,  the  fulcrum of all  his  efforts  upward,  and  without  life  he  would  be as  one  who  should  attempt  to  stand  on  empty  space and move  the  world. It is  an  eloquent  commentary on the  reasoning  powers  of  many  that  irrational  instinct is  a  safer  guide,  for  brute  beasts  never  destroy themselves, whereas  the  suicide  is  led  by  a  mistaken judgment into  irreparable  misfortune  to  escape  some