DO NOT COMMIT SUICIDE by Arthur Fox

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 27, 1904

DO NOT COMMIT SUICIDE.

By Arthur Fox

"Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon which cometh from the rock of the field? or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken?" Jer. 18:14.

WILL a man make a fool of himself? Will a man mistake his cistern for a fountain? Will a man cut himself off from the vital force? Will a creature part with the Creator? He likes to do it; he likes to try it. Why? The fool hath said in his withered heart, There is no God; to that debased act may a man come who was made in the image and likeness of God! The idea is that a man will cut himself off from the main; cut himself away from the eternal river of feeding snow of Lebanon, and will begin to make himself a little cistern. Alas! a broken cistern that can not hold water. Think of this suicide of isolation, the madness of amputating our life, of leaving the Inexhaustible, the Eternal, the Infinite, and becoming little, miserable, devouring selves.

This great council is a protest against such insanity; it brings us into sympathy with the Eternal.

"You see that man crossing the street to the bank?" "Yes." "Very singular case."

"How so?" "That man is living on his capital." "Well, what harm is there in that?"

"Why, he is eating himself up, consuming himself; he ought to have his capital so invested that it will bring him in an income, a revenue day by day, year by year, in order that the income may be still growing."

This is from a secular point of view. This man is living on his capital; he has cut himself off from vital, remunerative, compensative energies and the agencies and ministries and is eating up what he has. What are we doing? Are we cutting ourselves away from the fountains that rise out of the river of God and living on our own miserable selves? Are we consuming our own vitals?

What is about the worst thing that can occur in military operations? Ask an old soldier and he will undoubtedly tell you, it is to have the enemy get behind, and cut off the supplies. That to them is the horrible possibility and the dreadful mischief, that the supplies should be cut off. Do you think this an instance of misfortune? Then beware, lest you be found doing the same thing. Be careful that you do not cut off your supplies. If you have dismissed PRAYER, go back to your old supplies, back to God, back to the Fountain. Live and move and have your being in God, and then no man can impoverish you until he has impoverished God. The river of God is full of water. He giveth without being impoverished.

Why, here is a man greatly disappointed. He is almost dangerous! He is trying to light a gas jet and has struck and exhausted a dozen lucifer matches and no light comes, and a voice inquires, "Are you sure the gas is turned on at the meter?" It is not! Do not laugh at him, for you laugh at your own souls if you be not wise unto salvation, if you are trying to live without being connected with the main, with the living God.

The atheist prays downward, not upward. Let us try to deliver some minds from this most unholy delusion. You can not do without God. Now here is an instance that will illustrate vividly what I mean. It is a man who has, to the best of his ability, hermetically sealed his house, and thus excluded the fresh air, the sharp spring, and sunny, genial summer. How is he going to live? He has a pair of bellows, and is going to live at the nozzle of his elbows! Now the application is, Have you been trying to feed your soul on some poisonous and inadequate atmosphere? If so, then heed the plea of the Bible which counsels your union with inexhaustible sources. "My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water."

Sanitarium, Cal.