Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1884-09-22
SELF MURDER.
A Crime Prevalent in Ali Ages and
All Countries.
ITS CAUSE AND IT'S REMEDY.
lnfdelity and AgnOsticism the Most Potent
Factor in Encouraging Men
to Take the Leap in
the Dark.
THE BIBLICAL RoGUEs GALLERY.

The opening hymn at the Brooklyn Ia
bernacle to-da! was
tour God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years 70 come"
DR.. Talmage expouuded the eleventh
chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews and
preached on "the cause of suicide" taking
his text from Acts XVI, 27-2S: HE drew
ont his sword and would have killed him
self, supposing that the prisoners had fled,
but Paul cried with a loud voice: "Do
thyself no harm" DR.. Talmage spoke as
follows:
Here is a would-be suicide arrested in
his deadly attempt He is sheriff having
prisoners in charge. According to the
Roman law the bailifr had to suffer the
punishment that was due any culprit escap-
ing, and if the prisoner breaking Jail was
to have been endungeoned three or four
years, then the keeper must lie endungeoned
three or four years, and if the prisoner es-
Gaping was to have suffered capital punish
ment then the keeper must suffer capital
punishment. The sheriff had received
unusual charge to keep close lookout for
Paul and Silas. There was something
Strange and Supernatural
about them and the government had not
much confidence in bolts and bars to hold
fast these two incarcerated clergymen,
And now, sure enough, they are loosed by
miraculous power and as they were to die
for the crime of preaching Christ, the sheriff
supposed he would have to die, and rather
than 90 under the executioners s axe on the
morrow and suffer public disgrace he would
precipitate his own decease. But the sharp,
keen, cruel dagger which the sheriff was
aiming at his own heart halts at the COM
mand of one of the unloosed prisoners:
"Do thyself no harmY'
In olden time and where Christianity had
not interfered with it, suicide was popular
and considered sign Of courage. Demos
thines poisoned himself when Alexander's
ambassador demanded that the Athenian
orators be surrendered. Isocrates the ora
tor, starved himself to death rather than
surrender TO Philip OF Macedon. Cato slew
himself rather than submit to Caesar, and
after the wounds had been dressed three
times Cato tore them open and died. NTH
ridates poisoned himself to escape Pompey,
the conqueror. Hannibal killed himself
with poison which he always carried in
ring, because he thought life unbearable.
Lycurgus, q suicide. Brutus, a suicide.
EmpedocIes ended his life by
Jumping Into the Crater of Mount Etna.
Zeno, the great philosopher. at 98 years of
age, passing out OF school, fell and put
finger out Of joint. and because of the acci-
dent hanged himself. After bis Moscow re
treat, Napoleon always carried a prepara-
ton Of opium for self destruction, and his
servant one night heard him rise and put
something into glass and drink it, and
soon after there followed groans that awak-
ened all his attendants, and it took the ut
most medical skill 10 resuscitate him from
the stupor oft opiate.
So the crime goes down through the ages,
and modern society needs some toning up
on the subject Of suicide. You can't take
up newspaper withou, seeing the account
of passage out of lite by one owns hand.
Deiaulters, alarmed at the prospects Of ex
posure, quit life thus pfecipitately. Men
losing fortunes end life that they think
not worth living. Frustrated affection, do
mestic ills, dyspeptic impotence, remorse,
envy, grief destitution and misantrophy
are considered sufficient cszee for abscond-
ing from this world. By Paris green, by
belladonna, by laudsnum, by leap off an
abutment, by Othello's dagger, BY rope, BY
firearms. Never so many cases Of felo de
Sc in any two years as in the last two years.
The crime is becoming common by the day.
A pulpit not long ago expressed q doubt as
to whether there was really anything wrong
in ending ones life when il becomes too
dissyreeable. And there are strewn through
the community among respectable people
apologists for the deed that the apostle in
The text arrested shall show that il is the
worst possible crime and will hEt against II
a warning unmistakable.
A, the opening of my sermon let me say
that some Of
The Best Christian PeopI. who Fave Ever
Lived
have committed suicide, but they did 20 in
demeniia and therefore irresponsible.
would have no more doubt about their i'm
mediate entrance upon eternal happiness
ban have about those Who die in their
beds in he delirinm OF a typhoid fever.
While the shock Of the ca
tastropAe Is greater than in
ordinarily demise, charge those whose
christian friends have in Ger brsl alteration
stopped Of the boundaries Of tbs life to
have no fear about their destiny. The dear
Lord took them out of their dazed and
1renzied state into perfect safety. If you
want to know how Christ feels toward the
inasne, see his treatment Of the demouiacs
of Gadara and the child lunstic and the
potency with which he hushed tempests
whether Of water or brain.
No one ever doubted the Pety Of William
CCwper, author Of ''0h, for closer walk
with Godr' There Is . fountain filed
with bloodY' 'Wbat various hindrances
We meet" William Cowper, who with Isaac
Watts and Charles Wesley wears the chief
horess Of the sacred hymnoIoey. In hypo-
ckondria William CoWper. resolved on self
destruction, rode to the Thames river for
this purpose, but found nan seated upon
some goods on the bank from which the
sacred poet expected 10 spring and 80 re-