Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1888-10-20
REV.DR. TALMAGE.
raEBRooKhYN DIvNE'S SUNDAY
SERMON.
subject:-"Thc Present Epidemic Of
Suicide.

SuDJcCt:-"IHC TiEScItI rpioShiiS va
Suicide
TEXT: sic dyc,c out hiss,cord and ,could
hare killed himself. suppoSing that the
prisoners had been fled. But Paul cried
1cith a loud roice. sauimy: DO thyself no
hdrm-" Acts xvi, 21-2S.
Here is would-be suicide arrested in his
deadly attempt. He was n sheriff. and &c.
cording to the Roman law. bailiff himself
must suffer the punishment due an escaped
prisoner: and it che prisoner breaking jail
was sentenced to I've endun-eoncd for three
or four years, then the sheriff must DO
endungeoned for three or four years; and II
the prisoner breaking Jail was to have
suffered capital punishment, then the sheriff
must suffer capital punishment. The Sheriff
had received especial charge to keep sharp
lookout for faul and Silas. The govern
ment had not had confidence in bolts and
bars to keep safe these two clergymen, about
whom there seemed to be something strange
and supernatural.
Sure enough. by miraculous power, they
are free, and the sheriff, waking out OF q
sound sleep. and supposing these ministers
have run away and knowing that they were
to die for preaching Christ, and realizing
that he must therefore die, rather than so
under the executioner's axe on the morrow,
and suffer public disgrace, resolves to pre-
c:p:tate his own deceaSe. But before the
sharp, keen, glittering dagger of the sheriff
could strike his heart. one OF the unlooSeneu
p: isoners arrests the blade by the command:
do thyself no harm"
In o)den time and where Christianity had
not interfered with it, suicide was considered
honorable and a sign of courage Demos
themes poisoned himself when told that Ajax
antler's ambassador had demanded the sur
Of ha lcncrQtaS
killed himself rather than surrender TO
Philip of Macedon. Cato. rather than sub
nit to Julius Caesar took his own lie,
and after three times his wounds mad
been dressed tore them open and per-
ished Mithrdates killed himself rather
than submit 10 Ponpey, the conlueror Han
nibal DESTROYED his life by poison from his
ring. considering life unbearable. l..ycurgus
q suicide, Brutus suicide. After thu disaS-
ter of Moscow, Napoleon always carried with
him preparation OF opium, and one night
his servant heard the eX-Emperor arise put
something in glass and drink It, ana soon
after the SroanS aroused all the attendants
and it was only through utmost medical
skilhe was reSuscitated from the stupor OF
the opiate.
Times have changed. and yet the American
conscience needs to be toned up on the sub
ject OF suicide. Have you seen paper IN the
last month that did not announce the passage
ont of life by ones own tehest. DefauterS,
alarmed at the idea of exposure, quit life
preciptately. Men losing large fortunes 60
out OF the world because they cannot endure
earthly existence. Frustrated affection,
domestic infelicity, domestic Impotence,
anger, remorse, envy. jealousy, restitution,
misanthropy, are considered sufficient causes
for absconding from this life by Paris green
by laudanum, b. bclladonna, by Othelos
dagger. by halter, by leap from the aous-
ment of bridge, Is firearms. More cases
of felo de Sc i'll the last two years than any
two years OF the worlds existence, and more
in the last month than in any twelve months.
The evil is more and more spreading.
4 pulpit not long ago expressed some doubt
as 10 whether there was really anything
wrong about quitting this life VIXEN it became
diSacreeabIe, and there are found in respect
able circles people apologize for the crime
which Paul in the text arrested. L SHALL
show you before l get through that suicide
is the worst of all crimes, and shall lift
warning unmiStaIable But in the early part
OF this sermon / wish to admit that some
of the best Christians that have ever lived
have committed self-deStuction, but always
in denentia, and not responsible. l have no
more doubt about their eternal felicity than
have OF the Christian who dies in bis bed
in the delirium of typhoid fever. While
the shock of the catastrophe is very great,
I charge all those who have had Christ
ian friends under cerebal alteration step
off the boundaries of this life, to have no
doubt about their happiness. The dear Lord
took them right out OF their daZed and fren-
zied state into perfect safety. How Christ
feels toward the insane you may know from
the kind way He treated the demoniac OF Ga
dara and the child lunatic, and the potency
with " hich he hushed tempests either of sea
or brain.
Scotland, the land prolific of intellectual
giants, had none grander than Hugh Miller.
Great for science and great for God. He
came of the best Highland blood, and was
descendant OF Donald Roy, man eminent
for piety and the rare gift of cond-sight
His attachments, climbing up as he did from
the quarry and the wall of the stonemason,
drew forth the as.onished admiration OF Buck
land and MurchiSon, the scientists, and DR..
Chalmers the theologian, and held UNIVERSE
ties spelibound while he told them the story
of what he had seen of God in the old red
sandstone.
That man did more than any being that
ever lived to show that the God of the hills IS
the God of he Bible, and he struck his tun'
ing fork on the rocks of Cromarty until he
brought geology and theology accordant in
Footprints of the Creator and the 'Testi-
mony of the Rocks" proclaimed the banns of
an everlasting marriage between genu-
inc science and revelation. Gn this
latter book he toiled day and night
through love of nature and love of God,
until he could not sleep. and his brain gave
way. and he was found dead with revolver
bis side, the cruel instrument having had
two bul,ets-one for him and the other for
the gunsmith who at the coroner's inquest
was examining it and fell dead. Have you
any doubt of the Qualification OF Hugh Miller,
after his hot brain had -ased throbb ng that
winter night in his study at Portohelo:
Among the mightiest Of earth, among the
mishtieSt of heaven.
No one doubted the piety of William Cow
per. the author of those three great hymns,
..Oh, for closer walk with Col" "What
various hindrances we meet" There is O
fountain filled with blood" William Cowper.
who shares with Isaac Watts and Charles
Wesley the chief honors OF Christian hymn
ology. In hvpochronGria he resolved to
take his own life AMI rode to the river
Thames, but found q man seated on some
goods at the very point from which he cX-
pected to spring. and rode back to his home
and that nj ,ht threw himself upon his own
knife, but the blade broke: and then he hanged
himself TO the ceiling, but tho rope parted.
No wonder that when God mercIfully de-
livered him from that awful danentia he sat
down and wrote that other hymn just as
memorable:
"God moves in mysterious way
His wonders 10 perform;
He plants His footsteps in the seq
And rides upon the STORM.
"Dlind unbeef is sure to err
And scan His WORK in vain;
God is His own interpreter
And he will make IL plain
:r,,1 4 ..1-1,t