The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1888-10-24
TALMAGE ON SELF-DESTRUCTl0N
A VERY STRIKING SERMON IN THE
BROOkLYN TABERSACLE.

A VERY STRIKING SERMON IN TIL
BROOKLYN TABERNACLE
Suicide i'll Olden Time Was Considere
Honorable and a Sign of Courage-Mod
ern Apologies for This. .Criine--Genuin
Science and Revelation in Accord.
At the Tabernacle last Sunday morn
ing, the Rev. T. De Witt Talmage
DID,, took for his text, Acts xvi. 2S AM
%. ssHe drew out his sword, AM
would have killed himself, supposin|
that the prisoners had fled. But Pau
cried with loud voice, saying, Do thy
self no harm" The sermon was as fol
lows:
Here is would be suicide arrested IL
his deadly attempt. He was & sheriff
and according to the Rcnan law, {
bailif himself must suffer the punish
ment due an escaped prisoner; and i
the prisoner breaking jail was sentenced
to be endungeoned for three or four years
then the sheriff must be endungeoneC
for three or four years; and if the pris
oner breaking jail was to have suffered
capital punishment, then the sheriff
must suffer capital punishment. The
sheriff had received especial charge tc
keep sharp lookout for Paul and Silas.
The government had not confidence in
bolts and bars to keep safe these two
clergymen, about whom there seemed
to be something strange and super
natural.
Sure enough, by miraculous power,
they are free, ard the sheriff, waking
out of sound sleep, and supposing
these ministers have run away. and
knowing that they we're to die for
preaching Christ, and realizing that he
must therefore die, rather than go under
the executioners Ak on the morrow and
suffer public disgrace, resolves to pre-
cipitate his own decease. But before
the sharp, keen, glittering dagger of the
sheriff could strike his heart, one of the
unloosened prisoners arrests the blade
by the command: "Do thyself no harm. "
In olden time, and where Christianity
had not interfered with it, suicide was
considered honorable and a sign of
courage. Demosthenes poisoned HIM
self when told that Alexander's ambas-
sador had demanded the surrender of
the Athenian orators. Isocrates killed
himself rather than surrender to Philip
of Macedon. Cato, rather than submit
to julius Caesar, took his own life, and
after three times his wounds had been
dressed tore them open and perished.
Mithridates killed himself rather than
submit to Pompey, the conqueror.
Hannibal destroyed his life by poison
from his ring, considering life unbear-
able. Lycnrgus suicide, Brutus 3
suicide. After the disaster of Moscow,
Napoleon always carried with him a
preparation Of opium, and one night his
servant heard the ex-Emperor arise. put
something in grass and drink it, and
soon after the groans aroused all the
attendants, and it Was only through the
utmost medical skill he was resuscitated
from the stupor of the opiate.
Times have changed, and yet the
American conscience needs to be toned
up on the subject of suicide. Have you
seen paper in the last month that did
not announce the passage out of life by
ones own behest? Defaulters, alarmed
at the idea OF exposure, quit life pre-
cipitately. Men losing large fortunes
90 ont of the world because they cannot
endure earthly existence. Frustrated
affection, domestic infelicity, dyspeptic
impaience, anger, remorse, envy, jeal-
ousy, destitution, misanthropy, are con-
sidered sufficient causes for absconding
from this life by Paris green, by lauda-
mum, by belladonna, by Othello's dag
ger, by halter, by leap from the abut-
ment of bridge, by firearms. More
cases of felo de Sc in the last two years
than any two years of the worlds exist
ence, and more IN the last month than
in any twelve months. The evil is more
and more spreading.
A pulpit not long sgo expressed some
doubt as to whether there was really
anything wrong about quitting this life
when ii became disagreeable, and there
are found in respectable circles people
apologize fer the crime which Paul in
the text arrested. Ishall show you be-
lore get through that suicide is the
worst of all crimes, and I shall lift u
warning unmistakable. But In the eaR!y
part of this sermon ! wish to admit that
some of the best Christians that have
ever lived have committed self-destruc-
tion, but always IL dementia, and not
responsible. l have no more doubt
about their eternal felicity than I have
OF the Christian who dies in his bed in
the delirium OF typhoid fever. While
the shock of the catastrophe is very
great, charge all these who have had
Christian friends under cerebGl aberra-
ton step of the boundaries Of this life,
to have no doubt about their happiness.
The dear Lord took them right out Ct
their daze6 and freEZiea state into per-
feet safety. How Christ feels toward
the insane you may know from the kind
way be treated the demoniac OF Gaaara
and the child luratic, and the pctency
with which he hushed tenpests either OF
sea or brain.
Scotland, the land prolific of inteuec-
sual giants, had none graEder than Hugh
Miller. Great for science and great for
Gcd. He came Of the best Highland
blood, and was descendant of Donald
Roy, a man eminent for piety and the
rare gift of second sight His attain
ments, climbing up as he did from the
quarry and the wall of the stonemason,