Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1888-11-01
THE SUICIDAL MANIA.
DR.. Talmage breaches a Sermon
on the Epidemic of Suicide.
Infideiity and Agnosticism the Main Cause
of Suicide-The American Conscience
in Great Need of Toning Up
on This Subject

OF Sutcide-Th0 American conscience
in Great Need of Toning Up
on This Subject
At the Brooklyn Tabernacle last Sunday
Rev. 7. Dewitt Talmage took for his text
Acts xvi, 27-2S: sHe drew out his sword
and would have killed himself, supposins
that the prisoners had been fed. But Pau
cried with "a loud voice, saying; Do thysel
no HARM The sermon was as follows:
Here is would-be suicide arrestedjin hi
deadly attempt. He was sheriff. and &C
cording to the Roman law bailiff himsel
must suffer the punishment due an ESCAPED
| prisoner; and ii the prisoner breaking jai
was sentenced TO be endungeoned for thret
or four years, then the sheriff must be en-
dungeoned for three or four years. and i
the prisoner breaking Jail was to have suf
fered capital punishment, then the sheriff
must suffer capital punishment. The sheriff
had received especial charge to keepa SHARP
| lookout for Paul and Silas. The govern
ment had not had confidence in bolts ano
bars to keep 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 a
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 go
under the executioner's AK on the morrow
and suffer public disgrace, resolves to pre-
cipitate his own decease But before the
sharp, Ike n, Rlit:ering dagger Of the sheriff
could strike his heart, one Of the Embossed
prisoners arrests the blade by the command /:
"Do myself no harm"
In olden time, and where Christianity had
not interfered with it, suicide was consid-
cred honorable and sign of courage. De-
mosthenes poisoned him elf when told that
Alexander's ambassador had demanded the
surrender of the Athenian orators Isocra-
ties killed himself rather than surrender TO
Philip of Macedou. Cato rather than sub
NIT to Julius Caesar. took his own life and
after three times his wounds had been
dressed tore them open and persisted. Mi
thridates killed himself rather than submit
to Pompey, the conqueror. Hannibal de
stroyed his life by poison from his ring,
considering life unbearable Lycurgus a
suicide, Brutus suicide After the 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,
and soon after the groans aroused all the
attendants and 1t was only through utmost
medical skill he was resuseitated 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 out of life by ones own behestl De-
taulters, alarmed at the idea Of exposure,
quit life precipitately Men losing large
fortunes go out of the world because they
can not endure earthly existence. Frus-
trated affection domestic infelicity, dyspeptic
Impotence, anger, remorse. envy jealousy,
restitution, misanthrophy, are considered
sufficient causes for abscondng from this
life by Paris green, by ,sudanum by bella
donna, by Othello's dagger, by leap from
the abutment of bridge, by firearms.
More cases OF felo de Sc in the last two
years thnn any two years of the worlds ex-
istence, and more in the last month than
in any twelve months.
A pulpit not long ago expressed some
doubt as to whether there was really any
thing wrong about quitting this life when it
became disagreeable, and there are found
the crime which Paul in the text arrested /
] shall show you before get through that
suicide is the worst Of all crimes. and shall |
lift warning unmistakable But in the /
early part Of this sermon wish to admit \
that some Of the best Christians that ever |
lived have committed self-destructiou, but /
always in dementia, and not responsible. 4
have no more doubt about their eternal 4
felicity than ! 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 those who have
had Christian friends under cerebral aber-
ration step off the boundaries Of this life, 10
have no doubt about their happiness. The
dear Lord took them right ont Of their dazed
and frenzied state into perfect safety. How
Christ feels toward the insane you may
know from the kind way he treated the
OF Gadara and the child lunatic.
and the potency with which 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 70 God. He
came of the best Highland blood and was
a descendant Of Donald Roy, man eminent
for piety and the rare gift of second-sight
His attanments, climbing up as he did from
the quarry and the wall Of the stone-mason,
drew forth the astonished admiration of
auckland and Murchison, the scientists, and
DR.. Chalmers, the theologian, and held
spellbound while he told them
the story of what he had seen Of God in the
Did red sandstone.
That man did more than any being that
ever lived to show that the God of the hills
IS the God of the Bible, and he struck his
tuning fork on the rocks of Cromarty until
ne brought geology and theology accordant
N Divine worship. His two books, entitled
of the CREATOR and the ssTes-
-imony Of the Rocks, y proclaimed the banns
IF an everlasting marriage between genuine
science and revelation. On this latter book
he toiled day and night through love of
nature ana love of God, until he could not
'leep. and his brain gave way, and he was
ound dead with a revolver by his side, the ,
,ruel instrument having had two bullets ,
me for him and the other for the gunsmith ,
who at the coroner inquest was examining
and fell dead Have you any doubt Of the
ratification Of Hugh Miller, after his hot ,
F.Q a.. HI