Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1888-10-26
DO THYSELF NO HARM
SERMON By DIR. TALMAGE IN BROOK.
LYN TABERNACLE.
Suicide in Olden limo Was Considered
Honorable and Sign ofCOurage-Modern
Apologists for This Crime-Cenuine Sci
enco and Revelation Ia Accord.

Yert-"Hc drew out his sword, and would have
killed himself supposing that the prisoners had
been fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice.
saying, DO myself no harm. Acts xvi, 2S-29.
Here is would be suicide arrested in
his deadly attempt. He was sheriff,
and according to the Roman law, a
bailif himself must suffer the punish
ment due an escaped prisoner. and if the
be endungeoned for three of four years.
then the Sheriff must be endungeoned
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 to
keep sharp lookout for Paul and Silas.
The Government had not confidence i'll
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 a sound sleep, and supposing
these ministers have run away, and
knowing that they were to die for preach
ing Christ, and realizing that he must
therefore die, rather than go under the
executioners AK on the morrow and SUI
fer public disgrace, resolves to precipi-
tate his own decease. But before the
Sheriff could strike his heart, one of the
unloosened prisoners arrests the blade
by the command: DO myself no harm"
In olden time, and where Christianity
had not interfered with it, suicide was
considered honorable and sign of
courage. Demosthenes poisoned him
self when told that Alexander's embas-
xador 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 persisted.
Mithridates killed himself rather than
submit to Pompey, the conqueror. Han
nibal destroyed his life by poison from
his ring. considering life unbearable.
Lycurgus a suicide, Brutas q suicide.
After the disaster of Moscow, Napoleon
of opium, and one night his servant
heard the ex-Emperor arise, put some
thing in u glass and drink it, and soon
after the greans aroused all the attend
ants. and it was only through the utmost
medical skill he was resuscitated from
the stupor of the opiate.
I 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
atthe idea of exposure, quit life precipi-
lately. Men losing large fortunes go
out of the world because they cannot en-
dure earthly existence. Frustrated af-
lection, domestic infelicity, dyspeptic
1mpatlence, anger, remorse, envy, jeal-
ousy, restitution, misanthropy, are con-
sidered sufficient causes for absconding
from from this hi life by paris green, by la1da-
ger, by halter, by leap from the abut-
ment of a 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.
pulpit not long ago expressed some
doubt as to whether there was really
anything wrong about quitting this life
when it became disagreeable, and there
are found in respectable circles, people
apologize for the crime which Paul in
the text arrested. shall show you be-
fore l get through that suicide is the
worst OF all crimes, and I shall lift a
warning unmistakable. But in the early
part of this sermon 1 wish to admit that
some of the best Christians that have
ever lived have committed self destruc-
ton, but always in dementia, and not
responsible. have no more doubt
about Their eternal 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, 1
charge all those who have had Christian
friends under cercbal 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 frenzied state into perfect
safety. How Christ feels toward the in
sane you may know from the kind way
He treated the demoniac of Gadara and
the child lunatic, and the potency with
which he hushed tempests either of sea
or brain.
Scotland, the land prolific of intel
!ectual 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 second sight. His
attainments, climbing up as he did from
the quarry and the wall of the stone-
mason. drew forth the astonished .ad-
miration of auckland and Murchison,
the scientists, and DR.. Chalmers, the
theologian. and held universities SPELL
bound 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 the Bible, and he
struck his tuning fork on the rocks of
Cromarty until he brought geology and
theology accordant in divine worship.
His two books, entitled Footprints Of
the Creator" and the Testimony Of the
Rocks proc laimed the bans of an ever
lasting marriage between genuine science
and revelation. On 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 by
his side, the cruel instrument having
had two bullets-one for him and the
other for the gunsmith who at the cor
oners inquest was examining it and fell
dead. Have you any doubt of the beati-
tication of Hugh Miller, after his hot
brain had ceased throbbing that winter
night in his study at Portobello? Among
the mightiest of earth, among the might
lest Of Heaven.
M ono 1ouhfa Il tho ,,ia%v IF W;11;,.,,