The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1888-11-01
TALMAGE'S SERMON,
The Weekly Discourses Of The Great
Brooklyn Preacher.
subject: "Ehe Present Epi-
sseEnfc Of Suicide"

GckAtc OF SUICIDE.
TEXT: vie dle,V out his sVor,s, .r.r 'eoul'.
prisoners had been fed But iGM er'et
soith q loud roiee, s1giny; DO hyseu no
toy@,'n Acts xvi, 25-2S
Here is a would-be suicide arrested in his
deadly attempt lie was a sheriff, anu &c,
cording To the Roman law, a bGiliif himself
must suffer the punishment due an escaped
prisoner; and IL the prisoner breaking JAIL
was sentenced to he endungeonei Tor three
or four years. then the sheriff must DO
endungeoned for three or four years; ana II
the prisoner breaking jail was to have
suffered capital punishment, then the sheriff
must suffer capital punishment The sheriu
had received especial charge to keep sharp
lookout for Paul and Silas. The govern.
ment had not had confidence in bolts ana
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
sound sleep, and suppoSing these MINISTERS
have run away, and Knowing that they were
to die Tor preaching Christ, and reaiizing
that he must therefore die, rather than so
undo: the executoner's axe on the morrow.
~-sS suffer public disgrace, resolves TO pre-
Sipltate his own decease. But before the
sharp keen, glittering dagger OF the sherlii
could strike his heart, one OF the unloosened
prisoners arrests the blade by the commahu'
"Do thyself no harm"
In olden time, and where Christianity had
not interfered with it, suicide was considerei
honorable and a sign OF courage. Demos
themes poisoned himself when told that Alex
anders ambassador had demanded the sur
render Of the Athenian orators. lsocrates
killed himself rather than surrender tc
Philip of Macedon. Cato, rather than sub
init to Julius Caesar, took his own life
and after three times his wounds had
been dressed tore them open and per
ished Mithridates killed himself rather
than submit to Pompey, the conqueror Han
nibal destroyed his life by poison from hi
ring, considering life unbearable. lycurgu
a suicide, Brutus a suicide. After the dlsas
ter of Moscow, Napoleon always carried witt
him preparation of opium, and one nlgh
his servant heard the ex-Emperor arise, pu
something in glass and drink it, and sooi
after the groans aroused all the attendants
and it was only through utmost medlca
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 sub
ject of suicide. Have you seen paper in til
last month that did not announce the passag
out of life by ones own behest! Defaulters
alarmed at the idea of exposure, quit lif
precipitately. Men losing large fortunes g
out of the world because they cannot endur
earthly existence. Frustrated affection
domestic infelicity, domestic impatienct
anger, remorse, envy, jealousy, destitutior
misaathropy, are considered sufficient cause
for absconding from this life by Paris greer
by laudanum by belladonna, by Othello
dagger by halter, by leap from the abu'
ment of a bridge, by firearms. More CASE
two years of the worlds existence, and MOI
in the last month than in any twelve months
The evil is more and more spreading.
A pulpit not long ago expressed some doui
as to whether there was really anythin
wrong about quitting this life when it BEGAN
disagreeable, and there are found in respec
able circles people apologetic for the erin
which Paul in the text arrested. | sha
show you before | get through that sulclt
is the worst of all crimes, and shall lift
warning unmistakabe, But in the early pa
of this sermon | wish to admit that son
of the best Christians that have ever live
have committed self-destuction, but alwa.
in dementia, and not responsible. l have
more doubt about their eternal felicity tbs
have of the Christian who dies in his b.
in the delirium of typhoid fever. VIII
the shock of the catastrophe is very gres
/ charge all those who have had Chri!
ian friends under cerebal alteration st
off the boundaries of this life. to have
doubt about their happiness. The dear Lo
took them right out of their dazed and fire
zied state into perfect safety. How Chr
feels toward the insane you may know fro
the kind way He treated the demoniac Of
dara and the child lunatic, and the poten
with W hich he hushed tempests either OF
OF brain.
Scotland, the land prolific of intellect
giants, had none grander than Hugh Mill
Great for science and great for God.
came of the best Highland blood, and wa
descendant of Donald Roy, man emin'
for pety and the rare gift of second sig
His attachments, climbing up as he did fr
the quarry and the wall of the stonemas
drew forth the astonished admiration Of Blu
land and Murchison, the scientists and
Chalmers, the theologan, and held unive
ties abound while he told them the ST.
of what lie had seen of God in the old
sandstone.
That man did more than any being t
ever lived to show that the God of the hill
the God of the Bible, and he struck his t
ing fork or the rocks of Cromarty until
brought geology and theology accordant
divine worship His two books, EMIT
''Footprints of the CREATOR and the ''Te
mony of the Rocks" proclaimed the bann
an everlasting marriage between &c
inc scin and revelation. On
through love OF nature and love of {
until, he could not sleep. and his brain g
way, ana he was found dead with revol'
by his side, the cruel instrument having
TWO bul etS-one for him and the other
the gunsmith who at the coroners inql
was examining it and fell dead Have
eny doubt of the beatifcation of Hugh Mil
after bis hot brain had C ased throbbng
winter night in his study at Portobt
Among the mightiest of earth, among
mightiest of heaven.
No one doubted the piety of William
per, the author of those three great hyr
''Ch, for closer walk with God" "N
various hindrances we meet" There
fountain filled with BLOOD" William Cow
VINO shares with Isaac Watts and Cha
Wesley the chief honors of Christian by
ology. In hypochrondria he resolve,
take his own life, AMI rode to the +
Thames, but found man seated on s
goods at the very point from which he
pected to spring, and rode back to his ht
and that night threw himself upon his
knife, but the blade broke and then he hal
himself to the ceiling, but the rope pal
No wonder that when God mercfully
iivered him from that awful dementia h,
down and wrote that other hymn jus
memorable:
"God moves In mysterious way
His wonders TO perform;
lie plants His footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.
"Blind unbeef is sure to err
And scan His WORK in vain;
God is His own in erpreter,
And he will make il plain.
While we make this merciful and RICH
allowance in regard to those who
plunged into mental ;Icoherence, l de
that that man who, in the use of his re-
by his own act, snaps the bond betwee,