The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1888-11-15
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Self-Destruction, the Worst OF All
Crimes, Reviewed.
The Causes which Lead to It The Crime
On the Increase-Some of the Not
able Instances in Past
History.

Rev. I. Dewitt Talmage took for the
subject OF q recent sermon at Brooklyn
Tabernacle, 1.-THE Crime of Self -Destruc-
tion.n His text was:
He drew out his sword, and VIC uld have killed
himself, supposing that the priso had been
ted. But Paul cried, with loud voice, saying,
10 myself no harm. Acts xvi. 2-sS.
Here is would-be suicide arrested in
his deadly attempt. He was sheriff,
and, according to the Roman law.
bailif himself must suffer the punish-
lnent due an escaped prisoner, and If the
prisoner breaking Jail was sentenced to
be endungeoned for three or four years,
then the sheriff must be endungeoned for
three or four yesrs; and If the prisoner
breaking Jail was to have suffered capital
punishment, then the sheriff must suffer
capital punishment. The sheriff had re-
ceived especial charge to keep a sharp
lookout for Paul 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 some
thing 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 for preaching
Christ, and realizing that he must there
fore die, rather than go under the execu-
tioner's axe on the morrow and suffer pub
lie disgrace, resolves to precipitate 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 com.
mand, do thyself no harm"
In olden time, and where Christianity
had not interfered with it, suicide was
considered honorable and sign Of cour-
age. Demosthenes poisoned himself
when told that Alexander's ambassador
had demanded the surrender of the Athe-
MAN orator. Isocrates killed himself
rather than surrender to Philip Of Mace
don. Cato, rathar than submit to Julius
CAsap took his own life, and after three
times his wounds had been dressed tore
them open end perished. Mithridates
killed himself rather than submit to
Pompey, the conquerer. Hannibal de-
stroyed his life by poison from his ring,
considering life unbearable. Lycurgus
suicide, Brutus a suicide. After the dis
aster of Moscow, Napoleon always carried
with him preparation of opium, ana
one night his servant heard the ex-Em-
peror arise, put something in glass and
drink it, and soon after the groans
aroused all the attendants, and it was
only through utmost medical skill he
was resuscitated from the stupor Of the
opiate.
Times have changed and yet the Amer
lean conscience needs to be toned up on
the subject of suicide. Have you seen
paper in the last month that did not an
nounce the passage out of life by one's
own behesti Defaulters, alarmed at the
idea of exposure, quit life precipitately.
Men losing large fortunes go out of the
world because they can not endure earth
ly existence. Frustrated affection, do
nestle infelicity, dyspeptic impatie nce,
anger, remorse, envy, jealousy, destitu-
ton, misanthropy, are considered suffi-
Gent causes for absconding from this
life by Paris green, by laudanum, by
belladonna, by Othello's dagger, by hal
ter, by leap from the abutment of a
bridge, by firearms. More cases Of felo
de SO in 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.
A pulpit, not long ago, expressed some
doubt as to whether there was really any
thing wrong about quitting this life when
1t became disagreeable, and there are
found in respectable circles people apol-
ogetic for 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 I'M
mistakable. But in the early part of this
sermon / wish to admit that some of the
best Christians that have ever lived have
committed self.destruction, but always in
dementia and not responsible. l 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, / charge all those who have had
Christian friends under cerebral aberra-
ton 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 intellectu-
al 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 attain
ments, 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 universities spellbound while he
told them the story of what he had seen
Of God in the old red sand stone.
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 tunlng-fork on the rocks of Cromarty
until he brought geology and theology
accordant in Divine worship. His two
books, entitled Footprints OF the Cree
ator" aud Testimony of the Rocks
proclaimed the banns Of an everlasting
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 gun
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