The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1888-10-19
DO THYSELF NO HARM
REV. DR.. rALMA0E's SERMON IN
THE BROOKLYN TABERNACLE.

srn Apologize for This Crime-Genuin,
Science and Revelation in Accord.
BROOKLYN, Oct. l4.-At the taber
nacle this morning, the Rev. 7. De Wit,
Talmage, DID,, took for his text, Act,
xvi. % and 90. .'He drew out hi,
sword, and would have killed himself
supposing that the prisoners had beer
fled. But Paul cried with loud voice
saying, Do thyself no harm" The ser.
mon was as follows:
Here is a would be suicide arrested in
his deadly attempt. He was sheriff,
and according to the Roman law, q
bailiff himself must suffer the punish
ment due an escaped prisoner; and il
the prisoner breaking jail was sentenced
to be endungeoned for three or four
years, then the sheriff must be endun-
geoned for three or four years; and if
the prisoner 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 conf
dence in 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 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-
toner's ak on the morrow and suffer
public disgrace, resolves to precipitate
his own decease. But before the sharp,
keen, glittering dagger of the sheriff
could strike his heart, one of the I'M
loosened 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 sign of cour-
age. Demosthenes poisoned himself
when told that Alexander's ambassador
had demanded the surrender of the
Athenian orators. Isocrates killed him
self 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 Pom
pey, the conqueror. Hannibal destroyed
his life by poison from his ring, con-
sidering life unbearable. Lycurgus
suicide, Brutus a suicide. After the dis
aster of Moscow, Napoleon always car
ried 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 it was
only through 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 precipi-
lately. Men losing large fortunes go out
of the world because they cannot endure
earthly existence. Frustrated affection,
domestic infelicity, dyspeptic Impotence,
anger, remorse, envy, Jealousy, destitu
ton, misanthropy are considered suffi-
cient causes for Ascending from this
life by Paris green, by laudanum, by bel
by Othello's dagger, by halter,
by leap from the abutment OF a bridge,
by firearms. More cases of felo de Sc 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
anything wrong about quitting this life
when it became disagreeable, and there
are found in respectable circles people
apologetic for the crime which Paul in
the text arrested. shall show you be-
fore get through that suicide is the
worst of all crimes, and shall lift a
warning unnistakable. 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 respon-
sible. have no more doubt about their
eternal felicity than | have of the Chris
tan 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 cerebal 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
frenzed state into perfect safety. How
Christ feels toward the insane you may
know from the kind way he treated the |
demoniac of Gadara and the child luna
tic, and the potency with which he
hushed tempests either of sea or brain.
Scotland, the land prolific of intellec-
tual 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 stonemason,
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 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
III, <,,,spr forl, ~, tho rrclyo ~ |