Milford chronicle., 1888-10-19
80 THYSELF NO HARM
REV. DR.. TALMAeE'S SERMON IN
THE BROOKLYN TABERNACLE.

Honorable and Sign of cOurage-Mod-
ern ApoIogists for This Crime-Genuine
Science and Revelation in Accord.
BROOKLYN, Oct 14.-At the Tabernacle
this morning, the Rev. T. De Witt Talmage,
DID, took for his text Acts xvi, 2s and %:
s'He drew out his sword, and would have
killed himself, supposing that the prisoners
had been fled. But Paul cried with loud
voice, saying, Do thyself no harm" The
sermon was as follows:
Here is a would be suicide arrested in his
deadly attempt. He was a sheriff, and ac-
cording to the Roman law, bailiff himself
must suffer the punishment 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 endun-
eeoned for three or four years; and if the
/ prisoner breaking Jail was to have suffered
capital punishment then the sheriff must
1 suffer capital punishment. The sheriff had
received especial charge to keep sharp look
out for Paul and Silas. The government had
/ not had confidence in bolts and bars to keep
safe these two clergymen, about whom there
seemed to be something strange and super
natural
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 therefore die, rather than go under
the exeoutioper's axe ON the morrow and suf-
Ter 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 unloosened prisoners ar
rests the blade by the command; "Do thyself
no harm.n
In olden time and where Christianity had
not interfered with it, suicide was consld-
cred honorable and sign of courage. De-
Inosthenes poisoned himself when told that
Alexander's ambassador had demanded the
surrender of the Athenian orators, lsocrates
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 has been dressed tore
them open and perished Mithridates killed
himself rather than submit to POmpey the
conaueror. Hannibal destroyed his life by
poison from his ring, considering life unbear-
able. Lycurgus a suicide, Brutus suicide.
After the disaster of Moscow, Napoleon al
-
opium, and one night his servant heard the
ex-emperor arise, put something in a 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 stupcr of the opiate,
Times have changed, and yet the American
conscience needs to be toned up on the sub
iect of suicide. Have you seen paper in
the last month that did not announce the
passage out of life by ones own behest! De
faulters, alarmed at the idea of exposure,
Quit life precipitately. Men losing large for
tunes 20 out of the world because they cannot
endure earthly existence. Frustrated affec-
ton, domestic infelicity, dyspeptic impa-
thence, anger, remorse, envy, jealousy, desti-
tuition, misantrophy are considered sufficient
causes for absconding from this life by Paris
green, by laudanum, by belladonna, 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, aud
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 be
comes disagreeabe, and there are found in
respectable circles people apologetic for the
crime which Paul in the text arrested.
shall show you before get through that sui
eide is the worst of all crimes, and l shall
lift warning unmistakable But in the
early part of this sermon l wish to admit
that some of the best Christians that eveI
lived have committed self destruction, but
always in dementia, and not responsible
Oh k1,afts akar no
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 cerebral aberra
: tion step off the boundaries of this life, t.
have no doubt about their happiness. Thl
dear Lord took them right out Of their dazel
and frenzied state into perfect safety. How
Christ feels toward the insane, you may know
from the kind way he treated the demonia'
of Gadara and the child lunatic, and thi
potency with which he hushed tempest
either of sea or brain.
Scotland, the land prolific Of intellectual
giants, had none graader then Hugh Miller
Great for science and great for God tH
came of the best Highland blood, and was
descendant of Donald Roy, man eminen
for piety and the rare gift of second sight
HIS attachments, climbing up as he did from
the quarry and the wall of the stonemason
drew forth the astonished admiration o
Buckland and Murchison, the scientists, ant
DR.. Chalmers, the theologian, and held uni
versities spellbound while he told them th
story Of what lie had seen of God in the oil
red sandstone
That man did more than any being tina
ever lived to show that the God of the hills
the God of the Bible, and he struck his tunin
fork on the rocks Of Cromarty until h
brought geology and theology accordant il
divine worship. His two books, entitle
ssFootprints Of the Creatorn and the Test
mony Of the Rocks proclaimed the banns O
an everlasting marriage between genuin
science and revelation. On this latter boo
he toiled day and night through love c
nature and love Of God, until he could nc
sleep, and his brain gave way, and he wa
found dead with revolver by his side, th
cruel instrument having had Two bullets
one for him and the other for tie gunsmit
who at the coroners inquest was exaIainin
= it and fell dead Have you any doubt Of tn
beatifcation Of Hugh Miller, after his he
brain had ceased thro5bing that winter nigl
in his study at Portobollol Among th
mightiest Of earth, among tic mightiest {
heaven.
No one doubted thespiety of William Gov
per, the auther of those three great hymn
''Ob, for a closer walk with God" "Wha
various hindrances we meet" There is
fountain filled with blood" William Gov
per, who shares with Isaac Watts and Charl'
Wesley the chief kenors Of Christian hymn
ology In hypochondrla he resolved to tai
his own life and rode to the river Thame
but found man seated on some goods CT Il
very point from which lie expected to sprinl
and rode back to his home and that niSi
threw himself upon his own knife, but Il
blade broke, and then he hanged himself
the ceiling but the rope parted. No wOsii'
sk4t ,siap Cs,si ,EaaIaaifu-v = d>lirersl LIN F-
tl,at awful dementia he sat down and wro
thlt other hymn just as memorable:
God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders TO perform;
He plnnts his footsteps In the sea,