The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1888-10-18
$500 a EAR.
"D0 THYSELF NO HARM"
REV. DR.. TALMAGE'S SERMON IN
THE BROOKLYN TABERNACLE.


THE BROOKLYN TABERNACLE.
Suicide in Olden Timc was Considered
Honorable and a Sign of Courage-Aiod-
ern Apoiogists for This Crime--Genuine
Science and Revelation in Accord.
BROOKLYN, Oct. 14.-At the taber-
nacle this morning, the Rev. I. De Witt
Talmage, DID,, took for his text, Acts
xvi. % and 30. .Iie 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 t.lyself no harm" The SER
mon was as follows:
Here is would be suicide arrested in
his deadly attempt. He WAS q sheriff,
and according to the Roman law,
bailif himself must suffer the punish
ment 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-
geoned for three or four years; and If
the prisoner breaking Jail was to haye
suffered capital punishment. then the
sheriff must suffer capital punishment
The sheriff had received especial charge
to keep a 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
cat OF q 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-
toners 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 un-
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 perished. 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 a
suicide, Brutus suicide. After the dis
nster 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
I'D on the subject of suicide. Have you
seen a 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 impatience,
anger, remorse, envy, Jealousy, destitu-
ton, nlisanthropy, are considered suIfii-
CI'Ut tluSto lCE liOul JlliS
life by Paris green, by laudanum, by bel
ladonna, by Othelio's dagger, by halter,
by leap from the abutment Of 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 rs 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 l shall lift a
warning unnistakable. But in the early
part Of this sermon / wish to admit that
some of the best Christians that have eyer
lived have committed self destruction,
but always in dementia, and not respon-
sible. have no more doubt about then
eternal felicity than have of the Chris
tian who dies in his bed In the deliriun
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
frenzied 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 hC
hushed tempests either of sea or brain.
Scotland, the land prolific of intellec
tual giants, had none grander than Hugl
Miller Great for science and great TO
God. He came of the best Highland
blood, and was n descendant of Donald
Roy, man eminent for piety and the
rare gift of second sight. His attain
ments, climbing up as he did from th'
quarry and the wall Of the stonemason
drew forth the astonished admiration o
Buckland and Murchison, the scientists
and DR.. Chalmers, the theologian, ant
held universities spellbound while h
told them the story of what he had seel
of God in the old red sandstone.
That man did more than any bein;
that ever lived to show that the God o
the hills is the God of the Bible, and h
struck his tuning fork on the rocks @
Cromarty until no brought geology an
theology accordant in divine worship
His two books, entitled Footprints O
the Creator" and the Testimony Of tn
Rocks" proclaimed the bans of al
everlasting marriage between genuin
science and revelation. On this latte
book he toiled day and night throug
love of nature and love of God
until he could not sleep, and his brai
gave away, and he was found dead wit
q revolver by his side, the cruel instru
ment having had two bullets-one fo
him and the other for the gunsmith VIII
at the coroners inquest was examinin
it and fell dead. Have you any doubt {
the Identification of Hugh Miller, after h