The Bossier banner., 1894-09-27
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Spread Of the Evil Of Self Muir
der and It's Cause.
Lnfidelity and Agnosticism to Blame-The
Man Who, in the Use of His Own Rea-
son, Takes His Own Life, Goes
Straight to Perdition.


through the press this week. Its sub
ject is Suicide, being based on the text:
He drew out his sword and would have
killed himself, supposing that the prisoners
had been fed. But Paul cried with loud
| voice, saying, Do thyself no harm-Acts xvi.
T-2S.
Here is would-be suicide arrested
in his deadly attempt. He was sher-
iff. and, according to the Roman law,
bailiff himself must suffer the punish
ment due an escaped prisoner; and if
the prisoner breaking jail was SEN
fenced to be endungeoned for three or
| four years, then the sheriff must be en-
| dungeoned 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 a sharp lookout. for
Paul and Silas. The government had
not had con n6dence 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
1 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 un-
der the executioner's AK on the NOR
row, and suffer public disgrace, resolves
| to precipitate his own deceaSe. But
before the sharp, keen, glittering dag.
ger of the sheriff could strike his heart,
one of the unloosened prisoners arrests
the blade by the command, ''Do thyself
no harm"
In olden time, and where Chris
tianity had not interfered with it, sui
| eide was considered honorable and a
sign of courage. Demosthenes poisoned
himself when told that Alexander's
ambassador had demanded the sur
render of the Athenian orators. Iso-
crates killed himself rather than sur
render 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 Mithri-
dates killed himself rather than SUBJ
NIT to Pompey, the conqueror. Hanni-
bal destroyed his life by poison from
his ring, considering life unbearable.
Lycurgus a suicide, Brutus a suicide
| After the disaster of Moscow Napoleon
always carried with him a preparation
of opium, and one night his servant
heard the ex-emperor arise, put some
thing in glass and drink it, and soon
after the groans aroused all the at
tendants, and it was only through ut
most medical skill he was resuseitated
from the stupor of the opiate.
Times have changed, and vet 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 precipitate1y. Men losing large
| fortunes go out of the world because
they cannot endure earthly existence.
Frustrated affection, domestic infelic-
ity, dyspeptic impatience, anger re-
morse, envy, jealousy, destitution, mis-
anthrophy are considered sufficient
causes for absconding from this life by
| paris green, by laudanum, by BELLA
donna, by Othello's dagger, by halter,
by leap from the abutment of bridge,
by fire arms. More cases of ''felo de
Sc" in the last two years of the worlds
existence. 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 before / get through that suicide
is the worst of all crimes, and | shall
lift a warning unmistakable. But il
q the early part of this sermon | wish tC
admit that some of the best Chris
tians that have ever lived have com
mitted self-des truetion, but always
in dementia, and not resposible
/ have no more doubt abou-
their eternal felicity than have of tn,
Christian who dies in.his bed in the de
lirium of typhoid fever. While tht
shock of the catastrophe is very great
/ charge all those who have had Chris
tian friends under cerebral alteration
step off the boundaries of this life t.
have no doubt about their happiness
The dear Lord took them right out o
their dazed and frenzied state into per
feet safety. How Christ feels towart
the insane you may know from tn
kind way he treated the demoniac o
Gadara and the child lunatic, and tn
potency with which he hushed the ten
pests either of sea or brain.
Scotland, the land prolific in intel
lectual giants, had none grander tha
Hugh Miller Great for science ali
great for God. He came out of tn
best Highland blood, and he was dt
scendans of Donald Roy, man eminell
for his piety and the rare gift of ses
ond sight. His attainments, climbin
mp as he did from the quarry and tn
wall Of the itonemason, drew forth th
astonished admiration of Buckland an
MpreAison, the scientists. and D