Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1894-08-17
TABERNACLE PULPIT.
SUICIDE THE SUBJECT OF THIS
WEEKS SERMON
I'm the OIdenr Time, Before tina Dawn
OF Christianity, Self Murdsr Was Con
sidered Honorable and a Sign OF
Congregational Cowardice.

J sermon through the press the word
Suicide" the text being Acts XVI "a,
2s: He drew out his sword and would
have killed himself, supposing that
the prisoners had fled. But Paul
cried with a loud voice. saying, Do
myself no harM."
Here is a woHld-be suicide arrested
in his deadly attempt He was a
sheriff and according to the Roman
law a bailiff himself must suffer the
punishment due an escaped prisoner;
and if the prisoner breaking Jail was
sentenced to be endgngeoned for three
or four years, then the sheriff must be
endungeoned 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 confidence in bolts and bars
10 keep safe these two clergymen,
about whom there seemed to be some
dining 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 therefore die, rather than go
under the execution RS AK, on the
morrow and suffer public disgrace,
resolves to precipitate his own de-
cease. But before the sharp keen,
glittering dagger of the sheriff could
strike his heart one of the unloosened
prisoners arrests the blade by the
command, do myself no harm"
In olden time, and where Christi
anity had not interfered with it.
suicide was considered honorable and
n sign of courage Demosthenes
poisoned himself when told that Alex
ander's ambassador had demanded
the surrender of the Athenian orators
'Isocrates killed himself rather than
surrender 10 Phillip 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 Pompey, the conqueror
Hannibal destroyed his life by poison
from his ring, considering life I'M
bearable. After the disaster of Mos
cow, Napoleon always carried with
him preparation of opium, and one
might his servant heard the eX-em-
,peror arise, put something in a glass
end drink il prdsoel after the groans
! aroused all the attendants, ard Il was
only through utmost .ne1t.:.ecal skill he
was resuscitated from the stupor of
the opiste
Times have changed, and yet the
American conscience needs TO be toned
up 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? De-
faulters, alarmed at the idea of ex-
posure, quit life precipitately. Men
losing large fortunes go out of the
world because they can not endure
earthly existence. Frustrated affec-
tion, domestic infelicity, dyspeptic i'm.
patience, anger, remorse, envy, jeal-
,ousy, restitution, misanthropy are
considered sufficient causes for alb
sconding from this life by Paris green,
by laudanum, by belladonna, by
Othello's dagger, by halter, by leap
from the atutment OF bridge, by
firearms More cases of "felo de se''
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
any thing 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 yau before get through thai
suicide is the worst of all crimes and
i shall lift warning unmistalable
But in the early part of this sermon
wish to admit that some of the best
Christians that have ever lived have
committed self but Away,
lin dementia and not responsible.
have no more doubt about theii
eternal felicity than / have of tn,
christian who dies in his bed in tn,
delirium of typhoid fever While tn,
shock of the catastrophe is very great
/ charge all those who have had Chris
tian friends under cerebral alteration
step off lhe boundaries of this life, t
have no doubt about their happiness
The dear Lord took them right out o
their dazed and frenzied state int,
perfect safety How Christ feels to
ward the insane you may known from
,, the kind way he treated the demonia
of Gadara and the child lunatic, AM
the potency with which he hushet
the tempests either of sea or brain.
Scotland, the land prolific of intel
lectual giants had none grander thai
Hugh Miller Great for science ant
: great for God. He came of the hes
Highland blood, and he was de
scendant of Donald Roy men emi
nent for his piety and the rare gift o
, second-sight His attachments, climb
ing up as he did from the quarry an
the wall of the stonemasons, DIRE