The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1894-11-09

| Rev. T. DEWITT Talmage selected the
following sermon for dissemination
through the press this week. Its sub
Iect is Suicide, being based on the text
He drew out his sword and would have
killed himself, supposng that the prisoners
had been fed. But Paul cried with loud
voice, saying, Do thyself no harn-Acts xvi
27-2S.
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 ii
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 sharp lookout for
Paul and Silas. The government had
not had con fidence 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 therefore die, rather than go un-
der the executioners 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 myself
| no harm"
In olden time, and where Chris
tianity had not interfered with it, sui
eide was considered honora BILE and
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 persisted. Mithri-
dates killed himself rather than sub
init 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 a 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 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 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, qui.
life precipitately. Men losing large
fortunes go out of the world because
they cannot endure earthly existence.
Frustrated affection, domestic infelic-
ity, dyspeptic Impotence, anger re-
morse, envy, jealousy, restitution, mis-
anthrophy are considered sufficient
causes for absconding from this life by
paris green, by laudanum, by bella
lonna, by Othellos 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 apologize 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 in
the early part OF this sermon wish to
admit that some of the best Chris
tians that have ever lived have COM
mitted self-destruction, but always
In dementia, and not responsible.
l have no more doubt about
their eternal felicity than have of the
Chrfst; IN who dies in his bed in the de-
lirium of typhoid fever. While the
shock of the catastrophe is very great,
/ charge all those who have had Chris
tan friends under cerebral 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 per-
feet safety. How Christ feels toward
the insane you may know from the
kind way he treated the demoniac of
Gadara and the child lunatic, and the