The Globe-republican. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1889-1910, 1894-08-24
THE EVIL OF SUICIDE.
DR.. Talmage Disc0urses ON It's
Spread and the Cause.
Infidelity and Agnosticism to Blame-The
Fate Of the Man Who Deliberately
Snaps the Bond Between His
Body and His Soul

The latest sermon given out through
the press by Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage
was upon the subject of Suicide, !" the
text being from Acts xvi, 27-2s: 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" The sermon is as follows:
Here is a would-be suicide arrested
in his deadly attempt. He was sher-
IF, and, according to the Roman law, a
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
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 sharp lookout 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 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 I'M
IL L., i,
and suffer public disgrace, resolves to
precipitate his own decease. But be-
fore the sharp, keen, glittering dagger
of the sheriff could strike his heart, one
of the unloosened prisoners arrests the
blade by the commando: do myself
no harm"
In olden time, and where Christian
ity had not interfered with it, suicide
was considered honorable and sign
of courage. Demosthenes poisoned
himself when told that Alexander's
ambassador had demanded the sur
render of the Athenian orators.
Isocrates 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 had been dressed, tore
them open and persisted. Mithridates
killed himself rather than submit to
Pompey, the conqueror. Hannibal de-
stroyed his life by poison from his
ring, considering life unbearable. Ly-
curgus 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
ants, 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
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,
at the idea of exposure, quit
life precipitately. Men losing large
fortunes go out of the world because
they cannot endure earthly existence
A pulpit not long ago expressed some
doubt as to whether there was really
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 the sermon wish to
admit that some of the best Chris
tians that have ever lived have
self-destruction, but al
ways in dementia, and not RESPONSE
BILE. l have no more doubt about
their eternal felicity than 1 have of the
Christian who dies in his bed in the
delirium of typhoid fever. While the
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, 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
potency with which he hushed the
tempests either of sea or brain.
Scotland. the land prolific of intel
lectual giants had none grander than
Hugh Miller. Great for science and
great for God. He came out of the
best Highland blood. and he was
of Donald Roy, q man
eminent for his piety and the rare gift
of second sight. His attainments,
climbing up as he did from the quarry
and the wall of the stonemason, drew
forth the astonished admiration of
auckland and Murchison, the scient-
lists. and DIR. Chalmers, the theologian,
and held universities spellbound.
while he told them the story of what
he had seen Of God in the old red sand
stone.
That man did more than any being
that ever lived to show that the God of
the hills is the God of the Bible, and
he struck his tuning forks ON the