Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1894-08-16
TABERNACLE PULPIT.
SUICIDE THE SUBJECT OF THIS
WEEKS SERMON.
In the Olden Time, Before the Dawn
OF Christianity, Self Murder Was Con-
sidered Honorable and Sign of
Congregational CowardiceA

selected as the subject for to-day's
sermon through the press, the word
Suicide" the text being Acts XVI: 81,
%: HE drew out his sword and would
have killed himself, supposing that
the prisoners had fed. But Paul
cried WITH loud voice, saying, Do
myself no harm"
Here is would-be suicide arrested
in his deadly attempt He was a
sheriff and according to the Roman
law bailiff himself must suffer the
punishment 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
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 some
thing strange and supernatural
Sure enough by miraculous power,
they are free, and the sheriff, waking
out of a 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 eXecutioncr's 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
a 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 to 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, consid ering life un,
bearable. After the disaster of Mos.
cow, Napoleon always carried with
him preparation of opium, and one
night his servant heard the eX-em-
| peror arise, put something in a 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
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.
posture, quit life precipitately. Men
losing large fortunes go out of the
world because they can not endure
earthly existence. Frustrated affec'
ton, 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 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
anything wrong about quitting this
life when it became disagreed bic, and
there are found in respectable circles
people apologize for the crime which
! Paul in the text arrested. | shall
show you before l get through thai
suicide is the worst of all crimes and
/ shall lift warning unmistakable
But in the early part of this sermon
wish to admit that some of the best
| Christians that have ever lived have
committed self destructi but always
in dementia and not responsible.
have no more doubt about their
eternal felicity than l 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 cere bral alteration
step off The boundaries of this life, tc
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 to-
ward the insane you may known from
the kind way he treated the demoniat
of Gadara and the child lunatic, and
the potency with which he flushed
the tempests either of sea or brain.
Scotland, the land prolific of intel
lectual giants, had none grander thar
| Hugh Miller. Great for science and
great for God. He came of the best
| Highland blood, and he was a de
scendant of Donald Roy, men emf
nent for his piety and the rare gift OF
second-sight. His attainments, climb
ing up as he did from the quarry and
| the wall of the stonemasons, drew
| forth the astonished admiration OF
auckland and Murchison, the scient
lists, and Dr. Chalmers, the theologian,
/ -