The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1894-08-15
THE WORST CRIME.
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmags breaches q
Sermon on Suicide.
He Chains That InHdelity s the Prime
Cause Of the Sin of self-Destruction
God Alone Knows the Hour to
Free Us from Eearthly
Bondage and Call Us
to His Realms.

subject of his recent sermon through
the press, the word Suicide, y the text
being Acts xvi, 27, 2s: He drew out
his sword and would have killed him
self, supposing that the prisoners had
been fled. But Paul cried with a loud
voice, saying: DO thyself no HARM"
Here is would-be suicide arrested in
his deadly attempt. He was sheriff,
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 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 un-
der the executioners AK on the morrow
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 command, 'Do thy
self no harm"
In olden time, and where Christianity
had not interfered with it, suicide was
considered honorable and sign of
courage. Demosthenes poisoned him
self when told that Alexander's am
bassador had demanded the surrender
of the Athenian orators. Socrates
killed himself rather than surrender
to Philip of Macedon. Cato, rather
than submit to julius Cesar, took his
own life, and after his wounds had
been dressed three times tore them
open and perished. Mithridates killed
himself rather than submit to Pompey,
the conqueror. Hannibal destroyed
his life by poison from his ring, consid-
ering life unbearable. Lycurgus sui
| n,.11t do lfo
aster at Moscow, Napoleon always car
ried preparation of opium, and one
night his servant heard the ex-emperor
arise, put something in 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 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 precipitately. Men losing large
fortunes go out of the world because
they cannot endure earthly ex.
istence. Frustrated affection, domestic
infelicty, dyspeptic impatience, anger,
remorse, envy, jealousy, destitution
and misanthropy are considered sufi-
cient causes for absconding from this
life by Paris green, by laudanum, by
belladonna, by Othello's dagger, by
halter, by leap from the abutment of a
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 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 be-
fore / 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 Christians that have
lived have committed self-destruction,
but always in dementia, and not re-
sponsible. have no more doubt about
their eternal felicity than have of the
Christian 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.
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 of the best
Highland blood, and he was descend.
ant of Donald Roy, a man eminent for
his piety and the rare gift of second
'ight. His attainments, climbing up
rs SA did from the quarry and the wall
Of the stonemason, drew forth the as
tonished admiration Of Buckland and
Murchison, the scientists, and DR..
Chalmers, the theologian, and held uni
versities spellbound while he told them
tie story Of what he had seen of God