The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1894-08-24
TAlMAGE'S SERMON.
Tho Spread Of the Evil Of Self-Mur-
der and It's Cause.
TnadeIify and Agnosticism 20 BIame-Ttae
Ean Who, IN tho Use Of Ills Own Rea-
son, Takes Ills Own Lie, Goes
Straight to Perdition.

A Kew II DGR iEb A. d1ITagG selected the
following sermon for dissemination
through the press this week. Its sub
jet is Suicide, being based on the text:
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 myself no harm-Acts xvi,
27-2s
Here is a would-be suicide arrested
in his deadly attempt He was a sher-
if. and, according to the Roman law,
a bailif 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 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 a 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 I'M
der the executioner's 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 hor orable and a
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
NIT to Pompey, the conquerOr. Hanni-
bal destroyed his life by poison from
his ring, considering life unbearable.
Lycurgus a suicide, Brutus 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 vet 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 hy 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 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
donna, 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.
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. j shall show
you before get through that suicide
is the worst of all crimes, and / shall
lift a warning unmistakable. But i'm
the early part of this sermon I wish 20
admit that some of the best Chris
tians that have ever lived have com
mitted self-des truction, but always
in dementia, and not resposible.
have no more doubt about
their eternal felicity than i 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 tenn
pests either of sea or brain.
Scotland, the land prolific in 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 de-
scendant of Donald Roy, man eminent
for his piety and the rare gift of sec
ond 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 scientists, 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 sandstone.
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 fork on the
rocks Of Cromarty until he brought ge-
ology and theology accordant with di
vine worship. His two books. entitled
Footprints of the Creator" and the
'',restamony of the Rocks, proclaimed