The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1894-08-17
SELF DESTRUCTION.
"po THYsELF NO HARM" SAYS The
GREAT TABERNACLE PREACHER.


GREAT TABERNACLE PREACHER.
Tic Admits That Good Christians Have At
tempted Self Destruction. but Always In
Dementia = Foroefui Words Against .
Spreading Evil-A Christian's Death.
BROOKLYN, Aug. 12,-Rev, Dr. Tai
mage, who is now abroad, has selected
rs the subject for today's sermon
Trough the press the word Suicide, "
tho text being Acts xvi, 81, 80: He
drew out his sword and would have
killed himself, supposing that the pris-
onors had been fled. But Paul cried
with loud voice, saying, Do thyself no
tarm.
Here is would be suicide arrested in
his deadly attempt. He was a sheriff,
and according to the Roman law bail
if himself must suffer the punishment
duo an escaped prisoner, and if the pris-
over 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 capt.
tai 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 olergymen, about whom
there seemed to be something strange
and supernatural.
In Olden Times.
Sure enough, by miraculous power
tbs are free, and the sheriff, waking
mt of sound sleep and supposing these
ministers have run away, and knowing
,ast they were to die for preaching
Christ, and realizing that he must there
sosc die, rather than go under the exc
au;ioner's AK on the morrow and suffer
public disgrace resolves to precipitate
his own decease. But before the sharp,
keen, glittering dagger Of the sheriff
could strike his heart one of the I'M
,oo2ened prisoners arrests the blade by
the command, 'Do thyself no harm. "
II olden time, and where Christianity
lad not interfered with it, suicide was
considered honorable and a sign Of cour-
aso. Demosthenes poisoned himself
when told that Alexander's ambassador
had demanded the surrender of the
Athenian orators. Isocrates killed him
$ If rather than surrender to Philip of
Macodon. 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. Han
,-ibal 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 preparation
of opium, and one night his servant
hard the ex-emperor arise, put some
thing in glass and drink it, and soon
after the groans arouse all the attend
ants, and it was only through utmost
,:,odical skill he was resuscitated from
'ho atupor of the opiate.
The Crime Spreads.
Times have changed, and yet the
American conscience needs to be toned
upon 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 pre-
cipitately Men losing large fortunes &c
out of the world because they cannot
endure earthly existence Frustrated af
lection, domestic infelicity, d,speptic
impotence, anger, remorse, envy, jeal-
ousy, restitution, misanthropy, are con.
| sidored sufficient causes for abscondine
from this life by paris green, by lauda
mum, by belladonna, by Othello's dag
ger, by halter, by leap from the abut
ment Of bridge, by firearms. More
cases Of "felo de Sc" in the last two
years of the worlds existence. The evi
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 il
the text arrested. l shall show you be
fore get through that suicide is thu
worse Of all crimes, and I shall lift ,
warning unmistakable. But in the early
part of this sermon wish to admit tina
some of the best Christians that hav,
ever lived have committed self destruc
1,,,@ o11 in 1a,ranfto
responsible. Ihave no more doubt abou
their eternal felicity than I have of tn,
Christian who dies in his bed in the de
lirium of typhoid fever. While tn
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 t.
have no doubt about their happiness
The dear Lord took them right out o
their dazed and frenzied state into per
feet safety. How Christ feels towar'
the insane you may know from the kin,
way he treated the demoniac of Gadar
and the child lunatic, and the potenc
with which he hushed the tempest
either of sea or brain.
Hugh Miller and Cowper.
Scotland, the land prolific of intel
lectual giants, had none grander tina
Hugh Miller, great for science an
,rcat for God. He came Of the best high
laid blood, and he was descendant c
Dopald Roy, man eminent for hi
piety and the rare gift of second sight
Ills attainments, climbing up as he di
from the quarry and the wall Of tn
stouemason, drew forth the astonishe
;,dm,.oion of auckland and Murchisor
TITO scientists, and DR.. Chalmers, tn
tloologian, and held universities spell
md while he told them the story {
, ut he had seen of God in the old re
...dStone.
That man did more than any bein
That ever lived to show that the God {
tho hills is the God Of the Bible, an
he struck his tuning fork ON the rocl
Cr1,,orkxv x,,%;1 he bro,,1bt f,ao1no