The morning times., 1897-01-11
THE EPIDEMIC OF SUICIDE
DIR. .Tallnage's Thoughtful Ser
mon Against SelfImmolation.
PRACTICE b, a IN ANCIENT TIMES
FaInan :. Men of All Ages Who Have
Considered II Honorable to Take
dition Is for Those Who Do It-His
Arraigrnnefh aof Infidelity.

Dr. Tafmage preached one OF his most.
thoaghtful and philosophical sermons yes
terday day. roElpipg l At the First Presbyterian
Church. on a subject which is attracting
widespread attention: 1.-The Epidemic OF
8 Suicide, .,. ay.,
The preacher introduced the subject
with the text from the Acts, in which
Paul arrests the act OF the Roman sheriff
who was about to commit suicide, with the
words, ''Do thyself no harm,n and briefly
considered the fact that in ancient times
suicide was. considered honorable. Dr.
Talnage said, in part;
'Demosthenes poisoned himself when
told that tAlexanders ambassador had de-
handed the surrender 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 perished. Mithridates killed
himself rather than submit TO Pompey, the
conquerer. Hannibal destroyed his life
by poison from. his ring, considering life
unbearable. Lycurgus, a suicide, Brutus
a suicide.
|. After the disaster OF Moscow, Napoleon
always carried with him preparation OF
opium, and one night his servant heard
the eX7emperor arise, put something in q
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. e,slos.
Times have changed, and yet the Amer
| lean conscience needs to be toned up on
| the subject iofssuicde. Have you seen
paper in the last month that did not an
nounce 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 eXis-
tence. Frustrated affection, domestic
| infelicity, dyspeptiC impatience, anger, re-
| morse, envy, jealousy, destitution, mis-
| anthropy, are Considered sufficient causes
for absconding from this life by paris green,
| by Iaudanulp, by belIadonna, by Othello's
dagger, by halter, by leap from the abut-
tsment "uf" q bridge, by firearms. More
] cases OF felo de Sc in the last two years
than any two years of the worlds exis-
| tence, and more in the last month than in
| any twelve months. The evil is more
| and more spreading.
Quitting This Life.
"a pulpit not long ago expressed Some
doubt as to whether there was really any
| thing wrong about quitting this life when
| it became idisagreeable, and there are
] found in respectable circumstances 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 l shall lift warning unmis-
| taxable. But in the early part of this SER
| monI / wish to admit that some of the best
/ Christians that have ever lived have COM
| mitted self-destruction, but always in
| dementia, and not responsible.
81 have no more doubt about their eternal
| felicity than have of the Christian who
| dies in his bed in the delirium of typhoid
| fever. While the shock of the catastrophe