Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1898-07-27

his deadly attempt. He was sheriff and,
accordinS to the Roman law, n bailif him
self must suffer the punishment due an es-
capped prisoner; and if the prisoner break
ing jail was sentenced to be endunCeoned
Tor three or four years, then the sheriff
must be enuuns, ns,;oacd for three or four
years, and If thc yriSoner breaking Jail was
to have suffered capital punishment, then
the sheriff must suffer capital punishment.
The sheriff had received especial charge to
keep n sharp lookout for Paul and Sias.
The government had not much confidence
in bolts and bars to keep safe these two
clergymcn. about whom there seemed to
he something strange and supernatural
Sure enough, by miraculous power, they
are free, and the sheriff, waking out of II
sound sleep, Gad supposing these ministers
have run away, and knowing that they
were to die for preaching Christ, and real
izing that he must therefore die, rather
than go under the executoner's axe on the
morrow and suffer public disgrace, resolves
to precipitate his own decease. But before
the sharp, keen, glitterinS dagger of the
sheriff could strike his heart, one of the un-
loosened prisoners arrests the blade by the
command, sd 10 thyself no harm s"
In olden times, and where Christianity
had not interfered eth it, suicide Was
considered honorable and n sign of cour-
age. Demosthenes poisoned himself when
told that AleXander's ambassador had de-
manded the surrender of the Athenian
orator. Isocrates killed himself rather
than surrender to Philip of Macedon.
Cato, rather than submit to julius Caesar,
took his own life, and three times after his
wounds had been dressed, tore them open
and perished. Mithridates killed himself,
rather than submit to Pompey, the con-
queror. Hannibal destroyed his life by
poison from his ring, considering life un-
bearable. Lycurgus suicide, Brutus Il
suicide. After the disaster of Moscow,
Napoleon always carried with him a prep
aration of poison, and one night his
servant heard the eX-emperOr arise, put
something in n glass and drink it, and
soon after the Croans aroused all the at
tendants and it was only through utmost
medical skill that he was resuscitatei.
Times have changed, 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 behcst?
Defaultcrs, alarmed at the idea of exposure,
quit life precipitatcly. Men losing large
fortunes go out of the world because they
cannot endure earthly existence. Frus-
trated affection, domestic infelicity, dys-
peptic impatience, anger, remorse, envy,
Jealousy, destitution, misanthropy, are
considered sufficient causes for abscond-
ing from this life by Paris green, by lauda-
mum. by belladonna, by Othello's dagger,
by halter, by leap from the abutment of
bridge, by firearms. More eases of felo
de sc IN the last TWO years tnal III any two
years of the worlds existence, and more
in the last month than in any twelve
months. The evil is more and more spread
ing.
A pulpit not long ago expressed some
doubt as to whether there was really any
thing wrong about quitting this life when
it became disagreeable, and there are
found in respectable circles people apollo
Getic for the crime which Paul in the text
arrested. 1 shall show you before / get
through that suicide is the worst of all
crimes, and l shall lift warning unmis-
taxable. Bat in the early part of this ser
mon l wish to admit that some of the best
Christians that have ever lived have COM
mitted self-destructiOn, but always in de-
mentia, and not responsible. l have no
more doubt about their eternal felicity
than 1 have of the Christian who dies in
his bed in the delirium of typhoid fever.
While the shock of the catastrophe is very
great. 1 charge all those who have had
Christian 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 dazcd
and frenzied state into perfect safety. How
Christ feels towards the insane you may
know from the way He treated the de-
mOniac of Gadara and the child lunatic,
and the potency with which He hushcd
tempests either of sea or brain.
Scotland, the land prolific Of intellectual
giants, had none grander than Hugh Miller.
Great for science and great for God. He
was an elder in st. Johns Presbyterian
Church. He came of the best HIGHLAND
blood, and was a descendant of Donald
Roy a man eminent for piety and the rare
gift of second sight. His attainmpntS
climbing up as he did from the quarry and
the wall of the stone mason, drew forth
the astonished admiration of Ducklani and
Murchison, the scientists, and DR.. Chal-
mers, the theologian, and held universities
spellbound while he told them the story OF
what he had seen of God in 'tThe Old Red
Sandstone" That man did more than any
other being that ever lived to show that
the God of the hills is the God of the Bible
and he stuck his tuning-fork on the rocks
Of Cromarty until he brought geology and
theology accordant in divine worship. His
two books, entitled Footprints of the
Creator" and "The Testimony of the
Rocks" proclaimed the banns of an ever
lasting marriage between genuine science
and revelation. On this latter book he
toiled day and night, through love of nature
and love of God, until he could not sleep
and his brain gave way, and he was found
dead with a revolver by his side, the cruel
instrument having had two bullets-one
for him and the other for the gunsmith
who at the coroner's inquest was eXamilI-
ing It and fell dead. Have you any doubt
Of the beatifcation of Hugh Miller after
his hot brain had ceased throbbinS that
winter night in his study at PortobeIlo?
Among the mightiest of earth, among the
nightiest of heaven.
No one doubted the piety of William Cow
per- the author of those three great hymns,
''Oh, For a Closer Walk With Cod -
"What Various Hindrances We Meet,
''There Is Fountain Filled With Blood
William Cowper, who shares with Isaac
Watts and Charles Wesley the chief honors
of Christian hymnology. In hypochon-
Ill, h..~ A1,-nl 20 Anf-n h - 20,
rode to the River Thames, but found II man
seated on some goods Mt that very point
from which he expected to spring, and
rode back to his home, and that night
threw himself upon his own knife, but the
blade broke; and then he hanged himself
to the ceiling, but the rope broke.
While we make this merciful and right
eous allowancein regard to those who were
plunged into mental incoherence, I declare
that the man who, in the use of his rcas on,
by his own act, snaps the bond between his
body and his soul, goes straight into p,r.li-
"Murderers shall have their part in the
lake which burneth with fire and hrim-
stone" Revelation o. 15-''WithoUt Gra
dogs and sorcerers and whoremonGers
and murderers." You do not believe the
New Testament Then, perhaps, you be-
lieve the Ten Commandments: Thou
shalt not KILL" Do you say that all these
passages refer to the taking of the life Of
others? ThenI ask you if you are not as
responsible for your own life as for the life
OF others? God gave Won n special trust in
life, and made you the custodian of yOTr
life, and He made You the custodian OF no
other life. He gave you as weapons wit'i
which to defend it two arms to strike down
assailants, two eyes to watch for Invasion,
and natural love of life which ought ever
to be on the alert. Assassination OF others
Is mild crime compared with the assas-
al n alton nf vO1rsatf hapanEa In the "a fer
.ase it is treachery to an especial trust; Il
= the surrender of castle you were @,
,,scially appointed to keep; it is treason
! II natural law, and it is treason to God add
| ed to ordinary murder.
To show how God OF the Bible looked
upon this crime, point you to the rogues
picture gallery in some parts of the Bible
| the pictures Of the people who have com
mitted this unnatural crime. Here is tn,
! headless trunk Of Saul on the walls Of Bath