The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1898-07-21
TALM.AGE'S SERMON.
SLAUGHTER' LAST SUN
DAYS SUBJECT.

4 !
From Acts 1928 as Follows: "Do
Thyself No Harm"- The kind Fl OF
People That Resort to This Unnatural
Crime--some the Worlds Benefactors.
Hero IS a Would-be suicide arrested
IN MS deadly attempt. He was a 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 en-
dungeoned for three or four years, and
II the prisoner breaking Jail was to
have suffered capital punishment, then
the sheriff must suffer capital punish
ment. The sheriff had received espe-
c1al charge to keep sharp lookout for
Paul and Silas. The government had not
much confidence in bolts and bars to
keep safe these two clergymen, about
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 under the executioner's axe on the
morrow and suffer public disgrace, re-
solves to precipitate his own decease
But before the sharp, keen, glittering
dagger of the sheriff could strike his
heart, one of the unloosened prisoners
arrests the blade by the command, do
thyself no HARM"
In olden times, and where Christian
ity 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 remanded 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 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
unbearable. Lycurgus a suicide, Bru-
tus suicide. After the disaster of
Moscow, Napoleon always carried with
him a preparation of poison. and one
night his servant heard the ex-emperor
arise, put something in a glass and
drink it, and soon after the groans
aroused all the attendants, and it was
only through utmost medical skill that
he was resuscitated. Times have
changed, and yet the American consci-
ence needs to be toned up on the sub
ject of suicide. Have you seen paper
in the last month that did not announce
the passage out of life by ones own be-
hest? 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 infelicity, dyspeptic impa-
tience, anger, renlorse, envy, jealousy
restitution, misanthropy, are consider
ed sufficient 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 Sc in the last two years than
any two years of the worlds existence
and more in the last month than in anv
twelve months. The evil is more and
more spreading.
A pulpit not long ago expressed some
doubt as to whether there was reallv
anything wrong about quitting this life
when it became disagreeable, and there
are found in respectable circles peoDle
apologize for the crime which Paul in
the text arrested. I shall show Won
before get through that suicide is the
worst OF all crimes, and I shall lift a
warning unmistakable But in the ear1v
part of this sermon I wish to admit
that some of the best Christians that
have ever lived, have committed self
destruction, but always in dementia
and not responsible. I have no more
doubt about their eternal felicity than T
have OF the Christian who dies in his
bed IN the delirium of typhoid fever.
While the shock Of the catastronhe ia
very great, 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 dazed and frenzied
state into perfect safety. How Christ
feels towards the insane you may know
from the way he treated the demoniac
of Gadara and the child lunatic, and the
potency with which he hushed tempests
either Of sea or brain. .-O
Scotland, the land prolific of INTELLECT
tual 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
descendant of Donald Roy, a man emil
nent for piety and the rare gift of sec
ond sight. His attachments. climbing
up as he did from the quarry and the
wall Of the Sf0no-rnocor