The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1898-07-11
TlHYSELF No HARM
sffHNFtH'ftTf tHf 't'.I N''
SUICIDE THE SUBJECT OF REV. On.
TALMAaE's SERMON.


Cause OF Self Slaughter Etsr-
nifty Through Gods Command.
copyright. 1893. by American Press Asso-
ciatl0n.l
WARRINGTON, July 10.-This sermon OF
DR.. TAlmage which we send out today
seems startlingly appropriate to this theme
when 80 many are leaving this life by
their own hand, an evil about which all
reasonable people are agreed; text, Acts
xvi, as, "Do thyself no harm"
Here is a would be SUICIDE arrested in
his deadly attempt. He was sheriff, and,
according to the Roman law, bailiif
himself must suffer the punishment due
an escaped prisoner, and If the prisoner
breaking jail was sentenced to be endun-
geoned for three or four years then the
sheriff must be- endungeoned for three or
four years, and II the prisoner breaking
jail was to have suffered capital punish.
mens 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
much confidence in bolts and bars to keep
safe these two clergymen, about whom
there seemed to be something strange and
supernatural. Sure enough, by miracu-
lous power, they are free, and the sheriff,
waking out Of sound sleep and suppos-
ing these ministers have run away and
knowing that they were to die for preach
ing Christ and realizing that he must
therefore die rather than 60 under the
executioncr's Ak on the morrow and suffer
public disgrace resolves to precipitate his
own dccease. But before the sharp, keen,
glittering dagger of tho sheriff could
strike his heart one Of tho unloosened pris-
oners arrests the blade by the command,
"Do myself no HARM"
Suicide Among the Ancienta
In olden times and whore Christianity
had not interfered with 1t suicide was con-
sdered honorable and q sign Of courage.
Demosthenes poisoned himself when told
that Alexander's ambassador had demand
oil the surrender of tho Athenian orators.
Isocrates killed himself rather than sur
render to Philip of Macedon. Cato, rather
than submit to Julius Cesar, took his
own life, and three times after his wounds
had been dressed tore them open and per-
ished. Mithridates killed himself rather
than submit to Pompey, the conqueror.
Hannibal destroyed his life by poison from
his ring, considering life unbcarable Ly-
curgus suicide, Brutus a suicide. After
tho disaster of Moscow Napoleon always
carried with him preparation Of poison,
and ono night his servant heard the OK
emperor arise, put something in glass
and drink it, and soon after the groans
aroused all the attendants, and it was
only through utmost medical skill that he
was rcsuscitated Times have changed,
and yet 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 tho passage out OF
life by ones own behestS Defaultcrs,
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 af-
fiction, domestic infelicity, dyspeptic i'm
patience, anger remorse, envy, jealousy,
dcstitution, misanthropy, are considered
sufficient causes for absconding from this
life by paris green, by laudanum, by bel
ladonna, by Othello's dagger, by halter,
by leap from the abutmcnt of n bridge, by
firearms More cases of fclo de SO in the
last two years than any two years of tho
worlds existence, and more in the last
month than in any IL months. The evil
Is more and more spreading
A pulpit not long ago expressed some
doubt as to whether there was really any
thing wrong about quitting this life when
1t became disagrceablc, and there are found
in respectable circles people apologize for
the crime which Paul in the text arrested.
l shall show you before get through that
suicide Is tho worst of all crimes, and l
shall lift warning unmistakable. But
in the carly part Of this sermon l wish to
admit that some Of the best Christians
that have ever lived have committed self
destruction, but always in dementia and
not responsible. l have no more doubt
about their eternal felicity than have Of
the Christian who dies in his bed in tho
ielirium of typhoid fever While the
shock of the catastrophe is very great, l
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. Tho dear
Lord took them right out of their dazed
and frcnZied state into perfect safety.
How Christ feels toward the insane you
may know from the way ho treated the do
m0niac of Gadara and the child lunatic,
and tho potency with which he hushcd
tempcsts either of sea or brain.
MercifuI Allowance.
Scotland, the land prolific of intellectual
giants, had mono grandcr than Hugh Mil
Ter, great for science and great for God.
He was an elder in st. Johns Presbytc-
rian church. He came of the best highland
blood and was u descendant of Donald
Roy, a man eminent for piety and the raro
gift of second sight. His attanmcnts,
climbing up us he did from the quarry
and the wall of the stoncnlason, drew
forth the astonishcd admiration of Buck
land and Murchison, the cientists, and
DR.. Chalmers, the theologian, and held
universities spellbound while he told them
the story of what he had seen of God in
1.-THE Old Red Sandstone" That man did
more than any other being that ever lived
to show that the God of tho hills is tho
God OF the Bible, and he struck his tuning
fork on the rocks of Cromarty until he
brought geology and theology accordant
IN divine worship. His two books, enti-
tied Footprints Of the Creator and
"Thc Testimony of the Rocks, proclaim
ed the banns Of an everlasting 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 vt sleep and his
brain gave way, and he was found dead
with q revolver by his side, the cruel in
strumcnt having had two bullets-one for
him and the other for the gunsmith who
at the coroners inquest was examining It
and fell dead Have you any doubt of the
Justification Of Hugh Miller after his hot
brain had ceased throbbing that winter
night in his tudy at Portobellor Among
the mightiest of Garth among the might
est of heaven.
No one doubted the pety of William
Cowper, the author Of those three great
hymns, 80 For Closer Walk With
God" "What Various Hindranccs We
Meet, " There Is Fountain Filled With
Blood William Cowpcr, who shares
with Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley the
chief honors of Christian hymnology. In
hypochondria he resolved to take his own
life and rode to the river Thames, but
found a man seated on some goods at 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 tho blade broke, and then he
hanged himself to tho ceiling, but the rope