Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1898-07-21

The following sermon by Rev. I. De
Witt Talmage is directed against the
crime of suicide. 1t is based on the
text:
Do myself no harm-Acts xvi, %
Here is would-be suicide arrested
In his deadly attempt. He was 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 sem
fenced 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 capital punishment,
then the sheriff must suffer capital
punishment. The sheriff had received
special charge to keep a sharp lookout
for Paul and Silas. The government
had not much confidence in bolts and
bars to keep safe these two cler-
gymen, about whom there seemed to
be something strange and supernatur-
al. Sure enough, by miraculous pow
er, they are free, and the sheriff, walk
ing these ministers have run away,
and Knowing that they were to die
for preaching Christ, and realizing
that he must therefore die, rather than
60 under the eXecutioner's AK on the
morrow and suffer public disgrace, re-
solves to precipitate his own disease.
But before the sharp, keen, glittering
dagger of the sheriff could strike his
heart, one of the anloosened prisoners
arrest the blade by the comment: DO
thyself no harm"
In olden times, and where Chris
tianity had not interfered with it, sui
eide was considered honorable and
sign of courage. Demosthenes poisoned
himself when told that Alexanders
ambassador had demanded the surren-
der 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
persisted. Mithridates killed himself
rather than submit to Pompey, the con-
queror. Hannibal destroyed his life
by poison from his ring, considering
life unbearable. Lycurgus suicide,
Brutus a 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, and 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 resuscitated.
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 the passage out of life
by ones own behest2 Defaulters,
alarmed at the idea of exposure, quit
life precipitately. Men losing large
fortunes go out of the world because
they can not endure earthly existence.
Frustrated affection, domestic infe-
licity, dyspeptic Impotence, anger, re-
morse. envy, jealousy, restitution, mis-
anthropy, are considered sufficient
causes for absconding from this life by
paris green, by laudanum, by bella
donna, by Othello's dagger, by halter,
by leap from the abutment of bridge,
by fire arms. 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 any
twelve months. The evil 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 in the text arrest
ed. shall show you before
! get through that suicide is the
worst of all crimes, and | shall lift a
warning unmistakable. But in the
early part of this sermon | wish to add
NIT that some of the best Christians
that have ever lived have committed
self-destruction, but always in demen-
tia and not responsible. | 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 catas-
trophe is very great, | charge all those
who have had Christian friends under
cerebral alteration step off the boun-
daries 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 toward the insa ne
you may know from the way He treat
ed the demoniac of Gadara and the
child lunatic, and the potency with
which He hushed tempests either OF
sea or brain.
No one doubted the piety of William
Cowper, the author OF those three
great hymns: "0h, for Closer Walk
with God, What Various Hindrances
We Meet" There Is Fountain Filled
with William Cowper. swho
shares with Isaac Watts and Charles
Wesley the chief honors of Christian
hymnology In hypochondria he re-
solved to take his own life and rode to
the River Thames, but found
man seated on some goods at the very
point from which he expected to