Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1903-07-17
TALMAGE
SERMON
BY Row.
FRANK DE WITT TALMAGE. DID,.
Pastor Of Jsfforson Park Freshly
terrain Church. Chieasc

statistics. the subject chosen by DR.
Talmage for his discourse ooduy is
most timely one. His text Is Job Il. o.
Curse God and die
Two Observation-Disclosures fierce,
definite, outrageous! The one urges
the broken hearted father, the financial
bankrupt. the physically tormented
man, to grit his teeth and, with flash
ing eyes and uplifted hand, hurl a fu-
tile rnalsdiction at the Almighty, TO
curse God with an eternal blasphemy.
What a shocking, appalling suggestion!
Enough 10 make all heaven stand
aghast in horror and to render even the
demon infested caverns Of hopeless
inferno silent with fear and to turn
the flushed checks aflame with the fires
OF eternal woe white with terror.
Curse Godl Who could do that but a
human being crazed and desperate and
reckless under intolerable anguish?
The second Indictment puts in the
hands of the sufferer the suicides
knife, the hangman's moose or the vial
labeled with the two fatal words,
Deadly Poison" TO how many In
every age has that insidious temptation
Gomez In the United States alone
more than 10000 persons have yielded
TO IL during the past four years. In
Chicago alone 1904 persons passed out
OF life by the suicides gate in three
years-nlne victims on a single Sab
bath. In two months OF the present
year seventy-ive lives have ended In
self immolation. How long will the
human race listen to that hideous voice
which bade Job seek IN death escape
from his miseryf That tempter's voice
Is sounding louder and louder every
day. Shall the crime of self murder
be allowed longer to spread the per-
picious doctrine that with one stroke
Of the razor across the jugular vein
or with one plunge In front OF flying
locomotive or with one leap from high
building or lofty palisade the would be
eutcide can find rest, eternal rest. God
gwen. bhssful oblivion for all who are
weary or life and peace for souls sick
q the results OF sin?
The Increasing suicidal epidemic OF
: The present generation should be halted
: h lie onward march of destruction.
~ nS voice today In warning against
~ erH. Ii cannot be stayed by up
3aA3akAs q Dangied corpse or by call
- 4 acad man n coward. / would
Srkyerfehy and earnestly try to indi-
Ats scaos OF the causes which produce
q Then, in guarding you against the
tncspient evils, 1 might perhaps by the
grace OF God keep some from ever tot
ssring and swayiDg on the verge OF the
precipice or tumbling into q suicides
grave. The gunpowder magazine can
Be exploded by spark. We would
DEAL this morning with primal causes
rather than with resultant conflagra-
tons
Atheism Responsible.
First. charge atheism with the chief
responsibility for the crime. Self muir
Ser is the hideous black visaged ex-
ccutioner OF the merclless monster we
call atheism, ngnosticism, infldelity. IL
Il the old Shiny serpent coiled up IN
Ger the ovorshadowing branches OF the
gnarled and worm eaten trce of unbe-
lief. ut the foot OF which sits the grin
Ming. blear eyed bag misery grooming a
dirae for n lullaby. IL is the death rat
tie OF human being whose parched
lips have been set 10 the rim Of the
chalice filed with the scorchIng, poi
sonous connection of blasphemy and
falsehood compounded by Voltaire, a
Rousseau, Thomas Paine or Robert
@. lngersolL Ii Is the milestone. wet
with human blood, upon which the
moral sensibilities can be blunted and
et the same time the suicides knife
sharpened, for il teaches immortal man
that there is no hereafter and that he
b responsible for his life's actions TO
10 Divine Maker and King.
No suicidal razor was ever honed
upon the leaves OF the opened Bible.
Enough the morning newspapers al
most every day are blackened with
the awful obituary tragedies OF men
ord women who have deliberately
taken their lives by the bloody hand
or SELF murder. you cannot find among
those who persisted, in the full possess
Gon or reason, single cousecrated
Christian church member. You can
not ind one person among them oil
who realized that he was beloved
child or God and that he expected to
so to meet n loving Heavenly Father
unless the person killed himself dur
Ing Mt of temporary insanity, as did
Augh Miller, the great Scotch scientist,
who blew out his brains during men,
tni arrangement or that eminent New
Hork Clergyman who, in delirlum.
leaped from a window. Why? The
Bible distinctly and emphatically de-
ciares that DO man has n right to COM
INIT SELF murder II warns men that
they must answer for this terrible
crime before the Judgment seat OF
Christ and II holds out TO them no
hope OF pardon during all eternity.
Head the eighth chapter of Revelations:
And murderers and whoremongers
and tdolaters and all liars shall have
their part In the lake which burneth
with fire and birthstone which is the
second death" Read the first epistle
% John, third chapter and fifteenth
verse: no murderer hath eternal life
soidin& In him." In the sound of such
divine warning, does any Christian
man. with his eyes wide open, attempt
20 sound the "open sesame" of the
enhy gates of the New Jerusalem
W4<h the crack of a suicidal pistoI3
Snss 80 Christian, by self destruction,
Seessruts that ftfe which God alone
enn sfve and which God alone has a
SiGAt 10 tnke awayf
Put On the Gospel Armoy.
TIE whole tendency Of the gospel Of
Jessis Christ Ia opposed to this suicidal
epidemic; the whole tendency of unbe-
lief Is to promote and increase It, To
the atheist life Is single span, one
aoutuent OF which Is the cradle and
the other the grave, at which he meets
humiliation. To such a man there Is
no better principle Of life than to eat,
drink and-he merry, for tomorrow be
dies. He would make life a comedy
for all and death great finale. His
fdeaifsm would do for his fellow men
as that millionaire capitalist recently
DID for bis friends He provided. by
last will and testament, that mo serv-
Ice Of religious character be held at
his grave; that a special train of Pull