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THE WASHIMON GAZETTE. VOL, XIX. THE CAUSE OF SUICIDE. Da. TAMIACHTB SERMON IN THE BROOK LYN TA3SRKAOLE. “H® Dr®w Out Ell Sword and Would Have Klllad Himself. Supposing: that the Prlaoner had Pled, but Paul Orlod Wltb a Loud Voice, ’3>o Thyself no Aarxn’’ ” BbooAtv, September 21. The opening livinn at the Brooklyn tabernacle to-day was: •0 ir 450e1 dur help in pa*t, Our hope far years to cotaat” Dr. Talmage expounded the lltli chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews, and preached on “The Cause ot Sui cide,” taking his text from Acts xvi. 27 and 28; “He drew out his sword and would have killed himself, sup posing that the prisoners had fled,but Paul cried with 4 loud voice: ‘Do thyself net harm!’” Dr. Tahnage spoke as follows: Here is a would-be suicide arrest ed in his attempt. Ho is a sheriff having prisoners in charge. Accord ing to the Roman law the bailin' had to suffer the punishment that ■was due any culprit escaping, and if the prisoner breaking jail ws to have been eudungooned three or four years, then the keeper must lie endungooned three or four years, and if the prison er escaping was to have suffered cap ital punishment then the keeper must suffer capital punishment. The sher iff had received unusual charge to keep a close lookout for Paul and Si las. There was something strauge and supernatural about them, and the government had not much confi dence in bolts and bars to hold fast these two Incarcerated clergymen. And now, sure enough, they are loosed by miraculous power, and as they were to die for the crime .of preaching Christ, thfc sherifl sup posed ho would have to die, and rather than go under the execution er’s axe on the morrow and sutler public disgrace he would, precipitate his own decease. But the sharp, keen, cruel dagger which the sheriff aiming at bis own heart, halts at of one of the unloosed “Do thyself no harm!” In olden times and when Christian ity had not Interfered with it, suicide was popular and considered a sign of courage. Demosthenes poisoned him self when Alexander’s ambassador demanded that the Athenian orators be surrendered. Socrates, the ora tor, starved himself to death rather than surrender to Philip of Maccdou. Cato slow himself rather than submit to Cwsar, and after the wounds had been dressed three times Cato tore them open and died, jtalliridates poisoned himself to escape Pompey, the conqueyor. Hannibal killed hiin selfwith poison, which he always carried in a ring because he thought life unbearable. Lycurgus, a sui cide. Brutus, a suicide. Empedo cles ended his life by jumping into the crater at Mount Etna. Zeno, the great philosopher, at ninety-eight years of age passing out of a school, fell and put a finger out of joint, and because of the accident, hanged him •self. After his Moscow retreat Na poleon always earned a preparation of opium for self-destruction, and his •errant one night heard him rise and put something Into a glass and drink it, and soon after there followed groans that awakened all his atten dants, aud it took utmost modical skill to resuscitate hi from the stu por of the opiate. So the crime goes down through the ages and modern society needs some toning-up on the subject of •uicide. You can’t take up a news paper without seeing the account of a passage out of life by one’s own hand. Defaulters, alarmed at the prospect of exposure, qnit life thus precipitately. Men losing fortunes enda life that they think not worth living. Frustrated affection, domes tic ills, dyspeptic impatience, re m*rsc, envy, grief, destitution and misanthropy are considered sufficient cause for absconding from this world. BjfcFaria green, by bellado na, by laudanum, by leap off an abnttment, by Othello’s dagger, by rope, by firearms. Never so many cases of felo de se in any two years as in the last two years. The trime is becoming common by the day. A pulpit not long ago expressed a doubt as to whether there was really any thing wrong in ending one’s life when it becomes too disagreeable. And there are strewn through the com munity among respectable people apologists for the deed that the apos- WASHINGTON, GA., FRIDAY, OCTOBER % 1884. tie in the text arrested. I shall show that it is the worst possible crime and will lift against it a warning un mistakable. At theopeuingof my sermon let me say that some of the best Christain people who have over lived havo committed suicide, but they did so in dementia ami therefore were irrspousible. I would have more no doubt about their immediate entrauce upon eter nal happiness thand have about thoso who die in their beds in tho delirium of a typhoid fever. Wljile the shock of the catastrophe is greater than in ordinary demise, I charge those whose Christain friends have in cerebral ab berration stepped off the of this life to have no fear about their destiny. The dear Lord took them out of their dazed and frenzied stale into perfect safety. If you want to know how Christ feels toward the in sane, see his treatment of tho do moniacs of Cardura and the child lunatic, and the potency with which he hushed tempests, whether of water or brain. Among ail the grand and glorious men of Scotland, the land prolific of intellectual giants, no one grander lias lived than Hugh Miller. Croat in seienco aud groat for Cod. lie came from the best highland blood and was a descendant of Donald Roy, memor able for “piety and for the rare gift of second sight.” His attainments,climb ing up as he did from quarry aud stone. Mason Wail, drew forth tiie amazed admiration of Buckland and Murchison, the scientists, and Chal mers, the theologian, and held univer sities spell-bouud as lie told them what he had seen of Cod iu tho old red sandstone, lie did more than any man that ever lived to show that the God of tho hills is the God of tho Bi ble; striking his tuning-fork on the rocks of Cromarty uutil geology and theology lifted their voices iu the same psalm of worship; his books en titled “The Footprints of the Creator” and “The Testimony of the Rocks,’’ proclaiming the banns of an eternal; marriage between science and revela tion. He toiled on this last book day and night from love ot nature and love of God until sleep was impossible, and his brain gave way and lie was found dead with a revolvor by his side, the cruel instrument that had two bullets, one for him and the other for the gunsmith, who afterwards fell dead while examining tt. Can any one doubt the beatification ot Hugh Miller when his hot brain ceased to throb that winter night in his study at Porto Bello? Among the migh i.st of heaven. No one ever doubted the piety of William Cowpcr, author of “Oh, for a closer walk with God,” “There is a fountain filled with blood,” “Whai va rious hindrances we meet.” William Cowper, who with Isaac Walts and Charles Wesley, wears the chief hon ors of the sacred out hypochondria William Cow per rcsolvod on seif-dostruc tion, rode to the Thames river for this purpose, but found a man seated up on some goods on the bank from which the sacred poet expected to spring, and so returned to his house and that night lay on the blade of a knife which broke, and then sus pended himseli with a rope which parted. No wonder when he got out of his abnormal condition he wrote that other hymn. ' “Ood moves In s Mysterious wty, Bis wonders to perform. But while we make all this merci ful and righteous allowance for those Christain people who have been plunged into a state of mental incoher ence, I declare that he who, while iu the posession of his reasoning facul ties by his' own hand intentionally snaps the hand between body and soul, goes straight into perdition. Shall I prove it? Revelation xxi. 8: “Murderers shall have their.'part [in the lake that [burneth with fire and brimstone. Revelation xxi. 15: “With out are dogs and sorcerers and whoremongers and murderers.” Don’t believe in the new Testament ? Perhaps, then, you believe in the Ten Commandments; “Thou shalt not kill.” Do you say all these refer to the taking of the life of others ? I ask is not a man as much responsible in re gard to his own life as the life of oth ers? Your lifo is committed to your especial care. You are its custodian as you are the custodian of no other life. God has given you [means for its defense, arms with which to strike back assailants, eves with which to watch invaders, and a natural love of life that was intended always to lie on the alert. Assassination of others Is a mild crime as compared with the assassination of yourself, beoauso in this last case you are treasurers of an especial trust, and you surrender a castle you wore especially bound to protect. It is high treason against natural law, and high treason to food added to murdor. That God is against self-immola tion, I show you a rogue’s gallery in the Bible, the pictures put there as warning to alt men agninst this un natural deed. There hang* (lie head less trunk of Saul on tho walls of Buthsham. Tills is tho great big coward who tried to kill little David, ten feet of stature chasitig four. This is tho man who consulted with tho clairvoyant, the witch 1 rtf Endor. Completely Whippod in battle, in stead of surrendering his sword with dignity as hundreds of heroes have done, ho asks his servant to kill him ; and the servant declining, tho giant plants tho hilt of his sword iu the ground and tuimsthe sharpened point of it up and flings himself upon it. And there his picture hangs in the rogue’s gallery of miscreants. There also is Ahithophel, the Macceaviclli of Bible times. He betrayed David in prospect of being prime minister to Absalom and joined that fellow in his attempt at patricide. Ahitho phol's change of politics not securing him what lie wanted, ho took a short cut out of a disgraced life into a sui cide’s eternity, and in Ist Samuel you havo his post mortem photograph. Yonder also is Abimelcch, practically a self-murderer. While ho was bom barding a tower a woman took a grindstone from its place and dropped it upon his head, leaving just enough life in his cracked skull to say to his armor-bearer: “Draw thy sword and slay me that men say not ‘a wo man slew him.’” and thrust fllTßugh at his own command, itio was practi cally a sofetdo, and his picture hangs 'in the imbe ciles. ■■ V *“ But the hero of this group is Judas Iscariot. Donne, in his celebrated book, calls him a martyr. Aud in our time some have been his apolo gists. And what wonder, in this ago which lias a book reviewing Aaron Burr as a patron ef virtue, aud which lias a monument recently built to George Sand as a benefactor of lit erature. and whtcli has cases of be trayal of Christ among his pretended apostles so black that in the contrast Judas Iscariot’s infamy is white. But there he is, after selling Ins Master for about fls, suspended by his own hand for the execration ot all centu ries. At! the good honorable men and women of tho Bible loft to God the decision of their earthly terminus. Aud they could all have exclaimed with Job, who, though he had good reason for suicide if any mail ever had, what with his property gone and his body inflamed with insuffera ble carbuncles, and nothing of his home left except the curse of it—a pestiferous wife and four garrulous pelting him with their comfortless men talk whilo he sot on an ash-heap, scratching his scabs with a piece of broken pottery, yet triumphantly say ing: “All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change cone.” Notwithstanding all that the Bible says against suicide and all the aver sion it would create by the ghastly and loathsomo spectacle of those who hnrled themselves out of life and the fact that Christianity has always been against It by the arguments and the useful lives and illustrious deaths f its disciples, the fact is alarmingly patent that suicide is on the increase. And everybody asks why is it ? I charge the whole thing up'on the infidelity and agnosticism abroad. Ifthcrebeno hereafter, Or if that hereafter is blissful without reference to how we live and how we die, why not swing back the sliding doors between this world and the next? Why not let all those who find this world uncomfortable pass right over to Elysium? Take this tact for consideration: In every case of suicide that has ever been recor ded, or ever will be recorded, the per petrator was cither demented, and hence not responsible, or an iufiedel. I challenge the universe Jand I chal lenge the ages for one exception. There never has been, there never will be a man who took his own life while appreciating tho fact that lie is im mortal, and that this immortality wilt be glorious or wretched accord ingto his reception Jesus Christ as a Savior pa the rejection of Him, You aceotiutfor tho increase of sui cide by business raisiortun.es, by overwork, by insomnia, by this, by that, by Ibe-otfrer thing. Go back to tire soitroo and soc that it is either through abdication of reason or thvOuglrthe handsome and detectable worie of infidelity, which practically saysi “Ifyon'don’t like this world got outoffrJKi you will either go into aiini’,Ration where von will have no uoUM to jwv anrl no’fiersecutiori to suffer (Mtiltiio tfentt to torment, or you will pass immediately into a world where you have everything glorious without paying for ft. Infi delity has always been an apologist for suicide. David Hume writes: “You admit that it would bo no crime in me to direct the Nile or Danube from I could. Where then is tJpßffic of turning a few out of their natural channel?'’ Ilnme lent this essaj to a friend, who, after reading it, returned it with thanks, and tho next day slioy himsfelf. Voltaire, Rousseau, Gib* bon, Montaigne were advocates for suicide under certain conditions. In fidelity-puts not up one bar to hinder pooplosjjtliiiig voluntarily out of this lifo into the next. They all tell you that you will land safely anyhow either ill tijwhere or a happy some wlietc. Bo infidelity holds the upper end of the repo of the suicide, ami fires off jhe pistol with which tho man blows Ids brains out, and mixes the strychnine for tho last swallow. If infidelity could carry tho day and persuade tho majority of the people that it is right, and tlmt however men go out of tins life they land well in tho next existence, the East river and Hudson would soon bo so full of tho ferryboats would be way to New York, jnd tfQV f Uin suicide’s pistol would bow Inn ion as tho rumble of a strict car. Let coroner's juries got brave enough to render a verdict ac- cording to the case, and ns iu (lie it rcspons hle cases they, “Whilo in a slate of insa'nlty the deed was done;” iti other cases, say, “While suffering from the resujts of reading infidel books or hearing infidel lectures which destroyed all idea of retribu tion, the deceased took his own tile.” Let brazen infidelity stand up and get its sentence; its lip blistered with every blasphemy, and its cheek scar red with every lust, and its breath, foul Wlth'tho corruption of the ages, this satyr, this filthy goat, this unclean buzzard of nations, this leper of cen turies. Btand up, thou monster, purl man, part panther, part yulture, part reptile, and part dragon, and take the sentence for that thou an the in stigator of self-murder, and thy hands are red with the carnage in which thou hast washed, and thy feet crim son with the human gore through which thou hast waded. Go down sentenced to the pit, and sup on the sobsTmd'groans of families whom thou Hast blasted, and roll on a bed of knives, which thou hast sharpened for others, and tby musio be the un ending “miserere” of l hose thou hast damnod. I brand infidelity and ag nosticism wit It the crime of all those who, in possession of their mind, com mitted self-slaughter during the last eentufy. My hotKcrs, it you ever, became life, by reason of its trials and moles tations, is unbearable, should be tempted to quit it at your own behest, do no condemn yourself above all others. Christ hiraseif was tempted to cast htmseltd*wnfrom the roof of the temple; but as he resisted, so re sist ye. Christianity comes in to me dicine all our wounds, and give us victory. I’coplo who had it worse than you, have been songful all the way. Beside that, God has arranged with precision tho chronology of your life as well as the chronology of nations, tho time to die as well as the time to be born, your grave as well as your cradle. The Egyptians were slain.in Egypt at precisely 12 o’clock night, and tho Israelites emancipa ted. Why at 12 o ( cloek at night ? Bccaufcdf 130 years were up at that hour. (Vxl knows when to let you out o'earthly bondage. By his grace don’t make the worst but tho best of things. If you must tako pills, don’t chew them. Your heavenly reward will correspond with your earthly perturbation, as Cain gave to Agrippa a chain of gold as heavy as once had been his chain of iron. For the asking, you can hayo tho same grace that wasgiveu to the Italian martyr,Alge rius, who dated his letter “from the delectable orchard of the Leonine pri son.” Above all, let us realize, that there is around our earthly life a rim which it is most perilous to us to break. All around this brief life a rim beyond is eternity; and wo had better keep out of It tijl God breaks the rim, thin but important, which separates this from that. To go out of present ills, don’t rush into greater misfortunes. Don’t to get rid of a swarm of sum mer Insects, plunge into a jungle of Bengal tigers. There is a sorrowloss world, and so radiant, that tho noon day sun is but one of its lower door steps, and tho aurora that lights up thonorthoru heavens, confounding bs trenomers as to what it can be, is on ly one of the banners of its procession come out to conduct a conqueror from church militant to church triumphant. And you and I have ton thousand reaseffis for wanting to go there. But wo shall not reach it either by self-immolation, or by im penitoncy. All our sins slain by the stroke of Him who came to do that, and nothing else; wo want to go in at. tho timo divinely solocted, and from a bed divinely spread. And then the clang of the sepulchral gate behind us will bo drowned out by the clang of the openiug of tho solid pearl before us. O, God, whatever others may choose, give mo tho Christian’s hope and the Christian’s life, and tho Chris tian’s death, and tho Christian's burial, and tho Chris ian’s immortality. FRANK JAMES On] Hand According to Promise at the Moberly Fair. A recent dispatch from Moberly, Mo., says: Frank James, known hero as Colonel James, occupies a conspicuous position in the Judges’ stand at the Fair Ground. He did not start the horsjss as ad\txi"jsc<l. The distinguished bandit is I of Mr. Theodore Priest, tins morning the Colonel drove out to the Fair Grounds, and in the language of tho evening paper, the Moberly Mon itor, “Every one wanted to get ac quainted with him, and many suc ceeded in doing so.” In the afternoon he was on hand early, and held quilo a levee in the office of the Secretary and weighing-stand on the race track. The liberty granted tho “Colonel" since his acquittal and release from tho Gallatin tail, seems lo have agreed will) him, as he is i.i much bet ter flesh. lie at that limn’mil the ap pearance of an overworked lavyer’s clerk. To-day lie looks like a well fed country school teacher. Previous to the races many crowd ed about the office, gazing at'the main attraction of tho Fair with open mouthed wonder. Fortunate did the man who secured an introduction deem himself, and the bandit’s right arm must have grown quite tired shaking hands. Ho was very quiet and had little to say. One homespun farmer was raised above tits farmers in being able to recall to James’ mind some target practice at the Hopkins ville depot some yeare ago. Some of the directors of the fair have rather weakened upon the James attraction, and that may account for the fact that at about 3 o’clock the city marshal cleared the stand of all but the offi cers of tho day, and stood guard at the door. Jamet then took a posi tion with the judges and remained there "during the rest of the day, placidly chewing tobacco and taking a keen interest in the running races, of which there are two. A parade of the local military company, the fire department and citizens bearing torches was reviewed by Colonel James from a carriage. Thepeopto at Moberly, as a rule, areaverse to'discussing the James ex hibition and do not hesitate to blame the fair directors. The directors say, “We are away behind in our af fairs, and we had to look up an at traction that would help us pan out.” The Moberlyfair is very unique. In the language of the “sports.” “Everything is run wido open.” In addition toFrar.k James there areas attractions a band of Sioux, Indians, a wheel of fortune, and as an addi tional novelty, a booth conducted by an enterprising citizen whose sign reads, “Money to loan on collateral.” The indications nre that, tho fair will be a financial success, and the direc tors will be more thau satisfied with their exhibition of Frank James. NO. OBN. SCALES’ FEARFUL FALL. A Detailed Account of the Aooldent to 0 Democratic Candidate for Governor. (From the Charlotte Observer.) Early yestoadry morning a tele gram was received from Greensboro by Colonel 11. C. Jones, chairman of the Mecklenburg county executive committee, conveying the Intelligence that in conseqnenco of a painful acci dent General Scales would be unable to rill his appointment in Charlotte. Tho accident occurred while the Gen eral was crossing the Cowee Moun tain, which divides Jackson from Macon oonnty. The road is very rugged and in some places, like most mountain roads, winds along high and dangerous precipices. General Scales wa9 traveling in a buggy with a companion who was driving. While descending a steep place in tho road a portion of the harness gavo way, which caused tlie buggy to rum on tho horse. The horse became frightened and dashed off in a mad runaway. Just at a narrow bend n the road, where the mountain rose up perpendicularly on one side, and on the other yawned a one hundred foot chasm, the buggy upset. As it did so General Scales leaped to tho ground and landed on tho edge of the precipice. The horse and buggy tumbled over tho precipice and went crashing to tho ground, ono hundred feet below. In endeavoring to gain firm ground General Scales lost his foot hold and going over tho precipico followed the buggy. Ilis fall was a terrible one and would have un doubtedly resulted in his death but for tho fact that at tho distance of fif ty feet and before striking tho jagged rocks below, the force of his fall was broken by a tree, into the branches of which General Seales crashed and where tin lodged. The buggy was smashed to pieces and the horse was killed. Climbing from the tree and regaining solid ground General Scales found that none of his bones were broken, but the pains darling tmyugn til body gave evidence that ho had ref ccivcd severe and perhaps serious in ternal injuries. Witli tho assistance of his friend, General Scales made his way to a house near by,where he rest ed for a while aud then, upon the ad vice of his physicians, ho made his way lowards his home in Greensboro, which place he reached Thursday night. The doctors who are attend ing General Scales in Greensboro command him to keep quiot and re main in bed for two days yet. They found that he had received a number of painful bruises anil his limbs aro severely wrenched. The doctors an nounce that lie will be able to fill his appointment at Albermarlc, in Stan ly county, oil Monday next. BIDS TO BUILD THE CAPITOL. Thirty Firms Trying- to Secure: the Oon tract—The Offers Near the Hark. A lettor from Atlanta, says: The full board of Capitol mot this afternoon at 4 •’clock. Af ter tho preliminary organization bids and proposals were opened, read and ' recorded. Business on this line took up the time until afternoon, an ad journment not being had until after dark. There were thirty bidders, some of them having as many as five bids. Prominent among them were proposals to build the entire build ing and turn it over to the State for use. These were as follows: On the whole building, .Miles & Hearne, of Toiodo, $776,000. This bid specified wooden joists. Bor the whole build ing with iron joists they bid 1910,000, and according to the original specifi cations 9972,000. The Hallo wes Granite Company, of Chicago, bid on the original specifications $932,500* The same firm on revised specifics* tion bid $867,727. Cbas. Pierce & Cos., of Indianapo lis, bid on the whole building of Ohio sandstone $922,860. The same firm bid on tho whole building of Indiana limestone $929,000. The same firm bid for Georgia marble $1,015,000. The same firm bid for Georgia gran ite $1,141,784. D. W. Thomas & Cos., of Akron, bid on the whole building $1,097,974. The cotton crop will soon be out of* tho way, and the farmers will bo brought.face to. face .with the oppor tuoity of providing for a heavy oat crop tierear. A good oat crop has never vet brought want and confu— -ton ■ :nio a farming community There i no danger of overdoing th® oat crop.