The New Hampshire Gazette

From the Chronicle.

Messrs. Printers,

The numerous instances of Suicide
which have occurred within a year
past, induce me to request you to publish
the following extract from the
Rev. Dr. Miller's excellent discourses
on Suicide, recently published. If the
pathetic arguments made use of by this
truly pious and learned divine, should
have the desired effect on a single individual,
and prevent him from a resolution to fly from life, it will unquestionably
be a great gratification to
you to reflect that you gave it publicity
through the channel of your paper.

EXTRACT
From Dr. Miller's excellent discourses
on suicide, recently published.

Besides the injury done to society
in general, he who destroys his own
life, seldom fails to inflict the deepest
wounds upon all who stand more immediately
related to him in domestic
and social life. Say, miserable man!
who art contemplating the crime of
self-murder, hast thou no PARENT, the
evening of whose days, by this crime
would be embittered, or whose grey
hairs would be brought down with
sorrow to the grave? Hast thou no amiable
PARTNER of thy life, who
would be precipitated by this step into
the deepest affliction? Hast thou no TENDER
BABES, who, by thy departure,
would be left fatherless, and exposed to all the dangers of an unpitying
world? Hast thou no BRETHREN
OR SISTERS to share in the grief, and
the disgrace of thine unworthy conduct?
Are there no FRIENDS who
love thee, who would weep over thy
folly and sin, and feel themselves
wounded by thy fall? In short, would
the execution of thy wicked purpose
disturb the peace of no family? Torture
no bosom of sensibility or kindness?
Defraud no creditor? Plunge
no friend into difficulty? Rob no fellow
creature of happiness? Did thy
conduct extend only to thy own person,
tho' still a crime, it would be comparatively
small. But the consequences
of such a step would probably extend
beyond thy conception and last
longer than thy memory. Stay then,
guilty man! Stay thy murderous
hand! Extinguish not the happiness
and the hopes of a family; it may be,
of many families! Forbear, O forbear
to inflict wounds which no time
can heal, and which may tempt survivors
to wish that thou hadst never
been born!

Let us go to yonder victim of impatience
and despair, who wanders silent,
melancholy, and alone, meditating the termination of his sorrows by
the pistol or poisonous draught-let
us approach, and inquire why he is
disgusted with life? You are embarrassed
in your circumstances; you have
been robbed of your property by
fraud, or by other disastrous occurrences;
you have been precipitated
from the height of affluence to abject
poverty; you cannot dig, to beg, you are
ashamed; and therefore resolve to fly
from life. But before you take this
dreadful and irrevocable step, pause a
moment, and answer me the following
questions: Is a large portion of property
indispensably necessary to happiness?
Have not thousands been contented
and happy with as small a pittance
as that which you yet possess?
Nay, have not some found more real
enjoyment after being thus reduced,
than they found in the days of their
affluence and prosperity? Was not
the Saviour of the world, when he
sojourned upon earth, without a place
where to lay his head? And has he not,
by his example, made poverty and sufferings
honorable? Besides, though
you are now in straitened circumstances,
may not a kind Providence
hereafter smile upon you, and reward
your industry with comfort and plenty?
Who can tell but that, like Job,
your latter end, in this respect, may be
more blessed than your beginning? But
even supposing the worst; will you
destroy a life on which so much depends,
for the sake of treasures which
are transient and unsatisfying? for a
little glittering dust, which perishes in
the using; "For so much trash as
may be grasped thus?" Miserable estimate!
ignoble alternative!-Live,
and exhibit the sublime, the edifying
spectacle, of one struggling with want,
and yet holding fast his integrity!