The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1889-02-27
OUR OWN GENERATION.
Sermon by Rev. r. Dewitt Tai
mage, D. D.
How We May Best Serve Our Generation
The Great Struggle for Food
Why David was Permitted to
Sleep by Gods VIII.

Inc Great Struggle ZOE ToO0-
Why David was Permitted to
Sleep by Gods Will.
The subject Of DR.. Talmage's recent ser
NOR was, s'Our Own Generation" and NJ:
text, Acts xiii, 35: ''David, after he hae
served his own generation by the will o1
Goo, fell on sleep" Following is the sermon
That is a text which has for long time
been running through my mind, but moi
until now has it been fully revealed to me
Sermons have d time to be born as we'll as e
time TO die, cradle as well as grave
David, cowboy and stone singer and fighter
and czar and dramatist and blank verse
writer and prophet, did his best for the peo'
pie Of his time and then went and laid doWr
on the southern hill of Jerusalem in that
sound slumber which nothing but an archan.
gelic blast can startle. David, after ne mac
served his own generation by the WILL OF
God, fell on sleep"
Il was his own generation that he had
served; that is, the people living at the time
be lived And have You ever Thought that
our responsibilities are chiefly with the peo'
pie now walking abreast Of u.s. There are
about four generations to J century now
but in olden time life was longer and there
was, perhaps, only one generation to q cen
tury. Taking these facts into the ca!cusa'
tion, make rough guess ana say tnat
there have been at least one hundred ana
eighty generations OF the human family.
With reference to them we have no respon-
sinilfty We can not teach them, we eau not
correct their mistakes, we can not soothe
their sorrows, we can not heal their wounds.
Their sepulchers are deaf anc dumb TO any
thing we might say to them. The last regl-
meut of that great army has passed od' OF
sight. We might halloo as loud rs we conlo,
not one Of them would avert his head to see
what was wanted.
admit that am in sympathy with the
child, whose father had suddenly died, and
who in her little evening prayer wanted 70
continue to pray for her father, a.thoush ne
had gone into Heaven and no more neeoeo
her prayers, and looking up into her moVh-
er's face, said: 20, mother. can not leave
him all out. Let me say Thank God that
had good father once so can keep hl-.1 IA.
my prayers" :" But the one hundred and
eighty generations have passed of. Passed
up. Passed down. Gone forever Then
there sre generations to come after our
earthly existence has ceased, perhaps
hundred and eighty generations more, per-
haps 8 thousand generations more. we
shall not see them, we shall not hear any OF
their voices, we will take no part IN their
conyocations, their elections, their revolu-
tions, their catastrophes, their triumphs. we
will in no wise affect the one hundred and
eighty generations gone, or the one hundred
and eighty generations to come, except as
from the galleries Of Heaven the former
generations look down and rejoice at our
victories, or as we may by our behavior
start influences. good or bad, that shall roll
on through the advancing ages. But our
business is, like David, to serve our own
generations, the people now living, those
whose lungs now breathe and whose hearts
now beat And mark you, it is not silent
procession. but moving. 1t is forced
march" at twenty-four miles day, each
hour being mile. Going with that celerity
II has got to be a quick service on
your part or no service at all. We
not only can not teach the one hundred
and eighty generations passed, and
viii not see one hundred generations to
come, but this generation now on the stage
viii soon be of and we ourselves will be
OF with them. The fact is that you and
Will have to start very soon for our work or
ie viii Be ironicai and sarcastic for any one
after our exit to say Of US, as it was said OF
David. "aftar he had served his own genera
tion by the will Of God, he fell on Sleep"
Well now, let us look around earnestly,
prsyerfully, and in common sense way and
see what we can do for our own generation.
First Of all let US see to it that, as far as we
can, they have enough to eat The human
body is 80 constituted that three times
6sy the body needs food rs much as lamp
needs oil, as much SIS locomotive needs
fuel. To meet this want God has girdled the
earth with apple orchards, orange groves,
wheat fields, and oceans full Of fish, and
prairies full Of cattle. And notwithstanding
this, will undertake to say that the vast
majority OF the human family are suffering
either for lack of food or the right kind Of
food. Our civilization is all askew on this
subject and God only can set it right
Many Of the greatest estates OF today
have been built out Of the blood and bones
of unreouited toll In olden times, for the
building Of forts and towers, the inhabi-
taats of Ispahan had to contribute 10000
human skulls, and Bagdad $4,000 human
skulls, and that number Of people were
slair-so as to furnish the skulls. But these
two contributions added together made only
100 900 skulls, while into the tower Of the
worlds wealth aud pomp asS magnificence
have been wrought the skeletons Of I'M
counted numbers of the half fed populations
of the earth, millions OF skulls.
Don't sit down at your table with FIVE or
six courses of abundant supply and think
nothing Of that, family in the next street
who would take any one Of those Eve
courses between soup and almond nuts and
feel they were in heaven. The lack Of the
right kind Of food is the cause OF much of
the drunkenness. Alter drinking what many
of our grocers call coffee, sweetened with
what many call sugar, and eating what
many OF our butchers call meat, and chew
Ing what many Of our bakers call bread,
many of the laboring Glasses feel so miserable
they are tempted to put in their nasty pipes
what the tobacconist calls tobacco, or go
into the drinking saloons fer what the rum
sellers call beer. Good coffee would do
much in driving out bad rum.
Adulteration OF food has got to be an evil
against which all the health officers, and all
the doctors, and all the ministers, and all the
reforners, and all the Christians need to set
themselves in battle array. How can we
serve our generation with enough to eata
BY sitting down in embroidered slippers and
lounging back in al arm chair, our mouth
puckered up around Havana of the best
brand and through clouds Of luxuriant
!