Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1889-02-20

n O+-1O1oiO q u
ID dience gathered from all parts of tbs
earth, the Rev. T. De Witt Talmage
D. D., expounded passages of Scripture de
scriptive of stirring scenes in Davin's life
Led by organ and cornet the multitude
joined in singing:
Time like an ever-rolling stream,
bears all its sons away;
They fly forgotten, as dream
Dies at the opening day.
The subject OF DR.. Talmage's sermon was
sOur Own Generation" aud bis text, Acts
xiii, SO: "David, after he had served his
own generation by the will of God, fell on
sleep.'
That is text which has for a long time
been running through my m nd. but not
until now has it been fully revealed to me.
Sermons have time to be born as we'll as a
time to die. a cradle SIS well as grave.
David, cowboy and stone singer and fight
er and czar and dramstist and blank verse
writer and prophet, did bis best for the peo-
pie of bis time and then " ent and laid down
on the southern hill of Jerusalem in that
sound slumber which nothing but an arch
angelic blast can startle. "David, after he
had served bis own generation by the will
of God, fell on sleep"
1t was his own generation thas he had
served; that is, the people living at the time
he lived. And have you ever thought that
our responsibilities are chiefly with the peo-
pie now walking abreast of us? There are
about four generations to century now,
but in olden time life was longer and there
was, perhaps only one generation to cen
tury, Taking these facts into the oalcula-
tiop, I make a rough guess and say that
there have been at least one hundred and
eighty generate Ds of the human family.
With reference to them we have no respon.
sibility. We caunot teach them, We can
not correct their mistakes, we cannot soothe
their sorrows, We cannot heal their wounds
Their sepulchres are deaf and dumb to any
thing we might say 10 them. The last reg
iment of that great army has passed out o.
sight. We might hailoo as loud as we could
not one of them would avert his head to set
what we wanted.
SHE COULD NOT LEAVE HIM OUT.
admit that am in sympathy with tn,
child whose father had suddenly died ant
who in her little evening prayer wanted II
continue to pray for her father, although ht
had gone into heaven and no more needed
her prayers, and looking up into her moth
| er's face said: 80, mother, cannot leav,
him all out. Let me say, THANK CID, tina
I had good father once so l can keep bin
| in my prayers. But the one hundred
and eighty generations have passed off
| Passed up. Passed down. Gone forever
Then there are generations to come afsel
our earthly existence has ceased, perhaps I
hupdred AID eighty generations more. Per
| haps thousand generations more we shal
not see them, we shall not hear any of thei
voices, we will take no part in their CON
vocations, their elections, their revolutions
their catastrophes, their triumphs w
will in uowise affect the one hundred aDt
eighty generations gone, or the one hundred
and eighty generations TO come. except
| from the galleries of heaven the former gen
erations look down and rejoice at our victo
| ries, or as we may by our behavior start in
| fluences, good or bad that shall roll Oh
Through the advancing ages. But our busi
ness is, like David, to serve our own gene
ration, the people now living, those who's
lungs now breathe aud whose hearts nov
beat. And mark you, it is not silent pro
cession, but moving. 1t IS "foresd march
at twenty four miles day, each hour be
| ing mile. Going with that ceIerity, it ha
got to be quick service ou our part, or nj
service at all. We not only cannot teacl
the one hundred and eight generations pas
| aud will not see the one hundred genera
tions to come, but this generation now ol
the stage will soon be off and We ourselve
| will be off with them The fact is that yo1
and will have to start very soon for ou
work or it will be iropical and sarcastic fn
any one after our exit to say of US. as i
was said of David, ',After he bad serves
his own generation by the will of God, b.
fell on sleep"
Well, now, let us look around earnestly
prayerfully and in common sense way ant
see what we can do for our own generation
First Of all let US see to it that, as far as W
can, they have enough to eat. The humsl
body is 80 constituted that three times
day the body needs food as much as a lam
needs oil, as much as a locomotive Desd
fuel. To meet this want God has girdle'
the earth with apple orchards, oraDg
groves, wheat fields and oceans full of f1s
and p.aires full of cattle. And notwith
standing this, will undertake to say tina
the vast majority of the human family ar
suffering either for lack of fond or the righ
kind of food, Our civilization is all aske'
on this subject and God only can set
right.
REMEMBER THE POOR.
| Many of the greatest estates Of to-da