West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1889-02-21
OUR OWN GENERATION.
THE SERMON OF DIR. TAnMAGE.
Mans Responsibility withtho People
of His Own Time.

TEXT: "Ddrld. after he had serced MS
o,on generdfton by the tcfH Of God, fell on
slcep.n-Acts xiii, 80.
That is a text which has for n long time
been running through my mind, but not un-
I'll now has IL been fully revealed 10 me.
Sermons have n time TO be born as we'll as a
time to die, n cradle as well as n grave.
Ovid, cowboy and stone singer AMI fighter
and car and dramatist aud blank verse
writer and prophet, did his best for the people
OF his time and then went and laid down on
the southern hill OF Jerusalem in hat sound
slumber which nothing but an archangelic
blast can startle. David. after he had
served his own generation by the will OF God,
fell on Sleep
IL was his own generation that no had
served; that IL, the people living at the time
he lived. And have you ever thought that
our responsibilities are chiefly with the
people now walking abreast OF uSl There
are about four generations TO n century now,
but in o'den time life was longer and there
was, perhaps, only one generation to n cen.
tury. Taking these facts into the calculation,
lmake a rough guess and say that there have
been at least one hundred and eighty
generations OF the human family. With
reference to them we have no responsibility.
We cannot teach them, we cannot correct
their mistakes, we cannot soOthe their sor-
rows. we cannot heal their wounds. Their
sepulchers arc deaf and dumb to anything
we might say to them. The last regiment OF
that great army has passed out OF sight. We
might halloo as loud as we could, not one of
them would avert his head to see what we
wanted
/ admit that / am in sympathy with the
child whose father had suddenly died and
who in her little evening prayer wanted TO
continue to pray for her father, although he
had gone into heaven and no more needed
her prayers, and looking up into her
mothers face said: 30, mother, l can
not leave him all out. Let me say,
Thank Gcd that | had a good father once,
and so i can keep him in my pray
ers'" But the one hundred and eighty gen
erations have passed off. Passed up. Passed
down. Gone forever. Then there are gensr-
ations to come after our earthly existenca
has ceased, perhaps q hundred and eighty
generations more, perhaps a thousand gener-
atoms more. We shall not soc them, we shall
not hear any of their voices, we will take no
part in their convocations, their elections,
their revolutions, their catastrophes. their
triumphA 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, OF as we may by our behavior
start influences, good or bad, that shall roll
on through the advancing ages. B1t our bust
ness is, like David, to serve our owngeneration,
the people now living, those whose lungs now
breathe and whose hearts now beat And
mark you, It is not a silent procession, but
moving. lt is a forced march, at twenty
four miles a day, each hour being a mile.
Going with that celebrity, it has got to be a
quick service on our part, or no service at
one hundred and eighty genera
tons past and will not see the
one hundred generations to come, but this
generation now on the stage will soon be of
and we ourselves will be of with them. The
fact is that you and / will have to start very
soon Tor our work or IL will be ironical and
sarcastic for any one after our exit to say of
us, as it was said Of David, after he had
served bis own generation by the. will OF God,
he fen on sleep"
Well, now, let us look around earnestly.
prayerfully and in a common sense way aud
see what we can do for our own generation.
First OF all let us see TO il that. as far as we
can, they have enough to eat. The human
body is so constituted that three times a day
the body needs food as much as a lamu
needs oil, as much as a locomotive
needs fuel. To meet this want God
has girdled the earth with appls orchards.
orange groves, wheat fields and oceans full
u fish and prairies full OF cattle. And not
outstanding this, | will undertake to say
mat tne vast majority Of the human family
are suffering either for lack Of food or the
right kind or food. Our civilization is all
IL right.
Many Of the greatest estates Of to-day have
bcen built out OF the blood and bones OF nm
requited toll In olden times, for the build
ing OF forts and towers, the Inhabitants
OF Ispahan bad to contribute o 200 human
skulls and Bagda1 80. 900 human skulls. and
tina number Of people were slain so as TO
furnish the skulls. But these two contribu-
tons added together made only leo OOO
skulls, while into the tower OF the WorIdia
wealth end ,pomp and magniicence have
been wrought che skeletons OF uncountad
numbers Of the half fed populations OF the
earth, mill'on OF skulls.
Don sit down Mt your table with five or
six courses OF abundant supply and think
nothing OF that family I'm the next street. Who
would luEn amV OUn az those Ave 49, a.
tween soup and almond nuts and Feel thew
we're IN heaven. The lack Of the right kind
OF food Is the cause OF much OF the drunk
ennesS After drinking what many Of onr
grooers cal coffee, sSeetenet with what
many caH sugar, and eating what many 81
our butchers call meat, and che wing what
many OF our bakers call bread. many OF ths
laborIng clasSes feel so miserable they ara
tempted to put into their nasty pines
what tho tobacconist calls tobacco or
go INTO the drinking saloons for what the
rum sellers call beer. Good coffee would do.
much IN driving out hal rum. Ad%ulteration
OF food has got to be a. evil against which
All the health officers and all the doctors and
al the ministers and oil the reformers and
e1 the CHRISTIANS neei 70 set them.
selves IN battle array. How can we serve
our generation with enough 90 eat By sit
ting down ia embroidered slippers and Ioun0.
ing DacE In an armchair, our mouth rBck.
cred up around a Havana Of the lest branJ
and through clouds Of luxuriant smoke read
10 RNNNa RtAtAAtAA economy ana NNn nnN.Uu-
ophy. % strikesi MOI MOI By finding ont
who m brooklyn has been living on gristle
and sending them n tenderloin beefsteak
Seek out some family who through sickness
OF conjunction Of misfortuus have
NOT enough TO eat and do Tor
them what Christ did Tor r.
hungry multitudfs Of Asia Minor. muitipiv.
ing the lOaves and the fishes Let ns gnit
tne surtettingo Of Ourselves until we cannot
cpos9 down another crumb OF cake and. be-
Bin me supply Of Others necessities.
We often see on q small scale "a recklagsnesa
about the welfare Of Others which n great
warrior expressed on a large scale. when NE
Officers were disturbing him from a certain
campaign, spying: 1T would cost two hun
ared thousand lives rep wing with n diabot-
tsm That can never be forgotten: What are
Two hundred thousand lives 10 Nor
80 Tar from helping appsaea thu wor1d's
aunger, there are thoss whom Isaiah de-.
crib@ AZ grinding the face o. the poor. You
ave seen a farmer or n mechanic uut "a
nytho or an Ak on n grindgtone. while some
gno was turning 10 round and round AMI
ne man holding tho AK bore on if harder
md harder while The water drrDo.d from
~ grinds.0ne. and the edge Of the AZ from
being round and dull, got kosner and keener.
ana the mechanic lifted The Ak glisteuing aud
sharp and with edge 30 keen he must eau
hously run bis finger along lest while eH
aiming the implement be cut bis hand
% the bona 70 i have seen men who were
put against the %Rrindstone ~ hardship. and
while one turned the crank another would
AMLA