The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1889-02-15
OUR OWN GENERATION.
SERMON PREACHED ev REV. T. De
WITT TALMA0E FEB. 10.


| WITT rALMAoe FEB. 10.
Tsxt Acts Eli. 20, 'David. After He Had
Served Hh Own osnsratios By the wili
Of God. Fell ON Sleep"
BROOKLYN, Feb. 10.-Befose an
audience gathered from all parts Of
the earth the Rev. T. De Witt Tai.
mage, D. D., expounded passages Of
Scripture descriptive OF stirring
scenes in David's life. Led by or.
gan and cornet the multitudes Joined
In singing:
Time, like an ever rolling stream,
Bears all IT. sons away;
They fly forgotten, a. dream
Dies at the opening day
The subject Of DR.. Talmage's SER
mon was "Our Own Generation. and
his text, Acts xiii, SO: David, after
he had served his own generation by
Che will OF God, fell on sleep"
That is text which has for a long
time been running through my mind,
but not until now has it been fully re-
vealed to me. Sermons have q time
to be born as well as a time to die, q
cradle as we'll as grave. David,
cowboy and stone singer and fighter
and car and dramatist and 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 that sound slum-
Der which nothing but an archangelic
blast can startle. David, after he
had served his own generation by the
will of God, fell on sleep"
It was his own generation that 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 people now walk
ing abreast Of usf There are about
four generations to century now,
but in olden time life was longer and
there was, perhaps, only one genera
ton to century. Taking these facts
into the calculation, / make a rough
guess and say that there have been at
least one hundred and eighty genera
tons of the human family. With
reference to them we have no re-
sponsibility. We cannot teach them,
we cannot correct their mistakes, we
cannot soothe their sorrows, we can
not heal their wounds. Their sepul-
chers are deaf and dumb to anything
we might say to them. The last regi-
ment 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,
SHE COULD NOT LEAVE HIM OUT.
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: 20, mother, can
not leave him all out. Let me say,
thank God, that had good father
once so can keep him in my. pray
ers.'" But the one hundred and
eighty generations have passed off.
Passed up. Passed down. Gone for
ever. Then there are generations to
come after our earthly existence has
ceased, perhaps hundred and eighty
generations more, perhaps thousand
generations more. We shall not see
them, we shall not hear any of their
voices, we will take no part in their
convocations, their elections, their
revolutions, their catastrophes, their
triumphs. We will in no wise affect
the one hundred and eighty genera
tons gone, or the one hundred and
eighty generations to come, except as
from the galleries of heaven the for
mer generations look down and re-
joice at our victories, or as we may. by
our behavior start influences, good or
bad, that shall roll on through the adj
vancing ages. But our business is, like
David, to serve our own generation,
the people now living, those whose
lungs now breathe and whose
hearts now beat. And mark you, it is
not silent procession, but moving.
It is forced march" at twenty-four
miles day, each hour being mile.
Going with that celebrity, it has got to
be a quick service on our part, or no
service at all. We not only cannot
teach the one hundred and eight
generations past and will not see the
one hundred generations to come,
but this generation now on the stage
will soon be off and we ourselves will
be off with them. The fact is that
you and / will have to start very soon
for our work or it will be ironical and
sarcastic for any one after our exit to
saw of us. as It was said of David,
latter he had served his own genera
ton by the will of God, he fell on
sleep
Well, now, let us look around earn
estly, prayerfully and in a 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 so constituted that three times day
the body needs food as much as lamp
needs oil, as much as locomotive
needs fuel. To meet this want God
has girdled the earth with apple or
chards, orange groves, wheat fields
and oceans full of fish and prairies
full cattle. And Notwithstanding this,
I will undertake to say that the vast
majority of the human family are sui
fering 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
REMEMBER THE POOR.
Many of the greatest estates Of to-