The Brookhaven leader., 1889-02-21
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
"our own Generation" and How
we May Best Serve It.
The Work of David, the Poet, Prophet and
King for His Generation, and the
Practical Lessons to be
Drawn Therefrom.

dicating his Discourse on the following
text!
David, after he had served his own genera
tion by the will OF God, fell on sleep
That is q text which has for a long time
been running through my mind, but not
Until now has it been fully revealed to
| me. Sermons have a time to be born as
well as a time to die, a cradle as a grave.
David, cowboy and stone-slinger and
! fighter, and czar 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 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"
Many Of the greatest estates Of to-day
have been built out of the blood and bones
of unrequited toll. In olden times, for
| the building of forts and towns, the in
| habitants of Ispahan had to contribute
| seventy thousand human skulls, and
/ Bagdad ninety thousand human skulls,
and that number Of people were slain so
/ as to furnish the skulls. But these two
contributions added together made only
! one hundred and sixty thousand skulls,
! while into the tower of the worlds wealth
and pomp and magnifcence have been
wrought the skeletons of uncounted num-
/ bers 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 five
courses between soup and almond nuts
1 g. II Al. II In.
| of the right kind of food is the cause Of
much of the drunkenness. After drink
ing what many of our grocers call coffee,
| sweetened with what many call sugar,
! and eating what many of our butchers call
meat, and chewing what many of our
! bakers call bread many of the laboring
classes feel so miserable they are tempted
to put into their nasty pipes what the to-
bacconist calls tobacco, or 60 into the
| drinking saloons for what the rum SELL
! ers call beer. Good coffee would do
much in driving out bad rum. Adult
| teration 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 reformers and all
| the Christians need to set themselves in
| battle array. How can we serve our gen.
! Grafton with enough to eat? By sitting
/ down in embroidered slippers and loung-
/ ing back in an arm chair, our mouth
| puckered up around a Havana Of the
, best brand and through clouds of luxuri-
ant smoke reading about political econo-
my and the philosophy of strikes? No!
| No! By finding out who in Brooklyn has
been living on gristle and sending them q
tenderloin beefsteak. Seek out some
/ family who through sickness or coDjunc-
ton of misfortune have not enough to eat
and do for them what Christ did for the
hungry multitudes Of Asia Minor, multi
plying the loaves and the fishes. Let us
quit the surfeiting of ourselves until we
can not choke down another crumb Of
cake and begin the supply Of others ne
cessities.
/ We often see on a small scale a reck-
! lessness about the welfare of others which
great warrior expressed on a large
scale, when his officers were dissuading
| him from a certain campaign, saying:
sit would cost two hundred thousand
lives," replying with diabolism that can
never be forgotten: "What are two hun
dred thousand lives to me!"
So far from helping appease the worlds
| hunger, there are those whom Isaiah de-
scribes as grinding the faces of the poor.
put a scythe or an axe on grindstone,
while some one was turning it round and
round, and the man holding the axe bore
on it harder and harder, while the water
dropped from the grindstone, and the edge
of the axe. from being round and dull, got
keener and keener, and the mechanic lifted
the axe glistening and sharp, and with
edge so keen he must cautiouly run his
finger along lest while examining the in
strument he cut his hand to the bone. So
! have seen men who were put against the
grindstone of hardship, and while one
turned the crank another would press the
unfortunate harder down and harder down
until he was ground away thinner and
thinner, his comforts thinner, his pros
poets thinner and his face thinner. And
Isaiah shrieks out: "What mean ye that
ye grind the faces of the poor?" 1t is an
awful thing to be hungry. 1t is an easy
thing for us to be in good humor with all
the world when we have no lack. But let
hunger take full possession Of us and we
would all turn into barbarians and canni-
balls and fiends.
/ am glad to know that the time is COM
ing-God hasten it-when every family in
the round world will sit down at o full
table, and it will be only question be-
partridge and quail ON toast, and out of
spoons made of Nevada silver or Cali
fornia gold the pastries will drop on
tongues thrilling with thankfulness be-
cause they have full enough. have no
idea God is going to let the human race
stay in its present predicament. II the
world winds up as it now is it will be an
awful failure of world. The barren
places will be irrigated. The pomologists,
helped of God, will urge ON the fruits.
The botanists, inspired of the Lord, will
help on the gardens. The raisers of stock
will send enough animals fit for human
food to the markets, and the last earth
quake that rends the world will upset a
banqueting table at which are seated the
entire human race. Meanwhile, suppose
that some of the energy we are expending
in useless and unavailing talk about the
bread question should be expended in
merciful alleviations.
l have read that the battle field on
which more troops met than on any other
in the worlds history was the battle field
of Leipsic, one hundred and sixty thou
sand men under Napoleon, two hundred
and fifty thousand men under Schwarze-
berg. No, no. The greatest and most
terrific battle is now being fought all the
world over. 1t is the struggle for food.
The ground tone of the finest passage in
one of the great musical masterpieces,
the artist says, was suggested to him by
the cry of the hungry populace of Vienna
as the King rode through and they shout
ed, BREAD. Give US bread" And all
through the great harmonies of musical
academv and cathedral I hear the nathos