The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-02-11
OUR OWN GENERATION.
SERMON PREACHED BY REV. T. DE
WITT TALMAGE Y ESTERDAY.

Text, Acts xii, 50; "Oavid, After He
Had Served lis own Generation By
the WIN OF God, Fell on Sleep"
! BROOKLYN, Feb. 10-Bsfore an audience
gathered from all parts of the earth the
Rev 7. DE Witt ralmage, d. D., expounded
passages OF scri ture descriptive Of stirring
scenes in Davld's life. Led by organ aud
cornet the muIti'uies joined IN singing.
Time, like an ever rolling st cam,
| Bears all its sons away;
They fly for ot en-, as a dream
Dies at the opening day,
The subject Of DR.. Talmage's sermon was
! "Our o vu Generation aud his tex, Acts
xiii, SO: David, after he had served his
own generation by the will Of God, fell on
slaeo."
That is text which has for a
/ long tlme been running through
my mind, but not until now has it
| been fully revealed to me. Sermon, have
/ inc o be born as well as a tune to die A
cradle as well as grave. David, cowb)y
and stone singer AMI fighter and car and
| dramatist and blank verse writer and
prop et, did his best for the people of his
time and then went and laid down on the
southern hill Of Jerusalem in tn at sou nd
81 'mber which nothing bua An arc gslic
blast can startle. David, after he had
served his own generation by the will of
! God, fell on Sleep"
1t was his own generation that he had
served; that Is, the people living at to
| time he lived. And have you ever thouCht
hat our responsibilities are chiefly with
the people nov walking abreast of us,
There are about four generations to a con-
turv now, but in olden time life was longer
there WIS, perhaps, only one genera
/ n NH Al
into the calculation, | make a rough
guess and say tlat there have been al
least one hundred aud eighty genera
tlons of the human ia nily. With
| reference to them we have no responI-
bihty. We cannot teach them; we cannot
correct their mistakes; we cannot soothe
their sorrows; we cannot heal their wou da.
Their sepulchers are deaf a ID dumb any
thing we might say 10 them. The last reg
| lment OF that great army has passed out Of
srght We might halloo a, loud as wa
could, not q of thsm would avert his
head TO see what we wanted
SHE COULD NOT LEAVE HIM OUT.
admit that | am in sym athy with the
child whose father had sud ienly died aud
who in he little evening prayer wanted to
co tlnue b. pay r her ia r. although he
had gone Into heaven and no more needed
her prayers, and looking up into her
mother'' face said: 30, IN Ither, | cannot
leave him all out. Let ne say, Thank God.
| that hid good father ce, so / can keep
him in my prayers" But the one hundred
and eighty 81 eratons have passed off.
| Passed up. Pass d WA. Gone for
ever. Thon there are generations to
| come after our earthly existence has ceased.
perhaps hundred and eighty generations
more, perhaps a thousand generations more.
We shall not SEQ them, we shall not hear
an n wa AtNtI faly
their convocau Jns, thoir oil ctions, their
revolutions, their caCastrophss, their tri-
umphs. We viii in no wise q feet the one
hundred and eighty go 1911 ations gone, or
tho one hundred and eighty genera
tons 70 come, except as from
tho galleries II heaven the for
mer ge lerations look down aud rel ,ica at
our victories, or as we may by our behavior
start influences, gooi or bad, that snail roll
on through the advancing ages. But our
business IS, like David, to serve our own
generation, the people now living, those
whose lungs now bre the and whose hearts
now beat. And mark you, it is not a silent
p ocession, but moving. Ii is forced
march," at twen y-fOur miles a day, each
hour being mile. Going with that
celeriy, it has got to lie a quick
service On our part, or no sery-
ice at all. We not only cannot
teach the one hundred and eikht genera
tioas past aud will ot SEQ the o q hund ed
generations tI come, but this generation
now on the stage viii soon bs off and we
ou selves 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 r y one after our exit to say
OF us, as it was said Of David, after he
had served his own generation by tue will
Of God, be fell on sleep
Well row, let us Look around earnestly.
prayerfuly aud in conmon-se 20 way
aud SOC what We can do for our own genera
i'm. First Of all let us see to it tlat. az
far as we can, they have o ough TO eat.
The human body 20 constituted tnat three
times d y the Dody needs food as III Ich as
a lamp needs oil. a, much as "A loc motive
needs fuel. To meet this want God has
girdled the earth with apple orchards.
ora ge groves, wheat fields and oceans full
Of fish and prairies full Of catt Q. And
uotwithsandi x this. | will undertake to
say that the vast majority OF tho human
family a o suffe ing either for lack Of food
or the right kind OF food. Our civilization
is all a kew on this subject and God only
can set it right
REMEMBER THE POOR.
Many Of tho greatest est ates Of today
have been built cut of the blood and bones
Of ulrequited toll. In olden times, for the
building OF forts and towers, tho inh abit-
ants Of Ispahan had to co tribute 10000
human skulls, and Blgdad 10000 human
skulls, AID that number Of pc pie was
slain so as b. furnish the skulls But these
two contributions added together made only
10000 skulls, willie In 0 The TOW II the
worlds wealth and . mp and magnificance
have been wrought tie skeletons Of un-
counted number Il the half fed populations
Of the earth. millions ( skuls.
Don't sit down at your table with five or
six courses Of abundant su ply and think
nothing Of that family in the next street
wno would take any one of those fye
courses between soup aud al nond nuts and
feel they were in heaven. The lack Of the
right XII Of food Is the cause Of much OF
the druu ksuness. Az er drinking what
many Of our grocers call coffee, swestened
With what many cal sugar, and eat
ing what many Of our butchers call
meat, and ewing what many of our
| akers call bread, many Of the labortna
classes feel so miserable they are tempted
10 put iutJ their nasty pos what the to-
bacconist cal s tobacco, or go into the di *
Ing saloons for what the rum Hers call
beer. Go d c1ffee would do much ia
driving ou bad rum. Adulteration of food
ha, got 10 be an evil against which all the
! ealth officers ald all the doctors and all
the minister, and all the ref rm rs I'd all
the Christians need TO st them elves In
battle array How can We serve our gem
Grafton with enough h. eati By sit