Daily Yellowstone journal., 1889-02-17
OUR OWN GENERATION.
SERMON PREACHED BY REV. T. De
WITT TAlMAGE FEB. 10.
Text, Acts xiii. SO, "David. After He Had
Served His Own Generation by the win
Of God. Fell ON Sleep"

-
Served His Own Generation by the VIII
Of God. Fell on Sleep"
BROOKLYN, Feb. I0.-Before an
audience gathered from all parts of
the earth the Rev. 7. 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
an singing:
Time, Ike an ever rolling stream,
Bears all its sons away;
They tiy forgotten, as dream
Dies at the opening day.
The subject of DIR. Talmage's SER
mon was Our Own Generation, and
his 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 mind,
but not until now has il been fully re-
vealed 10 me. Sermons have a time
to be born as well as a time to die. a
cradle as well as grave. David,
cowboy and stone singer and fighter
and ear 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-
ber which nothing but an archangelic
blast can startle. David, after he
had served his own generation by the
will Of God, fell on sleep"
II 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 us2 There are about
four generations 10 q century now,
but in olden time life was longer and
there was, perhaps. only one genera
ton to a century. Taking these facts
into the calculation; l 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 HIN OUT.
Iadmit 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: 10, mother, can
not leave him all out. Let me say,
Thank God, that had good father
Once 30 l can keep him in my pray
ers.'" But the one hundred and
eighty generations have passed of.
Passed up. Passed down. Gone for
ever. Then there are generations 70
come after our earthly existenee has
ceased, perhaps o hundred and eighty
generations more, perhaps thousand
generations more. We shall not zee
them, we shall not hear any Of their
voices, we viii take no part in their
conversations, their elections, their
revolutions, their catastrophes, their
triumphs. We will in no wise affect
the one hundred and eighty genera
tions gone, or the one hundred and
eighty generations 10 come, except a.
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 ad-
vancing ages. Butour business is, like
David, 10 serve our own generation,
the people now living, those whose
lungs now breathe and whose
hearts now beat. And mark you, 1t is
not q silent procession, but moving.
Il is forced march" at twenty-four
miles day, each hour being a, mile.
Going with that celebrity, il 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 10 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
Tor our work or il will be ironical and
sarcastic for any one after our exit 70
say OF US. as II was said OF David,
after he had served his own genera
ton by the will Of God, he fell or
sleep"
Well, now, let US look around earn
estly, prayerfully and in common
sense way and see what we can do fol
|our own generation. First OF all le
us see 10 Il that, as far as we can, the,
have enough TO eat The human bod
is 40 constituted that three times da,
the body needs food as much as LAM
needs oil, as much as a locomotiv
needs fuel To meet this want Co
has oirdled the earth with apple on
chards, orange groves, wheat field
and oceans full OF fish and prairie
| full cattle. And notwithstanding this
III will undertake. 10 sly, that the vas
majority Of the human family are sal
Ifering either for lack Of food OF th
fright kind Of food. Our civiliza1o'
lie all askew ON this subject and co
only csn set IL right
/ RKMEnnER r1s room
Many Of The grcalut estates Q, 70
slaY have bern bui|t et!l u ~ o.oo<
and boQaa u upar1pll>1' ~ IL o'o.1
!s!ns m ;;!'s'ns S':.s': q !.s 'S.': sss ~ ~