The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1889-02-22
TALMAGE's SERMON.
sour 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 Thorefrom.

dicating his discourse on the following
text:
David, after he had served his own genera
ton BE- she will OF God. fen on sleep.
Thas is q text which has for long time
been running through my mind, but not
until now has il been fully revealed to
me. Sermons have time to be born as
well a time to die, cradle as a grave.
David, cowboy and stone-slingeF 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 slumber
which nothing but an archangelic blast
can startle. "David, after he had served
his own generation by the viii Of God,
fell on sleep"
admit that am in sympathy with the
child whose father had suddenly died and
who in her little evening prayer wanted
20 continue to pray for her father. all
though he had gone into Heaven and no
more needed her prayers, and looking up
into her mothers face, said; 30, mother,
/ can not leave him all out. Let me say,
Thank God that mad a good father once,
so 1 can keep him in my prayers" But
the one hundred and eighty generations
have passed of. Passed up. Passed
down. Gone forever. Then there are
generations to come after our earthly ex-
istence has ceased, perhaps one hundred
and eighty generations more, perhaps one
thousand generations more. We shall
not see them, we shall not hear any Of
their voices, we viii take no part in their
cOnvocatiOns, their elections, their revo-
buttons, their catastrOphes, their triumphs.
We win in no wise affect the one hundred
and eighty generations gones or the one
hundred and eighty generations TO come,
except as from the galleries OF
Heaven the former generations look
dowa and rejoice at our VIC
tories, or as we may by our behavior start
influences, good or bad, that shall 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 breathe and whose
hearts now beat. And mark you, It is not
q silent procession, but moving. 1t is a
''forced march" at twenty-four miles a
day, each hour being a mile. Gong with
that celebrity, it has got to be quick serv-
ice on our part, or no service mt all. We
not only can not teach the one hundred
and eighty generations past and viii not
see the one hundred and eighty genera
tions to come, but this generation now on
the stage will soon be of, and we our
selves will be of with them The fact Is
that you and I will have TO start very soon
FOR our work, or il will be ironical and
sarcastic for any one after our exit to say
Of us, as it was suid OF David, latter he
had served his own generation by the will
of God, he fell on Sleep,
Well, now, lot us look around earnest
", prayerfully and In a common sense
way and see what we can do for our
own generation. First Of all let us see to
&C 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 a lamp needs oil-as much as
a locomotive needs fuel To meet this
want God has girdled the earth with ap-
pie orchards, orange groves, wheat fields
and oceans full Of Ash, and prairies full o.
cattle. And, Notwithstanding this, vii
undertake TO say that the vast majority o.
the human family are suffering either FOL
lack OF food OF the right kind OF food. Oul
civilization is all askew on this subjec
and God only can set It right
Many Of the greatest estates OF TO-DAY
have been built out Of the blood and bones
OF unrequited toll. In olden timos, fOl
the building Of forts and towns, the in
habitants Of IspahHn had to contribute
seventy thousand human skulls, anC
Bagdad ninety thousand human skulls
and that number of people were slain 81
as to furnish the skulls. But these tw,
contributions added together made onl!
one hundred and sixty thousand skulls
while into the tower of the worlds wealth
and pomp and magnihcence have beer
wrought the skeletons OF uncounted mum
bers OF the half-fed populations Of thu
earth, millions OF skulls.
DON'T sit down at your table with FIVE Of
six courses Of abundant supply and thinl
nothing of that family In the next stree
who would take any one Of those fiv'
courses between soup and almond nuts
and feel they were in Heaven. The laCl
OF the right kind or food is the cause o
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 cal
meat, and chewing what many Of Ou
bakers call bread, many Of the laborini
Glasses feel so miserable they are temple,
TO put into their nasty pipes what the to
bacconist calls tobacco, or go into tn,
drinking saloons for what the rum sell
ers call beer. Good coffee would d,
much in driving out bad rum. Adul
teration of food has got TO be an evi
against which all the health officer
and all the doctors and all thu
ministers and all the refOrmers and al
the Christians need to set themselves il
battle array. How can we serve cur gen
Grafton with enough to eatR By sitting
down In embroidered slippers and loung
ing back in an arm chair, our mouu
puckered ND around Havana of tn
best brand and through clouds of luxuri
ant smoke reading about political ecOno
my and the philosophy OF strikesg No
Mol BY finding ont who in Brooklyn hal
been living on gristie and sending them
tenderloin beefsteak. Seek out som,
family who through sickness or cOnjunc
ton of misfortune have not enough to ea
and do for them what Christ did for tn,
hungry multitudes OF Asia Minor, multi
plying the loaves and the fishes. Let u
quit the surfeiting Of ourselves until W,
can not choke down another crumb o
cake and begin the supply OF others ne
cessities.
We often see ON a small scale reck
Iessness about the welfare Of others whicl
q great warrior expressed on larg
scale, when his officers we're dlssuadin
him from a certain campaign, saying
''It would cost two hundred THOUSAND
lives" replying with diaboism that ca
never be forgotten: "What are two hun
dred thousand lives to mePSv v.a.r
So far from helping bpPease the world
hunger, there are those whom Isaiah de
scribes as grinding the faces OF the poor
You have seen a farmer or mechani
put scythe or an axe on a grindstORS
while some one was turning it round an
round, and the man holding the axe Dor
on it harder and harder, while the waite
dropped from the grindstone, and the edg
OF the axe, from being round and dull, &c
keener and keener, and the mechanic LITE
the axe glistening and sharp, and wit
edge so keen he must cautiouly run 81
finger along lest while examining the ~
strument he cut his hand TO the bone. =
have seen men who were put against tn
grindstone Of hardship, and while on
turned the crank another would press th
unfortunate harder down and harder dow
until he was ground away thinner an
thinner, his comforts thinner, his pros
poets thinner and his face thinner. An
Isaiah shrieks out; "What mean ye tho
ye grind the faces OF the poorY" II Is q
awful thing to be hungry. It is an cas-