The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1894-05-18
"IH6 GENERATIONS"
R1v. DR.. Talmege Delivers His Sill
yer Jubilee Sermon.
Ec Reviews the Quarter Century OF ais
PastOrnte and Incidentally Calls
Attention to the Maner of His
Preaching to the World.

tions," was based on the text:
One generation passeth away and another
generation cometh--Ecelesiaste T., e.
According to the longevity of the
people in their particular century has
"A generation been called one hundred
years. or fifty years, or thirty years.
BY common consent in our nineteenth
century, a generation is fixed at TWEEN
ty-five years.
The largest procession that ever
moved in the procession of years, and
the greatest army that ever marched
is the army of generations. In each
generation there are about nine full
regiments of days. These nine thou
sand one hundred and twenty-five days
in each generation march with wonder
ful precision. They never break
ranks. They never grounds arms.
They never pitch tents. They
never halt. They are never off on
furlough They came out of the eter-
nity and they move on toward the
eternity of the future. They cross
rivers without any bridge or boats.
. he six hundred immortals of the
Nr.uea dasbing into them cause no
confusion. They move as rapidly at
midnight as at midnoon. Their haver-
sacks are full of good bread and bitter
aloes, clusters of rich vintage and bot
ties of agnnizing tears. With a regu-
tar tread that no order of double
quick" can hasten, or obstacle can
slaclSen. their tramp is on and on, and
on, while mountains crumble and pyra-
mids die. "One generation passeth,
ard another generation cometh."
This Is my twenty-ffth anniversary
sermon-1s60 to 1894 1t is twenty
FIVE years since / assumed the Taber-
nacle pastorate. A whole generation
has passed. Three generations we
have known. That which preceded
our own, that which is now at the
front and the one coming on. We are
at the heels of our predecessors, and
our successors are at our heels What
generation il was that preceded
us! We who are now in the front regi-
ment are the only ones competent to
tell the new generation now coming
into sight who our predecessors were.
Biography can not tell il. Autobiogra-
ply can not tell it. Biographies are
generally written by special friends of
the departed, perhaps by wife or son
or daughter and they only tell the
good things. The biographers of one
of the first presidents of the United
States made no record of the presi-
dents account books, now in the ar
ehives at the capitol which l have
seen, telling how much he lost or
gained daily at the gaming table.
Yea, that generation which passed
Ala los -ffv-
had their bereavements, their tempta-
tions, their struggles, their disappoint-
ments, their successes, their failures,
their gladnesses and their griefs, like
these two generations now in sight,
that in advance and that following.
But the twenty-five years between 1869
and 1S94-how much they sawl How
much they discovered How much
they feltl Within that time have been
performed the miracles of the tele-
phone and the phonograph. From
the obscrvatories other worlds have
been seen to heave in sight. Six presi-
dents of the United st tes have been
inaugurated. Transatlantic voyage
abbreviated from ten days to FIVE and
half Chicago and New York, once
three days apart, now only twenty
four hours by the vestibule limited.
Two additional railroads have been
built to the Pacific. France has passed
from monarchy to republicanism.
Many of the cities have nearly doubled
their populations. During that. gen.
Grafton the chief surviving heroes of
the civil war have gone into the en-
campment of the grave. The chief
physicians. attorneys, orators, mer-
chants, have passed off the earth, or
are in retirement waiting for transit
ton. Other men in editorial chairs, in
pulpits, in governors mansions, in
legislative, senatorial and congress
sional halls. There are not ten men
or women on the earth now prominent
who were prominent twenty-five years
ago. The crew of the old ship of
world is all changed. Others at the
helm, others on the lookout" others
climbing the ratlines. Time is
doctor who with potent anodyne has
put an entire generation into sound
sleep. Time like another Crom-
well, has roughly prorogued parlia-
ment, and with iconoclasm driven
nearly all the rulers except one queen
from the high places So far as l OBJ
served that generation, for the most
part, they did their best. CHASTITY ex-
ceptions, but so far as I knew them,
they did quite well. They were born
at the right time, and they died at the
right time. They left the world better
than they found il. We are indebted
to them for the fact that they prepared
the way for our coming. Eighteen
hundred and ninety-four reverentlv
and gratefully salutes 1859. ''One
generation passeth away, and another
generation cometh."
But this sermon is not dirge; it is
an anthem. While this world is ap-
propriate As temporary stay. as an
eternal residence it would be a dead
failure. 1t would be a dreadful SEN
tence if our race were doomed to re-
main here a thousand winters and
thousand summers. God keeps us here
just long enough to give us an appe-
tite for Heaven. Had we been born in
celestial realms we wonl1 not have
been able TO appreciate the bliss.
It needs a good many rough
blasts in this world to qualify
us TO properly estimate the superb eli
/ mate Of that g0od lahd where 1t is
, aver too cold o. tA.1 bet, too cloudy