The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-05-07

a half Chicago and New YORK, once
three DAYS apart. now only TWEEN ty-four
hours by the vestibule limited Two
additional railroads have been built to the
Pacific. France has passed from mon
archy TO repubicanism. Many of the
cities have nearly double their popula-
tiOus- During that generation the chief
surviving heroes of the civil war have
gone into the encampment of the grave
/ The chief physicians, attorneys, orators,
merchants, have passed of the earth. or
are in retirement waiting for transition
I Other men in editorial chairs, in pulpits
. in governors mansions, in legislative,
I senatorial and congressional halls. There
| are not ten men or women on earth
| now prominent who were prominent
/ twenty-five years ago. The crew of
this old ship of world is all changed.
| Others al the helm, others on the
/ lookout others climbing the ratlines
| Timeis doctor who with potent anOdyne
has put an entire generation into sound
| sleep. Time, like another Cromwell, has
| roughly prorOgued parliament, and with
! icOnOClasm driven nearly all the rulers
except one queen from their high places.
So far as l observed that generation, for
! the most part they did their best.
| Chastity exceptions, but so far as I knew
them, they did quite well, and many Of
! them gloriously well. They were born at
/ the right time, and they died at the right
J
they found it. We are indebted to them
for the fact that they prepared the way
| for our coming. 1894 reverently and
/ gratefully salutes 1869. lone generation
! passeth away, and another generation
| cometh."
There are fathers and mothers here
| whom | baptized in their infancy. There
| is not one person in this churchs board of
| session or trustees who was here when |
| Hape nd fhnra in d &c CT n
| bly, is one person who heard my opening
I sermon in Brooklyn, but not more than
one person in every five hundred now
| present. OF the seventeen persons who
| gave me a unanimousscall when l came,
| only three, believe, are living.
But this sermon is not dirge; it is an
anthem. While this world is appropriate
| as temporary stay, as an eternal resi-
dence IL would be dead failure. II
would be a dreadful sentence if our race
were doomed to remain here a thousand
winters and 3 thousand summers. God
keeps US here just long enough
TO give US an appetite for
| heaven. Had we been born in celestial
realms, we would not have been able to
| appreciate the bliss. 1t needs a good
many rough blasts in this world to quail
| ify US to properly estimate the superb
| climate of that good land where it is
never too cold or too hot too cloudyo or too
| glGring. Heaven will be more to us than
to those supernal beings who were never
tempted, or sick, or bereaved, or tried or
disappointed So you may well take my
text out of the minor key and set il to
some tune in the major key lone genera
| ton passeth away, and another genera
ton cometh."
Nothing can rob US of the satisfaction
that the uncouuted thousands of the gen
GRAFTON just past were converted, com
forted and harvested for heaven by this
church, whether in the present building,
or the three preceding buildings in which
they worshipped. The two great organs
OF the previous churches went down in
the memorable fires, but the multitude
nous songs they led year after year
were not recalled or injured. There
is no power in earth or hell to kill
hallelujah. 1t is impossible to arrest a
hosanna. What satisfaction to know
that there are many thousands in glory
on whose eternal welfare this church
wrought nightly Nothing can undo
that work. They have assembled, the
multitudes who served God in that gen
| GRAFTON. That chapter is gloriously ended
But that generation has left its impress
| ion upon this generation. A sailor was
| dying on shipboard, and he said to his
mates, My lads, can only think of one
| passage of scripture. the soul that sin.
u
in my ears. The soul that sinneJh it
shall die can't you think of some
thing else in the bible to cheer
me up" Well, sailors are kind,
and they tried to think of some
| other passage of scripture with which to
console their dying comrade, but they
could not. One of them said, Let us
call up the cabin boy His mother was a
Christian, and guess he has a Bible"
The cabin boy was called up, and the
! dying sailor asked him if he had Bible
He said, Yes" but he could not exactly
find it, and the dying sailor scolded him,
and said: "Aint you ashamed of yourself
not to read the Biblel" So the boy ex-
! plOred the bottom of his trunk and
brought out the Bible and his mother had
marked a passage that just fitted the dying
sailors case: THE blood of Jesus Christ
his Son cleanseth from all sin" That
helped the sailor to die in peace So one
| generation helps another, and good things
written, or said or done are reproduced
| long afterward.
During the passing of the last genera
tion some peculiar events have unfolded
| One day while resting at Sharon Springs
| n. Y, think it was in 1870, the year
after my settlement in Brooklyn, and
| while walking in the park Of that place,
l found myself asking the question, II
wonder if there is any special mission for
| me TO execute In this world9 II there is,
may God show it to mer' There soon
came upon me a great desire to preach
the Gospel through the secular printing
press. ] realized that the vast majority
of people, even in Christian lands, never
enter a church, and that it would be an
| opportunity of usefulness infinite if that
door of publication were opened. And so
l recorded that prayer in a blank book,
and offered the prayer day in and day out
until the answer came though in way
different from that which l had ex-
pected, for it came through
the Misrepresentation and persecu-
tion of enemies, and l have to record
it for the encouragement of all ministers
of the gospel who are misrepresented,
that if the Misrepresentation be virulent
enough, and bitter enough, and contin-
uous enough, there is nothing that so
widens ones field of usefulness as hostile
attack, If you are really doing the Lords
work The bigger the lie told about me,
the bigger the demand to see and hear
what | really was doing. From one stage
of sermonic publication to another, the
work has gone on, until week by week
and for about twenty-three years, l have
had the world for my audience, as no man
ever had, and to-day more so than at
any other time. The syndicates inform
me that my sermons go now to about
/ TWEEN five millions Of OaOpla in III Iapde