Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1894-05-18
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUN
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "The Generations"

| their particular century has q generation been
called 100 years, or fifty years, o. thirty
years. By common consent in our nineteenth
century generation is fixed at twenty-five
years,
The largest procession that ever moved is
| the procession OF years, and the greatest
! army that ever marched is the army of gene
| ratiOns. In each generation there are about
| nine full regiments of days. These 9125 days
! in each generation march with wonderful
| precision. They never break ranks. They
| never ground arms. They never pitch tents
| They never halt. They are never off on fur
! Tough. They came ont of the eternity past
! and they move on toward the eternity future.
| Ihcy cross rivers without any bridge or boats.
| Iho 600 immOrtalS Of the Crimea daehing into
! them cause no confusion. They move as
| rapidly at midnight as at midnoon. Their
! haversacks are full of good bread and bitter
! aloes, clusters of richest vintage and bottles
! of agOnizing tears. With q regular tread
| that no order of "double quick can hasten or
| obstacle can slackcn, their tramp is on and
| on and on and on while mountains crumble
and pyramids die. "Ono generation passeth,
| and another generation cOmeth."
This IS my twenty-1fth anniversary ser
! mon-1S69 and 1894. It is twenty five years
| since | assumed the Brooklyn pastorate. A
| generation has passed. Three genera
tlons 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
| Jul HLCNl'CtS5OTS, anu ruE SUCCESSORS are HL
| our hccls. What n generation it was that
| preceded US We who are now in the front
! regiment are the only ones competent to tell
! the new generation Just now coming In sight
who our predecessors were. Biography can
not tell it. Autobiography cannot tell II.
Biographies are generally written by special
| friends OF the departed-perhaps by wife or
son or daughter they only tell the good
things. The biOgraphers of one of tho first
Presidents of the United States make no rec
ORD OF the Presidents account books, now in
the archives at the Capitol, which I have
seen, telling how much he lost or gained
daily at the gaming table. The biographers
OF one OF the early Secretaries Of the United
States never described the scene that day
witnessed when the Secretary was carried
dead drunk from the State apartments to his
own homo. Autobiography is written by tho
man himself, and no one would record for
| future times his own weaknesses and moral
deficits. Those who keep diaries put down
only things that read well. No man or wo-
man that ever lived would dare to make full
record of Gll the thoughts and words of a
! lifetime. We who saw and heard much of
tho generation marching just ahead of
US are far more able than any book
to describe accurately to our Successors who
our predecessors were. Very much like our
selves, thank you. Human nature in them
very much like human nature in us. At our
time OF life they were very much like we now
are. At the time they were in their teens
they WeTo very much like you are in your
teens. and at the time they were in their
tWenttes they were very much like you are
in your twenties. Human nature got an aW-
full twist under a fruit tree in Eden, and
though the grace of God does much to
strighten things every new generation has
the same twist and the same work of
strengthening out has to be done over again.
mother in the country districts, expect
ing the neighbors at her table on sOme gala
night, had with her own hands arranged ev-
erything in taste, and as she was about to
turn from it to receive her guests saw her
little child by accident upset a pitcher all
over the white cloth and soil everything and
the mother lifted her hand to slap the child,
but she suddenly remembered the time when
u little child herself, in her fathers house,
where they had always before been used to
candles, on the purchase of q lamp, which
was a matter of rarity and pride, she took it
in her hands and dropped it, crashing into
pieces, and looking up In her fathers face,
expecting chastisement, heard only the
words, at is a sad loss, but never mind;
you did not mean to do it."
History repeats ITSELF Generations
wonderfully alike. Among that generation
that is past, as in our own, and as it will be
in the generation following US, those who
succeeded became the target, shot at by
those who did not succeed. In those times,
as in ours, mans bitterest enemies were
those whom he had befriended and helped.
Hates, iealOusies and revenges were Just as
lively in 1869 az in 1894 Hypocrisy sniff1ad
and looked solemn then as now. There was
just rs much avarice among the apple bar
r@iS rs now among the cotton bales and
among the wheelbarrows as among the
locomotives. Tho tallOw candles saw the
Same sins that are now found under the
electric lights. Homespun was just as
proud as is the modern fashion plate.
twenty-five yoars-yea, twenty-five centuries
have not changed human nature particle.
| say this for the encouragement of those
who think that our times mOnOpOlize all the
denominations of the ages.
One minute after Adam got outside of
paradise he was just like you, o man! One
step after Eve left the gate she was just like
you. woman! All the faults and vices are
many times centenarans. Yea, the cities
Sodom, Gomorrah, Pompeii, Herculaneum,
Heliopolis and ancient Memphis were as
much worse than our modern cities you
might expect from the fact that the modern
cities have somewhat yielded to the re-
straintS of Christianity. while those ancient
cities were not limited in their abomina-
tiOns.
Yea, that generation which passed off with
in the last twenty-five years had their be-
reavements, their temptations, their strug-
giles, their dlslppOintments, their successes,
their failures, their gladnesses and their
gries, like these two generations now in
sight, that in advance and that following.
But the twenty-five years between 1869 AMI
1S94-how much they saw How much they
discovered How much they felt Within
:hHt time have been performed the miracles
of the telephone and the phonOgraph. From
the obServatOries other worlds have been
seen to heave in sight. Six Presidents Of
the United States have been inaugurated.
Transatlantic voyage abbreviated from ten
days to SO. Chicago and New York, once
three days apart, now only tWenty-four
hours 10y the vestibulo limited. Two addi-
tOnal railroads have been built to the Pacific.
France has passed from monarchy to repub-
licanism. Many of the cities have nearly
doubled their populations. 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 off the eartn
or are in retirement waiting for transition.
Other men in editorial chairs, in pulpits, in
Governors mansions, in Legislative, Sena-
tOrial 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
a 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 Cromwell,
has roughly prorogued parliament, and with
iconOclasm driven nearly all the rulers eX-
cept one queen from their high places. SO
far as 1 observed that generation, for the
most part they did their best. Ghastly eX-
ceptfOns but so far as knew them they did
quite well, and many OF them gloriously
we'll. They were born at the right time,
and they died at the right time. They left
the world better than they found it. We are
indebted to them for the fact that they pre-
pared the way for our coming. Eighteen
hundred and ninety-four reverently and
gratefully salutes 1869. zone generation
passeth away, and another generation
cometh."
There are fathers and mothers here whom
l baptized in their infancy. There is not
one person in this chul ems board of session
or trustees who was here when 1 came. Here
and there in this vast assembly is one person
who heard my opening sermon in Brooklyn.
but not more than one person in every 500
now present. Of the seventeen persons who