The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-05-07
THE PROCESSION OF YEARS.
TalmaSe'S Sermon in Touch With His
Coming Celebration.

of Generations-Nine Full ReRi-
ments of Days in Each Generation.
A Glance over the Twenty
Years That Have Passed Since He
Assumed the Passionate of the Tab
ernacle.
Brooklyn May 6.-This was a great
day in the history Of the Brooklyn taber-
nacle The figures in flowers back Of the
platform, 1869 and 1894, indicated Rev.
DR. Talmage's time of coming to Brook
lyn, and the present celebrat ion, and was
Introductory to the great meetings in
honor of Dr. Talmage's pastorate to take
place on the following Thursday and
Friday, presided over by the mayor of
the city and ex-Secretary of the Navy,
Gen Tracy, and to be participated in by
senators and governors and prominent
men from north, south, east and west.
The subject of the sermon to-day was The
Generations, the text being Ecclesiates,
!: 4: lone generation passeth away,
and another generation cometh."
According TO the longevity Of people in
their particular century has a generation
been called hundred years, or fifty
years. or thirty years. BY common con-
6EnI III OuE uAAGtGGubu Ntnbulg IS Il EGuGLd-
tion is fixed at twenty-five years.
The largest procession that ever moved
is the procession of years, and the great
est army that ever marched Is the army
of generations. In each generation there
are about nine full regiments of days.
These g, 125 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 furlOugh. They
came out of the eternity past and they
move on toward the eternity future.
They cross rivers without any bridge or
boats. The six hundred immortals of the
Crimea dashing into them cause no con-
fusion. They move as rapidly at mid
night as at midnoon. Their haversacks
are full of good bread and bitter aloes,
clusters of richest vintage and bottles of
agonizing tears. With a regular tread
that no order of double quick" can
hasten, or obstacle can slacken, their
tramp is on, and on, and on, and on, while
mountains crumble and pyramids die.
lone generation passeth, and another
generation cOmeth.n
This is my twenty-fifth anniversary
sermon, 1869 and 1894. 1t is twenty-five
years since l assumed the Tabernacle
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 predeces-
sors, and our successors are at our heels
What a generation it was that preceded
US We who are now in the front regi-
ment are the only ones competent to tell
the new generation Just now coming in
sight who our predecessors were. Biog-
raphy cannot tell 1t. Autobiography can
not tell it. Biographies are generally writ
ten by special friends of the departed, per-
har, hxy4 on dan rafa v,Af J..
only tell the good things. The biographers
of one of the first presidents of the United
States make no record of the Presidents
account books, now in the archives at the
capitol, which l have seen, telling how
much he lost or gained daily at the gam
ing table. The biographers of one of the
early secretaries of the United States
never described the scene that day wit
messed when the secretary was carried
dead drunk from the state apartments to
his own home. Autobiography is written
by the man himself, and no one would
record for future times his own weak
nesses and moral deficits. Those who
keep diaries put down only things that
read well. No man or woman that
ever lived would dare to make full
record of all the thoughts and
words of a lifetime. We who saw
and heard much of the 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 ourselves, 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
were very much like you who are in your
teens, and at the time they were in their
twenties, they were very much like you
who are in your twenties. Human nature
81 =
Eden, and though the grace of God does
much to straighten things, every new
generation has the same twist and the
same work of Strengthening out has to be
done over again.
A mother in the country districts ex-
pecting the neighbors at her table on
some gala night had with her own hands
arranged everything in taste, and as
she was about to turn from it to receive
her guests, saw her little child by acct
dent upset 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 a little child herself in her fathers
house where they had always before been
used to candles, on the purchase of a
lamp which was a matter of rarity and
pride, she took it in her hands, and
dropped ii crashing into pieces, and look
ing up into her fathers face expecting
chastsement heard only the words. ut
is sad loss, put 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 gen
GRAFTON following US, those who succeeded
became the target, shot at by those who
did not succeed. In those times, as in
ours, a mans bitterest enemies were
those whom he had befriended and
helped. Hates, iealousies and revenges
were just as lively in 1869 as in 1894 TYPO
crisy sniffied and look ed solemn then as
now. There was just as much avarict
among the apple barrels as now among
the cotton bales, and among the wheel
barrOws as among the locomotives. The
tallow candles saw the same sins that arr
now found under the electric lights
Homespun was just as proud as Is the
modern fashion plate Twenty-Five years
yea, twenty-five centuries - have no
changed human nature particle. l say
this for the encouragement of those wh(
think that our times monopolize all tn,
denominations of the ages One minut,
after Adam got outside of Paradise he
was just like YOU, o man, One step aftel
Eve left the gate she was Just like you
o woman All the faults and vices ar,
many times centenarians. Yea, tn,
cities SodOm, Gomorrah, Pompeii, Her
Culaneum. Heliopolis and ancient Mem