The Penn's Grove record., 1894-05-11
REV. DIR.
THE BROOKLYN DIvINE'S SUN.
DAY SERMON.


oNANlhAlOh SoDutLhs
l., 4.
According TO the longevity OF people IN
thelr particular century has a generation been
called 100 years, or fifty years, or thirty
years. by common consent In our nineteenth
century a generation is fixed at twenty-five
years.
Inc largest procession that ever moved IL
the procession Of years, and the greatest
army that ever marched is the army of gene
ratlons. In each generation there are about
nine 1uil regiments!of days. These 9l25 days
IN each generation march with wonderful
precision. They never break ranks. They
never ground arms. They never pitch tents.
Ihey never halt. They arc never of on fur
Tough. They cam out OF the eternity past,
and they move on towardthe eternity future.
Ihey cross rivers without any BRIDGE or boats.
The 600 immortals ofthe Crimea dashing into
them cause no confusion. They movo as
rapidly at midnight MS 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 orderof 'double quick" can hasten or
obstacle can slacken. their tramp is on and
on and on and on while mountains crumble
and pyramids die. Zone generation passeth,
and another generation cometh."
This is my twenty-flith anniversary SER
mon-1s69and 1884. 1t is twenty-five years
since l assumed the Brooklyn pastorate. A
whole generation has passed. Three genera
tons 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 a 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 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. Tit ~biographers of one of the first
Presidents of the United States make no rec
ord of the Presi Tents account books, now in
the archives at the Capitol, which l have
seen, telling how much he lost or gained
daily at the gaming table. The biographers
OF one oil the early Secretaries of the United
States never describe tho scene that day
Witnessed when the Secretary was carried
dead drunk from the State ap irtments to his
own home. Autobiography is written by the
mIn himself, and Nc one would record for
future times his own weaknesses and moral
deficits. Those who keep diaries put down
only thingstha read well. No man or wo-
man that ever live 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
10 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
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 are in your
teens, and at the time they were in their
Juveniles they were very much like you are
In your twenties. Human nature got an aw-
| fttl tr,fut ,tnlnr "a fr,,tk {rna IN Elnn aud
though the grace of God does much to
strlghten things every new generation has
the same twist, and the same work of
Strengthening out has to be lone over again.
A mother in the country districts, expect
ing the neighbors at her table on some gala
night, had with her own hands arranged ey-
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,
hut 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 1t
in her hands and dropped it, crashing into
' pieces, and looking up in her fathers face.
expecting chastisement, heard only the
| words. SIT is a sad loss, but never mind
you dill not mean to do it."
History repeats itself. Generations
wonderfully alike. Among that generation
that is past, as in orr own, and as 1t will lie
in the generation following US, those who
succeeded became the target, shot at by
those who did not succeed. In hose times,
as in ours, a mans bitterest enemies were
those whom he had befriended n helped.
Hates, iealousiss and revenges were just as
lively in 1859 as in 1894. Hypocrisy SMILED
and looked solemn then as now. There was
just as much ayarice among the apple bar
rels as now among the cotton bales and
among the wheelbarrows as among the
locomotives. The 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 years-yea, twenty-five centuries
nave not changed human nature a particle.
I say this for the encouragement OF those
who think that our times m~onopoltze all the
denominations Of the ages.
One minute after Adam got outside Of
paradise he was Just like you, o mani One
step after Eve left the gate she was Just like
YOU, o woman! All the faults and vices are
many times centenarians. Yea, the cities
sodom, Gomorrah, Pompeii, H~erculaneum,
Heliopolis and ancient Memphis were as
much worse than our modern cities as 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 of with.
in the last twenty-five years had their be-
reavements, their temptations, their strug.
giles, their dislppointments, their successes,
their failures, their gladnesses and theii
griefs, like these two generations now In
sight, that in advance and that following,
But the twenty-five years between 1859 AM
1S94-how much they sawl How much they
diseoveredl How much they feltl Within
that time have been performed the miracle;
Of the telephone and the photograph. From
the obseryatories other worlds have beer
seen to heave in sight. Six Presidents o
the United States have been ~inaugurated
Transatlantic voyage abbreviated from tel
days to So. Chicago and New York, one,
three days apart, now only twenty-ioul
hours by the yestibule limited. Two add
tionaI railroads have been quilt to the Pacific
France has passed from monarchy to repub
licnnism. MANY of the cities have nearl,
doubled their populations. During tina
generation the chief surviving heroes of tn
Civil War have gone into the eneampment o
the grave. The chief physicians, attorneys
orators, merchants, have passed OF the eartl
or are In retirement waiting for transition
Other men in editorial chairs, in pulpits, IL
Governors mansions, in legislative, Sena
torial and Congressional halls.
There are not ten men or women on eartl
now prominent who were prominent twenty
Ave years ago. The crew OF this old ship o
a world is all changed. Others at the helm
Others on the lookout, others climbing tn
ratlines, Time is a doctor who, with poten
anodyne, has put an entire generation int
sound sleep. Time, like another Cromwell
has roughly p~rorogued parliament, and witt
iconoclasm driven nearly all the rulers ez
cept one queen from their high places. 8
far as / observed that generation, for tn
/ most part they did their best. CHASTITY el
ceptions, but so far as l knew them they dl
quite we'll, and many OF them gloriousl
well, They were born at the right tint
and they died at the right time. They lie
the world better than they found It. We al
indebted TO them for the fact that they pre-
pared the way for our coming. Elghtee
|, hundred and n~inety-iour reverently an
gratefully saluies 1860 some generatlo
passeth away, and another generatio
cometh."
There are fathers and mothers here whol
I baptized in their infancy. There is NJ
; one person in this church's bpard OF sessio
or trustees who was here Which, | came. Her
and there In this vast assembly, one perso