The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1898-09-07
OUR GEN NERATION.
DR.. Talmage Says We Should En-
deavor to Serve It.
How 1t Could be Improved
Drawn from the Career of David.


kind instead of allowing them to be
meaningless generalities. The text is
Acts 1896: David, after he had
served his own generation by the will
of God, fell on sleep"
That is text which has for long
time been running through my mind.
Sermons have time to be born as well
as time to die; cradle as well as a
grave David, cowboy and stone
singer, and fighter, and dramatist,
and blank-verse writer, and prophet,
did his best for the people of his
time, and then went and lay down on
the southern hill of Jerusalem in that
sound slumber which nothing but an
archangelic blast can startle. David,
after he had served his own generation
by the will of God, fell on Sleep" 1t
was his own generation that he had
served; that is, the people living at
the time he lived And have you ever
thought that our responsibilities are
chiefly with the people now walking
abreast of us? There are about four
generations to a century now, but in
olden time, life was longer, and there
was, perhaps, only one generation to
a century. Taking these facts into the
calculation, l make rough guess
and say that there have been at least
one hundred and eighty generations of
the human family. With reference to
them we have no responsibility. We
cannot teach them, we cannot correct
their mistakes, we cannot soothe their
sorrows, we cannot heal their wounds.
Their sepulchers are deaf and dumb to
anything we might say to them. The
last regiment of that great army has
passed out of sight. We might halloo
as loud as we could; not one of them
would avert his head to see what we
wanted. / admit that L am in SYM
pathy with the child whose father
had suddenly died, and who in her lit
tie evening prayer wanted to continue
to pray for her father, although he had
gone into Heaven, and no more needed
her prayers, and looking up into her
mothers face, said: so, mother, !
cannot leave him all out. Let me say,
thank God that l had a good father
once, so 1 can keep him in my pray
ers."
But the 18O generations have passed
off. Passed up. Passed down. Gone
forever. Then there are generations
to come after our earthly existence has
ceased. We shall not see them; we
shall not hear any of their voices; we
will take no part in their convoca-
tions, their elections, their revolutions
their catastrophes, their triumphs. We
will in no wise affect the 180 genera
tions gone or the $50 generations to
come, except as from the galleries OF
Heaven the former generations look
down and rejoice at our victories, OF
as we may, by our behavior, start in
fuences, good or bad, that shall roll
on through the advancing ages. But
our business is, like David, to serve
our own generation, the people now
living, those whose lungs now breathe
and whose hearts now beat. And mark
you, it is not silent procession, but
moving. 1t is "forced march" al
twenty-four miles day. Each hour
being a mile. Going with that celerity
1t has got to be a quick service on our
part, or no service at all. We not only
cannot teach the 1870 generations past
and will not see the 1SO generations
to come, but this generation now or
the stage will soon be off, and we our
selves will be off with him.
Well, now, let us look around earn
estIy, prayerfully, in common sense
way, and see what we can do for OH
own generation. First of all, let us see
to it that as far as we can, they have
enough to eat. The human body is sc
constituted that three times a day the
body needs food as much as lamp
needs oil, as much as locomotive
needs fuel. To meet this want God has
girded the earth with apple orchards
orange groves, wheat fields, and oceans
full of fish, and prairies full of cattle
And Notwithstanding this, 1 will un
dertake to say that the vast majority
of the human family are now suffering
either for lack of food or the right
kind of food. Our civilization is al
asl1ew, and God only can set it right
Many of the greatest estates of to-day
have been built out of the blood and
bones of unreguited toll. In older
times, for the building of forts and
towers, the inhabitants of Ispahar
had to contribute 10000 skulls, and
Bagdad 10000 human skulls, and thai
number of people were compelled tC
furnish the skulls. But these two con
tributions added together made only
100000 skulls, while into the tower ot
the worlds wealth and pomp have
been wrought the skeletons of un
counted numbers of the half-fed pop
ulation of the earth-millions of skulls
Don't sit down at your table with five
or six courses of abundant supply ant
think nothing of the family in the mex
street who would take any one of those
five courses between soup and ALMOND
nuts and feel that they were in Heaven
The lack of the right kind of food il
the cause of much of the drunkenness
How can we serve our generation
with enough to eat? By sitting dowr
in embroidered slippers and loungint
back in an arm chair, our mouth puck
cred up around Havana of the bes
brand, and through clouds of luxur
liant smoke reading about politica
economy and the philosophy O.
strikes? No, mol BY finding out wht
in this city has been living on gristle
and sending them tende1oin beef
steak. Seek out some family, who
through sickness or conjunctions O
misfortunes, have not enough to eat
and do for them whaN Christ did fol
the hungry multitudesSf Asia Minor
multiplying the loaves and fishes, LIE