Owingsville outlook. [volume] (Owingsville, Ky.) 1879-192?, 1898-09-08
THE WAY TO BE HELPFUL
There Are Countless Opportunities to
Do Something Useful.
To Serve Mankind. Not Antag"n!ye IL, i
the One Ambition Practical Service
L. the Hest by Rev.
T. Dewitt Talmsge.

In this discourse Dr TalmaCe
changes our lifetime from a meaning
less generality to practical helpfulnes>
to the people now living. Text: Acts
xiii, 81: David, after he had served
his own generation 10y the will of God,
fell ON sleep"
That is a text which has for a long
time been running through my mind.
Sermons have n time to he born as well
as a time to die; a cradle rs well as n
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 laid
down on the southern hill of
Jerusalem in that sound slumber
which nothing but an archangeiIc
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 served; that i, the
people living at the time he lived.
And have YOU ever thought that our
responsibilities are chiefly with the
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 calculation, | made a
rough guess and say that there have
been at least $50 generations of the
human family. With reference to
them we have no responsibility. We
can not teach them, we can not cor
rect their mistakes, we can not
soothc their sorrows, we can not heal
their wounds. Their scpulchrcs are
deaf ami dumb to anything we might
say Ia them. The last regiment of
that great army has passed ont of
sight We might halloo as loud as we
could; not one OF them would avert
his head to see what we wanted. lad
nit that am in sympathy with the
child whose father had suddenly died.
and who in her little opening prayer
wanted 10 continue to pray for her
father, although he had gone into
Heaven, and no more needed her pray
ers, and looking up into her mothers
face, said: oh, mother, l can not
leave him all out. Let me say, thank
God that | had good father once, SO |
can keep him in my prayers"
But the $50 generations have passed
off. Passed up. Passed down. Gone
foreye-. 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 $50 gem
erations gone or the $50 generations to
come. except as from the galleries of
Heaven the former generations look
down and rejoice at our victories, or
as we may, by our behavior, start in
fuenccs. 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 a silent
procession, but moving. 1t Is a
forced march at "a miles a day, each
hour being a mile. Going with that
celebrity, it has got to be n quick SER
vice on our part, or no service at all
We not only cannot teach the $50 gen.
erations past, and will not see the $50
generations to come, but this genera
ton now on the stage will soon be off,
and we ourselves will be off with them.
The fact is that you and l will have to
start very soon for our work, or it will
be ironical and sarcastic for anyone
after oar exit to say of us, as it was
said of David, AFTER ne mad served his
own generation by the will of Goa, h
fell on sleep"
Well, now. let us look around earn
estly, prayorfully, in a common sense
way, and see what we can do for our
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 so constituted that three times a
day the body needs food as much as a
lamp needs oil, as much as a locomo-
tive needs fuel. To meet this want
God has girdled the earth with apple
orchards, orange groves, wheat fields
and oceans full of fish, and prairies
| full of cattle. And notwiths landing
this | will undertake 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 all askew. and God only
can sctit right. Many of the greatest
estates of to-day have been built out
of the blood ard bones of unreguited
toll. In olden mes, for the building
of forts and towers. the inhabitants of
| lspahan had TO contribute 20. 900
skulls, and Bagdad 10000 human
skulls, and that number of people
were compelled to furnish the skulls
But these two contributions added to-
gether made only 100, 900 skulls, while
into the tower of the worlds we alth
and pomp have been wrought the slSel-
etons of uncounted numbers of the
half-fed populations of the earth
millions of skulls. Don't sit
down at your table with five
or six courses of abundant sup.
ply and think nothing of that family
in the next street who would take any
one of those five courses between sour
and almond nuts and feel they were in
Heaven. The lack of the right kind OF
food is the cause of much of the drunk.
enness. After drinking what many OF
the grocers call coffee, sweetened with
what many call sugar, and eating
what many of our butchers call meat,
and chewing what many of our bakers
call bread, many of the laboring elias.
feel so miserable they are tempted tc
put into their nasty pipes what the to
bacconist calls tobacco, or go into the
drinking saloons for what the rum
sellers call beer. Good coffee would
do much IN driving out bad rum.
How can we serve our generation
with enough to eat? BY sitting dowr
in embroidered slippers and loungins
back in an armchair. our mouth puck
cred up around Havana OF the bes,
brand, and through clouds of luxuriant
smoke reading about political economy
and the philosophy of strikesP No
no! By finding out who in this city
has been living on gristle and sending
them a tenderloin steak. Seek out
some family who through sickness O,
con junction of misfortunes have no,
enough to eat, and do for them what
Christ did for the hungry multitudes Of