The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1898-09-09
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
OUR OWN TIMES. SUND AVS
SUBJECT,
Text Acts, 1896; David After He Had
Served His Own Generation by tho
VIII of God Fell on Sleep"-Good Ad-
vice for Lawmakers.

That is text which has for q long
time been running through my mind.
Sermons have time to be born as well
as time to die; a 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 laid down on the south
ern hill of Jerusalem in that sound
slumber which nothing but an arch
angelic 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 century now, but in olden times,
life was longer, and there was, perhaps,
only one generation to century. TAX
ing these facts into the calculation,
make rough guess, and say that there
have been at least one hundred and
eighty generations of the human fam
lily. With reference to them we have
no responsibility. We can not teach
them, we cannot correct their mis-
takes, We cannot soothe their sorrows,
We cannot heal their wounds. Their
sepulchres are deaf and dumb to any
thing we might say Of them. The last
regiment of that great army has pass
ed out of sight. We might halloo as
loud as We could; not one of them
would avert his head to see what we
wanted. l admit that l am in SYM
pathy with the child whose father had
suddenly died, and who in her little
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 ooh, mother, l
cannot leave him all out. Let me say,
thank God that 1 had a good father
once, so can keep him in my pray
ers."
But the one hundred and eighty gen
erations have passed off. Passed up.
Passed down. Passed 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 convocations, their cleo
lions, their revolutions, their catas-
trophies, their triumphs. We will in
no wise affect the 1870 generations gone
or the 100 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 influences, good
or bad, that shall roll on through the
advancing ages. But our business is,
like David, to serve, our own genera
ton, 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" at twenty-four
miles a day, each hour being a mile.
Going with THAT celebrity, it 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 zee the $50 generations to come,
but this generation now on the stage
will soon be off, and we ourselves will
be of with them. The fact is, that
you and will have to start very soon
for cur work, or it will be ironical and
sarcastic for any one after our exit to
say If us, as it was said of David, aft
err hn had served his own generation by
the will Of God, he fell on Sleep"
Well, now, let us look around earn.
estlT prayerfully, in common sense
way, and see what we can do for our
own generation. First of all, let us
SOS to it that, as far as we can, they
have enough to eat. The human body
is 80 constituted that three times day
the body needs food as much as a lamp
needs oil, as much as locomotive
needs fuel. To meet this want God
has girdled the earth with apple orch
ards, orange groves, wheat fields, and
oceans full of fish, and prairies full of
cattle. And Notwithstanding this, 1
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 set it
right. Many of the greatest estates
of today have been built out of the
blood and bones of unrequited toll. In
olden times, for the building of forts
and towers, the inhabitants of Ispahan
had to contribute 10000 skulls, and
Bagdad 10000 human skulls, and that
number of people were compelled to
furnish the skulls. But these two con-
tributions added together made only
$780, 900 skulls, while into the tower of
the worlds wealth and pomp have been
wrought the skeletons 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 supply and think
nothing of that family in the next
street who would take any one Of those
FIVE courses between soup and almond
nuts and feel they were in heaven. The
| lack of the right kind of food is the
cause of much of the drunkenness.
After drinking what many Of our groc
| 4