Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1898-10-06
Or. TALMAGES SERMON.
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE ey THE NOTED
DIVINE.
Subject: "Our own Times"-How We Can
Serve Our Generation-Our Responsi-
bilities Chiefly With the People Now
Abreast of Us-Help Your NeighbOrs.

Abreast of Us-Help Your Neighbors.
own generation by the will of God, fell on
'ieep."-Acts Kill, 36.
That is a text which has for a long time
oeen running through my mind. Sermons
have a time to be born as we'll rs time to
lie; O cradle as we'll as q grave. David,
cowboy and stone singer, and fighter, and
sramatist, and blank-verse writer, and
,rophet, did his best for the people of his
lime, and then went and laid down on the
southern hill OF Jerusalem in that sound
slumber which nothing but an archangelic
blast can startle. David, after he had
God, fell on Sleep" 1t was his own igen-
GRAFTON that he had served; that is, the peo-
pie 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 genera
tions to century now, but In olden time,
life was longer, and there was, perhaps,
only one generation to century.
Taking these facts into the cal
.ulation, ! 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 sepulchres are
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 am in sympathy
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: sob, mother,
| cannot leave him all out. Let me say,
thank God that had good father once,
so can keep him in my prayers"
But the one hundred and eighty genera
tions have passed off. Passed up. Passed
down. Gone forever. Then there are gen.
erations to come after our earthly exis-
we shall not hear any Of their voices; we
will take no part in their convocations,
their elections, their revolutions, their
catastrophies, their triumphs. We will in
no wise affect the 160 generations gone or
the 1SO generations to come, except as
from the galleries of heaven the former
generations look dowL and rejoice at our
victories. or rs 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 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 q
''forced march" at twenty-four miles a
day, each hour being q mile. Going with
that celebrity, it has got to be quick ser
vice on our part, or no service at all. We
not only cannot teach the 1S0 generations
past, and will not see the 1S0 generations
to come, but this generation now on the
stage will soon be off, and we ourselves
will lbe off with them. TAe fact is, that you
and / will have to start very soon for our
work, or it will be ironical and sarcastic
for anyone after our exit to say OF us, as it
was said of David, CATER he had served his
own generation by the will of God, he fell
on sleep"
Well, now, let US look around earnestly,
pTayerfuly, in O common-sense way, and
see what we can do for our own genera
tion. First Of all, let US see to 1t that, as
far as we can, they have enough to eat.
The human body is so constituted that
three times day the body nseds food as
much as q lamp needs oil, as much as a
Locomotive 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 cat
tie. And Notwithstanding this, I 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 all askew, and God
only can set it right. Many OF the great
est estates of to-day have been built out of
the blood and bones OF unrequited toll. In
OIQen times, IOT tn6 pulIQluK OF IOTtS ana
towers, the inhabitants of Ispahan had to
contribute 10000 skulls, and Bagdad 81, ,OGO
human skulls, and that number OF people
were compelled to furnish the skulls. But
these two contributions added together
made only 100000 skulls. while in the
pomp have been wrought the skele-
tons 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
those five courees between soup and al
mond 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 grocers call
coffee, sweetened with what many call
sugar, and eating what many Of our butch
ers call meat, and chewing what many Of
our bakers call bread, many OF the labor
ing class feel so miserable they are tempted
to put into their nasty pipes what the
tobacconist 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 eat9 BY sitting down In en-
broidered slippers and lounging back in an
armchair, our mouth puckered up around
Havana OF the best brand, and through
clouds OF luxuriant smoke reading about
political economy and the philosophy Of
strikes2 No, mol By finding out who in
this city has been living on gristle, and
sending them tenderloin beefsteak. Seek
out some family, who through sickness OF
conjunction OF misfortunes have not enough
to eat, and do for them what Christ did for
the hungry multitudes Of Asia Minor, null
tiplying the loaves and the fishes. Let US
quit tho surfeitinR OF ourselves until we
cannot choke down another crumb of cake,
and begin the supplies Of others necessi.
ties. So far from helping appease the
worlds hunger are tnoae whom Isaiah de-
scribes Rs grinding the faces OF the poor
You have seen a farmer or q mechanic put
scythe or an axe on grindstone, while
some one was turning 1t round and round
and the man holding the axe bore on it
harder and harder while the water dropped
from the grindstone and the edge of the
axe from being round and dull, got keener
and keener. So have seen men who were
put up against the grindstone OF hardship,
and while one turned the crank, another
would press the unfortunate harder down
and harder down until he was ground away
thinner 0nd thinner-his comforts thinner,
his prospects thinner, and his face thinner.
And I9nfnh ehrfeka ont. uWhnt rnoop 20