Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1898-09-08


copyright 1898. by American Press Asso-
ciation.l
WASHINGTON, Sept. An this discourse
DIR. Talmage changes our lifetime from
meaningless generality to practical help
fulncss to the people now living; text,
Acts xiii, 30, David after he had served
his own generation by the will of God, fell
OH sleep"
Tint is a text which has for long time
been running through my mind. Sermons
have time to be born rs we'll rs time to
dio--a cradle as we'll as q 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 archangclic
blast can startle. David, after lie had
serve his own generation by the will of
God, fell on sleep" 1t was his own gon-
Grafton that he had served that is, the
people living at the time he lived, And
have you ever thought that our response
bilitics are chiefly with the people now
walking abreast of us? There are about
four generations to a century now, but i'll
odcn time life was longer, and there was
perhaps only one generation to century.
Taking these facts into the calculation,
make rough guess and say that there
have boon ut least 1870 generations of tho
humnn family. With reference to them
wo have no responsibility. We cannot
teach them, We cannot correct their mis-
takes, we cannot soothc their sorrows, wo
cannot heal thor wounds. Their scpul-
ghors arc 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 rs loud us we could; not
ono of them would avert his head TO see
what we wanted / admit that l am in
sympathy with the child whose father had
suddenly died, and who in her little even
ing prayer wanted to continue to pray for
her father, although ho had gone into
heaven, and no more needed her prayers
and, looking up into her mothers face,
said; ooh, mother, ] cannot leave him all
outl Let me say thank God that l had u
good father once, SO / can keep him in my
prayers.
Tho Coming Generations.
But the $50 generations have passed off
Passed up. Passed down. Conc 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 elections, their revolu-
tons, their catastrophes, their triumphs.
We will in nowise affect the 1870 genera
tons gone or the $50 generations to come,
except as from the galleries of heaven the
former generations look down and rejoice
ut our victories or rs we may, by our bc-
havior, start influences good or bad, that
shall roll on through tho advancing ages.
But our business Is, like David, TO serve
our own generation tho people now liv-
ing, those whose lungs now breathe and
whose hearts now beat. And, mark you,
it is not silent procession, but moving.
1t is q forced march" ut ~ miles IA day,
each hour being mile. Going with that
celebrity, it has got to 10 aquick service on
our part, or no service ut all. We not only
cannot teach tho $50 generations past and
will not sec the $50 generations to come,
but this generation now on tho stage will
soon be Off, and we ourselves will DO OIL
with them. Tho fact Is that you and
will have to start very soon for our work
or it will be ironical and sarcastic for any
ono after our exit to say of us, as it was
said of David, After he had served hi:
own generation by the will of God he fell
on sleep"
What Can We DO?
Woll now let us look around earnestly
prayerfully, in II common sense way and
sec what we can do for our own genera
ton. 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 tina,
three times n day the body needs food aS
much as a lamp needs oil, ms much as a
locomotive needs fuel TO meet this wan,
God has girlled the earth with apple or
chards, orange groves, wheatfclds and
oceans full of fish, and praires full of cat
tie. And notwithstanding this l will un
tertake 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 askow, and Goo
only can set it right Many Of the great
est estates of today have been built out o.
the blood and bones of unrequited toll
In olden times for the building of fort!
and towers the inhabitants of Ispahnn hat
to contribute 20, 0OG skulls, and Bagdat
10000 human skulls and that number o
people were compelled to furnish thu
skulls. But these two contributions added
together made only 100, 600 skulls while
into the tower of the worlds wealth ant
pomp have been wrought tho skeletons o
uncounted numbers of the half fed popu
lations of the earth-millions of skulls.
Don't sit down at your table with fiv,
or six courses of abundant supply ant
think nothing of that family in the mex
street who would take any one of thos
five courses between soup and almond nut
and feel they were in heaven. The lacl
of the right kind of food is the cause O
much of the drunkenness. After drinking
hat nf
sweetened with what many call sugar ant
eating what many of our butchers cal
meat, and chewing what many Of on
bakers call bread, many of the laborinj
GLASS feel so miserable they arc tempted t,
put into their nasty pipes what the tobac
conist calls tobacco or go into the drinkin,
saloons for what tho rumselers call beer
Good coffee would do much in driving GU
bad rum.
some Practical Methods,
How can we serve our generation will
enough to eat? BY sitting down in en-
broidered slippers and lounging back II
an armchair, our mouth puckered VI
around a Havana of the best brand, an,
through clouds Of luxuriant smoke read
ing about political economy and the phil
osophy of strikesp No, no! BY finding
out who III this city has been living oil
gristle and sending them II tenderloil
beefsteak Seek out some family VIII
through sickness or conjunction of misfor
tunes have not enough to eat and do 70
them what Christ did for the hungry mul
titudes of Asia Minor, multiplying tn
loaves and tho fishes. Lot us quit the SUI
feiting of ourselves until we cannot chok
down another crumb of cake and begin tn