The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-09-05
TALMAeE ON OUR OWN TIMES.
PRACTICAL HELPFULNEss TO THE
PEOPLE NOW LIVING.

God. Fell on sleep " - Our Re-
sponsibilities With the People of
Our own Time-Those who Have
Passed On Are beyond the Reach
of Our Works Those Who Arc to
Come May Profit by the Influences
We Put On Foot.
Washington. Sept An this discourse
DR.. Talmage changes our lifetime from
q meaningless generality to practical help
fulness to the people now living. Text;
Acts 1895, David, after he had served his
own generation by the will Of God, fell on
sleep"
That is a text which has for long time
been running through my mind. Sermons
have a time 10 be born as well as time
90 die; a cradle as wen as a grave. David,
cowboy and stone-slinger and fighter, and
dramatst. 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 archan-
gelic blast can startle. David after he
had served his own generation by the
viii of God, fell on sleep" II was hie own
generation that he had served; that is, the
people living at the time he lived. And
have you ever thought that our respon-
sibilities are chiefly with the people now
walking abreast of US? There are about
four generations 10 a century now, but in
olden time life was longer and there
was, perhaps, only one generation TO
century. Taking these facts into the cal
culation. / make a rough guess, and say
that there have been at least one hundred
and eighty generations of the human fam
ally. With reference 10 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 deaf and
dumb to anything we might say 10 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 / am in sympathy with the child
whose father had suddenly died, and who
in her little evening prayer wanted to con-
tinue to pray for her father, although he
had gone into heaven, and no more needed
her prayers, and looking up into her moth
ers face, said: CO. mother, l cannot
leave him all out. Let me say, thank God
that l had a good father once, so l can
keep MIN in my prayers"
But the one hundred and eighty genera
tons have passed off. Passed up. Passed
down Gone forever Then there are gem
erations to come offer our earthly exist
ence 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 revolutions, their ca
thstrophes, their triumphs. We will in no
wise effect the 1870 generations gone or the
$50 generations to come except as from
the galleries of heaven the former genera
tons look down and rejoice at our victo-
ries, 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, 10 serve our own
generation the people now living, those
whose lungs now breathe, and whose
hear now beat. And, mark you, il rs
not silent procession, but moving. IL IS
a forced march" at twenty-four miles a
day, each hour being a mile. Going with
that CELEBRITY, it has got 10 be a quick SER
vice on our part, or no service at all we
not only cannot reach the 100 generations
past and will not see the 1870 generations
to come, but this generation now on the
stage will soon be off, and we ourselves
viii be off with them. The fact is, that
YOU and | will have to start very soon for
our work or it viii be ironical and sar-
castle for any one after our exit to cay
Of US, as IL was said of David, After he
had served his own generation by the will
of God, he fell on sleep
Well, now, let US look around earnestly
prayerfully, in a common sense way, and
see what we can do for our own genera
tion. First of all, let us see to IL 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 a
locomotive needs fuel. To meet this want
God has girded the earth with apple
orchards, orange groves, wheat fields, and
oceans fun of fish, and prairies fun Of
cattle And Notwithstanding this, l 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 as1ew, and
God only can set 1t right Many of the
greatest estates of to-day have been built
out of the blood ana bones of unrequited
toll In olden times, for the building of
forts and towers, the inhabitants of lspa-
han had to contribute 10000 skulls, and
Bagdad 10000 human skulls, aud that
number of people were compelled to furn-
ish the skulls. But these two contribu-
lions added together made only 100000
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 sup
ply and think nothing Of that family in
the next street who would take any one
Of those five courses 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, sweetenod 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 class feel so miserable they
are tempted 10 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 eat? By sitting down in en-
broidered slippers and lounging back In
an arm chair. our mouth puckered up
around a Havana of the best brand, and
through clouds of luxuriant smoke read