Connecticut western news., 1898-09-08
IN OUR GENERATION.
GLORIOUS REWARDS OF WORKING
 FOR OUR FELLOW MEN.

GLORIOUS REWARDS OF WORKING
 FOR OUR FELLOW MEN.
 Dr. Talmage Points Out the Lesson of tho
 Life of David-servioe Which Suffering : Humanity Now Needs-A Blissful Awak- ening. ...- lCopyright. 1898. by American Press Asso-
 clation.1
 WASHINGTON, Sept. 4.-1n this dis course Dr. Talmage changes our life time from a meaningless generality to practical helpfulness to the people now living; text, Acts xiii. 36, David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God fell on sleep"
 That is text which has for long time been running through my mind. Sermons have time to be born as well as time to die, cradle as well as grave. David. cowboy and stone slinger 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 slum- Der which nothing but an archangel1o blast cln startle. "David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep" It 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 re- responsibilities are chiefly with the peo- pie now walking abreast of us? There are about four generations to Q century now, but in olden time life was longer, and there was perhaps only one genera tion to century. Taking these facts into the calculation, make rough guess and say that there have been at least 180 generations of the human fam lily. With reference to them we have no responsibility. We cannot teach them, we cannot correct their mistakes, we cannot soothe their sorrows, we can not heal their wounds Their sepulchers are 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 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 ia finer 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 mothers face said: "Oh, mother, I cannot leave him all out. Let me say, thank God that had good father once, go can keep him in my prayers. '"
 But the 1s0 generations have passed of. Passed up. Passed down. Gone for ever. 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 congregations, their elections, their revolutions, their catastrophies, their triumphs. We will in nowise affect the 180- generations gone or the 180 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 indu- enoes, 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. 1t is not silent procession, but moving. It is forced march" at 24 miles day, each hour being a mile. Going with that celerity, 1t has got to be quick service on our part or no service at all. We not only cannot teach the 180 generations past and will not see the l80 generations to come, but this generation 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 any one after our exit to say of us, as it was said of David, "After he had served his own generation by the will of God he fell on sleep.
 Our Own Generation.
 ' We'll, now, let us look around ear nestly, prayerfully, in common sense way and zee 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 day the body needs food as much as lamp needs oil, as much as locomotive needs fuel. To meet this want God has giIdled the earth with apple orchards, orange groves, wheatfields and oceans full of fish and prairies full of cattle, and notwithstanding this l will under take 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 un- requited toil In olden times, for the building of forts and towers, the inhab- itants of Ispahan had to contribute TO- 900 skulls and Bagdad 90, 900 human skulls, and that number of people were compelled to furnish the skulls. But these two contributions added together made only 16O, ,000 skulls, while into the tower of the worlds wealth and pomp have been wrought the skeletons of uncsunted 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 drunk enness. After drinking what many of our 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 class feel so miserable they are tempted to put in- to their nasty pipes what the tobacco hist calls tobacco or go into the drinking saloons for what the rumse' CTS call beer. Good coffee would do much in driving out bad rum.