The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1898-09-09

llhS Detu running through my ulluD.
Sermons have a time TO be born as we'll
as a 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,
lille was longer, and there was. perhaps,
only one generation to a 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 | 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: "Oh, mother, |
cannot leave him all out. Let me say.
thank God that / had a good father
once, so / can keep him in my prav-
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
tons, their revolutions, their catas-
trophies, their triumphs. We will in
no wise affect the $50 generations gone
or the $50 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
| Learts now beat. Ana 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, 1t has got
| TO be a quick service on our part, or
no service at all. We not only cannot
teach the $50 generations past, and will
not see the $50 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 | 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 1t was said OF David, Aft
er he had served his own generation by
the will OF God, he fell on sleep"
WE'LL now, let us look around earn
estly, prayerfully, in common sense
way, and see 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 a day
the body needs food as much as a lamp
needs oil, as much as a 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,
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 /,
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 Ispahar
had to contribute 10000 skulls. and
Bagdad 10000 human skulls. and thai
number of people were compelled tc
furnish the skulls. But these two con.
tributions added together made only
100000 skulls, while into the tower oil
the worlds wealth and pomp have beer
wrought the skeletons of uncountec
numbers of the half-fed populations o.
the earth-millions of skulls. Dom
sit down at your table with five or siS
courses of abundant supply and thinl
nothing of that family in the mex
street who would take any one of thos,
FIVE courses between soup and almond
nuts and feel they were in heaven. Tn,
lack of the right kind OF food Is the
cause OF much of the drunkenness
After drinking what many OF our groc
ers call coffee, sweetened with wha
many call sugar, and eating what man,
OF our butchers call meat, and chewin'
what many Of our bakers call bread
of M IohorfnU oIooo fooI a,