The Progress., 1898-09-24
DIX. TALMAGE'S SERMON
tBSIsF SYNOPSIS or TIFF D|VtNE'S SUN
DAY DISCOURSE.
subject: "Our own Tlmes"-How We Can
Serve Our Generation-Our Responsi
biiities Chiefly With the People Now
Abreast OF Us-Help Your Neiebbo,s.

Abreast OF Us-Help Your Neighbo,s
Text: David after he had served hi
own generation by the will Of God, fell Of
sleep.'-Acts xiii, SO.
That Is text which has for n long tim
peen running through my mind. Sermons
nave time to be born as well as q time (,
die; a cradle as well as q grave. David
cowboy and stone singer, and fighter an,
dramatist, and blank-verse writer nm,
prophet, did bis best for the people Of hi,
time, and then went and laid down on the
southern bill OF Jerusalem In that sound
slumber which nothing but an archangeliC
blast can startle. David, after he had
served his own generation by the will al
God, fell on sleep" 1t was his own gen.
Grafton that he had served: that IL. the peo-
pie living at the time he lived Aud have
you ever thought that our responsibilities
are chiefly with the people now walking
abreast OF us2 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.
culation, l 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
hh'o nv iVSpphSiDihtl We cannot reach
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 saw
to them. The last regiment Of that great
army has passed out of sight. We might
halloo as loud "a we could. not one OF them
would avert his head to see what wa
wanted ] admit that am In sympathy
i 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 bad gone into heaven, and no
more needed her prayers, and looking I'M
into her mothers face, said: ooh. mother
cannot leave him all out. Let me saw
thank God that had u 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.
4 erations to come after our earthly exis-
Z tence has ceased. We shall not sec them.
we shall not hear any of their voices: wa
will take no part In .heir conversations
their elections, their revolutions, their
eatastrophies, their trumphs. We will in
\ no wise affect the $50 generations gone or
the 1870 generations 10 come, exeept NJ
from the galleries of heaven tho former
generations look down and rejoice at orr
Victories, or as we may, by our behavior
start Influences good or bad, that sbnlI
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
silent procession, but moving. It Is n
"forced march, at twenty-four miles a
day, each hour being mile. Going with
that celebrity, 1t has got to be a quick ser.
Vice on our part, or no service at all. We
not only cannot teach the 1870 generations
past, and will not see the 1870 generations
TO come, but this generation now on the
stnge will soon be off, and we ourselves
will be off with them. Toe fact Is, that YOU
and VIII have to start very soon for our
work, or 1t will be ironcal and SARCASTIC
for anyone after our exit to say OF us. as II
was said OF David, "After he had served bis
own generation by tho will OF God. he fell
on Sleep
Well, now, let us look around earnestly,
prayerlniIy. In common-sense way, and |
see what we can do for our own genera. |
tlon. First OF all, let us see to it that. ns
iar as we can, they have enough to eat
The human body Is so constituted that
three times a day to body needs food as
much as a lamp needs oil, as much as n
locomotive !" eds fuel. To meet this want
God Las glrdled the earth with apple
orchards, orange groves, wheat fields, and
oceans full OF fish, and praires full OF cat
lle. And Notwithstanding this, will un-
dertake to say that the vast majority OF
the human family are now suffering either
Tor lack OF food or the right kind OF food.
Our civilization Is all askew. and God
only can set 1t right. Many of the great
oct estates OF to-day have been built out of
the blood and bones OF unreuuited toll. In
olden times, for the building of forts and
towers, the inhabitants OF Ispahan had to
contribute 70, 900 skulls, and bagdad 30 OCO
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
tower of the worlds wealth and
Ipomp have been wrought the skele.
tons OF uncounted numbers Of
tho 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 I'm
|lhe next street who would take any one Of
those five courses between SCUM and al.
|mond nuts and feel they were in Heaven
Inc lack OF ths right kind OF food is the
cause OF much OF the drunkenness. After !
drinking what many Of our grocers call !,
eoifee, sweetened with what many call
spgar, and eating what many of our butch.
ers call meat, and chewing what many OF |,
our bakers call bread, many OF the labor
lug class feel so miserable they are tempted r
70 put into their nasty pipes what the :
tobacconist calls tobacco, or 90 into the .
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- I
broidered slippers and lounging back In an
arm CHAIR, our mouth puckersd up around 1
q Havana Of the best brand, and through 4
clouds OF luxuriant smoke reading about h
political economy and the philosophy of \
strikesY No, mol BY finding out who I'm y
this city has been living on gristle. and Y
sending them tenderloin beefsteak. Seek (
Qut some family, who through sickness or 1
eoplnnctton oflnsfortunes have not enough "
g eat, and do for them what Christ did for n
tne hungry multitudes OF Asia Minor. null n
uplying the loaves and The fishes Let us n
WHY the surfeiting OF ourselves until we 9
tHnHOt Choke dOwn nnfbaS as,,,,,L - ~. | a,