The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1898-09-09

EX1oA k&EkAAlH3Bern hill OF Jerusa-
1oAi4~H lem in that slum-
REV TALMAGE Der which nothing
hut an archangelic 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 responsible
tiles are chiefly with the people now
walking abreast of us? There are
about four generations to a century
now, but in olden time life was
longer, and there was, perhaps,
only one generation to CEN
tury. Taking these facts into the
calculation, l make rough guess, and
say that there have been at least $50
generations of the human family.
With reference to them we have no
responsibility. We cannot teach
them, we cannot correct their mis-
takes, we cannot soothe their sorrows,
we cannot heal their wounds. Their
sepulchers are deaf and dumb to any
thing 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.
But the $50 generations have passed
off. Passed up Passed down. Gone
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 convoca-
lions, their elections, their revolutions,
their catastrophes, their triumphs.
We will in no wise affect the $50 gem
erations 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 generation, the peo-
pie now living, those whose lungs
now breathe, and whose hearts now
beat And mark you, IL is not a silent
procession, but moving. 1t is forced
march" at "a miles a day, each hour
being mile. Going with that celer-
ity, it has got to be quick service on
cur part, or no service at all. We not
only cannot teach the $50 generations
past, and will not see the $50 genera
tons 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, for 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"
Well, now, let us look around anx-
iously, prayerfully, in common-sense
way, and see what we can do for our
own generation. 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 dav
the body needs food as much as lamp
needs oil, or as much as a locomotive
needs fuel To meet this want God
has girdled the earth with apple or
ehards, 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 for the lack of food or
the right kind of food. Our civi.iza-
ton is all aslIew, and God only can set
1t right. Many of the great estates of
to-day 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 Ispahan had
TO con tribute 20, 900 human skulls, and
Bagdad 10000 human skulls, and
that number of people were com
PEELED TO furnish the skulls, But
these two contributions added to-
Rether made only 100, 900 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 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 drunkenness.
After drinking what many of our gro
GERS 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
into their nasty pipes what the tobac-
conists calls tobacco, or go into the
saloons for what the rum-sellers call
IL. l.,
driving out bad rum.
How can we serve our generation
with enough to eat? by sitting down
In embroidered slippers and Longing