The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1898-09-15
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
OUR OWN TIMES, SUNDAYS
SUBJECT,
Text Acts, 1896: David After He Had
Served Ills Own Generation by the
viii of God Fell on Sleep"-Good Ad-
vice for Lawmakers.

.
Time been running through my mind.
Sermons have time to be born as we'll
as time to die; a cradle as well as
grave. David, cowboy and stone
singer, and fighter, and dramatist, and
plank-verse writer, and prophet, did
dis best for the people of his time, and
'nen went and laid down on the south
ern nil OF Jerusalem in that sound
slumber which nothing but an arch
angelic blast can startle. David, after
ne mad served his own generation by
the will of God, fell on sleep" 1t was
MS own generation that he had served;
mat is, the people living at the time
ne lived. And have you ever thought
mat our responsibilities are chiefly
with the people now walking abreast Of
us! There are about four generations
to a century now, but in olden times,
lie was longer, and there was, perhaps,
only one generation to a century. TAX
Ing these facts into the calculation, I
make a rough guess, and say that there
nave been at least one hundred and
eighty generations of the human fam
lily. With reference to them we have
them, we cannot correct their mis-
taxes, we cannot soothe their sorrows,
we cannot heal their wounds. Their
sepulchres are deaf and dumb to any
th1ng we might say of them. The last
regiment of that great army has pass
cd out of sight. We might halloo as
loud as We could; not one of them
"ould avert his head to see what we
wanted. I admit that I 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: ooh, mother, I
cannot leave him all out Let me say,
thank God that 1 had a good father
once, so I can keep him in my pray
ers.'
But the one hundred and eighty gen.
erat1ons have passed off. Passed up.
Passed down. Passed forever. Then
there are generations to come after our
earthly existence has ceased We
snail not see them; we shall not hear
any OF their voices; we will take no
part In their convocations, their cleo
lions, their revolutions, their catas-
trophies, their triumphs. We will in
no wise affect the 100 generations gone
or the 1S0 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
OF 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
Eearts now beat. And 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, it has got
to be quick service on our part, or
no service at all We not only cannot
teach the 1870 generations past, and will
not see the $50 generations to come
but this generation now on the stage
Will soon be of, and we ourselves will
be on 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 1t was said of David, Aft
er ne had served his own generation by
the will OF God, he fell on Sleep"
Well, now, let US look around earn
estly, prayerfully, in a common sense
way, and see what we can do for our
own generation. First of ALL let MS
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, I
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 it
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 Ispahan
had to contribute 10000 skulls, and
Bagdad 10000 human skulls, and that
number of people were compelled to
furnish the skulls. But these two con-
tributions 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-millfons of skulls Don't
sit down at your table with i've 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 groc-
era 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,
manv nf the 1oh aloe, foa1 -.