Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1898-09-09
IN OUR GENERATION.
GLORIOUS REWARDS OF WORKING
FOR our FELLOW MEN.

Life of David-service which Suffering
Humanity Now Needs-A BllssfuI Awak-
eninR.
copyright. 1898, by American Press Asso-
4 ciatiOn.l
WASHINGTON, Sept An this dis
course DR.. Talmage changes our life
> time from 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 a text which has for long
time been running through my mind
Sermons have a time to be born as well
as time to die, cradle as well as
grave. David, cowboy and stone singer
and fighter and dramatist and blank
verse writer aad 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 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 re-
sponsibilities are chiefly with the peo-
pie 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 genera
tion to a century Taking these facts
into the calculation. | make rough
guess and say that there have been at
least $50 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.
ther 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,
cannot leave him all out. Let me say,
thank God that l had a good father
once so | can keep him in my prayers
But the $50 generations have passed
Off 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 conyocations,
their elections, their revolutions, their
catastrophies, their triumphs. We will
in nowise 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 inau-
ences 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,
it is not silent procession, but moving.
1t is a forced march" at "a miles a
day, each hour being a mile. Going
with that celerity, it 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 of
with them. The fact is that you and l
will have to start very soon for our
work on 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.
Well, now, let us look around ear
nestly, prayerfully, in common sense
way and see what we can do for our
own generation. First of all, let us see
10 it that, us 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 a locomotive
needs fuel. To meet this want God has
girdled 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 fer 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 ou5 Of the blood and bones of un-
reaaited toll In olden times, for the
building of forts and towers, the inhab-
itants of Ispahan had to contribute TO-
600 skulls and Bagdad 80, 600 human
skulls, and that number of people were
compelled to furnish the skulls. But
these two contributions added together
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 OF 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
mist calls tobacco OF go into the drinking