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I. THE CONNECTEDNESS OF THE GENERATIONS. What we do for our children in respect of training, example and teaching is not wholly subject to their caprice. Through the strange bond which unites the generations they cannot altogether reject what is imparted any more than the ground can reject the seed cast into it. The thought that our labour and influence in rich effect may flow in the veins of the generation that comes after us removes the sadness of reflection upon the brevity of life. We may accept with cheerfulness the saying of Goethe: "A consciousness that our labour tends in some way to the lasting benefit of others makes the rolling years endurable."

II. THE RELATION OF THE YOUNG TO THE OLD. As the sun in his setting behind the western horizon ofttimes casts a wondrous purple glow over the east whence he arose, making the glory of the evening of richer beauty than the brilliance of the noon, so does the generation whose life declines behind the everlasting hills shed its glow upon the generation just arising, suffusing it with a glory not from itself. Our glory lies in the achievements of our fathers. What, then, ought to be the attitude of the young toward the old?

1. Reverence. This spirit lies at the root of all nobility, purity, and strength of character. The glory of the past is summed up in our elders. There is that in the old which calls for reverence.

(1) An old man is a book of life — an epitome of life's experience. If one should come to us from the weird mystery of the Arctic regions, or from the dim twilight of the dense and tropical forest, with what awe we should regard him t He is a man who has seen strange sights which we have not seen, and partaken of experiences beyond our imagination. Such is the old man to the young one. He has heard life's many voices, tasted its sweets and bitters, wrestled with its temptations, bowed under its sorrows, and discovered its illusions. He is a book of life, in which we ought to read with reverence.

(2) He is a book of God. The record of human life is also a Divine record. This is true of the life that is evil; it is much more true of the life of pure goodness. As the star catches the light from some other world, and sends it down to illumine other spheres, so the good man has caught in his life the light of God, and flings it forth to enlighten younger minds around him. As such a revealer of God the old man commands our reverence.

2. Patience. You touch the heirloom with very gentle hand. It stands for you as the treasury of many sacred traditions of family history. So should the old forms of religious teaching. We may not be able to subscribe to every form of teaching we received; but let us remember that what was handed down to us made a noble woman of our mother and a monument of integrity of our father. It may not have been wholly true; it, certainly was net wholly false, and therefore Cannot be dismissed with a smile. We ought to be careful in the transfer of truth from old forms into new. You cannot empty the ointment from one vase into another without risk of losing some drops of the precious liquid. So there is always risk in adapting truth to its newer shapes lest we should lose some of its spirit. The old forms change and decay; but the spirit of truth is eternal, and for its sake, lest it should flee from careless and unhallowed touch, we should be patient with its dying body.

3. Humility. Our fathers were great; they Who come after us will be greater. The revelation of God is a progressive unveiling. The pilgrim father with exultant insight said, "God has much more light to break from His holy Word." The world will not always grow with such painful slowness. Moral and spiritual forces will doubtless gain impetus, and will bear our world more quickly to her divine end. Meantime it is for those who are young to toil humbly, recognizing the labours of their fathers, and thankful if they may, in their generation, but add a share to the work which shall fulfil the Divine will.

III. THE RELATION OF THE OLD TO THE YOUNG. "Every grave is also a cradle, every death is also a birth. He who puts a bud beside every withered leaf places a child beside the old man and a young man in the sepulchre of his father." In this way does God renew the life of the world. The attitude of the passing generation to the one succeeding it may be expressed under the same terms as the relationship we have already considered.

1. Reverence. It is most solemn to think of the germs of possibility that lie in the child: awful powers of good or evil lie enfolded within the little soul sent to dwell in our home for a while. Old men, having tasted the bitter disappointments of life, grow pessimistic, cold, cynical, and lose the clearness of their early visions. This can hardly be escaped; but let us be slow to impose these unhealthy influences on the fresh hopes of the young. The Church which checks the ardour of its young members by the half-cynical reminder of its illusions and failures, will thus put the frosty finger on the tender spring buds, and will doom them to die in an unnatural and wintry decay. For the hope of the world and of the Church, when the ancient blood is chilled and the pulse enfeebled, we must look to the strong pulse, the warm impulse, and the high hopes of youth. "Your young men shall see visions."

2. Humility. Every generation passes away in disappointment. It has "not realized its hopes, nor done the work it desired to do. Yet it is hard to confess this, and before death to see the work pass into younger hands and younger shoulders assume the responsibilities that have been ours. Our wisdom ties in humility.

(Anon.)

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KJV: Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth.

WEB: Your sons will take the place of your fathers. You shall make them princes in all the earth.